Aerospace Diary

by  Neelam Mathews  -  June 22, 2016, 9:06 AM Air Astana hopes that next year's Expo 2017 event will boost traffic to and from Kazakhstan. [Photo: Neelam Mathews] A highly devalued currency and collapsing oil revenues have left Kazakhstan’s economy in the doldrums, leaving flag carrier Air Astana to recalibrate its business plan with a stronger emphasis on international routes. In February 2017, the airline is due to start paying for three new Boeing 787 widebodies that may prove to be a heavy drain on its  U.S.  dollar reserves. At a June 15 press briefing in Almaty, Air Astana president and  CEO  Peter Foster did not definitively confirm that the 787 deliveries will go ahead as planned. “That is something we have got a close eye on given the weak currency market,” he told  AIN . “We will have to see how the market develops. Obviously, markets are not huge at the moment and growth has slowed down.” Air Astana’s plan has been...

Neelam Mathews July 16, 2013 Investigators of Britain's Air Accident Investigations Branch (AAIB), and FAA  are looking into whether a fire on  the Ethiopian 787 at LHR l ast week was caused by the battery of an emergency locator transmitter  built by Honeywell International. Powered by a non-rechargeable lithium-manganese battery, the ELT is located in the aft fuselage section. Airlines were told in 2009 by the FAA to replace a Honeywell transmitter that had failed in tests. Honeywell is believed to be checking whether the transmitter on the Ethiopian Airlines was the same model as the one named by FAA.

AIN AIR TRANSPORT PERSPECTIVE  »  JULY 1, 2013 by    NEELAM MATHEWS A Qatar Airways Boeing 787 taxies toward its position on the static display line at Le Bourget. (Photo: David McIntosh) July 1, 2013, 10:30 AM Energized by the explosive growth in the Middle East air transport market, Qatar Airways has turned its attention to Scandinavia as it extends Boeing 787 services to Stockholm on August 1, to be followed a month later to both Copenhagen and Oslo. At the recently concluded Paris Air Show, Qatar Airways  CEO  Akbar Al Baker placed a firm order for a pair of Boeing 777- 300ER s along with options on another seven in a deal potentially valued at $2.8 billion at list prices. “When we say options, we always make them firm orders,” he said. “Options [simply] give us the flexibility of moving up delivery dates.” He expects delivery of the first two early next year. “The - 300ER  is a fantastic [aircra...

PARIS AIR SHOW  »  2013 by    NEELAM MATHEWS The Maharajah’s seventh 787 awaits delivery June 18, 2013, 10:30 AM Air India’s seventh  GE nx-1B-powered Boeing 787 of the 27 ordered is taking flight at the flying display here at the Paris Air Show. The airline will take delivery of this 787 next month, and a total of eight by the end of this year, five in 2014, six in 2015 and two in 2016. A Qatar Airways 787, which flew at the Farnborough Air Show last year, is also on static display here. Air India’s 787 operations are flying on the domestic sector from Delhi to Bangalore, Kolkata and London. Plans are afoot to start flights to Birmingham, Rome, Milan, Melbourne, Sydney and Moscow, Air India managing director Rohit Nandan said recently. Nandan had last year indicated the importance of the 787 for Air India, which has been struggling to use its 777s effectively. “Dreamliners are expected to achieve great performa...

AIN AIR TRANSPORT PERSPECTIVE  »  MAY 20, 2013 by    NEELAM MATHEWS Air India reintroduced Boeing 787 service on May 15. (Photo: Boeing) May 20, 2013, 9:10 AM A major restructuring at Air India has cut loss-making routes to 25 percent of its network in the fiscal year ending March 2013, down from 69 percent in the previous year. The airline attributes the improvement to a series of steps taken to cut costs, restructure loans, strengthen management and liquidate assets, including the spin-off of engineering and ground handling as independent profit centers. Air India has also started the process of changing its business model to a “hybrid” one, said chairman and managing director Rohit Nandan. Following a recent approval by the ministry of civil aviation to allow for charging of extras, or “unbundling,” the airline has reduced its free baggage allowance on domestic flights to 15 kg from 20 kg. Meanwhile, the airlin...

AIN NEWS LIVE FROM AEROINDIA  »  2013 by    NEELAM MATHEWS February 7, 2013, 11:32 AM India lost 9 percent of its airline seat capacity as a result of Kingfisher suspending operations since October 1, 2012, when its 66-aircraft fleet was grounded, according to Dinesh Keskar, Boeing’s senior sales vice president for Asia Pacific and India. Speaking at the Aero India show in Bangalore this week, Keskar said that in the short term, with capacity still constrained, profit margins will improve for some airlines, but that some low-cost carriers may find themselves negatively impacted because traffic growth is slowing. “Supply and demand is [now] in balance and India is seeing steady growth,” he commented. Boeing says it still believes in its most recent Current Market Outlook, which sees Indian airlines needing 1,450 new airplanes valued at $175 billion over the next 20 years. Outstanding orders from the Indian market for Boeing include 21 787...

Neelam Mathews Feb 8, 2013 At a press conference held yesterday NTSB chairman Deborah Hersman said the cause of the short circuit was yet to be found, but they were looking at several possibilities. NTSB will release an interim report within 30 days. That means the fleet most likely will remain grounded at least another month. Boeing is working on several possible fixes to the issue, including designs that will better protect the electrical bays and aircraft from any potential fire damage. In a statement released after the NTSB press conference, Boeing said it welcomes the progress being made in the investigation. The company also said it worked within FAA guidelines during certification. The FAA, meanwhile announced they will allow limited test flights by Boeing to collect data about the battery and electrical systems during flight. The test flights will be flown over unpopulated areas with just the Boeing crew on board the aircraft.   ational Transportation Safet...

Neelam Mathews Jan 25, 2013 Air India will have to wait to fly its 787s as FAA, not NTSB, will decide when the worldwide grounding will be lifted and the investigation "may take some time," NTSB Board Chairman Deborah Hersman, said at an update br iefing in Washington yesterday. “We have to understand why this battery failure resulted in a fire when there were so many protections designed into the system.... This is not something we’re expecting will be resolved overnight, " said Hersman. It is now 17 days following the investigation of the battery incident that led to the grounding of the 787 fleet.“Today I can tell you what we know so far....We know that the lithium-ion battery experienced a thermal runaway. We know that there were short circuits, and we know that there was a fire. The work that we continue to do will tell us why these things happened.” The ANA 787 smoke issue on Jan which led to an emergency landing, is also linked to a damaged ...

Neelam Mathews Jan 12, 2012 Even as JAL reported a fire in the auxiliary lithium battery pack of the 787 and ANA suffered from brake problems, a senior official of the DGCA told Aerospace Diary that "action would be taken once the US NTSB report is released on the 787. He did add: "Air India's six 787s have had no issues and are working well." While fires in batteries are rare, they have been linked to aviation accidents, electric vehicle blazes and exploding smartphones. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has logged 33 instances in which batteries have caught fire on commercial airplanes since 2009. Of those cases, 26 — or 79 percent — involved lithium-ion batteries, according to the agency, writes Japan Times. "Damage from Monday's fire was confined to within about 50 cm of the battery pack, the NTSB reported.  Meanwhile- this is the statement issued by Boeing: Boeing  is confident in the design and performance of the 787. It is ...

Neelam Mathews Jan 10, 2013 AI has started a 787 daily flight to Paris. The flight AI-143 will leave Delhi Airport, Terminal-3 at 1310 hrs and arrive at Paris, Charles de Gaulle Airport (also known as Roissy Airport) at 1805 hrs. The return flight, AI-142, will depart from Charles de Gaulle at 2130 hrs and arrive at Delhi’s T-3 at 1010 hrs next day.  Air India is gradually expanding operations of its B-787 aircraft to more international destinations. Presently, the Dreamliners fly from Delhi to Dubai and Frankfurt, in addition to some domestic sectors.  Air India has received six B787 aircraft so far, with the last aircraft having arrived in Delhi on January 4, 2013. The aircraft is configured to accommodate 256 seats - 18 full flat Business Class seats, with flat-bed recline and 238 Economy Class seats.  The In-Flight Entertainment system (Top Series i8000) is supplied by M/s Thales – US.

Neelam Mathews Dec 21, 2012 Air India's fourth 787 is on its way from Charleston via Frankfurt to India, AerospaceDiary learns. AIC 170 is one of the six 787s to be delivered by Boeing within 14 hours.The others include United, Qatar, ANA, JAL and LOT. History made by Boeing!

AIN AIR TRANSPORT PERSPECTIVE  »  OCTOBER 22, 2012 by    NEELAM MATHEWS Kazakhstan flag carrier Air Astana wants to expand its network in Asia and could seek bilateral alliances with operators such as Royal Jordanian. October 22, 2012, 11:50 AM As oil and gas wells overflow in Kazakhstan, Air Astana–the national carrier of the newly enriched former Soviet republic–is looking deep into Asia to expand its network. Its inclusion on the  European Union blacklist , which frustrates its ambitions to expand west, lies at the heart of its strategy. Air Astana’s discussions over a code-share partnership with Royal Jordanian, which follows an analogous strategy, is no coincidence. Royal Jordanian has developed Amman into a hub for the Levant region, straddling western Asia, the eastern Mediterranean and northeast Africa. As in central Asia, small and relatively weak flag carriers traditionally have served the region, according to inde...

Posted by - Neelam Mathews Air India's third 787 and the first dreamliner built at Boeing's North Charleston facility,was delivered today.  “We’re delighted to be the first airline in the world to take delivery of a Dreamliner from this beautiful factory and look forward to taking many more,” said Air India Board Member K. M. Unni.  The airplane is equipped with 18 business class seats and 238 economy class seats. “Boeing is able to celebrate this special delivery because of our long, successful partnership with Air India,” said Dinesh Keskar, senior vice president of Asia Pacific and India Sales, Boeing Commercial Airplanes. ” In September Air India took delivery of its first of 27 Dreamliners on order. Work on the first South Carolina-built airplane began in October 2010 with fabrication of the aft fuselage and assembly of the midbody section. Final assembly   began in June 2011, and the completed airplane rolled out in April 2012 and flew for the first time ...