The week in brief 110310

New CANSO director general Graham Lake has set out the agenda for his leadership, calling on the industry to “work together, improve together, and lead by example”. In a speech at ATC Global on Tuesday, Lake argued that ANSPs were in a situation of having to cope with reduced funding while at the same time planning for the extensive investments needed to improve the ATM system. He suggested that some people were putting ANSPs “in the naughty corner” and that this was an unfair reflection on the work that they had done to reduce costs during the economic crisis. Nevertheless, he said that CANSO would be increasing its efforts to benchmark and report industry trends and best practice.

Korean Airlines has joined the list of cargo carriers caught up in an ACCC assault on an alleged cartel. KAL is the 12th carrier to be hauled before the courts here for alleged price fixing – and it won’t be the last. So far the courts have extracted A$41 million in penalties from airlines including Qantas, British Airways, Air France and KLM. Proceedings continue against Singapore Airlines Cathay Pacific, Garuda and Thai.

EADS and its customers for the A400M military transport aircraft have reached an agreement on a way forward for the troubled program. Under the agreement, the price of the contract will increase by €2 billion, liquidated damages related to current delays will be waived, €1.5 billion will be provided as export levy facilities and there will be accelerated pre-delivery payments between 2010 and 2014. 

EADS says that it “considers that this agreement provides a sound basis for a successful evolution of the A400M programme. EADS will strive to identify opportunities to significantly reduce risks in the A400M programme and to deliver a state-of-the-art product within the new frame of the contract.”

And EADS has pulled out of the US tanker bid, because local project partner Northrop Grumman has withdrawn. The USAF had previously accepted the A330-based KC-45, but the deal was quashed after successful Boeing lobbying in DC. EADS says that "...the acquisition methodology outlined in the Request for Proposal (RFP) would heavily weigh the competition in favour of the smaller, less capable Boeing tanker". Australia is acquiring the EADS tanker. 

Perth Airport has received Federal Government approval for its proposed charter and regional services terminal. The project is designed to cater for what has been a 41 per cent increase in such traffic in WA in seven years. The A$136 million terminal is expected to be operational in 2012, with the capability of processing 1800 passengers per hour via 20 aircraft bays.

Airbus will increase the monthly production rate for its single-aisle A320 Family from the current rate of 34 to 36, from December, because of continuing high demand which is driving a record backlog of more than 2300 aircraft. Airbus delivered 402 A320-family airliners last year. The production rate for the long-range A330/A340 Family will be maintained at the current level of eight per month.

Travel Daily reports that authorities in the Netherlands have arrested a Swedish pilot who has reportedly been flying commercial aircraft for more than 13 years without a valid licence. The 41-year-old B737 pilot has been accused of forgery and was due to appear in court last Friday. He was employed by Turkish carrier Corendon Airlines at the time of his arrest. Apparently he used to have a licence to operate small aircraft, which expired some years ago - since then he has flown at least 10,000 hours on larger aircraft.

Also from Travel Daily: Leaving on time is important - but not as important as ice hockey to some Canadians. Air Canada CEO Calin Rovinescu said that the carrier was forced to delay a flight from Vancouver during the recent Winter Olympics, because passengers watching the end of the gold medal final between Canada and the US on airport TVs ignored repeated calls to board.