Week in brief 19 August 2010

Airbus has delivered Singapore Airlines’ 11th A380 and Lufthansa’s second A380 on 16 July, taking the A380 in-service fleet to 33 aircraft. These deliveries bring the year’s A380 deliveries by mid-July to 10, putting Airbus on track to meet its full year’s target of at least 20. The other A380 operators are Emirates Airline which has a fleet of 11, Air France with a fleet of three and Qantas with a fleet of six. The 31 A380s in service to date have clocked up 156,000 revenue flight hours in some 17,000 commercial flights and transported over six million passengers to 20 major international destinations worldwide. Airbus has received to date 234 orders for the A380 from 17 customers.

Airservices Australia has completed a major upgrade of its Very High Frequency radio network to enhance communications between aircraft and air traffic controllers. The VHF Replacement Project is part of Airservices five year, A$900 million capital expenditure program to modernise and enhance Australia’s aviation infrastructure, systems and equipment. As part of the project Airservices technicians replaced analogue and relay-based VHF radios with new digital equipment at 39 air traffic control communication sites in Australia including 26 aerodrome control towers. The project included installing new antennas, lightning protection and earthing associated with the VHF radios. Airservices selected NEC as the prime contractor for the project. Other key contracts included Rhode and Schwarz for the supply of VHF transceivers, and Frequentis for provision of the voice switch equipment.

Airservices Australia has also launched a campaign designed to get more pilots to remember to cancel their search & rescue deadline. A SARTIME is a time nominated by a pilot to trigger an alert if he or she has not communicated a prior cancellation. Apparently close to 12,000 SARTIME cancellations are missed each year - and as many as 1800 of these reach the Australian Search and Rescue authorities when Airservices cannot make contact with the pilot within 15 minutes. As very few of these relate to genuine S&R need, this amounts to a lot of wasted resources.

The Australian and International Pilots Association (AIPA) has commenced bargaining negotiations with Qantas for a new enterprise agreement covering the airline’s long haul pilots. An extensive survey of pilots conducted by AIPA prior to commencing the bargaining process has found that their leading issues are not about money but rather concerns over job protection, career progression and the off-shoring of jobs. The Long Haul Agreement is Qantas’ main flight crew agreement covering a workforce of around 1700 pilots, 98 per cent of whom are members of AIPA. These negotiations are not simply about pay and conditions, they are also a chance to raise very important concerns pilots have about broader workplace issues and to seek to resolve them in an amicable fashion, AIPA said. Qantas’ decision to offshore jobs, as highlighted by AIPA in the Jetconnect Case currently before the full bench of FWA, will be examined closely by pilots at the bargaining table. Qantas has a strong international reputation for safety, based in no small part on the skill, experience and hard work of its pilots, and AIPA said they are committed to ensuring the high standards that the travelling public has come to expect are continued into the future. Along with the Long Haul Enterprise Agreement, Qantas will shortly undertake separate negotiations with its Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineers.

Fijian media are reporting that Qantas has informed the Fiji government of its wish to sell its stake in Air Pacific. Head of Tourism, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said Fiji was awaiting formal disclosure by the Australian airline, stating their intention to sell. “I believe this is in the best interest of the country and especially our national airline because you can’t have a company holding a large portion of our national carrier and at the same time competing with us by operating their brand, Jetstar in and out of the country. We have pre-emptive rights to the shares and will make a decision that benefits Air Pacific, our tourism industry and the country once things are finalized,” he said.

Air New Zealand has announced that it is planning a day-trip to Antarctica for up to 80 family representatives of those lost in the 1979 Erebus tragedy will provide an important opportunity for healing and closure. The Government has announced that the Royal New Zealand Air Force will fly one of its Boeing 757’s to Scott Base this summer season. Up to 80 family representatives of those lost in the tragedy will be able to spend a few hours experiencing the unique environment that drew those on flight TE 901 to it almost 31 years ago. Air New Zealand has been working since late last year with the Government, RNZAF and Antarctica New Zealand, as owners of the resources required to support visits to Antarctica, on a further and final opportunity for family members who lost loved ones on November 28 1979. The airline was determined to try and create another opportunity following feedback before and after the 30th anniversary commemorations last year, which saw six family representatives travel to Antarctica.

Frank Robinson, founder of Robinson Helicopter Company, officially announced on August 10 that he has resigned as President and Chairman of the Board. Robinson intended to retire on his 80th birthday in January this year, but elected to postpone his retirement until the design of the R66 Turbine was complete. With R66 production underway and FAA certification imminent, Robinson decided to make his retirement official. Kurt Robinson was elected by the Board of Directors to assume the positions of President and Chairman on August 10, 2010. The company's senior management team remains in place.

In its latest move towards more environmentally-friendly operations, with the ultimate aim of a paperless cabin, Singapore Airlines will progressively introduce an electronic version of magazines on its KrisWorld in-flight entertainment system. As a first step, the airline will offer in electronic format its three in-flight magazines, as part of a trial with a privately held Singapore-based company, SmarttPapers Aviation Pte Ltd. The SmarttPapers™ application uses a patented file compression technology to compress and transform magazines and newspaper contents into a digital format for integration into the in-flight entertainment system. In line with efforts to reduce the amount of paper carried on board, which reduces weight and saves fuel, the airline aims to extend this initiative to other publications at a later date, including menu cards and the more than 100 international and local magazines currently carried system-wide. The plan is also to introduce e-newspapers and e-books on board using the same technology.

Travel Daily reports that EL AL Israel Airlines is teaming up with Russia’s UTAir, Ukraine’s AeroSvit and Armenai’s Armavia to form a new global airline alliance. TD says that according to reports, the airlines have signed a ‘letter of intent’ to form the alliance, and plan to sign a final agreement within 90 days. Dubbed ‘Western-Eastern’, or ‘WE’ for short, the group apparently aims to incorporate about 20 small and medium sized global airlines.

Turkish Airlines has grounded on unpaid leave 28 flight attendants for being overweight and given them six months to slim down or face reassignment, The affected crew, 15 of them male, previously had been warned to shape up. The 106kg head of the cabin crew association was among those stood down. He has been told to lose 10kg.

Cabin crew at British Airways have been told by union activists to refuse to close aircraft window blinds after each flight because it could risk their health and safety. Cabin crew were asked by the airline to lower the shades after passengers disembark because direct sunlight can cause aircraft cabins to become uncomfortably hot while the planes are parked on stands. Media reports this latest example of restrictive union practices at the airline was posted on an online forum for the 11,000 cabin crew members of Unite, urging workers to “politely refuse” to close the shades because the task had “not been agreed” with union. It follows the news that crew refused to distribute hot towels to passengers in BA’s premium economy cabin, World Traveller Plus, unless the number of crew on each 747 flight was increased from 15 to 16.