Continental Airlines (Houston) will move into Terminal 1 at Chicago (O’Hare) on November 16.
Copyright Photo: Jay Selman. Please click on the photo for additional details on the move.
QANTAS Airways (Sydney) has issued the following statement:
“QANTAS has confirmed an updated schedule for its international network to ensure minimum disruption to passengers following the grounding of its Airbus A380 fleet.
The new forward schedule enables QANTAS to accommodate customers on services across its entire international network over the coming weeks, regardless of when A380 aircraft re-enter service.
While QANTAS is committed to bringing its A380s back into service as soon as possible, this contingency schedule has been designed to provide certainty for customers planning to travel in the near future.
The QANTAS Group has a fleet of over 250 aircraft across domestic and international operations and all QANTAS aircraft are being utilized to minimize schedule disruptions.
Boeing 747s have been replaced by Airbus A330s on the Sydney to Tokyo Narita route and A330s have been replaced by Boeing 767s on Perth to Singapore services. Boeing 747s have also been replaced by Airbus A330s on the Sydney to Hong Kong route. These changes will enable QANTAS to operate 747s on long-haul international services previously operated by the A380.
For the period of November 5-11, QANTAS operated 505 of the 512 scheduled services across its international network.
Minor changes have been made to aircraft operating certain domestic services in order to provide alternate capacity on the QANTAS international network.
QANTAS is continuing an intensive inspection program on all Rolls-Royce engines in its A380 fleet and QANTAS engineers have removed three engines to undertake further examination.
Engineers have been investigating the engines in detail and how their components and design perform under operational conditions, as opposed to the original out-of-factory expectations.
The European Aviation Safety Authority (EASA) today issued an Airworthiness Directive for all Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines. QANTAS’ ongoing inspection program is fully compliant with this directive. The specific checks mandated by the directive were already being carried out by QANTAS in conjunction with Rolls-Royce.
QANTAS’ A380 aircraft will not return to service until there is complete certainty that the fleet can operate safely.”
ANA (All Nippon Airways) Boeing 747-481 JA8098 (msn 25207) NRT (Michael B. Ing), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.
ANA (All Nippon Airways) (Tokyo), United Airlines (Chicago) and Continental Airlines (Houston) announced the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has issued its final order granting anti-trust immunity enabling the three carriers to execute a trans-Pacific joint venture under which they intend to jointly develop flight schedules and sales activities.
Customers traveling between the Americas and Asia will enjoy more convenient flight schedules, with a broader range of fare and product options, once the joint venture is implemented.
Copyright Photo: Michael B. Ing. Please click on the photo for more information.
Air Malta Airbus A320-214 9H-AEN (msn 2665) LHR (Richard Vandervord), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.
Air Malta (Luqa) is facing an uncertain future due to the mounting losses and stiff competition from the growing number of low-cost carriers serving the island. The Maltese government and the unions have agreed to set up a steering committee to review the restructuring plan.
The government is preparing a rescue bill and has also notified the European Commission of its intend to grant the flag carrier an emergency loan. The airline is also expected to undergo an extensive overhaul.
Read the full story for the Times of Malta:
Copyright Photo: Richard Vandervord. Please click on the photo for more background information.
Lufthansa Airbus A380-841 F-WWSH (D-AIMA) (msn 038) XFW (Gerd Beilfuss) (first LH A380), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.
Lufthansa (Frankfurt) is being loyal with its Rolls-Royce engines for the Airbus A380 according to CEO Wolfgang Mayrhuber as reported in the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) according to this Reuters report.
Read the full report from Reuters:
Copyright Photo: Gerd Beilfuss. Please click on photo for more details.
British Airways (London) has restored its route to Cancun at the start of November.
Flights to Cancun will depart every Wednesday and Saturday from London Gatwick Airport. Due to popular demand, British Airways has already increased the original frequency to three times a week from next summer.
The airline previously flew to Cancun between April 1998 and April 2002.
BA will assign the Boeing 777 to serve the route to Mexico.
Copyright Photo: Gilbert Hechema. Please click on the photo for additional information.
Avianca Airbus A330-243 N973AV (msn 1043) (90 Anos-90 Years) MIA (Brian McDonough), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.
Avianca (Bogota, TACA (San Salvador) and Copa Airlines (Panama City) have been accepted to join the Star Alliance.
Copyright Photo: Brian McDonough. Please click on the photo for additional details about joining the alliance.
Air Canada Jazz Bombardier CRJ200 (CL-600-2B19) C-GZJA (msn 8018) (orange) IAD (Brian McDonough), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.
Jazz Air Income Fund (Halifax) yesterday (November 10) announced that the Ontario Superior Court of Justice granted a final order approving the plan of arrangement providing for the conversion from an income trust to a corporate structure.
Once completed, the transaction will result in the conversion of the Jazz Air Income Fund to a dividend paying public corporation to be named Chorus Aviation Inc., with the trading symbols on the Toronto Stock Exchange of CHR.A, CHR.B and CHR.DB. Per the conversion, Fund unitholders will receive one share of Chorus for each unit held.
Copyright Photo: Brian McDonough. Please click on the photo for additional information.
Delta Air Lines Boeing 767-332 ER WL N193DN (msn 28450) ATL (Bruce Drum), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.
Delta Air Lines (Atlanta) has won approval to expand operations at London’s Heathrow Airport. The U.S. Department of Transportation and the European Commission yesterday (November 10) granted Delta Air Lines’ request to operate new daily, year-round flights between London’s Heathrow and Boston and Miami international airports. The new flights will begin on March 27, 2011.
The new routes will be operated within the scope of Delta’s trans-Atlantic joint venture with Air France-KLM and Alitalia. They will bring to four the number of trans-Atlantic routes operated by the joint venture partner airlines from Boston and to five the number of routes offered from Miami. Delta, Air France. KLM and Alitalia serve Amsterdam, London-Heathrow, Paris and Rome from both cities; Miami customers enjoy additional service to Milan operated by Alitalia.
Delta applied for the rights to serve Boston and Miami from Heathrow earlier this year as part of a divestiture of slots required following the U.S. and E.U. governments’ approval of an immunized alliance between American Airlines and British Airways. Delta argued its proposed new Heathrow service would bring the most benefit to consumers because its global alliance โ SkyTeam โ holds the smallest percentage of slots at Heathrow.
Delta began serving Heathrow in March 2008 following the conclusion of an Open Skies agreement between the U.S. and the E.U. that eliminated decades-old restrictions on the number of U.S. airlines allowed to serve the market. Since that time, Delta has expanded from zero to seven its number of daily round-trip flights in the Heathrow market, with a current offering of three daily flights to New York-JFK; two peak-day flights to Atlanta and Detroit; and one daily flight to Minneapolis/St. Paul. In March 2011, this number will grow to 10 daily round-trip flights when Boston and Miami are added.
Copyright Photo: Bruce Drum. Please click on the photo for additional details.
Boeing 787-8 N787FT (msn 40694) BFI (Nick Dean) (test aircraft – ZA005), originally uploaded by Airliners Gallery.
Boeing (Chicago, Seattle, Wichita and Charleston) yesterday (November 10) suspended all 787 Dreamliner flight testing activities pending the outcome of the investigation of the incident involving test aircraft ZA002. Boeing issued the following statement:
“During approach to Laredo, Texas, on November 9, 2010, airplane ZA002 lost primary electrical power as a result of an onboard electrical fire. Backup systems, including the deployment of the Ram Air Turbine (RAT), functioned as expected and allowed the crew to complete a safe landing. The cause of the fire is still under investigation by Boeing.
The pilots executed a safe landing and at all times had positive control of the airplane and all of the information necessary to perform that safe landing.
Initial inspection appears to indicate that a power control panel in the aft electronics bay will need to be replaced on ZA002. We are inspecting the power panel and surrounding area near that panel to determine if other repairs will be necessary.
We have retrieved flight data from the airplane and are analyzing it in Seattle. This process will take several days. We are committed to finding the cause quickly but will not rush the technical team in its efforts.
The team was conducting monitoring of the Nitrogen Generation System at the time of the incident but there is no reason to suspect that the monitoring or earlier testing of that system had anything to do with the incident.
Consistent with our internal processes, until we better understand the cause of the incident on ZA002, we have decided to postpone flight test activities on other airplanes. Ground test activities will be conducted until flight test resumes.
Likewise, we cannot determine the impact of this event on the overall program schedule until we have worked our way through the data. Teams have been working through the night and will continue to work until analysis is complete and a path forward is determined.”
Copyright Photo: Nick Dean. Please click on the photo for additional information.
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