Tag: ba (Page 7 of 10)

Boeing Issues Advice For Pilots After Indonesia Crash

November 7, 2018 / WIL BALDWIN

ZHUHAI, China/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Boeing Co (BA.N) said on Wednesday it had issued a safety bulletin reminding pilots how to handle erroneous data from a key sensor in the wake of last week’s Indonesian jetliner crash.

The U.S. planemaker said investigators probing the Lion Air crash off the coast of Indonesia, in which all 189 on board were killed, had found that one of the “angle of attack” sensors on the brand-new Boeing 737 MAX jet had provided erroneous data.

Experts say the angle of attack is a crucial parameter that helps the aircraft’s computers understand whether its nose is too high relative to the current of air – a phenomenon that can throw the plane into an aerodynamic stall and make it fall.

Some modern aircraft have systems designed to correct the posture of the aircraft automatically to keep flying safely.

There are also procedures for pilots to follow in the event of missing data from damaged sensors on the fuselage, but it remains unclear how much time the crew of flight JT610 had to respond at the relatively low altitude of around 5,000 feet.

An angle of attack sensor had been changed by mechanics on the ground in Bali the day before the crash, Indonesia’s National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) said.

The captain and first officer flying from Bali to Jakarta the night before the crash had indicators displaying differences in angle of 20 degrees, KNKT said, but that flight landed safely despite the issues in the air.

COCKPIT PROCEDURE

Boeing said in a statement received at China’s largest air show in Zhuhai that its note to airlines underscored “existing flight crew procedures” designed to address circumstances where information coming into the cockpit from the sensors was wrong.

The Boeing 737 MAX has three such blade-shaped sensors. Erroneous readings can in some circumstances cause the 737 MAX to point the nose down sharply to keep air under the wings and avoid a stall, according to a person briefed on the matter.

A source said on condition of anonymity that the Boeing bulletin related only to the 737 MAX, of which there are just over 200 in service.

Service bulletins can be followed by mandatory airworthiness directives by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.

Boeing has delivered 219 737 MAX jets to customers globally, with 4,564 orders for jets yet to be delivered.

The Boeing 737 MAX is a more fuel-efficient version of the manufacturer’s best-selling single-aisle 737 series.

The Lion Air crash was the first involving the new version, which airlines introduced into service last year.

Indonesian authorities have downloaded information from the flight data recorder that showed a cockpit indicator on the Lion Air jet was damaged for its last four flights.

A search for the cockpit voice recorder, the second so-called “black box”, remains underway.

KNKT said it would attempt to reconstruct the jet’s last flight using Boeing simulators in Seattle. The angle of attack sensor replaced in Bali would be analysed at its place of manufacture in Chicago, the accident investigator said.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher and David Shepardson; Additional reporting by Cindy Silviana in Jakarta, Jamie Freed in Singapore and Allison Lampert in Montreal; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

Image from www.boeing.com

Boeing, Airbus Fret Over China Trade War

November 6, 2018 / WIL BALDWIN

ZHUHAI, China (Reuters) – The world’s two largest planemakers signaled on Tuesday that they were keen to see an end to a bruising trade war between Washington and Beijing, as China opened its largest airshow with a display that showcased its aviation ambitions.

Boeing (BA.N) and Airbus (AIR.PA) made their comments on the opening day of the biennial Airshow China, being held in the coastal city of Zhuhai from Nov. 6-11, that is traditionally an event for Beijing to parade its growing aviation prowess.

China has become a key hunting ground for deals for foreign aviation firms thanks to surging travel demand, but the outlook has been complicated by Beijing’s desire to grow its own champions in industries ranging from aviation to semiconductors to robots.

Its ties with the United States have in particular been strained. President Donald Trump criticizes China for what he sees as intellectual property theft, entry barriers to U.S. business and a gaping trade deficit, while Beijing calls the complaints unreasonable. The two sides have resorted to tit-for-tat tariffs on goods worth billions of dollars.

While U.S.-made aircraft, among America’s biggest exports to China, have so far escaped Beijing’s tariffs, analysts said they were still waiting to see what the trade war would spell for U.S. companies such as Boeing.

George Xu, the top China executive at Boeing’s biggest rival Airbus (AIR.PA), said at a news conference that the European planemaker did not expect a sales windfall from the tensions.

“I am Chinese and we don’t like this kind of trade war,” he said. “Nobody will be the winner in this kind of trade war.”

Airbus had hoped to close a deal for 184 aircraft during a trip to China by French President Emmanuel Macron in January, but negotiations appear to have stalled, industry sources say.

In carefully worded comments, Boeing’s senior vice-president of Northeast Asia sales, Rick Anderson, said China was a rapidly growing aviation market and that he believed Washington and Beijing understood that.

“We continue to engage with leaders of United States and China, and continue to urge productive conversation to resolve the trade discrepancies,” he said.

“We are optimistic for a quick solution.”

AMBITIONS ON DISPLAY

China and United States have in recent days stoked optimism that a breakthrough might be made, after Trump spoke by phone with President Xi Jinping last week.

The two countries have also announced that they will hold a delayed top-level security dialogue on Friday.

Still, Beijing has shown little sign of taming its ambitions to catch up with rivals like the United States, France and Germany in high-end technology.

Projects being showcased in Zhuhai included a full-scale mock-up of a widebody CR929 jet being jointly developed by Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China and Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) in hopes of eventually competing with Boeing’s 787 and Airbus’ A350 jets.

The global market for widebody jets is estimated to be worth $2.5 trillion over the next two decades, according to Boeing, with the fleet size more than doubling to 9,180 jets.

Widebodies account for around 20 percent of projected global jet deliveries over that period but almost 40 percent by value.

Hundreds of spectators and industry executives at the airshow were also treated to a roaring flight demonstration that involved three of China’s Chengdu J-20 stealth fighters, which debuted at the show two years ago with a 60-second flypast.

China put the J-20 into service last year that experts say is a part of Beijing’s plan to narrow a military technology gap with the United States and its F-35 stealth fighter.

Sophisticated anti-aircraft batteries were also on display.

“If you tie those together with the J-20, the message is about Anti-Area Access Denial. It is not just about protecting the motherland but pushing the Americans away,” said aerospace analyst Sash Tusa of UK-based Agency Partners.

(Reporting by Brenda Goh, Stella Qiu and Tim Hepher; Writing by Brenda Goh; Editing by Himani Sarkar)

IranAir Looking For Planes Not Needing US Sales Permit

November 5, 2018 / WIL BALDWIN

DUBAI (Reuters) – IranAir is looking to buy planes from any company not requiring U.S. sales permits and may consider Russia’s Sukhoi Superjet 100, the flag carrier’s head was quoted as saying, as Iran tries to renew its ageing fleet despite facing U.S. sanctions.

The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)revoked licences for Boeing Co and Airbus to sell passenger jets to Iran after President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement in May and reimposed sanctions.

“We welcome any (company) which is able to provide the planes needed by IranAir. We even have gone after planes such as Sukhoi 100 or planes made by non-European countries,” said IranAir Chief Executive Farzaneh Sharafbafi, quoted by Iran’s Roads Ministry website.

Most modern commercial planes have more than 10 percent in U.S. parts, the threshold for needing U.S. Treasury approval. But Russian officials have been reported as saying Sukhoi is working on reducing the number of U.S. parts in the hopes of winning an Iranian order for up to 100 aircraft.

“We will consider plane purchases if these companies can sell planes to Iran without an OFAC licence, and are willing to negotiate,” Sharafbafi added. She gave no further details.

IranAir had ordered 200 passenger aircraft – 100 from Airbus, 80 from Boeing and 20 from Franco-Italian turboprop maker ATR. All the deals were dependent on U.S. licences because of the heavy use of American parts in commercial planes.

(Reporting by Dubai newsroom, Additional reporting by Tim Hepher in Paris; Editing by Edmund Blair)

VietJet Signs $6.5 bln Deal For 50 Airbus Jets

November 2, 2018 / WIL BALDWIN

HANOI, Nov 2 (Reuters) – VietJet Aviation signed a $6.5 billion agreement on Friday to buy 50 Airbus A321neo jets, the Vietnamese budget carrier said.

The agreement, signed during a visit to Hanoi by French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, is part of aggressive investment in the Vietnamese airline’s fleet, which has provided lucrative business for both European aerospace group Airbus and its U.S. rival Boeing.

VietJet said the order is in line with its growth strategies and will enhance the airline’s operational efficiency and capacity, especially on international routes.

In addition to the aircraft, Airbus will deploy pilot and technician training programmes and fight management and flight safety management for VietJet.

In a separate statement, VietJet said it had also signed a memorandum of understanding with CFM International on a $5.3 billion deal for long-term jet engine maintenance.

VietJet, Vietnam’s biggest private airline, currently operates 60 Airbus jets with more than 385 flights daily within Vietnam and to countries such as Japan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, China, Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia.

CEO Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao told Reuters this week that VietJet plans to maintain an average fleet age of only three years to minimise fuel and maintenance costs.

It placed provisional orders for the A321neo jets and 100 Boeing 737 MAX jets at the Farnborough air show and has been in negotiations to complete the deals, with deliveries expected between 2020 and 2025.

(Reporting by Khanh Vu Editing by David Goodman)

Image from Airbus

Atlas Air Reports Strong Third-Quarter Earnings Growth

November 1, 2018 / WIL BALDWIN

PURCHASE, N.Y., Nov. 01, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, Inc. (AAWW) today announced strong third-quarter earnings growth and raised its outlook for full-year 2018, driven by ongoing market strength, customer demand and business development.

“We continue to leverage the scale and scope of our enterprise and our leadership in global aviation outsourcing,” said President and Chief Executive Officer William J. Flynn.

Click the link below for the full story!

Atlas Air Reports Strong Third-Quarter

Image from http://www.polaraircargo.com/

Indonesian Searchers Find Lion Air Black Box

November 1, 2018 / WIL BALDWIN

JAKARTA, Nov 1 (Reuters) – Indonesian authorities on Thursday retrieved a flight data recorder from a Lion Air jet that crashed and broke apart in shallow sea near the capital, Jakarta, this week, killing all 189 people on board.

The country’s second-deadliest air disaster since 1997 has prompted renewed concern about Indonesia’s patchy aviation safety record, and the government has said Lion Air will face tougher safety regulation.

Investigations into the world’s first crash of a Boeing Co 737 MAX, introduced into commercial service last year, will be scrutinised by the global aviation industry.

“Hopefully, this can unveil the mystery behind the plane crash,” Indonesia’s transportation safety committee chief Soerjanto Tjahjono told a news conference at Jakarta’s main port after receiving the device, known as a black box.

The data it holds should provide clues to what went wrong with the plane, which had only been in service since August.

It lost contact with ground staff just 13 minutes after taking off early on Monday from Jakarta, on its way to the tin-mining town of Pangkal Pinang.

The pilot had asked to return to base shortly after take-off, and ground control officials had approved the request.

A navy diver told broadcaster Metro TV on board a search vessel his team found the orange-coloured box intact in debris on the muddy sea floor.

Indonesia’s transportation safety committee (KNKT) will analyse its data in Jakarta, which could take up to two weeks.

Searchers have yet to find the second black box containing recordings of cockpit conversations. Strong currents have hampered search efforts, complicated by the presence of energy pipelines in the area.

The discovery of the black box may provide some relief to grieving relatives. But hopes are fading of finding a large section of fuselage intact with bodies, easily retrievable, inside.

The commander of the navy divers involved in the search was quoted by the Kompas.com news portal as saying divers had found many bodies. But only one has been identified.

“What is important for us is to get more information about the victims because having their remains back is important for us so we can bury them properly,” said Ade Inyo, whose brother in law was on the flight.

MORE INSPECTIONS, SAFETY REVIEW

The investigation will be carried out with help from Boeing, General Electric and the Federal Aviation Federation, officials have said.

It will also focus on four of Lion Air’s staff including its technical director who were suspended by Indonesia’s transportation ministry on Wednesday amid speculation the aircraft was not airworthy.

“For now, we will focus on two primary causes,” KNKT deputy chief Haryo Satmiko told Reuters, referring to equipment and the people who flew, maintained and managed the aircraft.

The transport ministry suspended for 120 days Lion Air’s maintenance and engineering director, fleet maintenance manager and the release engineer who gave the jet permission to fly on Monday, it said in a press release.

Founded in 1999, the privately owned budget carrier’s aircraft have been involved in at least 15 safety incidents and it has faced tougher international safety restrictions than other Indonesian airlines.

It will now be subjected to more intensive “on ramp” inspections compared with other airlines, authorities said.

President Joko Widodo has also ordered a review of all regulations relating to flight safety.

Indonesia is one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets. Its transportation safety committee investigated 137 serious aviation incidents from 2012 to 2017.

Lion Air said the aircraft that crashed had been airworthy and the pilot and co-pilot had 11,000 hours of flying time between them.

But according to the transport safety committee, the plane had technical problems on its previous flight on Sunday, from the city of Denpasar on the resort island of Bali, including an issue over “unreliable airspeed”.

Lion Air chief executive Edward Sirait has acknowledged reports of technical problems with the aircraft, but said maintenance had been carried out “according to procedure” before it was cleared to fly again.

Lion Air’s only other fatal accident was in 2004, when an MD-82 crashed upon landing at Solo City, killing 25 of the 163 people on board, according to the Flight Safety Foundation’s Aviation Safety Network.

In April, the airline announced a firm order to buy 50 Boeing 737 MAX 10 narrowbody jets with a list price of $6.24 billion. It is one of the U.S. planemaker’s largest customers globally, and was the first carrier globally to take delivery of the 737 MAX last year.

(Reporting by Jakarta bureau Writing by Fergus Jensen and Ed Davies Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Robert Birsel)

Israel & Boeing Sign Reciprocal Spending Deal

October 30, 2018 / WIL BALDWIN

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Boeing (BA.N) has agreed to spend billions of dollars in Israel over the coming decade if it wins major defense contracts, Israel’s Economy Ministry said on Tuesday.

The “reciprocal procurement” agreement calls for Boeing to collaborate with Israeli industries for at least 35 percent of the value of any transaction it signs with the Israeli government.

This could ease concerns in Israel over new requirements in a U.S. aid package that divert funds away from local industries.

Boeing is competing in Israel for a number of key Defence Ministry contracts, including the purchase of additional F-15 aircraft, fueling planes and a squadron of transport helicopters, the ministry said.

With Israel expecting to make about $10 billion of military purchases from Boeing over the next decade, the agreement with the U.S. aerospace company means $3.5 billion in new business in Israel, the ministry said in a statement.

“A reciprocal procurement agreement of this magnitude is a significant achievement that will lead to the growth of many companies in the economy, increase their activity and also their success in international markets,” said Economy Minister Eli Cohen.

Under a defense aid deal signed in 2016 by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then U.S. President Barack Obama, the United States agreed to provide Israel with $38 billion in military assistance over 10 years.

However, one component of the deal was to phase out a special arrangement that had allowed Israel to use 26.3 percent of the U.S. aid on its own defense industry instead of on American-made weapons. All the aid will now have to be spent on U.S. equipment by 2026.

(Reporting by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Adrian Croft)

New Brazil President Bolsonaro OK With Embraer-Boeing Deal

October 29, 2018 / WIL BALDWIN

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 29 (Reuters) – Brazilian President-elect Jair Bolsonaro has a positive view of a proposed commercial aviation partnership between Boeing Co and local aircraft maker Embraer SA, Bolsonaro’s choice for defense minister told Reuters on Monday.

Former General Augusto Heleno said the deal could be cleared by the current administration of President Michel Temer, although Bolsonaro’s team would like to see details of the proposed joint venture.

“It’s not that the government is leaving and so it cannot take any action,” Heleno said, referring to the outgoing Temer administration. “If we had a conversation and we reached a conclusion, ‘Look, everything’s good, this is worth it,’ we don’t have to keep waiting,” Heleno said.

Embraer reached a preliminary agreement in July to sell 80 percent of its commercial jet division to Boeing in a venture valued at $4.75 billion. The deal has not closed yet, in part because Brazil’s government holds a “golden share” that grants it veto power over strategic business decisions at Embraer.

Last week, the current defense minister, Joaquim Silva e Luna, told Reuters that Brazil’s next president would be presented with the details of the deal.

(Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier and Ricardo Brito Writing by Marcelo Rochabrun; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

Image from www.embraer.com

Airbus 2018 Delivery Goal Questioned By Analysts

October 29, 2018 / WIL BALDWIN

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Airbus (AIR.PA) will have to equal a record final quarter for deliveries if the European planemaker is going to meet its overall 2018 targets following a series of production setbacks.

Flight Ascend, a UK-based consultancy which monitors fleet developments worldwide, told aircraft investors in Hong Kong that Airbus may struggle to meet its target for 800 total aircraft deliveries this year.

And Bernstein analyst Douglas Harned said in a note that Airbus faced a shortfall in deliveries of its best-selling A320neo due to ongoing engine delays and operational problems.

The warnings came as Airbus prepares to post third-quarter earnings on Wednesday, when all eyes will be on whether it keeps its full-year target of 800 jet deliveries.

By end-September, Airbus was already facing a tough – though not unprecedented – challenge in meeting its full-year goal, a Reuters analysis of delivery data shows.

To meet the goal it would have to repeat exactly the record pattern of 2017, when 37 percent of the total number of annual deliveries were squeezed into the final quarter.

Airbus “usually pulls a rabbit out of the hat, so I wouldn’t bet against it,” a financial source familiar with the process said, adding delays had stressed the global aircraft industry.

For the first nine months, Airbus delivered 503 aircraft, leaving it once again with 37 percent of the targeted annual figure to accomplish in just three months.

The average achieved over that quarterly period in the past 10 years was 31 percent, according to a Reuters review of Airbus data.

Crucial to whether Airbus meets its goal is progress on best-selling single-aisle jets like the A320 and A321.

Commercial jets make up 76 percent of Airbus revenues, which are mostly paid on delivery, while aircraft lessors, who control around half the global fleet, lose $10,000 a day for a late A320-family jet, experts said.

Airbus does not publish separate delivery targets for single-aisle jets but Flight Ascend estimates this year’s target at around 630, leaving 76 a month to go in the last quarter.

“October numbers are sitting in the mid-50s which means it … is very challenging to reach the target for the end of year,” Ascend’s Ryan Hammacott told a Hong Kong seminar.

Earlier this month, Reuters reported Airbus faced new problems in producing the A321neo, a model central to its ambition to dominate the top end of the single-aisle market and thwart Boeing’s (BA.N) plans for a new mid-sized passenger jet.

Last week Rolls-Royce (RR.L) disclosed a shortfall in engine deliveries for the big A330neo.

Airbus planemaking president Guillame Faury last week confirmed Airbus was facing internal problems with the A321neo, but declined to discuss any impact on the delivery target.

Faury, who is the designated future Airbus chief executive has made stabilising deliveries a top priority.

Harned said stock markets may absorb a downgrade in the delivery target but would watch for any signs of stress in 2019.

(Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Alexander Smith)

Image from http://www.airbus.com

Lion Air 737 Crashes In Java Sea With 188 Passengers Aboard

October 28, 2018 / WIL BALDWIN

JAKARTA (Reuters) – A Lion Air flight with at least 188 people on board is believed to have sunk after crashing into the sea off Indonesia’s island of Java on Monday, shortly after take off from the capital on its way to the country’s tin-mining hub, officials said.

A spokesman for Indonesia’s search and rescue agency said the Lion Air flight, JT610, lost contact 13 minutes after takeoff, adding that a tug boat leaving the capital’s port had seen the craft falling.

“It has been confirmed that it has crashed,” the spokesman, Yusuf Latif, said by text message, when asked about the fate of the Lion Air plane, which air tracking service Flightradar 24 identified as a Boeing 737 MAX 8.

Debris thought to be from the plane, including aircraft seats, was found near an offshore refining facility, an official of state energy firm Pertamina said.

Wreckage had been found near where the Lion Air plane lost contact with air traffic officials on the ground, said Muhmmad Syaugi, the head of the search and rescue agency.

“We don’t know yet whether there are any survivors,” Syaugi told a news conference. “We hope, we pray, but we cannot confirm.”

Flight JT610 took off around 6.20 a.m. and was due to have landed in the capital of the Bangka-Belitung tin mining region at 7.20 a.m., the Flightradar 24 website showed.

“We cannot give any comment at this moment,” Edward Sirait, chief executive of Lion Air Group, told Reuters, adding that a news conference was planned for later on Monday. “We are trying to collect all the information and data.”

Preliminary flight tracking data from Flightradar24 shows the aircraft climbed to around 5,000 feet (1,524 m) before losing, and then regaining, height, before finally falling towards the sea.

It was last recorded at 3,650 feet (1,113 m) and its speed had risen to 345 knots, according to raw data captured by the respected tracking website, which could not immediately be confirmed.

Its last recorded position was about 15 km (9 miles) north of the Indonesian coastline, according to a Google Maps reference of the last coordinates reported by Flightradar24.

The accident is the first to be reported that involves the widely-sold Boeing 737 MAX, an updated, more fuel-efficient version of the manufacturer’s workhorse single-aisle jet. The first Boeing 737 MAX jets were introduced into service in 2017.

Lion Air’s Malaysian subsidiary, Malindo Air, received the very first global delivery.

Boeing is aware of the airplane accident reports and is “closely monitoring” the situation, it said on social network Twitter.

Reporting by Augustinus Beo Da Costa and Ciny Silviana; Additional reporting by Jamie Freed in SINGAPORE and Tim Hepher in HONG KONG; Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Clarence Fernandez

Archives