ATLANTA, Nov. 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — ExpressJet Airlines, a United Express carrier, began assigning pilots to its Embraer E175 aircraft base of operations at Chicago O’Hare International Airport, in advance of a January 1, 2020 open.
(PRNewsfoto/ExpressJet Airlines)
“Chicago’s size and central location makes it a highly desirable location for commuter pilots and locals alike,” said Scott Hall, Vice President of Flight Operations. “Opening the E175 crew base in Chicago is a natural outcome of ExpressJet’s growth trajectory.”
The E175 base will be in addition to ExpressJet’s existing ERJ145 pilot, flight attendant, and maintenance bases in Chicago. This is ExpressJet’s second E175 base, after the first base opened at Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport.
About ExpressJet Airlines ExpressJet Airlines operates as United Express, on behalf of United Airlines (UAL), to serve more than 100 airports across the United States, Canada and Mexico, with over 3,300 weekly flights from bases in Chicago, Cleveland, Houstonand Newark. ExpressJet’s fleet includes more than 100 aircraft, including the Embraer ERJ145 and 25 new Embraer E175 aircraft. ExpressJet pilots enjoy top-tier pay and quality of life and can choose the Aviate career path to United Airlines. ExpressJet is a subsidiary of ManaAir, LLC. ManaAir is majority-owned by KAir Enterprises and minority-owned by United Airlines. For further information, contact 404-856-1199, corpcomm@expressjet.com.
Nov 15 (Reuters) – Canadian National Railway said on Friday it would cut management and union jobs, as the largest Canadian railroad operator grapples with an economic slowdown.
The announcement comes amid declining freight volumes as trade tensions have weighed on the North American economy.
The number of people to be laid off could rise if demand from rail customers continues to decline, the Canadian newspaper said, citing a person familiar with the matter.
Canadian National Railway spokesman said the action, which includes sending some of its employees on temporary leave, has already begun across its network.
(Reporting by Dominic Roshan K.L. in Bengaluru; Editing by Amy Caren Daniel)
Alstom will deliver 19 Coradia Continental electric regional trains to the state of Baden-Württemberg. The contract, signed with DB Regio, is worth approximately €120 million. The trains will be built at Alstom’s site in Salzgitter.
Beginning in December 2022, the new trains will be gradually deployed on the routes from Karlsruhe to Heilbronn, Achern, as well as via Freudenstadt to Herrenberg.
The new trains have been designed to optimise passenger experience while meeting the region’s operational requirements. In addition to high-performance WiFi, they will include spacious multi-purpose areas in each car and a large capacity for bicycles. The trains are specifically designed to cope with the steep gradients that punctuate the tracks running through the Black Forest.
“Passengers in the Karlsruhe region can look forward to modern, proven and reliable trains. Our trains not only satisfy passengers, but are also known for outstanding reliability and availability, thus offering absolute planning security for operators,”says Jörg Nikutta, Managing Director of Alstom in Germany and Austria.
The Coradia Continental is part of Alstom’s Coradia range of modular trains that benefits from more than 30 years of know-how. To date, over 2,800 Coradia trains have been sold and 2,400 are currently in service in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden and Canada.
The new vehicles will be procured by DB Regio AG on behalf of the Ministry of Transport of the state of Baden-Württemberg as the responsible public transport authority for this network. After delivery of the vehicles, they become the property of the Landesanstalt Schienenfahrzeuge Baden-Württemberg (SFBW) and are leased by DB Regio for the term of the 13-year transport contract.
FILE PHOTO: A model of the Airbus A220-300 aircraft is seen at a media event at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Airbus SE’s <EADSY> Canadian-designed A220 narrowbody jet has the potential to be stretched to carry more passengers but the company has no current plans to do so, a top executive said on Tuesday.
Air France KLM SA <AFLYY>, which has a firm order for 60 A220 jets, has expressed interest in a larger variant of the plane. The A220-100 model can carry from 100-120 passengers while the larger A220-300 takes from 120-150.
In a presentation to investors, Air France KLM last week posted a slide referring to a larger A220-500 plane.
“It’s no secret that the aircraft has potential to be stretched, potential to grow,” said Philippe Balducchi, head of an Airbus-led venture which took over production of the airliner in July 2018.
Airbus’ first responsibility was to make sure the two existing planes become established in the marketplace, he told Reuters on the sidelines of an aviation conference. After that the firm would decide how to develop its planes.
“Will (there) be an A220-500 or not? I cannot tell you that today. It’s definitely not my priority but there is the potential – we will see,” said Balducchi.
Montreal-based Bombardier <BDRBF> originally drew up designs for the airliner some 15 years ago but sold Airbus a 50.01 percent stake for a token fee of one Canadian dollar in 2018 after sluggish sales and low production rates pushed the program well over budget.
Balducchi sidestepped questions as to whether Airbus would buy Bombardier’s 33.58% minority stake, saying that was a decision for shareholders.
“I think Airbus is comfortable with the situation today,” said Balducchi.
Under the terms of the 2018 deal, Bombardier could oblige Airbus to acquire its stake in the program in 2026 for market value. Airbus could also oblige Bombardier to sell the stake.
Bombardier Chief Executive Alain Bellemare recently said the company is “looking at all options” regarding its stake, while specifying that such a decision “is not for today.”
The Canadian province of Quebec continues to hold a 16.41% stake in the program.
(Additional reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall)
Significant increase in reliability and ride comfort
The introduction of the new “FV-Dosto” double-deck long-distance train on the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB) route network is making significant and measurable progress. As the manufacturer Bombardier Transportation explained at its Swiss headquarters in Zurich, the reliability of the 25 trains available to the SBB has been increased by a factor of seven, and ride comfort has been substantially improved thanks to newly installed software. This and the train’s highly energy-efficient drive concept, also led to a significant improvement in punctuality on the routes operated with the FV-Dosto. With the help of software developed and adapted by Bombardier, it has been possible to reduce the previously noticeable vibrations, particularly in the upper decks of trains by up to 75 per cent, thereby substantially increasing ride comfort.
As Stéphane Wettstein, the Swiss Managing Director of Bombardier Transportation, explained, the technical reliability of the FV-Dosto trains used, once again significantly increased to 6,914 km of trouble-free operation in October. This corresponds to an improvement by a factor of seven over the last 11 months. Approximately 34 per cent of service disruptions are caused by operational and passenger-triggered incidents and accordingly affect the overall reliability of operations. Wettstein put the increase in the technical reliability of the trains down to the effectiveness of the agreed actions and the increasing mileage of the Dosto fleet, which has now covered a total of around 2.27 million kilometres. He is therefore confident that technical and operational reliability will continue to improve steadily. Since the timetable change in December 2018, around 75 per cent of the technical causes of disruptions have been eliminated.
Reliability and drive concept have a positive effect on punctuality
The greater reliability and increasing trouble-free availability of the trains also have a positive effect on the punctuality of the IR and IC services operated by the FV-Dosto. According to the surveys on the statistics website pünktlichkeit.ch, it is better in eastern Switzerland than in other parts of the country. This is not only due to higher reliability of the FV-Dosto trains, but also to their drive concept: unlike conventional trains, the FV-Dosto is not pulled or pushed by a locomotive, but driven by high energy-efficient and permanent magnet motors on the axles of the individual carriages. This allows long-distance trains to accelerate much faster, which positively contributes to timetable adherence.
Substantial improvement of ride comfort
In recent weeks, great progress has also been made in terms of ride comfort. With the new software installed in September 2019, it has been possible to eliminate the vibrations that used to be felt, mainly in the upper deck, to such an extent that some of them are now lower than in conventional double-deck trains. However, Stéphane Wettstein pointed out that, although Bombardier’s mechatronic bogies had been able to improve ride comfort, railway infrastructure, which also influences passengers’ level of comfort, has not gotten any better.
The technologically complex system for eliminating vibrations is based on stabilizing the carriage body in every driving situation, in such a way that the passenger feels less of the centrifugal forces in curves and changes of direction when passing over points than in conventional double-deck or tilting trains. While the ICN tilting train, which was also built by Bombardier as the consortium leader, tilts inwards in curves up to 7°, the FV-Dosto stays perpendicular to the track level. Together with the drive system and the pressure-tight carriage body, which prevents unpleasant pressure on the ears, especially when travelling through tunnels, this system is one of the major innovations of what is currently the world’s most modern long-distance train.
SBB already has 25 new trains
“The FV-Dosto is technologically a leading product in the industry in terms of its energy efficiency and the wide range of comfort it offers its passengers, even on a global scale – something Switzerland can be proud of, especially since important systems such as the traction or the bogies were developed in Switzerland and are largely manufactured in Switzerland,” says Swiss Managing Director of Bombardier Transportation Stéphane Wettstein.
Bombardier has now delivered a total of 25 of the FV-Dosto trains, which corresponds to SBB’s planning for the timetable change in 2019. By summer 2021, the entire fleet of (62) trains will have been delivered. The great public interest in the FV-Dosto has also prompted Bombardier to intensify communication regarding this high-tech train. The company has launched a website at swissdosto.ch which provides continually updated information on the introduction and operation of the train on the Swiss rail network.
Bombardier creates considerable value in Switzerland
Bombardier Transportation is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of public transport vehicles, mainly rail vehicles. The company is headquartered in Montreal, Canada and employs around 40,000 people around the world. More than 100,000 Bombardier vehicles are in service worldwide, carrying some 500 million passengers every day. In Switzerland, Bombardier’s roots go back some 120 years; many of the famous Swiss railway manufacturers from Secheron and MFO to BBC, ABB and Schindler Waggonbau to SLM have been combined under Bombardier over the decades. Today, around 870 employees work for Bombardier in Switzerland, 340 of them at the headquarters and global development centre in Zurich and 530 at the Villeneuve (VD) plant. Numerous Swiss suppliers are also involved in the development and production of the FV-Dosto, and their order volume accounts for around 50 per cent of the total external investment volume of CHF 600 million for the (62) ordered trains. After all, Bombardier is not only the supplier of FV-Dosto for SBB, but also of locomotives, technical services and the BOMBARDIERFLEXITYtram, which is already being used successfully in Geneva and Basel and the first of which will also be handed over to the Zurich public transport operator VBZ on November 15, 2019.
A day after unveiling the new PC-12 NGX single-engine turboprop aircraft at the National Business Aviation Association’s annual Convention and Exhibition (NBAA-BACE), Pilatus reports very strong demand for the new aircraft across the global Authorised Pilatus Sales Centre network.
Based on the PC-12 airframe, of which more than 1,700 aircraft have been delivered, Pilatus introduces the third major evolution of the aircraft, named the PC-12 NGX. Markus Bucher, CEO of Pilatus, revealed the new aircraft at a ceremony on Monday evening. More than 200 guests were on hand for the aircraft’s public debut.
First customers of brand-new PC-12 NGX
On the first public day of NBAA-BACE, three customers were eager to be first in line to purchase the new advanced version of the PC-12.
Australian born Dion Weisler, President and CEO of HP, is the first owner to upgrade from his PC-12 NG to the new NGX. Dion Weisler said: “As an existing, proud and active owner-pilot of a 2017 PC-12 NG, I am amazed by the substantial innovation improvements in what I thought was an impossible aircraft to improve on. I am thrilled to be customer number one for the new PC-12 NGX. Pilatus has done it again – reimagined aviation and taken an already perfect aircraft and magically redefined perfection.”
The first US customer of the new PC-12 NGX is Shon Boney, Co-Founder of Sprouts Farmers Markets, an American supermarket chain. The new PC-12 NGX will actually be Shon Boney’s fourth PC-12.
João Carlos Marinho Lutz will be the first Brazilian customer to take delivery of the new PC-12 NGX. Currently flying a non-pressurised turboprop, he chose the new Pilatus aircraft, because “only the PC-12 NGX can reach farms in remote places where I need to go and amazing destinations in Brazil with comfort, speed and efficiency.”
The new PC-12 NGX is already certified
The PC-12 NGX features a completely new BMW Designworks interior, larger cabin windows inspired by the PC-24 and fully reclining executive seats. The new Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 E-SeriesTM engine comes with the Electronic Propeller and Engine Control. A fully integrated digital autothrottle and new avionics features by Honeywell, including a touch screen controller, emergency descent mode, tactile roll feedback and protection, and a low speed propeller quiet mode are just some of the features of the new cockpit environment.
The PC-12 NGX prototype first flew in December 2017. More than 600 hours of testing and certification flying were accumulated in Europe, USA and Canada as Pilatus quietly developed the new aircraft. The PC-12 NGX received certification just one week ago on Monday, 14 October 2019.
Pilatus will begin customer deliveries of the new PC-12 NGX early in the second quarter of 2020. The first production PC-12 NGX with serial number 2001 is present on the static display of Pilatus throughout the NBAA-BACE. Contact Pilatus or your nearest Authorised Pilatus Centre for aircraft availability.
PARIS/ZURICH (Reuters) – U.S. engine maker Pratt & Whitney faces new checks on engines for small jetliners after an engine failure forced a Geneva-bound Swiss jet to divert to Paris and prompted a brief grounding of the rest of the airline’s Airbus A220 fleet.
French air crash investigators classified the problem that disrupted the Swiss flight shortly after departure from London Heathrow on Tuesday as a “serious incident” and said it would be investigated by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.
It was the third engine incident involving the same airline and model of jet in as many months and resulted in a small amount of debris being scattered as the aircraft landed at Paris Charles de Gaulle, an airport source told Reuters.
It came just hours after France’s BEA agency launched an unusual appeal for 150 volunteers to scour an uninhabited wood in eastern France for a titanium engine part dating from the first blowout in July, which affected a Geneva-London flight.
A second incident in September caused a Swiss A220 to divert to Geneva, but on that occasion the engine’s housing contained fragments torn loose from the engine, the BEA said.
Swiss, owned by Germany’s Lufthansa <DLAKY>, said after Tuesday’s incident it had initially grounded its fleet of Airbus <EADSY> A220 jets for a “comprehensive inspection” of their engines.
Late on Tuesday, it said the first aircraft had already returned to service but that the inspections had forced it to cancel 100 flights, affecting 10,000 passengers.
Operations are expected to return to normal from Thursday.
ADDITIONAL CHECKS
Tuesday’s incident highlighted scrutiny of the performance of new-generation Geared Turbofan engines developed by Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp <UTX>.
A spokesman for the engine maker said it was recommending additional checks for versions of the engine that power the Airbus A220 – an engine known as the PW1500G – and a rival Brazilian jet, the Embraer 190/195-E2.
A similar engine for the larger A320neo family, Airbus’ most-sold aircraft, was not affected.
“Pratt & Whitney and our airframe OEMs (manufacturers), working in coordination with the regulatory authorities, have recommended additional inspections of the low-pressure compressor for PW1500G and PW1900G engines to keep the fleet operational,” a spokesman said.
“The engines continue to meet all criteria for continued airworthiness. We are working closely with our customers to minimise disruption to their operations.”
Prompted by the earlier incidents in July and September, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration ordered inspections on the same engine part in A220s and some Embraer jets in September.
On Tuesday, Delta Air Lines <DAL> said its A220 jets were flying as normal.
Air Baltic, which also flies the A220, said it was closely following Pratt’s latest recommendations but that it used a different version of the PW1500G engine from Swiss.
A total of 90 of the 110-130-seat A220 aircraft have been delivered, initially by Canada’s Bombardier <BDRBF> which designed the carbon-fibre jet, and later by Airbus, which bought the loss-making programme last year.
Airbus said it was working with Pratt & Whitneyand would co-operate with any investigation.
In Brazil, Embraer <ERJ> had no immediate comment.
The company uses Pratt’s PW1900G engine in larger versions of its upgraded 80-120-seat E2 jets.
It has delivered six E190-E2 planes split between Norwegian carrier Wideroe and lessor Aercap <AER>, and one E195-E2, which is not yet in commercial service but has been delivered to Brazilian airline Azul SA <AZUL>.
Azul said its operations were not affected.
(Reporting by Tim Hepher in Paris, Tracy Rucinski in Chicago, John Revill in Zurich, Michael Shields in Vienna, Marcelo Rochabrun in Sao Paulo, Allison Lampert in Montreal, Laurence Frost in Paris; Editing by Jane Merriman and Matthew Lewis)
Seville, 8 October 2019 – The first Airbus C295, purchased by the Government of Canada for the Royal Canadian Air Force’s (RCAF) Fixed Wing Search and Rescue Aircraft Replacement (FWSAR) programme, rolled out of the paint shop showing off its final livery at the Airbus facility in Seville, Spain. The aircraft will now go through the final preparation phase before its delivery to the customer, planned to take place in Spain before the end of the year.
The photo above shows the first Canadian C295, to be designated CC-295 by the RCAF, in its distinctive Search and Rescue colours.
The aircraft adopts the yellow paint scheme following the tradition defined in the 1970s for Search and Rescue aircraft, giving high visibility for those in the air and on the ground.
FWSAR program facts and figures
The contract, awarded in December 2016, includes 16 C295 aircraft and all In-Service Support elements including, training and engineering services, the construction of a new Training Centre in Comox, British Columbia, and maintenance and support services.
The aircraft will be based where search and rescue squadrons are currently located: Comox, British Columbia; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Trenton, Ontario; and Greenwood, Nova Scotia.
Considerable progress has been made since the FWSAR programme was announced two and a half years ago: the first aircraft is due to be delivered in Spain in the coming months; another six aircraft are either completing flight tests or in various stages of final assembly; and seven simulators and training devices are starting up preliminary acceptance tests.
The first RCAF crews started training in late summer 2019 at Airbus’ International Training Centre in Seville, Spain.
For more information about the FWSAR program click here
FILE PHOTO: A Boeing 737 MAX aircraft is seen grounded at a storage area in an aerial photo at Boeing Field in Seattle
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration process for certifying new airplanes is not broken but needs to be improved, the chair of an international panel of air-safety regulators, tasked to review Boeing Co’s <BA> 737 Max, said on Friday.
Speaking on the sidelines of an event at a New York City college, Christopher Hart, chair of the multi-agency panel, said there was no need to question the agency’s overall way of certifying airplanes.
“The U.S. aviation system each day transports millions of people safely, so it’s not like we have to completely overhaul the entire system, it’s not broken. But these incidents have shown us that there are ways to improve the existing system,” Hart said, referring to fatal crashes of a Lion Air 737 MAX in Indonesia and an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX five months apart that killed a total of 346 people.
The MAX remains grounded and Boeing has not set when it will conduct a key certification test flight. Some in Congress and in aviation have criticized the FAA’s longstanding practice of delegating certification tasks to manufacturers.
Michael Perrone, who heads the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists union, said at a House hearing in July that external entities designated by the FAA “are now performing more than 90 percent of FAA’s certification activities despite serious concerns that oversight is lacking.”
Hart, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and a licensed pilot, heads the Joint Authorities Technical Review, a panel including air-safety regulators from the United States, Canada, China, Indonesia, European Union and Brazil.
Reuters reported on Sept. 17 the review’s recommendations will include citing regulations that need to be harmonized internationally and where communications can be improved at the FAA and among international regulators, citing a person briefed on the matter.
Hart on Friday said the panel would release its recommendations to the FAA “shortly,” but declined to provide more details on the timeline. He said the panel’s goal was not for all of its members to agree, but to provide a wide range of opinions and recommendations to the FAA.
Hart spoke to students the Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology in Queens. Asked by a student whether passengers can be expected to fly again on a 737 MAX, Hart said he predicted people would “sooner or later forget” about the crashes and investigations.
“This will be the safest airplane out there by the time it has to go through all the hoops and hurdles,” he said.
He also was optimistic when asked whether the deadly crashes would spell the end for Boeing’s 737 MAX programme.
“It will be a cold day in hell before Southwest starts moving away from 737s because that’s all they got,” Hart said, referring to Southwest Airlines Co <LUV.N>, which has cancelled flights into January because of the MAX grounding.
A Southwest Airlines spokesman declined to comment directly on Hart’s comments but said the airline has “no plans to veer away from our all-737 fleet.”
(Reporting by Tina Bellon in New York; Additional reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
MILAN, Sept 5 (Reuters) – Companies hoping to rescue Italian carrier Alitalia will ask for a deadline for presenting their plan to be extended as they are still negotiating key aspects, two sources familiar with the matter said.
Italian railway group Ferrovie dello Stato, which is leading an effort to take control of Alitalia, is expected to ask administrators running the carrier for a “substantial” delay to the Sept. 15 deadline, one of the sources said.
It would be the sixth delay since Ferrovie expressed its interest in investing in the carrier at the end of last year.
Ferrovie, infrastructure group Atlantia and U.S. carrier Delta Air Lines have been discussing a joint plan for Alitalia for nearly two months, but they are at odds over highly-profitable North American routes, three sources familiar with the matter said.
The Italian partners in the consortium want Alitalia to have more freedom to expand its North American routes compared to what Delta is currently offering under a new cooperation agreement dubbed Blue Skies that it has set up with Air France KLM and Britain’s Virgin Atlantic.
How Alitalia would share the revenue coming from North American routes with Delta and other partners in the Blue Skies alliance is also under negotiation.
“The role of Alitalia in the Blue Skies alliance is a point of contention,” one of the sources said.
Long-haul flights to the United States and Canada account for more than one third of Alitalia’s revenue and are considered key to reviving the Italian carrier, which was put under special administration in 2017 after workers rejected the latest in a long line of rescue plans.
Administrators appointed by Italy’s government have cut costs and renegotiated plane leasing contracts to make Alitalia more efficient, but the carrier still burns cash and had been kept afloat thanks to a 900 million-euro bridging loan granted by Italy’s treasury.
Alitalia had only 410 million euro left in its coffers in July and would need fresh funds by the end of the year when it is expected to post a loss, according to another source.
Delta and Ferrovie declined to comment. (Additional reporting by Tracy Rucinski in Chicago Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
