Toulouse, 9 February, 2021 – ATR has appointed Tiziana Masullo Managing Director and President of ATR Americas, a subsidiary of ATR, effective from December 2020. Based in Miami, Tiziana previously served as Vice President of Services Sales and Contracts, and succeeds Jurgen Lebacs. Tiziana will oversee a staff of 32 people, covering the following areas: Technical support and Safety, Training and Flight Ops, Services Sales and Contracts, Customer Material Support, GMA & Repairs, CSDs and FSR, Finance and Human Resources.
After graduating from ITC Serra with a diploma in Foreign Languages and Literature, Tiziana began her career with Leonardo, before moving to ATR where she has spent 27 years. With a lengthy background and many leadership positions in Training, Flight Operations and Services Sales, as well as Contract Negotiation, Tiziana brings a wealth of experience to her new role. She is also the first woman to lead one of ATR’s subsidiaries.
Tiziana has two children, David who is 22 years old and is studying sociology at London School of Economics in London, and Nikita who is 18, who lives in Miami studying to be a veterinary assistant.
Infrastructure work across the Auckland metro rail network is set to ramp up over the Christmas period during a network wide shut down.
As Aucklanders head out of the city on holiday, work on several projects is scheduled across the network to take advantage of the quieter period.
KiwiRail Chief Operating Officer Todd Moyle says work will focus on track repairs.
“We’ll have more than 100 people working over the Christmas and New Year period across the network. Additionally, preliminary work on Papakura to Pukekohe electrification, the Westfield and Wiri junction and the construction of a third main will be getting underway.”
All of the projects are part of the Auckland Metro Rail Programme and once complete will deliver Auckland a resilient train infrastructure network for improved reliability of passenger train services provided by Auckland Transport and freight trains.
Earlier in the year, testing uncovered damage to more than 100km of track which required urgent upgrading.
“Our teams have put in a lot of hours and have already completed over 50 percent of the required work.
“The upgrade has been a massive task and KiwiRail has worked with Auckland Transport throughout the project to try to minimise the impact on commuters.”
The network shutdown will take place from Saturday 26 December to Sunday 10 January. During that period only freight trains will operate on the tracks.
Commuters on the Western line between Fruitvale Road and Swanson will need to prepare for a longer period of disruption, with work starting earlier, on December 20, and continuing along the entire Western Line until the end of January 2021.
“We have planned the repairs on the Western line to minimise the impact when the school year begins in February.”
“KiwiRail appreciates the level of cooperation and understanding from the public as this necessary work continues. The progress that will be made during the shutdown is an investment which will make the network more resilient and reduce future outages.”
AT Executive General Manager Integrated Networks Mark Lambert says “Once again AT wishes to acknowledge the disruption that these works have had on our customers. We will continue to provide Rail Replacement Bus services across the network throughout the shutdown, including New Year’s Eve, when many Aucklanders will be wanting to spend time with their friends and loved-ones.”
PARIS (Reuters) – Airbus delivered 49 aircraft in July, up from 36 in June as it continues to recover from a slump in deliveries during this year’s coronavirus lockdowns, the company said on Thursday.
The aircraft were all narrow-body jets, highlighting a dearth of demand for the industry’s biggest models, which last month prompted Airbus to trim A350 production for a second time.
The month’s deliveries included 47 A320neo-family jets.
Airbus also scored its first orders in three months as it sold two A320neos to an undisclosed customer and two A321neos to Lufthansa Technik, the modification and repairs business of German carrier Lufthansa <LHA.DE>.
So far in 2020, Airbus has delivered 245 jets and sold 369, or 302 after cancellations.
Demand for aircraft has been crippled by the coronavirus crisis and its heavy impact on air travel.
Airbus is boosting deliveries on a monthly basis despite the industry’s worst crisis as it negotiates deals with airlines.
But although deliveries are rising compared to the trough seen in April, several bankers and analysts have questioned how many of the aircraft are being placed into service as airlines struggle to save cash. Some are said to go straight to storage.
Airbus has issued default notices and threatened to sue airlines that refuse to collect planes already built while showing flexibility in deferring jets not yet in the factory.
(Reporting by Tim Hepher; Editing by Keith Weir)
An Airbus A320neo aircraft is pictured during a news conference to announce a partnership between Airbus and Bombardier on the C Series aircraft programme, in Colomiers near Toulouse, France
Facility employs more than 5,500 team members with 600 jobs added in 2019
American Airlines announced today it will invest $550 million at its Base Maintenance facility in Tulsa (Tech Ops – Tulsa). It is American’s largest Base Maintenance facility and is an integral part of operating the carrier’s fleet of nearly 1,000 mainline aircraft safely and reliably.
Tech Ops – Tulsa is home to more than 5,500 team members — 600 of those positions were added in 2019 — and conducts nearly half of the airline’s overall maintenance work. The new project includes construction of a new widebody-capable hangar and base support building. The investment also provides for improvements to the existing infrastructure, including roof replacements, utility and IT upgrades, and ramp repairs. This is the largest investment ever made at a maintenance location in American’s history.
This investment underscores American’s long-term commitment to the Tech Ops – Tulsa team, State of Oklahoma and City of Tulsa by making improvements to ensure success.
“The American team in Tulsa and around the world is the best in the business when it comes to operating the safest and most reliable fleet of commercial aircraft,” said American’s Chairman and CEO Doug Parker. “Tulsa has been core to American’s operation for more than 70 years, and this investment in the base, along with the new positions we added at Tech Ops – Tulsa in 2019, will ensure our customers can continue to rely on our fleet as the safest and most reliable for decades to come.”
The new 193,000-square-foot hangar will be able to hold two widebody aircraft — or up to six narrowbody aircraft — and will replace two existing hangars that can no longer fully accommodate the size of American’s current aircraft. This will allow team members to continue maintenance work on the more than 900 aircraft that visit the site annually while also adding to the widebody hangar capacity in American’s system. The 132,000-square-foot base support building will include offices for teams in administrative functions for aircraft overhaul, engineering and more.
“With this historic investment, American Airlines continues to display their commitment to Oklahoma. As one of the largest employers in our state, American Airlines plays an integral role in our economy and provides quality jobs for our citizens,” Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt said. “I am proud that Oklahoma is one of the top states in the nation for the aviation and aerospace industry, and I am honored to have American Airlines choose Oklahoma, once again, to grow their business.”
Oklahoma Governor Stitt, City of Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum and Tulsa Regional Chamber President and CEO Mike Neal joined American leadership and nearly 2,000 team members this morning at a ceremony to unveil the project.
“This investment marks the largest single capital investment in our city’s history while also reflecting the long-term commitment of American Airlines to Tulsa,” Bynum said. “As a city, we are grateful that one of the largest employers in our community is a true partner with the kind of foresight that will create more opportunity in the next era of the aerospace sector.”
The $550 million investment will take approximately seven years to complete and will involve upgrades to nearly every building. The new hangar and base support building construction is expected to begin in early 2021 and will take approximately 18 months to complete.
“If there were any doubts about American’s long-term commitment to Tulsa, this transformative investment should put them to rest once and for all,” Neal said. “Through the Chamber-led regional economic development partnership Tulsa’s Future, and in collaboration with the City of Tulsa and State of Oklahoma, we’ve been able to support American’s continued growth in northeast Oklahoma. It’s been a personal privilege to work with American’s leadership team and Tulsa-area employees for more than 14 years, and we at the Chamber look forward to further strengthening this partnership for decades to come.”
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Southwest Airlines Co <LUV> said Monday it will complete inspections on 38 737 airplanes it acquired from foreign air carriers by Jan. 31 that may not meet all U.S. aviation safety requirements.
The planes are part of 88 pre-owned Boeing <BA> 737 aircraft Southwest bought between 2013 and 2017 from 16 foreign carriers. The speedier checks come after inspections of 39 used planes turned up previously undisclosed repairs and incorrectly completed fixes. Southwest used multiple contractors to conduct the reviews of the planes’ maintenance records when they bought the planes.
“We have a plan in place to inspect the 47 remaining aircraft, nine of which are currently in heavy checks, no later than January 31, 2020 – five months earlier than the original FAA accepted completion date of July 1,” Southwest said in a statement on Monday.
Southwest said its inspections to date “did not stem from any suspected safety concerns with the aircraft.” It added its “continuous assessment of the ongoing inspections has revealed nothing to warrant the expedited timeline” but will meet it nevertheless.
In 2018, Southwest agreed to conduct a complete physical inspection on each of these pre-owned aircraft over a two-year period after a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) safety inspector in May 2018 discovered discrepancies in records for some of 88 aircraft.
Since then, Southwest said it has completed the nose-to-tail inspection of 41 aircraft without any findings that suggested an “adverse impact on continued safe operation.”
An Oct. 24 memo from H. Clayton Foushee, director of the FAA Audit and Evaluation Office, made public on Monday said the Southwest inspections turned up at least 30 previously unknown repairs and 42 major repairs that were found “not to meet FAA airworthiness requirements.” Some required “immediate corrective action to bring the aircraft back into compliance.”
The memo added “the data collected to date would indicate that a majority of” the planes to be inspected do not meet FAA airworthiness requirements.
The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee noted on Monday that the 2018 discovery prompted a full records review by Southwest Airlines of all 88 aircraft that found 360 major repairs previously unknown to the airline because they were not disclosed in the contractors’ initial review.
Foushee’s memo said Southwest grounded 34 planes in November 2018 for inspections. The committee said as a result some planes were grounded “for immediate maintenance to bring them into regulatory compliance as a result of these newly discovered prior major repairs.”
The FAA then sent an Oct. 29 letter to Southwest seeking additional information about the uninspected planes and questioned whether they suffered specific damage items. It also raised concerns about Southwest’s “slow pace in completing the evaluation of aircraft.”
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker said in an Oct. 30 letter to the FAA that its concerns about Southwest’s used planes correspond “to concerns that have been brought to my attention by whistleblowers as part of my investigation into aviation safety.”
The committee said the FAA allowed Southwest to continue to operate these aircraft and as a result “Southwest Airlines appears to have operated aircraft in unknown airworthiness conditions for thousands of flights.”
The FAA said Monday that after receiving Southwest’s response it determined the airline has “met the requirements for immediate inspection and risk assessments on these aircraft.”
The FAA added it “is requiring more frequent updates on the progress of completing all the requirements.”
(Reporting by David Shepardson; additional reporting by Tracy Rucinski in Chicago; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
FILE PHOTO: A number of grounded Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft are shown parked at Victorville Airport in Victorville, California
