Pratt & Whitney to build first manufacturing plant in Singapore

Aircraft engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney is building its first manufacturing plant in Singapore.

The facility will produce new generation engine components to meet increasing demand for commercial engines.

The Economic Development Board (EDB) said the facility will create "new opportunities for Singaporeans".

Even before operations start at its component repair facility in Seletar, Pratt & Whitney has broken ground to develop its latest manufacturing facility next door.

The company said initial production at its component repair facility will begin in the fourth quarter 2013 followed by a grand opening in the first quarter of 2014.

The US-based aviation firm believes this will create synergies for its aircraft engines and component repair business.

The company has invested US$110 million to develop both facilities.

Mr David P. Hess, President of Pratt & Whitney, said: "Some of it may be longer term but the growth will come. Initially we'll be making OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) parts here. They'll go into engines, sooner or later those engines will be on airplanes, they'll need service and repair, they'll come back to Singapore again."

The new manufacturing facility will produce commercial fan blades and high pressure turbine disks.

The company said the facility will start producing commercial fan blades in 2015 and high pressure turbine disks in 2016.

These components will power next-generation engines for aircraft like the A320neos, which are already on the order books of Jetstar & AirAsia.

The EDB believes this bodes well for Singapore as demand for regional air travel grows.

Singapore's aerospace industry already saw a 10 per cent on-year growth to S$8.7 billion in 2012.

This was despite the global economic downturn in recent years.

Mr Lim Kok Kiang, Executive Director, Transport Engineering at EDB Singapore, said: "In the short term, there will always be economic uncertainties but the aerospace is a long-term industry. An engine that is put out there will be in production, in use for the next 20, 30, 40 years. So from that perspective, on a long-term basis we are very optimistic about the growth of the industry in Singapore and in Asia."

Pratt & Whitney said they expect to see Singapore's manufacturing unit contribute 50 per cent of its global volume output by 2020.

Several of its competitors have been also been expanding their footprint here.

Rolls Royce opened its S$700 million campus last year, housing R&D, training, assembly and manufacturing operations.

Fokker Services Asia, too, opened a new facility for regional aircraft heavy maintenance and support in February last year.

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What I like about Singapore is its great ability to attract foreign companies to invest here, especially when it's high technology sector. This new plant will no doubt create jobs for locals and bring in more foreign expertise to boost the local economy.

It's the second foreign plant to be newly built in Seletar Aerospace Park after Rolls Royce. My ground school location is situated directly opposite this new building and I see lots of potential in Seletar being an aerospace hub. There is definitely more exciting times ahead.

ANA keeps forecast as 9-month net profit surges

Japan's All Nippon Airways (ANA) said Thursday that its net profit in the nine months to December soared 54.6 per cent and that it would maintain its annual profit forecast, despite its Dreamliner woes.

Net profit came to 52 billion yen ($574 million) on solid business demand, coupled with programmes to stoke leisure travel, it said, adding that the full extent of the financial impact of the worldwide grounding of Boeing's 787 Dreamliner was unclear.

However, the carrier said it expected to take a $15.4 million hit on sales in January owing to 459 cancelled domestic and international flights this month linked to the troubled next-generation aircraft.

Aviation regulators were focusing on the lithium-ion batteries as the cause of a problem that forced an ANA flight to make an emergency landing in mid-January.

US regulators have said they will not allow the 787 to fly again until they are sure the problems around the battery system are fixed.

Boeing's cutting-edge new planes suffered a series of glitches this month, including the emergency landing, prompting a global alert from the US Federal Aviation Administration that led to the grounding of all 50 operational 787s.

ANA, which flew the Dreamliner's maiden flight, said Thursday it was committed to the fuel-efficient aircraft, despite its highly-publicised problems.

"At this point, we have no intention to review our mid-term management strategy which centers around 787s," ANA executive Kiyoshi Tonomoto told a press briefing.

"Currently we operate the largest number of 787s in the world. We will work the hardest to ensure the safety of the aircraft once again and regain the public trust," he said.

But he admitted the firm may review its strategy if the problems drag on.

ANA and rival Japan Airlines -- which have ordered a combined 111 Dreamliners so far -- said Wednesday they had replaced a number of batteries in the aircraft after experiencing problems before the worldwide grounding.

In its earnings announcement, ANA said operating profit in the nine months to December rose 18 per cent to 107.5 billion yen, on sales of 1.13 trillion yen, up 5.8 per cent from the same period a year ago.

It kept its annual outlook unchanged, with full-year net profit seen at 40 billion yen, operating profit at 110 billion yen on sales of 1.47 trillion yen.

Despite the weak Japanese economy, "ANA performed well with demand remaining solid from both business and leisure travelers during the period," ANA Chief Executive Officer Shinichiro Ito said in a statement.

The country's airlines took a huge hit after tourism slumped in the wake of the March 2011 quake-tsunami disaster and subsequent nuclear crisis at Fukushima, the worst atomic accident in a generation.

The carriers also suffered from a row between Tokyo and Beijing over sovereignty of a group of islands in the East China Sea, which triggered anti-Japan rallies across China and a consumer boycott of Japanese brands after Tokyo nationalised some of the chain in September.

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9 months performance ending December 2012 showed great results for ANA but it is likely to take a hit with the fiscal year ending in March 2013 considering the number of flights being cancelled due to the grounding of the Dreamliner.

That being said, it's good news for ANA as many companies in Japan are making losses, especially the electronics sector. The automotive sectors are doing well too, with Toyota and Honda posting healthy profits.

Boeing sees 'good progress' in 787 probe

Boeing chief executive Jim McNerney said Wednesday "good progress" was being made in the international investigation of battery incidents that have all 787 Dreamliners grounded worldwide.

"We do believe good progress is being made in narrowing the cause of these events," McNerney said in an earnings conference call with analysts.

McNerney reiterated that Boeing was "deeply sorry" about the impact on airlines after battery incidents caused aviation regulators around the world to take all 50 787s flying out of service in mid-January.

"Our first order of business for 2013 is to resolve the battery issue on the 787 and return the airplanes safely to service with our customers," McNerney said in an earnings statement.

Last week the US National Transportation Safety Board said investigators were working "around the clock" to understand what sparked the January 7 fire aboard a parked Japan Airlines 787, as well as a smoking battery that forced the emergency landing of an All Nippon Airways 787 on January 16.

Both of the airlines said Wednesday they had been forced to replace a number of batteries in their Dreamliners last year after experiencing problems, well before fire and smoke incidents.

A spokeswoman for All Nippon Airways said 10 batteries on its fleet had been switched, while a JAL representative told AFP "quite a few" had needed changing.

Boeing has halted deliveries of the aircraft as the investigation proceeds, though production continues at a five-unit a month pace.

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Good progress sounds like good news. Fingers crossed, let's hope the cause of the battery problem be discovered sooner rather than later.

SIA to axe 76 pilots due to surplus

Singapore Airlines (SIA) said on Wednesday that it has taken the difficult decision of asking 76 pilots on fixed-term contracts to leave by end of June.

It said in a statement that it is releasing them before their contracts expire.

The airline had previously been releasing pilots only when their contracts expired.

SIA said it will help the pilots find jobs within the SIA Group and with other airlines.

The airline currently has a surplus of pilots as the global financial crisis of 2009-10 had resulted in excess capacity and slower-than-expected growth.

SIA saw its net profit in the first-half of the current fiscal year ending March fall by 30 per cent on-year. This followed a 69 per cent drop in net profit in the airline's financial year ending March 2012.

It had earlier put in place other measures to address the surplus. These included voluntary no-pay leave and the suspension of cadet pilot recruitment.

No financial details of the cuts have been released.

Leithen Francis, editor of Aviation Week, said: "Things are pretty good in Asia in terms of economic growth but a lot of SIA business is long-haul, places like the Europe and the US where the economic situation is not so good.

"A lot of the growth last year was in short-haul international services, so that means a lot of flights between say Singapore and Malaysia, and Malaysia and Thailand... So even though the market will grow in 2013, we may have a situation where the growth is on short-haul and not so much on long-haul, which doesn't really help Singapore Airlines mainline."

He added: "Another factor why SIA is announcing cuts is because its announced recently that its retiring its five A340 aircraft. These are the non-stop aircraft that flew from Singapore to New York and Los Angeles.

"The fact that its retiring those A340 aircraft means it no longer requires its A340 pilots. So some of the pilots have lost their contracts are A340s pilots, although the majority of the pilots from what I understand are (Boeing) 777 pilots."

Pilots employed on fixed-term contracts make up about 4 per cent of Singapore Airlines' total pilot workforce.

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Good news for the local pilots, bad news for the expatriate contract pilots. 76 of them will lose their jobs with SIA, and probably will not be able to work in SIA main fleet anymore as their policy now seems to be taking in only cadets.

SIA has been making all the negative news lately with the unpaid leave and now releasing of pilots. I wonder how many are willing to continue staying in Singapore and perhaps fly for the low cost carriers. Nevertheless, I wish them all well and hopefully the middle east airlines will swoop for them.

Japanese airlines switched many Dreamliner batteries

Japan's two major airlines said Wednesday they had replaced a number of batteries in their Dreamliners ahead of the worldwide grounding of Boeing's next generation aircraft earlier this month.

A spokeswoman for All Nippon Airways said 10 batteries on its fleet had been switched, while a representative of rival Japan Airlines (JAL) told AFP "quite a few" had needed changing.

The lithium-ion batteries, made by Japanese manufacturer GS Yuasa, have been at the centre of a probe into the Dreamliner's airworthiness since a fire on a JAL plane in Boston and an emergency landing on an ANA flight in Japan.

ANA, a key customer for Boeing's lightweight plane, had to replace batteries 10 times ahead of the January 16 emergency landing forced by smoke apparently linked to the powerpack, a company spokeswoman said.

"Batteries in general have to be replaced as frequently as need arises," a spokeswoman told AFP, without providing further details.

It was not immediately clear if all 10 replacements had been carried out on different planes, or if the same aircraft had seen multiple changes.

A JAL spokeswoman said it had "quite a few cases" where Boeing 787 batteries had to be replaced before the aircraft's worldwide fleet was grounded.

ANA and JAL are important Dreamliner customers who have so far ordered a combined 111 aircraft.

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Well well well, it seems to have the problem all along and the final straw came in when fire grounds all Dreamliners. Why didn't it surface during the thousand of hours of flight tests. Baffling indeed.

All 20 on board Kazakh airliner "killed in crash"

All 20 people on board a domestic flight in Kazakhstan operated by the SCAT airline died Tuesday when their Canadian-made jet crashed on approach to Almaty airport in thick fog, the airline said.

"Twenty people were on board -- five crew members and 15 passengers," the airline said in a statement quoted by the Interfax news agency.

"According to preliminary information there are no survivors," the statement added, saying the aircraft was a CRJ-200 made by Canadian manufacturer Bombardier.

Officials said the victims included one child.

SCAT said the plane went down about five kilometres short of the financial centre's main airport on a flight from the northern steppe city of Kokshetau.

Commercial KTK television said the plane crashed into an Almaty suburb but gave no information of possible casualties or damage on the ground.

The airline itself said the Bombardier had made one approach to the airport and was about to rise again for a second approach when it suddenly veered off course and ploughed to the ground.

"We are forming a commission. We are going to provide help to the relatives of those who died," regional administration chief Kosman Aitmukhametov told Interfax.

The Kazinform news agency reported that officials from both the interior and transportation ministry had travelled to the site of the crash.

Interfax said the plane itself was produced in 2000 and had last undergone scheduled repairs in June 2011. It added that the jet was then certified to fly until its next scheduled maintenance in September this year.

It was the second deadly winter accident to strike the fast-developing Central Asian nation in just a month, underlining the need for careful checks of ageing aircraft.

The accident came just a month after another crash that killed 27, wiping out much of the top echelon of the Kazakh state border service.

That jet also went down in bad weather.

Aviation disasters remain a scourge across the former Soviet Union due to ageing hardware that often has not been replaced since the fall of the Soviet regime, as well as human error.

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Accident caused by low visibility and perhaps pilot error too. They were supposed to make a go-around but I guess something went wrong during the pick up in speed and the plane lost lift, causing it to plough into the ground.

Unfortunate accident. Rest in peace to the casualties.

Japan says no major fault at Dreamliner battery plant

Japan's transport ministry said on Monday safety inspectors had found no major problem on the production line making batteries for Boeing's Dreamliner, further muddying the waters in a worldwide probe.

"We have found no major quality or technical problem," an official at the ministry said on condition of anonymity, as Japanese and American safety inspectors ended a week-long probe at battery maker GS Yuasa.

Shares in GS Yuasa, which has the contract for all Dreamliner batteries and is based in the western city of Kyoto, closed up 4.77 percent at 329 yen Monday after the ministry's comments.

Aviation regulators were focusing on the lithium-ion batteries as the cause of a problem that forced an All Nippon Airways (ANA) flight to make an emergency landing on January 16.

They have released a picture showing the blackened remains of the battery that inspectors removed from the plane.

But they said last week there were no signs of a battery fire, while information gleaned from the flight's digital data recorder showed the power pack did not suffer a rapid surge in voltage.

GS Yuasa is just one of many contractors in a complex global chain that led to three years of delays before Boeing delivered its first 787 to ANA in 2011.

The transport ministry official said Monday the authorities would now inspect suppliers of parts used in battery packs.

The Nikkei economic daily said they were looking into a company based in Fujisawa, southwest of Tokyo, which manufactures devices that monitor voltage and temperature in the batteries.

US regulators have said they will not allow the 787 to fly again until they are sure the problems around the battery system are fixed.

The worldwide grounding of the next-generation plane is having an increasing effect on airlines flying it.

ANA has reportedly cancelled 838 flights, affecting nearly 83,000 domestic and international passengers, over the period to the middle of next month.

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The Yuasa batteries seems to be not the problem though, What's next??

Week 13: ATPL Ground School Week 13

Let's start this post with good news! I managed to pass both R/T and C172 papers. Results were back on Thursday and I'm glad another two paper has been cleared, so it's now down to 8 Navigation Phase papers and Performance A paper.

This week is just the start and we've started on Human Performance Limits and basics of Navigation. New stuff to learn and keep us on our toes. With navigation, we've also started to touch on the CRP-5. It is quite an amazing instrument I must say. Tough to master it initially, but once you get the hang of it, it's of great joy to use. It's a life saver!!

There is still a lot to learn and Navigation Phase will last for 12weeks. Tough times ahead.

Seletar always has great sunrise and sunsets. But it is also a very hot place!!

Doing homework

CRP-5 is a great invention in aviation

Results of the two papers. Was very confident in the C172 paper, but the result proved otherwise. *shrug*

ANA to cancel more Dreamliner flights

Japan's All Nippon Airways (ANA) plans to cancel at least 379 flights in February due to the worldwide grounding of Boeing's Dreamliner, local media reported on Saturday.

The cancellations, which include 245 flights on domestic routes over 12 days from February 1 and 134 on international routes over 18 days, are expected to affect some 24,300 passengers, Jiji Press and Kyodo News said.

The total number of ANA cancellations since a January 16 emergency landing in western Japan will now amount to 838, with 82,620 travellers affected, Jiji said.

International flights expected to be hit next month will include those from Tokyo's Haneda and Narita airports to Frankfurt, San Jose, Seattle and Seoul.

Boeing's cutting-edge new planes suffered a series of glitches earlier this month, prompting a global alert from the US Federal Aviation Administration that led to the worldwide grounding of all 50 operational 787s.

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More cancellations, more money lost.

No answers yet on Boeing 787 fire: US investigators

US government investigators said Thursday they could not yet explain what caused a potentially catastrophic battery fire aboard a Boeing 787 that forced the grounding of Dreamliners around the world.

National Transportation Safety Board chairwoman Deborah Hersman said investigators were working "around the clock" to understand what led to the January 7 fire aboard a parked Japan Airlines 787, as well as a smoking battery that forced the emergency landing of an All Nippon Airways 787 on January 16.

But she said that the systems designed to contain such an event on the all-new Dreamliner "did not work as intended."

"This is an unprecedented event. We are very concerned. We do not expect to see fire events on board aircraft," Hersman told reporters.

"The expectation in aviation is to never experience a fire on board an aircraft. In two weeks' time we saw two cases of battery failures on a 787 and the grounding of the entire fleet by the FAA. The significance of these events cannot be understated."

Hersman said the NTSB had still not reached any conclusions on what caused the January 7 battery fire aboard the empty plane at Logan airport in Boston.

When investigators first saw it after the fire was extinguished, she said, there was structural and component damage around the battery, that specific plane's auxiliary power unit (APU).

"The APU battery was spewing molten electrolyte, very hot material," she said.

Subsequent testing showed clear evidence of a short circuit, a thermal runaway, and a fire, but scientists still did not know what the sequence of events was.

"We are early in our investigation," she said. "We are working very hard to determine what happened and why it happened."

The NTSB and other major aviation regulators last week ordered all 50 Dreamliners in global service grounded after the two battery incidents.

Boeing has since halted deliveries of the 787, introduced into service in October 2011 as an ambitious, energy-efficient aircraft designed with extensive use of lightweight composite materials and pioneering electrical systems.

Hersman said it was still a mystery why the systems designed to prevent such an event on the 787 failed, apparently in two cases, despite authorities having cleared the Dreamliner as a safe aircraft more two years ago.

"What we have seen from these two events does not comport with any of the risk analysis that we would expect to see with respect to reliability or smoke or a fire event in these batteries," she said.

"These events should not happen as far as design of the aircraft. There are multiple systems to protect against a battery event like this. Those systems did not work as intended. We need to understand why."

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The preventive measure failed, I believe that is the most crucial part of the whole failure. Something is not functioning as built; more investigations needed.

Dreamliner battery probe rules out voltage surge

Officials probing the emergency landing of a Boeing Dreamliner said Thursday they will dismantle its battery pack, after the investigation found no evidence of a sudden surge in voltage.

A fire risk from overheating powerpacks emerged as a major concern after pilots were forced to land the domestic All Nippon Airways flight in western Japan on January 16 due to smoke thought to be linked to the plane's battery.

Investigators later released a picture showing the blackened remains of the battery in the ANA plane.

But on Thursday, they said there were no signs of a battery fire, while data gleaned from the flight's digital data recorder showed the powerpack did not suffer a rapid surge in voltage.

The pack's voltage, in fact, had been at normal levels before it rapidly plunged just before the system alert that forced the emergency landing, a Japan Transport Safety Board (JTSB) official told AFP.

But he said the pack -- made up of eight individual lithium-ion batteries -- would have to be dismantled to inspect each of the units, which are similar to those used in mobile phones and tablet computers.

"It was a very normal level of voltage for a lithium-ion battery (shortly before the emergency landing)," the official said.

"But you still cannot rule out the possibility that some of the individual batteries might have been overcharged."

Officials from the JTSB and US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) would dissect the pack at the offices of Kyoto-based GS Yuasa, the maker of the next-generation aircraft's batteries, he said.

The powerpack's charger would be sent to its US manufacturer for a closer look, investigators said.

Boeing's fuel-efficient planes suffered a series of problems earlier this month, prompting a global alert from the US Federal Aviation Administration that has seen all 50 operational Dreamliners grounded since last week.

An international team, including engineers from French multinational Thales, which designed the Dreamliner's electrical system, carried out a CT scan of the battery unit at a Japan space agency facility in Tokyo this week.

An NTSB-led investigation is also probing the cause of a fire on a Japan Airlines 787 Dreamliner in Boston on January 7.

That investigation has ruled out battery overheating as the cause, but the powerpack's charger and related components were still being tested.

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Not as simple as it first predicted. Battery problem or a component problem? More testings will be needed

Tiger Airways Returns to Profit

Tiger Airways Holdings Ltd. returned to profit in the quarter ended December after six consecutive quarters of losses, but the Singapore-based budget carrier flagged a tough few months ahead as demand for air travel enters a seasonal slowdown.

Asia's budget carriers have fared better than full-service airlines in recent years as the global economic slowdown pushed many small and medium-sized companies to look for cheaper travel options. But Tiger has battled losses because its Australian unit, which accounts for a third of its fleet, was grounded by the regulator in July 2011 for six weeks on safety concerns and only gradually allowed to resume full flight operations.

Koay Peng Yen, Tiger's group chief executive, said it was too early to say whether the airline will report a profit or loss in the final quarter of the current fiscal year.

"Our (fiscal) fourth quarter has just begun. But we expect it to be weaker," Mr. Koay told reporters in a conference call after the results were announced. Tiger has been "encouraged" by the turnaround in the fiscal third quarter and will make efforts to keep up the recovery momentum, he said.

In a disclosure to the Singapore stock exchange, Tiger said it expects to report an operating loss for the fiscal year ending March 31, citing a net loss in the first nine months of the year of 30 million Singapore dollars (US$24.4 million). It reported a net loss of S$87.9 million in the same period of the previous fiscal year.

Tiger, in which Singapore Airlines Ltd. owns a 32.7% equity stake, swung to net profit of S$2 million in the quarter ended Dec. 31 from a S$17.4 million loss a year earlier, after passenger traffic improved and the carrier better utilized its aircraft fleet. Revenue rose 47% to S$248 million. It was the company's first profit since the quarter ended March 2011.

The September-to-December period is traditionally the strongest quarter for air travel because of holidays, which helped Tiger Airways, Mr. Koay said.

Tiger's passenger load factor climbed to 85% in the fiscal third quarter, compared with 79% in the same quarter of the previous year.

Losses at Tiger's Australian unit widened 50% from a year earlier to S$12.9 million, as it struggled to recover from the costly flight suspension in 2011.

Tiger has been trying to repair its image in Australia, where it has 11 Airbus A320 jets. Its flight operations have since returned to the level before the suspension, Mr. Koay said.

The company will seek shareholder approval for a proposed sale of 60% of Tiger Australia to Virgin Australia Holdings Ltd. on Jan. 31, he said, adding that he expects shareholders to approve the transaction. The companies had announced the deal—worth 35 million Australian dollars (US$36,800)—in October last year, but it needs shareholder and regulatory approvals.

Earlier this week, India's SpiceJet Ltd.reported it returned to profit in the quarter ended December as it benefited from lower competition. Southeast Asia's biggest budget carrier AirAsia Bhd, which said earlier this week that it has dropped plans for a Singapore-based airline unit, has yet to report its earnings for the October-to-December quarter.

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Good news for Tiger Airways, posting its first quarterly profit since March 2011. It's been a rough ride, but things are only getting better for the airline. The sale of 60% of Tiger Australia will hopefully help the group to bleed less. Tiger mandela and SEAir has alot of room to expand and improve.

Boeing confident it will soon fix 787 Dreamliner problems

Boeing has told a Scandinavian airline that it is confident that it will soon fix the battery problems that have grounded its 787 Dreamliner aircraft, the chief executive of Norwegian Air Shuttle said on Tuesday.

Norwegian Air Shuttle is among a number of carriers to have ordered the hi-tech jet and is expecting delivery in April.

Delivery of all 850 planes ordered have been halted and the 50 jets in service have been grounded while authorities review the 787's design following issues with the plane's lithium-ion batteries.

Boeing has told Norwegian Air Shuttle, a budget carrier, to expect its first 787 Dreamliner in April in line with the latest delivery schedule, chief executive Bjorn Kjos told Reuters. "They will definitely fix the battery problems long before then," he said. "They say it is going to be fixed soon; they have a plan. They say it will be delivered according to the schedule," he told reporters at the Airline Economics conference in Dublin.

Boeing declined to comment on Kjos's comments but in a statement, the company said: "Boeing will not deliver 787s until the FAA approves a means of compliance with their recent airworthiness directive concerning batteries and the approved approach has been implemented.

"Boeing continues to assist government agencies in the US and Japan responsible for investigating two recent 787 incidents. The company has formed teams consisting of hundreds of engineering and technical experts who are working around the clock with the sole focus of resolving the issue and returning the 787 fleet to flight status. We are working this issue tirelessly in cooperation with our customers and the appropriate regulatory and investigative authorities."

Kjos's confidence is in contrast to many airline experts who see the Dreamliner crisis deepening. Mary Schiavo, former inspector general of the Department of Transport, told The Guardian On Monday that a quick fix looked increasingly unlikely.

Schiavo, who now leads the aviation team at attorney Motley Rice, said it could be months before the issues besetting the Dreamliner are settled.

US and Japanese officials are now investigating what went wrong with two lithium-ion batteries made by Japan's GS Yuasa. On Tuesday US investigators began talking to Securaplane Technologies, the Arizona company that made the batteries' chargers.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which is co-ordinating the US inquiry, is expected to release an updated report into the 787 battery fire as early as this week.

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April? An assurance or a guarantee by Boeing? There is still some way to go in the investigations and it seems that they're still clueless about the problem. Even if the problem has been resolved, more testing will be needed to prove that it will not happen again.

It isn't as simple as it seems. Do not compromise on safety to keep to your promises.

Cathay asks crew to volunteer for early retirement

Hong Kong flag carrier Cathay Pacific on Tuesday asked its cabin crew to volunteer for early retirement as part of its cost-cutting measures to boost profitability amid a global slowdown.

Cathay has been trying to trim costs after it fell into the red in the first half of 2012 with a HK$935 million ($121 million) loss, partly due to high fuel prices that have also dragged down other regional airlines' performance.

The airline said the scheme would be offered to flight attendants who joined the firm before September 1996, to cut cost as well as to help facilitate recruitment and promotion opportunities.

"It is also part of the airline's cost management measures," a spokeswoman said in a statement to AFP, adding that the airline has not set any target on the number of flight attendants that it hopes would sign up for the scheme.

The carrier has around 9,000 cabin crew members, who serve 170 routes in 42 countries and are among over 20,000 staff the airline employs worldwide. It did not say what number of crew members is eligible for the scheme.

Cathay averted an industrial action by its crews -- which had threatened to stop serving alcohol and smiling at passengers -- over the Christmas holidays last month after it agreed to improve their working conditions.

The protest was sparked by Cathay's bid to give a two percent pay rise to its employees this year, on top of a discretionary one-month bonus for 2012, falling short of the flight attendants union's demand.

Singapore Airlines, one of Cathay's rivals, earlier this month asked its captains to volunteer for unpaid leave after it posted a 69-percent plunge in profit in the carrier's financial year ending March 2012.

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SIA targets its pilots, Cathay asks its cabin crew to retire early, read: never come back. It is really bad times for the big airlines due to the ever rising fuel costs.

AirAsia drops plan for new Singapore airline unit

AirAsia, Asia's largest low-cost carrier, has scrapped plans for a Singapore joint venture due to high operating costs and lack of domestic market potential in the island republic.

"We are concentrating on markets which have big domestic markets and big populations and markets that are more liberal and market-orientated," Tony Fernandes, group chief executive, was quoted as saying in Monday's Wall Street Journal.

Malaysia-based AirAsia flies throughout Asia and has set up subsidiary budget carriers in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Japan.

The carrier, one of the biggest customers for European aircraft maker Airbus, has a fleet of 112 A320s and is expecting 266 more aircraft to be delivered up to 2026.

Fernandes said it is "very clear that we are in the right markets and capital should go into those countries to maximise return".

An AirAsia official confirmed his comments to AFP.

The airline was initially keen to establish a unit in Singapore, which would have allowed it to compete with rivals including Jetstar and Tiger Airways and fly to more destinations from the city state, the Wall Street Journal said.

More than 50 million passengers travelled through Singapore's Changi Airport in 2012, according to the airport operator.

AirAsia has grown rapidly since Fernandes, a former record industry executive, bought the failing airline in 2001.

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Good news for operators, bad news for consumers? With the lack of competition, ticket prices and promotions will perhaps be less favourable to consumers, but it should be a huge sigh of relief for operators as they can enjoy higher load factor with less dilution of passenger load with AirAsia coming in to share the pie.

However, this also mean less jobs created for the local market. The air crew and ground crew would have created lots of jobs, but I guess the huge operating costs in Singapore is a huge turn off.

More flights to be added on Taiwan-China routes

The number of direct flights between Taiwan and China will rise more than 10 percent this year to 616 flights per week amid ever-closer ties between the two former rivals, an official said on Monday.

The two sides have agreed to add 58 flights to the present 558 weekly flights, said Lee Wan-li, deputy director-general of Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration.

"It is fair to expect the new flights no later than April, but in the end it will be up to the carriers from the two sides which provide flight services on the routes," he told AFP.

China will put eight more destinations on the map, including Lijiang, a popular scenic spot in the southwest, while Taiwan will add Chiayi city in the island's south, Lee said.

Direct chartered flights began in 2008 and scheduled flights the following year, amid rapidly improving ties following the election of Taiwan's China-friendly President Ma Ying-jeou five years ago.

He was reelected last year for a last and second four-year term.

Travel between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland stopped at the end of a civil war in 1949. A ban on solo Chinese travellers was lifted in June 2011.

Previously, mainland tourists had been allowed to visit Taiwan only as part of official tour groups due to fears they might overstay their visas to work illegally on the island.

Mainland Chinese made a record 2.23 million visits to Taiwan in 2012, marking growth of nearly 50 percent from the year before, according to Taiwan's National Immigration Agency.

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Airline companies must be the happiest bunch when the two countries are no longer at loggerheads with Taiwan striving for independence. Back in the days when Chen Shui Bian was president, things weren't so rosy. With routes to Japan now cut, the void left behind will probably be filled up with Taiwanese flights.

Japan's ANA cancels 335 flights in Dreamliner glitch

Japan's All Nippon Airways (ANA) said Monday the worldwide grounding of Boeing's Dreamliner forced it to cancel 335 flights up to next Sunday, affecting nearly 48,000 passengers.

ANA said cancellations on domestic routes from January 16, the day that one of its Dreamliners made an emergency landing, sparking a global alert, to January 27 amount to 292 flights for 44,074 passengers.

Forty-three international flights have been cut, affecting 3,778 passengers, the airline said.

Flights affected include those from Tokyo to San Jose, Seattle and Beijing.

Boeing's cutting-edge new planes suffered a series of glitches earlier this month, prompting a global alert from the US Federal Aviation Administration that led to the worldwide grounding of all 50 operational 787s.

The risk of fire from overheating powerpacks emerged as a major concern after pilots were forced to land a domestic ANA flight on Janaury 16 due to smoke apparently linked to the lithium-ion battery.

But the US agency in charge of transportation safety on Sunday said a fire sparked after a Japan Airlines 787 landed in Boston on January 7 was not caused by an overcharged battery.

SOURCE

As expected, flights will have to be cancelled when the Dreamliner is still not cleared to take the skies. Imagine the amount of money ANA had lost due to the grounding, and how much will Boeing compensate for such an issue. It is not very wise of ANA and JAL to use a "revolutionary" aircraft on huge scale when it is still no new. This is what will happen when the plane still hasn't matured in commercial service.

Week 12: ATPL Ground School Week 12

Super relaxing week with a full week of revision and nothing but revision. That unsure feeling I had last week was actually gone by Monday after I've gone through all the practice questions. Passing both R/T and C172 papers should not be a problem having had minimal problems yesterday at SAA sitting for them.

Radiotelephony - 25 questions, 30 minutes
Cessna 172 - 30 questions, 45 minutes

I managed to complete both papers within 20 minutes and made several rechecks on my answers before submitting them after 30 minutes. Fingers crossed, I did not screw anything up.

Next week shall be the official start of Navigation Phase of ground school. There will be four new cadets joining the class, making us a total of 18 in strength. Perhaps class will be more interesting with new blood.

Post exam stress reliever, soccer with batch mates!!

Boeing suspends 787 Dreamliner deliveries

US aerospace giant Boeing said late Friday it had suspended deliveries of its new 787 Dreamliner jet until a battery problem is resolved, but continues to build the plane.

"We will not deliver 787s until the FAA approves a means of compliance with their recent Airworthiness Directive concerning batteries and the approved approach has been implemented," a Boeing spokesman said in an email.

"Production of 787s continues," he said.

The Federal Aviation Administration on Wednesday ordered the grounding of US-operated 787s to address the battery problem after a damaged battery on an All Nippon Airways 787 forced an emergency landing.

The risk of fire from overheating power packs has emerged as a major concern for Boeing's cutting-edge new planes since the incident on the domestic flight in Japan, prompting airlines around the world to ground all 50 of the 787s in service.

SOURCE

Only the right thing to do for Boeing, for the sake of safety. You don't know what can happen to new planes delivered without the problem rectified. Boeing will have to compensate a lot of money for such delays.

Snow grounds flights in Britain

Snow swept across Britain on Friday, forcing airports to cancel dozens of flights and more than 2,000 schools to close.

London's Heathrow Airport, one of the busiest in the world, cancelled around 60 flights while the airports in the Welsh capital Cardiff, Southampton in southeast England and Bristol in the southwest were closed completely.

"We've got 24 vehicles clearing the runways," a Heathrow spokeswoman told AFP.

A Cardiff spokesman said the airport was due to re-open shortly, while Southampton said it would be shut until at least 1500 GMT.

British Airways cancelled more than 60 of its flights but said the figure was likely to rise during the day.

Over 2,000 schools were closed across Britain, while the bad weather also caused gridlock on the roads.

Britain's weather agency, the Met Office, issued a rare "red warning" for parts of south Wales, where some areas were expecting up to 30 centimetres of snow.

SOURCE

As usual, LHR never fails to cancel flights due to the snow during the winter season. Perhaps they should learn from Sweden/Norway/Finland on how to handle snow so as not to cancel flights.

Dreamliner battery picture shows heavy blackening

A picture released on Friday by Japanese investigators probing the emergency landing of a Dreamliner that grounded the Boeing 787 worldwide showed the battery was apparently charred and blackened.

Scorch marks were evident on the blue casing of the aircraft's main battery which also showed evidence of some kind of a seemingly tar-like liquid that appeared to have boiled over and leaked down the side.

The picture, released to the media by the Japan Transport Safety Board showed the lid of the battery casing had bulged out of shape and become badly discoloured.

The battery, which was removed from the plane's main power unit at the front of the plane, sits on a wooden pallet next to the fully intact battery from the rear.

That battery has a white casing over the top of what media said was eight cells, connected with a series of pathways.

Much of what looks like wiring around the cells on the plane's main battery is badly disfigured.

SOURCE

Something is very wrong to have caused such damages to the battery. Obviously the charging has caused it to overheat and start "burning" itself.

Airbus confident of avoiding Boeing battery issue

AIRBUS said it was confident its planes would not encounter the same technical problems afflicting archrival Boeing's 787s, even though they use the same kind of batteries that have this week raised security concerns.

The company may nevertheless be affected eventually, experts say. If investigations show that authorities had approved parts for the 787 that turned out to be deficient, Airbus may face tougher tests when it tries to launch a new plane this year.

Boeing Co.'s 787s have been grounded by governments around the world, including in the US and Europe, because of fears the airplane's lithium ion battery system was unsafe. The batteries in some cases swelled and leaked, creating a fire hazard under the cockpit, where they are stored.

Airbus's new A350 wide-body jet, a rival to the 787 that will make its first flight around the middle of the year, also uses lithium ion batteries, but in a different setup. That means it is unlikely to face the same problems as the 787, Airbus said.

"We are confident our design is robust" and "don't see any reason to change," Airbus Chief Executive Fabrice Bregier said, after announcing that deliveries in 2012 reached a record high. Despite the rise, the deliveries were still less than Boeing's, making the Chicago-headquartered company the world's largest plane maker.

Bregier noted the A350 requires only half the battery power of a plane like the 787, which is the first commercial aircraft to make extensive use of batteries to drive its electrical systems and be fuel-efficient.

"There are some architectural differences and the suppliers are different," Bregier said. "As Boeing said, the battery is not the issue, it's the way you integrate it to the power system."

Airbus has had its own share of technical problems that have delayed the rollout of a key military aircraft, costing billions in extra costs, as well as security issues concerning the wing ribs of its superjumbo A380 jets.

Bregier and his fellow officials at Airbus avoided any smug remarks over their rival's current troubles.

"It's not our place to give Boeing lessons, we've had our own problems in the past," Bregier said. "I honestly wish all the best to my colleagues at Boeing to put this aircraft back in flight. I don't bet on the difficulties of a competitor in order to build Airbus' success."

Industry experts warned against assuming that Boeing's troubles could help Airbus, even though shares in its parent company, EADS NV, have been rising this week as Boeing's have been falling.

That's not just because airlines are unlikely to cancel orders en masse without yet knowing the cause of the error, but also because an investigation in what caused Boeing's battery problems may throw up new regulatory hurdles for Airbus.

Sandy Morris, an aerospace analyst with Jefferies in London, noted that the 787 had been flight tested for thousands of hours. That it reveals problems now may lead authorities to conclude that the certification process had not been tough enough.

"If the authorities get more stringent and take more time to certify planes, the first to be affected is going to be Airbus, which happens to be the next major company launching a plane, (the A350)," Morris said.

Airbus expects the A350's inaugural flight to be just before or after the Paris air show in June.

Despite the problems that Airbus has faced and a weak global economy, the company booked a record 588 deliveries in 2012 while taking in 914 new orders for jets. For 2013, it plans to increase production to deliver more than 600 aircraft and expects orders for at least 700 jets.

The results were not enough to match Boeing, which for all its current troubles, regained the crown of biggest airplane manufacturer in 2012. The company delivered 601 last year, the most since 1999.

The two companies have been competing neck and neck for years, rushing to roll out new models that might appeal most to global airlines.

Among commercial planes, Boeing bet big on the 787, dubbed the Dreamliner, and its appeal as a high-tech and fuel efficient model. At a time of high oil prices, that was a big selling point with airlines, many of which were trying to cut costs. Airbus is focusing instead on size - the new A380 is a double-decker that seats 525 people and is so large some airports have to be adjusted to accommodate it.

The two companies are also challenging each other in legal arenas. They are locked in an international trade dispute with the World Trade Organization in Geneva, each claiming that the other receives illegal state subsidies.

Airbus' fortunes have been mixed in recent years. Until 2012 it was selling more planes than Boeing but it has also run into more technical problems, notably with the A380. It sold only nine of those superjumbos last year.

Looking ahead, chief salesman John Leahy pledged he'd get at least 25 orders for the massive A380 jets this year and expects to deliver 25. Airbus sold only nine and delivered 30 last year.

Bregier said the cause of the technical problems affecting the A380 had been found and a solution was being put in place for the nine airlines currently flying the giant aircraft.

SOURCE

They might be using the same battery but the setup is different and the A350 only uses half the battery power needed by the B787. However, if investigations on the B787 is found to be not stringent enough on tests, A350 might be affected and take even longer to enter service.

Airbus lost top spot to Boeing in 2012

European group Airbus lost its top spot as the world's biggest maker of airliners to the US giant Boeing last year, but did better than expected and sees big sales this year, it said on Thursday.

Publishing results just as Boeing is hit by a crisis of confidence in its Dreamliner plane after a series of incidents, Airbus said that last year it delivered 588 aircraft to 89 customers, a record after 534 deliveries in 2011.

But sales of the flagship superjumbo A380, the biggest airliner in the world, disappointed, coming in at about one third of the target figure after a problem was discovered with the wings which the company says is now behind it.

Airbus sold a total of 833 aircraft last year, far more than the initial target figure of 650, chief executive Fabrice Bregier told a press conference near where Airbus is based at Toulouse, southern France.

However, the sales figure was far lower than the record of 1,419 sales in 2011.

Boeing delivered 601 airliners last year and took 1,203 orders.

For this year, Airbus expects to take 700 orders, excluding any cancellations, and to deliver more than 600 planes.

The order book now total 4,682 planes representing about eight years of production work.

Airbus said that it hoped that its new long-range A350 aircraft would make its maiden flight at the end of June or beginning of July.

Referring to the A350, Bregier said: "We have made reasonable good progress but I will keep cautious until the end.

"For the first flight, we expect it by mid of this year which is a big milestone, mid means end of June or early July...We are not optimistic nor pessimistic but realistic."

He added: "I'm very humble. Lots of risks are behind us but I'm interested in what is in front (of us)."

Of the 833 net orders last year, allowing for 81 cancellations, 739 were for medium-range A320-type airliners, popular with low-cost airlines, and of those 478 were for the "neo" version with new more fuel-efficient engines. The orders also comprised 58 long-haul A330 aircraft and 27 of the future A350.

Airbus booked orders for nine of its A380 superjumbo jetliners.

Bregier said that Airbus, the main part of the giant European EADS aerospace group, had exceeded its targets in terms of new orders booked and of completed aircraft delivered, even though sales of the superjumbo had underperformed.

Airbus had counted on selling 30 of the superjumbos but this target was knocked off course by the discovery of micro-cracks in the wings which cooled some customer interest.

Bregier said that this problem had been "resolved" and said he expected that this year the company would take 25 orders and would also deliver 25 of the enormous aircraft.

Referring to the position of Airbus in the global market and to the "neo" version, Bregier observed: "When we do better than expected we can be satisfied. When we see we are still in the leading position on neo market, we can be satisfied."

He said: "We started earlier with a good product. If we do the right job and I plan to do the right job, it's a huge advantage."

In view of the rapid growth, the airline has recruited a net number of 7,000 people in the last two years, hiring 10,000 while 3,000 have left for normal reasons.

The company cut 10,000 jobs between 2007 and 2009 as it restructured after a severe crisis over delays to the superjumbo programme which revealed weaknesses in the industrial workflow system.

The company now employs 59,000 people and expects to recruit 3,000 this year.

This is in contrast to many substantial employers in France which are restructuring with big job cuts, and the economy as a whole is struggling to boost its export performance and raise the niche speciality of its industrial products.

The Airbus aircraft are built mainly in Germany, Britain and Spain, and in France where they are assembled in Toulouse.

SOURCE

Eventhough targets set by Airbus themselves have been met, they still lost out to Boeing's phenomenal performance in 2012, probably thanks to their B787 and B737. Smaller plane models seem to the key in pushing sales volume as can be seen by the number of B737 and A320 orders in both manufacturers.

The A380 in particular didn't sell very well since all the big premium airlines aren't making much money whereas the low cost carriers are spamming orders for the A320 and B737. The A350 will be an interesting prospect and perhaps might even sell better than the Dreamliner.

Dreamliner battery probe may take weeks

The Japanese company that made the battery installed in an All Nippon Airways (ANA) Dreamliner which made an emergency landing said Thursday its probe could take weeks.

"It is impossible to predict at this point how long it will take, in days or weeks, because we must study the system and GS Yuasa is not the only player involved," a company spokeswoman told AFP.

The Japanese firm is taking part in a wider probe launched after aviation watchdogs in at least four countries grounded the next-generation aircraft, which has been hammered by a string of safety problems.

Regulators in Japan, India and Chile followed the lead of the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in ordering an indefinite halt to all operations, after the ANA plane was forced into an emergency landing Wednesday.

Electrolyte leaks and burn marks were found on the lithium-ion battery's metal casing, ANA said. Kyodo News reported that officials from the Japan Transport Safety Board were working on the principle it overheated.

The powerful batteries used on the Dreamliner have emerged as the focus of concern in light of the ANA incident and another on a JAL flight in the United States last week, with smoke reported on both planes.

Lithium-ion batteries are widely used in consumer electronics such as laptops and mobile phones. Airlines warn passengers against carrying too many in their baggage because of the risk of overheating.

GS Yuasa shares tumbled 4.98 per cent to 305 yen in Tokyo trade.

SOURCE

Not exactly what airlines and Boeing want to hear, but that is probably one piece of news which they have to accept. How much will these companies compensate the airlines is going to be unthinkable.

Boeing crisis deepens as Dreamliners grounded worldwide

Aviation regulators on Thursday grounded most of the world's 787 Dreamliner fleet until a fire risk linked to the plane's batteries can been fixed, deepening a crisis for its US manufacturer Boeing.

Regulators in Japan, India and Chile followed the lead of the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in ordering an indefinite halt to all operations, after a Japanese Dreamliner on Wednesday was forced into an emergency landing.

The FAA, which sets the benchmark for aviation standards, highlighted "a potential battery fire risk in the 787" after a suspected battery leak emerged as the focus of inquiries into the aborted All Nippon Airways flight.

Analysts said the ANA incident, following a series of safety scares involving the Dreamliner over the past week, needed careful crisis management from Boeing, which is staking its future on the next-generation plane.

The aircraft relies on battery-powered electronics rather than the hydraulics used in older planes, and Boeing says its use of lightweight composite materials is a breakthrough for airlines anxious to cut their fuel bills.

Boeing chief executive Jim McNerney said the company "deeply regrets" the impact of recent events on airlines and passengers, and vowed to take "every necessary step" in concert with the FAA to resolve the problems.

However, he stressed: "We are confident the 787 is safe and we stand behind its overall integrity."

But as a result of the mishap on the domestic ANA flight, 39 out of the 50 Dreamliners in operation by airlines around the world have now been grounded.

United Airlines, the only US carrier to fly the Dreamliner, joined ANA and Japan Airlines (JAL) in withdrawing the model from service. Air India and Chile's LAN Airlines followed suit.

"We will track the FAA enquiry into the Dreamliner. We can't say when we will allow it to fly again, it depends on when Boeing gives us satisfaction over safety concerns," Arun Mishra, India's civil aviation chief, told AFP.

Japan is home to 24 of all the Dreamliners in operation, and the government in Tokyo said it was taking no chances pending an investigation into whether the lithium-ion battery on the ANA flight had overheated and caught fire.

"Following the FAA decision, Boeing 787s will not be allowed to fly until their battery safety is assured," Japan's vice transport minister Hiroshi Kajiyama said.

Lithium-ion batteries are widely used in consumer electronics such as laptops and mobile phones, and airlines worldwide warn passengers against carrying too many in their checked or hand baggage because of the risk of overheating.

The powerful lithium-ion batteries used on the Dreamliner have emerged as the focus of concern in light of the ANA incident and another one on a JAL flight in the United States last week, with smoke reported on both planes.

Electrolyte leaks and burn marks have been found on the battery's metal casing, ANA said. Kyodo News reported that officials from the Japan Transport Safety Board were working on the principle that it overheated.

"Liquid leaked through the (forward battery compartment) room floor to the inside of the outer wall of the aircraft," Kyodo quoted investigator Hideyo Kosugi as saying.

Kajiyama told reporters: "Just by observing with the naked eye, the battery showed abnormalities, but electricity-linked equipment is complex so we need more investigation."

The batteries are made by Japan's GS Yuasa, one of a host of contractors hired by Boeing to build the Dreamliner in a complex web of global outsourcing that led to years of delays before ANA took delivery of the first plane in 2011.

GS Yuasa said it supplies its batteries first to France's Thales Group, which then assembles a system with other electronics for shipping to Boeing.

"So far, it is not clear whether the cause of the problem was the batteries or the electronic system," a GS Yuasa spokeswoman said, defending the Japanese company's "substantial experience and technologies".

GS Yuasa stock was down more than five percent in Tokyo trading on Thursday, while JAL and ANA stock was down a smaller amount. Boeing shares finished on Wednesday 3.4 percent lower on Wall Street, even before the FAA announcement.

"Boeing engineers, aircraft experts and several Wall Street analysts have defended problems with the jet as routine for a new airplane. The power of those defences is now over," Douglas McIntyre of 24/7WallSt.com wrote in a report.

SOURCE

So yeah, it has been confirmed, all B787s in service will be grounded for battery checks before they're allowed to fly again. As for Boeing, they will have to rectify this issue as soon as possible before something fatal happens

Aviation analysts ponder extent of Boeing 787 issues

The series of accidents that has grounded Boeing 787 Dreamliners in Japan has led some analysts to suggest it might be more than a simple question of teething problems.

Shares in companies that work on the 787 programme, some of which are in Japan and France, fell on Wednesday after a battery problem generated a smoke alert in one of the planes. The domestic flight had to be diverted to Takamatsu in southwestern Japan.

Japanese Transport Minister Akihiro Ota described it as a "serious incident that could have led to a serious accident". Both Japanese airlines operating the plane grounded them for 24 hours.

The US Federal Aviation Authority has already launched a probe into 787 problems.

Aviation analyst Sandy Morris at the London-based group Jefferies International said this latest mishap surpassed the kind of glitch expected when a new plane enters service.

"After thousands of test flight hours and probably far, far more hours of testing systems on the ground during development and before installation, it is going to be a puzzle on 'why now' grounds that a significant problem only surfaces when a new aircraft has entered airline service," Morris said in a research note.

One reason for problems encountered by All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Japan Air Lines (JAL) might be that they use similar procedures to start, shut down, and recharge lithium batteries used in the 787, he noted.

But "even if it does turn out to be an operational issue, there is, however, no good explanation why safety mechanisms have failed to prevent fire, in our view," Morris said.

Christophe Menard at Kepler Capital Markets said problems with the 787 since it entered service in November 2011 had been played down given that minor technical problems were common with new aircraft.

But "the repetition of incidents is extremely worrying", he added.

Questions might be raised about the plane's reliability during inter-continental flights and plans to ramp up production of the plane could be delayed further, Menard said.

The first 787 delivery, to ANA, was delayed by three years.

Passenger aircraft routinely reveal glitches that have to be corrected as the planes enter service.

Airbus' A380 superjumbo jet made its commercial debut in 2007, but suffered serious engine problems in late 2010.

Last year, tiny cracks were discovered in the plane's wings that Airbus, which is Boeing's chief rival, is still working on.

The Boeing 777 was temporarily grounded in 1997, and Mike Sinnett, Boeing's chief engineer on the 787 programme, said a week ago that the reliability of the 787 was on a par with that experience.

The 777, Boeing's last all-new airliner, entered service in 1995.

Analysts at Leeham News, which specialises in aerospace news, "advised caution in drawing conclusions" regarding the 787 problems.

But they added that "if there are many more (or perhaps any more) such incidents, we would not be surprised if more than spot, voluntary groundings occur."

Boeing is not the only company to suffer from problems with its new plane, which is the fruit of an innovative production network involving suppliers in many countries.

Shares in some Japanese companies, in particular GS Yuasa which makes lithium batteries for the 787, plunged on Wednesday in trading on the Tokyo stock exchange.

In Paris, shares in Thales, which provides the electrical system based on GS Yuasa batteries, and those in Zodiac Aerospace, a part supplier that is counting on increased production of the 787, also fell back.

Sandy Morris at Jefferies warned that if the 787's problems resulted in significant changes to aircraft certification procedures, it might affect even a rival plane still being developed by Airbus.

"The A350 XWB could also be delayed," Morris said.

SOURCE

Batteries seem to be the big problem now. And the report hit the nail as to why are problems surfacing only now and not during the numerous tests and checks before pushing the plane out for commercial service. Even if it is a usage problem, why did the safety mechanism not prevent a fire from starting?

It won't be easy troubleshooting for sure, but this calls for quick actions to prevent further mishaps.

Qantas, Emirates tie-up takes off

Australia's competition watchdog on Thursday gave Qantas and Emirates Airlines permission to launch their global alliance although final approval is still pending.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which gave the carriers preliminary approval in December to combine operations for an initial five years, said that practical sales, marketing and other steps could now start.

"The ACCC is allowing Qantas and Emirates to start implementing their alliance because of the long lead time required to market and sell tickets before the commencement of long-haul services," said ACCC chairman Rod Sims.

"In making its decision, the ACCC has accepted written assurances from the parties that should the ACCC ultimately decide not to allow the alliance to go ahead, the airlines will accommodate consumers' bookings."

The regulator said it anticipated making a final decision in March.

Under the proposal, which will be fully implemented from April, the airlines will coordinate ticket prices and flight schedules and Qantas will shift its hub for European flights to Dubai from Singapore.

It also means an end to Qantas's partnership with British Airways on the so-called kangaroo route to London, which has spanned nearly two decades.

The tie-up is seen as vital to the sustainability of Qantas, which last year posted its first annual deficit since privatisation in 1995 due to tough regional competition and high fuel costs for its international arm.

Sims said the ACCC had determined in December that "the public benefits resulting from the alliance are likely to outweigh the public detriment ... where Qantas and Emirates offer overlapping services".

But he said New Zealand had been identified as a key market where competition could be eroded by the Qantas-Emirates deal and the ACCC had therefore exempted it from the new permissions for now.

"The ACCC is granting interim authorisation on the condition that the applicants do not engage in the conduct for which authorisation is sought in relation to services between Australia and New Zealand," Sims said.

He added that the regulator "may review its decision on interim authorisation at any time and it should not be taken to be indicative of whether or not final authorisation will be granted".

Qantas chief Alan Joyce said the decision meant pricing, capacity and scheduling could now be coordinated with Emirates and one-stop trips could be booked across their combined networks, boosting tourism.

Once final approval is granted, Qantas will fly daily Airbus A380 services from Sydney and Melbourne to London via Dubai, meaning that the two airlines will operate 98 weekly services between Australia and the Emirates Gulf hub.

For Emirates customers, the alliance opens up Qantas's Australian domestic network of more than 50 destinations and nearly 5,000 flights per week.

Dubai Airports has earmarked $7.8 billion to further expand the capacity of the international travel hub and expects to handle 75 million passengers by 2015 and 98 million by 2020. Some 57 million passengers were expected to use Dubai International in 2012.

SOURCE

Final approval will be made in March and both airlines can start the new collaboration in April. Exciting days ahead for both of them, a big change for Qantas in hope that this will turn their fortunes switching the hub to Dubai from Singapore.

As for Singapore's Changi Airport, a huge void will be left behind after Qantas switches over to Dubai. This space can probably be used to house more low cost carriers.

Dreamliner woes turn into Boeing nightmare

Boeing's 787 Dreamliner is suffering serious teething problems that have grounded the plane in Japan and stoked market concerns about the US aerospace giant.

All Nippon Airways grounded its 787 fleet Wednesday after smoke in an electrical compartment forced an emergency landing. Japan Airlines followed suit. The combined 24 planes will be grounded at least through Thursday for safety checks.

The two Japanese airlines account for almost half of the 50 787s already in service, and Boeing had hoped their fleets would serve as a shop window for a new model on which it has staked much of its business strategy.

It was the seventh safety incident with the high-tech plane -- marketed by Boeing as the fuel-efficient future of aviation -- experienced by ANA and JAL in less than two weeks.

The mishaps included a fire in an unoccupied stationary aircraft, fuel leaks and a cracked cockpit windshield.

Until now, the rash of problems had not dented investor confidence in the aerospace giant. Since the first incident this year, on January 7, until the market closed Tuesday, Boeing's share value had climbed 0.6 per cent.

But on Wednesday, Boeing shares plunged 3.4 per cent in New York, dragging down the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

"The one thing that must send shudders through Boeing Co. management and its board is that the 787 Dreamliner could be taken out of service because of a series of accidents," said Douglas McIntyre of 24/7WallSt.com.

"Boeing engineers, aircraft experts and several Wall Street analysts have defended problems with the jet as routine for a new airplane. The power of those defences is now over," he added in a research note.

Boeing has staked its future on the all-new aircraft, which is heavily equipped with electronics. Lightweight composite materials, to boost fuel efficiency, comprise 50 per cent of the Dreamliner.

The Chicago-based company has ramped up 787 production to five airplanes per month and plans to make 10 a month by late 2013.

Boeing, which touts the 787 as the most successful twin-aisle launch of a commercial plane in the company's history, says it has more than 800 unfilled orders with 58 customers worldwide.

24/7 WallSt's McIntyre warned that the pileup of incidents could threaten Boeing's order book.

"Boeing must now contend with the issue that other large airlines that use the Dreamliner, or are about to take delivery, will ground the planes as well."

Rich Smith at The Motley Fool said "the facts about the Dreamliner's safety are starting to stack up -- and not in Boeing's favour."

Smith noted that the nearly 850 Dreamliners sold around the globe represent one out of every five airplanes in Boeing's mammoth 4,373-plane-long order backlog.

"None of this -- needless to say -- is going to be particularly good news for Boeing's 787 sales force," he added.

Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute said the 787 was experiencing problems any new airplane might face.

"However, the decision of regulators to launch a review of the plane increases the visibility of the plane in a way that might hurt sales," Thompson said.

US regulators launched Friday an in-depth safety review of the Dreamliner after the unusual number of safety incidents. The Federal Aviation Administration said it was working with Boeing to review critical systems, particularly the electrical systems.

Both the FAA and Boeing have expressed confidence in the plane, echoed by a number of airlines.

United Airlines, the only US carrier flying the 787, said Wednesday it had inspected all of its 787 aircraft and that they were flying as scheduled.

"We are continuing to support Boeing and the FAA throughout their review," the world's biggest airline said.

After the ANA emergency landing, the FAA said it would include the incident in its review. The National Transportation Safety Board announced it would send an investigator to Japan this week to assist in the Japanese authorities' investigation.

Deutsche Bank analysts said: "The hits just keep coming for the 787."

"The bigger issue is that FAA and Boeing want to walk away with 1) a safe airplane and 2) credibility in the initial certification process," they said.

Barclays analysts highlighted that with limited data and company commentary amid ongoing investigations in the US and Japan, "it could be difficult for shares to gain near-term traction."

SOURCE

Checks are ongoing for both ANA and JAL. Flights will probably follow soon. Hopefully nothing fatal happens with regards to the Dreamliner.

Tiger Airways enjoys stronger load factor

Tiger Airways Holdings enjoyed a significantly stronger year-on-year boost in loads and passenger numbers in December last year, as it recovered from a difficult 2011.

The latest operating statistics show that the budget carrier appears to be on a steady growth trajectory, filling almost more than 85 per cent of its seats systemwide.

Tiger Singapore's passenger numbers grew 22 per cent to 800 million revenue passenger-kilometres (RPK) in December 2012, on the back of a 15 per cent increase in capacity to 904 million available seat-kilometres (ASK).

As a result, its year-on-year passenger load factor rose 6 percentage points to 89 per cent as the number of passengers carried grew 19 per cent to 436,000 passengers.

The recovery was even more impressive in Australia, where Tiger Australia enjoyed a 90 per cent surge in traffic to 268 million RPK in December 2012.

However, these year-on-year improvements were also boosted by the fact that the budget carrier was operating at a significantly reduced capacity and on a limited schedule in December 2011, following the debilitating groundings in July and August. Passenger load factor slipped two percentage points to 79 per cent as more seats were added.

At the group level, Tiger filled 86 per cent of its seats in December, up from 83 per cent a year earlier.

For the 12 months, Tiger Singapore recorded a 19 per cent increase in traffic to 7.6 billion RPK, on the back of a 17 per cent increase in capacity to 9.1 billion ASK.

Passenger load factor for the year was 83 per cent, up one percentage point from the previous corresponding period. The number of passengers carried grew 12 per cent to 4.2 million.

In Australia, Tiger recorded a 11 per cent increase in traffic to 2.2 billion RPK for the 12 months, following a 14 per cent increase in capacity to three billion ASK.

Passenger load factor was 82 per cent, down two percentage points from 2010. The number of passengers carried grew 6 per cent to 2.1 million.

Tiger Holdings is planning to divest itself of 60 per cent of Tiger Australia to Virgin Australia for A$35 million (S$45.3 million), though the deal still has to be approved by Australian regulators.

Meanwhile, Tiger continues to enjoy a steady recovery from a disastrous 2011 and has charted its regional expansion with purchases of stakes in existing players in Indonesia (Mandala) and the Philippines (SeAir), even as it plans its scaleback in Australia.

The airline's stock has also started showing signs of recovery amid more positive calls by several leading analysts.

It closed half a cent up at 75 cents last Friday.

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The days ahead are looking real good for low cost carrier Tiger Airways. It has been a remarkable turnaround in fortunes after the disastrous grounding in 2011. With a change of the big heads in the management level, Tiger has started to roar again.

Scoot affirms order of 20 Dreamliners

Singapore Airlines unit Scoot on Wednesday said it was confident Boeing will solve problems with its 787 Dreamliner and reaffirmed its order for 20 of the aircraft.

"Boeing has kept us fully informed about the performance of the 787 since we committed to acquire the aircraft," the budget carrier said in a statement after Japan's two biggest airlines grounded all their Dreamliners due to safety fears.

"Boeing has kept us fully informed about the performance of the 787 since we committed to acquire the aircraft."

An All Nippon Airlines (ANA) Dreamliner was forced to make an emergency landing on Wednesday in the latest crisis to hit the new Boeing jetliner.

Scoot's Dreamliner order was estimated to be worth $4.0 billion when it was announced in October.

"We are confident that Boeing's ongoing performance monitoring and external review process will identify and resolve any issues, and look forward to taking delivery of our first 787 on schedule in late 2014," the statement said.

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After Qantas and ANA affirmed their plans to stick with the Dreamliner, Scoot has also made its statement to reveal likewise. With its first B787 to be delivered late next year, hopefully by then the Dreamliner will prove its doubters wrong.

ANA sticking with Dreamliner strategy: CEO

All Nippon Airlines is sticking to its plan to roll out the trouble-plagued Dreamliner across its fleet, its chief executive said Wednesday, hours after one of the planes made an emergency landing.

"We are not in a situation where we should change the strategy we have been pursuing," Shinichiro Ito told reporters after meeting with Japan's transport minister Akihiro Ota, Dow Jones Newswires reported.

ANA has bet heavily on the Dreamliner, ordering a total 66 so far from Boeing, many of which it plans to use on routes that go head-to-head with Japan's burgeoning low cost carrier networks.

Ito said there was no plan to alter a schedule that would see all 66 aircraft delivered by 2021, Dow Jones said.

The report said the airline chief had apologised to the government minister for the "trouble" caused by the emergency landing on Wednesday when a Dreamliner with 137 people on board diverted mid-flight after instruments indicated smoke in an electrical compartment.

No one was seriously injured in the incident, which came after a string of mishaps hit the Dreamliner, including a battery fire, fuel leaks and a cracked cockpit window.

Aviation regulators in the US, Japan and India have all announced inquiries into Boeing's centrepiece offering.

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Obviously you're bound to stick to the plan unless the plane has serious issues. But I hope ANA has made the right choice having so many Dreamliners in its fleet.