Thread: Airline News

IAG’s super MAX deal likely means super discounts, services



"June 20, 2019, © Leeham News:

Boeing gets a Letter of Intent for 200 737 MAXes from International Airlines Group (British Airways, et al), announced Tuesday at the Paris Air Show.

Christian Scherer, meet John Leahy.

Scherer is Leahy’s successor, and like Scherer, Leahy was blindsided in 1996 when American Airlines signed a 20-year exclusive procurement deal with Boeing.

Then, Delta and Continental airlines did the same.

Leahy complained bitterly that he didn’t know of American’s deal and had had no chance to bid.

Terms and conditions

Terms and conditions are confidential, of course, and in the case of IAG, the LOI means T&Cs may not be anything more at this point than a broad outline.

But in the American/Delta/Continental cases, “Most Favored Nation” pricing was guaranteed.
This means nobody else gets a lower price and if a customer does, Boeing had to send a check to the MFN customers.

It’s likely IAG will have an MFN clause.

Then there’s the price.

It’s common knowledge that key campaigns draw discounts of 50%-60% from list prices. LNA is aware of some deals in which discounts run as high as 65%.

You can bet IAG is at least in this ballpark.

No doubt, there is a component from Boeing Global Services for parts and MRO. “One Boeing” has aggressively wrapped BGS into deals, too.

While the above is speculative, it’s based on previous known deals."

https://leehamnews.com/2019/06/20/ia...es/#more-30505

Sullenberger's experience in a 737 MAX simulator made him see how pilots ran out of time

Washington (CNN)The pilot who orchestrated the dramatic plane landing in the Hudson River 10 years ago told a congressional panel Wednesday that he can see how crews would have struggled during the recent Boeing 737 MAX crashes after he spent time in a simulator running recreations of the doomed flights.

Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger's testimony before the House Transportation Committee comes as Boeing is working to get the planes, grounded worldwide since March, certified by the Federal Aviation Administration and back in the air.

"I recently experienced all these warnings in a 737 MAX flight simulator during recreations of the accident flights. Even knowing what was going to happen, I could see how crews could have run out of time before they could have solved the problems. Prior to these accidents, I think it is unlikely that any US airline pilots were confronted with this scenario in simulator training," Sullenberger said.

Sullenberger, whose "Miracle on the Hudson" landing in 2009 saved the lives of all 155 people on board, told the panel that it's important pilots don't have "inadvertent traps."

"We must make sure that everyone who occupies a pilot seat is fully armed with the information, knowledge, training, skill and judgment to be able to be the absolute master of the aircraft and all its component systems and of the situations simultaneously and continuously throughout the flight," he said.
Pilots need physical, firsthand experience to be prepared for emergencies, Sullenberger said.

"Reading about it on an iPad is not even close to sufficient," he said.

Plane scrutinized at hearing

The Boeing 737 MAX has come under intense criticism after two planes of that model recently crashed in Ethiopia and Indonesia, killing a total of 346 people. The plane's automatic safety feature known as MCAS, which pushes the nose of the aircraft down if it senses an imminent stall, is believed to have played a role.

Following the crash of the Ethiopian plane in March, 737 MAX jets were grounded and the company has been working to come up with a fix to the MCAS. A time frame for the 737 MAX's return to service has not yet been announced.

At Wednesday's hearing, some aviation subcommittee members questioned the qualifications of foreign pilots and the standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization, the United Nations' aviation agency. But Sullenberger and Daniel Carey, the president of the Allied Pilots Association, which represents American Airlines pilots, recommended additional training requirements for 737 MAX pilots.

A source with knowledge of the process has told CNN the FAA certification flight of the Boeing 737 MAX is expected to take place in the next two weeks. The certification flight is the next step to getting the planes back in the air, but not the final step.

The source says it will take four to six weeks to validate the findings of the flight once it's complete. If the changes to the 737 MAX are approved, US airlines are expected to fly the aircraft again after September, the source said.

Despite ongoing debate about the 737 MAX's design, Boeing received a vote of confidence Tuesday as International Airlines Group announced plans to buy 200 of the planes.

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/19/p...rio/index.html

Originally Posted by Klondyke

The certification flight is the next step to getting the planes back in the air, but not the final step.

The source says it will take four to six weeks to validate the findings of the flight once it's complete. If the changes to the 737 MAX are approved, US airlines are expected to fly the aircraft again after September, the source said.

It appears that the FAA is suggesting one 777MAX flight, in an untypically prepared plane, piloted by one/two pre-trained for one specific emergency scenario pilots, both pre-aware of the coming incident, will satisfy the global pilots, airlines and passengers.

I suspect not.

^ Are you saying they are going to set up a test flight with an AOA sensor malfunction? That's quite a novelty.

More importantly will pilots have to do their initial training on a level-d 737 max. If so, will airlines be refunded the cost as this wasn't part of the deal. Will subsequent re-quals be allowed on 737 ngs or will they also need to be on a Max?

Personally, I'm surprised training isn't specific to type + engine type. There are always quirks between engine fits for the same aircraft type.

Sounds like pilots are not on board (excuse the pun).

More than 400 pilots have joined a class action against American plane manufacturer Boeing, seeking damages in the millions over what they allege was the company's "unprecedented cover-up" of the "known design flaws" of the latest edition of its top-selling jet, the 737 MAX.

https://www.xxx.xxx.xx/news/2019-06-...7-max/11238282

Looking at MAX beyond the grounding

Another authoritative article regards in the Boing problem.

"The FAA acting administrator says he expects the MAX will return to service before the end of the year, but this could mean anywhere from September through December"

https://leehamnews.com/2019/06/17/looking-at-max-beyond-the-grounding/

Many commentators suggest it shouldn't be certified to fly even with the more complex version 2 of the anti-stall system, as the software driven anti-stall system is required, even during the 90% flight cruise period. Due to the inherent engine position causing the nose up attitude. If the trim tabs in the tail are left unsupervised.

Which some say is not certifiable by FAA and probably other certifying agencies.

Air Canada reviewing how crew left sleeping passenger on plane

Passenger says she was 'full on panicking' after waking on an empty aircraft in Toronto
The Associated Press · Posted: Jun 23, 2019

Air Canada said Sunday it's looking into how crew members could have disembarked from a plane without noticing a sleeping passenger who was left behind.

The airline was responding to an incident involving a woman who described waking up "all alone" on a "cold, dark" aircraft after a flight to Toronto earlier this month.

"I think I'm having a bad dream bc like seriously how is this happening!!?!" Tiffani Adams recounted in a June 19 Facebook post sent by her friend, Deanna Noel-Dale.

The airline confirmed the incident took place, but declined to comment on its disembarking procedures or how the passenger may have been overlooked.

"We are still reviewing this matter so we have no additional details to share, but we have followed up with the customer and remain in contact with her," Air Canada told the Associated Press.
Passenger was 'full on panicking'

Adams wrote that after she woke up, she called Noel-Dale to try to explain what happened, but her phone died and she couldn't charge it because power to the plane was off. She said she was "full on panicking" by the time she found the "walky-talky thingys in the cockpit," which also didn't work.

After no one saw the "sos signals" she made by shining a flashlight out the window, she unbolted a cabin door. Facing a steep drop to the tarmac, she leaned out of the aircraft and called over a ground crew employee, who got her out.

The passenger wrote that Air Canada personnel asked if she was OK and whether she would like a limo and hotel, but she declined the offer. She said airline representatives apologized and said they would investigate.

"I haven't got much sleep since the [recurring] night terrors and waking up anxious and afraid I'm alone locked up someplace dark," she wrote.

The AP attempted to reach Adams through Noel-Dale's Facebook account but had not received a response by late Sunday morning.

Air Canada said in a Facebook response to the post that it was surprised to hear the story and "very concerned," asking Adams to send a private message with her flight details.

"We'll take a look into it," the airline wrote.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toron...nger-1.5186858

^But what about her checked bags?

^just a cabin bag...

Update:
‘This is a nightmare’: A woman fell asleep mid-flight and woke up trapped in a dark plane alone

When Tiffani O’Brien opened her eyes, she was still in the same place she fell asleep — strapped into her seat aboard an Air Canada flight bound for Toronto.

Only, something wasn’t right. The entire plane was empty, O’Brien wrote in a Facebook post shared last week by her friend on her behalf. She was “freezing cold” and sitting in “complete darkness.” It was around midnight and her flight, which left Quebec City that evening, had landed hours earlier.

“I thought, ‘This is a nightmare,’” O’Brien, who is from St. Thomas, Ontario, told CTV News in an interview that aired over the weekend. “'This is not happening. I’m having a bad dream. Wake up, Tiffani.'”

But O’Brien says what she experienced was very real, and the Canadian airline is now looking into how a sleeping passenger could have been left behind, the Associated Press reported. Air Canada did not respond to a request for comment late Sunday, but confirmed to the AP that the incident did happen.

“We are still reviewing this matter so we have no additional details to share, but we have followed up with the customer and remain in contact with her,” the airline said.

Since going through the ordeal earlier this month, O’Brien said she’s suffered from insomnia and “reoccurring night terrors,” according to the Facebook post, which her friend, Deanna Noel-Dale, shared to Air Canada’s official page on Wednesday. The post identified the passenger as “Tiffani Adams,” but in a message to The Washington Post, Noel-Dale confirmed that her friend’s legal name is O’Brien.

Noel-Dale added that she and O’Brien were declining to comment further on the incident, citing advice from a lawyer.

In the post, O’Brien wrote that she was heading home by herself on June 9 after having “the most incredible time” with Noel-Dale during a weekend trip to Quebec City, located about 160 miles northeast of Montreal. The flight to Toronto Pearson International Airport was only about a quarter full, so O’Brien scored an entire row of seats to herself. O’Brien told CTV News she was seated in 32A, near the middle of the plane.
“I got super comfy reading my book,” she wrote on Facebook, and fell asleep less than halfway through the roughly 90-minute trip.

When she woke up, her nightmare began.

Alone and surrounded by “pitch black” darkness, O’Brien wrote that she initially thought she was dreaming. But reality soon dawned on her: she was trapped on an empty plane.

Grabbing her phone, O’Brien exchanged frantic text messages with Noel-Dale, who had been waiting for her friend to check in after landing, CTV News reported.

“I just woke up alone in plane,” O’Brien texted Noel-Dale at 11:45 p.m., according to messages published by CTV News.

“What?!!!” Noel-Dale responded. “You should almost be home!!!! Nobody woke you up?!!!!”

In another text, Noel-Dale asked if O’Brien could get off the plane. No, O’Brien replied, the door was shut.

O’Brien tried to FaceTime Noel-Dale, but her phone died mid-call. Unable to find any working outlets because the plane’s power had been shut off, O’Brien said she started to freak out.

“[S]ince I can’t charge my phone to call for help I’m full on panicking [because] I want off this nightmare asap,” she wrote.

She made her way to the cockpit where she tried to radio for help, but that didn’t work either.

Then, she found a flashlight.

“I was so happy,” she told CTV News. “That was like the best moment ever.”

Wielding the flashlight, O’Brien started making “sos signals” out of the plane’s windows, hoping the light would catch someone’s attention. When that didn’t seem to work, she turned her attention to the main cabin door, “determined to unlock the door and save myself,” she wrote.

When she got the door open, O’Brien said she could see the lights of the airport in the distance, and realized the plane had been parked overnight far from the terminal. With a 40- to 50-foot drop between her and the tarmac, O’Brien wrote that she desperately searched for a rope and thought about using the flight attendants’ seat belts, but found that they were too short. Instead, she resorted to “hanging out the door reflecting the flashlight off the side of the plane.”

Meanwhile, Noel-Dale told CTV News that after losing contact with O’Brien, she called the airport.

“I said ‘My friend is trapped on the airplane, in the dark, locked in and she just woke up. I need someone to go and get her,’” Noel-Dale said.

On Facebook, O’Brien said she was rescued by someone driving a “luggage cart.” Once she got to the airport, a representative from Air Canada asked O’Brien if she was okay and offered her a limo and a hotel, which she wrote that she declined. Following the incident, O’Brien wrote that Air Canada called her twice to “apologize for my inconvenience” and said the company would investigate.
Toronto Pearson International Airport did not respond to a request for comment late Sunday. In a statement to CBS News, an airport spokesperson said, “We are aware of this passenger’s story and we can certainly empathize with the concern she must have felt.”

“I’m asking for help,” O’Brien wrote in the Facebook post. “I would really like to find out if anyone had been through this too [because] 10 days later and I am still a wreck.”

In fact, there have been several instances of sleeping passengers getting left behind on planes in past years. In 2010, a British law professor flying on Air Canada’s regional discount carrier, Air Canada Jazz, was awakened by a mechanic after the plane was taken to a hangar at Vancouver International Airport, ABC News reported. That same year, a Michigan woman who fell asleep during a flight from Dulles International Airport to Philadelphia was trapped for more than three hours after landing, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. In 2013, a Louisiana man also found himself stuck in a dark, locked plane at Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport after he slept through landing, ABC News reported.

O’Brien wrote that she continues to be affected by her experience and now struggles to sleep, often “waking up anxious and afraid” that she is alone and trapped “some place dark."

“It’s just a sheer sense of helplessness when you feel like you’re locked on this aircraft,” O’Brien told CTV News, “and you have no connection to the outside world.”

https://www.msn.com/en-za/lifestyle/...v9v?li=BBqg6Q6

Boeing 777 hits airport bridge causing flight cancellations



The left wing of the Kuwait Airways plane crunched into the structure in the Southern French airport just before 6pm.
It meant a subsequent return flight was immediately cancelled and there were reports of delays in the airport.

The airline said on Twitter that all passengers and cabin crew were safely removed from the aircraft and no one was injured.

Kuwait Airways explained they are currently arranging accommodation for the people left stranded as well as scheduling replacement flights

They are cooperating with the relevant French authorities in case of any possible investigation, they added on the social media platform.

Just after 9pm, Claire on Twitter claimed British Airways customers were facing delays.

“There are a hundred passengers waiting for an update with no staff or info at Nice airport,” she wrote.

Easy Jet received similar complaints. Ols wrote: “Horrific service at Nice airport @easyJet hundreds of people and only three staff on the whole check in.

“Flight two hours and a half delayed already.”

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/787688/nice-airport-kuwait-airways-wind-bridge-collision-cancelled?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&ut m_campaign=Feed%3A+daily-star-latest-news+%28Daily+Star+%3A%3A+News+Feed%29

Boeing left the aircraft in the car park



Boeing has deployed several 737 MAX aircraft in the parking spaces of its employees. Reports about it Business Insider.

It clarifies that such a step has become part of the company's plan for the management of tangible assets. Placing an aircraft in the parking lot costs the corporation $ 2,000 per month.

https://lenta.ru/news/2019/06/25/boeing/

Originally Posted by Klondyke

in the parking spaces of its employees

it is likely to have less employess soon , so why not use the parking spaces

Originally Posted by Klondyke

Placing an aircraft in the parking lot costs the corporation $ 2,000 per month.

How much revenue is it costing the airlines per month/per plane?

I am presuming every flight earns a pretty US$ 1,000s profit.

Originally Posted by OhOh

How much revenue is it costing the airlines per month/per plane?

I am presuming every flight earns a pretty US$ 1,000s profit.

That's OK, Boeing will be paying one way or the other.

Originally Posted by baldrick

it is likely to have less employess soon , so why not use the parking spaces

Why not to convert the planes as mobile homes, instead of trailers?

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

Sounds like pilots are not on board (excuse the pun).

https://www.xxx.xxx.xx/news/2019-06-...7-max/11238282

Here is the new link for Harry's post above ... http://tinyurl.com/y5f5ojc9

U.S. regulator cites new flaw on grounded Boeing 737 MAX

WASHINGTON/SEATTLE (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has identified a new risk that Boeing Co must address on its 737 MAX before the grounded jet can return to service, the agency said on Wednesday.

The risk was discovered during a simulator test last week and it is not yet clear if the issue can be addressed with a software upgrade or will require a more complex hardware fix, sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

The FAA did not elaborate on the latest setback for Boeing, which has been working to get its best-selling airplane back in the air following a worldwide grounding in March in the wake of two deadly crashes within five months.

The new issue means Boeing will not conduct a certification test flight until July 8 in a best-case scenario, the sources said, but one source cautioned it could face further delays beyond that. The FAA will spend at least two to three weeks reviewing the results before deciding whether to return the plane to service, the people said.

Last month, FAA representatives told members of the aviation industry that approval of the 737 MAX jets could happen as early as late June.

The world’s largest planemaker has been working on the upgrade for a stall-prevention system known as MCAS since a Lion Air crash in Indonesia in October, when pilots were believed to have lost a tug of war with software that repeatedly pushed the nose down.

A second deadly crash in March in Ethiopia also involved MCAS. The two accidents killed a total of 346 people.

“On the most recent issue, the FAA’s process is designed to discover and highlight potential risks. The FAA recently found a potential risk that Boeing must mitigate,” the FAA said in the statement emailed to Reuters. “The FAA will lift the aircraft’s prohibition order when we deem it is safe to do so.”

Boeing said in a securities filing late on Wednesday that the FAA has asked it to address through software changes a specific flight condition not covered in the company’s already-unveiled software changes.

The U.S. planemaker also said it agreed with the FAA’s decision and request, and was working on a fix to address the problem.

“Boeing will not offer the 737 MAX for certification by the FAA until we have satisfied all requirements for certification of the MAX and its safe return to service,” Boeing wrote in the filing.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-e...-idUSKCN1TR30J

Originally Posted by David48atTD

The FAA did not elaborate on the latest setback for Boeing

Yeha, and why the fuck not? Are people not entitled to know how dangerous this Rube Goldberg deathtrap is?

Just watching on Al Jazeera:

Flight 990: What Really Happened?
A re-examination of the investigation into the fatal 1999 EgyptAir crash that concluded a co-pilot was to blame.
02 Jul 2019

When is an air crash a planned suicide mission and when is it the result of a disastrous technical fault?

On the morning of October 31, 1999, the EgyptAir Flight 990, a Boeing 767, left John F Kennedy (JFK) International Airport for Cairo.

Soon after take-off, it plunged into the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 217 passengers. Nearly two decades on, the question that still has not been convincingly answered is 'why'?.

The initial US investigation blamed the co-pilot and concluded the crash was "as a result of the relief first officer's flight control inputs", adding that the reason for his actions "was not determined".

But today the evidence behind this conclusion looks far from convincing, as this Al Jazeera World investigation exposes.

In 1999, the Egyptian government handed over the task of investigating the crash to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in the United States, a Washington-based organisation charged with investigating transportation accidents, including air crashes.

Philip Riddell, an aerospace engineer and pilot with more than 50 years of experience, told Al Jazeera that the NTSB investigation was problematic.

"I thought the NTSB report was flawed in a number of areas. They kind of jumped on the conclusion that the handling pilot was mishandling the aircraft with a finger pointed at suicide," Riddell said, adding that the agency may have "neglected to look at other relevant evidence that was found".

The crash happened at a time of growing apprehension in the US about so-called "terrorism" and the appointed US investigation firmly concluded the co-pilot was responsible for bringing the plane down.

That conclusion was based on audio on the Cockpit Voice Recorder, where the relief First Officer, Gameel al-Batouti, is heard calling on God as he tries to correct the 767 from its sudden sharp descent. The NTSB investigation interpreted this as the final prayer of a man intent on suicide and mass murder, rather than a man begging for divine intervention to save the aircraft.

While the NTSB refused to speak to Al Jazeera, its chairman at the time of the accident, Jim Hall, agreed to be interviewed for this documentary.

"We were asked to take this investigation to begin with. We did it … and a good job was done by the investigators. The NTSB has a worldwide reputation for factual investigations and where we have problems with staff in terms of workload, we just extend the time for the investigation," Hall said.

Egypt issued a furious rebuttal of the US report and the FBI and other US agencies also later cast doubt on its conclusions. Over the years these doubts persisted - but it was only some 14 years later, in 2014, when the US aviation authorities demanded a technical change to all Boeing 767s, that these suspicions ramped up.

Al Jazeera's Neil Cairns conducted an in-depth examination of inconsistencies within the NTSB report - starting with evidence of technical problems reported with the same Boeing 767 plane that had emerged the day before the crash.

In 2000, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued airworthiness directives for urgent relevant checks to be made on all 767s. It took another 14 years for the FAA to issue fresh directives which pointed to a technical problem with this model of aircraft.

After the 2014 directives, Boeing made changes to its own systems.

"Consequently Boeing actually bought out a completely new system to replace the bellcrank system," Riddell explained.

American accident investigator Pat Diggins makes a key point about the influence of manufacturers on federal agencies.

"The manufacturer, the larger it is, the larger the arms and the reaches are to it. I mean … if you look at Boeing, look at how far-reaching their capabilities are to … They have more government solicitors in Washington DC that help them get their products approved. The majority of their company sells to the United States government," said Diggins.

The Boeing 737 Max 8 jet crashes in Jakarta in 2018 and Addis Ababa in 2019 have resulted in investigations into this model of aircraft. Boeing has already conceded mistakes were made in launching this model. But there have been no such concessions from anyone regarding Flight 990, and after nearly 20 years, there is no resolution for the bereaved families, not least that of First Officer Gameel al-Batouti.

https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes...080143751.html