Expecting A Rate Increase, Boeing Opens The Renovated 737 Paint Hangar

 Boeing has inaugurated a new paint hangar near its Renton, Washington site that would help in increasing the 737 Next-Generation production capacities.

The 737 program presently manufactures about 31 aeroplanes per month. It targets 35 per month in early 2012, 38 per month in second quarter 2013 and then 42 per month in the first half of 2014.

737-700 for Southwest Airlines was completed painting yesterday.

“City of Renton is working very closely with Boeing to ensure its ramp up of production of the 737 is seamless,” said Renton Mayor, Denis Law. “Coupled with Boeing’s signing of a 20-year lease agreement for the Renton Municipal Airport, we view the capital improvements such as those at the paint hangar as important signals that Renton will continue to be a centre of commercial airplane manufacturing for many years to come. We will continue to do everything we can to ensure Boeing’s continued success.”

Boeing looks forward to the market where single-aisle aircraft will continue to grow over the next decade and beyond.
This outlook is making the 737 program take several steps in meeting the market demand.

Beverly Wyse, Vice President and General Manager of 737 program says, “We identified this paint hangar as a key piece of infrastructure to support our future plans for increased 737 production several years ago. We have a measured approach to meeting rate increases on the program. Bringing this facility online demonstrates our progress.”

Boeing and ANA Begin 787 Service Readiness Validation in Japan

Boeing and ANA has begun an important validation of their readiness for the 787 Dreamliner’s entry into service from July 4.

Throughout the coming days, ANA pilots, together with Boeing, will fly a 787 on actual airline routes in Japan using airline dispatch and flight rules. ANA’s mechanics and ground crews also will gain experience with the airplane in a simulated operational environment.

“ANA is proud to be the first airline in the world that will operate the 787,” said Shinichiro Ito, ANA president and CEO. “The Dreamliner is an integral part of our plans to become Asia’s number one airline and will allow us to bring new standards of comfort and service to our passengers. Validating all of our training and preparations for the Dreamliner is critical to help ensure a smoother entry into service for our passengers and crews later this year.”

The 787 debuted in Asia yesterday with a landing at Haneda Airport in Tokyo at 6:21 a.m. (local time). More than a thousand media, ANA employees and aviation enthusiasts gathered to witness the 787′s arrival and welcome ANA pilots Captains Masayuki Ishii and Masami Tsukamoto and Boeing pilots Captains Mike Carriker, Heather Ross and Ted Grady. Sporting ANA’s livery, the 787 flight test airplane ZA002 flew non-stop to Tokyo from Seattle.

“Boeing is honored to celebrate the historic first landing of the 787 Dreamliner in Japan, home of our launch customer ANA and many of our 787 partners,” said Jim Albaugh, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “ANA is a tremendous airline, and the 787 is a better airplane because of their input and involvement in the program.”
Throughout the week-long validation, the 787 will experience simulated day-to-day airline operations. Maintenance, servicing and flight crew operations will be conducted at five airports in Tokyo, Osaka (Itami and Kansai), Okayama and Hiroshima. ANA’s first scheduled service with the 787 will be either the Haneda-Okayama or Haneda-Hiroshima route when deliveries begin later this year.

ANA has 55 Dreamliners on order. ANA will deploy the 787 across its route network as an integral part of its strategy to strengthen its position and support its growth and expansion plans.

Boeing plans to deliver the first 787 to ANA in the August to September timeframe.

Source: Boeing

Qatar Airways CEO Hails Extension Of Global Footprint To Canada

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker spoke of the airline’s entry into the Canadian market as a significant step in its expansion strategy, further cementing the award-winning carrier’s global footprint.

The launch of long-awaited non-stop scheduled flights between the airline’s Doha hub and Montreal – Canada’s second largest city – would “hopefully be the start of more things to come in Canada”, he said.
Montreal is the eighth new route launched by the Five Star-ranked carrier – also named last week as Airline of the Year 2011 – with a further seven destinations being added by November.

Speaking at a press conference in Montreal, Al Baker reiterated the rapid pace at which the airline is growing, substantiated by the upcoming new routes, increased frequency and additional aircraft orders announced at the Paris Air Show last week.

“Qatar Airways has strategically positioned itself as a global connector, flying passengers seamlessly across continents, from East to West in comfort and style, with service onboard that I am sure will impress the Canadian market,” he said.

“By entering Canada, Qatar Airways is giving the travelling public more choice and more options they fully deserve. But with only three flights a week to Montreal, we are constrained by the limited capacity.

“Qatar Airways would look to expand its presence in Canada with additional capacity in response to a growing passenger base here, who travel to many destinations we serve across the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific. This will not only benefit the travelling public, but also serve as a huge job creation opportunity and boost local economies.

“We are among shining stars from the Middle East and will continue to explore new growth opportunities to cater for growing air travel demand.”

Added Al Baker: “Last week’s endorsement by the prestigious industry audit Skytrax naming Qatar Airways as Airline of the Year 2011 in their annual awards only confirmed the travelling public’s faith in our outstanding inflight product and operational excellence.

“Qatar Airways beat stiff competition from four Asian carriers in the category to cling the top honour. For an airline that has achieved so much in the 14 short few years it has been operating, winning countless awards for service and excellence, is a remarkable achievement.”

The Doha – Montreal route is operated by the airline’s long-haul flagship aircraft, the Boeing 777, featuring 42 seats in Business Class and 217 in Economy. Each seat onboard features individual television screens with an in-flight audio and video system offering more than 900 entertainment options.

Montreal becomes the airline’s fourth destination in North America. It currently operates daily flights to New York, Washington and Houston direct from Doha, the second busiest airport in the Gulf region.

Over the next few months, Qatar Airways launches flights to the following destinations, further strengthening its global reach. Medina (Saudi Arabia) on July 14; Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta (India) on July 27; Sofia (Bulgaria) on September 14; Oslo (Norway) on October 5; Entebbe (Uganda) on November 2; Baku (Azerbaijan) and Tbilisi (Georgia) on November 30.

Qatar Airways now flies to over 100 diverse business and leisure destinations across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, North America and South America with a modern fleet of 98 aircraft. During the Paris Air Show last week, Qatar Airways placed orders with Boeing for six additional 777s.

The Qatar Airways’ group of companies includes a corporate jet division, Qatar Executive, which operates four all-new Canadian-built Bombardier aircraft.

The Doha-based executive jet operation, which began in 2009 with two Bombardier Challenger 605s, has received an exceptional response in the corporate market.

It also operates a Global Express XRS and Global 5000 with a further two corporate jets due to be delivered over the next few weeks. Qatar Executive recently opened a new dedicated 6,300 square metre maintenance hangar at Doha International Airport, where the Qatar Executive maintenance team also serves other business aircraft operators.

Source: Qatar Airways

Bmibaby’s extra flights for MIPIM conference

Low cost airline bmibaby has increased the number of its flights between Birmingham Airport and Nice to accommodate the large number of delegates heading to the South of France for the MIPIM conference next month. Running from March 8-11, 2011, MIPIM is aiming for the international property professionals. The event brings together more than 17,000 delegates from all over the world for four days of seminars, networking and business development. Due to the growing demand bmibaby has added six extra flights between Birmingham and Nice for the event. In total the airline will operate ten flights between Birmingham and Nice over the course of the event, allowing people to travel to and from MIPIM. According to the airline, the flights are already proving popular and the airline expects to carry around 1,400 passengers during this time.

Air Canada signs contract extension with Amadeus

Amadeus and Air Canada has announced a contract extension that will see the airline continue to use Amadeus for powering its consumer and agency websites. According to the new contract extension, Air Canada will continue to benefit from Amadeus’ advanced technology. Air Canada’s website offers innovative pricing that allows people to customise their travel experience by choosing only the options that they wish to pay for. At the same time, the flexibility of Amadeus’ e-Retail booking engine and Flex Pricer faring allows Air Canada to provide total transparency to its travellers and thereby increase yield for the airline.

Codeshare between British Airways and S7 Airlines

British Airways and S7 Airlines recently announced that they will start codesharing on each other’s flights between London Heathrow, Moscow and across domestic routes in Russia February 8, 2011 onwards. This follows S7′s recent entry into the oneworld alliance. British Airways will pace its code on selected domestic Russian routes operated by S7 and its subsidiary Globus. S7′s code will be placed on all British Airways’ services between Moscow and London Heathrow. Both the airlines’ customers can book their whole journey on each other’s websites and even earn frequent flyer points on the codeshare routes. The codeshares is going to operate on S7 flights between Moscow and Krasnodar, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, Ekaterinburg, Kazan, Chelyabinsk, Kaliningrad, Krasnoyarsk and Ufa. All British Airways services between Moscow Domodedovo and London Heathrow Terminal 5 will carry an S7 code as well. The codeshare flights will be available from February 1, 2011 onwards for travel from February 8th.

Dubai International Airport’s record growth

Dubai International Airport recorded a total of 47.2 million visitors last year and continues to rise toward to the top of the global aviation sector. The figure represents a 15.3 per cent increase on the total of 40.9 million recorded the previous year. The figure was 2.4 per cent more than the 46.1 million originally projected for the year, according to the annual traffic report issued on Wednesday by Dubai Airports. In terms of monthly traffic, the airport crossed the four million mark for the third consecutive month in December, and for the fourth time in 2010. In 2010 the prestigious World Travel Awards recognised the airport as the Middle East’s Leading Airport. Dubai International also witnessed strong cargo traffic growth following a surge in air freight volumes during the first three quarters of the year as the global economy recovered and companies worldwide cleared inventories. Annual cargo traffic rose to 2.27 million tonnes, a robust 17.7 per cent rise over the 1.93 million tonnes recorded in 2009, the data said.

Saudi Arabian Airlines ties up SkyTeam

Saudi Arabian Airlines has signed an agreement for joining SkyTeam in 2012. It is going to be SkyTeam’s first member from the Middle East, which will add 35 new destinations to the alliance network. Saudi Arabian Airlines serves destinations across the Middle East not currently served by SkyTeam members. Through Saudi Arabia’s major hubs of Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam, travellers can connect to new destinations on the Arabian Peninsula, the Indian subcontinent and Northern Africa. Examples are Alexandria, Aden, Colombo and Islamabad. SkyTeam members will have access to new potential customers from the region as Saudi Arabian Airlines has direct flights to Europe, Asia, Africa and the USA. Customers can transfer to SkyTeam partner flights via hubs such as Paris, Rome, Nairobi and New York. SkyTeam partner China Southern also offers connections to Asia from Jeddah.

Yemenia consults SITA for managing passenger growth

Yemenia has announced that the airline will migrate its passenger management and distribution to SITA for managing its expected 10 per cent annual growth in passenger numbers. This is an extensive seven-year passenger management agreement. Besides that Yemenia has also contracted SITA for network communication services for the airline’s offices worldwide. With SITA’s managed IP (Internet protocol) solution, a total of 60 locations including Yemenia’s head office, sales offices and out-stations, will have secure IP access. SITA Horizon is used by more than 130 airlines. It will provide reservations, inventory, ticketing, pricing, fares distribution, departure control services, frequent flyer and advanced e-commerce capabilities to Yemenia. Plus revenue integrity and revenue management services will ensure maximised yields from all flights. The implementation of SITA’s services is going to start in early 2011 with phased cutovers over the following months.

Ray of hope for Heathrow passengers

Hopes were raised among passengers waiting at London Heathrow today with news the airport planned to operate two-thirds of its departures.
No fresh snow has fallen since Saturday, with airport operator BAA stating staff is finding some success while working to clear the backlog of passengers stranded in terminals.
One of Heathrow’s two runways has now reopened, with hopes the second might return to full operations later today.
However, a further 60,000 passengers are expected to descend on the London airport during Wednesday, with fears these passengers may swamp available seats.
British Airways has put up an updated flying schedule in place, with passengers urged not to head to the airport unless they have a confirmed booking for a flight.
BAA
Airport operator BAA has come under fierce attack from passengers for failing to prepare adequately for snow. A lack of investment in snow clearing equipment and a shortage of de-icer continue to cause problems, while the threat of fresh snowfall is also causing concern.
The British government offered to assist the airport in clearing snow. BAA rejected the offer stating the situation was under control.
“We are now working with airlines to return to a normal schedule as quickly as possible,” explained a statement.
However, BAA warned: “More cold weather is forecast and there may be further delays and cancellations.”
Prime minister David Cameron has attempted to quell anger over perceived failures at Heathrow.
At a news conference with coalition partner Nick Clegg yesterday, the prime minister said: “Even BAA’s harshest critics have conceded that given the amount of snow that has fallen, extensive disruption is understandable.
“But if it’s understandable that Heathrow had to close briefly, I’m frustrated on behalf of all those affected that it’s taking so long for the situation to improve.”
He also said: “The people stuck here are having an incredibly difficult time, especially just a few days from Christmas, and everything must be done to either get them on holiday or get them home safely.”