Aviation News

Air New Zealand

Air New Zealand passengers face a second day of travel disruption, after the grounding of its 11 ATR aircraft due to safety concerns.

About 60 one-way services were cancelled yesterday, affecting up to 3000 people across New Zealand.

Air New Zealand cancelled most  ATR services operated by Mount Cook Airline after hairline cracks were found in the area around the windows of the cockpit in one aircraft during routine overnight maintenance.

The flights, mostly to regional centres, were cancelled by the airline so all aircraft could be inspected.

Captain David Morgan, general manager airline operations and safety, said nearly two-thirds of Mt Cook Airlines normal operations were expected to operate today.

Two ATR aircraft were flying now, with a further three expected back by the end of today.

An Airbus A320 had been brought in and would be operating on some key routes, particularly through Queenstown and Hamilton, Morgan told Radio New Zealand.

A Boeing 737 would also be doing extra flying between Christchurch and Wellington.

Other affected customers would be put on to alternative Air New Zealand services as necessary.

The ATR manufacturer had told Air New Zealand it was aware of the cracks issue, and had been advising the airline on how to carry out repairs.

“We don’t actually believe it’s a significant airworthiness issue for the airplane itself. It’s not in a part of the structure that is load bearing,” Morgan said.

The ATR-500 aircraft have been in service with Mount Cook Airline since 1999 and have an average age of 10.9 years.

The 68-seat aircraft operate to 10 destinations around New Zealand, including Dunedin and Invercargill.

Heathrow

The heads of four leading airlines have warned the British government there could be chaos at London’s airports during this summer’s Olympic Games, which would cause major embarrassment to the country unless a deal can be reached over their concerns.

In a blunt letter to transport chiefs, British Airways , bmi, Virgin Atlantic and Easyjet said time was running out to tackle the expected surge in air traffic and its impact.

Failure to address their concerns could bring misery to millions of regular travellers and those coming to London for the world’s biggest sporting event, the airlines argue.

“As the situation currently stands the industry believes that there is a significant risk of severe delay and disruption at all of London’s major airports unless urgent action is taken,” they wrote in a letter seen by Reuters on Saturday.

“Time is running out to ensure that any changes to procedures and the appropriate training are in place prior to the Games.”

Britain, already the sixth most visited country in the world, anticipates an additional 700,000 international travellers during the Olympics, which begin on July 27.

London’s Heathrow Airport, Britain’s busiest, runs at 99% of its capacity on an average day, and Gatwick, south of the capital, is operating at full capacity at peak times, while unforeseen events such as poor weather conditions have caused huge problems and queues in the past.

Businesses and airlines have long argued that Heathrow needs a third runway to cope with rising demand, a move blocked by the government because of environmental concerns.

On Thursday, Willy Walsh, chief executive of International Airlines Group (IAG), which owns BA and Spain’s Iberia, described Britain’s aviation policy as an “unholy mess”.

In the letter to the government, whose signatories included Andy Lord, director of operations at BA, and Corneel Koster, Virgin’s director of operations, safety and security, the airlines highlighted six areas of concern.

Air space fear

These include the resilience of air space in coping with the number of planes taking off and landing during the Olympics, the impact of any adverse weather, and the effect any security incident might have.

It said air traffic controllers had put forward five proposals about prioritising flights in southeast England during the Games but these had been rejected by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

Meanwhile the government’s Department for Transport (DfT) was wrongly under the impression that the industry was happy with the steps that had been taken so far, they wrote.

“This is far from the truth,” said the letter, also signed by Easyjet’s Chief Operations Officer Warwick Brady and Sean Butler, head of operations at bmi.

A meeting between the airlines, the DfT and CAA is planned for March 22 and the letter said it was vital that a deal was reached then.

“Failure to respond leaves the UK vulnerable to the type of major disruption that will cause significant reputational damage and would be foolhardy and reckless.”

A DfT spokeswoman said it had already promised a range of special measures to prevent scheduled air services from disruption, by increasing air space capacity as well as putting in temporary restrictions for some air traffic.

“We are confident that the majority of these additional issues have now been addressed and we look forward to discussing them with the airlines concerned at a meeting next week,” the spokeswoman said.

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Qantas A380

SYDNEY, 14 March 2012: An engine oil leak that forced a Qantas jet carrying British actor, Stephen Fry, to divert to Dubai was caused by pipe stress seen in a number of A380 jets worldwide, Australian officials said Tuesday.

Thanks to Fry’s presence on the leak-hit flight, details of the diversion to Dubai were relayed to his more than 3 million followers on Twitter.

The leak, which occurred in one of the Airbus superjumbo’s four Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines, forced the London-bound Qantas flight to reroute four hours after leaving Singapore last November.

It came one year to the day after an A380 Trent 900 engine exploded over Indonesia, punching a hole in the Qantas aircraft’s wing and forcing an emergency landing in Singapore.

A manufacturing issue was ultimately found to be at fault.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said the November leak was “part of a wider pattern of Trent 900 series engine oil leaks in A380 aircraft that were reported to the engine manufacturer between August 2010 and November 2011″.

“As of 1 December 2011, there had been a total of 16 reported oil leakage events involving the external HP/IP oil feed pipe connection on Trent engines across the worldwide A380 fleet,” the ATSB said.

Rolls-Royce had identified that clipping the pipe in question to an adjacent hot air tube and support bracket was putting it under excessive stress and causing its feed connection to leak from a “compromised seal”.

Most of the leaks occurred in pipes that were removed and reinstalled during global engine inspections ordered after the November 2010 explosion and Rolls-Royce found that had also “increased the risk of oil leaks”, the ATSB said.

Though it was a recurring and widespread issue the ATSB said it had not identified any “organisational or systemic issues” and said Qantas, Airbus and Rolls-Royce had all taken safety action.

A root cause analysis by Rolls-Royce identified a batch of piping with “below-specification” finish that was removed from service, and the engine-maker was in the process of modifying the way the pipes were secured.

Qantas had carried out checks at “regular intervals” and Airbus issued a directive to operators about the issue, the ATSB added.

Embattled Qantas, which grounded its entire global fleet in October due to a bitter industrial dispute with staff, said at the time of the leak that there was no link with the engine blast of a year earlier.

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Boeing 787 Dreamliner

(Reuters) – Boeing Co said it will move production of the horizontal tail of its 787-9 Dreamliners from Seattle to Salt Lake City, Utah, and to Alenia Aermacchi of Italy by late 2012.

A company spokesman told Reuters the move would not result in any job losses at the Seattle plant.

“Once that work moves out of the development center, other projects start coming through,” Doug Alder said by phone.

With the move, Salt Lake City will have more than 100 jobs by 2014, while Utah site, which currently has 522 employees, could grow to 650, he said.

At present, the Developmental Center in Seattle does the development work and initial production on the 787-9 horizontal stabilizer.

Boeing expects the Salt Lake City center to deliver their first stabilizer in the first quarter 2013. The date for the first delivery from Alenia is still being finalized, the company said.

Alenia Aermacchi is a subsidiary of Finmeccanica.

The 787-9 is larger version of the Dreamliner, scheduled to commence service in early 2014 after the 787-8 model. The 787-8 Dreamliner was delayed after the horizontal tails, made by Alenia, suffered quality issues.

The head of Boeing’s commercial airplanes unit reaffirmed yesterday that the plane-maker can correct a glitch on the 787 Dreamliner and meet its delivery goals for the plane this year. The light-weight, carbon-composite airplane is already three years behind its development schedule.

The first 787-9 horizontal tail will be delivered out of the Seattle facility in the fourth quarter of current year, Alder said. The first out of Salt Lake will be delivered in the first quarter, next year. Delivery date of the first 787-9 horizontal tail from Alenia has not been finalized yet.

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