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Friday, May 25th, 2018
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LATEST NEWS
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New Zealand’s major air traffic controller, Airways, has delivered its first report on the state of the drone industry in New Zealand. The results are based on information obtained from 1460 drone pilots, which included 500 drone service providers.
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Based on the whole of the country, the report has provided an in-depth view of drone use for both recreational as well as commercial purposes, while also reporting on the state of drone safety and the value of the growing commercial drone market.
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According to Trent Fulcher, Airways’ Head of Strategy, “Businesses in the drone industry are telling us they are very optimistic about the future, with many expecting an increase or significant increase in demand for services, growing revenue and to hire more staff,” adding that: “It’s great to see most users are aware of safety rules and regulations and are trying to abide by them. But there is a clear gap in understanding and attitudes towards compliance and a divide between commercial and recreational operators.”
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The report makes it clear that safety is still a major challenge, and that there is a divide between the attitude of commercial drone pilots and recreational ones. Roughly 60 percent of respondents reported their strict compliance with civil aviation rules and regulations when they fly. However, commercial operators reported being more stringent about following rules, with 72percent confirming that they always complied with safety regulations, while only 51 percent of recreational users complied.
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While the majority of commercial operators generally felt that the current regulatory environment supported their activities and industry growth, they felt that a number of improvements are needed, their biggest bugbear being the ‘beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS)’ regulation.
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According to Fulcher, commercial drone operators are “becoming impatient with restrictions on beyond visual line of sight operations. BVLOS would be a game changer for the industry, enabling activities like package deliveries and autonomous flying vehicles.”
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Airways aims to develop a nationwide drone traffic management system. A trial of the AirMap drone traffic management platform earlier this year was the first step in this development and Airways is now looking to pilot technologies to allow drones to be accurately tracked once they are beyond the pilot’s line of site.
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OGMA – Indústria Aeronáutica de Portugal, S.A. has delivered to Pilatus Aircraft the 1500th Pilatus PC-12 shipset, an aircraft structure manufactured and assembled at Alverca facilities since 1994. Thus OGMA reinforces a relationship of almost 25-years with the Swiss OEM and consolidates its commitment to the Aerostructures business.
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OGMA is a Tier-1 supplier of Pilatus and has a qualified team of more than 230 employees dedicated to the PC-12 program, from different areas such as production, quality, engineering, planning and commercial areas. At Alverca plant, OGMA is responsible for manufacturing composite parts and assembly of the fuselage, wings, cargo and passenger doors, flaps, ailerons, rudder and harnesses. Each shipset goes by inland transport to the Pilatus Group facilities, in Switzerland.
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StandardAero has announced that, over the next 12-18 months, the company will be restructuring its primary Canadian MRO facilities to create three different Centers of Excellence (COEs) specifically for supporting Helicopter Airframe/Component MRO services, Helicopter Engine MRO services and Turboprop Engine MRO services at it facilities located in Langley, B.C., Winnipeg, M.B. and Summerside P.E.I., respectively.
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Additionally, and as part of the restructuring, StandardAero intends to wind down operations at its Richmond, B.C. facility by June of 2019. Helicopter engine MRO services currently performed at Richmond will be relocated to StandardAero’s Winnipeg facility, including all Safran Arriel 1&2, Rolls-Royce M250, GE T700 and Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) PT6T helicopter engine MRO services.
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Winnipeg will serve as the company’s COE for all Helicopter Engine MRO services. Helicopter dynamic components, currently located in Richmond, will be relocated to the company’s Langley facility which will serve as the COE for Helicopter Airframes/Component MRO services moving forward.
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In order to accommodate all of the helicopter engine MRO capabilities in Winnipeg, StandardAero is moving its Winnipeg P&WC PW100 MRO engine services and as well as the existing P&WC PT6A work to its facility in Summerside – which will become the company’s COE for Turboprop Engine MRO.
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Moreover, StandardAero’s objectives for the restructuring include achieving better organizational efficiency and more focused support and service for our customers. Eliminating redundancies also allows the company to better allocate engineering, testing and technology investments.
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Vallair, the aircraft trading, leasing and specialist MRO organisation, has completed a short-term eighteen month lease transaction with Ukrainian charter airline, Windrose Aviation Company for an Airbus A321. A full maintenance ‘C’ check was carried out on the aircraft prior to delivery at Vallair’s MRO facility in Montpellier, France.
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Windrose operates charter, corporate, tourist and VIP flights using its own aircraft fleet consisting of A320 Family aircraft, regional jets E145s, and business jets. A continuous fleet renewal and expansion programme is an important part of the airline’s development strategy as the Ukrainian economy grows. This transition delivers operational, financial and competitive advantages via a higher quality, more consistent product and enables Windrose to optimise its operations around a common platform reducing costs and streamlining maintenance.
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The aircraft is one of a batch of six A320 family aircraft that Vallair has recently purchased, all of which will be attributed to short term lease programmes within Vallair’s current portfolio. All aircraft will ultimately serve as initial feedstock for the Company’s launch of the Airbus A321-200 P2F cargo conversion programme.
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PPG has announced that Pilatus Aircraft has qualified PPG exterior paint systems for all production aircraft. The PPG paint systems are qualified to Pilatus Specification PMS0600-52-01.
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The PPG coatings are qualified for application on the PC-24 Super Versatile Jet, PC-12 NG turboprop airplane, PC-6 multirole aircraft, and PC-21, PC-9 M and PC-7 MkII military trainers.
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According to Thorsten Schleyer, PPG account manager for Pilatus, PPG formulated the coatings systems with the latest innovative technology, enabling PPG to offer a coatings system that meets the application and performance needs of Pilatus.
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Kazakh flag carrier Air Astana, has opened a new Aviation Technical Centre at Astana’s Nursultan Nazarbayev international airport on May 24.
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The new Aviation Technical Centre enables Air Astana to undertake all aircraft engineering and servicing requirements up to heavy maintenance level. The project was financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development at a cost of US$19 million.
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The Aviation Technical Centre’s energy efficient, single span hangar offers 5,556 m² of floor space and can accommodate widebody types like the Boeing 787 or Boeing 767, alongside a single aisle aircraft like the latest Airbus A320neo Family simultaneously.
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The Canadian designed structure is built to a very high specification and designed to remain fully operational even under the extremely low temperatures experienced in Astana during winter months. In addition to the hangar, the Aviation Technical Centre incorporates a spare parts warehouse and a complete range of workshops for the repair and overhaul of aircraft components. An auxiliary building provides space for the existing Air Astana Engineering Centre to significantly expand training of engineering and maintenance staff to international standards.
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The South African airline Comair Limited and Lufthansa Technik have signed a comprehensive long-term Total Technical Support (TTS®) contract. In the frame of the new agreement, Lufthansa Technik will provide engineering, planning, line maintenance and component support including consumables and expendables supply for the customer's future Boeing 737 MAX 8 fleet. The services will commence in January 2019, when Comair, as part of its fleet renewal program, will take delivery of the first two of eight 737 MAX 8 aircraft on order.
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As part of the TTS®, Lufthansa Technik supports Comair with a Technical Operations Management (TOM), integrating all MRO activities contracted in the agreement into a comprehensive service package.
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Embraer will debut the Phenom 100EV business jet at the European Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition (EBACE) in Geneva, Switzerland, from May 29 to May 31. The entry-level Phenom 100EV, an evolution of the Phenom 100E, delivers improved performance with modified engines and a new avionics suite.
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The evolution of Embraer’s very first clean-sheet-design business jet, which entered into service in 2008, is the result of continuous customer feedback and the Company’s commitment to continue delivering revolutionary aircraft with superior value to the market. The acclaimed Prodigy Touch flight deck, which was introduced in the market by the Phenom 300 light jet, is now featured on the entry-level Phenom 100EV. Pratt & Whitney Canada’s modified engines (PW617F1-E) offer even more thrust, which renders more speed with superior performance, especially in hot-and-high operations.
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The Phenom 100EV’s outstanding hot-and-high performance is gaining traction among new and current customers with extra performance requirements. 14 Phenom 100EV have been delivered to date and there are more than 50 Phenom 100, Phenom 100E and Phenom 100EV in operation in 20 countries throughout Europe, Africa and The Middle East.
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Delta Air Lines will begin nonstop flights between the United States and Mumbai, India, next year, linking the U.S. with one of its strongest trading partners.
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The announcement follows agreements between the U.S. and the governments of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar to address the issue of government subsidies provided to state-owned carriers in those nations. The framework created by the agreement allows Delta to move forward with service to India, a market long impacted by government-subsidized Middle Eastern airlines.
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This move will mark a return to India for Delta, which was forced to exit the market after subsidized state-owned airlines made service economically unviable.
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The service is subject to government approval; full schedule details will be announced later this year.
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Delta also intends to expand its existing codeshare relationship with partner Jet Airways to provide seamless connections to other destinations within India, subject to government approvals.
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UPCOMING EVENTS
June 5, 2018 – Jury’s Inn Hotel, Prague
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