segunda-feira, 31 de agosto de 2015

CASPIAN AIRLINES - B737-400 - EP-CAP -

the first of five 734's of Caspian Airlines started scheduled flights and as usual the route was THR-MHD-THR. We guess the ex reg: T7-AWB, YR-AWA and 9M-MMF of Malaysia Airlines which we can still see some C/S there on the fuselage!

Shahram Sharifi - Iranian Spotters - Tehran - Mehrabad International -  Iran

AIR CANADA - B787-900 - C-FNOE

Paul Bannwarth - ZHR

TUIFLY - B737-800W - D-ATUJ

Paul Bannwarth - BSL

Napleton Aviation Group - Saab 340 - N727DL

Alain Charpentier - TLS

Kenya Airways Extends Boeing 777-300ER Service till late-Oct 2015

Kenya Airways has postponed planned last Boeing 777-300ER operation, as the 777 aircraft will continue to operate until late-October 2015 for the time being. From 07SEP15 to 24OCT15, KQ plans to operate 777-300ER on Nairobi – Hanoi – Guangzhou route 3 times a week, instead of Boeing 787-8.

KQ870 NBO2215 – 1155+1HAN1325+1 – 1605+1CAN 77W 13
 KQ870 NBO2215 – 1155+1HAN1325+1 – 1555+1CAN 77W 5

KQ871 CAN2255 – 2335HAN0105+1 – 0645+1NBO 77W 246
Routes Online

SWISS Boeing 777-300ER S16 Operations as of 31AUG15

SWISS in recent schedule updates has extended schedule listing to late-Sep 2016 for summer 2016 season. Based on the week of 30AUG15’s OAG Schedules Analyser update, planned SWISS Boeing 777-300ER operation in S16 as follow.

eff 27MAR16 Zurich – Montreal 1 daily until 30AUG16
eff 10APR16 Zurich – Hong Kong 3 weekly (Day 357 from ZRH, Day 146 from HKG), 5 weekly from 03MAY16 (Day x46/x57), 1 daily from 12MAY16
eff 09JUN16 Zurich – Los Angeles 1 daily
eff 08JUL16 Zurich – Bangkok 1 daily
eff 01AUG16 Zurich – Sao Paulo 3 weekly (Day 135 from ZRH, Day 246 from GRU), 4 weekly from 04SEP16 (Day x246/x357)
eff 28AUG16 Zurich – Tel Aviv 3 weekly (LX254/255 Day 1, LX256/257 Day 57 from ZRH, Day 16 from TLV)
eff 01SEP16 Zurich – San Francisco 3 weekly (Day 246)
Routes Online

AIR ALGERIE / NOUVELAIR - A320-200 - TS-INP

Alain Charpentier - TLS

ZURICH TRIP



















Paul Bannwarth

Air Via begins A321 operations

Air Via (VL, Sofia) has begun A321-200 revenue operations following the arrival of LZ-PMZ (cn 1060) - its first of the type - earlier this month.


The former Kolavia (7K, Kogalym) twinjet replaces one of the Bulgarian ACMI/charter specialist's five A320-200s - LZ-MDA (cn 2732) - and was recently tracked in service between Dusseldorf and Varna on August 29.

Japan Set for First Flight of Regional Jet in Late October

Japan is home to some of the world's biggest automakers, is one of the world's biggest ship makers, and its trains run on subways and high-speed tracks around the world. One industry Japan hasn't been able to penetrate is construction of passenger jets.

Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp. is aiming to change that with Japan's first new passenger plane in more than four decades - and its first passenger jet ever. The Mitsubishi Regional Jet will make its first flight in the second half of October, for about an hour, the Nagoya-based company said in a statement Monday.

Japan wants to break the virtual lock that Embraer SA and Bombardier Inc. have on the market for small passenger jets, as Boeing Co. and Airbus Group SE control the market for larger passenger planes. With Montreal-based Bombardier now focusing on its larger CSeries jets, which will be able to carry as many as 160 passengers, Mitsubishi Aircraft sees an opening it believes it can fill. The 92-seat MRJ90 sells at a list price of US$47.3 million.

"Mitsubishi could have a really good plan if they can mass produce it and keep costs down," said Edwin Merner, president of Atlantis Investment Research Corp. in Tokyo, who has flown in the YS-11, Japan's last homegrown passenger plane. "They have the competency to do it and if the plane is good, they have a good chance of succeeding."

The YS-11 was a turboprop made by Nihon Aircraft Manufacturing Corp., a consortium of manufacturers that included Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd., owner of Mitsubishi Aircraft; Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd.; and Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. Only 182 of the planes were sold.

Nihon Aircraft stopped the YS-11 production line in 1974 after little more than a decade. The company disbanded in 1983 with debts of about 36 billion yen (US$297 million), according to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.

"The YS-11 was like a state project, and one of the reasons it failed was that it ran madly out of control where the budget was concerned," said Geoff Tudor, a principal analyst at Japan Aviation Management Research, who has worked in the airline business for more than four decades. "Leadership was also a problem, as was maintenance and follow-up support."

This time, Mitsubishi Aircraft is leading the project and has negotiated a deal with Boeing under which the Chicago-based aircraft maker will help with marketing, development and post-sales activities.

The Japanese company this month opened an engineering center in Seattle that will employ 150 engineers, including about 50 sent from Japan, to access professional expertise on aircraft development and speed production of the MRJ.

Mitsubishi Aircraft also has opened sales centers in the U.S. and Europe. So far the company has won 407 orders for the MRJ, including 184 options and purchase rights.

Mitsubishi Aircraft still needs to work on expanding its customer base and ensuring it can handle any problems they may have, said Richard Aboulafia, a vice president of Teal Group, a Fairfax, Virginia-based consultant.

Mitsubishi Aircraft has won orders from Japan's two largest airlines, ANA Holdings Inc. and Japan Airlines Co. Its biggest orders are from SkyWest Inc. and Trans States Airlines Inc. in North America.

"Mitsubishi needs to continue to develop a large support and marketing infrastructure, and to diversify outside of the U.S. and Japanese markets," Aboulafia said.

Delivery of the MRJ has been delayed three times, with the plane now set to be handed to ANA in 2017, almost four years late. The plane will come in 78- or 92-seat models, with the larger one set to debut first.

The MRJ will use a geared turbofan engine built by United Technologies Corp.'s Pratt & Whitney unit, which is expected to make the jets at least 20 percent more fuel-efficient than similar aircraft, the company has said. The company expects global demand for about 5,000 jets in the 70- to 90-seat size over the two decades to 2030.

Brazil's Embraer has also been active, upgrading its jets with new engines to take advantage of rising demand.

"Japan had its first success in producing small cars," said Masayuki Kubota, chief strategist at Rakuten Securities Economic Research Institute. "At first big cars were quite popular in the U.S. and worldwide, but now more energy-efficient cars are popular and that's how Japanese makers increased market share. There's still a big chance for Japanese aircraft to enter the market."
Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg
wcarn

COMAC to Deliver First ARJ21 to Chengdu Airlines in November

working toward an internal target to deliver its first ARJ21-700 regional jet to the launch customer Chengdu Airlines (EU) on November 28, 2015, China National Radio reported.

ARJ21, short for Advanced Regional Jet for the 21st Century, is equipped with 78 seats in a two-class configuration (including eight first class seats) and 90 seats in a full economy class configuration. Its economic life is designed to be 60,000 flying hours or 20 calendar years.

The Chinese jet maker is scheduled to deliver five regional jets to Chengdu Airlines this year, which will then be put into commercial service next February, according to the media report.

COMAC began the half-year route-proving campaign on March 16, using its ARJ21-700 regional jets. The first phase of route proving trails are being routed based at Nantong Xingdong Airport and Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport (CTU), around Beijing, Tianjin, Wuhan, Nanjing, Fuzhou, Guiyang and Changsha. The Chinese airframer started the second phase route-proving trails in late July, which mainly based at Chengdu Airport, around Wuhan, Wenzhou, Fuzhou and Nanjing. Recently, COMAC has completed all route-proving trails in advance of schedule.

Meanwhile, the manufacturer is still working on improvements to the ARJ21 despite receiving type certification from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) last December. Zhao Keliang, vice chief designer of the programme said in an interview that while the issues do not relate to the safety of the aircraft, they could affect the operational efficiency of the jet.

Examples include changes that need to be made to improve how the aircraft's anti-icing system functions in the case of a single-engine operation, as well as to its warning system to help enhance pilots' operational awareness and help them better anticipate possible flying situations, Zhao added.

Furthermore, requests from Chengdu Airlines are also taken into account, such as smoothing out sharp edges in the interior of the aircraft, Zhao said.

Chengdu Airlines, a subsidiary of COMAC and all-Airbus operator, will initially take delivery of five of 30 ARJ21-700s it has on order. Those five regional jets are expected to operate domestic routes from Chengdu to Shanghai Pudong, Nanjing, Kunming, Xi'an, Guiyang, Beijing and Wuhan.

To date, COMAC has received a total of 315 orders for the type from 19 customers at home and abroad.
WCARN.com