Delta Firms Order for 75 Bombardier CS100 With 50 More Options

Today Delta and Bombardier announced an order for 75 CS100 aircraft with 50 options. They can also use some of their options for CS300 aircraft. The firm order is valued at $5.6 billion, and makes Delta the largest C Series customer. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in Spring 2018. (commercialaircraft.bombardier.com) More...

FedEx MD-11 Catches Fire at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport

A FedEx MD-11 caught fire recently at Fort Lauderdale International Airport in Florida. Severe damage was done to the right wing, engine and landing gear. Details are still breaking. (wsvn.com) More...

Air Baltic to Start CS300 Operations Between Riga and Amsterdam

Air Baltic, based in Riga, Latvia, plans to start CS300 operations between Riga and Amsterdam on December 14. Air Baltic is the launch customer of the CS300, which connects Riga with 60 other destinations throughout Eastern Europe and Scandinavia. (www.lesailesduquebec.com) More...

Taiwan's Bid to Join ICAO Was Denied

Taiwan's request to be invited to the September 27 ICAO meeting in Montreal was denied. ICAO is the UN's regulatory arm for the aviation industry. Taiwan was invited to attend an ICAO meeting in 2013 but has not been invited since. Many suspect that China moved to prevent Taiwan from being invited in order to further isolate Taiwan politically. Taiwan's Taoyuan International Airport is the fifth busiest cargo airport in the world and the 11th busiest international passenger… (thediplomat.com) More...

Solar Impulse to Depart Hawaii, Bound for Mountain View, California

After months of repair in Hawaii, Solar Impulse is scheduled to depart Hawaii for its next leg of its round the world trip to Mountain View, California. Solar Impulse is a solar powered plane, captained by Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg, and has flown from Abu Dhabi, through India, China and Japan before heading to Hawaii. Upon landing in Hawaii, engineers needed to replace certain aspects of the batteries that got damaged during its first leg of the trans-pacific trek. After months of… (www.solarimpulse.com) More...

Air France Employees Assault Executives After Job Cuts Announced

Air France executives were greeted by an angry mob of employees after Air France/KLM announced a restructuring plan that would cut 2,900 jobs. Air France announced retiring old planes, cancelling 787 orders, ending service and reducing frequencies, which would result in numerous losses of ground operations staff, cockpit crew and flight attendants. The company and the pilots union failed to reach a critical labor agreement, but lay-offs can't be issued until December under French law, which… (www.telegraph.co.uk) More...

Etihad to Start A380 Service to Mumbai

Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, will start flying the A380 to Mumbai starting on May 1, 2016. Currently, Etihad sends an A380 to Sydney and London, with service to JFK starting on November 23 and service to Melbourne starting in June of 2016. The Etihad A380 seats 496 passengers and carries the world renowned "Residence" with a Savoy-trained butler and 125 square feet of space. (www.etihad.com) More...

Emirates Announces Deal With Rolls Royce for 50 Trent 900 Engines

Earlier today, Rolls Royce announced its largest engine order ever with Emirates Airline. The order, worth $9.2 Billion will provide Emirates with engines to power 50 A380's, which will begin to enter service in 2016. (www.rolls-royce.com) More...

JetBlue to Add Checked Bag Fees as Early This Week

JetBlue will be removing its popular policy of having one free checked bag for all passengers. The new system will include a tiered fare program, with the highest tier including two free checked bags, reduced penalties for changing flights and even refundability. (www.bloomberg.com) More...

American Airlines to Add Premium Economy to Certain Planes

New Premium Economy seats for American Airlines will be added to all Boeing 787-8's, 787-9's, 777-300ER's, 777-200ER's, and Airbus A350's and A330's in their fleet over the next 3 years. Premium Economy won't replace Main Cabin Extra, making the 777W a five cabin aircraft. American is the first of United and Delta to offer a premium economy product, after seeing its increasing popularity and success in other international carriers. (www.ausbt.com.au) More...