MIAMI – Finnair (AY) has finally won approval from EU Commission on Competition Policy on US$409m (EU€ 351.3m) state aid as compensation for losses caused by the ongoing pandemic, in particular during the period going from March to end December 2020.
According to
PubAffairsBruxelles.com, a non-profit organization that follows the works of the European Union, the EU Commission has taken into consideration the fact that AY is a major actor in the air transportation market.
As such, the airline operates an important network of 130 destinations with up to 15 million passengers carried during 2019. In normal years, AY operates a fleet of 59 aircraft and covers particularly European and Asian countries.
MIAMI – According to IATA, in January, air cargo levels worldwide presented a slight increase of 1.1%, compared to January 2019. Moreover, the air cargo sector seems to have reached pre-COVID-19 levels, as air cargo volumes in cargo tonne-km terms increased by 6.1% on year to year basis.
At the same time, the air cargo sector presents encouraging results according to the load factors, as on this January the industry reached to a level of 58.9%, which translates to a surge of 14.1 percentage point increase on last year.
At the same time, the shortage of belly capacity remains an issue for the air cargo sector, which is decreased by almost 20%. Belly capacity is an extremely important pillar for the air cargo sector. For example, by 2017, the payload capacity on the bellies of wide-body aircraft was more than five times higher compared to the freighter aircraft.
MIAMI – Today, Seattle-based Alaska Airlines (AS) began revenue service with the Boeing 737 MAX 9 (N913AK), nine years after placing its initial order back in 2012.
With the flight, AS becomes the first NEW global operator of the MAX following its November 2020 ungrounding by the FAA, as every other airline that has flown the MAX since the ungrounding was already previously flying the type. When AS took delivery of its first 737-9 MAX back on January 24, the carrier was also the first new customer to take delivery of a MAX aircraft.
Since that delivery took place, the carrier has been putting this plane through its paces having flown ‘proving run’ flights and taking this plane as far west as Kona, Hawaii, and to the east coast flying into Charleston, South Carolina. On these flights, the pilots flew the aircraft 19,000 miles clocking more than 50 hours.
A Remarkable Success
Despite the initial difficulties, with the problems found in the batteries, the Boeing 787 has enjoyed considerable success around the world. It has racked up more than 1,500 orders, with the 1,000th delivered to Singapore Airlines recently.
Made of 85% carbon fiber, the aircraft features new technologies, such as electronic engine starting, electrical and non-hydraulic systems to reduce the weight of the aircraft. It also features, for the first time, a fully digitized cabin called the ‘glass cockpit’.
Boeing 787-8 complete its first flight.
Photo: Brandon Farris/Airways
FAA Inspections
Despite the success, and despite the problems solved at the beginning, the 787 still has defects to the fuselage to this day. FAA issued an Airworthiness Directive (AD) for 222 787, given the decompression of the jet in the bilge barriers.
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