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Frontier and Spirit Airlines Reach Merger Agreement to Become Fifth Largest US Airline

A new merger agreement between Frontier and Spirit Airlines announced Monday would create the fifth largest airline in the U.S., with Frontier holding a majority 51.5% ownership stake in the merged ultra low cost carrier. (Frontier Airlines)

Frontier and Spirit Airlines have reached a definitive merger agreement under which the two companies will combine—if approved by regulators—to establish the fifth largest airline in the U.S.

The two low-cost carriers announced the new agreement Monday that would give Frontier a 51.5% controlling ownership share, with Spirit holding the remaining 48.5%. Both airlines expect the merger to close by the second half of 2022, and will continue to operate independently as Frontier and Spirit while awaiting final regulatory approval of the merger agreement.

Barry Biffle, President and CEO of Frontier, told investors during a call about the merger, “Spirit is very strong in the east, Frontier is very strong in the west, that’s going to drive more customers onto our existing flights which means more low fares to more people.”

Fleet commonality between the two All-Airbus A320 low-cost operators was also highlighted by executives during the investors’ call. Between the two airlines, the combined fleet currently features 283 in-service aircraft with a combined outstanding order book for another 350 A320neo aircraft.

That would give the merged Frontier-Spirit airline a combined 493 aircraft in-service by 2026. According to Frontier, that would allow the merged airline to “offer more than 1,000 daily flights to over 145 destinations in 19 countries, across complementary networks.” Frontier also made some fleet technology investments last year, including adoption of the Airbus Skywise Health Monitoring (SHM) technology, and FLYHT’s Automated Flight Information Reporting System (AFIRS).

Ted Christie, President and CEO of Spirit, said the two airlines expect nearly 80% of their fleet to feature A320neo jets that replace legacy A320s operated by the two carriers. Christie said that the Miramar, Florida-based company is “thrilled to join forces with Frontier to further democratize air travel.”

Frontier and Spirit have a combined 350 A320neo aircraft on order, which would give them a combined 483 aircraft by 2026, if the merger achieves regulatory approval. Pictured here is the interior of a Spirit Airlines A320neo aircraft. (Spirit)

“Both of us have an objective to achieve pre-pandemic margins and we feel like that’s achievable, and when we do, the synergies are purely accretive,” Christie said during the investors’ call.

The merger agreement comes as both carriers separately reported net losses in their 2021 full-year earnings. Spirit reported a loss of $440.6 million, while Frontier lost $299 million.

Together, the combined low-cost airline wants to take on the “Big Four” U.S. airlines, as their combined fleet and operational scope would see them move above Alaska and JetBlue for fifth place among the largest airlines in the U.S.

The “Big Four,” as Frontier and Spirit executives described them during the investors’ call, include American, Delta, United, and Southwest Airlines. These four carriers controlled 74% of revenue passenger miles flown by U.S. airlines in 2019, according to U.S. Department of Transportation data.

2021 was also a year that saw several new low-cost U.S. airlines begin operations, including Avelo Airlines, Breeze Airways, and Aha!

When asked by investors about the likelihood of achieving regulatory approval for the merger, Frontier’s Biffle said the two sides are prepared to show regulators that it is “completely different than any other merger in the past in the U.S. It’s not about reducing competition and raising fares, it’s about getting more low fares to more people in more places and we’re excited to tell them our story and we think it will be well received.”

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NUAIR and Sagetech Avionics Partner for Detect-and-Avoid Technology Testing

Sagetech Avionics’ Detect and Avoid solutions and Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) transponders will undergo testing as part of the company’s new agreement with NUAIR. (Sagetech Avionics)

Aerospace technology company Sagetech Avionics and New York-based nonprofit NUAIR created a new partnership to run tests on two of Sagetech’s developments, their Detect and Avoid solutions and Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) transponders. Testing will explore concepts of operations such as lateral infrastructure inspection and package delivery as well as operations occurring in airspace with both manned and unmanned aircraft.

NUAIR, or the Northeast UAS Airspace Integration Research Alliance, Inc, operates one of seven FAA-designated unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) test sites in the U.S. The new agreement with Sagetech, said NUAIR CEO Ken Stewart, aims to solve the problem of safely integrating unmanned aircraft into the national airspace.” We don’t really have systems that operate under 400 feet en masse across the U.S. for traffic management,” he told Avionics International.

Testing of both manned and unmanned aircraft will support policies and regulations for BVLOS operations. (Photo: NUAIR)

This news came less than a month after NUAIR was authorized by the FAA to begin beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone operations in a 35-mile stretch of designated airspace within the 50-mile drone corridor between Syracuse and Rome, New York. NUAIR’s Chief of Operations Tony Basile looked forward to testing “more advanced, long-range flights and prove BVLOS operations can be done safely.”

When it comes to detect-and-avoid capabilities for UAS, there are a number of different technologies being developed and improved, said Stewart, such as radiofrequency and electro-optical systems. Some are used for counter-UAS operations to detect and mitigate, but NUAIR is focused mainly on the detection side. They are now in the process of drafting policy for BVLOS operations. NUAIR is one of 23 UAS operators serving as members of the BVLOS Operations Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC), and Stewart predicted that the actual policy will come to fruition in the next two and a half to three years.

“What we want to be able to do is have the technologies that support those policies in place. The testing that we’re going to do is going to help support some of those policies and regulations to see if the technology actually meets those capabilities. It’s not a short-term relationship,” Stewart shared.

In discussing the future of advanced air mobility (AAM), he emphasized that the number of drones flying commercially in the U.S. is much higher than most people think. Developments will be iterative, said Stewart; “Once the infrastructure is in place for small UAS, then you’ll start seeing larger and larger drones. Everything we do with drones is foundational for advanced air mobility for cargo drones and air taxis. All this infrastructure really needs to be in place for those types of activities.”

NUAIR’s 50-mile drone corridor is the site for a rollout of a 5G test network. (NUAIR)

NUAIR is also currently in the process of rolling out a 5G test network at their 50-mile drone corridor with the aim of understanding how 5G technologies can be integrated into the drone community. “What role could the advantages of 5G—higher throughput, better capabilities, software-defined radios—play in the UAS space?” Stewart asked. He added that the first use cases will predominantly be for public safety needs.

The post NUAIR and Sagetech Avionics Partner for Detect-and-Avoid Technology Testing appeared first on Aviation Today.

FAA, Aviation Industry Continues Research on 5G C-Band Interference Issues and Next Steps

While the FAA has made progress working in collaboration with the telecommunications industry to further its understanding around how 5G C-Band services impact aircraft radio altimeters, helicopters—such as this air ambulance operated by REACH Medical Services—are a major focus for the agency moving forward. A congressional hearing held Thursday shed more light on the issue. (REACH Air Medical Service)

U.S. aviation industry leadership and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are still researching and adding to their understanding of how the new deployment of 5G C-Band services impact the performance of fixed and rotary-wing aircraft radio altimeters, according to a congressional hearing held on the co-existence of flight operations and 5G C-Band Thursday.

The FAA has issued several airworthiness directives and regulatory policy updates in recent months focused on preventing signals from 5G C-Band towers causing performance issues for aircraft radio altimeters, especially during approaches and landings in low visibility at airports located closest to the towers. While the agency published a Jan. 28 statement acknowledging a new agreement that temporarily ensures the majority of in-service commercial airliners can safely operate under temporary restrictions, Thursday’s hearing showed that aviation and telecommunications engineers still have a lot of research to do on the issue.

Whereas the aviation and telecommunications sides of 5G C-Band deployment previously were suffering from a lack of communication and clarity about how signals from the new towers would impact the performance of radio altimeters, now they’re trying to establish a long-term solution that could take a number of years before it is concluded that there is no impact on every aircraft type and radio altimeter flying in the airspace today. That could take a number of years, but what happens in the interim is still being developed.

FAA Administrator Steve Dickson told congressional members of the U.S. House of Transportation Subcommittee on Aviation that the agency and the broader industry now feels that it has a more thorough understanding of how 5G C-Band interference impacts radio altimeters on most of the aircraft types operated by major commercial airlines in U.S. airspace. The agency recently cleared 90% of altimeters on the in-service fleet as being capable of safely operating under 5G C-Band deployment with the current mitigations on power levels and buffer zones around airports in place. However, there is still more understanding that needs to occur regarding altimeters featured on regional jets, business jets, helicopters, and aircraft operated by U.S. defense services.

“We still have some lower-performing regional jets and other parts of the aviation community that are impacted. I’m concerned about that. Helicopters are another area that we’re going to have to pay close attention to,” Dickson said. “We’re working on Alternate Means of Compliance (AMOCs) for those types of operations—for first responders and air ambulance type operations as well….a lot of the conversation has been about air carriers, but the entire aviation community, we need to make sure that their concerns are addressed as well.”

Aircraft radar altimeters operate within 4.2–4.4 GHz, the lower half of which falls within the C-Band—a frequency range from 3.7–4.2 GHz where the combination of the range of signal transmissions and capacity are optimum. The 5G wireless networks that were switched on by AT&T and Verizon on Jan. 19 operate within the 3.7–3.98 GHz frequency range, close to the altimeters, which has left aviation industry experts with concerns over signal interference issues. T-Mobile has also rolled out 5G wireless service in the U.S.; however, their deployment occurs in the much lower 2.5 GHz band.

According to opening statements given by Dixon, the agency is currently allowing helicopter air ambulances “to continue using safety-enhancing night vision goggles in areas where the aircraft’s radio altimeter could be unreliable due to 5G C-band interference as identified by [Notice to Air Missions] NOTAMs.” The agency is using NOTAMS issued to pilots to let them know where 5G C-Band deployment is present, and AMOCs are also available to airlines and aviation manufacturers who are able to prove the altimeters on their aircraft are not susceptible to 5G C-Band interference.

According to testimony given by Helicopter Association International (HAI) President and CEO James Viola, however, the AMOC procedures for rotorcraft still have not been developed. Viola said that approximately 1,206 helicopters operated as air ambulances are using the exemption that the FAA has developed for helicopters to operate in areas where their altimeters may not function properly.

“The development of new radar altimeters with filters that can withstand 5G interference is critical to the vertical flight industry’s ability to continue flying and serving the public good. However, developing and certifying new radar altimeters will take time,” Viola said. “Additionally, the cost for operators to purchase and install these new altimeters is of significant concern to the industry. My members ask why they should be financially responsible for installing new equipment to mitigate the safety risk imposed by another corporation’s decision to deploy 5G wireless systems.”

The AMOCs available to airlines were also a major topic of discussion during the hearing. Kaiali’i Kahele, a U.S. Representative from Hawaii and member of the House Subcommittee on Aviation, for example, noted that the AMOCs that the FAA has approved for Hawaiian Airlines will expire on Feb. 28. Administrator Dickson noted that the agency has established expirations on the AMOCs as they’re approved to account for the deployment of additional 5G C-Band towers.

Last month, the FAA published a list of 50 U.S. airports that will have 5G C-Band buffer zones, where AT&T and Verizon have agreed to limit the power levels on signals generated by their deployed towers. Several news reports over the last month demonstrated the type of disruption experienced by flight operations at those airports that were identified, as well as those not listed and outside of the buffer zones.

Eugene Airport Director Cathryn Stephens told the committee that low visibility conditions are a regular occurrence at her airport, which can significantly limit operations during those times.

“While it is positive that the FAA has reviewed and approved AMOCs on an expedited basis to cover at least 90 percent of the U.S. commercial aircraft fleet, we are not yet at the point where all aircraft previously serving my airport and others can continue to operate in low-visibility conditions,” Stephens said. “The continued inability for certain aircraft to operate during low-visibility conditions poses a particular problem for airports that may only receive service or that receive the vast majority of service from those aircraft.”

A major focus for aircraft radio altimeter manufacturers moving forward will be the development of new filters and standards that ensure altimeters are resistant to 5G C-Band or any other out-of-band radio frequency interference. The Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics (RTCA) published a new “Frequently Asked Questions” page on its website to acknowledge its ongoing role in the development of such standards, although no timeline on that development is currently available. The group has tasked Special Committee 242 (SC-242) with this mission.

Administrator Dickson said that the FAA has telecommunications engineers onboard the flight test aircraft they’re operating to evaluate 5G C-Band’s impact on different altimeters.

“The performance standards for C-Band resistant radio altimeters are in development. That work has been going on for some months now; the standard-setting process takes time,” Dickson said. “The encouraging news to me is that this flight test activity that we are undertaking will also be very beneficial in setting those new standards, because we will have real-world data that we can use to go back to the avionics manufacturers and help inform those new designs.”

The post FAA, Aviation Industry Continues Research on 5G C-Band Interference Issues and Next Steps appeared first on Aviation Today.

IntuVue RDR-84K Radar System Demonstrates Autonomous Detect-and-Avoid Capability

The IntuVue RDR-84K radar system successfully completed a series of tests demonstrating its detect-and-avoid capability. (Photo: Honeywell Aerospace)

Honeywell Aerospace recently put its RDR-84K radar system to the test to demonstrate its autonomous detect-and-avoid capabilities. A drone piloted by the IntuVue RDR-84K radar was able to avoid an unforeseen “intruder” aircraft by assessing the vehicle’s flight path, calculating an avoidance maneuver, and autonomously taking over navigation. After a successful first test, the team at Honeywell Aerospace introduced more difficult scenarios to assess whether the RDR-84K could detect the intruder if approached from below or from various angles. Larry Surace, lead systems engineer for the radar system, said, “The radar handled everything we threw at it. It saw the danger immediately and successfully executed multiple avoidance maneuvers,” according to the announcement from Honeywell.

In an interview with Avionics International, Sapan Shah—Product Manager of Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) at Honeywell Aerospace—summarized the demonstration: “We were able to autonomously detect an intruder, map out the track for the intruder, figure out what it’s about to do, and calculate a way around it so that we can neutralize the threat. The differentiating factor on the RDR-84K is that it is able to do all of that within the one single box. It does not depend on any other [system] to process the information and calculate the algorithm to go around it.” Because of this design, he said, there is no need for a separate computer on the aircraft to perform tasks such as calculating avoidance paths, for example. Honeywell’s aircraft radar is also relatively small (8” by 4”) and weighs less than 2 pounds.

This is Honeywell’s RDR-84K radar system that piloted the drone in the collision avoidance tests. The RDR-84K is compact at a size of 8″x4″x1″ but it can detect targets up to 3 kilometers away. (Photo: Honeywell Aerospace)

Also participating in the interview, Surace added that the tests were done at a low altitude of 300 feet. This tested “the ability of the radar to cancel clutter and to look through a very non-friendly clutter environment. At fairly high speeds, 5–7 meters per second, it was able to adapt to that—that’s been another differentiating factor for our radar. We have a very good clutter rejection algorithm.”

It was important to demonstrate the radar’s detect-and-avoid capability at low altitudes, Shah said, because “as we start seeing how drones are going to operate in a real environment for last-mile delivery, they’re all going to be operating in a low environment with a lot of houses, trees, and poles. We need to be able to filter out that noise that radar’s going to see.”

Pictured is the drone piloted by Honeywell’s radar system, prepared to calculate the flight path of the intruder drone and avoid a collision. (Photo: Honeywell Aerospace)

The team at Honeywell Aerospace is working with the FAA to meet safety requirements in order to achieve certification. A safety analysis needs to align with their Concept of Operations (ConOps) for the radar system, says Surace. One of the next objectives for the RDR-84K is to do more testing with two—or more—intruder drones. “The algorithms are very adaptive,” shared Surace, “and we can adapt to different coverage areas and different numbers of drones. We’ve demonstrated it at 90- and 45-degree intruders to our flight path, so the radar is adaptive to those multiple angle scenarios.”

As far as applications for the radar system, it will allow drones operating beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) to avoid obstacles and other unmanned aircraft in performing delivery services, including medical deliveries, inspection services, and more. The RDR-84K is part of Honeywell’s BVLOS line of technologies, including a small UAV satellite communications transmitter, hydrogen fuel cells, and inertial navigation systems, which are all designed to expand the range of unmanned aircraft.

For bigger vehicles carrying heavy cargo and traveling long distances, said Shah, “what we call middle-mile services, those vehicles would also need almost a 360-degree detect-and-avoid [capability]. The RDR-84K can be networked together to provide that kind of visibility so you can avoid intruders not just coming at you but from behind you.”

The autopilot guided the quadcopter drone into a safe landing after the radar system had completed its tests. (Photo: Honeywell Aerospace)

Shah believes that by the end of this decade, the AAM sector will be moving towards simplified vehicle operations and autonomy. In order to accomplish this, they will need a fully autonomous onboard radar system with detect-and-avoid capabilities. The RDR-84K, he added, provides a path to achieve this.

Surace described the RDR-84K as the foundation for other projects related to AAM and unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). One such project, he said, is navigation in GPS-denied environments and finding alternate navigation sources. “One of the things we’re addressing is not so much that the GPS is not available, but that it could be jammed or spoofed. We’ll use the radar mapping, ground mapping capability to work in conjunction with our rich inertial navigation unit product line. If we lose the GPS signal, the drone is not without alternate means to navigate safely to its destination with these alternate sensors.”

Another project in the works is a Marker Based Landing (MBL) which uses a camera and inertial navigation systems to enable automatic landing at vertiports. The aim is to facilitate MBLs “even in a GPS-denied, low light, low visibility environment,” commented Surace.

To operate today’s air taxis, highly skilled and certified pilots are required. Shah remarked, “We will have to move away from certified pilots to operators. Honeywell is investing in simplified vehicle operations technology, where the amount of training required to operate a vehicle will be orders of magnitude lower than what is required today. We have enabled and provided all this autonomy and automation of the vehicle, so someone that is not trained to the same level can still safely complete the mission.”

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PODCAST: IEEE’s David Witkowski Talks 5G C-Band and Aircraft Radio Altimeter Interference

IEEE’s David Witkowski is the guest on this episode of the Connected Aviation Intelligence Podcast.

On this episode of the Connected Aviation Intelligence Podcast, we discuss the ongoing work between the aviation and telecommunication industries regarding the deployment of 5G C-Band services and the associated interference issues that deployment presents for some aircraft radio (or radar) altimeters.

Since November, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and aviation industry leaders have been trying to establish a long-term solution that will allow 5G C-Band wireless services and flight operations to safely co-exist. The central issue on both sides of the 5G C-Band deployment results from the close proximity of the new 5G services from AT&T and Verizon in the 3.7-3.98 GHz band and the 4.2-4.4 GHz band where aircraft altimeters reside.

Witkowski provides some perspective as to why the deployment of 5G C-Band services should not be a major concern for airlines, while also suggesting some possibilities for a long-term solution that could satisfy both the aviation and telecommunication sides of the debate.

Have suggestions or topics we should focus on in the next episode? Email the host, Woodrow Bellamy, at wbellamy@accessintel.com, or drop him a line on Twitter @WbellamyIIIAC. Also, check out the agenda for the 2022 Connected Aviation Intelligence Summit just posted to our event website!

Listen to this episode below, or check it out on iTunes or Google Play If you like the show, subscribe on your favorite podcast app to get new episodes as soon as they’re released.

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Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX Resumes Flight Operations

Ethiopian Airlines executives joined media, regulatory officials, and executives from Boeing on a demonstration flight Tuesday, Feb. 1, to mark its official return of the 737 MAX to passenger-carrying operations in Ethiopia. (Ethiopian Airlines)

Ethiopian Airlines has returned its Boeing 737 MAX to regular passenger-carrying operations nearly three years after the African carrier’s fatal accident that led to a 19-month grounding of the aircraft model.

On March 10, 2019, an Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX operating as flight ET302 fatally crashed near Ejere, Ethiopia, a few minutes after taking off from Addis Ababa Bole International Airport, killing all 157 passengers and crew members on board. Ethiopian has become one of the last 737 MAX operators to return the aircraft to service, after global review of an update to the way the aircraft’s flight control software and system works first allowed it to resume flying in November 2020.

Ethiopia’s Civil Aviation Authority released an interim accident investigation report on the crash in March 2020, although a final investigation report has never been published. On Tuesday, Ethiopian Airlines executives joined media, aviation regulatory officials, and others on a demonstration flight to mark the aircraft’s official return to service in Ethiopia.

In a Feb. 1 press statement, Ethiopian Group CEO Tewolde GebreMariam said the airline has “taken enough time to monitor the design modification work and the more than 20 months of rigorous recertification process and we have ensured that our pilots, engineers, aircraft technicians, and cabin crew are confident on the safety of the fleet.”

Ethiopian Airlines flight crew members joined executives, regulatory officials, and media for a demonstration flight Tuesday. (Ethiopian Airlines)

Since civil aviation authorities first started approving the aircraft’s return to service in late 2020, the MAX has accumulated more than 349,000 commercial flights and close to 900,000 total flight hours. Boeing received more than 700 net orders for MAX aircraft from airlines last year, and completed a total of 263 MAX deliveries in 2021.

Civil aviation authorities ranging from the Federal Aviation Administration to European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) among others required improvements to the overall functionality of the MAX’s maneuvering characteristics augmentation system (MCAS) and its associated systems and components along with some required manual and pilot training updates.

Boeing reached a legal settlement agreement with families of the passengers and crew members killed in the 2019 ET302 crash in November that allowed the company to consolidate its 737 MAX legal issues and claims to the U.S., while allowing victims’ families to access the U.S. legal system, according to an Associated Press report from November. Several relatives of passengers that died in the ET302 crash have also requested a re-opening of a previous settlement announced by the Department of Justice last year that shielded Boeing from criminal prosecution related to the crash, according to a more recent report.

“The airline’s confidence is further showcased by flying the top executives and the board chairman and other top government officials on the first flight,” GebreMariam said.

Ethiopian Airlines has four B737 MAX in its fleet and 25 remaining on order, with some scheduled for delivery later this year.

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Vistara Upgrades Cockpit Connectivity on Airbus A321neos

Vistara is adding the Cobham Aerospace AVIATOR 200S system to its fleet of A321neo aircraft. (Airbus)

Vistara, the Gurgaon, India-based airline, is upgrading its fleet of Airbus A321LR aircraft with a satellite-based cockpit connectivity system from Cobham Aerospace.

In emailed statements to Avionics International, representatives for Cobham Aerospace explained that their AVIATOR 200S SwiftBroadband system is being added to four A321LR aircraft operated by the joint venture of Tata Group and Singapore Airlines. Vistara’s selection of the AVIATOR 200S includes the addition of a Compact Satellite Data Unit (CSDU), Enhanced LGA Antenna with built-in HPA and DLNA (HELGA), and SATCOM Configuration Module (SCM) to their A321LR.

“We are pleased that a prominent international carrier such as Vistara has placed their trust in AVIATOR S,” Eiji Kawaishi, CEO, Cobham Aerospace Communications, said in a statement. “We have every confidence that AVIATOR will exceed performance expectations, leading to even greater market acceptance of this groundbreaking SATCOM system.”

Compared to previous generations of aircraft satellite communication systems, “200S offers two segregated aircraft communication domains, an 80-times increase in data-transfer capacity, as well as safety services-approved ACARS and SATVOICE,” the company said in a press statement announcing the Vistara selection.

Cobham Aerospace’s AVIATOR 200s is has achieved type certification for the Airbus A320 Family, A330, and A350 platforms. (Cobham Aerospace)

According to Cobham, the AVIATOR 200S combines the provision of SwiftBroadband Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) data services with an Internet Protocol (IP) data pipe for the transfer of operational and flight data to ground maintenance and control facilities, or real-time weather and other flight relevant information updates to Electronic Flight Bags (EFBs) or Flight Management Systems (FMS). Other features of the system include a Compact Satellite Data Unit (C-SDU) which is deployed with a phased array antenna with built-in Diplexer, Low Noise Amplifier (DLNA), and High Power Amplifier (HPA).

AVIATOR 200S offers interfaces capable of supporting future 4D Trajectory-Based Operations routing systems for continental (SESAR and NextGen) and oceanic use, according to Cobham.

“4D Trajectory Guidance is a primary application of interest where Cobham sees significant opportunity for growth in [Air Traffic Control] ATC efficiencies. It will replace and improve legacy cockpit Safety Services offered by legacy network technology for Safety Voice and CPDLC data for ATC communications. Further applications would include data connectivity driven apps offered on Airbus’ FOMAX Platform,” the representative for Cobham said.

The AVIATOR 200S selection for Vistara comes as the airline continues to report ongoing fleet and flight operational expansion. Vinod Kannan took over as CEO of Vistara last month for Leslie Thng, who is taking on a senior role with Singapore Airlines after four years as the CEO of Vistara.

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Ryanair Hiring Thousands of Engineers, Pilots and Cabin Crew to Support 737 Fleet Growth

Ryanair plans on hiring up to 6,000 cabin crew, engineers and pilots over the next five years. (Ryanair)

Ryanair plans to add up to 6,000 new employees to its global workforce within the next five years to support a massive Boeing 737 MAX fleet expansion, according to comments made by the airline’s executive team during a Jan. 31 earnings call.

Despite posting a net loss of €96 million for their third quarter fiscal year, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary has a positive outlook for growth for the Dublin-based carrier that announced 720 new routes and 15 new bases over the last year and will need to train and hire new engineers, pilots and cabin crew to support its planned fleet growth. By 2026, Ryanair expects to grow its flight operations from a pre-COVID average of 149 million passengers annually to more than 225 million per year by 2026.

“We’ll create 6,000 new jobs over the next five years, we’re investing heavily in new people and training, we’ve opened a €50 million Dublin aviation training center, four full motion simulators, two fix-based simulators, cabin crew training facilities and we expect to open two more of those. One somewhere in the Iberian Peninsula and one in central to eastern Europe within the next two or three years,” O’Leary said in a video statement released by Ryanair. “We’re committed over the next five years to training and recruiting thousands of very high skilled, highly paid aviation professionals.”

The start of the hiring and training expansion for Ryanair began back in September, when the airline announced the opening of its aviation training center located near Dublin Airport. Airline Flight Academy, a Dublin-based flight school, is the airline’s exclusive training partner for the new facility.

Most of the training efforts for the new facility will go toward training engineers, pilots, and cabin crew to operate the Boeing 737-8200 “Gamechanger” aircraft that Ryanair is adding to its fleet. In December 2020, Ryanair increased its firm order for the 737-8200 from 135 to 210 firm orders.

“We’re going to grow strongly over the next five years, we’ll grow to about 620 aircraft in the fleet and with that, we’ll see about 6,000 jobs created—high paying jobs, high skilled jobs for pilots, cabin crew, and engineers. We’ve already started the process of building out our training infrastructure,” Neil Sorahan, CFO of Ryanair, said during a question and answer session with analysts.

While both O’Leary and Sorahan admitted that the rise in the number of Europeans contracting the Omicron variant caused a noticeable setback in passenger demand and the number of flights completed during their third quarter, the hiring outlook is a massive turnaround from where the airline was at the beginning of the global pandemic. In May 2020, after a historic drop-off in the number of flights being operated, Ryanair announced plans to cut 3,000 jobs—15% of its workforce—and enacted 20% pay cuts for its remaining staff.

Although O’Leary warns that another COVID-19 variant could lead to further disruptions, the 6,000 jobs being added in coming years will recoup all of the jobs it shed and add additional new staff to support its growth throughout Europe. One challenge remaining for Ryanair, though, could be the reduction in the number of non-Ryanair 737s currently being operated by European airlines, which puts a strain on the number of available engineers and pilots for the aircraft type.

O’Leary, however, does not believe that will be a concern moving forward.

“I think the job opportunities for 737 pilots across Europe in the next number of years will largely be combined to Ryanair. We have the capacity to train all our own engineers, our own pilots and our own cabin crew,” O’Leary said. “But given the cost of trying to retrain the 737 pilot onto an Airbus, I think if anything, there will be a lot less turnover of pilots here in Ryanair. We will essentially be the only 737 operator here in Europe in the next couple of years.”

Ryanair currently has 1,000 total 737 pilots in training, and currently has the capacity to train up to a thousand pilots per year. That number will increase once the airline adds two additional aviation training centers, bringing the total number they operate in Europe to seven.

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Elroy Air Debuts the Chaparral, an Autonomous VTOL Cargo Aircraft

VTOL developer Elroy Air has just revealed their pre-production aircraft, the Chaparral, an autonomous cargo drone with a range of up to 300 miles and the capacity to carry 500 pounds of cargo. (Photo: Elroy Air)

Elroy Air revealed its pre-production vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft last week, the Chaparral—the first end-to-end autonomous VTOL aerial cargo system. It is capable of picking up cargo weighing up to 500 pounds and performing air deliveries at a range of 300 miles. Elroy Air is headquartered in South San Francisco, CA, and has received funding from Catapult Ventures, Lockheed Martin Ventures, Marlinspike Capital, and Prosperity7 Ventures, in addition to various angel investors.

The company’s CEO and co-founder, David Merrill, spoke during the Transformative Vertical Flight 2022 conference last week. “Our mission is to enable same-day shipping to every person on the planet,” he said, explaining that their system for moving cargo directly to loading docks can be done at a speed much faster than today’s trucks. Elroy Air’s President and co-founder, Clint Cope, commented, “The Chaparral will be a vital logistics link for people around the world with unreliable roadways and in remote and rural areas that take longer to reach today.”

The Chaparral features a hybrid-electric powertrain, eight vertical lift fans, and four distributed electric propulsors, in addition to a modular cargo pod. (Photo: Elroy Air)

Development of the Chaparral has been underway for the past two and a half years. It is a hybrid-electric vehicle that has an in-flight rechargeable lithium battery. The hybrid-electric powertrain offers range, reliability, and flexibility. The modular cargo pod, explained Merrill, allows for rapid loading and unloading, and the aircraft uses LIDAR for navigation on the ground. “This modality will be faster than ground transport with lower operating costs than today’s manned aircraft, and better efficiency than today’s helicopters.” He added, “We’re designing it to be utilized at a very high level—lots of hours per day—which was our motivation for creating a separate cargo container that can be picked up and dropped off.”

Elroy Air has already agreed to provide more than 500 aircraft, amounting to over $1 billion in demand, to its customers including AYR Logistics—looking to expand its humanitarian logistics business—and Mesa Airlines, along with other commercial and defense customers. Mesa Airlines plans to order 150 aircraft to meet what it sees as the growing air transportation needs of the express parcel and healthcare sectors.

As of August 2021, Elroy shared that they had raised $40 million in funding. Having now secured agreements for purchases of its VTOL of more than $1 billion, the company looks to be on track to continue rapid expansion over the next year and make further improvements to the Chaparral aircraft as it goes through flight tests and demonstrations.

Elroy announced a partnership with NASA last year “to accelerate and improve the safe integration of advanced autonomous cargo aircraft into the United States airspace,” according to the announcement. Using the Chaparral VTOL, the partnership will demonstrate operational advanced air mobility (AAM) scenarios. The FAA will also support the flight tests and demonstrations for middle-mile aerial logistics.

“The opportunity is to dramatically expand the reach of express logistics, by creating orders of magnitude more aerial cargo routes that can operate to/from locations that would not support air cargo today,” David Merrill told Aviation Today in a recent interview.

More than 500 units have already been pre-ordered—equivalent to more than $1 billion. (Photo: Elroy Air)

The U.S. Air Force awarded Elroy a Phase 3 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract with the Agility Prime program at the end of 2020, In the expansion of their existing partnership, Agility Prime will fund technical demonstrations and validations of the Chaparral aircraft’s performance. The Agility Prime program will be evaluating the Chaparral for USAF use cases, and they see the autonomous VTOL as capable of meeting both commercial and government needs.

An early prototype of Elroy’s Chaparral was first flown in 2019. Today, the model possesses eight vertical lift fans, four distributed electric propulsors, and updated systems for ground autonomy and cargo handling. In sharing the company’s vision for the future, Merrill stated that “by 2023, we expect to be doing commercial flights with customers, beginning full-scale operations, and continuing to expand.”

Elroy also released a video unveiling the Chaparral aircraft can be viewed here.

The post Elroy Air Debuts the Chaparral, an Autonomous VTOL Cargo Aircraft appeared first on Aviation Today.

Boeing Secures Qatar Airways as Launch Customer of New 777-8 Freighter

Qatar Airways is the launch customer of Boeing’s 777-8 Freighter jet, and has also signed a new agreement with Boeing to purchase 25 737-10 (MAX) passenger jets. (Boeing)

Qatar Airways has become the launch customer for Boeing’s new 777-8 Freighter, the air cargo variant of the 777X passenger jet that the Middle East carrier is also launching, with an expected first delivery coming in 2023.

Under a new agreement signed with Boeing, Qatar will convert 60 of its existing 777X family orders to the 777-8 Freighter with a firm order for 34 jets and options for 16 more. With a range of 4,410 nautical miles (8,167 km), the 777-8 Freighter has a maximum structural payload of 118 tonnes and will feature a new carbon-fiber composite wing.

Boeing signed the 777-8 Freighter launch customer agreement with the airline during a ceremony held at the White House on Monday. Qatar Airways Group CEO Akbar Al Baker said in a statement that the airline is “honored” to become the launch customer for an aircraft that will “not only allow us to further enhance our product offering for our customers, but also help us meet our objectives to deliver a sustainable future.”

The 777-8 Freighter will be built at Boeing’s Everett, Washington factory where the company has invested “more than $1 billion” to support 777X production, according to a Jan. 31 press release. Boeing notes that the payload capacity on the 777-8 Freighter is nearly identical to the existing 747-400 Freighter with a “25% improvement in fuel efficiency, emissions and operating costs.”

Qatar’s 777-8 Freighter fleet will be powered by the GE9X engine, after the airline signed a $6.8 billion purchase order with GE Aviation, one of the biggest announcements for the engine-maker since it announced a new strategic business plan to spin-off its healthcare division, while combining its energy, power and digital divisions into one business that will leave the industrial giant’s sole focus on aviation within the next few years.

“The commitment includes 30 GE9X engines and four GE90-115B engines, plus GE TrueChoice services,” according to GE Aviation’s announcement of the new selection.

“We are confident that Qatar Airways’ focus to drive towards a sustainable future will be very much supported by the efficiency of the GE9X engines,” Al Baker said.

Boeing expects to deliver the first 777-8 Freighter to Qatar Airways by 2027. The move by Qatar to expand its air cargo fleet comes amid increasing demand for the package-carrying side of the air transportation industry. Last week, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) released data showing the full-year demand for air cargo increased 6.9% in 2021, compared to pre-COVID 2019 levels, and 18.7% compared to 2020.

“The lack of available capacity contributed to increased yields and revenues, providing support to airlines and some long-haul passenger services in the face of collapsed passenger revenues,” IATA said in its latest report.

Boeing’s launch of the 777-8 Freighter comes following the launch of the A350 Freighter by rival Airbus last year. Airbus and Qatar Airways have been involved in a legal dispute for several months involving claims that the airline has experienced issues with degradation of surface and paint on certain A350 aircraft within its fleet. A Jan. 25 report from Business Insider notes that Airbus has cancelled a 2017 order placed by Qatar Airways for 50 A321 jets amid the ongoing dispute.

In addition to the 777-8 Freighter launch agreement, Qatar Airways also committed to a firm $7 billion order of 25 total Boeing 737-10 aircraft and purchase rights for 25 additional airplanes. As the largest variant in the 737 MAX family, the 737-10 has a 3,300 nautical mile range. Boeing completed the first 737-10 test flight last June, and expects the aircraft to achieve entry into service by 2023.

The post Boeing Secures Qatar Airways as Launch Customer of New 777-8 Freighter appeared first on Aviation Today.

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