737 Max for Norwegian

Norwegian took delivery of two new Boeing 737 Maxes on Thursday at a handover ceremony in Seattle. The first of the jets took off for Oslo at about 1:45 p.m. local time.

The deliveries were the first of the type to Norwegian Air, which has a total of 110 737 Maxes on order. The carrier expects to take four more of the jets – all the Max-8 variant – by the end of 2017.

Norwegian becomes just the second airline in the world get Boeing’s new 737 Max model. And, sometime next month, the airline will become the first to put the jet into regular service in the United States. 

"It’s a major milestone,” Norwegian founder and CEO Bjørn Kjos said about taking the new 737 Max at delivery ceremony in Seattle on Thursday. 

Air Namibia is Second Best Regional African Airline

According to Skytrax, Air Namibia is the second-best regional airline in Africa. 

The Skytrax World Airline Awards are very prestigious and highly regarded in the airline industry. They are often referred to as “the Oscars of the aviation industry,” and are a global benchmark of airline excellence. Travellers across the globe take part each year in the world's airline passenger satisfaction survey to decide the winners.

Air Namibia's general manager for commercial services, Xavier Masule, was ecstatic upon receiving the news.

Bird Strike Forces AirAsia X Emergency Landing

Passengers on an AirAsia X flight say they saw sparks coming from an engine after a suspected bird strike led to their plane being grounded in Brisbane last night.

The incident occurred shortly after the Kuala Lumpur-bound flight took off from the Gold Coast about 10:20pm, with the plane flying for another hour before landing safely in Brisbane.
The plane switched course to Brisbane an hour after take-off.

"Two bird remains were found on the runway," the airline said in a statement.

Eric Lim, a passenger who posted images and video of the plane on social media, said the right engine was struck.  "Successive sparks 'boom, boom, boom' went off," Mr Lim posted on Facebook.

BA Cabin Crew Strike But Passengers Get An Upgrade

British Airways cabin crew based at the UK's busiest airport have launched a 16 day strike in a long-running dispute over pay.

Members of Unite in the so-called mixed fleet - those who have joined the airline since 2010 - walked out from midnight at Heathrow Airport amid union claims that they are on "poverty pay".

VivaColumbia Wants Standing Room Only on Flights

Budget airline VivaColombia is considering plans to remove all seats from its planes and make passengers stand.

They hope the move will drive down fares by allowing them to squeeze more passengers into each flight, opening up air travel to working class Colombians and budget holidaymakers.

It's a Yes For Flybondi

Argentina's transportation ministry authorized low-cost airline FB Lineas Aereas, known commercially as Flybondi, to operate domestic and international flights, according to a notice published Thursday in the country's official gazette.

With the resolution, all five airlines that received a preliminary go-ahead in February from the civil aviation authority to operate in Latin America's No. 3 economy have now been granted final permission. American Jet, Alas del Sur and Andes Lineas Aereas were cleared in March.

Small Plane Crashes on US Freeway

A small plane crash-landed on a freeway in Orange County, California, on Friday morning, critically injuring two people on board and snarling traffic on a major north-south artery through the area, authorities said.

The fiery crash was captured on cell-phone video by a driver and broadcast on local KABC-TV. It showed the twin-engine Cessna 310 as it passed low over the northbound side of the San Diego (405) freeway in southern California before slamming into the ground on the southbound lanes.

US Wouldn't Allow Another Norwegian

The low-cost carrier Norwegian Air International might not have won approval to serve the U.S. under legislation a House panel approved Tuesday.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee agreed by voice vote to add a provision dealing with foreign airlines to a bill governing the Federal Aviation Administration.

Air India Govt Stake for Sale.

India's Cabinet has approved a plan to sell a stake in the debt-ridden national airline, Air India.

The finance ministry said Wednesday that the government has agreed in principle to sell part of its holding in the airline, which has struggled to become profitable as competition from a number of low-cost airlines has grown.

It said in a statement that a government committee will be formed to work out the details of the sale, including the size of the stake the government will offload.

The committee will decide how to deal with Air India's massive 520 billion rupee ($8 billion) debt.

US Tighten Airline Security Measures

If you're heading for the USA by air soon, you'll be in for major disruption and delay as the Department of Homeland Security have announced new procedures relating to laptops and other electronic items larger than cellphones. 

The tougher standards apply to 180 domestic and foreign airlines that fly direct to the U.S. from 280 airports from 105 countries. The new rules will affect about 2,000 daily flights carrying 325,000 passengers.

Intelligence about terrorists developing ways to hide bombs and infiltrate airport staffing prompted the tougher security measures, according to   two senior DHS officials who spoke on background during a conference call for reporters on Wednesday.

SkyTrax Airline of The Year - Qatar Airways

During a glitzy awards ceremony Tuesday at the Paris Air Show, Qatar Airways was named "Airline of the Year," by the international air transport ratings group, Skytrax.

The award comes as the Doha-based airline struggles to deal with an attempt by Qatar's neighbors to isolate the country.

BA Keep Passengers in the Dark Over Strike Plans

With a 16-day cabin-crew strike due to start in just over two days, British Airways refuses to make any public announcement about its contingency plans for 10 day strike by cabin crew at Heathrow.

Cabin Crew working for British Airways 'Mixed Fleet' operation are walking out for the latest and longest work stoppage since their pay dispute began. The members of the Unite union will strike from 1 to 16 July.

ANA's Budget Airline Forces Disabled Man to Crawl On-Board

Vanilla Air,  the budget off-shoot of ANA forced a disabled man to forego his wheelchair and crawl up the stairs to board one of its aircraft.

The horrendous incident took place on 5th June, as Hideto Kijima was preparing to return to Osaka from a trip to Amami Oshima island.  He had spent his holidays on the southern Japanese island, having a fantastic time, documenting his holiday in a Facebook post. He had stayed in a fully accessible villa and even gone swimming with sea turtles, he wrote. 

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Air101.co.uk is an airline and commercial aviation news site and blog written by a professional team with decades of experience in the commercial air travel world.

We have been involved in reporting the news from the world of commercial aviation for a number of years, both in the written form as well as providing audio content for various radio stations and broadcasters.

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Jason Shaw.
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Jason Shaw's love of the aviation industry started at a young age when he used to watch the whirlybirds of Bristow Helicopters coming and going from the garden of his Surrey childhood home. Since those days he's worked in a number of key areas within the aviation industry from airlines, travel agents, holiday companies and product selection to reporting on it for local radio and making video travel brochures.

Jason is also an experienced broadcaster, having presented on radio, television, corporate videos and video travel brochures. He's an avid writer and written a number of books, articles, features and reports. He also loves to travel and his favourite destinations include Port Douglas, Singapore and Copenhagen.


Joshua Jordan.
Editor and lead reporter
Josh has a love of aircraft and airlines, his passion is travel and has worked in both the travel and media industries for a number of years. Currently, his voice can be heard on a number of online radio stations and on a number of TV commercials.  He counts New York and Barcelona as his favourite destinations and the ATR72 as his favourite aircraft!

Adam Shaw
Reporter
Adam is the youngest member of the team, no relation to Jason and like the rest of the team, he has a keen interest in airlines, aircraft and aviation. He previously worked for a leading holiday company in its overseas contract department. His favourite destination is Prague and is currently taking flying lessons.

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This version issued  1 April 2020

Loganair Ending Franchise Ties

Loganair to end it's franchise partnership with Flybe and will fly under its own name again.

The Scottish based airline will once again fly under its own new branding of a livery of black, white and red tartan.  The airline operates over 1,000 flights a week on 46 routes, connecting airports in Scotland as well as flying to some destinations further away, including London, Manchester, Norwich, Dublin, and the Norwegian city of Bergen.

Loganair is big in Scotland, they have almost 300 flights each week to and from Glasgow, over 100 flights a week at Aberdeen, as well as a vast and impressive operation throughout the Scottish Highlands & Islands including Inverness, Sumburgh, Kirkwall, Stornoway and Benbecula.

One of the airlines most famous and unusual services include landing on the beach at Barra as well as the world’s shortest scheduled flight, linking the Orkney islands of Westray and Papa Westray.  The trip takes just over two minutes.

United Airlines Attacking Passengers Again?

More trouble for United Airlines are it emerged that a United Airlines supervisor attempted to wrestle a fragile 17th century violin from a classical musician after the airline said the priceless instrument must be checked as hold luggage. 

This is the account of Yennifer Correia, who was en route to St Louis from Houston to play in the summer season at the Missouri Symphony Orchestra when the incident took place.

At the check-in desk Ms Correia was told her violin would have to be placed in the hold for the flight, but the musician said she would do anything to keep it with her in the cabin. In the US it is a legal requirement for airlines to accept musicians’ instruments as carry-on luggage.

At this point, the violinist asked to speak to a supervisor, who told her there were “no options”, according to Ms Correia’s lawyer, Philip MacNaughton, who said this is when the United staff member became “belligerent”.

Tui and Etihad call off plans for new airline

Tui, the world’s largest tour operator, has canned plans to merge its budget German air carrier Tuifly with part of Etihad Airways-backed rival Air Berlin.

The deal, which would have seen the creation of a new airline capable of carrying 15m passengers a year on a fleet of around 60 aircraft, was called off because the Air Berlin-controlled Austrian carrier Niki “is no longer available for a joint venture”, Tui said in a statement.

Tui is still in the market for a deal with another carrier, its executive board member Sebastian Ebel said on Thursday:

Read full story on FT.com

Flybe's Troubled Year

The airline Flybe has revealed they've accumulated £20m in losses after embarking on ambitious expansion plans.

The regional airline said it would start to reduce the size of its fleet after it saw slowing growth in consumer demand.

However, it insisted the current year was going well and efforts to turn a profit again were well underway.

Trump Slump Real

The first confirmed effect on flight bookings to the United States since President Trump first issued a travel ban has been revealed by the boss of the giant Dubai-based airline Emirates.

Within a week of his inauguration, the new President issued a controversial executive order banning nationals from seven mainly Muslim countries from the US.

New 100 Strong Fleet for Qatar's Indian Airline

Akbar Al Baker, chief executive of Qatar Airways, has outlined plans to launch an airline in the fast-growing Indian market as part of an international expansion programme.

First Airbus for Iran Air

Iran Air has taken delivery of its first Airbus A330-200, as its re-equipment program gathers pace.

The aircraft was handed over to the Iranian flag carrier at Airbus’s final assembly line site at Toulouse, France on March 10.

BIG losses for Turkish Airline

The Turkish low-cost carrier, Pegasus Airlines has posted big losses for 2016,   the troubled airline reported its net loss of 136.2 million Turkish lira ($36.1 million).  A massive change from last years 11.9 million profit.

Jail for Drunk Pilot

A pilot has been jailed for 10 months for attempting to board a flight from Scotland to America while drunk.

Carlos Roberto Licona, 45, was due to serve as First Officer on the United Airlines flight to Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday 27 August last year.   But he was taken off the plane after security staff smelled alcohol on his breath when he entered the airport.

Stretching Your Legs........

Passenger legroom in economy class has been shrinking in recent years, as airlines come up with new ways of squeezing extra seats onto planes.

British Airways is adding extra seats to the Airbus aircraft it uses on its short-haul flights, reducing the legroom available to 29 inches - the same amount offered by easyJet.

Other types of plane in BA's fleet afford economy passengers more room. Ryanair, meanwhile, uses Boeing 737 planes that still offer a minimum 30 inches of legroom.

Brexit, airlines' worst fear, has become their preoccupation.......

There is no shortage of metaphors for what airlines expect from Brexit: analysts talk of crosswinds, executives fear turbulence. For some, it is simply flying into thick fog with no idea where they are going to land.

No airline wanted Britain to vote leave in last year’s referendum; easyJet and Ryanair campaigned against it. A single European market in aviation brought cheap flights spanning the continent, ever more passengers, trade and jobs. Why would they jeopardise that?

Hawaiian Airlines plane diverted over blanket row

A Hawaiian Airlines flight from Las Vegas to Honolulu has been diverted because of a row over a blanket.

A passenger had asked for the wrap because he was cold, and was outraged when he was asked to pay $12 (£9.80).

Police said the man, 66, said he "would like to take someone behind the woodshed for this", which the pilot deemed threatening and then ordered the plane be diverted to Los Angeles.
No crime had been committed, police added.

The man had asked to speak to company representatives, arguing that he should not have to pay for the blanket because it was cold, the LA times reported.

He voluntarily left the flight when it landed in Los Angeles and caught another, Rob Pedregon, a spokesman for the Los Angeles airport police told AFP news agency.
"You know, if I was a passenger on board that plane I would have paid the $12 dollars for him," he added.

ANA's Special A380 Livery

All Nippon Airways has unveiled the livery that will adorn its first Airbus A380.

The ‘Flying Honu’ livery, by Tokyo resident Chihiro Masuoka, was picked from an open design competition. It features the Hawaiian green sea turtle, which the airline says is a sign of prosperity and good luck.The Star Alliance carrier says that it is moving ahead with the interior design of its A380s, which will “offer new passenger services” when it starts operation on the Tokyo-Honolulu route from the northern spring of 2019.

ANA has three A380s on order, scheduled for delivery in May, June and September 2019.

No Loo Roll Could Cost BA Thousands

Last week a mouse running amok aboard a Boeing 777 cost British Airways a fortune in compensation when a Heathrow-San Francisco flight departed four hours late. This week, a shortage of toilet paper and “the wrong kind of headphones” delayed a Gatwick-Barbados flight even longer. 

The messy situation has left BA with a prospective bill of up to £291,200 in compensation under European passengers’ rights rules, as well as thousands more in extra expenses such as meals for delayed travellers.

The BA 777, with a capacity of 280, was due to leave at 1.40pm on Sunday afternoon. The passengers were scheduled to touch down on the Caribbean island at sunset, in good time to polish off drinks and dinner before a good night’s sleep.

But due to what appears to be inadequate preparation of the aircraft, departure was initially delayed by 1 hour 40 minutes. 

MH370 Search Ends

In March 2014, the then Malaysian transport minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, fronted the world's press and told them MH370 had "vanished".

"There is no real precedent for a situation like this," he said.

Almost three years since the Boeing 777 disappeared from aviation radars the biggest mystery in the history of aviation remains unexplained, but the search for answers has been suspended.

Malaysia, China and Australia have jointly decided to end the search for the Boeing 777 and its 239 passengers and crew, six weeks out from the three-year anniversary of its disappearance on route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8th 2014.

Qantas Aircraft Grounded

Qantas has briefly grounded 10 Bombardier Q400 planes after missing a routine inspection, which led to flight cancellations.

The airline's regional unit, QantasLink, cancelled a number of flights on Tuesday to resolve a "maintenance administration issue" with 10 of its 31 Q400s, a Qantas spokesman said on Wednesday.

"This is an administrative issue that relates to technical compliance and not a safety issue with the aircraft," he said.

New Jets for Wideroe

Embraer has signed a contract with Widerøe, the largest regional airline in Scandinavia, for up to 15 E190-E2 family jets. The contract consists of three firm orders for the E190-E2 and purchase rights for 12 further E2 family aircraft. The airline says this flexible mix of purchase rights for E175-E2, E190-E2, and E195-E2 will give it the ability to grow its fleet with a family of aircraft from 80 to 130+ seats, to meet market requirements.

The order has a potential list price value of up to US$873million, if all orders are converted. The three firm orders for E190-E2s were included in Embraer’s fourth quarter 2016 backlog.

EasyJet Sack Crew for Eating Bacon Sandwhich Given to her by Manager.

Shannon Gleeson was given the boot from the budget airline for gross misconduct and theft for failing to check with her superior if the food was paid for. 

The 22-year-old ate the baguette as she has a nut allergy and was unable to find safe food while abroad, an employment tribunal at Cambridge Magistrates Court heard. 

But a member of staff reported Ms Gleeson and her manager to the company, after they spied the pair eating the £4.50 bacon baguette and a croque monster meant for passengers. 

An investigation into the incident was launched by easyJet, and despite Ms Gleeson apologising and offering to pay the fee she was sacked alongside her manager. 

ACT 747 Crashes in Kyrgyzstan Killing 37

A Turkish cargo plane flying from Hong Kong has crashed in Kyrgyzstan, killing at least 37 people, most of them on the ground, officials say.

The Boeing 747 TC-MCL aircraft operated by ACT Airlines crashed as it landed in fog at Manas airport, 25km (15 miles) north of the capital, Bishkek.

At least 15 buildings were destroyed in a village outside the airport, with a number of children among the dead.

Dreams of Ghana Airline....

Resurrecting the dream of having a thriving national airline is the biggest priority for the Minister designate for Aviation.

President Nana Akufo-Addo on Thursday January 12 named Madam Cecelia Dapaah as his preferred minister for Aviation, pending approval by Parliament.

In an interview a day after her nomination, Madam Dapaah told Accra-based Class FM, bring back a national airline comparable to that of other African nations was high on her to-do list.

“We had a national airline which used to be the pride of Ghana and now that we are in government, we will deliberate and look at the possibilities available and decide on how to approach a revival of the airlines.”

Interjet Grounds 11 Sukhoi Superjets

Air carrier Interjet has grounded half its 22 Russian-made Superjet100 planes after doing a mandatory safety inspection of the aircraft, Mexico's civil aviation agency said Wednesday.

In a statement, the agency said 11 jets will be out of service while unspecified measures are taken to guarantee their safety and restore them to flight status. The other 11 were found to be in "perfect condition," it said.

Sunwing Pilot Drunk in Cockpit

A pilot who was drunk in the cockpit has been arrested shortly before take-off in Canada.
Two hours after his arrest, the 37-year-old man was found to have more than three times the legal limit of alcohol in his body.


His plane, part of the Sunwing budget airline, later left Calgary for Cancun, Mexico, with a different pilot. There were more than 100 people on board.
The incident happened at 07:00 local time (14:00 GMT) on Saturday.


Airline staff noticed the pilot behaving strangely, and then he passed out. They alerted the authorities and the man was escorted from the cockpit.

Delta Cancels Dreamline Order

Delta Air Lines Inc. scrapped an order for 18 Boeing Co. widebody jets valued at $4 billion at list prices.

The 787-8 Dreamliners had been on Delta’s order book since its 2008 merger with Northwest Airlines. The Atlanta-based carrier said it had reached an agreement with Boeing on the cancellation, without disclosing terms. It will continue orders already in progress for 120 narrowbody Boeing 737-900ER, Delta said in a statement Tuesday.

Explosives Found on Egyptair Flight

Egyptian air accident investigators said on Thursday traces of explosives had been found on the remains of victims of an Egyptair flight that crashed en route from Paris to Cairo.

Flight MS 804 plunged into one of the deepest parts of the Mediterranean Sea on May 19, killing all 66 people on board.

Egypt's investigation committee issued a statement saying the coroner had found traces of explosives on the remains of some victims. It gave no more details but said its findings were sent to prosecutors investigating foul play.

"The technical investigation committee ... places itself and its expertise at the disposal of prosecutors," it said.

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Saudi Arabian Airlines Fined

Saudi Arabian Airlines has been fined some 1.4 million euros by a regional Belgian government for breaching EU carbon emissions rules, making it the first big non-EU carrier to be fined for breaking the EU aviation law.

The European Union requirement that all aircraft using its airports pay for carbon emissions caused international outcry when it was introduced at the start of 2012.