Norwegian Air Shuttle has become the first customer for Boeing’s GoldCare line maintenance option as the low-fare carrier commits to the fee-for-service maintenance package. The deal covers six 787s, including three technically still listed as options. Norwegian has coupled fielding of the 787 with the start of long-haul operations. In announcing the GoldCare agreement, Chief Operating Officer Asgeir Nyseth says that “for Norwegian, it is fundamental that we have the best maintenance program when we launch our long-haul operation.”

FedEx Express faced high no-fault-found rates and failure modes on its MD-10 versatile integrated avionics (VIA) unit. Removal rates were increasing. FedEx has full automated testing equipment sets and knowledgeable avionics test bench mechanics who can repair circuit cards down to the piece part, but Patrick Doyle, FedEx Express's senior manager of powerplant and avionics maintenance, knew they needed outside help to get to the root problem. He contacted OEMs Boeing and Honeywell, which undertook hundreds of hours of analysis.

Power-saving integrated circuits that extend battery life in portable electronics, and are being applied to military radios and investigated for avionics, are the overall winner of Aviation Week's 2012 Innovation Challenge, organized to bring new technologies and processes to the attention of aerospace and defense leaders.

When an Air New Zealand Boeing 777-300ER completed a Los Angeles-Auckland flight in December, it was the first time an airline operated under 240-min. extended operations (ETOPS). But the new 240-min. limit is no longer the edge of the envelope—330 min. is now poised to become the new ETOPS gold standard—ever since last November when Boeing received type design authority from the FAA to offer a 330-min. ETOPS “option” on the General Electric GE90-powered 777 family.

The call by carriers to standardize composite training certification, techniques and material mounts by the minute, with the Boeing 787 an operational fait accompli, and the Airbus A350 waiting to take wing.

Pemco's 30 largest unsecured creditors are owed more than $12.2 million.

Air Canada’s worsening relationship with its unionized workers has prompted yet more scheduled strikes—this time by the carrier's mechanics, baggage handlers and cargo agents—but the federal government has again indicated it will intervene to stop any service disruptions.

Sabena Technics’ maintenance facility in Bordeaux, France, is in the process of performing substantial heavy check and repair work on two of Afriqiyah Airways’ Airbus A330 aircraft, which arrived at the MRO last week. Several aircraft in the Libyan operator’s fleet suffered damage during recent conflicts. Philippe Rochet, Sabena Technics’ EVP-airframe services, says the MRO sent a maintenance task force of 10 engineers to Libya to prepare the aircraft for ferry flights to Bordeaux.