Copenhagen Airport has been selected as the preferred bidder for a partnership with Newcastle Airport in the northeast of England. If all goes well Copenhagen Airport will buy a minority stake in the airport, and sign a technical services agreement. Local airport interests will maintain majority control. The other bidder in the short list of two was a consortium of Altera Partners, Singapore Changi Airport Enterprises (SCAE) and Flughafen Zurich Airport Group.
SimuFlite, Dallas, has named Leslie W. Carlisle as its 2001 Women in Aviation International scholarship recipient for Citation initial pilot training and Denise A. Waters as its Citation initial maintenance training scholarship winner. Five additional pilot training scholarships will be awarded this month: four through the University Aviation Association and one through the Tuskegee Airmen National Historic Museum.
Construction of a new air traffic control tower is complete at John G. Diefenbaker Airport (YXE) in Saskatoon, Canada. YXE is the first small Canadian airport to receive a Nav Canada-technology de-signed tower and is only the fifth nationwide. The C$5.5 million facility replaces a tower built in 1953.
The Reason Public Policy Institute (RPPI) has released a report that suggests the FAA reform the air traffic control system to reflect a commercialized version of Nav Canada. Titled ``How to Commer-cialize Air Traffic Control,'' the Los Angeles-based think tank's report suggests creating a non-profit organization and setting it up in a corporate form. Robert Poole, RPPI director of transport studies, says the ATC system needs
All the numbers for March are not in; however, 2001 doesn't seem to be starting appreciably different than prior years. Usually the first quarter of a new year is down because activity in the last couple months of the previous year is brisk.
The National Air Transportation Association has honored aviation facilities and personnel in Sun Valley, Idaho, and Fargo, N.D. The Fargo Flight Standards District Office (FSDO) received the NATA's FAA Customer Service Excellence Award for its ``superior communications, consistent enforcement and . . . willingness to educate the public. The award is designed to encourage FAA facilities to ``elevate the quality of interaction'' with various airport entities, with the winner chosen from facilities nominated by NATA member companies.
Executive Jet Aviation has taken delivery of the first Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) and Gulfstream V aircraft ordered for its NetJets fractional ownership program. Executive Jet International (EJI), EJA's ``big aircraft'' unit based near Hilton Head on the South Carolina/Georgia border, will manage the two new types. EJI now operates all of EJA's G-IVSPs. EJA Chairman Richard Santulli said the BBJ and G-V will be used mainly for trans-oceanic flights, while ``broadening'' NetJets' fleet with a full range of aircraft sizes.
Some readers may be surprised to find Honeywell's AirSat1 satcom telephone system listed in the Satcom table again this year. It turns out that the reports of the demise of the Iridium satcom system were premature. The Iridium constellation of 76 satellites, which was virtually at the point of being turned to toast when the spacecraft were to be de-orbited in summer 2000, has been rescued by the Pentagon under a two-year, $72 million deal, which will guarantee a maximum of 20,000 users, and cover up to 60 percent of Iridium's operating costs.
Fairchild Dornier 728JET launch customer Lufthansa Group has been named an authorized training provider for the aircraft. Lufthansa, which will offer flight crew and maintenance training on the 728JET, has 60 firm orders and 60 options for the aircraft. The airline expects to launch 728JET service in mid-2003.
Executive Jet Aviation has ordered 25 firm and 25 optional Dassault Falcon 2000EX aircraft and six additional Falcon 2000s for its NetJets fractional ownership program. Unveiled at the 2000 NBAA convention, the 2000EX is designed to provide 25-percent more range than the current 2000 variant, allowing transatlantic flights under most wind conditions. Pratt&Whitney Canada is developing the PW308C turbofan for the 2000EX; the aircraft also has additional fuel tanks. FAA and JAA certification of the aircraft is planned for late 2002.
TAG Aviation USA won FAA approval to operate Bombardier Global Express aircraft under FAR Part 135, which TAG says is the first such approval for the long-range business jet. The new Global Express will be based in Seattle.
Hartzell Propellers, Piqua, Ohio, has named Brian Meyer as the manager of the aircraft applications engineering group. Formerly the manager of Hartzell's STC programs, Meyer is responsible to ensure quality in engineering applications.
Sydney International Airport is up for sale, but the Australian government will limit foreign ownership to 49 percent valued at approximately $5.8 billion. The successful bidder will receive the option to build and develop a secondary airport within 100 km of the city's center -- but only if the need can be justified. Potential bidders are believed to include the U.K.'s BAA, which operates Melbourne Airport; the Dutch Schipol Group; and the Changi Airport Group from Singapore, which already holds a share in Auckland International Airport in New Zealand.
Regardless of its specific outcome, the walkout by Comair's 1,350 unionized pilots could speed integration of regional pilots into major airline seniority lists. The strike is the first to directly challenge the perception that regional airline pilots should work harder and earn less than their mainline counterparts -- trends that have defined the U.S. airline industry for decades.
Despite continuous and growing opposition to the closing of Meigs Field on Chicago's lakefront, Mayor Richard Daley is obdurate toward continuing Meigs beyond spring 2002 -- one year from now. He fully intends to close down Meigs and make it into a ``beautiful park.'' Business and private aircraft will have to use Midway or Palwaukee. Midway is already crowded and Palwaukee . . . well, suh, you might as well use Waukegan. Unless you have business in Skokie, Glenview or Evanston, Palwaukee is way out in the tewlies.
All U.S. airliners weighing more than 7,500 pounds with more than one flight attendant will be required to carry automated external defibrillators (AED) within three years, under the terms of a recently enacted FAA rule. The regulation also requires airlines to expand what they carry in onboard enhanced medical kits (EMK) to include: IV administration kits, AMBU bag (which assists breathing following defibrillation), CPR masks and such medications as oral antihistamines, non-narcotic analgesics, aspirin, lidocaine, atropine and a bronchodilator inhaler.
NTSB Investigator Al Dickinson is heading a team looking into the apparent icing-related upset of Comair EMB-120 on March 19. The Embraer Brasilia was damaged substantially in the incident, but the 22 passengers and three flight crewmembers were uninjured. Comair Flight 5040 was at 18,000 feet on autopilot, nearing the end of a leg from Nassau, Bahamas, to Orlando, when the aircraft entered IMC.
