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IndiGo airline under safety audit by India’s civil aviation regulator

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India’s civil aviation regulator will conduct a special safety audit of the low-cost carrier IndiGo following concerns about the snag-ridden Pratt and Whitney (P&W) engines, which power the airline’s A320 Neo aircraft.

While an annual audit of IndiGo was due in April, a special Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) review will also be done of the airline’s operations and engineering departments.

“We confirm that there is currently a DGCA audit of IndiGo, which is combined with the annual main base audit. IndiGo has received a limited number of show-cause notices. IndiGo has responded accordingly and we can only comment on this matter after we have a discussion with the DGCA,” the airline said in a statement.

An airline source, however, dismissed reports that show-cause notices had been served on two senior officials of the airline.

Indian carriers IndiGo and GoAir have been inducting the P&W engine-powered A320 Neo aircraft since 2016. The former has 72 of these planes and the latter has 30.

Problems in engine

There have been problems in different parts of the engine, including the combustion chamber, knife edge seal, lift-off seal, front hub corrosion and heating of oil near lift-off seal leading to smoke on board a flight, apart from vibration during climb.

The engine-maker maintains that the problems are taking place as the engines are new into operations.

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Airbus received 58 orders for jets in March

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Airbus received orders for 58 jetliners in March – led by the A350 XWB widebody family in transactions that included a new customer; while delivering 74 aircraft to 40 customers from across its A220, A320, A330, A350 XWB and A380 product lines.

Pacing the month’s new business was Lufthansa Group’s order for 20 additional A350-900s, bringing its total A350 XWB orders to 45. Lufthansa Group is the biggest operator of Airbus aircraft.

Also in March, STARLUX Airlines of Taiwan signed a firm order for 17 A350 XWBs, comprising 12 A350-1000s and five shorter-fuselage A350-900 versions – becoming a new Airbus customer. The airline plans to deploy the aircraft on its premier long-haul services from Taipei to Europe and North America, as well as to selected destinations within the Asia-Pacific region.

Completing the month’s widebody new business was an order for one A350-900 from a private customer.

The single-aisle transaction in March involved 20 A320neo jetliners for an undisclosed customer.

Deliveries in March were composed of 57 A320 Family aircraft (13 in the CEO configuration and 44 NEO versions), eight A350-900s/A350-1000s, five A220s, three A330s (all in the NEO version) and one A380.

Among the month’s notable deliveries was the first A350-900 delivered to Evelop Airlines. With this aircraft – leased from Air Lease Corporation – the Spanish carrier of Barceló Group’s Ávoris travel division becomes the initial holiday/leisure carrier to operate an A350 XWB.

Other milestones in March included the first A380 delivery to Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA), which is the 15th operator of the world’s largest passenger aircraft. Additionally, Airbus delivered the no. 1 A330neo for an African airline, with Air Senegal receiving its first A330-900.

In the VIP sector, Airbus provided the first of three ACJ320neo aircraft for Comlux, which will now begin its cabin outfitting by the Comlux Completion centre in the United States. Comlux is the largest customer for Airbus Corporate Jets’ ACJ320neo Family.

Taking the latest orders and cancellations into account, Airbus’ backlog of jetliners remaining to be delivered as of 31 March stood at 7,357 aircraft.

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Comlux takes delivery of its first Airbus ACJ320neo jet

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Comlux has taken delivery of the first of three ACJ320neo aircraft, which will now enter VIP cabin-outfitting by Comlux Completion in Indianapolis. It is the largest customer for the ACJ320neo Family, which has already won a total of 11 orders.

“The new ACJ320neo gives us the means to deliver nonstop flights to even more of the world. CFM International has supported Comlux over the years, and we have chosen its new, fuel-efficient and highly reliable LEAP-1A engines to power the aircraft. Comlux Completion will install a unique VIP cabin interior, using the most advanced technologies to offer the best comfort and luxury to our customer,” says Comlux Executive Chairman and CEO Richard Gaona.

The ACJ320neo family uses new engines and wingtip mounted Sharklets to deliver a 15 per cent fuel-saving, which also translates into a leap forward in range for business jet operators.

It comprises an ACJ320neo that can fly 25 passengers 13 hours or 6,000 nm/11,100 km, and an ACJ319neo that can transport eight passengers 15 hours or 6,750 nm/12,500 km.

“Airbus corporate jets already have a reputation for comfort, reliability and value, already enjoy similar operating costs to traditional business jets through their airliner heritage, and are now even more economical in their NEO versions,” says ACJ President Benoit Defforge.

More than 700 A320neo Family aircraft are already in service with airlines and, with over 15,000 firm orders for the whole A320 Family, it is the clear leader in its class.

Airbus’ A320 Family pioneered features that are now standard in most new-generation business jets – such as enhanced-protection fly-by-wire controls, cost-saving centralised maintenance and weight-saving carbonfibre – ensuring that it has a long and successful future ahead of it.

More than 190 Airbus corporate jets are in service worldwide, flying on every continent, including Antarctica.

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Trump appoints former Delta Air Lines executive new FAA chief

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Former chief of flight operations for Delta Air Lines was appointed by President Trump to run the Federal Aviation Administration, currently under scrutiny for allowing the troubled Boeing 737 MAX 8 to carry passengers.

Steve Dickson, who spent 27 years with Delta before retiring in October as senior vice president of flight ops, is joining the agency in the midst of its most turbulent period in recent history, with Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao having requested an audit of its certification of the aircraft, two of which have been involved in horrific crashes over the past five months.

While Dickson’s name had reportedly been under consideration since November, Trump allowed the FAA to go without an official head for over a year following the end of Obama-era agency chief Michael Huerta’s term. Daniel Elwell, who led the FAA under George W. Bush, has been running the agency in an interim capacity without being confirmed by the Senate.

The man from Delta will be the first FAA head in three decades to have come directly to the job from a senior airline position – something of a pattern for Trump, who has recruited a number of cabinet members from the ranks of corporate America to staff the agencies tasked with regulating their former employers. Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan, who previously worked for Boeing, is just one such appointment.

The FAA is under fire for allowing Boeing to conduct crucial parts of its own safety testing and certification process. A group of current and former engineers from both the regulator and the aircraft manufacturer claims the FAA merely took Boeing’s word that their new plane was safe – an oversight that other countries then allegedly magnified by conducting only minimal testing of their own, assuming the US watchdog wouldn’t have certified an unsafe aircraft. Boeing is also accused of “cutting corners” to quickly certify the plane in order to compete with the new Airbus A320 Neo – between them, Airbus and Boeing comprise the lion’s share of all passenger airliners – and of failing to properly train pilots to work with the onboard systems.

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed earlier this month shortly after taking off from Addis Ababa en route to Nairobi, killing all 157 people on board after diving unexpectedly into a field. It was the second Boeing 737 Max 8 to meet such a fate in under six months, and investigators have pointed to “clear similarities” between this crash and the Lion Air Flight 610 disaster in October, which killed 189 people.

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Reunion Island NRL viaduct: Now that’s a road trip!

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“The new NRL 974 – the Didier Robert Highway as it is referred to across the island – is a secure road far from the danger of falling stones … nearly 1500 jobs … innovations … ingenuity … perseverance and respect to preserve the environment of the island,” says remarks from social media about this massive Reunion Island project.

The work of the “Nouvelle Route du Littoral” (the new coastal road) is nearing its end on the north side. Motorists traveling along the coastal road watch every day the progress of the work of laying the big posts in the sea.

This Friday marks the last hours of mobilization of the huge machine “Zourite,” used for two years for the installation of the big posts at the bottom of the sea and the first parts of deck assembled in stages. Since the start of work at sea, the machine has reached the construction work at the rate of two of these big posts per month. The total height of these posts varies from 24 to 38 meters on the entire route at sea. The bases of the posts are between 12 and 15 meters below sea level, or between 3 and 8 m below the ocean floor.

48 posts in total

The route stretch of the deck, whose weight of the elements can go up to 670 tons and are conveyed by the “launcher” to be assembled. As for the route on supports, they are much heavier, they weigh up to 2400 tons and are routed and set up on site by Zourite. The height of the segments to be transported varies from 3.80 to 7.30 meters.

Zourite thus completes in this month of March 2019 the installation of the very last of the posts of the viaduct which includes 48 between the Large boat and the advancement at sea in Saint-Denis.

A progress report is made at this very moment on site by a delegation of the regional authority. Taking stock of the progress of the work, the President of the Region was also asked about the prospects for the other achievements that will follow the work of the NRL, starting with the guided regional transport network. “The first phase of 12 km will involve Saint-Denis and Sainte-Marie, plus 2 phases: a first towards Saint-Benoît, and the second towards the west since you know that the New Coastal Road provides for to be able to host a regional guided transport network,” said Didier Robert.

NEO after the NRL

As for the total delivery of the NRL, the president of the Region spoke about the schedule adopted to date. “We are on a 2022 perspective for the overall delivery of the project,” he said, also answering the question of the possibility of a partial delivery. “It’s part of the elements of reflection but it does not integrate today the approach of our community because it is a global work of 12 km, so the goal is to deliver this project on its entirety.”

The subject of NEO Saint-Denis was also mentioned. “For the past two or three years, we have been choosing to co-manage with the City of Saint-Denis for the Nouvelle Entrée Ouest, and we are working together to ensure that there is extension and that Saint-Denis can benefit from the regional commitment with a level of traffic that is more acceptable. It will be finalized in a first time the new bridge of the Saint-Denis River in 2020-2021, so at the same time as the finalization of the viaduct “which prefigures the” new face of Barachois “in a second time,” said the president of Reunion.

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