Pre-flight testing for coronavirus only makes sense if it is delivered before passengers arrive at airports, in the view of Ryanair group chief executive Michael O’Leary. “It’s too late, it takes too long, and what do you do in the middle of a terminal when you’ve a couple of positive tests?” O’Leary said of airport testing during the World Travel Market conference on 10 November. He adds, however, that “we’re generally supportive of pre-departure testing”, but that it should be within “72 hours or 36 hours” of departure. Under such a system, “people should be coming to airports with negative tests”, he explains, meaning that with “certainly in short-haul within Europe, we can go back to flying with reasonable confidence, with reasonable security”, without the patchwork of quarantine requirements that currently exist across the carrier’s network. O’Leary also laments the lack of mass testing of the general population within individual countries, which he believes would help to control the spread of the virus. In recent weeks, Ryanair has criticised the policies adopted by the Irish and UK governments around Covid-19 travel restrictions. In the wider industry, airlines body IATA and airports association ACI World have been lobbying for an internationally recognised pre-flight testing regime to replace quarantine requirements for arriving passengers. Their proposals to the European Union – made in mid-September in conjunction with airlines body A4E – suggested both pre-airport and at-airport testing as viable options. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) announced in late October that they are working on a common testing protocol for travellers within the EU, with their proposals due soon.


Source: Cirium

New Zealand investigators have closed an inquiry into two incidents involving engine problems on Rolls-Royce-powered Boeing 787-9s operated by Air New Zealand. The country’s Transport Accident Investigation Commission states that the incidents involved fracture of intermediate-pressure turbine blades on Trent 1000 powerplants. Deterioration of these blades was one of several issues affecting various blade types in the engine, and Rolls-Royce has undertaken extensive work to study and correct the problems. The first ANZ incident involved an in-flight engine shutdown – as well as damage to the airframe – resulting in the return to Auckland of a 787-9 service to Tokyo on 5 December 2017. This was followed, just a day later, by an engine anomaly on a second 787-9, bound for Buenos Aires, which also returned to Auckland. Both aircraft were fitted with the Package C version of the Trent 1000. Corrosion fatigue cracking was identified, which had led blades to fracture and separate from the intermediate-pressure turbine disc. The New Zealand commission says Rolls-Royce’s addressing the safety issues identified in its interim report has “satisfied” the investigators. “Further lines of inquiry would be unlikely to identify further circumstances with significant implications for transport safety,” says commission deputy chief Stephen Davies Howard. He says prolonging the probe would not result in additional findings or recommendations. “By the time we published our interim report, Rolls-Royce was already replacing affected [intermediate turbine] blades with a new design that used an established alloy with protective coating,” he adds. “These actions by the engine manufacturer were sufficient to address the safety issues.” Rolls-Royce stated in July this year that the newly-developed blade for the turbine, to overcome the sulphidation corrosion problem, had already been fitted across virtually all of the operational fleet, for all package versions of the Trent 1000.

Source: Cirium

In October, Boeing lost another 12 orders for the 737 and received no new commitments for any commercial aircraft type, while deliveries inched up to 13 jets. The company’s October orders and deliveries figures come amid travel restrictions and sharply reduced demand for new jets. Cancellations of 737s totaled 12 in October, including four aircraft axed by Chinese lessor CDB Aviation, one by Czech carrier Smartwings, three by Oman Air, and four culled by unidentified customers. Boeing also removed a further 25, 737 aircraft from its backlog in October to comply with so-called “ASC 606” accounting standards. Although the company retains contracts for those jets it has less confidence the sales will close. In the 10 months to the end of October, Boeing has lost 1,043 737s from its backlog: 448 customer cancellations and 595 axed due to the accounting regulations. The company has said that cancellations will ease pent-up delivery pressure and give it more “flexibility” to manage its backlog and shipment schedule. The Federal Aviation Administration is in the final days of reviewing Boeing’s modifications to the 737, prior to certificating the jet. In October, Boeing delivered 13 aircraft, up from 11 in September. The latest changes bring Boeing’s backlog to 4,275 jets: 3,365 737s, 10 747s, 80 767s, 349 777s and 471 787s.

Source: Cirium