European safety authorities are warning of a spate of incidents linked to contamination of pitot-static ports as aircraft are returned to service following temporary storage. Thousands of aircraft have been parked for extended periods as a result of the air transport crisis, but the European Union Aviation Safety Agency believes several have been put back into operation in a non-airworthy condition. EASA says it has observed an “alarming trend” in the number of reports of unreliable airspeed or altitude indications – the result of contaminated air-data systems – during the first flight of aircraft that have been retrieved from storage. These indications have resulted in incidents including rejected take-offs or in-flight turnbacks. “Most of the reported events concerned the accumulation of foreign objects, such as insect nests, in the pitot-static system,” says EASA. 'This contamination caused obstruction of pitot probe and static-port orifices, in some cases on multiple systems, even when the covers were installed.” The risk of pitot-static contamination was higher on aircraft for which storage, or return-to-service, procedures had either not been completed or been incorrectly carried out in the first place. “Pitot-static systems provide flight-critical air-data information,” adds EASA. “It is very important that the maintenance instructions…are strictly applied.” While the situation does not warrant mandatory airworthiness directive action, the authority is urging maintenance organisations to carry out careful cleaning and inspection of pitot-static systems for aircraft being retrieved from storage, and seek advice on contamination if necessary.

Source: Cirium

Cockpit union efforts to dissuade UK holiday carrier Jet2 from shedding over 100 pilots across its various bases appear to have failed. Jet2 had warned a few weeks ago that it was looking at cutting pilot numbers after reducing its activity in the face of the air transport downturn. Pilot union BALPA claims the airline, based at Leeds-Bradford airport, is “insisting” on 102 redundancies. Jet2 is part of Dart Group. The cockpit union says the airline has turned down a number of proposals intended to save jobs. The carrier had stepped in to recruit over 50 pilots and some 40 cabin crew, among other personnel, from leisure company Thomas Cook Group which collapsed last year. et2 has bases at several UK airports including Belfast, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London Stansted, Manchester, Newcastle and Birmingham. BALPA general secretary Brian Strutton says the government has a “significant role” to play to support UK aviation. “Its quarantine changes keep throwing every restart plan into chaos,” he adds. Jet2 has been prioritising cash preservation and has taken several steps to reinforce its liquidity position since the crisis engulfed the industry. These measures have included taking advantage of the government’s corporate financing facility for companies hit by the coronavirus situation, to use as standby funding. Dart Group has conducted a share placement – which was oversubscribed – to raise additional liquidity, and has disposed of its logistics firm Fowler Welch. Jet2 is confident that it will have a “thriving future” as the leisure travel market gradually recovers.

Normalisation of diplomatic relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates opens the possibility of flights between the two countries – although a timeframe has yet to emerge and other complexities remain unresolved. The UAE and Israeli governments have jointly stated that tourism and “direct flights” will be among the subjects covered by bilateral agreements to be signed over the next few weeks and months. But even with a political agreement, organising air connections between Abu Dhabi or Dubai and the main Israeli airport at Tel Aviv remains potentially complex. The airports are some 2,000km apart but while Emirates and Etihad Airways would, in theory, be able to operate services through the Bahrain, Baghdad or Jeddah flight information regions without hindrance, El Al remains restricted in its freedom to transit Arab airspace. This is particularly critical in the case of the vast Jeddah FIR, encompassing Saudi Arabian airspace, the size of which serves as a barrier to efficient flightpaths between Israel and several Asian destinations. Without Saudi transit, El Al flights to the UAE would need to fly a lengthy detour south along the Red Sea, doubling the distance. The transit of Saudi airspace became a high-profile issue more than two years ago when Air India started operating to Tel Aviv from Delhi along a route which took it through the Jeddah FIR – provoking the ire of El Al, which complained about the distortion of competition given that the Israeli carrier was forced to operate a longer route. No details have been disclosed by the Israeli or UAE governments as to the conditions which might apply to commercial flights between the two countries, which carriers might be permitted to serve such routes, and how the services would operate. Emirates and Etihad Airways each currently skirt Israeli airspace while conducting services such as those from Beirut, in order to avoid the risks of operating through Syrian airspace. Royal Jordanian routinely operates through Israeli airspace to Amman. The Israeli and Jordanian government signed a peace treaty in 1994.

Source: Cirium