The successful completion of the 777-9’s 3h 51min maiden flight on 25 January signalled the start of at least a year of flight-testing for Boeing. The GE Aviation GE9X-powered twinjet, designated WH001, took off from Everett’s Paine Field at 10:09 local. After undergoing testing over Washington state, WH001 returned for a landing at Everett at around 14:00. The flightcrew for the test comprised 777/777X chief pilot Capt Van Chaney and Boeing chief pilot Craig Bomben. They undertook an initial test programme to evaluate the aircraft’s systems and structures, monitored in real time by the test team in Seattle. “The 777X flew beautifully, and today’s testing was very productive,” said Chaney. “Thank you to all the teams who made today possible. I can’t wait to go fly your airplane again.” Boeing says that WH001, which is the first of four dedicated 777-9 flight-test aircraft, is now undergoing checks ahead of resuming flight-testing “in the coming days”. It adds that it expects 777-9 deliveries to begin in 2021.

Source: Cirium

An Iranian passenger plane with 135 people on board has skidded off the runway and onto a road with its wheels still retracted -- and, miraculously, no one was hurt. Photos and videos from the scene on Monday in the Iranian city of Mahshahr show the Caspian Airlines plane grounded in the middle of the road, with traffic banked up and pedestrians on either side. The plane, lying flat on its belly, appears largely undamaged. All 135 people on board the plane were safely evacuated. Passengers appeared to help each other out of the twin-engine, single-aisle commercial jet, carrying children and suitcases. Some left through the main doors, while others climbed out emergency exits onto the plane wings. Emergency responders soon arrived on the scene, with firefighters spraying water onto the plane. All 135 people on board were unharmed and evacuated safely, reported semi-official news agency Fars, attributing a spokesman for Iran's civil aviation agency, Reza Jafarzadeh. Caspian Airlines Flight 6936 departed from the capital city, Tehran, early Monday and was set to land at Mahshahr Airport, in the country's southwest, when it skidded onto Mahshahr-e-Ahwaz highway, according to Fars. The cause of the incident is still under investigation. Caspian Airlines is based in Tehran. Its last major accident was in 2009, when a commercial flight crashed outside the city of Qazvin in northwestern Iran. All 153 passengers and 15 crew members on board died, making it one of the deadliest aviation accidents in the country's history.

Source: CNN

Southwest Airlines says that it lost almost a billion dollars in operating income due to the grounding of the Boeing 737 Max aircraft, as it joins other airlines in scrambling to find capacity and make up for the jet’s ongoing problems. “I am confident about the Max, and our pilots are confident about the Max,” chief executive Gary Kelly tells analysts on the company’s earnings call on 23 January. “The timing remains uncertain, and we are working through all that right now.”
Kelly says that 2019 full-year operating profit was $828 million, 28% lower than had the Max been flying in the airline’s all-737 fleet. “The grounding of 75 of our airplanes, or about ten percent of our fleet, presents a crisis-like challenge for our team," he says. The Dallas-based carrier’s net profit in the full year 2019 fell to $2.3 billion from $2.4 billion in 2018. In the final quarter of 2019, net profit hit $514 million, down 21% from $654 million in the same quarter a year ago. Full-year revenues rose to $22.4 billion from $21.9 billion, up 2.1%. In the fourth quarter alone, Southwest had revenue of $5.7 billion, flat from the year-ago quarter. The airline has taken the aircraft out of its schedule until 6 June but will likely have to extend that as more information becomes available, executives say. In order to reduce some of the fleet deficit created by the lack of the newer generation, lower fuel burn 737 Max aircraft, the airline is planning on postponing 7 of 18 retirements of older 737-700 aircraft this year. These will fly 2 more years, chief financial officer Tammy Romo says.

Source: Cirium