US major United Airlines has placed a firm order for 20 more Embraer 175's and taken options on a further 19, continuing its regional fleet replacement. The deal has a list-price value of $1.9 billion. Deliveries are scheduled for the second half of 2020. The E175's will be configured with 70 seats and replace older aircraft in United's feeder fleet, likely Bombardier CRJ700's, says the carrier's chief financial officer Gerry Laderman. Replacing older aircraft is a necessity for United, which can only have up to 255 with 70-76 seats in its regional fleet under its contract with pilots. It operated CRJ700's, Embraer 170's and E175's that, together, totalled that number at the end of March, its latest fleet plan shows.

Source: FlightGlobal

UK investigators have revealed that a weight entry error during take-off calculations resulted in a Blue Air Boeing 737-800's suffering a tail-strike on departure from Birmingham. Analysis of the incident, on 28 July last year, found that the captain read the zero-fuel weight – rather than the take-off weight – to the first officer during calculations for take-off performance. This incorrect weight, 12t below the actual figure, was entered into the electronic flightbag. As the aircraft rotated from runway 15 at 143kt, ground operations personnel saw the tail of the jet come close to the ground and air traffic control asked the crew whether they had experienced a strike. Inspection of the 737 after it landed showed damage to the tail-skid and auxiliary power unit drain mast. None of the 190 passengers and six crew members were injured.

Source: FlightGlobal

Southwest Airlines has issued this updated statement on its Boeing 737 MAX fleet: " In compliance with the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) order on March 13, 2019, our Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft remain temporarily grounded." Southwest Airlines continues to await guidance from Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on the impending 737 MAX software enhancements and training requirements." We are encouraged by the reported progress and proposed path forward for returning the aircraft to service, and we remain confident that, once certified by the FAA, the enhancements will support the safe operation of the MAX. In April, we revised our flight schedule by removing the MAX through August 5 to offer reliability to our operation and stability for our Customers during the busy summer travel months. With the timing of the MAX’s return-to-service still uncertain, we are again revising our plans to remove the MAX from our schedule through September 2."

Source: World Airline News