Could Qantas move delay Ryanair launch of mobile services ?

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Qantas have shelved plans to launch live on board internet services on A380 aircraft next month as American Airlines has come under fire from flight attendants and customers for allowing passengers to surf porn web sites. Instead the airline has opted to offer 'cached internet content' and access to web based email and chat services. A Qantas spokesperson said that the internet plans had been pared back due to 'logistical and regulatory' issues encountered by the connectivity provider Onair. The airline said that full internet services would now be provided 'later in 2009'. Last month American Airlines started to offer full in flight broadband internet services on it's B767 aircraft but the flight attendants union were quick to request that software be installed to block inappropriate sites following complaints from FAs and passengers. The airline took the unusual view that they would rather offer unfiltered content and have flight crews monitor content for inappropriate content. Ryanair have opted to use the same provider ( as Qantas ) - Onair - as the provider of their airborne voice and data connection which begs the question - who is responsible for policing content - the user or the provider ?

Manx Beech 200 at Shannon

Shannon has lagged other Irish airports when it comes to visits by Manx registered aircraft. Although the 'M' register was launched on May 1 2007, the number of aircraft which have visited Shannon can be numbered on one hand.

Today, Friday September 26 though we were lucky to see Be200 Super King Air msn BB-1202 M-FSRE depart the airport. Registered to IAL King Air Ltd, the aircraft is pictured below in CAT2 conditions taxiing for the R24 threshold in early morning fog.

New reregistrations at Shannon

This week saw reregistrations of two of the current Shannon residents. Tuesday September 23 saw VT-SGA B737-8GJ msn 34955 change registration to N249FD. The aircraft had arrived in full Spice Jet colours via Amman on September 3. It was subsequently painted all white at the Lufthansa Paint hangar and test flown on September 16 in the Indian registration. Today, Friday September 26 saw former Silverjet B767-204 msn 24736 change registration in the early morning fog to JY-JAI of Jordan Aviation. The aircraft originally arrived in Shannon on July 4 following the collapse of Silverjet. The aircraft is still in full Silverjet colours with taped on Jordanian registration

Emergency drill at Shannon Airport

As required as part of it's aerodrome licence, Shannon Airport staged an exercise to test the response of the emergency services this Wednesday. The four-hour drill centred on a simulated crash of a Boeing 777 jet, carrying 156 passengers and 12 crew. The scenario involved the trans-Atlantic jet developing engine trouble, forcing it to divert to Shannon Airport before crash landing near the main runway. Ger Dollard, Director of Services, Clare County Council, said the exercise is not only vital to local emergency agencies but also required by Irish Aviation Authority regulations. He explained, ‘As part of an overall exercise programme a large-scale training exercise takes place at the airport about every two years to keep emergency services personnel prepared in the event a major aviation disaster would occur at the facility.’ The last emergency drill, ‘Exercise Eagle’, took place at Shannon in 2006. The agencies that took part in the exercise included the Garda Siochana, Shannon Airport Police Fire & Rescue Service, IAA, Clare Co. Council, Shannon Airport Authority, Clare Co. Fire Service and the HSE.

Ryanair add another aircraft to Shannon base

Ryanair announced today that they would be adding a sixth aircraft to their Shannon base. From November the additional aircraft will allow the relaunch of the Shannon - Frankfurt Hahn route along with the launch of Shannon - Newcastle. The extra capacity will also be used to increase frequency on routes such as Bristol, Edinburgh and Paris. In total, 26 extra flights per week will be operated from Shannon. As is often the case with such announcements there is a downside. In this case the Shannon - East Midlands route is to be dropped and frequency reduced on Shannon - Luton from October 31. Speaking in Shannon today, Michael O'Leary said that the extra aircraft represented an additional $70m investment in the mid west by Ryanair and will create an additional 100 jobs at Shannon this winter.

Ryanair launch phone service

A report in today's 'Independent' newspaper states that Ryanair will be offering mobile phone services on 14 of it's 166 aircraft within the next two weeks. Initially it will be customers of O2 and 3 networks that will be able to use the service. If the trial is successful, the service will be rolled out across the entire fleet in six months. The system reduces the transmitting power of mobile devices to ensure that they do no interfere with aircraft systems. A maximum of six passengers at a time can make voice calls but all on board will be able to use data services for SMS or email. The flight crew have control of the ON-OFF switch so that the system can be turned off if required. The system is supplied by OnAir, a joint venture company formed by SITA, the airline industry owned IT solutions provider and Airbus. It was as far back as August 2006 that OnAir announced that Ryanair had signed up to use their product. The 'Independent' reports that call charges ( which Ryanair get a percentage of ) have yet to be fixed but are expected to be around €2.50 per minute which is unlikely to see the service being used for anything other than very short calls.

Ryanair to ground 14 aircraft at Stansted

Ryanair announced Tuesday that they would be grounding 14 aircraft from the fleet at Stansted this winter asa they come to terms with high oil prices and weakening demand. The announcement was made by CFO Howard Millar at a news conference in London. Last winter Ryanair grounded 7 aircraft at Stansted. Also this week and possibly sensing a large gap in the Italian market should Alitalia stop flying, the LCC announced that they would be commencing 6 domestic routes based at Forli from December 1.

Ukraine President visits Shannon

The President of Ukraine, Victor Yuschenko and his wife Kateryna visited Shannon today on their way to the 63rd session of the UN General Assembly in New York. Over the past few days several VIP aircraft have been noted transiting Irish air space in a westerly direction- notably the Ugandan Government Gulfstream 4 5X-UEF, MEA Airbus A330 F-OMEB on flight MEA 001 and V8-MHB the Brunei Government's B767, all presumably attending the UN session. The only aircraft to have stopped in Shannon was Ukraina Air Enterprise's IL62M UR-86528 MSN 4038111. The picture shows the aircraft departing Shannon's Runway 06 this lunchtime.

Irish air traffic dips in August

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) today issued the traffic figures for August 2008. For the first time since the 9-11 decline, commercial traffic displayed it's first ever dip. While YTD figures to the end of August are up, the monthly figures for August for the three state airports are down YoY for what is traditionally the busiest month of the year. The movements figures for the three state airports are as follows : Dublin : 18,108 down 1.4% Shannon : 3,111 down 10.7% Cork : 3,251 down 6.3% The report cites the high price of oil, reductions in airline schedules, currency fluctuations and the general economic state of mind as contributory factors. What is not mentioned is the weather which has been a significant contributor in the decline in Shannon's figures. For the month of August the Organised Track System (OTS) dictated by the prevailing winds has been either far north or south of Ireland. Shannon derives a higher percentage of total airport movements than Dublin or Cork from transit traffic. The presence or in this case absence of transit traffic is very much dependent on the OTS which 'failed' Shannon for August. North Atlantic communications handled by Ballygireen showed a modest 0.8% growth for the month to 36,356 which would tend to back up the theory on Shannon - the traffic didn't disappear - it just wasn't here.

IAA report into ATM failure at Dublin

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) today issued it's report into the failure of the Air Traffic Management (ATM) system at Dublin which occurred on several occasions between June 2 and July 9 2008. The ATM system consists of primary and secondary radars, the data from which is processed by a central flight data processing (FDP) system which produces an air situation display on an air traffic controller's screen. The purpose is to allow the controller separate aircraft safely and maintain an efficient traffic flow. The screen shows the aircraft's identification, type, speed and altitude. The FDP system is linked to each controller's station by a local area network. A significant feature of the system is that each aircraft's flight plan data is coupled with the radar track on the controller's screen to provide aircraft ID. This process is known as coupling. The first system malfunction occurred on June 2 whereby aircraft entering the system did not have the aircraft type or identification displayed. On three further occasions up to July 9 similar failures occurred which eventually resulted in the decision being taken at 13.15 on July 9 to discontinue use of the system due to instability. Engineers from Thales ATM, the equipment supplier and Hewlett Packard had been on site attempting to replicate the problem on training equipment when this decision was made. It was between 13.15 and 15.10 that Thales and IAA engineering staff identified the root cause of the problem as being a faulty network card. Subsequently Thales identified that the root cause of all the system failures had been the dual failures of the network interface card and the network recovery system. Thales also issued a number of recommendations in relation to additional hardware and software improvements in the system which are currently in the process of being implemented in both Shannon and Dublin. The report also pointed out that aircraft safety was never compromised at any time during any of the failures and that the failure was not a 'radar failure' as described in certain elements of the media.

CityJet host aviator reunion at Casement

Yesterday, CityJet hosted an event at Casement Aerodrome Baldonnel which saw the reunion of almost 100 aviators who were involved in the making of such screen classics as Blue Max (1966)and Darling Lily (1970) which were made on location in Ireland. CityJet Chairman Geoffrey O'Byrne White is a former Air Corps pilot who maintains strong links with his former 'employer'. In March 2006 he was instrumental in organising the return visit by Spitfire 161 to Baldonnel. Five aircraft, including replicas were present for the event yesterday - three Tiger Moths, a Stampe SV4 and the Air Corps Avro 631 Cadet serial C7. One of the aircraft which arrived from Wexford was piloted by Geoffrey O'Byrne White and ex Air Corps pilot JJ Sullivan. Pilots from the Air Corps helped recreate the dog fight scenes in Blue Max, assisted by civilian pilots, including Derek Piggott who at 88 years still flies occasionally and came from his home in the UK for the occasion. Derek was the only pilot willing to fly the stunt at the climax of the film which saw two rivals challenge each other to fly under the spans of a bridge. Playing both roles and using different camera angles to achieve the desired effect, Derek flew 15 times under the wide span and 17 times under the narrow span of the bridge over the River Blackwater in Fermoy, Co. Cork. The wing tips of the Fokker Triplane replica had 1.2m of clearance on each side when passing under the narrow span. The stars of Blue Max were George Peppard, James Mason and Ursula Andress. Also among those present yesterday were Ken Byrne, an Air Corps pilot from the sixties who piloted Ursula Andress in the film and Tony Rowe, an aircraft engineer who was responsible for keeping the aircraft in the air. Tony said that over the years, 1000 men claim to have helped fit Ursula Andress' parachute belt but he is the only one who can truthfully make the claim !

JetBird announces €10m strategic investment

JetBird, the Pan-european private jet airline based in Dublin has today announced a strategic investment of €10m. The airline also announced that it had secured finance from RBS Group PLC for the pre delivery payments of it's first 25 Embraer Phenom aircraft.

The investment is a private placement of funds from a Middle Eastern family owned trading group. As a result of the investment the unnamed investor (with interests ranging from banking to hotels and leisure) will be appointing a representative to the JetBird board.

JetBird are the European launch customer for the Embraer Phenom 100 VLJ (Very Light Jet) and to date have placed firm orders for 53 of the variant. The company is in the process of firming orders for the final 47 aircraft.

Commencing operations in 2009, JetBird are hoping to transform the executive jet market in Europe by offering a product which will be costed at up to 50% less than that of the current operators - in essence establishing Europe's first low cost business jet operator.

JetBird was founded by Claret Capital which is a private investment firm founded in Dublin in 2005 by JetBird Chairman, Domhnall Slattery.

The first Phenom was rolled out on June 16. Pictured below the first aircraft takes to the air from São José dos Campos on July 26. Photo courtesy Embraer.

Three injured as result of helicopter crash

Three people, including the pilot, were injured this afternoon when a helicopter crashed in the Co. Meath village of Bettystown at around 4.30 pm.

The helicopter, Sikorsky S-76B N399BH msn 760311 is registered to Barrack Aviation Inc Trustee.

It had dropped two passengers off on the beach in Bettystown and had departed with the pilot as sole occupant. It flew low over the town and appeared to be in difficulty according to eye witnesses before attempting to land in the car park of the Neptune Hotel.

The pilot escaped before the helicopter was destroyed in a number of explosions. Two people suffered minor injuries from flying debris.

The centre of the town was sealed off and the Air Accident Investigation Unit attended the scene.

Prior to becoming N399BH the Sikorsky was registered N89WC and is pictured as such at the Heliexpo in Punchestown on June 6 2007.

Ryanair AGM disrupted by environmental protestor

Ryanair today held their AGM in Dublin and took the opportunity to update the market on their latest trading prediction to year end. From a previous position of break even to minus €60m the airline now predicts a break even balance sheet by year end March 31 if Q4 oil prices stay at $100 per barrel. The meeting was briefly disrupted by a semi naked man who took the opportunity of the AGM to protest against Ryanair's environmental performance. The man claimed that Ryanair carried around 12m passengers around Europe and suggested that taxing air travel would help the environment. Not one to miss an opportunity, Ryanair Chief Executive Michael O'Leary was quick to react : “I hope next year instead of a semi-naked bloke, they’ll send a semi-naked girl to the AGM. She would probably make as little sense as this guy this morning, but at least she’d be more attractive. “Clearly maths wasn’t this guy’s strongest suit, given that Ryanair carries 60 million passengers, not the 12 million he claimed. Perhaps they should call themselves the “plain stupid” instead of the “plane mad” group. Some of these eco-nuts (who advocate even more tax on air travel) are not the sharpest knives in the drawer. “We are sending him one of our 5 million €5 tickets which he can avail of to travel from his home in Clare on one of Ryanair’s routes from Shannon. Since clearly, after one of the wettest Irish Summers on record, he needs a little break. It might help his mood, as well as his maths in time for next year’s AGM."

CAA provisional traffic figures for August

The UK CAA have just released the provisional passenger figures for the month of August. There are no real surprises and very little change over the July figures. The Luton figures didn't make the deadline this month so the picture is a little incomplete. On DUB-LHR, the passenger count continues the downward trend with just over 5% month on month reduction but a massive 12.7% YoY reduction. DUB-LGW again shows a large YoY growth of 21.5% and DUB-STN shows almost 9% YoY reduction for the month. In Cork, the Stansted and Gatwick routes are again showing a YoY reduction, this time of the order 5% which would seem to indicate that traffic on these routes is suffering at the hands of CRK-LHR which again showed strong growth of 16.5% YoY. In Shannon, the Gatwick route showed an 8% growth over July and continues the YoY growth of 86% resulting from the additional service on the route. SNN-STN continues to exhibit month on month growth for 2008 and for the month of August delivered 17% YoY. In August the Belfast International - LHR route was virtually static over July with a drop of just over 100 pax. We have calculated the YTD load factor for the route at 52%. YTD Aer Lingus have lost 60,600 passengers on the 4 LHR slots, which based on their own figures for average short haul fare and ancillary revenue per passenger in 2007 equates to a YTD reduction in revenue of Euro 6.1m by shifting the Shannon slots to Belfast.

Fuel stop by VP-CLR in Shannon

An interesting visitor to Shannon today was LUK Aviation's Boeing B737-7EB BBJ registered in the Caymans.

VP-CLR, msn 34865 is owned by Lukoil, the largest Russian oil business with annual turnover of $80 billion. With those kind of reserves one presumes that the fuel bill for the onward leg to Simon Bolivar International airport (SVMI) in Venezuela didn't cause too much of a headache. The aircraft built in 2006 is pictured landing on R24.

Ryanair announce delay in opening Reus base

Further to the news earlier this week that the Boeing strike has started to cause delays in Ryanair's expansion plans, the airline announced Friday that it was postponing the start up of it's Reus base by 5 weeks, again citing delays in aircraft delivery dates. The startup of the Reus base is now intended for November 5 rather than the originally planned date of October 1.

Ryanair postpone startup of Edinburgh base

Ryanair today announced that it was deferring the startup of it's Edinburgh base from the planned date of September 23 until November 5 - a six week delay. The capacity to operate the eleven routes from Edinburgh was dependent on on-time aircraft deliveries from Boeing. Aircraft to operate the routes will now come from increased availability arising from seasonal changes, rather than dependence on new unit deliveries.

With such tight capacity constraints it is to be expected that the airline could make similar announcements in the coming days, assuming that there is no change in the strike situation at Boeing.

Ryanair challenge decision to award Ireland West - Dublin PSO route to Aer Arann

The Ireland West - Dublin PSO route debacle shows no sign of abating. Today in the High Court Ryanair were granted a judicial review of the decision by the Department of Transport to award the Ireland West - Dublin PSO route to Aer Arann. Ryanair contended that following the announcement by CityJet that they would not be operating the route, the Minister for Transport should have called for a new tender process rather than awarding the route to Aer Arann.

Singapore Cargo operates flight Shannon - Sharjah

Singapore registered aircraft are a rare sight indeed at Shannon so it was very much a treat to find Singapore Airlines Cargo operating from the airport today. 'Singcargo 7971' operated Shannon - Sharjah on what appears to be a one off charter. The flight was operated by 9V-SFO, B747-412F msn 32900, pictured below lining up on runway 24 for departure.

Futura International Airways to suspend operations for 24 hours.

Futura International Airways would appear to be the latest casualty in the airline business. The Balaeric newspaper 'Ultima Hora' reported today that the airline had ceased operations due to current economic difficulties. Futura had intended to meet with their creditors but the Spanish Civil Aviation Authority stated that this action would force them to withdraw the airline's AOC. Faced with this prospect, Futura decided to suspend operations for 24 hours from midnight tonight Sunday September 7. Throughout today, aircraft were reportedly ferried to Palma de Mallorca to prevent them being impounded elsewhere. Futura International Airways was set up in 1989 by the combination of Aer Lingus, Belton Air and Banco Santander. Aer Lingus divested themselves of their remaining 20% interest in Futura in October 2007 as a result of a secondary management buyout at Futura and the decision at the time by Aer Lingus to concentrate on core activities. In January 2006, the subsidiary Futura Gael was set up with an Irish AOC as a vehicle to enable the airline serve charter desitinations outside the EU from Ireland. In April 2008 Futura Gael applied for a foreign air carrier permit to operate charters between Europe and the US. On June 17 the approval was granted. At this time it is not known which points the airline intended to serve. As of today Futura Gael operated two B737 aircraft B737-4YO EI-DOR, msn 24689 and B737-86N EI-DJU, msn 28619. In July 2006 the airline established a cargo subsidiary Flyant which operates 3 B737 aircraft out of Madrid Barajas. Hopefully, Futura which have been a major player in the Irish IT market for the past twenty years will weather the storm and reappear at the far end of what must surely be the darkest day in their history.

Boeing strike could impact Ryanair deliveries

After weeks of negotiations, talks between Boeing Company and the International Association of Maschinists and Aerospace Workers finally broke down on Spetember 5 without reaching agreement on a new collective bargaining agreement. As a result a strike by 27,000 workers, mostly in Washington, Oregon and Kansas began at 12.01 am today. During the strike Boeing will continue to support existing customers. Aircraft which were completed prior to the strike will be delivered but no new aircraft will be assembled. The last tranch of Ryaniar deliveries was completed in mid June with an intended hiatus until early September. A total of seven aircraft are due to be delivered in September which should be unaffected by the strike. Deliveries beyond this month will very much depend on the duration of the strike.

Aer Arann to commence serving Cork - Prestwick route

Aer Arann have lost no time in organising a Cork - Prestwick service folllowing the announcement last week by Ryanair that they were ceasing operations on the route. Today, Aer Arann announced that commencing October 28 they would be providing a six day per week service linking Cork with Glasgow. Monday through Friday the service departs Cork mid morning, with the return leg departing Prestwick in the mid afternoon. The Sunday flight will operate at slightly later timings.

Aero B734 departs after maintenace check

Aero Contractors B737-4B7 5N-BJA departed Shannon at lunchtime today after a maintenance check with Shannon Aerospace. The aircraft, msn 24873 had arrived for the check on August 16.

5N-BJA had previously visited Shannon on March 25/26 2007 when it night stopped on it's delivery flight to Nigeria from the US.

As can be seen from the picture below, the Aero Contractors livery is a legacy to the involvement of Schreiner Airways who set the airline up in 1959. In 2004, Schreiner were bought by CHC (Canadian Helicopter Corporation) who now own 40% of Aero as they are also known.

The picture shows 5N-BJA lining up for departure to Frankfurt Hahn at lunchtime today.

Kalitta take B747 out of mothballs

Kalitta Air's B747-221F (SCD) msn 21744 routed through Shannon today. The aircraft had been in storage in Filton in the UK since November 2007. The aircraft which was registered to Kalitta on September 14 2007 was previously with Japan Airlines (JA8160) and Pan Am (N905PA).

The decision to put the aircraft back into service is presumably as a result of the two hull losses earlier this year when N704CK crashed at Brussels on May 25 and N714CK crashed in Bogota on July 7.

The aircraft pictured below was in an anonymous white scheme for the flight which routed Filton - Shannon - Willow Run using flight number CKS 9748.

Aer Arann awarded Knock - Dublin PSO route

Aer Arann have announced that they have been awarded the Ireland West (Knock) - Dublin PSO route by the Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey. Aer Arann had previously operated the route up until July this year when they lost out to CityJet in the last round of public tenders. Since winning the route CityJet had failed to operate the service. It had been reported that CityJet were to operate the route with a VLM Fokker 50 once the proposed merger with VLM took place. It was in March 2008 that CityJet's parent Air France - KLM provided €180m for the purchase of VLM. The Office of Fair Trading in the UK however was unhappy about the proposed merger since it would have allowed the combined entity to have up to 70% market share on certain London City routes. The OFT threatened to refer the matter to the Competition Commission unless undertakings by AF-KLM were given in relation to divesting themselves of slots at LCY. In May AF-KLM responded with a proposal which is still under consideration by the OFT. This delay in approving the merger or referring to the Competition Commission has created a knock on delay in providing an aircraft for the Knock - Dublin route. The route is reported to be one of the thinner PSO routes which presumably would have been a disincentive to CityJet to wet lease an aircraft for the route. Aer Arann's service recommences on October 1 with departures from Knock at 07.10 Mo through Sa with a 09.00 am departure on Sunday. The return leg operates from Dublin at 18.15, seven days. The picture shows one of Aer Arann's latest aircraft ATR 732 EI-REO msn 787 about to depart from Galway Carnmore.

Ryanair launch new routes for Winter

Ryanair today launched an aggressive winter flight schedule under the banner of their winter ski program. A total of 101 routes are covered by the program, which the airline claims is a 40% increase over last winter.New routes announced under the program are Shannon-Turin, Kerry-Grenoble, Dublin-Turin and Dublin-Cuneo. All routes commence on December 20 and are planned to run until April 2009.New UK routes announced are Bristol-Grenoble and Bournemouth-Turin, again commencing on December 20.