Travel Safety Update - North America.

Jun 28, 2009

Blacklisted Airlines: New Line of Defense for Online Travelers Before Going on Holidays. Air Valid Recommends That Travellers Book Their Flights Through Travel Agencies Within Their Home Country Before Going on Holidays After publishing the new roster of blacklisted airlines ( http://www.air-valid.co.uk/airlines-blacklisted.html) by Europa on 8th April 2009, Air Valid is again forewarning travellers of the limitations of the blacklist when travelling abroad or reserving a plane ticket on the internet. For this reason, Air Valid is warning all Europeans heading abroad: "Don't forget that this blacklist cites the airlines that the travel agencies cannot refer you to when you book travel from Europe. However, if you are living in a foreign country temporarily, or if you are booking directly through one of the airlines' sites that offers online reservation, you will not be informed that the airline is on the blacklist." The information is relayed from http://www.expat-blog.com to their 10,000 expatriate members, of whom 5,000 have been bloggers since January 2009. Jun 25, 2009

Boeing

Boeing delayed its new 787 Dreamliner for the fifth time on Tuesday, just a week before its first test flight, saying it needs to strengthen the side panels near where the wing joins the fuselage. The plane was set to fly by next Tuesday, according to the latest schedule -- almost two years after the first target in the summer of 2007. No new date has been set. Boeing has been struggling with a range of supply, manufacturing and design problems, made worse by a two-month strike at its Seattle-area plants last year. The following events show the slow and bumpy progress of the new, carbon composite aircraft, which is key to Boeing's financial success. 2002 - Boeing drops its "Sonic Cruiser" concept, responding to airlines' calls for better fuel efficiency rather than extra speed. June 2003 - dubs its new, carbon-composite plane the "Dreamliner." Dec 2003 - approves an initial version of the plane with the temporary name 7E7, the E standing for "efficiency". April 2004 - officially launches the plane as Japan's All Nippon Airways (ANA) orders 50. Dec 2004 - ends 2004 with 56 orders for the new plane, fewer than it had expected. Jan 2005 - gives plane official designation 787. Dec 2005 - ends year with 232 orders for 787s, for a running total of 288. July 2006 - Popularity of 787 design forces Airbus to go back to drawing board on its competing A350, relaunching it as the A350 XWB (extra wide body). Dec 2006 - ends year with 160 orders for 787s, for a running total of 448. Jan 2007 - unconfirmed talk of some 787 suppliers falling behind schedule sends Boeing shares lower. Boeing CEO Jim McNerney says plane is on target for first test flight around end of August 2007 and first delivery May 2008. May 2007 - starts to put together first 787 in Everett, Washington. June 2007 - reports surface at Paris Air Show that 787 is up to four months late. Boeing says first test flight may slip to September 2007, while still on schedule for first delivery in May 2008. July 8, 2007 - gleaming shell of first 787 rolled out in front of 15,000 ecstatic employees and customers at Everett. July 25, 2007 - Boeing shares hit all-time high of USDUSD 107.80, boosted by strong 787 orders. Company admits plane is running slightly behind in certain areas but holds to schedule. Sept 2007 - Boeing puts back first test flight by about three months because of a shortage of bolts and problems with flight control software. Shifts flight target to mid-November to mid-December 2007; keeps May 2008 delivery target. Oct 2007 - announces longer delay, due to continued production problems, pushing first test flight to end-March 2008 and putting back first delivery by about six months to late November or December 2008. Oct 2007 - 787 program head Mike Bair replaced by Pat Shanahan from Boeing's defense unit Dec 2007 - Boeing says 787 is sticking to revised schedule; ends year with 369 orders for the plane in 2007, for a running total of 817. Jan 2008 - after two weeks of rumors, Boeing announces further three-month delay due to problems with unnamed suppliers and slow assembly progress at Everett plant. Pushes back test flight to end-June 2008 and first delivery to early 2009, making plane about nine months behind original schedule. March 2008 - company admits it had to redesign centre wing box to make it stronger. April 2008 - announces third major delay due to continuing problems with unfinished work from suppliers. Sets first test flight for the fourth quarter of 2008 and first delivery for the third quarter of 2009, about 15 months behind the original schedule. June 2008 - Boeing completes "power-on" testing on first 787, bringing the plane's electrical systems to life. It is the first public milestone the company has hit on the program. August 2008 - first cancelation of a 787 order, by Azerbaijan Airlines. Sept 6, 2008 - Boeing's assembly workers go on strike over contract terms, shutting down Boeing's Seattle-area plants. They return to work in early November after 58 days out. Nov 4, 2008 - Boeing says first flight delayed by strike, will not happen until 2009. Dec 11, 2008 - Boeing announces fourth major delay, due to the strike and continuing fastener problems. Says first flight now set for second quarter of 2009 and first delivery in first quarter of 2010, making the plane about two years late. Dec 31, 2008 - Boeing ends year with 93 orders for 787s, making a running total of 910. Jan 2009 - Russia's S7 becomes first major airline to cancel orders for the 787, walking away from a deal to buy 15 of the planes worth USDUSD 2.4 billion. More cancelations follow. June - Boeing reports 59 total cancelations for 787s, with net orders for 866 of the planes. June 23, 2009 - announces fifth delay due to side panel issue, says new dates for first flight and first delivery will be set in "several weeks," when problem is resolved. Lufthansa Ups 2009 Fuel Bill Estimate Lufthansa now sees its 2009 fuel costs reaching EUR3.55 billion euros (USDUSD 4.92 billion), more than its previous estimate of EUR3.4 billion published in April. Rising fuel costs are a challenge for the company and the industry as a whole, slides for a presentation by Chief Financial Officer Stephan Gemkow showed Tuesday. Lufthansa last week warned it would not be able to post a 2009 operating profit, as planned, without further cost cuts given difficult markets and a fresh rise in fuel prices. Oil prices have risen around 70 percent since the start of the year, having advanced from a low of around USDUSD 34 per barrel reached at the end of the 2008. Credit rating agencies Moody's and Standard & Poor's downgraded their outlooks on Lufthansa's debt following the German flagship carrier's profit warning. Lufthansa said in its presentation it does not expect the industry to recover before 2010, but said growth would continue in the long term. Air Berlin, Germany's second-largest airline, said it is still on track to reach its full-year target of earnings before interest and tax above the year-earlier level. Chief Financial Officer Ulf Huettmeyer said the second quarter, which ends June 30, has so far gone well for the company. Jun 24, 2009

Boston Logan International

Work on the centre-field taxiway project at Boston Logan International airport is on hold following a near miss between a construction worker's Ford Explorer and a departing US Airways Airbus A320 on 18 June. The Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport), operator of the airport, suspended the project pending an investigation. Two other investigations are under way, one by the US National Transportation Safety Board and one by the US Federal Aviation Administration's root cause analysis team. According to the NTSB's preliminary report of the incident, US Airways Flight 27, en route to Phoenix with 84 passengers and five crew members was cleared to depart Boston's Runway 15R at about 06:30 that morning in clear weather conditions. Jun 24, 2009

Continental Airlines

Continental Airlines said it has taken steps to ensure that proper procedures are followed after two unaccompanied girls were placed on wrong Continental Express flights over the weekend. An 8-year-old College Station girl erroneously ended up in Fayetteville, Ark., and a 10-year-old Massachusetts girl was mistakenly sent to Newark, N.J., after boarding planes operated by ExpressJet, which is under contract with Continental. Houston-based Continental said in a statement Tuesday that the mix-up was a "miscommunication among staff." Jun 22, 2009

Continental Airlines, Boeing

The death of the 60-year-old captain of a Continental Airlines jetliner as he flew 247 passengers across the Atlantic could spark a new debate over age limits in the cockpit. Craig Lenell, the pilot who died Thursday, was believed to have suffered a heart attack. A cardiologist aboard the plane tried to revive him with a defibrillator. Until 2007, U.S. rules required airline pilots to retire at 60, but Congress raised the limit to 65. Backers of the higher age limit say pilot deaths are rare and that there is no medical basis to reinstate the age-60 rule. Safety experts said any health risks posed by older pilots should be balanced against the advantages of experience in the cockpit, which was displayed in January, when US Airways pilot Chesley Sullenberger safely landed in New York's Hudson River after the jetliner was crippled by bird strikes taking off from LaGuardia Airport. Jun 22, 2009

Cougar Helicopters

Canadian investigators have determined that pilots of a Cougar Helicopters S-92 that ditched off the coast of Newfoundland on 12 March had attempted to autorotate the twin-engine heavy helicopter into the icy Atlantic after the tail rotor drive had failed. The two pilots and 16 passengers of Flight 491 had been enroute to offshore oil platforms that morning at 9,000ft (2,743m) when the crew reported the loss of all oil pressure in the helicopterOs main gearbox (MGB), the mechanism that transfers power from the twin General Electric CT7-8A turboshaft engines to the main rotor and tail rotor. The helicopter descended to 800ft and was returning back to the coast when pilots radioed that they were preparing to ditch. Rescuers on a second helicopter pulled one survivor from the water. Jun 22, 2009

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