A further stretch of the Boeing 737 MAX would be ‘manageable,’ according to the manufacturer’s VP & GM, airplane development, Mike Delaney. Asked whether the aircraft could be made larger than its current 3-member family, he said the company was talking with customers on the topic. “We’re having lots of conversations with our customers on what’s the top end of that airplane and how it compares to the middle of the market,” he said. The ‘mid-market’ aircraft under increasing study from Boeing would cover the sector today served by the Boeing 757 and 767. “We would need more thrust,” he said of any larger version of the MAX. “That would be a different variant of the [CFM International] LEAP engine [and] some more work on things like raising the landing gear height. It’s a manageable statement of work.” <br/>
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Bombardier is hoping to secure EASA type validation for the CS300 within the next 30-40 days, following on from Transport Canada’s type certification, which was granted July 11. Bombardier CSeries VP and general manager Rob Dewar said the CS300 was on track with its certification program, running roughly 6 months behind the CS100 which was recently delivered to SWISS. The CS100 and CS300 have around 99% commonality, speeding up the process. Dewar gave the 30- to 40-day timeline for the EASA approval and said the FAA rubber stamp is expected to follow soon after, ahead of the first CS300 delivery to airBaltic in Oct 2016. “I can also confirm further improvements to the performance out of challenging airports,” he said. “We can now confirm another 150nm out of London City and another 450nm out of Denver.” <br/>
Airbus will more than halve production of the A380 as the manufacturer continues to struggle to secure additional sales for its largest aircraft. The company said it will reduce monthly production in 2018 from the current 2.5 per month to one. Boeing previously made a similar decision on its very large aircraft, the 747-8, and will reduce production rate from 1.3 to 0.5 aircraft per month from September. In an effort to defer concerns that Airbus may abandon the A380, Airbus CE Fabrice Bregier said this week about his company’s production cut decision that “the A380 is here to stay … we are maintaining, innovating and investing in the A380.” Nevertheless, the production cut will present a huge challenge to keep the program profitable on a recurring cost basis. <br/>
Rolls-Royce is pressing ahead with testing of multiple components that will appear on its Advance turbofan, scheduled to be ready for service from the end of this decade. The engine manufacturer said the Advance will offer at least 20% better fuel burn and CO₂ emissions than the Trent 700 engine. It includes a new core architecture that redistributes workload between the intermediate-pressure (IP) and high-pressure (HP) shafts, which the company said gives higher efficiency with fewer components and lower weight. The IP spool will be shorter, with fewer stages and more work being done by the HP section. It will have a new, lightweight low-pressure (LP) system that will feature the company’s new carbon titanium fan system. This will give a weight saving of around 750 lb on the engine. <br/>
Sukhoi Civil Aircraft has begun development on a stretched version of the Superjet 100 (SSJ100). Marketing efforts have been relatively quiet, so far, but the design’s outlines have been clearly defined. The seating capacity will be increased by 20 to 120. “We do not want to go into the narrowbody [aircraft] market,” Nazario Cauceglia, CE of SuperJet International, the marketing arm for the aircraft, said. A new wing, with a higher aspect ratio, is needed. The winglets the company is developing (to cut the fuel burn of the SSJ100) would not suffice, according to Cauceglia. The range of the first stretched version will be set at 2,000 nm, between the ranges (1,500 nm and 2,400 nm) of the two existing variants of the SSJ100. <br/>
Airlines used to give discounts to passengers who were traveling to a relative's funeral, but those days are just about gone. Now buying a ticket to attend a funeral or visit a relative in the hospital is no different than last-minute travel plans for any other reason. Among the largest US airlines, only Delta Air Lines and Alaska Airlines still offer so-called bereavement fares. Airlines believed people were scamming the system, and the special fares complicated the jobs of reservations agents. Grieving travellers were put off by the need for documentation like a death certificate. But the biggest cause of the bereavement fare's demise may be the growth of low-fare carriers. "As low-fare carriers came into more markets, those bereavement fares ended up being higher than you could get elsewhere," said one industry watcher. <br/>
The Senate Wednesday approved a bipartisan bill to extend the mandate of the FAA, 2 days before the agency’s legal authority was set to expire. The House Monday on a voice vote approved the same bill, which will authorise FAA programs at current funding levels through Sept 2017. The legislation, which the Senate passed by a vote of 89-4, now must go to president Barack Obama to be signed into law. The compromise short-term extension includes many of the provisions Senate leaders had pushed for. It also presents a major setback for House GOP leaders by leaving out all references to removing air-traffic control operations from the FAA and placing them in a not-for-profit corporation. Some 4 dozen other nations already have taken that step. <br/>