Mitsubishi Aircraft Corp will need to produce additional MRJ90 flight test aircraft to gain certification, a consequence of systems revisions that have caused a 2-year program delay. Mitsubishi Aircraft announced Jan 23 that it will push back first delivery of the MRJ90 to ANA from mid-2018 to mid-2020, the latest in a series of delays that have beset the Mitsubishi Regional Jet program. Mitsubishi Aircraft VP and GM-sales and marketing Yugo Fukuhara said “the major issues” necessitating the new delay are the rerouting of wire harnesses and the relocation of some components in the avionics bay. Four MRJ90 flight test aircraft are already flying, and a fifth is set to join the flight test program this year. Fukuhara said the majority of MRJ90 flight testing will still be able to be conducted with those 5 aircraft. <br/>
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Flight attendants say is air rage is on the rise. “The conditions on board just lead to more potential for air rage,” says Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA. Nelson ticks off the reasons: tight seating, fuller flights, alcohol consumption, fewer flight attendants, human nature. “Any time you get a whole bunch of humanity packed in together there’s opportunity for a conflict,” Nelson says. According to data from IATA, unruly passengers on planes worldwide increased 14% in 2015 over the previous year. In 2015, there were 10,854 reported cases of such incidents, or one in every 1,205 flights. In 2014, there were 9,316 incidents, or one per 1,282 flights. Alcohol or drug intoxication was reported in 23% of the cases; physical aggression was reported 11% of the time. <br/>
The EU will propose extending an exemption on foreign flights from its carbon market until 2020 after nations worldwide reached a historic deal last year to introduce a global system to curb the growth of emissions from airlines. The EC will probably present a draft law Feb 3 sparing carriers the need to pay for emissions from flights into and out of the region for an extra 4 years, according to an EU official with knowledge of the matter. The current exemption, which began in 2012, would expire this year unless renewed. The plan aims to ensure the EU continues to combat aviation pollution at home before the global measures take effect, while averting a conflict with trade partners from the US, to Russia and China, who say the European carbon-market legislation breaches international law. <br/>
Embraer said it’s optimistic that a US govt led by Donald Trump will still grant it the clearances needed to sell aircraft to Iran. While Airbus Group and Boeing have already sealed deals to supply a range of jetliners to the Islamic republic after obtaining licenses under the Obama administration, Embraer is in the final stages of order talks, CE Paulo Cesar de Souza e Silva said. “There is a lot of uncertainty now regarding this new administration,’’ Silva said Wednesday. “But I believe in general terms Trump is a businessman. He is very pragmatic and he is for business. So we hope things won’t change too much.’’ The US is able to block plane exports to Iran from foreign manufacturers even after the easing of international sanctions because of the high American content of most aircraft. <br/>
Airbus has warned of a “dangerous new phase” as it faces the twin threat of Brexit and the policies of the Trump administration. Tom Williams, COO and president of commercial aircraft at the company, told MPs on the Treasury select committee that it would be “pretty scary” if Airbus were no longer able to operate a successful UK business with the ability to seamlessly move goods and people around the EU. Williams suggested the US and Boeing would be ready to take full advantage of any negative fallout from Brexit suffered by Airbus. “I take the view that whatever is being decided in Washington will also be done very much with what is good for Seattle. So we enter into a dangerous phase.” Williams said that while the British business was so far unaffected by Brexit, decisions to invest in the UK over the longer term were at risk. <br/>