general

The once-glittering future of the Airbus A380 superjumbo is looking shaky after a third significant engine failure forced an Air France flight to make an emergency landing last weekend. A similar incident occurred in 2010 on a Qantas A380 flight from Singapore to Sydney, and a less serious engine malfunction caused another Qantas A380 Los Angeles-Melbourne flight to turn back in May of this year. To make matters worse, Airbus suffered a massive blow in December with the announcement that it was forced to postpone deliveries of 12 A380s to its biggest customer, Emirates, over the next 2 years due to an issue with its Rolls Royce engines. Just days later, the company announced that an order of 100 planes to Iran Air did not include a single A380, with the airline opting instead for smaller models. <br/>

Russian authorities want to develop new rules to allow for closer monitoring of airline financial conditions to make sure carriers can fulfil passenger obligations, minister of Transport Maxim Sokolov announced Oct 3. The Ministry also wants to change the air operator’s certificate suspension procedure to be involved in the airline’s business in case of problems, Sokolov said at the State Duma Oct 4. The authority also wants to closely monitor flight delays to be able to initiate a compensation increase in case of delays. The discussion of the new measures started after financially troubled VIM Airlines nearly stopped flights in September, forcing Russian authorities to step in to re-accommodate VIM passengers on other airlines or arrange for several carriers to take over VIM routes. <br/>