When Airbus launched the A380 superjumbo in 2000, it touted the 2-deck plane as “the Eighth Wonder of the World.” Instead, the plane exposed dysfunction inside the European aerospace company and now offers a textbook case of a company misjudging its market and losing big. Airbus has sunk at least US$17b into the project yet sold fewer than half of the 750 superjumbo jetliners it promised to deliver by the end of this year. Thursday Airbus said it would cease producing the 555-seat plane at the end of 2021. How did some of the world’s best engineers get their numbers so wrong? Airbus misjudged market trends and underestimated emerging technologies. It compounded the error by justifying its decision with emotion and European pride. Then its production system, organised for politics more than efficiency, failed. <br/>
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Airbus says it’s finally getting past the worst of its troubles with Pratt & Whitney engines that grounded dozens of its most-popular jets last year and led to dozens more being parked up awaiting turbines outside the planemaker’s factories. In India, the biggest market for the A320neo workhorse, retrofits are 95% done and the rest will be completed in the next couple of months, Airbus’s India head said. His comments come after the company said last week that fixes for the beleaguered program will be fully rolled out before the end of this year. Pratt narrowed the number of in-flight engine shutdowns in India by as much as a factor of 4 in January compared with the same month in 2018. Airbus now has some breathing room -- especially in the subcontinent. <br/>
Council of the EU representatives have reached a provisional agreement with the European Parliament on maintaining UK-EU air services, should the UK leave the EU without a post-withdrawal deal. The Council, currently under a Romanian presidency, states that the provisional agreement – yet to be formally adopted by Parliament and the Council – would “mitigate the severe disruption” to airline connections if the UK undergoes a so-called ‘hard Brexit’, with no post-withdrawal deal in place. “The agreement will enable UK-licensed carriers to provide basic air transport services between the UK and the remaining 27 member states,” it adds. The Council stresses that the “exceptional” measures are “strictly time-limited”, adding that they are intended to preserve “basic connectivity”. <br/>
The no-fly zone for drones around British airports is being extended to 5 kilometers in an attempt to avert disruptions like the December groundings of flights at Gatwick Airport, officials said Wednesday. The Department for Transport said the zone will widen March 13 from the current 1 kilometre. Officials are also working on new legislation to give police more powers to stop and search people suspected of using drones maliciously. Transport secretary Chris Grayling said people who fly drones near airports “are not only acting irresponsibly, but criminally, and could face imprisonment.” More than 100,000 travellers were stranded or delayed before Christmas after drone sightings near Gatwick. UK aviation authorities say 125 near-misses between drones and aircraft were reported in 2018, up from 93 in 2017. <br/>
The FAA has set Thailand 26 items that need rectification before its safety rating can be upgraded to Category I. The Civil Aviation Authority of Thailand states that a 4-person team from the FAA conducted an audit of its oversight systems between Feb 11-15 that identified the deficiencies, but gave no specific details. After the items have been rectified, the CAAT says it can then ask for a new audit, and that if passed, it will be upgraded to Category I status. Thailand’s aviation regulatory systems have been under scrutiny since an ICAO audit in early 2015 identified a number of “red flags” over the then-Department of Civil Aviation’s oversight and air operator certificate awarding process. That led to some Thai carriers being barred from starting services to China, South Korea and Japan. <br/>