general

Boeing’s CE, Dennis A. Muilenburg, will acknowledge some of the company’s failings on Tuesday when he appears before a Senate committee investigating the crashes of two 737 Max jets that killed 346 people. “We know we made mistakes and got some things wrong,” Muilenburg plans to tell the lawmakers, according to Boeing. “We own that, and we are fixing them.” Muilenburg has made similar comments in speeches but his appearances this week will be the first time Boeing executives have publicly addressed Congress about the crashes, which have cost the company billions of dollars and raised new questions about government oversight of the aviation industry. Muilenburg will face the Senate on the first anniversary of the crash of Lion Air Flight 610, which was the first Max to crash. On Wednesday, he will appear in front of a House committee. For Muilenburg and Boeing, the stakes could not be higher. “We know that both accidents involved the repeated activation of a flight control software function called MCAS, which responded to erroneous signals from a sensor that measures the airplane’s angle of attack,” his prepared remarks say. Muilenburg also will address criticism that Boeing did not inform airlines about the new system before the crashes. During the development of the plane, Boeing made the system more powerful, and a Boeing pilot working on the Max, Mark Forkner, requested that the FAA remove mention of the system from the plane’s training manual. “Our airline customers and their pilots have told us they don’t believe we communicated enough about MCAS — and we’ve heard them,” Muilenburg plans to say. Story has more.<br/>

The head of the US FAA Monday made a broad appeal for the airline industry to focus on safety, one day before the first anniversary of a deadly crash involving Lion Air and a Boeing 737 MAX plane that cost hundreds of lives. “We don’t compete on safety,” Steve Dickson said in Brasilia where he is participating in an airline industry conference focused on increasing the industry’s competitiveness. “The accidents of the past year remind us in the strongest terms that passengers expect the same level of safety no matter where they fly,” he added. Boeing 737 MAX aircraft have been grounded around the world since March following a second deadly crash, this time involving a plane operated by Ethiopian Airlines. Dickson also emphasized that there is a need to raise standards for airplane pilot training around the world, a question sparked in part by the two MAX crashes. He did not give a new indication on when the FAA would allow the aircraft to fly again, a decision eagerly awaited by airlines around the world.<br/>

Engines on Airbus’s new A220 aircraft must undergo stepped-up inspections for compressor rotor cracks after a third in-flight shutdown, US aviation regulators said, calling the matter an “urgent safety issue.” The FAA’s updated requirements are scheduled to be published in the federal register Tuesday. They follow a Saturday directive from Transport Canada, which said A220s should only be flown at 94% of full power above 29,000 feet and must stay below 35,000 feet during icing conditions because using the de-icer could cause the engine to overheat.<br/>

The head of the US FAA said Monday there was a need to raise standards for airplane pilot training around the world. FAA Administrator Steve Dickson is in Brasilia to participate in an airline industry conference. His remarks come after two deadly crashes involving Boeing 737 MAX aircraft have prompted safety reviews across the industry. <br/>

The first design images for the terminal building at Sydney's new A$5.3b airport have been released giving travellers a glimpse of what they can expect when it opens in six years. The concept designs for Western Sydney International Airport's terminal by a team from London's Zaha Hadid Architects and Sydney's Cox Architecture have been credited for focusing on the "customer journey while paying tribute to the Western Sydney region and natural landscape". A team from the two architectural firms has been selected from more than 40 entrants as the winners of the design contract for the terminal, construction of which is due to start in 2022. The winning designs feature landscaped gardens within a giant public plaza, which will offer shopping, dining and entertainment. The terminal's interior will also have timber ceilings and vertical gardens. Architects were required to have experience designing an airport of similar size and complexity to Western Sydney Airport within the last five years in order to be considered for the design project. The release of the design images for the terminal comes ahead of the start of major earthworks early next year at the 1780-hectare airport site at Badgerys Creek, about 50 km west of Sydney's CBD. In all, 23m cubic metres of earth will be moved to construct the airport. PM Scott Morrison said the designs for the terminal showed the once-in-a-generation infrastructure project coming to life. "This is set to be the largest gateway to Australia and these designs are another step to making it a reality," he <br/>

Finnish airport operator Finavia plans to use artificial intelligence (AI) to cut delays at Helsinki Airport, after achieving strong efficiency gains and cost savings during a trial at a regional airport. Finavia, which operates Finland’s 21 airports, initially commissioned consultancy firms Fourkind and Reaktor to streamline operations at the small Kittilä Airport in Lapland. Most of the year, Kittilä only receives one or two flights a day. However, during the peak winter season, Kittilä was struggling to cope with a surge in tourists, creating recurring delays and overcrowded departure gates. “The humble-sized airport was spread thin trying to fit a higher-than-normal amount of planes to only 12 parking lots, while also securing enough airport buses and drivers to transport people between gates and planes. With frequent scheduling interruptions and unpredictable weather, the delay-causing puzzle was hard to crack,” Finavia said. Finavia, Fourkind and Reaktor used AI to optimize aircraft parking during a peak period in December 2018. That trial led to a 61% reduction in airport-related flight delays, cut average delay times by 66% and saved an estimated E500,000 in one month.<br/>