US investigators have determined that an Embraer 175 pitch-trim switch, inadvertently fitted upside-down, resulted in the crew’s experienced a serious flight-control incident on departure from Atlanta. The captain had already flown the American Eagle jet from Detroit to New York LaGuardia earlier in the day, but the crew noted a pitch-trim failure message during the journey, and chose to have the issue checked on arrival. Maintenance personnel partially removed the trim switch on the captain’s yoke, with the intention of replacing it, but then decided instead to defer the item. NTSB investigators believe the partial removal of the switch at LaGuardia resulted in its being accidentally re-installed upside-down. The deferral decision meant the switch was not tested. The switch was placarded as inoperative – but not deactivated, as there was no requirement for such action – and the captain was simply advised not to use it. During the second flight of the day, a service from LaGuardia to Atlanta, the first officer flew the aircraft, without any problems. But the captain took the role of the flying pilot for the next departure, from Atlanta back to LaGuardia, and the inquiry believes “highly-practised behaviour” meant the captain automatically reverted to using the yoke trim switch even though he had been told otherwise. It states that his use of the yoke switch resulted in the aircraft’s pitching up when he was attempting to trim down. As a result, the captain thought the aircraft was affected by a trim runaway as it climbed out of Atlanta, and the crew declared an emergency, seeking to return to the airport, less than 2min after departure. Story has details.<br/>
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WestJet plans to offer flights to Japan starting this spring, marking the airline’s first non-stop flights to Asia from Calgary. The Calgary-based airline said Monday that it will fly to Tokyo’s Narita International Airport from Calgary this spring. The non-stop flights will operate three times weekly beginning April 30. The airline also announced new routes from Calgary to Barcelona and Edinburgh and increased frequency to Dublin, London, Paris and Rome, also starting in the spring. WestJet CE Alexis von Hoensbroech says the new flights are part of the airline’s plan to expand capacity from Calgary by more than 25% by next year, beginning with intercontinental routes. WestJet also says it is preparing for broader expansion within Canada and North America over the coming months.<br/>
Most creditors of Hong Kong Airlines voted to support the carrier’s proposed HK$49b ($6.3b) debt restructuring, a step to stave off insolvency after travel to and from the city dried up the past three years. Of those voting among three classes of creditors, holders of at least 80% of the debt in each class backed the plan, according to documents sent to creditors Monday that were seen by Bloomberg News. Court hearings to sign off on the results are set for Dec. 9 in England and Dec. 14 in Hong Kong, the carrier said. Hong Kong Airlines was struggling to repay debt even before the pandemic, after months of anti-China protests in 2019 kept visitors away. The cash-strapped firm had seven of its planes seized by the city’s airport authority after it failed to make some payments. Air traffic in and out of Hong Kong effectively stopped in 2020 as the city enacted one of the world’s longest quarantines to prevent the spread of Covid-19, resulting in the carrier deferring a dollar-bond interest payment. The city in recent months has eased a litany of restrictions, including doing away with hotel quarantine for inbound travelers. Hong Kong Airlines is among dozens of carriers and aviation-related businesses that have collapsed or have been forced to restructure and downsize. <br/>
SpiceJet on Monday stated that the carrier's operations, safety processes and systems have been found to be in order following an exhaustive audit conducted by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). The comprehensive audit by ICAO firmly establishes SpiceJet's credentials which it said in the statement as a "safe airline". ICAO is a specialized agency of the United Nations to promote the safe and orderly development of international civil aviation around the world. SpiceJet was the only scheduled Indian airline part of the audit conducted by ICAO under the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Programme (USOAP) Continuous Monitoring Approach. The audit of SpiceJet safety systems helped India achieve its highest-ever safety ranking in the ICAO audit. Giving details about the audit, the statement said the Auditing Committee visited the SpiceJet Head Office on November 14, 2022, from where all SpiceJet flights are controlled, and the SpiceJet flight dispatch offices at Delhi Airport. They audited and reviewed the various flight critical functions and operational areas such as flight planning, weather assessment, route planning, aircraft serviceability, operations to critical airports, pilot rostering systems, and cabin safety procedures, the statement added.<br/>
Malaysia’s Capital A will not be merging its airlines, but will instead move all the carriers under one existing structure, similar to how British Airways, Iberia Airline and Aer Lingus operate under the International Airlines Group umbrella, said CEO Tony Fernandes on Monday. AirAsia X will be renamed AirAsia Aviation Group and there will be six airlines under it — AirAsia Malaysia, AirAsia Thailand, AirAsia Philippines, and AirAsia Indonesia, as well as AirAsia X Malaysia and AirAsia X Thailand. “We are just injecting AirAsia airlines into AirAsia X’s listing status, there is no merger,” Fernandes told the media. He said that each airline would continue to operate independently. Fernandes made the statement to the media on the sidelines of the launch of Capital A’s upgraded subscription service — Super +. AirAsia had earlier launched the flight subscription service in March to provide unlimited flights to destinations across Southeast Asia. Monday’s launch will now include destinations in Japan, Korea, Australia, India, Maldives, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Saudi Arabia. Capital A has launched two versions of the subscription service — Super+ Lite, which covers unlimited flights across all Southeast Asian destinations very similar to the version launched in March, while the Super+ Premium includes all countries operated by the AirAsia airline group, including long-haul destinations. The lite version is priced at $203, while the premium option comes at $524.<br/>