Transportation Industry

Company Watch - Airbus

AirGuide Business, Oct 13, 2008

Oct 13, 2008

Airbus sold 31 planes in September, bringing gross orders for the first nine months of the year to 785 as the European planemaker held a lead over strike-hit Boeing in new orders and deliveries. Oct 7, 2008

Airbus is poised to begin flight-testing the Pratt & Whitney PW1000G geared turbofan demonstrator engine on its A340-600 flying testbed in Toulouse. The GTF engine was installed on the A340 in the No 2 position in place of the Rolls-Royce Trent 500 engine in late September. The airframer has been undertaking ground testing at Toulouse this week ahead of the first flight. The A340 is understood to have carried out taxi tests yesterday. Oct 10, 2008

Aviation Capital Group (ACG) has acquired its first new Airbus A330s under a sale/leaseback agreement for 10 Rolls-Royce Trent 700-powered-200s brokered with Colombia's Avianca. Avianca has already taken delivery of the first A330, a 280-seat aircraft registered as N948AC. The second is expected to be delivered in November. Avianca, which already leases a Boeing 767-200ER from ACG, has agreed to lease the aircraft for six years, but the contract contains renewal rights. Avianca, meanwhile, continues to hold orders for eight more A330s with the airframer. Oct 6, 2008

Australian investigators have detailed the dynamics of the in-flight upset which injured over 70 people on board a Qantas Airbus A330-300 during cruise, but have no firm indication as to the cause of the incident. The jet, en route from Singapore to Perth, climbed 200ft upwards before returning to its cruising altitude of 37,000ft. About one minute later, it descended 650ft in the space of 20s - pitching downwards to a maximum of 8.4[degrees] - before regaining its cruise level once more. Oct 10, 2008

Qantas A330-300 on its way from Singapore to Perth yesterday afternoon experienced severe turbulence and diverted to Learmonth, about 700 mi. north of its destination earlier today had a sudden change in altitude, resulting in around 74 people on board reportedly being injured and the pilots responding by making an emergency landing at a remote airport in Western Australia. The Oneworld carrier says in a statement the A330-300 was en route to Perth from Singapore with 303 passengers and 10 crew on board when there was "a sudden change in altitude". The pilots received centralized aircraft monitoring messages to say there was "some irregularity with the aircraft's elevator control system", the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB)) says in a statement today. This statement is referring to an accident yesterday afternoon while the aircraft was at 37,000ft (11,280m) en route from Singapore to Perth. Oct 7, 2008

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