Safety & Technology Trends

Air Safety Week, August 4, 2008

'Nickel and Dime-ing' Safety

As the airline industry faces high fuel prices and passengers are being hit with a multitude of new fees and extra charges, US Airways has decided to charge for non-alcoholic beverages in flight. Passengers will now pay $2 for soft drinks and $1 for coffee and hot tea. "Rather than charge the fare necessary to produce their product, management has chosen to resort to the tactics of ultra low fare carriers," said US Airways Association of Flight Attendants-CWA President Mike Flores. "This model resorts to a nickel and dime approach to the airlines most valuable asset - the passengers. Flight attendants are trained and certified safety professionals, not cashiers to be used in management's futile attempt to bolster US Airways bottom line." Exempt from the charge will be passengers traveling on transatlantic flights and on the US Airways Shuttle. Unaccompanied minors will also be exempt and those with medical conditions would be provided a free soft drink. (Presumably a glass of water will remain free.) Lisa LeCarre, America West AFA-CWA President, said "selling these items detracts from the focus on safety for both passengers and crew. While we understand management's intent to add revenue, this program will put both flight attendants and passengers in a 'no win' situation."

Flying North for the Summer

Summer thunderstorms cause roughly 70% of all delays, and the FAA's Air Traffic Control System Command Center in Herndon, VA, uses Canadian routes to spread out traffic and rebalance the workload within the national airspace system during these storms. Canadian routes allow U.S. air traffic controllers to safely expedite the flow of air traffic through the extra airspace, which reduces the backlash of delays during severe weather. In order for New York traffic to safely get around thunderstorms blocking routes to the south and west of the metropolitan area, controllers direct planes through Canadian routes that extend as far north as North Bay, Ontario and Sault Ste. Marie, MI. Decisions to use the routes are made jointly with Canadian air traffic control, and the U.S. and Canada routinely participate in each other's air traffic control planning teleconferences.

As a rule, the FAA tries to provide several hours of advance notice when it sees a need for the Canadian routes. However, there are times when thunderstorms materialize unexpectedly or in places not previously forecast, and Canada has been quick to provide help and traffic relief.

SRA Completes Acquisition of Era

SRA International, a leading provider of technology and strategic consulting services and solutions to government organizations, has completed the acquisition of Era Corp., a privately held provider of advanced surveillance technologies for the air traffic management, airport operations, military and security market. ERA has nearly 300 employees and develops multilateration, Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) and other technologies that deliver high-performance, high-reliability surveillance solutions to more than 100 customers in the U.S., Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South America and Asia. Headquartered in Reston, VA, it has production facilities and research and development centers in the U.S. and Czech Republic.

SELEX on New Doha Airport Project

SELEX Sistemi Integrati, a Finmeccanica company, will play a leading role integrating all the equipment for air traffic and meteorological control for the new airport in Doha, Qatar. SELEX signed a $105 million contract with the New Doha International Airport (NDIA) Steering Committee to design and provide systems for both air traffic and runway traffic control systems. The futuristic airport, which will be opened in 2015, will be able to handle about 50 million passengers per year and 320.000 takeoff and landings annually. SELEX will provide radars, a control center with 36 operator work stations enabled for radar data processing and flight planning, an automated system for departures and arrivals, a complete meteorological system, plus a computerized system for ground movements, navaids and ground sensors management.

NAS Passes EASA Muster

Kuwait's National Aviation Services (NAS), a leading provider of airport ground handling services to airlines at Kuwait International, has successfully completed its Safety Audit conducted by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). The audit conducted earlier this month demonstrates the company's commitment to achieve high level of safety and quality standards in compliance with international regulations.

NAS has also been awarded maintenance certification for British Airways B-777 aircraft operating to Kuwait. NAS is the first private ground handling company in Kuwait to obtain the EASA Part 145 Approval and in July 2006 the company was the officially recognized as an approved aircraft line maintenance station under Part 145 for the certification of Airbus A-320 series of aircraft with CFM 56 & V 2500 Engines and Boeing 737NG aircraft with CFM56 engines were added later in 2007.