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Trump Floats F-35 Offer For India During Modi White House Visit
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Trump Floats F-35 Offer For India During Modi White House VisitU.S. President Donald Trump revived a long-dormant proposal to sell Lockheed Martin F-35s to India during a joint press conference on Feb. 13 with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In his opening remarks, Trump cited “many billions of dollars” in military sales to India this year as prelude to the possibility of a stealth fighter offer. “We’re also paving the way to ultimately provide India with the F-35 stealth fighters,” Trump said. Trump’s remark suggests his administration has a long-term strategy for continuing F-35 production, despite recent calls by advisor Elon Musk urging the cancellation of the program.  Modi did not react directly to Trump’s statement about the F-35 during the press conference but spoke of a broader security relationship. “America plays an important role in India’s defense preparedness,” Modi said. “We are moving forward actively toward joint development, joint production and transfer of technology.” A statement released by the Indian government also raised the expectation of completing a new order for six Boeing P-8Is, adding to a fleet of 12 of the maritime patrol aircraft. The Lockheed F-21, a modified F-16 Blk. 70/72, and the Boeing F-15EX are competing with three European rivals for India’s long-deferred Multi-Role Fighter Aircraft contract for 114 fighters. But the U.S. has withheld the F-35 from Indian defense procurements since 2010. At that time, the Obama administration authorized Lockheed executives to brief the Indian Navy on the F-35B and F-35C as a future carrier-based fighter. The navy ultimately selected the Dassault Rafale over the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet in 2023. The F-35B/C was not proposed during the competition. An F-35 order could help India quickly modernize its air force to the fifth-generation standard, matching the modernity of China’s J-20 and eclipsing Pakistan’s J-10C fighters. But the U.S. fighter also would complicate Modi’s “Made in India” policy, which is dedicated to indigenizing as much defense technology as possible. The air force, for example, plans to develop the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft in the same class as the F-35 by the mid-2030s.
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Feb 14, 2025
Iata Americas Vp Peter Cerda Named New Alta Ceo
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Iata Americas Vp Peter Cerda Named New Alta CeoThe Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association (ALTA) said Peter Cerda, the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Americas regional vice president, will become its new executive director and CEO in March. Cerda, who will retain his role at IATA as well, will replace Jose Ricardo Botelho, who has been ALTA’s CEO since June 2020. “IATA has agreed that Peter can continue in his current role and consolidate both leadership positions to strengthen the management and work of ALTA and IATA in the region,” ALTA said in a statement. Cerda has been with IATA since 1996, becoming a familiar figure in Latin American and Caribbean aviation circles lobbying governments on behalf of the region’s airlines. He has long pushed for the region’s governments to lower taxation on airlines. Taxes on flight tickets often drive up the cost of traveling to the region to the detriment of local economies, Cerda has asserted. “There are periods of time in the year—the Caribbean high season—when it’s more expensive to fly from the U.S. to the Caribbean, in some cases, than it is to fly from Miami to Dubai,” he told Aviation Week recently. “A lot of it has to do with the amount of taxes and fees that are added onto the ticket.” Cerda has pushed governments to use taxes on airlines to fund infrastructure improvements at airports. “If it goes into the central coffers, it’s not being actually reinvested into airports or aviation,” he said. In his role at IATA, Cerda has also emphasized safety as the airline industry’s top priority. Speaking Feb. 10 at the Routes Americas conference in Nassau, Bahamas, Cerda said the recent fatal accident near Washington Reagan National Airport (DCA) was a “wake-up call. Safety is the most important day-to-day activity that our industry is working on—and we have to continue that.” ALTA praised Ricardo for guiding the organization through an “exceptionally challenging period . . . skillfully navigating the turbulence of the pandemic.” Cerda will officially take over ALTA’s CEO position on March 15. He has a “clear mission: to contribute to sustainable development over time and the sustainability of air transport in Latin America and the Caribbean,” ALTA said.
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Feb 14, 2025
Uae Begins Mapping Air Corridors For Air Taxis, Cargo Drones
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Uae Begins Mapping Air Corridors For Air Taxis, Cargo DronesThe United Arab Emirates (UAE) has started mapping air corridors for air taxis and cargo drones, as well as writing an airspace regulatory framework for the aircraft. The Gulf state, home to Dubai and Abu Dhabi, aims to define aerial corridors and regulations within the next 20 months, the UAE’s Technology Innovation Institute (TII) said on Feb. 13. Corridors and regulations are being created via a partnership between the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority and the country’s Advanced Technology Research Council government-funded research institutes—the TII and Aspire. The partnership also aims to engineer airspace management systems. The UAE hopes to be one of the first countries to launch regular electric-vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) air taxi flights. Joby Aviation is working toward launching initial operations in the country as soon as this year. Rival eVTOL developer Archer Aviation also plans to launch service in Abu Dhabi as soon as late 2025. Joby and Archer’s initial operations are expected to be limited. But air corridors would be necessary to deconflict flightpaths as air taxi and cargo drone operations expand. For the partnership, the TII is leading development of the technical aspects of the UAE’s advanced air mobility (AAM) industry. Aspire is convening stakeholders such as regulators, industry leaders, and researchers. “At [TII], we’re developing advanced AI [artificial intelligence]-powered control, vision and communication algorithms for autonomous systems that enable real-time decision-making for air taxis and drones,” says Enrico Natalizio, chief researcher of the Autonomous Robotics Research Center at TII. “Having mastered this technology, we are able to propose methodologies for [AAM] corridors design to optimize routes, ensure collision avoidance, and integrate seamlessly with urban airspace, marking a key step toward efficient and safe autonomous air mobility in complex urban environments.” The UAE sees eVTOL air taxis and cargo drones as helping to relieve pressure on its conventional road networks and improve connectivity across the emirates.
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Feb 14, 2025
Westjet’S $3B Leap Contract Drives Canada Lht Engine Mro Facility
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Westjet’S $3B Leap Contract Drives Canada Lht Engine Mro FacilityCalgary, Alberta-based WestJet extended its maintenance relationship with Lufthansa Technik on Feb. 13 by signing a $3 billion, 15-year contract for CFM Leap 1B maintenance. As part of the deal, WestJet’s largest nonaircraft purchasing contract, Lufthansa Technik will build an engine shop and test cell at Calgary International Airport, “right behind” WestJet’s campus, according to WestJet CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech. Groundbreaking for the 150,000-ft.2 facility should start in a few months and open in 2027. Its estimated cost is C$120 ($84 million). This will be the first Leap 1B test cell in Canada and one of just a few in North America, Lufthansa Technik CEO Soeren Stark said.  The test cell will be capable of testing engines up to 60,000 lb. thrust (270 kN) and should be finished a few months after the repair shop opens, according to Lufthansa Technik. The engine powers WestJet’s fleet of nearly 50 Boeing 737 MAX8 aircraft, but “this number will grow to more than 130 based on the current orderbook we have,” von Hoensbroech said. But given that the engine MRO contract with LHT runs until the end of the next decade, “you may have some fantasy where this number may eventually go to,” he added. WestJet’s total fleet today includes about 160  aircraft, including Boeing 737-700s, 737-800s, 787-9s and DeHavilland Canada Dash 8-400s, according to Aviation Week Network fleet data. Lufthansa Technik, which is a CFM Premier MRO partner, will provide a range of engine services in Calgary—including quick-turn shop visits, on-wing services and performance restorations. It says full Leap 1B overhauls will continue at its Hamburg, Germany, headquarters or at XEOS, its joint-venture facility with GE Aerospace in Wroclaw, Poland. Von Hoensbroech said that having engine maintenance close to its operation should deliver “efficiency, cost certainty and repair turnaround times” for WestJet’s operation. Government officials also touted the decreased carbon footprint from keeping work local. “Although we see a high demand in the North American market for Leap 1B maintenance and overhaul services, it must be honestly said that the contract with WestJet was certainly a decisive moment for our decision to set up an engine repair facility in Calgary, with a prospect of 160 new jobs in the first phase,” Stark said. He also pointed to strong support from various Canadian government entities, Calgary’s well-educated workforce, stable political environment and “reliable infrastructure” as key factors in deciding to build the engine facility. The facility has strong support from various Canadian government and local economic development entities that are investing C$180 million. “When we drop anchor, we usually stay there for decades, and I would therefor venture to predict that what we have agreed on and will build up in the next three to four years will only be the beginning,” Stark said.
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Feb 13, 2025
Bermudair Plans For The Unexpected
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Bermudair Plans For The UnexpectedAs Bermudan flag-carrier BermudaAir prepares to double the size of its small fleet and expand its route network, it is determined not to over-extend itself. The airline currently operates two Embraer 175s, which are expected to be joined by two E190 E1s early in Q2 2025. When the first E190 arrives, one of the airline’s three aircraft will be designated a ‘hot spare’  that can step in to preserve services in the event of a technical issue. It will also serve as an on-demand charter aircraft. BermudAir’s decision to have a spare aircraft in a fleet of just four was perhaps informed by an incident last April when both of its E175s were simultaneously unserviceable. “That was a bit of an eye-opener for us and stressful, and we’re on an island in the middle of the Atlantic, so when something does go wrong we have additional complexities in moving [spare] parts and so on,” founder and CEO Adam Scott said. “We’ve built up a bit of a following…we’ve made a bit of a mark in terms of quality and level of service. Part of that is reliability and dependability. We want to make sure we have the best redundancy possible. If and when a technical issue happens, we can recover from that really quickly. “Bermuda is a really interesting market. Not a lot of people understand it. It’s not a Caribbean island and, of course, it’s got a very robust business market because of its nature of being a center of the reinsurance industry – in fact, it’s the capital, you might say.” This means that BermudAir’s clientele is much more varied than purely the holiday traffic that many people assume it carries. Roughly one-third of the airline’s passengers are residents. (“It’s one of the wealthiest countries in the world and residents like to live both on and off the island.”) Another third consists of business traffic, notably financial services with that reinsurance industry focus, while the remaining third is high-end leisure. Both the E175 and E190 will operate with dual-class layouts, with the E175s having 10 business and 60 economy seats, while the E190s will have eight business and 88 economy. With 96 passenger seats, the Embraer 190 offers greater capacity for both travellers and cargo, featuring approximately 1,000 kg more cargo space and an additional range of 1,000km compared to the 175s. That improved performance will be particularly noticeable during the hot summer months, Scott said. The additional cargo space will also come in useful: “Bermudans like to shop,” while the 190s will also be able to handle more commercial freight. The fourth aircraft will allow the airline to start servicing several more destinations announced earlier this year: Hartford, CT/Springfield, MA, Raleigh-Durham, NC, and Charleston, SC starting in April 2025. In February, the carrier announced further additions to its route map – Providence RI, Richmond VA and Montreal, Quebec. Frequencies on some existing routes, such as Boston, MA and Westchester, NY will also be increased. The vast majority of the company’s routes have no direct competition, Scott said.
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Feb 13, 2025
Caribbean Airline Ceos Urge Tax Reforms To Boost Connectivity
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Caribbean Airline Ceos Urge Tax Reforms To Boost ConnectivityAirline leaders in the Caribbean are calling for tax reforms and policy changes, warning that excessive fees are making regional travel prohibitively expensive and limiting economic opportunities. During a panel session at Routes Americas 2025, the debate focused on how high taxation on airline tickets—sometimes exceeding the base fare—impacts both tourism and inter-island travel for residents. “Our team reached out to me with regard to a customer who received a free ticket from us, paying nothing for the airfare,” said Trevor Sadler, CEO of interCaribbean Airways. “And the lady thought there was a big mistake, because how can the cost to her be $200, which was just taxes? She didn't believe it.” Sadler pointed to another case where the airfare itself was $110, but the taxes were $120, illustrating how government-imposed fees have inflated ticket prices to the point where travel within the region is discouraged. Hans van de Velde, CEO of Sint Maarten-based Winair, acknowledged that governments see aviation taxes as a reliable revenue source, particularly from international visitors. However, he argued that regional residents should not bear the same tax burden as tourists. “I can understand many governments making the choice to have high taxes because the international customer is willing to pay,” van de Velde said. “But for the locals, is there a way to tax them less?” He pointed to Bonaire’s model, where tourists pay a separate entry tax rather than having those fees embedded in airfares. “If you enter the country, whether you stay there for four hours or for 40 days, you pay $90 as a tourist,” he said. “But it’s not in the airfare. It’s outside. And a local pays about $15. So they distinguish between international arrivals and local arrivals.” Winair, he added, has been involved in a regional initiative to lower taxes on certain intra-Caribbean routes, which led to an increase in local travel. “We would immediately see it led to quite some extra volume,” he said. “So there are several experiments in the region that show it is possible.” Sadler questioned whether the tax revenue collected from aviation is being reinvested into airport improvements or whether it simply disappears into general government funds. He added that some airport privatization has also led to increased fees, as operators seek returns on their investments. Van de Velde, however, was blunt about the issue. “To be honest, I don’t know what governments do with these taxes,” he said. “I do see some pretty sad airports in the region where clearly it has not been invested in.” Van de Velde also criticized government interference in airline operations. “I am completely stupefied by the fact that we have prime ministers of countries who talk on radio shows about aviation and running airlines,” he said. “That’s going on in the Caribbean. Your goal is to run a country, not to run an airline, because you don’t know anything about airlines.” He argued that government protectionism has led to weak national airlines that eventually fail. “It has exactly the opposite effect of what you want to reach, because it creates weak airlines that go bankrupt.” Sadler called for a more unified approach to Caribbean aviation, with harmonized policies and standardized taxation structures across the region. “The Caribbean is marketed as one destination, but when it comes to air travel, we act like 20 different countries,” he said. “If we could take a little bit of that [regional cooperation] to government to show and share, how can we become more cohesive?”
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Feb 13, 2025
Jetsmart Confident Of Pratt-Powered New Airbus Narrowbody Schedule
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Jetsmart Confident Of Pratt-Powered New Airbus Narrowbody ScheduleFast-growing Latin American ULCC JetSMART anticipates adding more than 50 aircraft to its all-Airbus narrowbody fleet over the next six years. The additional A321neos and A321XLRs will come from a large order that U.S.-based private equity company and parent Indigo Partners placed in 2021 and will take JetSMART’s fleet size from 44 to 100 by 2029, CCO Victor Mejia said this week at Routes Americas 2025 in Nassau & Paradise Island, Bahamas. The Indigo Partners order, when signed at the Dubai Airshow in 2021, was for a mix of 255 additional A321neo-family aircraft and A321XLRs under a joint Indigo Partners agreement. At the time of signing, it allocated an additional 21 A321neos and two A321XLRs for JetSMART as well as converting some of the A320neos previously ordered for JetSMART to A321neos. The remaining narrowbodies in the order were earmarked for other ULCCs in Indigo’s portfolio: U.S.-based Frontier, Mexico-based Volaris and Hungary-based Wizz Air. JetSMART is headquartered in Chile, where it launched service is 2017, and has subsidiary carriers with air operator certificates in Argentina, Colombia and Peru. Mejia said the company is working “very close” with Airbus about the delivery schedule of the new Neos. “We have to be close to [engine supplier] Pratt & Whitney and Airbus because of the Pratt & Whitney situation, but it’s not a dramatic situation. It won’t affect our growth plan, but things change from one year to another. There are challenges, but we are actively taking care of it,” he said. Mejia said JetSMART sees itself as a key player in bringing service to people in South America who had not previously had air connectivity. “We see ourselves getting to 100 million passengers by 2028,” he said, noting the airline has already carried 55 million people—10.6 million in 2024 alone—and operates to eight countries.
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Feb 13, 2025
Opinion: China’S Airliner Demand Is Back—And That Raises Big Questions
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Opinion: China’S Airliner Demand Is Back—And That Raises Big QuestionsAfter a five-year hiatus, China’s jetliner market is surging again. Yet politics and industry dynamics complicate this resurgence and raise big questions about the coming years. China’s demand for large commercial jets increased dramatically in the last decade, both in absolute numbers and as a percentage of the world market. In line with strong economic and passenger traffic growth, China reached a peak of 355 deliveries in 2018, representing 22% of the entire world market for jetliners with more than 120 seats. At the start of the 2000s, China accounted for a mere 2% of global demand. The COVID-19 pandemic and consequent air travel collapse coupled with a broader economic slowdown in the country and strained ties with the West resulted in a serious downturn; Chinese carriers received just 108 airliners in 2022, representing 9% of all worldwide deliveries. The following year was about the same. The downturn was particularly tough for Boeing, due largely to the 737 MAX grounding—China was the first to ground the type and the last to reapprove it—but also to U.S.-China political tensions. Between 2018 and 2024, China ordered a grand total of three Boeing passenger jetliners. Between 2019 and 2023, the country took only token numbers of Boeing jets. Chinese air traffic has returned to roughly 2019 levels; it is somewhat higher domestically and somewhat lower internationally. Deliveries are coming back, too. In 2024, 182 airliners were delivered to Chinese carriers, representing 16% of world demand, and 56 of them were Boeing jets, the most since 2018. The first question about this recovery concerns demand levels. Since Chinese economic growth has slowed markedly since the 2010s, it is likely that air travel demand growth will stay muted, and therefore orders will, too. China’s 22% of world demand might represent the country’s peak. This question is complicated by China’s longstanding habit of underordering, at least on paper. At the start of 2025, Chinese airlines had 135 outstanding orders for Boeing jets and 323 for Airbus jets. But Chinese orders tend to be dual-switched: Airlines order behind the scenes, and the government then approves them, with public fanfare. Thus, it is likely that many “undisclosed” orders are for China—Boeing alone has 690 orders for “undisclosed” customers. The second question concerns market share. While Airbus has dominated the China market for the past five years, in part because of its final assembly line in Tianjin, Boeing briefly pulled ahead in 2018 for the first time in many years. Given that U.S.-China tensions seem to be worse than European-China tensions and quickly worsening further, will orders continue to trend in Airbus’ favor? And will this trend affect Trump administration trade measures? Third, and perhaps most important: The arrival of Comac’s C919 is a wild card. China’s emerging national jetliner champion delivered 10-13 (accounts differ) C919s to Chinese customers (deliveries began in 2022, but just three were delivered in 2022-23). While that is a relatively insignificant number for the industry, it is the first time since the start of the jet age that a new large commercial jet manufacturer has joined this exclusive club. With Comac aiming to deliver up to 50 C919s this year—and a goal of ramping up to more than 100 annually—China could fill over half of its jetliner requirements with a homegrown product. But given the C919’s dependence on Western engines and other components—and no hope of achieving self-sufficiency anytime this decade—the U.S. might not permit this ramp-up to take place, particularly if China heavily favors Airbus for its imported jet demand. The Trump administration’s promised hard line on China and the broader question of technology rivalry and decoupling of China and the West further complicate a potential ramp-up. In short, China’s role in the jetliner market mirrors the broader concern about the country: To what extent will China’s rise as a world power be accompanied by a determination to go it alone? Will the country continue to create alternatives to Western producers of everything from electric vehicles to artificial intelligence to jets? Is it even possible for any one country to succeed with such a strategy?
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Feb 13, 2025
Atr Presses On With Maintenance Interval Extensions
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Atr Presses On With Maintenance Interval ExtensionsTOULOUSE—After the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW127 XT engine resulted in a major extension of maintenance intervals in 2022, ATR has received approval for a comparable improvement on the nose landing gear, and engineers are working on alleviating the servicing needs of more subsystems. The effort aims to address pain points customers have described for a long time. The aircraft manufacturer aims to increase customer satisfaction, as delivery lead times tend to curb regional carriers’ appetite for new ATR aircraft. Production delays have negatively affected the orderbook in an already small market. “Our customers say, ‘we have been telling you for 10 years there was a problem, and you have been doing nothing,’” ATR CEO Nathalie Tarnaud Laude said Feb. 12 during the airframer’s annual press conference. ATR is beginning a 2-3-year journey where it will be investing $10-20 million to solve maintenance issues, she explained. It is making sure the 50-seat ATR 42 and 70-seat ATR 72 turboprops remain competitive, she stressed. The improved nose landing gear (iNLG) was certified late last year, Daniel Cuchet, senior vice president for engineering said in an interview. The calendar interval for heavy maintenance now stands at 12 years, up from nine years. “That yields a 15-20% reduction in the maintenance costs of a major subsystem,” Cuchet said. “We worked on materials and production techniques, and made more calculations to justify [that] the iNLG can withstand more cycles.” Corrosion has been another focus. “We are collecting data from 30 customers who have their own maintenance workshop,” Cuchet said. “Then we will decide how to better prevent corrosion—switching to another kind of aluminum, another metal such as titanium or composites, or modifying a component’s shape.” For instance, rain may worm its way into the airframe from an open passenger door and should be better drained, he noted. ATR engineers are also looking at increasing the existing two-year calendar maintenance interval to three years. This may involve part redesigns, new fatigue modeling and new procedures, such as additional but quick inspections. “This is laborious but fruitful work,” Cuchet said. Last year, customer support and services accounted for 40% of ATR’s revenues—$480 million, a 15% increase over 2023.
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Feb 13, 2025
Ier Moves Forward With Dubai Narrowbody Engine Mro Facility
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Ier Moves Forward With Dubai Narrowbody Engine Mro FacilityDUBAI—IER MRO Industries, the maintenance business of industrial gas turbine specialist International Energy Resources, is looking to break ground this summer on its planned commercial engine overhaul and testing facility in Dubai, which will focus on narrowbody engine maintenance. Following the announcement of the planned location at Dubai South last year, Larry Howie, CEO and Chairman of the company that will operate as IER MRO Industries, said that the preliminary designs for the facility have been completed and approved for the planned 1.3 million-ft.2 facility, and that it could break ground on the site by this summer. It has been allocated land formerly occupied by Emirates for the project and will operate inside of an economic free zone. “It’s a three-year program and we hope to have the test facility ready by the end of 2027 with the MRO to follow that in the first quarter of 2028,” said Howie, who reveals that the planned facility at the Dubai World Central area will focus initially on CFM International CFM56-7Bs, which it already holds a license for, and it eventually plans to add Leap 1A and 1B and International Aero Engines V2500 engine repair capability. He said the company holds existing knowledge and capability of LM2500, based on the CF6-6 commercial engine and LM6000 gas turbines based on the CF6-80C2. Howie said it is now going into the detailed design and engineering phase of both the MRO shop and the test facility, which will have a thrust capacity of 100,000 lb. The company identified an opportunity in commercial narrowbody maintenance given the future fleet projections of the Middle East and the relatively few narrowbody engine specialists operating in the region. He said it is now talking to OEMs about how best to support them going forward. “We have the capability already working with GE, so while we’re effectively the new kids on the block, we have aeroderivative experience and knowledge,” he said. “With the demand that’s obviously here at the moment, and the projection for the requirements for engine overhaul, this shop will be handling approximately 500 engines a year.” IER MRO Industries plans to purchase its own inventory, where it will effectively own CFM engines and trade up on those within its existing facilities. “We’re going straight down to component level, setting up repairs, repair procedures and then going right through into module building, module assemblies and then into testing,” he said. Howie said it will look to new technologies to bring efficiencies to the business once they are up and running. “We’re going to be adding artificial intelligence to the development of procedures to make a more effective and efficient way, and then eventually also applying a lot of robotics and automations in the management of the materials, inventories and things like that.” He added that a standard MRO operation of this size would typically employ 500-600 people, but that IER MRO plans to employ 200-250 people at the site. Using tooling from its existing facility, IER MRO will begin training its workforce for the new MRO venture at its existing site at Dubai’s Jebel Ali Freezone. An attached training facility at the planned new shop will see the company utilize the traditional apprenticeship route to develop talent, which Howie said it has time to develop given it is operating on a three-year program timeline. “I would imagine somewhere between 25-50 people a year going through the training program selectively and bringing them right through to certification level with the necessary authorities.”
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Feb 13, 2025
Icao Presses Ahead With Decarbonization Funding Platform
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Icao Presses Ahead With Decarbonization Funding PlatformThe International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is proceeding with creation of a new platform designed to connect aviation sustainability projects with investors. Secretary-general Juan Carlos Salazar signed a letter of intent to set up the ICAO Finvest Hub at its Global Implementation Support Symposium in Abu Dhabi Feb. 12, alongside representatives from Airbus, Boeing and specialist organizations involved in decarbonization projects. The hub will connect projects contributing to the decarbonization of international aviation with potential public and private investors. It will also create pathways for the funding of projects contributing to decarbonization, prioritize support to developing countries facing particular aviation decarbonization challenges, and engage with governments, financial institutions, and private sector stakeholders to find new and additional funding for these projects. Among the hub’s targets will be meeting the urgent need to scale up sustainable aviation fuel production and deployment. “The success of aviation’s environmental transition depends on strong partnerships and accessible funding, particularly for developing states,” ICAO Council President Salvatore Sciacchitano said. “The establishment of the Finvest Hub exemplifies the power of international cooperation in addressing our shared environmental responsibilities. Through this platform, we are acting on our commitment to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, while implementing the Global Framework for Sustainable Aviation Fuels adopted in Dubai.” Salazar said the Finvest Hub introduces access to new financial mechanisms specifically designed for aviation sustainability projects. “By connecting technical expertise with innovative financing solutions, we’re creating practical pathways to increase production of sustainable aviation fuels and other cleaner energy sources,” he said. “These projects will serve as engines of economic growth while advancing environmental protection across our member states.” The initiative emphasizes support for developing countries through targeted technical assistance, capacity building and guidance on establishing legal and policy frameworks that attract sustainable aviation investments.
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Feb 13, 2025
The Debrief: Starliner Astronauts’ Saga Coming To An End
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The Debrief: Starliner Astronauts’ Saga Coming To An EndTo be clear, the NASA astronauts who launched into orbit aboard a Boeing CST-100 Starliner spacecraft always had a ride home, so calling them “stranded” in space is a misnomer at best, if not a blatant disregard of fact. The CEO of SpaceX—NASA’s top commercial contractor—knows this as much as anyone, but that did not stop nouveau politico Elon Musk from repeating the claim on his social media site X—and blaming the predecessor Joe Biden administration for the astronauts’ delayed homecoming. President Donald Trump “has asked SpaceX to bring home the two astronauts stranded on the space station as soon as possible,” Musk wrote on Jan. 28. “We will do so. Terrible that the Biden administration left them there so long.” Musk’s comments followed remarks by Trump characterizing the upcoming return of NASA astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams as a rescue mission that he personally entrusted to Musk. In truth, the SpaceX Dragon capsule that will carry Wilmore, Williams and two other crewmembers home from the International Space Station (ISS) arrived at the outpost in September, a month before Trump won a second term as president. Wilmore and Williams’ prolonged spaceflight has had nothing to do with politics. The pair launched to the ISS aboard a Boeing Starliner spacecraft on June 5, 2024, for what was expected to be a one- to two-week shakedown cruise. NASA repeatedly delayed the astronauts’ return as it studied issues with the capsule’s propulsion system. Ultimately, agency managers overruled Boeing and decided to bring Starliner home sans crew. Wilmore and Williams joined the resident ISS crew and their spacecraft made an autonomous—and successful—landing at the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico on Sept. 6. To free up seats for their ride home, NASA cut two crewmembers from the SpaceX Crew-9 team and assigned Wilmore and Williams their spots aboard the ISS. The one-time Starliner astronauts were joined by NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov in September to round out staffing for a planned six-month increment. The quartet was due to return to Earth in late February, following launch of their Crew-10 replacements. But in December the crew’s homecoming slipped to late March due to delays preparing a new Dragon capsule for Crew-10. “Fabrication, assembly, testing, and final integration of a new spacecraft is a painstaking endeavor that requires great attention to detail,” NASA’s Commercial Crew Program Manager Steve Stich wrote in a Dec. 17 update posted on NASA’s website. At that time, NASA considered and dismissed an option to use another Dragon spacecraft to launch Crew-10. “After careful consideration, the team determined that launching Crew-10 in late March, following completion of the new Dragon spacecraft, was the best option for meeting NASA’s requirements and achieving space station objectives for 2025,” the agency said. But with the new capsule’s schedule still slipping, NASA on Feb. 11 reversed course and said it would use another Crew Dragon—named Endurance— to launch Crew-10, with liftoff slated for March 12. After a week-long handover, Williams, Wilmore, Hague and Gorbunov will depart the station to complete the Crew-9 mission around March 19-20—about two weeks earlier than previously planned. “Joint teams are working to complete assessments of the [Endurance] spacecraft’s previously flown hardware to ensure it meets the agency’s Commercial Crew Program safety and certification requirements,” NASA said in a Feb. 11 statement. The spacecraft, which previously flew NASA’s Crew-3, 5 and 7 missions, had been earmarked to fly the Axiom-4 (Ax-4) private astronaut mission this spring. SpaceX now plans to complete the new Crew Dragon’s interior, perform final integration activities and then launch the Ax-4 mission.
factory
Feb 12, 2025