China’s closed airspace hasn’t changed much in 20 years

China’s military continues to so control–and close airspace–in China that delays are rampant, this AP story reports. We’re reminded on the era when we were doing business in China, going there nine times in a 4 1/2 year… Read More

Odds and Ends: Plane Business analysis of AA-US merger; Air Canada’s single-aisle competition

AA-US Merger: Plane Business made available Aug. 21 its previous analysis of the proposed American Airlines-US Airways merger outside its paywall. The analysis of the government’s analysis is pretty devastating to the government’s case. Read it and judge… Read More

CSeries edges closer to first flight, as payoff for gambles await Bombardier and Pratt & Whitney

The Montreal Gazette did a little digging with Canadian regulators and came up with this interesting piece, deducing the first flight of the Bombardier CSeries will come within the “next 11 days” (the story was dated Aug. 19)…. Read More

Odds and Ends: Boeing’s secret 777X plan; Airbus wins big with British Airways parent

Secret 777X Plan: The Seattle Times reports that Boeing has some secret planning underway for assembly options for the 777X. This involves increasing the automation on the assembly (and thereby reducing manpower) and increasing the production rate to… Read More

C919 program in trouble

COMAC’s bid to develop a 150-200 passenger jet is in trouble. According to this report, CFM doesn’t plan to proceed with an assembly line within China for the LEAP-1C that will power the C919. Concerns over intellectual property… Read More

Bombardier CSeries first flight target: still in “coming weeks”

Bombardier announced its second quarter financial results today and repeated in its press release the first flight of its CSeries will be in “the coming weeks.” News articles are here and here. An earnings call is at 10… Read More

Airbus exec outlines goals for Washington State supply chain effort

Washington State suppliers who want to do business with Airbus don’t have to open new shops in Alabama or elsewhere globally to support the European company, its top supply official in the US said last week. We sat… Read More

Fuel burn A320 v 737

While on our SAS flight from Longyearbyen to Oslo, we browsed the SAS magazine airplane descriptions and it contained fuel burn per seat in litres for each fleet type. SAS operates the 319/320/321 and 737-600/700/800. Seating is as… Read More

Airbus comes up for air, responds to Boeing’s Form 41 reliance

Airbus came up for air from the Paris Air Show and provided this response on the DOT Form 41 debate. Readers can now compare closely Boeing’s response to our queries with the Airbus response and draw their own… Read More

Paris Air Show, Day 3: A320, 737 production rates of 50+ seen

Highlights from the show, as we see it: Boeing said the entry-in-service for the 737 MAX will be accelerated from the fourth quarter 2017 to the third quarter. Southwest Airlines of the USA is the first operator. Bloomberg… Read More