European planemaker Airbus has given its backing to the long-term future of the A380 superjumbo, after finally starting to break even on the programme. The Toulouse-based manufacturer assembled 27 A380s in 2015, taking the total number of superjumbos built to 179, with 13 airlines. Airbus announced a new order for three A380s from an un-named customer, thought to be Japan's All Nippon Ai...
This winter, Air France is offering six weekly frequencies between Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Mexico. Starting on 12 January 2016, three weekly flights are operated by Airbus A380, the Company’s largest super jumbo (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday). The three other flights are operated by Boeing 777-300. From 27 March 2016, the A380 will fly between the two cities daily. On board, custome...
A man's body was found at Paris’ Orly airport in the landing gear of an Air France plane that had flown in from Brazil, police and airport sources said. The corpse was discovered during maintenance operations on the Boeing 777 at Orly after flying in to Paris’ main international Charles de Gaulle airport from Sao Paulo two days earlier, a police source said. The body is...
Highest number of Airbus airliners ever delivered – 635 · Net orders achieved totaling 1,036 aircraft – increasing backlog by 401 aircraft · Overall result: industry year-end record backlog of 6,787 aircraft Airbus has exceeded its targets for 2015, achieving a new record of 635 aircraft deliveries for 85 customers of which 10 are new. These deliveries compris...
Dassault delivered eight Rafales in 2015, the French manufacturer has announced, with its annual output having for the first time included aircraft delivered to an export customer. Outlining its business activities for last year, Dassault on 5 January said: “Eight Rafale (five to France and three to Egypt) were delivered in 2015, in accordance with our forecasts.” The latter receive...
Alessandro Amendola has been appointed as new Senior Vice-President Engineering of ATR. He will be responsible for all the engineering activities related to the fields of certification and airworthiness, customization, systems and propulsion, structures, flight tests, flight technologies, support, and quality, processes and methods. He will also closely work with the Programs directorate, pro...
Franco-Dutch airline group Air France-KLM said Monday that the November 13 terror attacks in Paris reduced its December turnover by an estimated 70 million euros ($76.42 million, Dh280.5 million). But the effect had largely tailed off over the past two weeks, it added. “The negative impact of the Paris attacks on December revenues is estimated to be around 70 million euros, with signif...
Air France-KLM Group, ranked as Europe’s biggest airline since its formation in 2004, is teetering toward an exit from the industry’s top tier after a year in which efforts to slash costs foundered on union opposition. While figures due next week are likely to confirm the Franco-Dutch company as the No. 1 regional operator by traffic, a multiple of passengers and kilometers flown th...
ASL Airlines France announces the launch of a new route between Bordeaux and Hamburg for the 2016 summer season. The second unprecedented route out of Bordeaux ASL Airlines France today announced the launch of its inaugural flight between Bordeaux and Hamburg, following its first route out of Bordeaux, which linked the city to Vienna. ‘With the success of its inaugural service to...
A man known for his high-risk tightrope walking has died in a stunt that went wrong. Tancrede Melet, a slackliner, jumper and wingsuiter from France, accidentally fell more than 100ft to his death while getting ready to perform with a hot air balloon. He was taking part in an artistic project, believed to be tightrope walking between hot air balloons, at the time and fell while being suspend...
France has ordered six additional NHIndustries NH90 troop transport helicopters for its army, increasing the service’s eventual inventory to 74. Deliveries of the 11t-class rotorcraft are due to take place between 2017 and 2019. “The French armed forces have deployed the NH90 operationally in Mali where its outstanding endurance, versatility and manoeuvrability have been greatly...
For every cheap flying robot, there is an elaborate, expensive system to counter it. The latest anti-drone tool comes from European aerospace and defense giant Airbus, and promises a high-tech solution to small flying robots. They’re showing off the system at the Consumer Electronics Exposition in Las Vegas, though no word yet on if they’ve caused any nearby drones to crash. From Ai...
