Commercial Aviation

Panelists speaking at the Passenger Experience Conference in Hamburg believe there is a future for flexible aircraft interiors, although airline take-up to date has been minimal.

American Airlines is close to a major milestone in its massive narrowbody fleet upgrade program, putting a Boeing 737-800 prototype through final evaluation and certification testing at its Tulsa, Oklahoma, maintenance facility with an eye toward starting modification lines after the peak summer flying season.

Boeing has new master contracts with many top-tier suppliers under its Partnership for Success cost-cutting project, but has an inflection point been reached? Photo: KHI

“Airlines will look at efficient small single-aisle [aircraft] as their second type for their single-aisle operations,” says one industry executive.

An airline’s score on a new quality index, including untimeliness and complaints, will be a factor in whether it can, among other things, buy or lease aircraft.

Thales introduced two new inflight entertainment suites, the lower-cost Core and the high-end Prestige, at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg this week.

Airbus is preparing to introduce the Airspace cabin on the A330neo and is refining the design on the A320neo. Both continue the A350's passenger experience.

The development of a lower-deck passenger compartment in Airbus widebodies is bringing the airframer and Zodiac back together in cabin interiors, two years after a clash caused by Zodiac's delay and quality issues.

Airbus is pushing out a decision on whether to go ahead with upgrades of its A320neo family aircraft, as the company continues to face tough challenges in ramping up narrowbody production and with the in-service A320neo fleet.

With a simpler retrofit system available, American Airlines has committed to equipping a third of its fleet for ADS-B In operations.

Key players in the Russian aerospace industry have unveiled a roadmap to substitute all the foreign composites on the Irkut MC-21 narrowbody airliner’s airframe with equivalent, locally produced materials.

Zipline speeds blood delivery, RemoveDebris cleans up space, mobile robot machines aerostructures, ATARI lands unmanned aircraft, and “Dronionics” market emerges.

Some Latin American governments are nurturing aerospace development, but some established names are struggling.

If current trends continue, there is a possibility that most small suppliers will not survive.

AHM once again is being touted as the next major MRO business, but it will not be a game-changing revenue opportunity in aviation.