Welcome to the Aeroflap Portal's weekly news summary. Here we list for our audience the top 10 aviation topics of the last 7 days, as well as our best articles of the week.
For this post, we consider articles published between October 02nd and October 08th, exactly seven days, and excluding the day before the summary is published, which is always on Sundays here at the Aeroflap Portal.
Shall we start with the main subjects?
1. Chilean Sky Airline and Avianca Colombia plan to merge in the coming months
On October 02, we published that the Chilean Sky Airline and Avianca Colombia have merger plans with a view to becoming the largest low-cost operator in Latin America.
As published on the portal Chile Financial Diary, the decision mainly pleased Sky Airline, as the financial collapse as a result of the coronavirus pandemic made the company's President, Holger Paulmann, revise the airline's plans, even if for that, part of the airline was sold to attract new investments.
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2. Gripen: Saab works on navigation solution for operations without GPS
Saab is developing a navigation solution so that its Gripen C/D and E/F fighters can operate in environments where the use of GPS is denied by the enemy. The system may be offered to aircraft s from the end of this decade.
With air forces needing the highest level of precision in navigation and targeting to ensure that no collateral damage is caused when precision-guided weapons are employed (such as GPS-guided JDAM bombs), Saab is looking to defeat these tactics of anti-access/area denial (A2/AD).
Saab's proposed solution will combine data from Ternav, its existing terrain navigation system, real-time odometry images via the camera installation and a 3D mapping surface model provided by Maxar Technologies via a sensor fusion. This will provide much greater positional accuracy than using traditional inertial measurement unit equipment, says Saab.
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3. Lufthansa resumes Boeing 747-400 operations with engers after 18 months
To the relief of fans of the “Queen of the Skies”, Lufthansa has finally started the return to operations of one of the most iconic aircraft in the history of aviation: it is the Boeing 747-400, an aircraft that carried out its last operation with engers in May. from 2020.
With 18 months without Jumbo operations due to the pandemic, the D-ABVX, a 747-400 with 21 years of operations, finally resumed the legacy of the Queen of the Skies in the German flag carrier. The aircraft completed flight LH9921, between Frankfurt, and the Chinese city of Qingdao, the journey was covered in 10:30 am.
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4. Spirit Airlines A320neo engine catches fire after bird strike
Last Sunday (3), an Airbus A320neo tuition N922NK operating Spirit Airlines flight 3044 between Atlantic City (ACY) and Fort Lauderdale (FLL) airports, had to be evacuated after one of the aircraft's engines collided with a bird.
At the time of the incident, the aircraft was preparing to take off from runway 31 in Atlantic City when the crew noticed that something had collided with the right engine (PW1127G) of the aircraft, initiating check procedures after the takeoff was aborted.
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5. Azul announces the largest flight network in the history of Pernambuco and the Northeast Region
The largest network of high season flights in the history of Recife, Pernambuco, and the entire Northeast Region will be operated by BLUE in the summer of this year.
Will be 628 weekly flights in the state, 593 of which will depart from Recife bound for virtually all Brazilian capitals, as well as cities in the interior of the country.
In all, there will be 10 new routes operated in the capital of Pernambuco, about 8 movements between landings and takeoffs of the company's planes and an offer that should reach one million seats between arrivals and departures.
Compared to previous years, this growth is over 15% in the number of flights operated in the capital and 17% higher than the number of seats offered last summer.
In addition to the increase in flights on routes that are already operated, between December and the end of January 2022, Azul will have seasonal flights in Recife to Boa Vista, Macapá, Santarém, Campo Grande, Porto Velho, Curitiba, Florianópolis, Londrina, Galeão (Rio de Janeiro) and Jericoacoara, reaching 42 destinations in total.
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6. Voe plans to start operations with Boeing 737NG from 2022
Voe Linhas Aéreas, announced the beginning of the process for the certification and inclusion of the Boeing 737 with the ANAC of the models 737–700 NG and 737–800 NG, with capacity for 144 and 180 engers.
With the addition of the Boeing 737, the company plans to increase its participation in Congonhas Airport. The terminal will undergo a process of expanding the total number of daily operations, which will increase its bank of slots and distribution among airlines.
“We are investing to certify the Boeing 737 in our operations, believing in the recovery of the economy and the tourism sector in our country. We are already preparing to follow up on opportunities to expand movements at Congonhas Airport, which is a fundamental step in our business plan, which remains focused on the development and expansion of the Brazilian regional air network”, emphasizes the company's president, José Luiz Felicio Filho.
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7. Emirates could open another route in Brazil, North and Northeast has potential chance
During Expo Dubai, Minister of Tourism Gilson Machado held meetings to align measures that may increase the flow of international tourists to Brazil.
At the event, the minister met with the Sheikh Ahmed bin Seed Al Maktoum, president of Emirates, and highlighted the country's ability to receive more flights from the company and mentioned the potential of regions such as North and Northeast for investments.
According to Machado Neto, Brazil is one of the most prosperous places in the world for post-pandemic investments, due to its potential for natural beauty, culture and all the measures to reduce bureaucracy that the federal government is adopting.
Historically, Recife and Salvador are the two most important hubs in the Brazilian Northeast, including both operating routes to Europe, the United States and Africa before the pandemic.
However, another favorable point is the fact that the Emirates recently announced a codeshare agreement with Azul, which could help Recife become the next destination for the company from the United Arab Emirates, as the airport is one of Azul's main hubs.
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8. With 63% recovery, GOL transported 1,6 million engers in September
GOL Airlines disclosed on the night of this Tuesday (05/10) the numbers previous of traffic for the month of September 2021 compared to the same period of 2020.
In the domestic market, demand (RPK) for GOL flights increased by 36,8% and supply (ASK) increased by 38,1%. GOL's domestic load factor was 79,1%, down 0,8 pp from September 2020.
GOL transported 1,6 million engers in the month, an increase of 47,8% over September 2020. In the accumulated for the year, the company already s an increase of 18,7% in relation to the accumulated in 2020, considering the period from January to September.
Compared to September 2019, there is a 37,66% drop in domestic demand (RPK) and a 40% drop in the number of seats offered in the domestic market. The company also recorded a drop of 2,9 pp in the occupancy rate of its aircraft, compared to 2019.
GOL did not operate international flights during the month.
See more details in the table below:
9. Congonhas Airport: Government studies to make new terminal viable
The auction for Congonhas Airport (and also for Santos Dumont) is one of the most anticipated in the entire round of airport concessions from the Federal Government.
It couldn't be any different, responsible for the 2nd largest enger traffic in the country, Congonhas uses basically the same structure since the 90's, and with remnants of the 50's terminal, when it received the Lockheed Constellation on international flights.
Therefore, investments in the terminal will be large, despite the limited space for expansion, whether for the runway or the enger terminal.
And according to a publication by the The Globe, based on the public notice for the concession of Congonhas Airport, there are some feasibility studies for an expansion in the area.
As we can see in the image above, we can have a new terminal created where today the maintenance hangars and headquarters of GOL, air taxi, and also part of the remote patio of Congonhas Airport are located.
This makes it possible for Congonhas Airport to have 30 fixed boarding bridges, against 12 at the same time at the current terminal, in addition to boarding at the remote one, which in the project will be located where the hangars of air taxi companies are currently located. In front of the new terminal, there will also be a new garage building, with greater capacity for parked cars.
enger capacity also jumps from 17 million to 35 million engers. In 2019, Congonhas Airport handled around 22 million engers.
According to estimates, the construction of the new terminal, as well as other adaptations, could cost R$ 3,3 billion for the company that takes over the concession. It is worth noting that the Federal Government is currently funding another very expensive work, the implementation of EMAS, which will be delivered ready to the new .
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10. Projections show possible expansion at Santos Dumont and Belém Airport after concession
This last Wednesday (06/10) we posted about an expansion projection for Congonhas Airport, in São Paulo. And in the same bidding notice are some studies by the Federal Government for the expansion of two other terminals: Belém (PA) and Santos Dumont (RJ).
At Santos Dumont Airport we can see that there is a possibility of expanding the fixed boarding bridges, in addition to adjustments in the yard currently dedicated to general aviation, which gains a larger ground area and is capable of ing more aircraft of similar size to the Airbus A320.
The well-known glass-covered enger terminal gains an extra boarding bridge on the right side of the image, and three more bridges on the left, according to this study. It is worth mentioning that in the left part of the image there are structures that are currently listed by IPHAN, a negotiation that is difficult to carry out.
There is also a second expansion, starting from the historic central building of the airport, providing three more fixed boarding bridges. Altogether, in this study, there are 7 new fixed boarding bridges, and several new remote positions, whether for commercial or general aviation.
The request for more fixed boarding bridges at Santos Dumont comes from the airlines themselves.
Belem Airport
Currently with 4/6 fixed boarding bridges, Belém Airport, according to a study by Infraway and associated companies, could gain practically twice as much terminal available for boarding and disembarking engers.
In the image above we can see (in blue) a possible expansion of the current terminal, which adds 6 fixed boarding bridges to the existing four. In addition, the area available for engers practically doubles in size.
The remote will also receive a minimal enlargement, highlighting the left part of the image, where there is currently a parking lot, warehouses, and a street that gives access to the hangars in the south part.
It is worth mentioning that these are proposals prepared as a study for the concession, and does not represent how the future operator wants to make the modifications. The expansion is being ed on by our team only as a feasibility model for these two airports.
Learn more Clicking here.
ARTICLES
This week we posted an article when fire trucks used Boeing reaction engines In the 1960s, the text also addresses the expansion of the use of reaction engines (popularly known as turbines) saw the application of this type of equipment in common vehicles, at least in tests such as trucks and buses.
See in detail about this topic Clicking here.
Videos of the Week
During the week, we also published a special video about the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) multi-mission Embraer KC-390 and its capabilities.
The aircraft has been operating on military missions in Brazil since 2019, and has even accumulated orders from abroad. Its high technology impresses, and places the KC-390 at the top of modernity in its category.
See the full video below:
We also published a video about the training of Pilots at Azul.
Edson, manager of pilot training at Azul Linhas Aéreas, tells us how pilot training is carried out after ing the airline, what types of simulators are used, the maneuvers trained, in addition to talking a little about some requirements for ing the airline company.
Abstract in collaboration with the editors Gabriel Centeno, Gabriel Melo, Gabriel Benevides and Pedro Viana.
