ATW Podcasts

The downturn and premium travel

June 30, 2009

ATW's Perry Flint talks about the current downturn and provides some intriguing insight. Has air travel changed forever? Has the premium travel sector shrunk forever? Has it gone the way of the three martini lunch and the personal assistant? We might be in the midst of a fundamental shift in air travel and the implications for the industry are far reaching.

Eco-Aviation

June 3, 2009

ATW's Perry Flint reports on their recent Eco-Aviation Conference in Washington DC (held in conjunction with Leeham & CO). Perry talks about the news from Air New Zealand - a biofuel experiment that went very well plus its use of ASPIRE to save fuel on its trans-Pac flights. There was also news from Rolls Royce and their open rotor engine. The EU carbon issue is also mentioned - the impact of the policy on non-EU airlines is an issue that is about the start airlines already hard pressed between low fares and rising fuel prices.

An update on Pratt & Whitney's PurePowerG engine

May 7, 2009

For many years, Pratt & Whitney has been developing its geared fan aero engine. The company has made two sales so far, to Mitsubishi and Bombardier. The technology behind the engine is quite radical because it utilizes a complex gearbox to slow the main fan at the front of the engine while allowing the turbine behind the fan to run much faster and more efficiently. This is complex engineering. The impact of this technology is impressive. Bob Saia, P&W's VP of Next Generation Product Family is on the team bringing this engine to the market. He explains how it works, why it is a great solution and why this solution offers benefits over competing technologies. You may want to grab a pen and paper to make notes, Bob quotes a lot of numbers. All of them interesting and also shares his thoughts on narrow bodies as well as the A350XWB and Boeing 777RS as a potential future users. He even shares a thought on re-engining planes in service now.

Friends in high places? Not for the US airline industry.

May 1, 2009

Its not just VP Joe Biden's unfortunate comments about travel that upsets the US airline industry. The US airlines are facing increased regulations in items long thought settled - like their alliances. These alliances were established at huge costs in terms of paperwork and labor time - all of which was approved by the government. Now there is the possibility of it all being turned upside down. Then there is the EPA's new plans for emissions. How does the industry cope? Air Transport World's Editorial Director Perry Flint talks about these issues and explains the challenges these issues represent to an industry facing tough times already.

Yes, it's very bad out there

March 20, 2009

Air Transport World's Editorial Director, Perry Flint, shares some thoughts on the recent SpeedNews conference - where a number of the names you have heard on previous podcasts presented. They were uniformly negative in terms of the outlook for the rest of the year. Perry shares his own views on the industry in terms of traffic decline, fleet cuts and the general demand malaise sweeping across the US travel industry.

Voyant Aviation Broadband

March 6, 2009

The IFE&C community has a new member. Voyant has emerged s another player in this field. Connectivity is clearly where the IFE business is hottest. Steffen Koehler is Chief Marketing Officer at Voyant Aviation Broadband and spent some time telling us about the company and its plans. The big item here is the planned speed - 35Mbps per plane. That's a big number. Since their system is terrestrial it will not work large bodies of water, but as Steffen points out, 80% of the world's flights could exploit their service. This is great stuff - nobody needs to diet when it comes to bandwidth.

Southwest's WiFi

February 24, 2009

Southwest Airlines is adding WiFi to its fleet. This is a very welcome addition the flying experience. Although the flight I was on is short, I managed to speak with four people (the recording of the fourth person vanished). You can hear from three of the four but I can assure you his feedback matched the others closely. Overall passengers really like the idea of being connected. As one might expect people want lots of pricing options. From a technical standpoint, the Row44 WiFi worked great on laptops. I had less success with my BlackBerry. That said, connectivity is definitely the thing you want on a flight - the sooner the better.

Boeing's 787 and lightning strikes

February 12, 2009

Dominic Gates is the Aerospace reporter for The Seattle Times and he put a great story this week you want to read here(http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/boeingaerospace/2008719843_lightn ing08.html). In it he refers to changing FAA rules about lightning strikes on a commercial jet. Read the FAA policy here (http://www.faa.gov/aircraft/draft_docs/display_docs/index.cfm?Doc_Type=Poli cy). (Scroll down to the item titled: Policy on Issuance of Special Conditions and Exemptions Related to Lightning Protection of Fuel Tank Structure (it's currently the third item on the list) and click on "draft document.") The story is that the FAA is relaxing the rules on lightning strikes - but it seems that numerous engineers within the FAA don't think this a great idea with a composite plane. These engineers might like to see the rules relaxed a bit - but not too much because there are so many questions about lightning strikes on composites. Dominic's call is something quite amazing to listen to.

50 years later

February 2, 2009

Argie Hoskins Shumway is the delightful lady behind this blog. www.americanairlinesstewardess.blogspot.com/2009/01/life-as-stewardess.h tml. Argie shares a few minutes with us telling us about the historic first jet flight across America, on an American Airlines 707. Although she only worked for the airline for two and half years, her voice confirms what so many people know. Once you have worked in this industry, it always remains special.

Airbus and Aviation Partner's winglets

February 2, 2009

We had a chance to speak with Joe Clark, President of Aviation Partners and Dr. Louis Gratzer, chief aerodynamicist for the company. The discussion revealed that AVP believes they will achieve their standard 5-7% improvement as they have with numerous other planes. Indeed, they seem quite confident of this. The image shows earlier attempts at adding winglets to the A320 that seemed not be be successful. As the conversation goes on notice that AVP does not feel as confident in being able to significantly improve another of Airbus product's performance - namely the A340. Which is too bad as that airplane could benefit if this were possible. Then the conversation really takes an interesting turn as we talk about the A380 and vortexes. It seems this is something of an area of interest. Note also Dr. Gratzer's comment on the spiroid winglet. Fascinating stuff.