ATW Daily News

Dubai Airshow News

Thursday November 19, 2009

Senegal order helps Airbus to 'better than expected' air show
CFM, Pratt make progress on next-generation engines
Fokker introduces comprehensive support program

Additional stories

Dubai News from Nov. 16, Nov. 17, Nov. 18.

Dubai Airshow flightline

Senegal order helps Airbus to 'better than expected' air show

An order from Senegal Airlines announced yesterday helped Airbus secure Dubai Airshow bragging rights with commitments for 33 aircraft valued at more than $5.3 billion.

Senegal's new national carrier, unveiled as the show kicked off on Sunday (ATWOnline, Nov. 17), signed a letter of intent to purchase four A320 family aircraft and two A330s. The airline intends to start flying early next year with leased aircraft. Delivery dates for the planes ordered yesterday were not announced.

Emirates Group announced its intention to support Senegal Airlines' launch and reached a long-term agreement to help with "commercial support, technical expertise, training and aviation-related goods and services."

Overall, Airbus secured firm orders for 15 aircraft worth more than $3.6 billion at the show in addition to MOUs for a further 18 totalling $1.7 billion. Highlights were Air Austral's firm $655 million commitment for two single-class A380s and an order for 12 A350-900s from Ethiopian Airlines worth $2.9 billion. The manufacturer this week also unveiled its sharklet A320 winglet along with launch customer Air New Zealand.

COO-Customers John Leahy said the show was "better than many expected," adding, "There will be a difficult winter ahead of us, but with the deals we made in Dubai and the interest in our products that we saw here, spring may not be that far away."

Boeing, meanwhile, secured orders for 11 737-800s from Air Algerie and compatriot Tassili Airlines.
by Geoffrey Thomas

CFM, Pratt make progress on next-generation engines

Away from the choreographed order announcements and ear-splitting noise of military fighters overhead, much of the talk at this week's Dubai Airshow centered on the development of engines to enhance or replace those available on the 737 and A320 families.

CFM International announced here that the first core of its LEAP-X development program, eCore 1, successfully completed the first phase of testing in a special altitude test chamber at GE Aviation facilities in Evendale, Ohio. The core, which began testing on schedule on June 12, ran for approximately 35 hr. (ATWOnline, May 15).

LEAP-X is the new centerline engine being developed to power the next generation of short/medium-range aircraft. The first full demonstrator engine is scheduled to run in 2012 and be certified by 2016 (ATW, November 2009). The LEAP-X fan features 18 blades, a 50% reduction from the CFM56-5C and 25% fewer blades than the CFM56-7B.

The goals for LEAP-X include reducing the engine's contribution to aircraft fuel burn by up to 16% compared to the CFM56 Tech Insertion, the newest version of the CFM56s that power the A320 and 737NG. Additional fuel burn improvements will be achieved once the engine is paired with new aircraft technology, CFM said. LEAP-X also is designed to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 50%-60% compared to ICAO CAEP 6 limits.

Meanwhile, Pratt & Whitney completed the build of the core for the first development PW1000G and will start testing before year end, with the certification process set to begin in 2011. The core has been moved to the Pratt testing facility in Longueuil, Quebec.

"The program is running on time and to budget and we are delighted with the progress," Senior VP-Global Sales Robert Keady told ATWOnline. The PW1000G program calls for certification in the latter half of 2013 and promises initial fuel burn improvement of 12%-15% over existing engines, carbon dioxide reduction of 3,000 tonnes per aircraft per year and a 75% reduction in noise footprint. Pratt also claims a $1.5 million reduction in operating costs per aircraft (ATWOnline, May 22).

The geared turbofan has been selected for the Mitsubishi Regional Jet (PW1217G) and Bombardier's CSeries (PW1524G). Boeing VP-Marketing Randy Tinseth confirmed to this website at the show that the engine also could be fitted to the 737NG.
by Geoffrey Thomas

Fokker introduces comprehensive support program

Fokker Services introduced a lifecycle support program for the Fokker fleet. The program, called FLYFokker, consists of aircraft service solutions for startup, mature and phase-out operators.

According to Fokker Services VP-Marketing and Sales Erik Goedhart, FLYFokker comprises a package of four solutions: Take Off, Take Care, Take Over and Take Next.

"Startup operators can 'Take Off' with their operation in six weeks instead of typically six months. For mature Fokker operators 'Take Care' is a comprehensive and cohesive solution to increase technical dispatch reliability, reduce direct operating cost and improve passenger comfort. Operators moving to other aircraft types are supported by Fokker Services in the 'Take Over' of the continued competitive operation of their Fokker fleet. The fourth solution is a package for a mean-and-lean transfer of aircraft to the next operator, called 'Take Next'," Goedart said.

There currently are more than 700 operational Fokker aircraft across the world.
by Geoffrey Thomas

Honeywell announced here that Garuda Indonesia selected its IntuVue 3-D advanced weather radar as part of a package of avionics to equip 25 737-800s plus 25 options. Order was valued at more than $28 million by Honeywell. The package also includes communication and navigation sensors comprising Multi-Mode Receiver, radio altimeter and ADF, CAS 100 ACAS, flight voice and data recorders, Flight Data Acquisition and Management Systems, airborne data loader, cockpit data printer and Automatic Fixed Emergency Locator Transmitter.

Rockwell Collins said Flydubai selected it to provide avionics and a data link communications system for its fleet of 54 737NGs. Order includes HGS-4000 Head-Up Guidance System, MultiScan Hazard Detection System and Hermes 2100 Ground Data Link System as well as ADF-900 Automatic Direction Finder, DFA-901 Direction Finding Antenna, DME-900 Distance Measuring Equipment, HFS-900D High Frequency Radio, CPL-920D Coupling Unit, GLU Multi-Mode Receiver, PAU-700 Passenger Address Unit, VHF-2100 High-Speed Multi-Mode Data Radio and VOR-900 VHF Omnidirectional Range Receiver. Value of the order was not provided.

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