Civil Aviation
17 June 2025 Patrick Johnston Singapore Airlines Group will hire 300 former Jetstar Asia employees—100 pilots and 200 cabin crew—following the low-cost carrier's announcement that it will cease operations on July 31, 2025, creating one of the largest workforce transitions in recent Asia-Pacific aviation history and generating significant demand for simulation training services.
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Editor’s Note: Last week, Portuguese investigators GPIAAF (Gabinete de Prevençäo e Investigaçäo de Acidentes com Aeronaves e de Acidentes Ferroviärios) released the final report of the harrowing Air Astana ERJ190LR flight KC1388 accident of 11 November 2018. The plane was on a post-maintenance flight, carrying three Air Astana pilots and three technicians from the operator.
Shortly after takeoff from Alverca do Ribatejo airbase, Portugal, the regional jet became uncontrollable. The pilots not only issued a distress signal, fighter aircraft were scrambled to escort them to the sea, where the Air Astana crew anticipated ditching their plane.
This exclusive narrative is from a detailed conversation CAT Europe Editor Chris Long had with the Air Astana flight crew, presenting their in-the-cockpit perspective.
The first that Captain Vyacheslav Aushev learnt of the task was whilst he was in another aircraft, having arrived in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where he was instructed to call crew control during checkout. He was then advised that he was planned to collect an Embraer 190 from the military airport at Alverca, near Lisbon, and return it via a refuelling stop at Minsk, Belarus, to the home base at Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan’s capital. This with no fare-paying passengers, but with three maintenance engineers returning to base. The aircraft was due out of a “C” maintenance check but, because of repeated delays totalling 11 days, the original aircraft captain was no longer able to take the flight, hence the short notice. 1 July 2020
RGB Spectrum announced the addition of CrossPoint KVM-over-IP to its product portfolio. 30 June 2020
Registration is now open for BbWorld 2020, a free, virtual event for training and development professionals. 30 June 2020
Turboprop manufacturer ATR and Australia’s biggest independent airline Regional Express (REX) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate in studying optimised solutions for the replacement and modernisation of its fleet. 30 June 2020
In January 2020 SIMAERO was selected by Chongqing Yuxiang Aviation Flight Training to relocate its Boeing 737NG FFS simulator from Urumqi to Zhengzhou. 30 June 2020
To get a better understanding of how South Africa’s flight training providers are faring, Alsim Simulators’ export manager, Mr. Nicolas de Lassus, spoke to Attie Niemann, CEO of 43 Air School. 30 June 2020
Western Air Bahamas, a scheduled and charter operator based in The Bahamas, has awarded Avsoft International a long-term contract for online pilot training. 29 June 2020
Harford Air services, based at Harford County Airport in Churchville, Maryland, US, has acquired an Alsim AL250 simulator. 29 June 2020
On Friday, June 19th, ITPS Canada held its first virtual graduation ceremony for the 2019B Graduate Test Pilot and Flight Test Engineer Course. 29 June 2020
After being grounded for 15 months, Boeing 737 MAX re-certification flights may begin as early as today. Robert W. Moorman explores the turbulent history of the airplane, and Rick Adams outlines the steps to a revised training program.
This past year has been a trying one for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. The revenue-draining after-effects of back-to-back fatal accidents involving the company’s latest and last 737, the MAX, and the costly fixes to the aircraft’s software system remain a major concern for the iconic plane maker.
The timeline for the aircraft’s return to commercial airline service keeps slipping, although MAX production resumed in May 2020 at its Renton, Washington plant. Boeing stopped MAX production in January and all aircraft production in late March due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Latest reports speculate that the MAX will remain grounded until August 2020, at least.
Equally troubling for Boeing is the lack of confidence in the MAX by some airlines and passengers. Hundreds of orders have been deferred or cancelled.
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In a US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, Textron Inc. announced that it will halt production of commercial aviation flight simulation devices at its TRU Simulation + Training facility in Montréal, Québec, Canada, putting about 250 employees out of work. 25 June 2020
The National Center for Simulation announced the award winners for the 2020 NCS Henry C. Okraski scholarships. 25 June 2020
Royal NLR wants to provide a platform for sharing and learning from various experiences, challenges and perspectives in EBT adoption by operators in the industry. It’s time for an EBT global survey and we need your help! 25 June 2020
The University of Oklahoma (OU) is launching new graduate programs in aerospace and defense through the Michael F. Price College of Business to meet a nationwide workforce shortage. 24 June 2020
Piper Aircraft and Spartan College of Aeronautics and Technology made an order for its first tranche of 22 factory-new training aircraft. 24 June 2020
The Bell Training Academy will offer virtual pilot and maintenance training for global customers who may be unable to travel to Bell’s global training facilities. 24 June 2020
Swedish-based company OSM Aviation Academy has joined a growing list of flight schools basing the management of their daily operations on the digital platform, FlightLogger. 24 June 2020
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has certified an electric airplane, the Pipistrel Velis Electro, the first type certification world-wide of a fully electric aircraft and an important milestone in the quest for environmentally sustainable aviation. 23 June 2020
An ALSIM ALX simulator has been sold to FAS Pilot Academy which is based in Athens, Greece. 23 June 2020
There is plenty of speculation about when airlines around the world will begin to ramp up operations again. No one yet knows when or how the resumption will play out. A major factor will be opening of borders by different nations; some countries in Europe have indicated they may not re-open until September or October, even to traffic from other EU countries. In general, though, domestic markets, especially in China and the US, are expected to gather momentum initially. International travel may come later. Passenger willingness to fly is also an unknown, and will hinge on not only ticket prices but perceived cleanliness of airports and aircraft.
When airlines begin to restart their engines, there will be several challenges, including training.
The majority of airlines’ fleets are parked in what is considered “short-term storage,” many filling up airport gates, taxiways and even runways, with the expectation of returning to service within 3-6 months. It can take as long as a week to get an aircraft “preserved,” removing fluids, installing protective casings, etc., followed by routine maintenance each month: fluid checks, idling engines to charge batteries, checking flight controls, inspecting anti-icing systems, towing with a tractor so tyres don’t get flat spots, making sure birds or insects haven’t built nests in vents.
Cabin crew re-training will also be affected. This is mostly done in house by the airline, but the numbers are large (perhaps 6-8 times as many, compared with pilots). They will need refresher and likely some additional training to cope with the “new normal” sanitary procedures.
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23 June 2020