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Frequent flyers vote Lufthansa top-of-class in two categories: Best Business Class in Germany/Europe and best Airline Website for Business Travellers

Readers of the Business Traveller Deutschland magazine ranked Lufthansa in top place in two categories in 2010. In a magazine poll of around 2,000 readers, Lufthansa clinched the best marks for superb service from a majority of the respondents, placing the airline twice at the top of the scorecard.

Besides winning in the “Best Business Class on German and European Routes“, the biggest German carrier left the competition trailing in the voting for the “Best Airline Website for Business Travellers” category”. This is not the first time the www.lufthansa.com homepage has been among the awards. Business travellers also value Lufthansa for its high security standards.

Stefan Schuermann, Head of Lufthansa Product Management European Traffic, was presented with the award at the Hilton Hotel in Frankfurt am Main last Friday.

The prestigious prizes in the business travel segment have been conferred for the past 20 years. In a yearly readership poll conducted by an independent market research institute for the Business Traveller Deutschland periodical, magazine readers evaluate companies from diverse sectors in the tourist industry. On the basis of the ballot, awards in different categories are conferred on airlines, hotel and car rental companies as well as individual hotels and airports.

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    American’s Reply to FAA

    These events happened more than two years ago, and we believe this action is unwarranted. We plan to follow the FAA’s process and will challenge any proposed civil penalty. We are confident we have a strong case and the facts will bear this out. Receipt of the FAA proposed penalty will give us the chance to present the facts, which will support our actions taken back in early 2008. American Airlines has always maintained its aircraft to the highest standards, and we continue to do so. We assure our customers there was never a safety of flight issue surrounding these circumstances more than two years ago.

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  • NTSB: Glass Cockpits

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 9, 2010

    NTSB STUDY SHOWS INTRODUCTION OF ‘GLASS COCKPITS’ IN GENERAL
    AVIATION AIRPLANES HAS NOT LED TO EXPECTED SAFETY
    IMPROVEMENTS

    Washington, DC — Today the National Transportation Safety
    Board adopted a study concluding that single engine
    airplanes equipped with glass cockpits had no better overall
    safety record than airplanes with conventional
    instrumentation.

    The safety study, which was adopted unanimously by the
    Safety Board, was initiated more than a year ago to
    determine if light airplanes equipped with digital primary
    flight displays, often referred to as “glass cockpits,” were
    inherently safer than those equipped with conventional
    instruments.

    The study, which looked at the accident rates of over 8,000
    small piston-powered airplanes manufactured between 2002 and
    2006, found that those equipped with glass cockpits had a
    higher fatal accident rate then similar aircraft with
    conventional instruments.

    The Safety Board determined that because glass cockpits are
    both complex and vary from aircraft to aircraft in function,
    design and failure modes, pilots are not always provided
    with all of the information they need — both by aircraft
    manufacturers and the Federal Aviation Administration — to
    adequately understand the unique operational and functional
    details of the primary flight instruments in their
    airplanes.

    NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman highlighted the role that
    training plays in preventing accidents involving these
    airplanes.

    “As we discussed today, training is clearly one of the key
    components to reducing the accident rate of light planes
    equipped with glass cockpits, and this study clearly
    demonstrates the life and death importance of appropriate
    training on these complex systems,” said Hersman. “We know
    that while many pilots have thousands of hours of experience
    with conventional flight instruments, that alone is just not
    enough to prepare them to safely operate airplanes equipped
    with these glass cockpit features.”

    Today, nearly all newly manufactured piston-powered light
    airplanes are equipped with digital primary flight displays.
    And the number of older airplanes being retrofitted with
    these systems continues to grow.

    “While the technological innovations and flight management
    tools that glass cockpit equipped airplanes bring to the
    general aviation community should reduce the number of fatal
    accidents, we have not — unfortunately — seen that happen,”
    said Hersman. “The data tell us that equipment-specific
    training will save lives. To that end, we have adopted
    recommendations today responsive to that data —
    recommendations on pilot knowledge testing standards,
    training, simulators, documentation and service difficulty
    reporting so that the potential safety improvements that
    these systems provide can be realized by the general
    aviation pilot community.”

    Based on the study findings, the NTSB made six safety
    recommendations to the FAA: 1) enhance pilot knowledge and
    training requirements; 2) require manufacturers to provide
    pilots with information to better manage system failures; 3)
    incorporate training elements regarding electronic primary
    flight displays into training materials and aeronautical
    knowledge requirements; 4) incorporate training elements
    regarding electronic primary flight displays into initial
    and recurrent flight proficiency requirements for pilots of
    small light general aviation airplanes equipped with those
    systems, that address variations in equipment design and
    operations of such displays; 5) support equipment-specific
    pilot training programs by developing guidance for the use
    of glass cockpit simulators other than those that are
    approved by the FAA as flight training devices; and 6)
    inform the general aviation community about the importance
    of reporting malfunctions or defects with electronic flight,
    navigation and control systems through the Service
    Difficulty Reporting system.

    The complete safety study will be available at www.ntsb.gov
    in several weeks.

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    Press Release: Boeing’s Houston Site Achieves Additional Environmental Certification

    HOUSTON, Dec. 7, 2009 — The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] today announced that its Houston site recently received Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification, the latest official recognition of the site’s efforts to improve its environmental performance. The U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED certification system is the foremost program for the design, construction and operation of green buildings. The certification process reviews energy, lighting, water and material use, and a variety of other sustainable strategies.

    The LEED Gold certification was awarded to the Houston facility’s Bay Area Boulevard building in September in the category of “existing buildings.” The site also earned International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001 certification in September and an ENERGY STAR rating for the Bay Area Boulevard building in December 2008. The Bay Area Boulevard building is a 399,000-square-foot facility surrounded by wildlife at the border of metropolitan Houston and the wetlands of the Texas Gulf Coast. Houston is the first Boeing site to carry all three environmental certifications and one of only seven Houston-area companies to have a LEED Gold-certified existing building.

    “These certifications lay the foundation for continually improving our site’s environmental performance for reducing pollution and waste, increasing recycling rates and improving energy efficiency,” said Brewster Shaw, vice president and general manager for Boeing Space Exploration. “Most importantly, they ensure our communities and our customers know that we’re doing our part to protect the environment.”

    By retrofitting the Houston site’s heating and cooling system and installing more efficient lighting and automated controls, Boeing has reduced energy consumption by more than 2 million kilowatt hours annually, or enough electricity to power about 170 average homes. The new heating and cooling system has saved the site $250,000 per year in energy costs since it was installed in 2007. The energy-efficient lighting system controls the building’s lighting automatically, based on peak employee occupancy hours. During off-peak hours, employees can call an automated number to have the lights turned on in their designated work area.

    The 21-acre site has more than 2,500 employees and serves as the headquarters for Boeing’s Space Exploration division, which includes the Constellation, International Space Station and Space Shuttle programs.

    The ISO 14001 environmental management system is a global standard — a common approach — to continually improve an organization’s environmental goals for reducing pollution and waste, increasing recycling rates and improving energy efficiency.
    ENERGY STAR — jointly sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy — is dedicated to helping businesses and homeowners save money and protect the environment through energy-efficient products and practices. ENERGY STAR offers a proven energy-management strategy for companies by helping them measure current energy performance, set goals, track savings and reward improvements.

    A unit of The Boeing Company, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is one of the world’s largest space and defense businesses specializing in innovative and capabilities-driven customer solutions, and the world’s largest and most versatile manufacturer of military aircraft. Headquartered in St. Louis, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems is a $32 billion business with 70,000 employees worldwide.

    # # #
    Contact:
    Adam Morgan
    Boeing Space Exploration
    281-386-4396
    adam.k.morgan@boeing.com
    Ed Memi
    Boeing Space Exploration
    713-204-5464
    edmund.g.memi@boeing.com

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    NTSB TO HOLD SYMPOSIUM ON AIRLINE CODE-SHARING ARRANGEMENTS AND THEIR ROLE IN AVIATION SAFETY

    National Transportation Safety Board
    Washington, DC 20594
    August 16, 2010

    The National Transportation Safety Board will hold a two-day symposium on the role that airline code-sharing arrangements play in aviation safety. The event, chaired by NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman, will be held on October 26-27, 2010, in Washington, DC.

    Code-sharing is a marketing arrangement in which one airline places its designator code on a flight operated by another airline, then sells and issues tickets for that flight.

    Recent NTSB investigations of accident flights operated under code-sharing arrangements include the February 2009 accident near Buffalo, New York, in which a Colgan Air flight was operated as Continental Connection; a 2007 accident in Traverse City, Michigan, in which a Pinnacle Airlines flight was operated as Northwest Airlink; a 2007 accident in Cleveland, Ohio, in which a Shuttle America flight was operated as Delta Connection; and a 2006 accident in Lexington, Kentucky, in which a Comair flight was operated as Delta Connection.

    Today, most airlines participate in some type of code- sharing arrangement, either with domestic or international partners. More than half of passenger enplanements in the U.S. this year are on regional airlines, almost all of which are involved in code-sharing arrangements.

    “In the past twenty years, code-sharing arrangements have so proliferated within commercial aviation that today the vast majority of airlines are involved in what are often complex business and operational arrangements.” said NTSB Chairman Deborah A.P. Hersman. “We have investigated many accidents in which passengers bought tickets on a major carrier and flew all or part of their trip on a different carrier – one that may have been operating to different safety standards than the carrier that issued the ticket. While all carriers are required to meet minimum standards, a clearer picture and deeper understanding of the best safety practices for code-sharing arrangements are the goals of this symposium.”

    The symposium will be organized to elicit information on the following three issue areas: (1) structures, practices, and oversight of domestic and international code-sharing arrangements; (2) best practices regarding the sharing of safety information between airlines and their code-sharing partners; and (3) the role that a major airline would have in the family disaster assistance response for an accident involving a code-sharing partner.

    These areas will be explored through presentations from major and regional airlines, industry organizations, and representatives of the traveling public.

    The symposium, “Airline Code-Sharing Arrangements and Their Role in Aviation Safety” will be held at the NTSB Board Room and Conference Center, located at 429 L’Enfant Plaza, S.W., Washington, DC. A detailed agenda will be released closer to the date of the event.

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    Air India Express compliance in key areas reviewed by DGCA

    Air India Express compliance in key areas viz. Operations, Maintenance, Safety, Security and Commercial were reviewed in a meeting convened by the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) in Delhi, recently. Dr. Nasim Zaidi, DGCA, Mr. Arvind Jadhav, Chairman & Managing Director, Air India Express and officials from DGCA and Air India Express attended the meeting.

    DGCA highlighted certain issues relating to positioning of officers in Operations, Safety and Training areas, Pilots on the regular roll of Air India Express, Flight dispatch, Crew rostering and monitoring of their Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL), Internal auditors, pre-flight medical, requirement of more mechanics etc. during the meeting.

    Air India Express has already acted upon these issues viz. issuance of office order for appointment of the Chief of Operations, order to have the pilots deputed to Air India Express to continue for a period of five years, deployment of the trainee pilots, under training now, on Boeing 737s, Computerization and automation of the Crew rostering system & FDTL monitoring, ensuring implementation of regulations with regard to Pre-flight medical, recruitment of additional mechanics from Defence etc.

    Memorandum of Understanding already exists between NACIL and Air India Express regarding Flight Dispatch, Ramp and Traffic Handling.

    The Chief Operating Officer, NACIL will soon issue Standard Operating Procedures including strict compliance with training schedule on monsoon and ALAR tool kit, regulations on special precautions during take-offs and landings, 100% FOQA, Crew Resource Management & optimal use of First Officers, strict implementation of regulations on simulation of unsafe situation during training, strict adherence to approach parameters and Voluntary safety reporting system.

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    EU Banned List updated: Official Press Release

    Commission updates the list of airlines banned from the European airspace
    The European Commission has adopted the thirteenth update of the Community’s list of airlines banned in the European Union to include all air carriers of two additional countries: Sudan and the Philippines, on the basis of safety assessments by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). With this update, restrictions placed on Air Koryo from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and TAAG from Angola are partially lifted under certain conditions, while the operations of Iran Air will be restricted.

    Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas, responsible for Transport, said: “Safety comes first. We are ready to support countries that need to build up technical and administrative capacity to guarantee the necessary standards in civil aviation. But we cannot accept that airlines fly into the EU if they do not fully comply with international safety standards.”

    With this update, the Air Koryo licensed in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, subject to an operating ban since March 2006, is allowed to resume operations into the EU with two aircraft which are fitted with the necessary equipment to comply with mandatory international standards and following appropriate oversight by its authority. The rest of its fleet remains barred from operating into the EU.

    The Commission recognises the improvements in the operations of TAAG Angola Airlines by allowing the air carrier to operate under certain strict conditions with specific aircraft to all destinations in the EU, not only to Lisbon.

    The civil aviation authority of Angola is urged to intensify its oversight in relation to all carriers and continue the recertification of the other Angolan air carriers which remain banned from operating into the EU.

    The Commission imposes an operating ban on all operations of Sudanese air carriers, due to a poor safety performance of the civil aviation authority of Sudan resulting from persistent non-compliance with international standards in the area of oversight.

    The Commission acknowledges the recent efforts launched by the competent authorities to reform the civil aviation system in the Philippines and steps taken to address safety deficiencies reported by the FAA and ICAO and measures taken by two carriers – Philippines Airlines and Cebu Airlines – to ensure safety of operations. It is ready to support the Philippines to overcome serious safety deficiencies.

    In view of the significant safety concerns identified by ICAO in relation to the authorities, the Commission with the unanimous support of the Air Safety Committee is forced to follow the principle of precaution and impose an operating ban on all air carriers licensed in the Philippines. The Commission is ready to support the Philippine authorities and conduct a visit to the country.

    Following an examination of the safety of Iran Air’s operations into the EU through ramp checks of its aircraft in the Community, evidence of serious incidents and accidents suffered by the carrier and insufficient oversight from the authority over the past year, the Air Safety Committee concluded unanimously that the operations of Iran Air to the EU should be restricted. The carrier will only be allowed to use certain aircraft for flights to Europe. The Commission will visit Iran over the next months to verify the oversight of the Iranian civil aviation organisation and the safety situation of Iran Air.

    The results of a recent visit by the European Aviation Safety Agency to Albania indicate that the competent authority needs to strengthen its capabilities to ensure the oversight of the air carriers it licences. The authorities have been urged by the Commission to take prompt action to address these issues. The Commission will closely monitor the situation.

    The Commission follows closely the performance of Egyptian air carriers. A visit to Egypt to verify the oversight functions of the civil aviation authority and the performance of certain air carriers showed that this authority is carrying out its responsibilities correctly. The Commission will continue to cooperate closely with this authority to ensure that proposed improvements can be implemented.

    Today, the Community’s list has three carriers whose operations are fully banned in the European Union – Ariana Afghan Airlines from Afghanistan, Siem reap Airways International from Cambodia and Silverback Cargo Freighters from Rwanda.

    All carriers from 17 countries – 278 companies in total – are banned: Angola, Benin, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, (with the exception of three carriers which operate under restrictions and conditions), Indonesia, Kazakhstan (with the exception of one carrier which operates under restrictions and conditions), the Kyrgyz Republic, Liberia, Philippines, Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Sao Tome and Principe, Sudan, Swaziland and Zambia. 10 air carriers are allowed to operate under restrictions and conditions – Air Koryo from the Democratic People Republic of Korea, TAAG Angola Airlines, Air Astana from Kazakhstan, Iran Air from Iran Gabon Airlines, Afrijet and SN2AG from Gabon, Air Bangladesh, Air Service Comores and Ukrainian Mediterranean Airlines from Ukraine.

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