Bombardier Aerospace is flying high with the news that Delta Connection has placed a firm order for 32 50-seat Bombardier CRJ200(i) regional jets. Deliveries are scheduled to commence in the first quarter of 2005. The contract value is estimated at $780 million US and represents the conversion to firm orders of 32 of the 169 options on the Bombardier CRJ200 held by Delta Connection carriers. Delta Connection, through its wholly-owned subsidiaries, ASA and Comair, already operates the world's largest Bombardier CRJ fleet with 279 Bombardier CRJ200 and 70-passenger Bombardier CRJ700(i) aircraft.

New Designs Dwarfs Existing Facility

The FAA will build a new $25 million air traffic control tower at Memphis International Airport, and a new road network will be established at the airport to complement the tower's construction. The Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority already has plans in place to restructure the roads and the FAA's new tower will be coordinated along with that effort, says airport director of development Robert Beesley. "We have to move the roads for our good reasons," Beesley says. The new 307-foot tower will dwarf the existing 185-foot tower. The tower's base building will also be significantly larger than the existing building, expanding from about 20,000-square-feet to a two-story, 30,000-square-foot structure.

SPEEA Expresses Concern

Citing figures that show morale near all-time lows and experienced workers leaving, technical and professional employees at the Boeing Company are increasingly concerned about the direction the current leadership is taking the company, according to The Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA), IFPTE Local 2001, AFL-CIO. Coupled with Boeing losing market share to its European rival, Airbus Industrie, the company needs to alter course, according to the union representing more than 20,000 Boeing employees in seven states. SPEEA e-mailed analysts a letter from Executive Director Charles Bofferding and a package of charts that illustrate changes in morale and eroding aerospace experience in the Boeing workforce.

Post 9/11 Treatment of Passengers Addressed

The Aviation Enforcement Office of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has reached a settlement with American Airlines regarding its post-Sept. 11, 2001, treatment of certain air travelers who were or were perceived to be of Arab, Middle Eastern or South Asian descent and/or Muslim. The settlement was approved by DOT Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Burton S. Kolko on Feb. 27.  The settlement will become final March 29 unless a petition for review is filed or DOT takes review on its own initiative. The settlement order finds that American acted in a manner inconsistent with federal laws that prohibit discrimination and requires American to provide civil rights training to its employees over the next three years at a total