2007 was the year that saw Southwest lure business travelers...
and Boeing repeatedly assert its 787 would deliver on schedule,
before copping to a six-month delay. And speaking of delays --
passengers stranded on airliners across the nation made their
voices heard, as the government worked to ease congestion at New
York-area airports.
Safety concerns plagued the airline industries of Indonesia and
Brazil, and eyebrows raised over a series of unusual landing gear
failures involving Q400 turboprops flown by Scandivanian
Airlines.
Meanwhile, both Boeing and Airbus tallied record sales numbers.
And, of course, there was TSA... which made headlines for a series
of blunders on the parts of officials and screeners.
January
An Indonesian Boeing 737-400 goes missing January 1 on a flight
from Surabaya to Manado. The difficult search for the missing Adam
Air flight is compounded by false reports of discovery
of wreckage, and apparent miscommunication at nearly all levels of
the Indonesian government. Fragments of the missing airliner are
discovered weeks later, but the aircraft remains missing to this
day... News circulates regarding the ordeal suffered by passengers onboard
American Airlines flight 1348, who were stuck onboard
an MD-83 for eight hours on the tarmac December 29, 2006 in Austin,
TX, after their flight to Dallas was diverted for weather. One of
those passengers is Kate Hanni, who rallied passengers trapped on
that plane, and other flights, to organize the Coalition for an
Airline Passengers Bill Of Rights... The Department of
Transportation selects United Airlines above three other
competitors for a lucrative new route to China...
European planemaker Airbus, hamstrung by delays to its A380
superjumbo and A350 XWB airliners, concedes the 2006 sales race to rival
Boeing. The American planemaker took in 1,044 orders
for the year, compared to Airbus' 824. Airbus still holds onto the
"number one manufacturer" title it has held since 2001, though, by
delivering 434 jets -- 36 more than Boeing... The National
Transportation Safety Board releasesCVR transcripts and audio recordings of
the final minutes of Comair 5191, as the plane with 50
onboard lined up on the wrong runway at Blue Grass Airport in
Lexington, KY in August 2006... In a portent of things to
come, a rumor of supplier delays to Boeing's 787
program sends stocks tumbling. Boeing admits some
reports are true, but maintains the composite-bodied airliner will
deliver on schedule in May 2008... Training provider Alteon kicks
off its controversial Multi-Crew Pilot License
program, which reduces the amount of actual flight
time a commercial pilot cadet must accumulate before he or she is
licensed. Most of the reduction in actual flight time is replaced
with simulator training... The FAA reverses its position
on a proposal to raise the mandatory retirement age for Part 121
pilots to 65, and throws its support behind the measure...
Following months of dogged pursuit of a hostile takeover of Delta
Air Lines, US Airways CEO Doug Parker concedes
defeat, and withdraws the carrier's bid.
February
The NTSB asks for the
public's help in locating engine components that fell from
a Mesa Air Lines CRJ near Denver, CO. The left engine
cowling, fan, and other forward components separated over sparsely
populated mountainous terrain near Woodland Park, CO. The Board
later issues an Emergency AD on CF34-3B1
turbofans... Acknowledging its 787 Dreamliner sustained a crack in the horizontal tail
section during a bird strike test, Boeing
spokespeople are quick to rally around the composite-bodied
aircraft, contending the episode was a standard event in the
development of a new aircraft and was not part of the certification
program... The Bush Administration sends its budget request to the
Congress and -- as feared by many in the general
aviation community -- it includes language requesting a revamp of
FAA funding to include user fees. Not surprisingly,
the Air Transport Association and other pro-airline groups
support the move... In a report with sweeping implications, Chicago TV news station CBS2 uncovers a
problem with security badges at the city's O'Hare
airport. The station found that persons with a
security badge get into the airport through an employee side gate
lacking any of the security measures employed by TSA to screen
airline passengers... Mother Nature shows no love of JetBlue on
Valentine's Day, as a fierce winter storm forces the low-cost
carrier to strand 10 planes on the ramp at JFK, and later cancel many of its flights while
the airline regroups... Bombardier unveils its latest
variant on the CRJ theme, the 100-seat CRJ1000...
Beleaguered Indonesian low-cost carrier Adam Air grounds a third of its fleet,
following a hard landing that literally cracked the fuselage of one
of its Boeing 737s... Faced with maintaining a fleet of aircraft it
can't fly, fledgling carrier Virgin America starts leasing some of its 11 Airbus A320s
to other carriers in order to generate needed revenue,
while the airline awaits DOT approval... The axe falls at Airbus, as
details of its Power8 restructuring program are revealed. Parent
company EADS calls for the sale of six plants, and elimination of
10,000 jobs, in order to recoup losses due to delays to a number of
Airbus development programs.
March
One day after being reportedly caught off guard by the
announcement Airbus was suspending development of its A380
Freighter, sole remaining customer UPS responds by scrapping its $2.8 billion order for 10 of
the aircraft... More problems for Indonesia's airline
industry, after a Garuda Airlines Boeing 737-400 overshoots
the runway on landing at Yogyakarta airport in central
Java. At least 21 persons are confirmed lost... In something
of an about-face to repeated claims the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) had adequate numbers of new hires waiting in
the wings to replace retiring air traffic controllers, the FAA releases its "updated" plan to hire
more controllers over the next 10 years, which
includes hiring almost 1,400 controllers in 2006 alone... former
Air Traffic Organization head and FAA exec Russell Chew is named Chief Operating
Officer of struggling JetBlue... Six Islamic imams who
were removed from a US Airways flight late last year for suspicious
behavior, and allegedly making anti-American comments, sue the airline for
discrimination... All Nippon Airways grounds its 13-plane fleet of Bombardier
DHC-8-Q400 turboprop airliners, after the nosegear
fails to deploy during a flight from Osaka to Kochi. The Japanese
government also ordered immediate inspections of all 36 "Dash-8s"
used in Japan... Two Airbus A380s land at New York JFK and Los
Angeles International Airport, marking the first US visits by the
superjumbo airliner... Transport ministers in
the European Union unanimously approve an Open Skies treaty
agreement with the United States, that throws open new
competition for lucrative trans-Atlantic airline routes... News
surfaces that, in a simulated "Red Team" test in February, TSA
screeners at Denver International Airport failed to find simulated weapons and
explosive materials carried through by undercover agents roughly
nine times out of 10.
April
As domestic airlines
enjoy the healthiest passenger loads they've seen in some time, the quality of the air travel experience
continues to plummet, according to a report by
researchers at Wichita State University and the University of
Nebraska at Omaha... Boeing surpasses the 500-order mark for its 787...
More fallout from the crash of Comair 5191, as the NTSB issues a series of safety
recommendations for air traffic controllers, calling
on the FAA and NATCA to monitor and combat on-the-job fatigue...
Documents prepared for a shareholders meeting of Airbus parent
company EADS detail the benefits former co-CEO Noel Forgeard
arranged, ahead of his July 2006 ousting from the
beleaguered company amidst evidence of insider trading... Israeli
officials confirm fighter jets were scrambled to intercept a
Continental Airlines flight that failed to identify
itself when it entered the country's airspace... Focus groups
conducted by the FAA, seeking comments on employees' views of
management, yield disturbing -- but not entirely surprising --
results: only 17 percent of respondents said they
"trust FAA management"... Opponents to a controversial
flight path routing shift, that would send airliners departing from
five northeastern airports over homes in several Connecticut
communities, accuse the FAA of withholding vital
information in gauging the overall impact of that
plan... The FAA seeks comments on a proposed rule calling for
installation of systems on transport-category aircraft, to alert flight crews to conditions
favoring the accumulation of airframe icing, and thus
requiring pilots to activate anti-icing systems... Delta Air Lines exits Chapter
11 bankruptcy protection.
May
Fulfilling agreements
made earlier in the year between the United States and the European
Union, the two sides sign a landmark "open skies" agreement significantly easing restrictions on
transatlantic flights... The Senate unveils its version of the FAA Reauthorization
Bill, calling for the phasing out of a 4.3 cent per
gallon tax airlines pay for fuel, and offsetting those losses with
a new $25 per-trip fee for piston and turbine general aviation
pilots who fly under IFR flight plans... In response to the
September 2006 midair collision over Brazil involving a private
Embraer Legacy 600 business jet, and a Gol Airlines 737, the NTSB
issues three safety recommendations geared at solving what the
Board calls a "critical safety issue," when traffic collision avoidance systems
(TCAS) fail, without the flight crew's knowledge...
Hampered by an inability to operate its fleet of Cirrus SR22s and
Diamond DA-42 Twin Stars in known icing conditions, North Dakota-based Point2Point Airways
suspends operations indefinitely... A TSA laptop
containing personal information for 100,000 agency employees,
airport screeners and federal air marshals goes missing... JetBlue founder David Neeleman is
jet-booted from his role as CEO of the low-cost
airline, less than three months after a series of
weather-related operations snafus shut down the carrier for days.
He stays on as Chairman... Around 400 pilots, mechanics, and flight
attendants for United Airlines picket outside the first
shareholders meeting for the carrier in five years, protesting the lucrative bonuses and other
perks United CEO Glenn Tilton and others took after
the airline emerged from Chapter 11 in 2006... Officials
investigate a near-collision on a runway at
LAX, involving a SkyWest turboprop and a Virgin
Atlantic A340. It's the latest in a series of similar incidents so
far for the year, and it won't be the last... "America's Ryanair," Skybus
Airlines, begins operations... General aviation advocates decry an
Air Transport Association advertisement, featuring animated airliners complaining
about business jets... One month later, Northwest
Airlines follows its Chapter 11 compatriot, Delta, in exiting bankruptcy.
June
31-year-old attorney
Andrew Speaker is identified as the passenger who boarded seven
airline flights in the US and Europe in May, despite being told by doctors he carried a
particularly nasty, extremely drug-resistant form of
tuberculosis. In an ironic twist, Speaker's
father-in-law is a microbiologist at the Center for Disease
Control, and well-versed on TB. Doctors later change Speaker's
diagnosis to a far less dangerous form of the disease... Though it
had little real chance of success, the discovery of a plot to blow up New
York's JFK International Airport leads to renewed
concerns about airport security... A computer glitch delays travel for
thousands of airline passengers along the East
Coast... Following months of hedging, Russia's Aeroflot signs on the dotted line
for 22 Boeing 787s. The carrier orders a like number
of Airbus A350 XWBs, as well... In a candid interview on a CBS
morning show, aviation analyst Michael Boyd slams the
FAA, and the current state of air traffic control...
Less than one month before the first Boeing 787 Dreamliner is
scheduled to be rolled out, the planemaker admits it has run into some
snags as it builds the first-ever composite-bodied
commercial airliner -- but maintains the plane will deliver as
scheduled... The TSA, apparently a bit singed from constant
accusations of duplicity and incompetence, takes the unusual step
of answering media outcry regarding an
incident at Reagan National Airport by posting
security video of the "sippy-cup" incident... The 2007 Paris Air
Show proves highly lucrative for Airbus, which collects 728 orders and commitments
at the biennial event... The combination of dicey
weather conditions and labor strife lead Northwest Airlines, fresh
out of bankruptcy, to cancel upwards of 10 percent of its
flights. The airline's scheduling woes will continue
through July.. The mayor of Eagan, MN sends an angry letter to the
Minnesota Airports Commission and the FAA, complaining the new runway at
Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport is being used more
extensively than originally promised... H.R. 2881, the House version of the FAA
Reauthorization bill, comes out of the House
Transportation & Infrastructure Committee... Two are arrested
after a burning sport-utility vehicle crashes at
full speed into the terminal building at Glasgow
airport in Scotland.
July
The FAA categorizes a
May 26 near-collision on a runway at SFO as the most serious of
incursions, and the most serious incident of its kind
in at least a decade... General aviation "letter
groups" rail against airlines -- including, but not limited to,
Continental, American, US Airways, Northwest, and United -- over anti-GA, pro-user fee
editorials appearing in several of their in-flight
magazines... Boeing unveils the plane it believes will
revolutionize the industry, the carbon-fiber
composite-bodied 787. Despite appearances, the plane is little-more
than a hastily-cobbled-together shell at this point, and months
away from flying... A federal investigator accuses the FAA of not only hiding air traffic controller
mistakes at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport,
but also for sometimes blaming pilots for those mistakes... A TAM Airlines A320 careens off a wet
runway upon landing at Congonhas Airport in Sao Paulo,
Brazil, killing 199 people, including 12 on the
ground... A New Zealand company whose beginnings lie in treating
excess algae on sewage ponds develops a technology to harvest that
algae, and extracts the fatty lipids that can be
used for jet fuel... Law enforcement officials
nationwide are advised by the TSA to watch out for what has been termed "dry runs" for a
terrorist attack, in apparent response to a number of
suspicious incidents at several US airports... The NTSB announces
its findings on the 11-month investigation into what led Comair Flight 5191 to depart
the wrong runway in Lexington, KY in August 2006...
Bidders reportedly visit a number of Airbus plants throughout
Europe, that have been put up for sale under the
Power8 restructuring agreement...
August
Following months of
dogged pursuit by rival AirTran, Midwest Airlines says it will consider the
Atlanta-based carrier's latest offer for a merger of
the two carriers. It will prove a red herring, as you'll soon
see... A proposed airline passenger bill of rights runs into
trouble in the House, as a key provision -- the right for trapped passengers to
deplane an airliner trapped over three hours -- is
shot down... Screeners in Lima, Peru have some explaining to do, after a man smuggles a tiny
monkey onto a Spirit Airlines flight bound for the
US... Citing unnamed sources, a Seattle newspaper reports the first flight of Boeing's 787
Dreamliner has slipped to sometime in October. That,
alas, will prove optimistic... Psych! Nine months after AirTran
first voiced its intent to take over Midwest Airlines, the Board of Directors of Midwest Air
Group unanimously votes to pursue a buyout offer --
from TPG Capital, a holding group in which Northwest Airlines is a
passive partner... A study by The Wall Street Journal finds over half of the 41 jets trying to land at
New York La Guardia during a busy rush hour are regional
aircraft. AOPA picks this ball up and runs with it,
slamming airlines for, essentially, creating their own problems
while blaming GA planes... A China Airlines 737-800 carrying 157
passengers and eight crew catches fire after landing at Naha airport
in Okinawa, Japan. An investigation soon reveals the
likely cause, a loose wing-slat that punctured a fuel tank. The
discovery prompts aviation authorities worldwide to order carriers
to inspect their planes for similar problems... Britain's largest
airline and South Korea's national carrier each receive fines of
$300 million, after admitting they conspired to fix
pricing on international flights... The FAA names ITT Corporation as the prime contractor
for a vital part of its proposed Next Generation Air Transportation
System -- Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast
(ADS-B). A leading US defense contractor, ITT is known to many as
the world's largest supplier of equipment to move and treat water
and wastewater.
September
JetBlue Airways splits from the Air Transport
Association over the trade group's stance on financing
the Federal Aviation Administration... Boeing once again pushes off the expected
first flight of its 787, now to November at the
earliest. Still optimistic... A Brazilian judge denies a request
from Joseph Lepore and Jan Paladino -- the two American pilots
involved in a mid-air collision with a Gol Airlines 737 over Brazil
in September 2006 that claimed the lives of 154 people -- to testify in their case in that country
from US soil, citing an international legal treaty...
The FAA issues a final decision for redesigning the New York, New
Jersey, and Philadelphia metropolitan area airspace -- a move the agency asserts will reduce
delays, fuel consumption, aircraft emissions and
noise. Residents living under the new airspace respond
with a flurry of lawsuits... Following a tortuous June and July, several US airlines report record
passenger loads for August... In the wake of a second
landing gear-related incident in three days involving a Bombardier
Q400 operated by Scandinavian Airlines, the Canadian planemaker recommends the
grounding of approximately 60 planes until safety
inspections are carried out... In what may be construed as a
delayed capitulation to the inevitable, European planemaker Airbus
-- which once accused Boeing of pushing technology too far with its
composite-fuselage 787 Dreamliner -- decides to follow suit, and
construct the fuselage of its own A350 XWB from similar
carbon-fiber sections... An engineer, fired from Boeing over
reported personnel issues, slams the planemaker for purported safety
issues with the 787... The US House of Representatives
passes the "FAA Reauthorization Act of
2007," sending the bill to the Senate -- where it's
still stuck... A problem traced to a faulty phone line results in
significant air travel delays across the southeastern US, as all airline traffic within 250 miles of
Memphis, TN is grounded for hours.
October
In what analysts see as
a tremendous blow to aerospace giant EADS, the French government
says investigators determined "massive insider trading" was conducted by
21 top managers in both 2005 and 2006... A federal
investigator looks into whether or not security screeners at six
airports cheated by receiving information prior to
covert tests run by undercover agents trying to sneak
weapons through checkpoints... Two days after reasserting its 787
would deliver ontime despite recent production-related snags, Boeing admits the program will be delayed
six months... Allied Pilots Association president
Lloyd Hill rips into American Airlines CEO Gerard
Arpey in a blistering missive, obtained by the Fort
Worth (TX) Star-Telegram... US Transportation Secretary Mary Peters
calls for a meeting with
airlines to discuss flight schedules into and out of
New York’s JFK airport... European planemaker Airbus formally delivers the first A380
superjumbo to Singapore Airlines... When it comes to
the Sisyphean task of testing the effectiveness of current
screening methods at airports, the TSA's special operations
division continues to come up with new and creative ways to foil
screeners' efforts to find hidden explosives and security threats
-- which is why, the TSA maintains, screeners
continue to fail to detect such threats at astonishing
levels... The Associated Press reports on NASA's
apparent quelling of the results of a safety survey, which asked airline and GA pilots about
issues facing them. After much hemming and hawing,
NASA Administrator Michael Griffin announces the agency will
release the results of the safety study, after all (although it
hasn't happened yet)... Following a third incident involving the
landing gear on one of its Bombardier Q400s, SAS dumps its entire fleet of the regional
turboprops... Beleaguered air freight and ground cargo
operation Kitty Hawk Inc. announces it has shut down most of its
operations, and will eliminate 500 jobs.
November
The need for a
cigarette and a lost boarding pass lead to a shutdown at JFK
International, after a passenger is able to bypass
security and make it onto a flight to Albany... Immigration agents
at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport have some explaining
to do, after they allegedly harassed three
Finnish musicians who arrived at MSP in September for
a tour in Minnesota... News surfaces that two commercial pilots allegedly fell
asleep on a March 2004 flight between Baltimore and
Denver, with one pilot waking up to "frantic" calls
from air traffic controllers warning them they were approaching the
airport at twice the speed allowed, according to statements filed
under NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System... Southwest Airlines unveils new plans to
lure business travelers to its flights -- at the
apparent expense to its diehard, bread-and-butter budget fliers...
Runway mishaps, and pilot and controller fatigue, top the NTSB's latest list of the 'Most
Wanted' safety fixes... The Airbus juggernaut continues in
Dubai, as the planemaker reports 163 firm orders and
132 commitments... The Bush Administration releases a series of proposed steps to combat
flight delays... Executives at Delta and United downplay reports of a looming merger
between the two airlines. The rumor is later written
off as a "trial balloon" of sorts by Pardus Capital Management LP,
a hedge fund with stakes in both carriers... In a move met with
strong approval on Wall Street, AMR Corp. -- parent of American
Airlines -- announces plans to sell off regional
carrier American Eagle.
December
An Atlasjet MD83 goes down on landing just
outside the city of Isparta, with the loss of all 56
persons onboard... In an effort to cut their costs, several
European airlines are opting for longer routes over the Atlantic to cut down on air traffic control
fees... A GAO review of FAA data on runway incursions
finds for the fiscal year that ended September 30, the number of
runway incursions rose 12 percent over previous years -- a sign efforts by the FAA to improve
runway safety aren't keeping pace... Forecast
International projects 3,800 regional aircraft will be produced
from 2007 through 2016, including 2,539 regional jets and 1,261
regional turboprops. The new study estimates the
overall value of this production at $99.7 billion, as measured in
constant 2007 US dollars... Legislation raising the mandatory
retirement age for Part 121 commercial airline pilots to
65, from 60, passes House and Senate muster, and is
signed into law by President Bush... The DOT announces a number of measures to curb delays at New
York-area airports, including an agreement to cap
hourly operations at JFK, plans for hourly limits at Newark and
capacity improvements for the region. Missing from the deal is
so-called "congestion pricing" -- as the notion of charging
airlines for slots during peak times met with considerable
resistance from carriers... China rolls out its first 'homegrown'
regional airliner, the DC-9-inspired ARJ-21... After
two years in operation, business airline MAXJet folds its wings...
Though it is widely believed Airbus will take the 2007 sales crown,
Boeing makes a game of it by surpassing
the 1,200 order mark itself -- handily establishing
2007 as a record year for both planemakers... The year 2007 ends
much as it began, with cancelled flights aplenty at airports
including Denver and O'Hare, due to winter storms.