April 2011

On April 13, an air traffic controller working the midnight shift at Reno-Tahoe International Airport fell asleep while on duty. For 16 minutes, the individual was unresponsive to a medical flight pilot’s attempts to make contact during landing. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has suspended the air traffic controller and continues to investigate the issue.

To say that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has had a rough week would be a vast understatement. On April 18, the FAA suspended an air traffic controller at a regional radar center in Oberlin, Ohio, for watching a DVD while on duty. That same day, a plane carrying Michelle Obama was forced to abort its landing after coming within dangerous proximity of a freight plane. An air traffic control oversight may be to blame.

• Air France has launched services to two new destinations in Africa: Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Monrovia, Liberia. The carrier is also now offering daily, non-stop services to Conakry, Guinea. All routings will use Airbus A330-200 aircraft. The Freetown and Monrovia flights will be offered twice a week.

Kuehne + Nagel has announced an impressive first quarter in regard to its airfreight volumes. Instead of a projected growth of 6 percent to 7 percent, volumes were up 21 percent in the first quarter of 2011.

ST Aerospace announced that it received new maintenance contracts totaling S$320m ($257 million) in the first quarter of 2011. Spanning from three months to one year, the contracts involve the company’s component total support, aircraft maintenance and modification, and engine total support businesses.

Etihad Airways has revealed first-quarter numbers worthy of the record book: Cargo profitability increased by 44 percent year on year on a capacity growth of 22 percent. March freight numbers were particularly high, in terms of revenues, number of shipments and tonnage transported.

Austrian Airlines, which stopped service to the Iraqi capital during the Gulf War, has resumed its flights to Baghdad. Beginning June 8, the carrier will run three flights from Vienna to Baghdad each week.

Air China Cargo officially began service to Frankfurt, Germany, on April 15. This distinguishes the Chinese carrier as the first airline at Dalian Zhoushuizi International Airport  to offer freight flights to Europe.

The New Zealand Commerce Commission has dropped all charges against Garuda Indonesia in its connection with the December 2008 price-fixing scandal. Twelve other airlines continue to fight accusations of inflicting fuel surcharges on airfreight shipped in and out of New Zealand.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has issued a complaint against Boeing for allegedly violating two sections of the National Labor Relations Act in its decision to open a new production facility in Charleston, S.C., rather than the Puget Sound area of Washington.