Aviation News 2023 03.pdf

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BUMPER ISSUE
FREE 2023 EVENTS CALENDAR
T H E PA S T, P R E SEN T A N D FU T U R E O F FL I G H T
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Boeing downs tools
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MARCH 2023
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Contents
Features
20
West Coast ’75
Following on from Richard Vandervord’s
images from the US east coast, Bob
Archer shares images from a visit to
the opposite side of America in the
same year
Regulars
45
World airshow calendar
Aviation News’
global guide to airshows,
fly-ins and events for 2023
24
No Quick Fix
The Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force
has spent the past 33 years searching
for an advanced jet trainer. Is it now
on the cusp of a breakthrough?
Babak Taghvaee reports
60
The aircraft that
changed the world
As the final Boeing 747 is delivered to Atlas
Air, Mark Broadbent considers the iconic
widebody’s place in aviation history
68
Stuck in the mud
Given the nature of its operations and the
nature it operates within, Mission Aviation
Fellowship often faces challenges alien
to other carriers. Robin Evans details the
recent recovery of a stranded Cessna 208B
Grand Caravan
30
From Hanley to Haneda
Staffordshire-based contributor Karl
Nixon shares images from a recent visit
to the Land of the Rising Sun in which
he visited Tokyo’s two largest airports:
Haneda and Narita
5
Headline news
6
Civil News
11
Military News
16
Preservation News
18
Business and General
Aviation News
82
Air Base Movements
83
Airport Movements
88
Register Review
92
At the fence
34
Preparing for
a gathering storm
AirX Charter chairman, John Matthews,
has his own way of doing things in the
business jet charter market, but predicts
an incredibly turbulent 2023
74
Transforming
US Army Aviation
The US Army is moving ahead with plans
to radically overhaul its rotary wing forces.
Tom Kaminski details the Future Vertical
Lift programme
Subscribe and Save...
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Aviation News
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94
Shaping the future at 40
Four decades after it rolled off Boeing’s
Renton production line, Honeywell
Aerospace’s 757-200 is the oldest example
of the type flying. Mark Broadbent talks to
Joe Duval, director of flight test operations
40
Space at a premium
What does Virgin Orbit’s recent launch
‘anomaly’ really mean for UK space?
Robin Evans reports
p40
We are happy to report that, at time of going to press, production and dispatch of our magazine is not affected by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Should this change, we will continue to update you as best
we can. Some postal services may be delayed. You can keep in touch with our latest updates and see what we are doing to keep distribution as normal as possible by visiting
www.keypublishing.com/FAQs`
WWW.AVIATION NEWS.CO.UK
3
Welcome
J
ust days before this issue of
Aviation News
was dispatched
to the printers, both Flybe and
Flyr announced that they were
suspending services with immediate
effect. In the days following Flybe’s
second collapse in less than three years,
its administrators cited late aircraft
deliveries rather than anything else as a
reason for its failure.
Yet, as fingertips collide with keyboard
in the writing of this editorial, 15 former
Flybe De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400s
remain in storage at Saarbrucken,
Maastricht, Niederrhein, Malta and
Exeter airports following the airline’s
first fall, suggesting that the carrier had
both plenty of choice and little need
to begin repainting incoming aircraft.
What is likely more telling of the airline’s
fortunes are the half-full passenger loads
reported by the CAA, and the two years
of lockdown during which rivals such as
Loganair, Eastern Airways, British Airways,
Blue Islands and KLM spent their time
cherry-picking popular and profitable
routes from the bones of Flybe’s once
bulging network.
Sadly, it’s unlikely that Flybe and Flyr
will be the only casualties of this winter
season as a slower-than-expected
post-COVID traffic rebound has hit the
balance sheets of airlines harder than
anticipated. This is evidenced by Flyr’s
bankruptcy, a Norwegian carrier that
boldly entered the highly competitive
Scandinavian market in the midst of the
pandemic and quickly signed up leases
for 12 737s split evenly between the
-800 and MAX 8 variants. Other start-
ups found opportunities in the crisis,
but it remains to be seen whether their
bubbles will also burst before too long.
Our interview with AirX Charter
chairman John Matthews (pages 34-38)
provides a timely counterpoint to the
airline industry’s increasing reliance on
leasing – which, as of 2021, accounted
for 10,000 aircraft and 51% of the
global fleet – as Matthews explains the
reasoning behind AirX Charter’s decision
to acquire older, fully depreciated and
even financially distressed airliners rather
than joining queues for brand new
Bombardiers, glistening Gulfstreams,
Praetors rolling off the production line or
factory fresh Falcons. His is a surprising
analogy, but the AirX boss makes a
very valid point: once you’ve started
leasing, it’s very difficult to stop – if not
impossible should there be shareholders
shouting to be showered in dividends at
the release of every quarter’s results.
Matthews also anticipates that the
business jet charter industry is going
face its own challenges over the coming
months, fearing that “the biggest
financial failure in the history of private
aviation” could be just around the corner.
Should he prove correct, I worry that,
unlike with airlines, such a failure will
have much wider-ranging implications
affecting other operators in the sector,
not to mention the livelihood of business
jet manufacturers.
It's easy to dismiss business aviation
for the collection of uninspiring,
anonymous, near-identical jets that it has
unleashed upon the world’s airports, but
2023 might be the year to pay special
attention to them.
Yours,
Martin Needham
Editor
Cover: AirTeamImages.com/Alvin Man
Below: Stuart Haigh
4
AVIATION NEWS MARCH 2023
HEADLINE NEWS
COMPILED BY MARTIN NEEDHAM
Flybe collapses
UK regional airline Flybe “ceased
trading” and cancelled flights to and
from the UK with immediate effect after
entering administration at the end
of January.
A brief statement posted on the
regional carrier’s website on January
28 confirmed the appointment of joint
administrators by the UK High Court
and said its flying programme “will
not be rescheduled.” It added: “If you
are due to fly with Flybe today or in
the future, please do not travel to the
airport unless you have arranged an
alternative flight with another airline.
Please note that Flybe is unfortunately
not able to arrange alternative flights
for passengers.”
Customers booked to travel with the
airline were advised to seek guidance
from the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority
(CAA). Paul Smith, consumer director
at the CAA, said: “It is always sad to
see an airline enter administration and
we know that Flybe’s decision to stop
trading will be distressing for all its
employees and customers.”
The collapse of Flybe 2.0, as the
airline has been widely dubbed, comes
barely nine months after its relaunch
and caps off a turbulent period for the
carrier. Once a household name with
an extensive domestic and regional
network, the new-look Flybe only
resumed operations in April 2022
following the acquisition of its business
assets by Thyme Opco, a company
linked to US hedge fund Cyrus Capital.
It had previously ceased flying in March
2020 amid long-running financial
difficulties despite a rumoured relaunch
as Connect Airways with involvement
from Virgin Atlantic.
At time of its failure, Birmingham-
based Flybe 2.0 was flying scheduled
services to ten domestic destinations
including Belfast, London/Heathrow,
Edinburgh, and Newcastle, together
with Amsterdam and Geneva, with a
fleet of eight De Havilland Canada Dash
8-400s. It had already revised its winter
programme, including the suspension
of its Belfast to Southampton route and
reduction of frequencies elsewhere,
amid capacity issues caused by further
delays in the delivery of its aircraft.
The relaunched carrier is likely to
have experienced an uphill struggle
in relaunching services, with many
of its most popular and profitable
routes having been snapped up by
competitors including Loganair, Eastern
Airways, Emerald Airlines, Blue Islands
and British Airways during the two years
between Flybe’s March 2020 collapse
and its April 2022 relaunch.
According to aviation data provider
Cirium, it was due to have operated
292 flights in the week following its
announcement that it had ceased
trading (January 30 – February 5),
equivalent to more than 22,700 seats.
AirTeamImages.com/Rolf Jonsen
WWW.AVIATION NEWS.CO.UK
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