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A Chinese airline has promised to brush up on the language skills of its employees after a flight took off from a Japanese airport without clearance, apparently because the pilot could not speak enough English to understand the instructions that he was given by air traffic control.

The incident is the latest in a string of mishaps that have raised serious questions over pilot training in the booming Asian aviation market.

According to the International Civil Aviation Organisation, Asia will be short of about 9,000 pilots per year in the next decade. There is enough capacity to train 5,000 pilots but 14,000 will be needed every year. In total, the ICAO predicts that Asia will need 229,676 pilots over the next 20 years – a significant increase from the total of 50,344 in 2010.

source: theaustralian.com.au

Airline Regional Express (Rex) has confirmed a passenger’s iPhone started glowing red and emitted smoke on a flight from Lismore to Sydney last Friday.

The airline says the flight had landed in Sydney when the phone started emitting a “‘significant amount of dense smoke, accompanied by a red glow'”.

A flight attendant was able to extinguish the glow and no passengers on board were injured.

source: abc.net.au

US Airways has revealed plans to offer in-flight Wi-Fi across its entire domestic fleet “‘within the next couple of years'”, and said it is likely to announce its choice of provider – either Gogo or Row 44 – before the end of 2011.

For about a year-and-a-half the carrier has offered Gogo’s domestic air-to-ground (ATG)-supported connectivity service on its 51-strong Airbus A321 fleet. It recently confirmed its intent to fit new-delivery Airbus narrowbodies with Gogo.

source: flightglobal.com

Astraeus Airlines, which is based in Crawley, Sussex, announced it had ceased operations.

The company, which leased aeroplanes to other carriers, had singer Bruce Dickinson on its books as a pilot and marketing director.

Chief executive Hugh Parry blamed “‘lower than expected'” business during the summer for the decision.

source: BBC.co.uk

British airline passengers were forced to stage a giant whip-round and hand over £20,000 in cash after being ‘’held to ransom” by their airline.

More than 180 were left stranded on their Boeing 757 when cabin crew announced during a refuelling stop that the Austrian carrier Comtel Air had ‘’run out of money”.

The plane from Amritsar, in India, was on a stopover at Vienna en route to Birmingham. Passengers were told that the flight would continue only if 23,400 euros (£20,005) was handed over. Otherwise they and their luggage would be removed from the aircraft.

Police were called in when they refused to get off. A six-hour stand-off ended only when passengers were escorted to cashpoint machines. These eventually ran out of money and many of those on board had no funds anyway.

source: dailymail.co.uk

Beset by high fuel costs and the uncertainty of European regulatory hurdles, the global profit forecast for the airline industry looks particularly grim next year, the head of the international airline trade association said Wednesday in Washington.

The world’s airlines will make less than a 1 percent profit in 2012, down from a projected 1.2 percent margin this year and 2.9 percent in 2010.

“‘The high price of oil and an anemic economic outlook are the biggest issues,’” Tyler said. “‘If we are right about 2012, it will mean that airlines, since 2001, lost $25 billion on $5.5 trillion in revenues.’”

source: washingtonpost.com

Fares are due to be released next week for a new all premium class service between Gatwick and Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Airlines plans daily flights with a dedicated fleet of three new Airbus A330-200s with an all business class seating configuration in two classes – ‘Club Premier’ and ‘Club Classic’.

The arrival of Hong Kong Airlines next year follows Air Asia X switching its Kuala Lumpur service from Stansted to Gatwick and Vietnam Airlines launching a direct service to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City on December 9.

source: travelweekly.co.uk

U.S. airlines received more bad news: Fewer people are expected to fly this Thanksgiving.

The ‘Air Transport Association of America’ forecasts that about 2% fewer people will fly during the 12 days surrounding the holiday, a drop of 440,000 from 23.6 million Thanksgiving passengers last year. But airplanes will still be packed, the trade association says, because airlines are selling fewer seats to save money.

An airline industry at the brink of profitability will welcome the holiday boost. In the first nine months of 2011, 10 of the nation’s largest carriers earned $913 million, or 66% less than the same period last year, the ATA said.

source: wsj.com

The total revenue airlines receive from “‘extras'” such as baggage charges, in-flight meals and car hire is expected to rise by 44 per cent this year.

A study by Amadeus, a travel technology provider, predicted that “‘ancillary’” revenue for airlines around the world will total more than £20 billion in 2011, up from just over £14 billion last year, and less than £10 billion in 2009.

source: Telegraph.co.uk

U.S. plane maker Boeing Co predicted more sales cancellations for its delayed Dreamliner 787, after a Chinese airline scrapped 24 orders, but said the overall order book for the new long-range aircraft remained strong.

A day after news of China Eastern’s cancellations, a Boeing executive said some orders would fall through as it adjusted delivery dates and that the pace of production of the fuel-efficient aircraft would pick up.

Analysts said other Chinese airlines might also now decide to cancel Dreamliners as they re-assess the long-haul market.

source: Reuters