Saturday
Bye bye 757 - British Airways retired its last commercial Boeing 757 on Oct 30. Max Kingsley-Jones was on board the historic flight. Watch his video commemorating the history of this much-loved aircraft.
Sunday
Ink problems - Anticipated security measures from the Oct. 29 discovery of explosives shipped via air freight are expected to trigger new security measures and could dampen the rebound the sector has seen in recent months.
Robert Wall looks at the issues facing beleaguered Yemen and intelligence sharing.
Monday
In some rare good news this week Ryanair and Emirates saw increased profits. Ryanair made a €451 million net profit in the first six months while Emirates, having just celebrated its 25th anniversary, reached a $925-million net profit in the first six months of its fiscal year, representing a massive 351% year-on-year jump.
Meanwhile, bad news for All Nipon Airways. The airline became the latest international airline to plead guilty to price-fixing charges and has agreed to pay a $73 million criminal fine.
In other news, Airbus has been busy patenting various configurations for potential next-generation airliners. Graham Warwick investigates.
Tuesday
Traffic - Airports Council International came bearing good news for the commercial aviation sector. Passenger traffic at the world’s airports grew 9% year-on-year in September – the biggest monthly gain so far in 2010.
World cargo, a key indicator of the health of economic growth, is forecast to expand at an annual rate of 5.9% through 2029, according to Boeing’s annual forecast (the data was compiled before the new concerns have emerged about air freight security).
No ANA 787 delays - Boeing played down reports that a rising tide of rework is about to trigger another delay to the already lagging 787 delivery schedule (but there is more to that story, stay tuned...). Meanwhile, ZA006 was being prepared for another European tour.
Wednesday
Cargo security - Closer cooperation between governments and industry, as well as intelligence-based risk assessment, are key to future security initiatives. That’s the message that came from speakers at the IATA Avsec World 2010 conference in Frankfurt just days after two bombs found their way onto FedEx and UPS freighters.
Oberstar out - The U.S. mid-term elections saw long-serving House transportation leader James Oberstar (D-Minn.) loses his re-election bid by a narrow margin. Before Oberstar lost his seat, Adrian Schofield mulled over the ramifications for U.S aviation policy. After the election, Adrian went on to consider some of the things to watch out for in the House.
Thursday
Engine trouble - Qantas had to ground its fleet of A380 aircraft after the engine on an airborne A380 suffered an apparent uncontained failure. Max Kingsley-Jones gets in front of a camera to analyse the incident whilst Robert Wall discusses the early warning signs over the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engines. This incident could hardly have come at a worse time for the rattled Rolls-Royce, says Robert.
Friday
Aviation continues to dominate the headlines. An Aerocaribbean ATR-72-212 crashed in central Cuba, killing all 68 souls on board.
A chartered Beech 1900 carrying 21 passengers and crew crashed shortly after take-off at Pakistan’s Karachi airport leaving no survivors.
Qantas continues to keep its A380s grounded while it carries out checks on the Trent 900 engines. Max Kingsley-Jones gave us another video update.
And finally...the picture of the week. It could only be:
Happy weekend folks.