Six years of often acrimonious and always vigorous public debate, the UK government approved construction of a £9 billion third runway and sixth terminal at London Heathrow. But the government also imposed stricter environmental targets and rejected the introduction of mixed-mode operations (landings and takeoffs on the same runway) on the existing runways as an interim measure to ease chronic congestion. “Heathrow is vital to our economy. But for too long it has operated at full … [Read more...] about Third Heathrow runway gets green light

That day, was 1 February, from which point the US’ controversial cargo screening programme for cargo carried on passenger aircraft kicked in. In actual fact it began earlier in October from which point the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) required that 100 per cent of cargo carried on narrow-body aircraft be screened. But this has been described as “low hanging fruit” because the volumes were relatively small. Freight forwarders and carriers have been living in … [Read more...] about The day has finally arrived

You could be forgiven for thinking that Airbus hasn’t attached much priority to the development of its freighter product offering. The decadeslong dominance of the DC10, MD11 and B747 have formed the highly visible backbone of the air cargo industry. And aside from the now discontinued A300-600 freighter newbuild programme, most of Airbus’ freighter offerings were via the conversion route. But this will all soon be history once Airbus’ new A330-200F rolls off the production … [Read more...] about Airbus pins freighter hopes on new A330-200F