US government considers helping airlines fund NextGen equipage
US FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said that there are a number of ways to provide airlines with NextGen ATC equipment, including a loan.
President Barack Obama yesterday proposed redirecting some funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which had been aimed at assisting financial services companies that are returning to fiscal heath faster than anticipated, to stimulate jobs creation in part by investing in transportation infrastructure. Airlines have argued that aircraft equipment should be considered part of NextGen’s infrastructure cost (ATWOnline, Oct. 26), and American Airlines Chairman and CEO Gerard Arpey last week suggested that jobs could be created by allocating federal funds to equip aircraft with ADS-B.
FAA examines reliability of communications network
The Federal Aviation Administration formed a panel to study the reliability of the current communications network in light of a failure last month that snarled air traffic across the country.
The Nov. 19 episode — which resulted in delays of 819 flights and forced air traffic controllers to manually enter flight information into computers — was unacceptable, FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said in a statement. He said the agency needs to understand what happened so that it can prevent further incidents.
Aer Lingus a takeover threat unless costs cut
Christopher Mueller, new head of Aer Lingus, said that the airline is prime target of a takeover by Ryanair unless its employees agree to plans for sweeping cost cuts.
“If Aer Lingus isn’t capable of mastering its own destiny, then of course the likelihood that some form of non-independence might occur is more likely,” Christoph Mueller was reported as saying in the Financial Times’ Wednesday edition,
The newspaper said he answered “yes” when asked if this meant Ryanair, which has already made two unsuccessful bids for the airline.
(Photo: caribb/Flickr Creative Commons)
