Airlines India, Indian Airlines

An order for six Dreamliners from Monarch Airlines highlighted an August during which Boeing sold 30 aircraft, a steep drop from the 90 ordered in August 2005 but higher than the 22 orders posted by competitor Airbus during the month.

In addition to the Monarch order, Boeing sold eight 737NGs to Shanghai Airlines and 10 to SpiceJet, including five dash 900ERs. Unidentified customers placed orders for two 737-800s and two 787-8s and Boeing Business Jet took one 787-8 and one 737-900BBJ.

In the first eight months of 2006, Boeing sold 561 aircraft, the largest single order coming from Southwest Airlines, which booked 79 737-700s in April (ATWOnline, April 21). It sold 619 aircraft from January through August 2005.

Airbus’s 22 August orders comprised seven A321s from US Airways, five A319s and five A330-200s from CIT Leasing, three A330-200s from ILFC, one A330-200 from Air Mauritius and one A320 from an unidentified customer. Through August, the manufacturer sold 222 aircraft.

Canadian police destroyed a suspicious package on Tuesday that was found on an Air India flight heading to England.

The airliner turned back to Toronto on Monday night after a passenger discovered the package in one of the plane’s washrooms and alerted the crew.

About an hour into the flight, the pilot radioed a request to fly back to Toronto.

“Our explosives disposal unit became involved, retrieved the package, examined it remotely, and then determined that it needed to be detonated,” said Pete Brandwood, spokesman for Peel Regional Police.

“The contents of the package are still under investigation.

Brandwood said the package “was something untoward, or uncommon, to be found in the bathroom of an airplane” but declined to describe it further. He said the bomb disposal squad were not sure what the object was, but destroyed it as a precautionary measure.

About 150 passengers spent the night at the infield terminal at Toronto’s Pearson airport to keep them secluded while police investigated and searched the plane, airport spokesman Scott Armstrong said.

“The event is virtually stood down, whatever security concerns there were have been eliminated,” he said.

The Monday evening flight, which was headed to Birmingham was cancelled and passengers were being taken to area hotels on Tuesday afternoon.

Last week, a Dubai-bound Air India flight was diverted to a military airbase due to an erroneous alert issued by Indian aviation authorities.

In 1985, Air India Flight 182 was destroyed in a bomb attack during a flight from Canada to India, killing 329 people in history’s deadliest bombing of a passenger airline. A near simultaneous attack on a second Air India flight killed two Tokyo airport workers.

DRS Technologies Inc. said Wednesday that it delivered its first production Remote Aerial Refueling Operators Station (RARO) II console to Boeing Co. to support new military airlift and refueling aircraft requirements.

Boeing will use the console on its KC-767 Global Tanker aircraft. Work was performed by the company’s DRS Laurel Technologies unit in Johnstown, Pa., for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. Additional systems are expected to be delivered later this year and in 2007.
The Boeing KC-767 Tanker is designed for both refueling and freight and passenger transport. The RARO console, positioned behind the aircraft’s cockpit, allows the refueling operator to position the boom for fuel transfer operations by a remote-vision system and to maintain continual visual contact with all aircraft in the area under any weather conditions.

Chicago-based Boeing Co.’s (NYSE: BA) Integrated Defense Systems unit, its largest subsidiary, is based in St. Louis and is the area’s second-largest employer.

DRS Laurel Technologies is an electronics maker that provides contract manufacturing and engineering services to U.S. Department of Defense prime contractors.

Engineered Support Systems Inc. became the Sustainment Systems & Services Group of Parsippany, N.J.-based DRS Technologies (NYSE: DRS) when DRS bought ESSI in a deal that closed in January. The St. Louis-based group engineers and manufactures military electronics and support equipment.

Boeing will be docked an undetermined amount in performance-based fees by the Air Force for cost overruns of at least $266 million and three years of delays on a Global Positioning System satellite contract, according to the program manager.

Boeing has exceeded its original $215.8 million development contract by about $80 million, or 37 percent, and its $195 million initial production contract by $186 million, or about 95 percent, Colonel Wesley Ballenger said Wednesday.

“It is a large overrun and we take that seriously,” Ballenger said. “The government is clearly holding Boeing accountable.” Air Force Under Secretary Ronald Sega also has communicated that message to Boeing, Ballenger said.

While the Air Force will have to pay for the overruns on the GPS satellite program because they occurred under so-called cost-reimbursable contracts, Boeing will lose award fees for failing to meet performance criteria, Ballenger said. The exact amount hasn’t been determined yet, he said.

Boeing, the second-biggest U.S. defense company, has contracts totaling about $2.5 billion to build the first 12 GPS IIF satellites and the ground stations that control the platform, Ballenger said. The satellites, which are used for civilian and military navigation, are being developed at Boeing’s El Segundo, Calif., facility.

Boeing spokeswoman Diana Ball declined to comment Wednesday on the potential award-fee reductions, instead repeating an earlier statement that the company “has taken aggressive steps to resolve technical issues on GPS IIF, issues that were not atypical for advanced spacecraft development projects.”

Boeing’s first GPS IIF satellite will be delayed almost three years from the original June 2005 date it was to have been available for the Air Force to launch, Ballenger said. The Air Force now anticipates the new date under the best scenario is May 2008, with January 2009 as the worst case, he said.

The Air Force said Tuesday that the first satellite is about 16 months late from a revised first launch date of January 2007 — not the date it was expected to be available.

“We track when a satellite will be available for launch,” such as when all testing is complete, Ballenger said. Against this benchmark, Boeing is at least three years late, he said.

The delays on the satellite program stem from “the complexity designing a new integrated circuit,” the “magnitude of the effort required for assembly, integration and testing,” and late deliveries of navigation hardware by subcontractor ITT, the Air Force said in a statement Tuesday.

The service said “management organization issues” also were to blame for the lapses.

“Boeing stepped up and made specific changes in program management and laid in a new program plan,” Ballenger said. “I am satisfied with the renewed senior management commitment to get the IIF program back on track. We’ve had a lot of dialogue.”

Boeing’s past performance will be scrutinized by the Pentagon during an upcoming competition for the GPS III program, Ballenger said. The first launch of the GPS III satellite is scheduled for 2013, he said.

There are 28 GPS satellites orbiting the earth, Ballenger said. The new IIF Boeing satellites will contain an extra channel for improved civilian accuracy.

Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, parent of US cargo carriers Atlas Air and Polar Air Cargo, is poised to conclude a deal for up to 12 Boeing 747-8 Freighters as it begins a major fleet-renewal programme.

The company confirms that it expects to announce a deal shortly for next-generation freighters, but declines to identify the aircraft selected. However, according to industry sources, the all-747 operator has selected the 747-8F and is in final negotiations for a 12-aircraft order. “We can’t comment on speculation like that,” says the airline. Boeing declines to comment.

In a statement accompanying Atlas’s financial results for the three months ending on 30 June, president and chief executive William Flynn says: “We believe that we will provide a more compelling value proposition to our customers with leading-edge freighter aircraft that possess better reliability, range, capacity and fuel efficiency, and improve our commercial-risk profile.”

According to Flight’s ACAS database, Atlas Air and Polar operate 38 747s between them, comprising 21 747 Classics and 17 747-400s. Under the fleet restructuring plan, Atlas Air and Polar have phased out seven older 747s, says Flynn. “Our next step will be a significant investment in next-generation freighter technology, which we hope to announce shortly,” he adds.

Meanwhile, specialist freighter lessor Guggenheim Aviation Partners is understood to be considering a deal with Boeing for a package of 747-8Fs and 777 Freighters, as well as an order for Airbus A330-200 Freighters. The company declines to comment.