Travel Safety & Security Update.

For more safety & security data and analysis, please go to: http://www.airguideonline.com/professional.htm May 15, 2006

FAA says thunderstorms could affect summer travel. Federal Aviation Administration officials said severe thunderstorms could affect summer travel. In the past, the FAA has dealt with poor weather by keeping planes at small airports on the ground while large airports clear away backed up traffic. "It's a plan and an approach that for the last two years has worked well with big airports and I think we're going to see us expanding that," FAA Administrator Marion Blakey said. May 12, 2006

Blakey justifies FAA budget. FAA Administrator Marion Blakey recently testified before the U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, defending her FAA fiscal 2007 budget. Blakey said the agency needs "a stable and predictable funding system that provides appropriate incentives to users and to the FAA to operate more efficiently." May 11, 2006

Banned items make their way to Internet auction. Security screeners collect about 7,000 banned objects each week at New York's LaGuardia Airport. Most confiscated items go to the Bureau of Supplies and Surplus Operations in Pennsylvania where they are sorted and then sold on an Internet auction. May 10, 2006

FAA, controllers dispute contract impact on retirements. Some air traffic controllers believe many controllers will retire if the Federal Aviation Administration is allowed to impose a cost-cutting contract on June 5. FAA officials say nothing suggests that a wave of workers would retire at once. May 9, 2006

Airbus

Airbus A320, A321 and A319 were given 180-min. ETOPS approval by US FAA yesterday, two years after the same approval was granted by EASA. May 10, 2006

Armavia, Airbus, Sabena Technics 

Armavia has tragically now lost a second aircraft following the crash of an Airbus A320 on 'finals' for the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, as reported last week. This time thankfully nobody has been killed but a fire at the Sabena Technics Hangar 40 at Brussels Airport destroyed an Airbus A320 under maintenance and a Belgian Air Force Lockheed C130. Armavia is known to be frantically searching around for replacements. http://www.armavia.aero May 14, 2006

Sabena Technics hangar at Brussels Airport was destroyed Friday by a heavy fire that damaged three A320s plus a C-130 belonging to the Belgian Air Force that were in the shop for heavy maintenance. One A320 belonged to Armenian airline Armavia, which lost another A320 two days earlier when it crashed into the Black Sea. Additional A320s reportedly were owned by an Armenian entrepreneur and Hellas Jet, which was operating them with Volare titles. "All four aircraft that were in hangar 40, which is used only for heavy maintenance, are very badly damaged," Sabena Technics spokesperson Carla Daniels confirmed. The MRO provider's offices also were located in the hangar. Authorities launched an investigation into the cause. "We don't exclude anything, but we do not suspect at this moment any malicious intent," Daniels said. Sabena Technics employs some 1,200 people at BRU and had revenue of [euro]120 million ($151.6 million) last year. May 8, 2006

United 93

United 93 goes on general release in the UK on Friday June 2 after opening in the US. The film tells the story of the fourth hijacked plane on the day of the worst terrorist attacks on American soil. Already highly acclaimed by critics United 93 dignifies the memory of those on that flight, the men and women who tried to stand up to the most cowardly and inhuman of attacks, it remains one of the most heroic legacies of the tragedies that unfolded on that autumn morning. Your editor did not see the previews although invited. http://www.united93movie.com May 14, 2006