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An Airbus A310 belonging to Yemenia, the state airline of the Arabian peninsula nation of Yemen, crashed early Tuesday morning off the coast of Comoros, an archipelago nation jetting into the stretch of sea between Mozambique and Madagascar, Reuters is reporting. All 150 passengers and crew aboard the plane are believed to be dead.

The flight, IY627, which had taken off from Paris Monday morning, making an intermediate stop in Sana’a, Yemen’s capital, before setting out for Moroni, the capital of Comoros. It is believed that the plane went down during its final descent. The control tower, it is reported, had received notification of the plane’s approach, but lost contact shortly thereafter. Search and rescue crews have been dispatched to comb an area of coastline between the airport and Ntsaoueni, a small village nearby. No survivors have been found as of yet.

Photo: A Yemenia Airbus A310, the same model of aircraft involved in today’s crash, is seen landing at London’s Heathrow Airport (Photo Copyright Paul Denton)

Boeing lost half of a 30-plane order for its 787 Dreamliner from Qantas Airways Ltd., formerly the model’s biggest airline customer, amid slumping demand for international travel. The carrier canceled 15 787-9 aircraft scheduled for delivery by 2015 and will delay taking another 15 787-8s by four years, Sydney-based Qantas said in a statement today. The changes weren’t influenced by Boeing’s announcement this week of a design issue with the planes, the airline said. The cancellation, valued at as much as $3.1 billion based on Boeing’s current list prices, follows the fifth delay of the 787, already two years behind schedule. Boeing has lost orders for 58 Dreamliners this year as carriers struggle with record declines in passenger traffic and the International Air Transport Association forecasts industry losses worldwide may total $9 billion in 2009.

Hundreds of passengers were stranded at the Caticlan Airport in the Philippines when operation was stopped because of a Zest Air plane that overshot the runway at 7:53 a.m. on Thursday. Zest Air Flight Z2-863, operated by 60-seat Xian MA60 turboprop RP-C8892, overshot the runway while landing and came to rest on the grassy portion of the field. There were no reported injuries among the passengers, comprising of 50 adults, four children and one infant.

Republic Airways Holdings said it is offering to buy Frontier Airlines for $108.8 million and take it out of bankruptcy. Indianapolis-based Republic supplied a $40 million debtor-in-possession loan to Frontier and held a $150 million unsecured claim, so it’s not a surprise that it is on track to buy the airline. The plan calls for Republic to own all the equity in the newly reorganized Frontier. Republic operates a regional airline under its own name as well as Chautauqua Airlines and Shuttle America. Denver-based Frontier, known for its planes with animals painted on the tails, flies from Denver to points around the U.S.

Separately, Republic said Wednesday it will buy Midwest Airlines for $31 million in cash and debt. Milwaukee-based Midwest has downsized sharply and flirted with bankruptcy since a private equity group, in partnership with Northwest Airlines, paid $452 million for the carrier in January 2008. Republic CEO Bryan Bedford promised to keep the Midwest name, add new flights and retain most Midwest employees, though some union pilots and flight attendants could see pay cuts.

Boeing has delayed the first flight of its 787 Dreamliner again, saying wing-bending tests showed a structural weakness where the wings join the body of the aircraft. It will be several weeks before the plane maker releases a new flight and delivery schedule, Scott Carson, head of Boeing’s commercial airplanes unit, said during a conference call Tuesday. Carson said fixing the aircraft won’t slow the 787 production line, as already-assembled aircraft can be modified with a number of small “hand-sized” parts that can be added wherever the planes are now in the assembly process. With more than 800 orders for the 787, Boeing expects in its initial production plan to finish two planes per month, and has said it may add a second production line to ramp up production in 2012.

Virgin Atlantic said Monday it has ordered 10 Airbus A330-300s worth $2.1 billion and expects to start taking deliveries in 2011. Speaking to reporters at London’s Heathrow Airport before the airline’s 25th birthday flight, Virgin Atlantic President Richard Branson said five of the planes will be delivered in 2011 and the rest are due in 2012. The new aircraft will allow Virgin Atlantic to fly to new destinations from London such as Beijing, Cancun and Vancouver. They are more fuel-efficient and have lower maintenance costs.

The 61-year-old Captain of a Continental Airlines flight from Brussels to Newark died as the flight made its Atlantic crossing, according to the FAA. Airline spokeswoman Kelly Cripe says the pilot died of natural causes, and that flight CO61 landed in Newark at 11:49 a.m. She says the flight continued safely with two other pilots at the controls.

Amid increasing scrutiny of smaller airlines in the wake of the February crash of a Colgan Air turboprop in Buffalo, New York, the FAA said it has ordered inspections of pilot-training efforts. Along with the Department of Transportation, the FAA has also scheduled a meeting to discuss airline safety. FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said he is working “to make sure that the entire industry – from large commercial carriers to smaller, regional operators – is meeting our safety standard.”

Pilot training standards at smaller “regional” airlines have been called into question since it was revealed that the crew aboard the doomed Colgan Air Bombardier Q400 never underwent certain stall recovery training, and that the Captain had failed multiple proficiency checks during his time at the airline.

Travelers have been offered a new experience this month with the launch of Airbus A380 flights to Bangkok, Thailand and Toronto, Canada by Emirates. The commencement of the new services from Dubai marks the first time that the A380 has been used on commercial flights to Bangkok and Toronto. Emirates said that the new flights - which will operate on a daily basis to Bangkok and three times a week to Toronto - mark “a new era of luxury air travel to Thailand and Canada.”

The global airline industry nearly doubled its forecast for losses this year to $9 billion Monday and warned the economic battering would continue for some time. The International Air Transport Association forecast was slightly better than the loss last year, but the association projected as recently as March that it would have a loss of $4.7 billion. The trade group also said it now expected revenue across the industry to fall 15 percent, to $448 billion this year — a much steeper decline than after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks in the United States.

Sales of first- and business-class tickets, in particular, have slumped as passengers have switched to economy class, depriving many carriers of a major source of revenue that is unlikely to return to pre-crisis levels any time soon.

The global industry’s projected $9 billion loss is a slight improvement over the $10.4 billion loss in 2008, when fuel bills swelled to $165 billion as oil prices soared. This year, I.A.T.A. expects airlines’ fuel bills to fall back to $106 billion, but warned that oil prices could be pushed up again as the global economy began to recover.

The head of British Airways, Willie Walsh, said Monday that he expects to win government approval this year for a deal with American Airlines that would allow the companies to cooperate on trans-Atlantic flights. The two carriers are seeking anti-trust immunity that would let them set prices and flight schedules together. Critics, including Virgin Atlantic owner Richard Branson, have argued the BA-AA deal will result in less competition and higher airfares between the US and Europe.

Though United Airlines announced last week it will buy up to 150 new jets as it replaces its wide-body fleet, the carrier says it has no plans to purchase Boeing 747s or Airbus A380s, the largest commercial aircraft in the sky. Instead, United tells the Chicago Sun-Times that it is studying smaller, twin-engine models such as the Boeing 777, which offer greater fuel efficiency.

Wreckage has been found in the Atlantic Ocean that could have come from a missing Air France jet that disappeared Monday with 228 passengers and crew on board, Brazilian aviation officials said Tuesday. Floating objects and seats were found 447 miles from Fernando de Noronha, an archipelago of 21 islands around 220 miles off the northeast coast of Brazil which lies near the flight path the airline said the jet would have followed from Rio de Janeiro to Paris.

The Airbus A330, carrying 228 people, encountered heavy turbulence early Monday, some three hours after it began the 11-hour flight from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Paris, France, according to Air France CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon. At that point, the plane’s automatic system initiated a four-minute series of messages to the company’s maintenance computers, indicating that “several pieces of aircraft equipment were at fault or had broken down,” he told reporters.

Photo: Air France A330-202 F-GZCP (msn 660) was the aircraft involved in the incident. (Photo Copyright Olivier Corneloup)

UPS is seeking $40 million in cost savings this year from its pilots, who are looking for alternatives to furloughs. The pilots union is considering leaves of absence, early retirements, reduced-pay-guarantee routes and job sharing, according to the company. Roughly 300 pilots could be furloughed, or idled, if UPS doesn’t get the savings it says it needs. That’s 10 percent of the 3,000 pilots represented by the union. The company said the severe downturn in the global economy has caused UPS package and freight volumes to decline.

A new low-cost airline will begin serving mid-sized U.S. cities that it thinks larger carriers have left behind. Clearwater-based JetAmerica said 34 nonstop passenger flights a week will start July 13 at Toledo, Ohio; South Bend, Ind.; Melbourne, Fla.; Newark, N.J.; Minneapolis and Lansing, Mich. Twenty-eight flights start or end at Newark Liberty International Airport. The carrier will add six more flights – from Toledo to Minneapolis – starting Aug. 14. The carrier is starting out with one leased Boeing 737-800, expects to add a second in the first month, and have as many as four by July of next year.

Australian carrier OzJet has ceased flying, stranding passengers in both Perth and Bali. OzJet has claimed it is due to problems with both the Civil Aviation Safety Authority and Indojet, however Perth Airport claims OzJet has mounting debts. Parent company HeavyLift has chosen to close the airline and sell the fleet of Boeing 737-200s.

Weak economic conditions will lead to a sharp seven percent drop in travel on U.S. airlines for the summer vacation season, an industry group said Friday. The Air Transport Association said this will translate into 14 million fewer passengers in the period from June 1 through Aug. 31, compared with last year. Some 195 million passengers are expected to fly this summer on U. S. airlines, down from 209 million during the summer of 2008. That will represent a seven percent drop in domestic travel and a six percent drop in international travel.

The first China-assembled Airbus A320 made a smooth landing at Tianjin Binhai International Airport Monday afternoon, becoming the first A320 assembled outside the Europe to make a successful test flight. The goal of Airbus (Tianjin) final assembly line is to deliver a total of 11 aircraft by the end of 2009 to China’s Hainan Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, and Shenzhen Airlines. The line is planning to produce 2 aircraft per month by the end of this year and reach the maximum production capacity of 4 aircraft per month by the end of 2011.

British Airways (London) will start nonstop service between its London-Heathrow (LHR) hub and Las Vegas on October 25. The daily flight will be operated by a 777-200ER configured with 274 seats, 24 of which will be “world traveler plus,” 36 business-class with seats that recline fully to 180 degrees and 214 economy class. British Airways will be the second UK carrier with direct, daily service to Las Vegas. Virgin Atlantic already makes the trip, but flies from the smaller Gatwick Airport in London.

Airbus said Wednesday that it cut its planned production of A380 superjumbo jetliners this year to 14 planes from 18, blaming the global economic crisis and its impact on airlines. Airbus said it plans to deliver “more than 20″ A380s next year. The A380, the world’s largest passenger plane, carries a catalog price of $327 million, but early customers received significant discounts, airline officials have said.