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Global aviation industry news

Porter Airlines extends flight suspension until at least February 2021

November 9, 2020


Air Canada reports $685M loss in third quarter amid COVID-19 pandemic


I wonder if Porter will be able to survive this, same with West Jet and Sunwing.

Porter deals primarily with regional flights and they are not exactly equipped financially for a long term closure where people are not flying. One of their key sectors is business travel (i.e. people going across Canada for work purposes) and to visit family in places like the Maritimes and Thunder Bay. Both the business and family sectors are a no-go right now.

West Jet is likely also hemorrhaging cash at this point. They deal with travel to the US and UK along with domestic travel. With the US and UK having a major uptick in virus counts I cannot see them surviving an extended closure.

Sunwings primary business is vacations in the sun. With the winter coming up, travel restricted and resorts closed they probably won't survive the winter. They need the winter travel season as it makes up a large chunk of their business.

Air Transat may survive this somewhat smaller but alive... They deal with european travel that people will be doing more of year round once covid restrictions ease up. They go places where people will go in the summer, spring and fall unlike Sunwing which as I saId will be missing out on their key travel season this year.

Air Canada is too important to fail. Unlike Canadair, Wardair, Canada 3000, CP Air, etc.. Canada needs a national carrier and that is Air Canada. I can see the government bailing them out at all costs even if that means nationalising it.
 
Air Canada is too important to fail. Unlike Canadair, Wardair, Canada 3000, CP Air, etc.. Canada needs a national carrier and that is Air Canada. I can see the government bailing them out at all costs even if that means nationalising it.
Funnily enough, Air Canada was a crown corporation before Brian Mulroney was prime minister and privatized it.
 
Funnily enough, Air Canada was a crown corporation before Brian Mulroney was prime minister and privatized it.

Some things should remain a crown corp and one of those is Air Canada. I am hoping that Marc Garneau gives them an ultimatum of play ball or we will take your balls from you.
 
Porter Airlines extends flight suspension until at least February 2021

November 9, 2020


Air Canada reports $685M loss in third quarter amid COVID-19 pandemic


I wonder if Porter winds up collapsing if that will then make Billy Bishop irrelevant, which would in turn provide an opportunity to reclaim that huge part of the island for the city...
 
Some things should remain a crown corp and one of those is Air Canada. I am hoping that Marc Garneau gives them an ultimatum of play ball or we will take your balls from you.
Air Canada was a disaster when it was a crown corp. I'm not convinced that we are better off with it being nationalized. It may become necessary.
 
I wonder if Porter winds up collapsing if that will then make Billy Bishop irrelevant, which would in turn provide an opportunity to reclaim that huge part of the island for the city...
That would be awesome. BB is a waste of space, and is rendered irrelevant with decent transit connections to Pearson.
 
Sunwings primary business is vacations in the sun. With the winter coming up, travel restricted and resorts closed they probably won't survive the winter. They need the winter travel season as it makes up a large chunk of their business.

There is a lot of destinations that are open even during COVID and they still have the American market. Traveling isn't banned, and the demand for their routes will return almost immediately when COVID is over. I suspect that they will survive, and 2020-2021 is just a bad two years on their balance sheet.
 
It will be interesting to see if/how quickly other national authorities follow suit. Many, included Canada, soured on the FAA's initial approval 'rubber stamp' certification. Once burned, twice shy.
I‘d be fine flying on a 737 Max. First of all, no first world airline has had an accident, and investigations I’ve seen put part of the blame on third world pilot mills churning out untrained crews unaware that when your auto trim goes haywire that you simply disengage it. Secondly, no other aircraft since perhaps the DC-10 will have now undergone such review and approvals.


“We’re concentrating completely on the wrong thing, here,” Graves said. “We’re looking at equipment and equipment failures. You can have that in any aircraft. What I want to concentrate on are the pilots. Why didn’t they just disengage the system and fly the plane?”
 
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I‘d be fine flying on a 737 Max. First of all, no first world airline has had an accident, and investigations I’ve seen put part of the blame on third world pilot mills churning out untrained crews unaware that when your auto trim goes haywire that you simply disengage it. Secondly, no other aircraft since perhaps the DC-10 will have now undergone such review and approvals.


“We’re concentrating completely on the wrong thing, here,” Graves said. “We’re looking at equipment and equipment failures. You can have that in any aircraft. What I want to concentrate on are the pilots. Why didn’t they just disengage the system and fly the plane?”

Once flying actually takes off again (see what I did there) I think you are largely correct. Some will/do care what they fly on, some don't and some wouldn't know the difference between a 737Max and a Sopwith Camel. It may be somewhat like the Covid vaccine where some have stated they will gladly let others go first.

I'm not sure how easy or hard it was to simply turn MCAS off. One key problem was the instability presented itself during takeoff/climbout which is a vulnerable and busy phase. There have been several incident reports in Canada and elsewhere citing pilots' inability to simply take charge and 'fly the damned plane' and how little actual hands-on maneuvering commercial pilots do these days. To take control often means disabling one or several systems so they don't fight you. Having said all that, I suspect major airline pilots will be on top of their game when it starts flying again.

 
I'm not sure how easy or hard it was to simply turn MCAS off.
Dead simply apparently.

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Dead simply apparently.

I'm probably the last person able to discuss this intelligently but there are a number of posted analyses that outline that selecting the 'tab trim cutout' actually disables the yoke controls, and re-establishing trim manually (wheel+cable) might not be physically possible. Turning off the auto pilot ('fly the damned plane') apparently would work but a low altitude instability/stall gives you seconds.

Anyway - we shall see. I doubt other nations will fall in lockstep with the FAA like they did in the past and simulator time will go way up once they do.
 
I'm probably the last person able to discuss this intelligently but there are a number of posted analyses that outline that selecting the 'tab trim cutout' actually disables the yoke controls, and re-establishing trim manually (wheel+cable) might not be physically possible.
You’re consistent with what I’ve read. The reason auto trim exists in large airliners is that once pointed down or up past a certain degree there is no returning, you’re either in an unrecoverable dive or flat spin stall. If you’re going to override MCAS, you need to recognize the issue and do it before you pass the point of no return.
 
My understanding is that the 747max is the worst kind of engineering and design flaw: using sensors and automation to correct fundamental design errors created by cutting costs. It’s like making a computer run too hot so it catches fire and instead of fixing that plugging in a supplementary fan to cool it regulated by a software patch because it saves 50 cents.

A commercial airliner should be made so easy to fly that an 8-year old could land it safely on their first try. Any automation and sensors should serve that function and that function alone.
 

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