Sky Talk

Lockheed pitching naval F-35 models to India

It will be several years before the U.S. Marines or the Navy has a truly, go-to-war ready squadrons of F-35 joint strike fighters but Lockheed Martin is already courting India's weapons buyers.

Even as he's been trying (for several years now) to tie up an Indian Air Force order for 126 F-16s, Lockheed's Orville Prins tells an Indian paper the company is already providing the government information on both the F-35B and C models.

The F-35B is the short-takeoff-vertical-landing model being developed for the Marines, Britain's Royal Navy and Air Force and Italy. The F-35C is the carrier version for the U.S. Navy.

- Bob Cox

American to upgrade 737 interiors

American Airlines said today it has begun flying the second of its existing 737-800 aircraft to undergo a full cabin renovation, which the airline plans to perform on all 76 of its existing aircraft.

The cabin upgrades include more spacious and comfortable seats for both first class and economy passengers, bigger overhead storage bins, updated in-flight entertainment systems and AC power ports for computers and other passenger electronic systems.

The cabin upgrades will bring the fleet of existing 737s to the same standards as the 84 new Boeing jets the airline is scheduled to receive through 2011.

American claims the new seating arrangements will allow it to add 12 more economy seats per aircraft.

- Bob Cox

F-35 capabilities needed, defended

Aviation Week's Ares blog points out an article written by air power experts that argues for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the capabilities it will have, contrary to many critics who say its vastly over priced and the job can be done just as well newer versions of old planes like the F-16 and F-18.

The article is in the Royal United Services Institute's journal Air Power: It says the budget and cost discussions aren't the main issues to consider about the F-35.

Of greater concern to many is the overall strategic utility of airpower and of the F-35 in particular. Since the F-35 programme’s inception, the role of airpower in militaryoperations has gone through enormous transitions. Giventhe number of unmanned aircraft and older fighters at workin Afghanistan today, it is fair to ask if the F-35’s design to bring stealth and sensor fusion to heavily defended airspaceis still a requirement. Answering this question calls for a wider look at global air defence arsenals and at the futurerequirements for air and land integration.

The article seems to buy into the DoD/Lockheed Martin school of thinking that the technology aboard the aircraft is just as or more important than the aircraft itself.

The F-35 is quite a bit more than a supersonic stealth aircraft. The F-35 is a watershed in combat aircraft design, carrying so many sensor and weapons capabilities that it is erasing
old platform-driven distinctions between fighters, bombers and surveillance airframes. Deliberate design choices and technology investment have combined many capabilities
in one platform. US Lieutenant General David A. Deptula, Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance for Headquarters US Air Force, recently
described how technology is “blurring traditional lines to the point where we are now able to integrate a sensor-processordistributor-kinetic-non-kinetic-shooter-penetrator all on one
aircraft”. In fact, the one aircraft that can do that is the F-35.

It's interesting reading.

- Bob Cox

Pakistan gets first new F-16s

Pakistan has received the first three of its new Block 52 F-16 fighter jets from the U.S. and Lockheed Martin.

A U.S. general told Bloomberg the new jets would give the Pakistanis a decided edge over the Taliban, because of their night time and all-weather precision targeting capabilities.

 “Terrorists can operate at night with impunity but we have had virtually no air cover at night,” Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington, said in an interview.

- Bob Cox

Sen. Levin doubts veto over second JSF engine

Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee told reporters today he doubts that President Obama would veto a defense bill that included continued funding for the F136 engine, the alternate engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program being developed by General Electric and Rolls Royce.

Levin's remarks are covered by DoD Buzz. For several years now the Pentagon, to save funds for other programs and with the tacit and even overt support of Pratt & Whitney, has tried to kill funding for the F136. The Pentagon says the second engine is unnecessary and costly, but the GAO and others have said there are potential future cost savings from having two engines.

Congress has repeatedly spurned Pentagon wishes and provided funding to continue F136 development, along with the Pratt & Whitney F135.

As many people familiar with the history of the F-16 program will recall, there were many problems with the performance and reliability of that plane's Pratt engine that didn't get improved until a contract for a second engine was awarded to General Electric. That story is well documented in the book: The Great Engine War.

- Bob Cox

A mandatory vacation for SkyTalk

So SkyTalk is going on a little vacation, well, at least, I am.

Starting Monday June 28, I will be on a one-week mandatory furlough as part of a cost-savings initiative at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. That means, no checking e-mails, voicemails, writing tweets and more importantly, no blogging on SkyTalk.

My colleague Bob Cox who posts about military aviation and aerospace stuff on SkyTalk will be keeping an eye on the airlines for me as the only interaction I will have with commercial planes next week is watching American jets fly over my house to the Alliance maintenance facility. But if there are any questions or breaking news in airlines that you want the Star-Telegram to know about, contact business editor Jim Fuquay at 817-390-7552.

And since my furlough week flows into the 4th of July weekend, that means I won't be back on SkyTalk until July 6.

So Happy Independence Day, SkyTalk readers and safe holiday weekend travels.

-Andrea Ahles

ST columnist: Good riddance, APA president Lloyd Hill

Star-Telegram columnist Mitchell Schnurman is more than happy to say goodbye to Allied Pilots Association president Lloyd Hill.

Schnurman says that Hill's three years as leader of the American Airlines pilots' union were ineffectual and his overly aggressive tactics have kept pilots contract talks at a standstill.

"Lloyd Hill’s tenure as APA president has a few days to run, but his reign of rage has been repudiated. Hill didn’t run for re-election, and all the finalist candidates essentially ran against him, pledging to end the chaos, the internal turmoil, the ineffective battling with management and the APA board — their words, not mine," Schnurman says.

Here's Schnurman's full column in Sunday's Star-Telegram.

-Andrea Ahles

Does AMR want Eagle to fly the coup?

New routes, new first class seats and a new chief executive all have come to American Eagle this year.

But is the regional carrier for American Airlines ready to fly on its own?

And if it is, can its parent company, Fort Worth-based AMR Corp., find anyone interested in buying an airline with 260 planes that generates around $2.1 billion in revenues?

Last month, AMR chief financial officer Tom Horton said the company believes it makes sense for American Eagle to eventually be separate from American and will consider such a move in "a more sensible market environment." A spin-off, public offering or even an outright sale all have been on the table for Eagle in the past.

In the meantime, the carrier has added over a dozen new flights at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport in the past year and has been adding back capacity, particularly to Mexico, that it had dropped during the economic recession. And this summer, American Eagle will begin offering first-class seats on some of its regional jets for the first time

"I don’t think I’m looking for any immediate upheaval in what Eagle’s been doing," said its chief executive, Dan Garton, who was named to the position this month. "It’s focused on providing feed to American Airlines."

Here's the full story about Eagle that appears in Sunday's Star-Telegram.

-Andrea Ahles

$5 million incentives to foreign carriers and other goodies from the D/FW Airport board retreat

How do you get an airline, especially a foreign carrier, to fly to your airport?

If you’re Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, you dangle $3 million to $5 million in front of them.

"When an airline is looking at markets to enter, we’re usually 1 of 5," airport executive vice president Joe Lopano told airport board members at their annual retreat on Thursday. "And they’ll look at, ‘We can fly to Johannesburg, or we can fly to D/FW with $5 million."

With its incentive program, Lopano said the airport is able to get international carriers to consider routes. The airport hopes to add 10 new international routes in the next three to five years and has been promoting the airport at airline conferences in Europe and China.

"We need to build awareness and target opportunities and get our story out where it makes sense on who we think should fly to this market," Lopano said.

New routes to China, Sydney, Hong Kong, Barcelona, Munich, Rome and Manchester, England, are all on the radar, he said.

Here's the full story about the retreat that appeared in the Star-Telegram on Friday.

And a few items that didn't make it into the story:

-The airport wants to get JetBlue to fly here and is currently trying to convince the low-cost carrier to start service to Boston from here.

-American Eagle would like D/FW Airport to install the auto-docking system at Terminal B. The system, which helps pilots park an aircraft at the gate without the assistance of ground crew, is already in place at terminals where American Airlines parks its planes but not at Eagle's terminal.

-To help pay debt servicing costs, the airport is negotiating a new use agreement with its carriers that would increase the airlines' cost per enplanement from $7.40 in 2011 to $12.01 in 2020. Because debt service will grow from $98 million in 2011 to $233 million in 2020, the airport is also focusing on growing concession and parking revenues.

-Sixty percent of customers who are flying out of D/FW Airport get dropped off and don't park at the airport. When the airport surveyed these customers, 74 percent said that price was not an issue. Convenience, however, was a major factor. The new automated pay parking system that the airport is planning to install will also allow the airport to have tiered pricing. For example, terminal parking is currently $17 a day regardless of how long a customer parks there. With the new system, the airport could charge $17 a day for less than 5 days but for those parked there over 5 days, the charge could be $10 a day.

-Andrea Ahles

American flight attendants set run-off for treasurer position; don't expect negotiations to start again until mid-August

In its weekly update to American Airlines flight attendants, the union announced the results of its treasurer position election which has led to a run-off.

Steven Baumert received 1289 votes while Michael Parker received 1142 votes in second place. Alexis Boilini, Samuel Morales and Rodney McGinn garnered 972, 395 and 199 votes respectively. Since no candidate received more than 50 percent of the vote a run-off has been set between Baumert and Parker.

Ballots are due back on Monday, August 2.

The Association of Professional Flight Attendants also said that it does not expect federal mediators to make any decisions on its negotiations with American until mid-August after the Transport Workers Union - which has a couple of tentative agreements with the carrier - have voted on those agreements.

-Andrea Ahles