Tag: Transportation

Categories
GeekWire

Indonesian airline wants to cancel 737 MAX order

Garuda 737 MAX
An artist’s conception shows a Garuda Airlines 737 MAX jet in flight. (Boeing Illustration)

Indonesia’s national airline, Garuda Indonesia, is saying it wants to cancel an order for 49 Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets, citing the effect of two catastrophic crashes on passenger confidence.

The order, announced in 2014, has a list-price value of roughly $6 billion. Only one of the 50 MAX jets ordered back then has been delivered to date.

In interviews with media outlets including Reuters, The Associated Press, The Washington Post, CNN, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, Garuda officials cited consumers’ low confidence in the 737 MAX in the wake of crashes that killed 189 people in Indonesia last October, and 157 people in Ethiopia this month.

“Many passengers told us they were afraid to get on a MAX 8,” Reuters quoted Garuda CEO Aria Askhara as saying.

Garuda’s request hints at the economic impact that the crashes could have going forward. Boeing’s 737 MAX jets have been grounded worldwide as the crash investigations continue.

Get the full story on GeekWire.

Categories
GeekWire

737 MAX certification process to be reviewed

737 MAX assembly
The first 737 MAX 8 plane undergoes final assembly at Boeing’s Renton plant in 2015. (Boeing Photo)

In the wake of two catastrophic crashes that may have had a common cause, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao today opened the way for an audit of the process that led the Federal Aviation Administration to certify Boeing’s 737 MAX 8 jets in 2017.

Because of the similarities between the two crashes, 737 MAX jets have been grounded worldwide. Boeing and the FAA are reportedly facing multiple investigations, including the audit announced today.

Chao formally requested the audit in a referral memo to the department’s Office of Inspector General.

Get the full story on GeekWire.

Categories
GeekWire

Ethiopian crash data points to suspect 737 system

Ethiopian memorial service
Ethiopian Airlines employees conduct a memorial service on March 15 to pay tribute to colleagues and passengers who lost their lives in the March 10 crash of a Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet. (Ethiopian Airlines Photo)

The latest word from the investigation of last week’s crash of an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet is that readings retrieved from the flight data recorder reportedly point to circumstances similar to those that surrounded a 737 MAX crash less than five months earlier in Indonesia.

Regulators around the world suspected as much, based on data received via satellite from the plane during its minutes-long flight from Addis Ababa heading for Kenya on March 10. That’s what led them to ground hundreds of 737 MAX 8 and MAX 9 planes last week.

Get the full story on GeekWire.

Categories
GeekWire

Tesla’s Elon Musk unveils Model Y crossover SUV

Elon Musk and Model Y
Tesla CEO Elon Musk checks out the newly unveiled Model Y. (Tesla via YouTube)

Tesla CEO Elon Musk finished spelling out an all-electric acronym by lifting the veil on the Model Y, a crossover SUV that’s due to hit the market in the fall of 2020.

“We are bringing ‘sexy’ back, quite literally,” he told hundreds of Tesla fans who gathered for the Hollywood-style unveiling at Tesla’s design studio in Hawthorne, Calif.

Musk didn’t quite literally lift a veil to reveal the new model. Instead, he built up the suspense by giving an “extended history lesson” about Tesla’s decade-long history of vehicle production, starting with the Tesla Roadster and moving on to the Model S, Model X, Model 3, the Semi truck and the remade Roadster.

Along the way, Musk explained the ins and outs of his naming convention, including the fact that he couldn’t use the name “Model E” because Ford had it trademarked.

“Ford killed SEX,” Musk joked.

As he described the vehicles, each model was driven into the spotlight. Finally it was the Model Y’s turn. Cheers and whoops went up from the crowd as a shiny blue car pulled into its place alongside the Model S, 3, X. Y completed the acronym.

Get the full story on GeekWire.

Categories
GeekWire

Las Vegas bets on Elon Musk’s Boring Company

Las Vegas Boring Company Loop
An artist’s conception shows a vehicle carrying passengers through a loop tunnel in Las Vegas. (Boring Company / LVCVA Illustration)

The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority’s board of directors today approved a recommendation to have the Boring Company build an underground express tunnel that could connect downtown Las Vegas, the city’s convention center and airport, and other points of interest.

It’s the latest roll of the dice for the tunneling company founded by tech titan Elon Musk a little more than two years ago.

The proposition hasn’t yet paid off: The LVCVA and the Boring Company still have to work out the specifics of the tunnel’s design, construction and operational plans. But today’s recommendation sets the stage for the 14-member board to approve a contract at a future meeting to be held by June.

Get the full story on GeekWire.

Categories
GeekWire

Regulators ground 737 MAX jets in Europe

Ethiopian Airlines 737 MAX
The first Boeing 737 MAX 8 jet delivered to Ethiopian Airlines takes off in July 2018. (Boeing Photo)

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has suspended all flight operations of Boeing 737 MAX jets in EU countries in the wake of March 10’s fatal plane crash in Ethiopia, even though the Federal Aviation Administration insisted the model was airworthy.

EASA said it issued its own airworthiness directive “as a precautionary measure,” and suspended all 737-8 and 737-9 flights into, out of or within the European Union.

The suspension follows this morning’s decision by the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority to suspend operations and ban 737 MAX jets from flying over British airspace until further notice.

Get the full story on GeekWire.

Categories
GeekWire

737 MAX jet crash kills 157 in Ethiopia

Ethiopian Airlines crash site
Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde GebreMariam visits the accident scene. (Ethiopian Airlines Photo via Twitter)

Airlines in China and three other countries have suspended flights of their Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets in light of March 10’s catastrophic crash in Ethiopia.

Ethiopian Airlines reported today that both of the “black boxes” from the 737-8 that crashed — the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder — have been recovered. However, The Associated Press quoted an unnamed airline official as saying that one of the recorders was partially damaged. “We will see what we can retrieve from it,” the official told AP.

The crash killed all 157 people aboard the plane, including at least 21 U.N. workers. Many of those workers were heading to an environmental conference in Nairobi, Kenya.

It was the second fatal accident involving the 737-8 model in less than five months. The earlier crash killed 189 people on a Lion Air flight in Indonesia.

Get the full story on GeekWire.

Categories
GeekWire

Boeing will offer biofuel for jet deliveries

Filling up Alaska Airlines jet with biofuel
Alaska Airlines says it will take a biofuel fill-up from Boeing when its 737 MAX jets are delivered. (Alaska Airlines Photo)

Boeing says it will begin offering airlines and operators the chance to have their jets powered by biofuel when they take off for their new homes, and Seattle-based Alaska Airlines is the first to sign up for the option.

The program was unveiled today, in the wake of this week’s first-ever Washington Sustainable Aviation Fuels Summit in Seattle. Boeing and Alaska Airlines were among the event’s sponsors.

Like the summit, Boeing’s new option is aimed at advancing the use of aviation biofuels, which studies have shown can reduce carbon emissions by up to 80 percent on a typical flight.

Get the full story on GeekWire.

Categories
GeekWire

It’s not easy being green when it comes to jet fuel

Biofuel fillup for Alaska Airlines
Swissport fuel manager Jarid Svraka fuels an Alaska Airlines flight powered with a 20 percent blend of biofuel made from wood waste at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in 2016. (Alaska Airlines Photo)

For years, the Port of Seattle has been talking about weaning Seattle-Tacoma International Airport off fossil fuels, but now it’s getting serious about taking action.

“At a certain point in time, you just have to say, ‘Well, let’s make a run for it,’ ” Port Commissioner Fred Felleman told GeekWire. “It can’t be just an intellectual pursuit.”

But it’s not totally up to the port: A new network of interlocking infrastructures will have to be created, connecting farmers with refiners, distributors and users.

That’s the motivation behind the Washington Sustainable Aviation Fuels Summit, set to take place on March 7-8 at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center in Seattle. The event, hosted by Earth Day Northwest 2020, is meant to bring together stakeholders who can get Sea-Tac closer to its goal of having at least 10 percent of its fuel come from sustainable sources by 2028.

Get the full story on GeekWire.

Categories
GeekWire

Kymeta boosts satellite links on the road in Peru

'SmartBus' buses in Peru
Kymeta installed flat-panel antennas shaped like white stop signs on top of TEPSA interprovincial buses in Peru. (Kymeta / Airbus Photo)

Kymeta Corp., the Redmond, Wash.-based company backed by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and other investors, has demonstrated the performance of its flat-panel satellite antennas in an unlikely setting: on top of buses traveling throughout Peru.

With the aid of partners including Intelsat, Cubic Telecom and Cradlepoint, Kymeta worked with Airbus to create a pilot project called SmartBus. The project involved outfitting interprovincial buses operated by TEPSA — the Peruvian analog to Greyhound Lines — with Kymeta’s satellite terminals.

SmartBus is designed to gather up-to-the-minute data on road safety and other indicators to improve Peru’s transportation system while connecting people in remote areas of the country.

The system leverages satellite bandwidth capacity from Intelsat, cellular coverage from Cubic Telecom and a software-defined WAN solution from Cradlepoint to establish real-time data connections along a 460-mile bus route through Peru.

Get the full story on GeekWire.