No, this A320 isn’t parked. It’s taxiing without the engines running. Check out the video after the break.
Photo: Benoà®t Vallet/Safran
Airlines are doing everything they can to reduce their fuel costs. You may have taken an airline flight recently where the crew taxied to or from the runway on one engine. Or you’ve noticed that the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) isn’t running when a plane is at the gate. Sometimes, if possible, instead of running the APU the plane can be plugged into “ground power,” getting it’s juice through a big extension cord from the terminal.
Airlines are also playing with new approach procedures that smooth out the descent and path to the runway, allowing crews to bring the power back to near-idle thrust and pretty well glide most of the way to the threshold and saving on fuel. The goal is to try and do anything to save fuel while keeping passengers safe.
Honeywell and Paris-based Safran Groupe have come up with some nifty new technology that could save airlines hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in fuel costs for each aircraft. It’s called the “Electric Green Taxi System” or EGTS, and it was recently demo’d at the Paris Air Show.
Cebu Pacific Airbus A320
Cebu Pacific Air is based at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in the Philippines. It is a low cost carrier that started operations in 1996, originally as “Cebu Air.” The airline flies to 34 domestic and 16 international destinations.
Cebu currently operates a fleet of 10 Airbus A319s, 18 A320s and eight ATR 72-500s. They also have an additional 56 Airbus A320-family aircraft on order, including the A321neo.
Even with the new fleet and many changes in safety, the airline, along with every other Philippines airline, is banned from flying to the European Union. Too bad having a slick livery doesn’t help an airline become unbanned.
The original livery, seen on a DC-9, was a bit more plain, but still had the “bird head.” The newer one keeps the bird, but also incorporates yellow and orange, with the website down the fuselage. The colors go very well together and the shape in the front makes it look like the aircraft is smiling, which reminds me of the good ‘ol PSA livery.
Thanks Allen for the suggestion.
Image: propfreak
The first Airbus A320 plane assembled in the northern China
The first Chinese-built Airbus A320 passed its flight trial and is planned to be delivered to China’s Sichuan Airlines by the end of June. This is the first Airbus built outside of Europe and there are quite a few more planned. Airbus hopes to be producing four A320’s per month by the end of 2011.
Airbus ressures customers of the planes quality, even though it was built in a different location. “This A320 assembled in China unquestionably demonstrated the same quality and performance as those assembled and delivered in Hamburg or Toulouse,” Fernando Alonso, senior vice president at Airbus, said in a statement.
Many analysts see China as a booming airline market. With more and more people being able to afford to fly, air travel has been taking off (yes, pun intended). China is even attempting to build its own airliners, the ARJ-21.
Source: Reuters Image: CCTV
