A really bad day at the office for these pilots!

The chain of events leading to this February 2006 runway overrun by a business jet in Northern Germany reported on 24 May 2013 by John Croft in the Things with Wings blog is quite amazing.

The official 22 page accident report gives more details.

Contrails a significant contributor to climate change?

Recent German scientific research by Ulrike Burkhardt and Bernd Karcher from the DLR Institute for Atmospheric Physics published on 29 March 2011 by the prestigious journal Nature suggests that contrails formed by airliners flying at high altitude may be as significant a contributor to climate change as aviation emissions. The journal has also published a news report written by Olivier Boucher from the UK Met Office Hadley Centre explaining the results.

The potential implications for the airline industry are far reaching, particularly if airliners are forced in future to fly at less fuel-efficient altitudes. To date the focus has been on reducing CO2 and other emissions from aircraft so there has been an alignment of interests between airline companies seeking to reduce their fuel bills and environmental concerns.

For those who want to see under what conditions contrails form there is a neat application available on the web.

Russia's overflight fees and the EU

On 29 October 2010 Air Transport World reported that the European Commission (EC) had announced that it was initiating court action against European Union (EU) member states France, Germany, Austria and Finland over their air services arrangements with Russia that see their airlines paying overflight fees.

Note that these fees are not for air traffic control services. A 28 October 2010 report in the Journal of Commerce provides an estimate of the total fees paid by EU airlines, mostly to Aeroflot.

On 28 January 2011 Bloomberg reported that the EC was looking to take action against seven additional member states.

On 14 March 2011 the European Commission released a press release that gives background and another press release advising that it was taking action against six further member states.

Qatar concludes new air services arrangements with Ecuador, Georgia, Germany, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria and Uruguay

From the Civil Aviation Authority of Qatar and various media, announcements of new air services agreements between Qatar and:

• Ecuador - signed 21 March 2011
• Georgia - signed 15 February 2011
• Sudan - reported in February 2011 to have been signed
• Uruguay - negotiating mandate granted by Qatari Cabinet in February 2011

Qatar has also announced enhanced air services arrangements with:

• Germany - negotiations were held 6-7 July 2010 
• Sri Lanka - negotiations were held 8-10 August 2010 
• Syria - reported in October 2010

South Africa leads initiative to oppose European taxes on aviation

On 11 March 2011 at ITB in Berlin the South African Minister of Tourism released a Communique supported by his country, Australia, Kenya, New Zealand, the Seychelles, Singapore and the Caribbean Tourism Organisation criticising the impact that "unilateral, discriminatory" European aviation taxes are having on long-haul destinations. The Communique received little media coverage but points to concern from a wide range of Commonwealth countries.

This follows taxation changes made by the United Kingdom (see previous post), Germany (see previous post) and Austria (see previous post).

There are very few disputes between the United Kingdom and Australasia but this seems to be one of them. The UK's 2011 Budget due to be released on 23 March 2011 may be worth watching for any movement on this issue.

Details on German aviation tax

The German Federal Ministry of Finance has published a short article on its web site detailing how in practice the proposed aviation tax is to work (see previous post).

The German Departure Tax

Details of the German air transport departure tax (Luftverkehrsteuer or Luftverkehrsabgabe) are now available in a 1 September 2010 media release from the German Government and a legal text (both in German)(see previous post).

The tax, which will have three distance bands, is similar to the air passenger duty currently imposed in the United Kingdom.

A November 2009 study by SEO from the Netherlands of The Implications of the Irish Air Travel Tax commissioned by Aer Lingus, Ryanair and Cityjet suggests that such taxes can be counterproductive.

Germany planning to introduce new duty on aviation

On 7 June 2010 Bloomberg reported on the German Government announcement that it would be introducing a tax on air travel to raise one billion euros a year as part of its efforts to reduce its budget deficit. For those that speak German, some further information is available here about what is described as a national ecological air traffic charge on all passengers.

Reaction from the airline industry included:

• Association of European Airlines
• International Air Transport Association

On 17 June 2010 the Brussels-based NGO Transport & Environment posted a story that suggests that it is not yet clear what will happen to this tax when international air transport is covered by the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

Russia questions status of Austrian Airlines

On 24 March 2010 Austrian Times carried a report that the Russian Government was questioning the nationality of Austrian Airlines following involvement by Lufthansa and that this issue has been the subject of ongoing talks.

Germany takes action against Emirates Airline tariffs

On 20 November 2009 Deutsche Welle reported that the German government was taking action against sixth freedom carrier Emirates Airline to stop it undercutting Lufthansa in the Germany-South Africa and Germany-Singapore markets. On 19 November 2009 Reuters report gives further coverage, suggesting that the action was not just directed at Emirates.

A report of reaction in The National dated 26 November 2009 refers to "1970s protectionism".

I was aware of a European law prohibiting fifth freedom price leading by non-EU airlines but had thought that this was limited to flights within the EU. I do not have access to the tariffs article of the Germany-UAE air services agreement which will probably be relevant. I think the current relevant European law is available here but would welcome comments on this.

Enforcing tariff regulation is very hard to do given the thousands of international air tariffs in existence.

Lufthansa Policy Brief

The German airline Lufthansa is producing a regular public affairs publication it calls Lufthansa Policy Brief. The web site also has the articles arranged by topic. The earliest issue on the web site is from September 2005.

Interim Report from BEA into Air New Zealand-owned A320 crash

On 24 February 2009 the French Bureau d'Enquetes et d'Analyses (BEA) released an Interim Report (English version) into the 27 November 2008 A320 crash (see previous post).

On 25 February 2009 Air New Zealand released a media statement NEW commenting on the interim report.

On the same day the New Zealand Herald has an article NEW that includes a report of comments from the New Zealand Transport Accident Investigation Commission NEW (TAIC) and another article NEW that includes comments from the New Zealand Air Line Pilots' Association NEW (NZALPA).

Air New Zealand-owned A320 crashes into Mediterranean

Friday, 28 November 2008, was one of those days I dread. I usually check the web first thing in the morning and was horrified to see the early reports that an Air New Zealand-owned Airbus A320, in the process of being returned from XL Airways Germany, had crashed into the sea off France near Perpignan. I soon learnt that someone from our Civil Aviation Authority was suspected to be on board.

Air New Zealand has issued a series of media releases on the crash as have various official bodies (not all are available on the web yet).

Air New Zealand:

Incident 0829 28/11
Update 1438 28/11
Update 1724 28/11
Update 2146 28/11
Update 0600 29/11
Update 0900 29/11
Update 1328 29/11
Update 2030 29/11
Update 0807 30/11
Update NEW 1028 2/12
Update NEW 1328 2/12
Update NEW 1512 7/12
Update NEW 1528 13/1
Update NEW 1229 15/1
Update NEW 19/1
Update NEW 20/1
Update NEW 1449 20/1
Update NEW 22/1
Update NEW 23/1

Bureau d'Enquetes et d'Analyses (BEA):

Accident on approach to Perpignan 2008 27/11
Accident on approach to Perpignan 2008 NEW 3/12

Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand:

CAA staff shocked by accident involving missing colleague NEW 28/11

New Zealand Prime Minister:

Statement on Air New Zealand plane crash 28/11

New Zealand Minister of Transport:

Government concerned for Air NZ & CAA staff on crashed Airbus 28/11

There is no point in speculating as to exactly what happened. That usually takes time to establish but I hope that the accident investigators are able to find some answers that we can learn from and that the investigation does not become entangled in judicial proceedings.

At the time of the crash, the aircraft was still on the German registry as D-AXLA, having not yet been handed back to Air New Zealand, but it had already been repainted in Air New Zealand colours. Seeing a photograph of the tail fin with the koru floating in the sea was particularly hard. The accident happened on the 29th anniversary of the Erebus tragedy, a day I still remember well. I was studying at Otago University in Dunedin then.

Rest in peace guys.

Aircraft Photos taken in Germany

Photography has been a hobby of mine for many years. I now take my digital camera with me when travelling. Photos out the windows of aircraft from altitude are usually disappointing but when on the ground at a busy international airport the results can be quite interesting.

Here are couple of photographs I took last year out of aircraft windows while taxiing for take off.

The JAL B747-400F above was about to take off from Frankfurt as we took off for Geneva.

The Lufthansa A319 above was being pushed back at dusk around the same time as we were departing Munich for Asia.

I have a few of my photos stored and displayed on Flickr, including sets of photographs taken around Bruges, Belgium, and Rome, Italy. I have just added three photographs taken last year in Moscow.