The Air Line Pilots Association, representing the more than 500 Spirit Airlines pilots, filed suit Wednesday alleging the Miramar-based air carrier is violating its 2003 labor contract.

The pilots' complaint was filed in the federal court in eastern Michigan, where the airline is formally registered with the Federal Aviation Administration. It follows the National Mediation Board's decision earlier this week to turn down the union's request for release from labor negotiations -- a scenario that could have made way for a strike.

The lawsuit asks the court for immediate relief from changes it says the airline made to pilots' pay and working conditions. It also alleges that the company is dealing in "bad faith" and trying to avoid the collective bargaining process. A union leader also said the group is seeking monetary damages.

FULL ARTICLE - Sun Sentinel

Bombardier Inc reported a stronger fiscal second quarter on Thursday as demand for its aircraft grew and its backlog rose to a record, buoying hopes that the company can ride out a softening market.

The high level of new orders and deliveries for its business aircraft offset declines in regional jets as commercial carriers focused on weathering the impact of economic slowdown on passenger traffic, the Montreal-based maker of aircraft and rail equipment said.

FULL ARTICLE - Reuters

ExpressJet announced today that it filed a definitive proxy statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission pursuant to Section 14(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 requesting shareholder approval for a 1:10 reverse stock split for its common shares. The reverse stock split, as previously announced, is part of ExpressJet's continuing efforts toward improving liquidity for its stockholders. ExpressJet will hold a special stockholder meeting in Houston, Texas on Wednesday, October 1 at 10:00 AM Central to seek approval for the transaction.

As a result of the reverse stock split, every 10 shares of ExpressJet common stock will be combined into one share of ExpressJet common stock and be traded under a new CUSIP.

FULL ARTICLE - PRNewswire

US aviation giant Boeing Co. will offer its know-how for Japan's project to build its first passenger jet, the fuel-efficient Mitsubishi Regional Jet, the plane's maker said Thursday.

Under a support agreement, Boeing will offer consulting in development, sales and customer support for the jet, which is expected to take to the skies in 2013, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. said.

Boeing has long-standing connections with Mitsubishi Heavy and other Japanese industrial companies. Japan's airlines buy nearly exclusively from Boeing, shunning its European rival Airbus Industrie.

FULL ARTICLE - AFP

The International Association of Machinists, Boeing Co's largest labor union, said on Wednesday that its members rejected the plane maker's latest three-year contract offer and voted to walk off their jobs at midnight.

Nearly 27,000 Boeing workers will start a strike that will cost the company about $100 million in revenue per day as customers' planes sit idle on the production lines.

FULL ARTICLE - Reuters

Jamco, a supplier to Boeing and Airbus, last month became the first company in the Pacific Northwest authorized to self-certify that its products meet FAA safety requirements. It joins just eight other companies nationwide, among them Northwest Airlines and business-jet maker Gulfstream, that have so far been approved to self-certify under the new rules.

But other large aerospace companies that do major work on airplanes, including Boeing, will shift to the new regulatory regime by next year.

Delegating such responsibility to manufacturers has sparked criticism among some safety experts and FAA insiders. But the agency defends the new program as a smart way to farm out the simplest reviews while focusing its limited resources on the most critical ones.

FULL ARTICLE - Seattle Times

When a computer glitch at a Federal Aviation Administration center caused widespread airline delays last week, it served as a reminder that the U.S. flight system is waiting for a modernizing overhaul. But it also appears the FAA's management of its existing technologies falls short of standards in other vital sectors.

Because the FAA relies on just two computing systems, one in Atlanta and one in Salt Lake City, to handle that chore for the entire nation, the software glitch all but sank the system Aug. 26. The Salt Lake City center remained up and served as a backup, but it became overloaded by information coming from airlines. More than 600 flights were delayed from Atlanta all the way to Boston and Chicago.

A failure at the Atlanta center in June 2007 caused major delays across the East Coast.

FULL ARTICLE - San Diego Union Tribune

BusinessWeek: The Federal Aviation Administration says it is delaying a slot auction planned for next week at the Newark airport after running into fierce opposition from airlines and the New York-area airports.

The airlines had asked the FAA's Office of Dispute Resolution for Acquisition to halt the auction planned for Wednesday for two slots at Newark's Liberty airport.

They would have been the first of several auctions the FAA says are needed to reduce congestion and increase competition at the three airports run by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The ruling on Thursday doesn't address the merits of airline opposition to the auction, but says there's no harm in waiting. The FAA says the ruling by its dispute resolution branch is a "disappointing delay."

Boeing Co said on Thursday it made its "best and final" contract offer to its largest labor union, including concessions the aerospace manufacturer hopes will help avert a strike.

Hoping to prevent a walkout that could cost Boeing $3 billion a month, the company said its offer would provide an average of $34,000 in additional wages and incentive payments over three years to employees in the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM).

Boeing had previously offered $28,000.

FULL ARTICLE - Reuters

The Aviation Herald: The glitch of a flight plan computer at the FAA center near Atlanta lost flight plans and caused delays to several hundred flights across the USA, until all processing load was shifted to a backup system near Salt Lake City. Normally the two processing units share the workload.

Airlines were told, that they needed to refile at least some of their flight plans.

The situation returned to normal during the evening. The glitch was identified to be a software bug.