AIR TRANSPORT
12 | Flight International | 13-19 January 2015 flightglobal.com
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aiwanese carrier Eva Air has
retired its last Boeing 747-
Combi.
The type’s final service was op-
erated by B-16409 on the Hong
Kong-Taipei Taoyuan route, the
Star Alliance member says.
Besides operating passenger
and cargo services, the aircraft,
which has an extended cargo sec-
tion, has also performed diplo-
matic missions for the island na-
tion’s presidents.The aircraft will be sold, disas-
sembled and harvested for parts.
Flightglobal’s Ascend Fleets
database shows Eva Air took de-
livery of its first 747-400 Combi
in May 1993, and had operated
10 in total. All of Eva’s Combi air-
craft had a lower passenger seat
count than a typical 747-400,
with 276 seats.
Asiana Airlines, Kuwait Air-
ways and KLM also operate the
747-400 Combi. ■AirTeamImages
B-16409 will be sold, disassembled and harvested for parts
Eva Air bids farewell to its final 747- 400 Combi
RETIREMENT FIRDAUS HASHIM SINGAPORE
REGULATION JON HEMMERDINGER WASHINGTON DC
FAA to mandate SMS for all airlines
US scheduled carriers obliged to develop company-wide programmes by 2018, in order to identify and mitigate risks
STRATEGY MAVIS TOH SINGAPORE
China to invest in navigation technologyThe Civil Aviation Administration of
China (CAAC) has pledged to in-
crease its investment in new tech-
nologies to further improve
aerospace navigation and enhance
flight safety.
CAAC says that by end of the year,
10% of all Chinese airlines’ fleets
will have head-up displays installed.
Shanghai’s Pudong International
airport will also test out a ground-
based augmentation landing system
in the first quarter, and subsequently
put it into operation.
A ground-based augmentation
system boosts GPS signals for air-craft flying near airports, improving
the accuracy and integrity of location
co-ordinates.
The administration has also
pledged to design and implement
performance-based navigation at all
transport airports across the coun-
try by the end of 2016.
By 2017 it will also roll out the
country’s first automatic depend-
ence surveillance – broadcast
ground stations.
China says it will have 230 air-
ports for passenger and cargo trans-
port at the end of 2015, up from
182 in 2011. ■A
new Federal Aviation
Administration rule will re-
quire US scheduled airlines to de-
velop organisation-wide safety
management systems (SMS) pro-
grammes by 2018.
The rule, announced by the ad-
ministration on 7 January, is an
effort by the FAA to ensure air-
lines can identify and mitigate
potential risks.
SMS are detailed, company-
wide programmes that define
processes for examining opera-
tional data, isolating dangerous
trends and mitigating risks.
The rule will take effect in
early March. US-based carriers
will then have six months to sub-
mit an SMS implementation plan
to the FAA. The carriers will
need to develop and implement
their final SMS by 2018.
“SMS enable airlines to detect
patterns in their data, which are
basically the early warning signs
of an accident,” says Anthony
Foxx, secretary of the Department
of Transportation. “We must be
smarter about how airlines ana-
lyse and benefit from the data
they collect every day.”
Foxx adds that SMS should
help the industry reach the DoT’s
goal of cutting aviation’s fatality
risk by 50% by 2025.
FAA administrator Michael
Huerta says the rule will help
airlines establish safety-focused
cultures and assist carriers and
regulators with identifying poten-
tially dangerous trends.
The rule follows a review by
the FAA of 100 airline accidents
between 2001 and 2010, Huerta
says. “We determined that if SMS
had been in place, they may have
prevented many of these acci-
dents,” he adds.
The rule requires airline SMS
to include four components: a
safety policy that defines safety
objectives, risk management pro-
cesses that help carriers analyse
safety and identify hazards, an as-
surance plan to monitor safety
performance and a safety promo-
tion component aimed at helping
carriers train employees and
communicate safety information.
Carriers must also designate an
executive responsible for over-
seeing SMS.
The FAA estimates that the
rule will cost airlines $224 mil-
lion over 10 years. The financial
benefits are calculated to be
$205-472 million.
US airlines have been piloting
SMS for several years, says Nick
Calio, chief executive of trade
group Airlines for America. Calio
adds that all his group’s airline
members have voluntary SMS-
type programmes, or have helped
develop SMS standards. ■Rex Features
Many domestic carriers have been running pilot SMS for years