Spirit AeroSystems reduces employment in Wichita as a result of lower demand

Spirit AeroSystems announced Saturday it will reduce employment at sites supporting commercial programs as a result of lower demand for commercial airplanes. Spirit is a supplier to Airbus and Boeing, both of which announced lower production rates for commercial aircraft due to the impact of COVID-19 on the aviation industry.

"In addition to reducing employment, we are taking other initiatives to lower costs and preserve liquidity, which included raising $1.2 billion in high yield secured second lien bonds in April. We are focused on ensuring Spirit AeroSystems remains a healthy business and emerges from this crisis with a bright future,” said Tom Gentile, President and CEO, Spirit AeroSystems.

As part of the overall employment reductions, Spirit offered a voluntary layoff to union represented employees in Wichita, Kan. earlier this week. Today Spirit issued a notice to the State of Kansas under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of layoffs affecting approximately 1,450 hourly and salaried employees at its site in Wichita. Spirit's Wichita employees affected by these layoffs are expected to begin exiting the company May 15. Later this month, smaller reductions will occur at Spirit's remaining U.S. sites that perform commercial work. Spirit's global sites are reviewing workforce requirements and will announce their plans in the coming weeks.

As Spirit continues to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic by changing its work practices to keep employees safe, the company is also working directly to contribute to the fight against COVID-19. Spirit has developed a partnership to manufacture medical devices in Wichita. Approximately 700 employees will be transferred to this temporary special project that is expected to last through October and may go longer, depending upon demand. Spirit will have more information to share on the medical device partnership in the near future.

Spirit's work on defense programs will not be impacted by these announced employment reductions and those operations will continue uninterrupted. Additionally, some employees currently supporting commercial programs may be transferred to available defense work, mitigating the number of employees who may be affected by these workforce actions.

Video: Blue Angels and Thunderbirds aim for flyover of Baltimore, Atlanta and DC this weekend

The U.S. Navy Blue Angels and U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds performed a very rare joint flyover above New York City, Trenton, Newark, and Philadelphia on Tuesday to honor health care and essential workers fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. The teams departed from Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida and were refueling mid-flight by four KC-10 Extenders before returning back to Pensacola. Flyovers will continue around the country under the name Operation America Strong with Baltimore, Atlanta and D.C. scheduled on Saturday.

Alaska Air will load passenger jets with cargo to fill empty seats

Alaska Air Cargo announced Wednesday it will fly passenger jets as cargo-only flights to carry essential goods like mail, medical equipment, e-commerce packages and food throughout its domestic network. Filling the passenger cabin with cargo will backfill the loss in capacity across the continental United States and Hawaii after passenger flights were reduced.

"We're determined to help protect the resiliency of our nation's supply chain by connecting critical cargo to the communities we serve during this public health crisis," said Torque Zubeck, managing director of Alaska Air Cargo.  "Our teams have been working tirelessly since March to identify the safest and most effective processes to increase our cargo capacity as quickly as possible."

In addition to Air Cargo's dedicated three freighters, six Boeing 737-900 aircraft will be utilized as cargo-only aircraft.  Boxes, mail and other items will be placed on and under seats, in overhead bins and in closets – to offer 13,500 more pounds of cargo than what a passenger-only flight could carry. In total, each flight will carry up to 30,000 pounds, which includes belly capacity.

If approved by the Federal Aviation Administration, the passenger-only aircraft would begin flying throughout the United States in May.

Alaska Air Cargo Facts

• Cargo freighters: 3 Boeing 737-700s
• Passenger-to-cargo planes: 6 Boeing 737-900s
• Cargo flown annually: 200 million+ pounds
• Seafood flown: 30 million+ pounds per year
• Destinations in Alaska we serve: 19 stations, only three connect by road
• Total destinations served in 2019: 100+
• Freighter-only flights flown in 2019: 5,487

Caesars Entertainment agrees to sell Bally’s Atlantic City Hotel & Casino

Caesars Entertainment Corp. and VICI Properties Inc. announced Friday they have reached an agreement to sell the Bally's Atlantic City Hotel & Casino to Twin River Worldwide Holdings Inc. for approximately $25 million in cash. VICI will receive approximately $19 million from the sale, while Caesars will receive approximately $6 million.

"We look forward to the reopening of Bally's Atlantic City as soon as appropriate once the public health emergency related to COVID-19 has passed," said Caesars CEO Tony Rodio.

Following the sale, Caesars will continue to operate Caesars Atlantic City, which will include the Wild Wild West casino area and The Book sports wagering facility, and Harrah's Resort Atlantic City. VICI Properties will continue to own the land and real estate associated with Caesars Atlantic City, including the Wild Wild West casino area.

New Dash 8-400 Simplified Package Freighters will fly under Air Canada Express banner

Chorus Aviation Inc. and its subsidiary Jazz Aviation LP announced Friday that Jazz and Air Canada will begin operating the recently approved Dash 8-400 Simplified Package Freighter developed by De Havilland Canada to short and medium haul markets under the Air Canada Express banner. These reconfigured aircraft will carry a total of 18,000 pounds [8,165 kilograms] of cargo in the passenger cabin and belly.

"This aircraft will allow us to provide critical cargo lift on short and medium-haul routes that have been impacted by the reduction of passenger flights," said Tim Strauss, Vice-President Air Canada Cargo. "The converted cabin, which can accommodate a cargo volume of 1,150 cubic feet is perfectly suited to loose load cargo like medical supplies, personal protective equipment and other goods needed to support the ongoing fight against COVID-19."

On April 11, Air Canada announced they had reconfigured the cabins of three of its Boeing 777-300ER aircraft to give them additional cargo capacity to transport COVID-19 supplies.

NASA assessing feasibility of using 'civil aircraft' for microgravity flight services

NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center is interested in obtaining information from companies to identify potential commercial capabilities for Microgravity Flight Services (MFS) to provide brief periods of near zero, partial gravity, and hyper-gravity conditions, collectively referred to here as microgravity, and associated capabilities for payload integration, safety, and airworthiness for various government research, technology development, and training missions. The agency announced the MFS effort in a Request For Information document released on Monday.

In the past, NASA successfully achieved this mission and fully met the listed requirements by use of a slightly modified C-9 (military variant of the DC-9 commercial transport) aircraft flown, operated, and maintained by NASA flight and ground crews. More recently, aircraft and flight services were contracted by NASA to provide these services and were operated in accordance with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Advisory Circular (AC) 00-1.1A, “Public Aircraft Operations”. Under this AC, NASA was responsible for determining the airworthiness and flight safety of the contractor’s microgravity aircraft operations and maintenance. Upon the completion of a NASA mission the aircraft was returned to its original civil status and returned to service under FAA airworthiness regulations. It was the responsibility of the contractor to ensure compliance with all FAA regulations when returning an aircraft to civil use.

The objective of each flight is to accurately simulate the gravitational field present on the Moon, Mars, or on an asteroid for research in areas such as fluid physics, combustion, material sciences, and life sciences, engineering development (for the International Space Station and other space hardware programs); for education; and for astronaut flight crew training.

The typical operation involves one or more self-contained experiments that are installed on the platform and activated in flight during the microgravity periods by a human operator. Data is recorded, and experiments are often photographed. Upon completion of the flight, the experiment is removed to be refurbished and prepared for future flights. The experiments are usually observed and/or tended during flights by a human experimenter.

NASA is assessing the feasibility of obtaining microgravity flight services on a purely commercial basis. In such an operation, the provider will operate as a “civil aircraft” and bears full responsibility for airworthiness, flight safety, and mission assurance, and these services do not require the Public Aircraft Operation (PAO – ref. AC 00-1.1A) requirement.

NASA will meet with contractors on May 5 during a Virtual Industry Day meeting to discuss the Mircogravity Flight Services effort and answer questions.

Maintenance contract for NOAA WP-3D aircraft

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Aircraft Operations Center operates and maintains two WP-3D (variant of the P-3 exclusive to NOAA) Lockheed Orion aircraft, N42RF and N43RF. These aircraft are flown in support of NOAA scientists primarily for the purpose of severe weather research in environments such as hurricanes and mesoscale thunderstorms. Both WP-3D aircraft were acquired from Lockheed Burbank in 1975 (N42RF) and 1976 (N43RF).

NOAA is looking for a contractor to continue inspections, repairs, servicing, and supply replacement items for the WP-3D aircraft to include: labor, materials and supplies, consumables and equipment, according to contract documents released Thursday by NOAA. The contract will run for 10 years. NOAA's Eastern Acquisition Division will be releasing a Request For Proposal on/or about May 7.