Airbus Advises A320 Emergency Airworthiness Directive

The European Union Aviation Safety Administration has issued an emergency airworthiness directive (EAD) for over 6,000 A320 and A320neo series airliners globally, regarding the elevator and aileron computer software issue, that needs to be updated by 30 November.

Locally, it's not known whether it affects the Hawaiian Airlines' A321-271N fleet. American Airlines and Delta Air Lines also fly their A321-200N airliners to Hawai‘i. None of the three airlines mentioned have released any formal press releases.

Further information in this Airbus press release, this CH-Aviation article, and this Blancolirio YouTube video.

Airbus At 50 Years

Airbus Industrie is celebrating 50 years of aircraft development!

In its early years, Airbus aircraft did not make many appearances at HNL, until the early 1980s with Wardair Canada, when they used their A310s for service from the Canadian west coast. The A310s continued with other now-defunct Canadian carriers, Royal Air, and Canada 3000. There has not been regular scheduled service with the A300; though there have been several ferry flights that have transited through.

Philippine Airlines and China Airlines had A340-300 service from MNL and TPE (sometimes via NRT) respectively. Philippine Airlines has since converted to the A330-300. China Airlines converted to the A330-300, but has since upgraded to the A350-900.

The A330 series has become quite common at HNL, with Hawaiian Airlines, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, Asiana Airlines, Korean Air, AirAsia X, China Eastern Airlines, and Air China all serving HNL with the wide-body twin. Qantas Airways and JetStar Airlines had A330 service, but has since converted to Boeing airliners (747-400 and 787-8) for their service to HNL from Australia. Qantas will return to A330-300 service in August.

As far as the A320 series goes, Virgin America was the first to introduce A320ceo ETOPS service between California and HNL in 2015 The airline converted to the A321neo during certain travel periods. Since their merger with Alaska Airlines, service has been converted to the 737NG. Currently, American Airlines uses the A321ceo for its LAX service. Hawaiian Airlines uses the A321neo for  certain routes on their west coast service.

The only A320 series delivery flights to stop through HNL were for Air New Zealand and Freedom Air in mid-2000s. HNL does see ferry flights by Allegiant Air, as they purchase A319s and A320s from Cebu Pacific. Lanmei Airlines has ferried A319s and A320s through from the mainland to Kampuchea. There have also been ACJ flights that have transited through HNL.

All Nippon Airways is the only airline that has scheduled A380 service between NRT and HNL. Prior to ANA's service, there have been several Qantas A380 diversions to HNL for medical and technical reasons.

One of the original CS300 (now, the A220-300) testbeds, C-FFDO, has been here a few times stopping between Canada and Asia. With Airbus taking over the Bombardier CS Series, and renaming it the A220, it has been the subject to the Hawaiian 717-200 replacement speculation.

On the military side, the Royal Canadian Air Force's CC-150 Polaris (A310) transports frequently stop through. The Royal Australian Air Force will transit their KC-330s through Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam. The Armeé de l'Air will transit A400Ms and A340s through HNL as they go to and from French Polynesia.


Further details on the Airbus celebration in this press release.

Airbus Re-designates The C-Series

Airbus has re-designated the Bombardier C-Series (CS100 and CS300) as the A220, as part of their takeover of the latter manufacturer's operation and program of the smaller narrow-body airliner. From today, the CS100 will now be known as the A220-100, and the larger CS300 will be known as the A220-300. The above photo was taken last year, when C-FFDO made a stopover at HNL on a demonstration flight.

A380 Demo Visits HNL

F-WWDD (msn 004), an A380-861, one of the Airbus Industrie [VK/AIB] A380 demonstrators paid a visit to HNL today, in an event hosted by Hawaiian Airlines. The Super Jumbo is flying as AIB101, and their call-sign is "Airbus101Super". F-WWDD is seen in the top photo, rolling out on Runway 8L. It exited on Taxiway K, and taxied to Gate 29 via Taxiways A and D (above).

F-WWDD's first flight took place in October 2005. It was built with Rolls-Royce Trent 970 engines, and designated as an A380-841 variant. According to Airbus Senior Vice President of A380 Marketing Richard Carcaillet, this airframe has only 3,000 flight hours on it. As a demonstrator, it has worn temporary liveries of Emirates Airlines [EK/UAE], Singapore Airlines [SQ/SIA], Lufthansa (fuselage titles only) [LH/DLH], and Etihad Airways (fuselage only) [EY/ETD]. As seen in the photos on this post, it now wears the "Love At First Flight A<380" titles along with the Airbus house colors. In May 2009, F-WWDD was re-fitted with Engine Alliance GP7270 engines, and re-designated as an A380-861. As with the other Airbus airliners, the version codes designates the type of engines used on the aircraft.

Airbus Senior Vice President of A380 Marketing Richard Carcaillet and Hawaiian Airlines President & CEO Mark Dunkerley held a pre-arrival briefing at Gate 29. The flight, we were told, originated from TLS, and its flight time was approximately 15 hours, 15 minutes.

The interior of F-WWDD is quite bare, but filled with water ballasts, test equipment, a master control panel for the flight test engineer. There are several seats in the forward upper deck for the group that flies with the A380.

A maile lei, and five orchid lei were placed around the fuselage of F-WWDD. Each strand measured over 200 feet in length.

Video courtesy of team member Aeros, of F-WWDD landing on Runway 8L.

KITV's video report on F-WWDD's arrival by reporter Nana Ohkawa and videographer Sonny Ahuna.