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Turkey’s Chief of the General Staff Hulusi Akar is seen during the EFES-2018 Military Exercise near the Aegean port city of Izmir, Turkey May 10, 2018. REUTERS/Osman Orsal
April 15, 2019
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Turkey’s purchase of Russian air defense missile systems should not trigger U.S. sanctions because Ankara is not an adversary of Washington and remains committed to the NATO alliance, Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Monday.
Akar also told a conference in Washington that Turkey expected to remain not just a buyer of advanced F-35 stealth fighter jets but also one of the partner countries involved in its production, despite U.S. warnings that it would be shut out of the F-35 project if it buys the Russian S-400 defense system.
Turkey is carefully studying an offer from the United States to buy Patriot missile defense systems, Akar added.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Dominic Evans)
Source: OANN
President Donald Trump early Monday offered Boeing some business advice while touting his own branding expertise.
“What do I know about branding, maybe nothing (but I did become President!), but if I were Boeing, I would FIX the Boeing 737 MAX, add some additional great features, & REBRAND the plane with a new name,” the president tweeted. “No product has suffered like this one. But again, what the hell do I know?”
Boeing’s 737 MAX planes remain grounded worldwide after two crashes in five months killed 346 people. Last October, Lion Air Flight 610, one of the planes crashed into the Java Sea, killing 189 passengers and crew, and In March, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed six minutes after takeoff, killing 157 passengers and crew.
The grounding is affecting operations of Southwest Airlines and American Airlines. Southwest estimates it suffered $150 million in lost revenue between Feb. 20 and March 31 due to cancellations of its MAX flights. American has reported 115 daily cancellations, or 1.5 percent of its summer flying schedule each day for the summer travel season.
Trump’s experience in the airline industry, Trump Shuttle, ended in 1992 after about three years in operation. According to The Washington Post, he blamed a market downturn for the regional carrier’s declining passengers, along with increasing costs for jet fuel prices because of the Gulf War.
Source: NewsMax Politics
FILE PHOTO: The Iron Throne is seen on the set of the television series Game of Thrones in the Titanic Quarter of Belfast, Northern Ireland, REUTERS/Phil Noble/File Photo
April 15, 2019
(Reuters) – Some HBO GO users were facing issues with the streaming service late on Sunday, according to outages monitoring website Downdetector.com, as the first episode of the much-anticipated final season of Game of Thrones was scheduled to air.
The website showed some users in the United States, Mexico and other parts of Latin America were experiencing issues.
“If you’re having difficulty accessing #HBOGO in Latin America, please connect to live chat at http://help.hbogola.com,” HBO GO posted on Twitter https://twitter.com/HBOGOhelp/status/1117585945514127360.
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Bengaluru; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: Bombardier’s Global 7500, the first business jet to have a queen-sized bed and hot shower, is shown during a media tour in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, December 19, 2018. REUTERS/Christinne Muschi/File Photo
April 14, 2019
By Allison Lampert, Jamie Freed and Brenda Goh
MONTREAL/SINGAPORE/SHANGHAI (Reuters) – Gulfstream Aerospace and Bombardier are trotting out their longest-range business jets at an Asian air show this week, as they compete for orders from China’s growing elite, despite the country’s slowing economy.
The Asian Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition, (ABACE) opens Tuesday in Shanghai under a cloud of economic uncertainty, amid slowing Chinese growth, the U.S.-China trade dispute, and Beijing’s crackdown on debt risks that has led funding to dry up in certain industries, brokers said.
“The biggest factor that impacted the business jet market was pessimism and uncertainty which stalled purchase intentions or forced those marginal owners to reconsider keeping their business jets,” said Jeffrey Lowe, managing director of Hong Kong-based Asian Sky Group.
Still, Canada’s Bombardier sees its new $73 million Global 7500 business jet making inroads in Greater China against market leader Gulfstream’s $65 million-plus G650 family.
The plane and train maker said on Sunday it secured firm orders for four Global 7500 planes that were converted from options taken by Hong Kong-based business jet management company HK Bellawings in 2018.
Greater China’s number of billionaires has been growing yearly by 10 percent over the past three years, and the Global 7500’s long range will help to “seize market share and to withstand any economic uncertainty in the region,” said Bombardier Business Aircraft President David Coleal by email.
Both Gulfstream’s 650ER and the Global 7500 connect far-flung cities like New York and Tokyo, an allure for elite Asian buyers who want to fly non-stop to Western hubs.
“You don’t need a G7500 to fly three or four hours. But when you do need (longer) range you can use this jet,” said Thomas Flohr, founder and chairman of Vista Global and a Global 7500 customer.
Gulfstream, a division of General Dynamics, which brought its large-cabin G500 jet into service last year, delivered 68 new corporate aircraft between 2015 and 2018 in the region, more than double the 32 planes delivered by its Canadian competitor, according to Asian Sky.
Gulfstream President Mark Burns said by email the U.S. company is seeing more optimism in the region and is “starting to see more activity as trade talks appear to be progressing and becoming more specific.”
The Asia Pacific region, nevertheless, accounted for only about 8 percent of the 3,478 business jets delivered globally over the last five years, compared with 2,122 jets delivered to North America, according to Cirium Fleets Analyzer data.
And the number of Chinese-owned second-hand business jets sold outside the country rose to 20 in 2018, compared with an annual average of 10 from 2014 to 2017, according to the Cirium data.
Jackie Wu, president of JetSolution Aviation Group, said weaker business jet sales have prompted her Hong Kong company to launch its first charter service using the supermidsized Embraer Legacy 600.
“We are an industry that very much reflects the health of an economy, or the world economy,” said Jetcraft Asia president David Dixon, adding he nevertheless sees greater demand from smaller Asian countries like Indonesia and Malaysia.
(Reporting By Allison Lampert in Montreal, Brenda Goh in Shanghai and Jamie Freed in Singapore; Additional reporting by Stella Qiu in Beijing; Editing by Chris Reese)
Source: OANN
White House counsel Kellyanne Conway on Sunday taunted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., asserting there’s rancor among the Democrat rank-and-file that’s causing “trouble in Pelosi paradise.”
In an interview on NBC News’ “Meet The Press,” Conway declared new Democrat House members are “upset with the leadership.”
“There is a great frustration against rank and file members who represent districts that President [Donald] Trump won in 2016,” she said. “They have been to the White House, talked to people like me quietly, saying they wish that the radical… freshmen who get the magazine covers and all the ink and air time, I guess they are upset with the leadership today.”
Conway went on, saying Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., “tweeted they are tired of being used because the party is diverse, can’t get a seat at the table, something… re-tweeted by [Rep.] Ilhan Omar [D-Minn.].”
“I think there is trouble in Pelosi paradise,” Conway said.
Conway also declared the immigration problems in the country could be fixed “easily” but that Democrats are too anti-Trump to get the job done.
“Congress can fix this easily,” she said. “All the time that they spend reacting to every single Donald Trump tweet or the president’s statements, they can sit down and do three things.”
According to Conway, the three fixes would be to address trafficking victims, fix a judicial decision on filing asylum claims and to “fix the asylum law so those who actually have a credible claim of asylum can have that process faster. “
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Source: NewsMax Politics
FILE PHOTO: Employees walk by the end of a 737 Max aircraft at the Boeing factory in Renton, Washington, U.S., March 27, 2019. REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson/File Photo
April 14, 2019
By Tracy Rucinski
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Normally U.S. airlines compete to sell tickets and fill seats during the peak summer travel season. But operators of the grounded Boeing 737 MAX are facing a different problem: scarce planes and booming demand.
The grounding of Boeing Co’s fuel-efficient, single-aisle workhorse after two fatal crashes is biting into U.S. airlines’ Northern Hemisphere spring and summer schedules, threatening to disarm them in their seasonal war for profits.
“The revenue is right in front of them. They can see it, but they can’t meet it,” said Mike Trevino, spokesman for Southwest Airlines Pilots Association and an aviation industry veteran.
Southwest Airlines Co, the world’s largest MAX operator, and American Airlines Group Inc with 34 and 24 MAX jetliners respectively, have removed the aircraft from their flying schedules into August.
Southwest’s decision will lead to 160 cancellations of some 4,200 daily flights between June 8 and Aug. 5, while American’s removal through Aug. 19 means about 115 daily cancellations, or 1.5 percent of its summer flying schedule each day.
Low-cost carrier Southwest, which unlike its rivals only flies Boeing 737s, had estimated $150 million in lost revenue between Feb. 20 and March 31 alone due to MAX cancellations and other factors.
So far airlines have said it is too soon to estimate the impact of the MAX grounding beyond the first quarter, but the extended cancellations signal that they do not expect a quick return of Boeing’s fast-selling jetliner. The 737 MAX was grounded worldwide in March following a fatal Ethiopian Airlines crash just five months after a Lion Air crash in Indonesia. All on board both planes were killed.
Boeing is under pressure to deliver an upgrade on software that is under scrutiny in both crashes and convince global regulators that the plane is safe to fly again, a process expected to take at least 90 days.
The timing of a prolonged grounding could not be worse for Northern Hemisphere carriers. Planes run fullest during June, July and August, when airlines earn the most revenue per available seat mile, according to U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
In a letter to employees and customers on Sunday, American Airlines’ top executives said they believed the MAX would be recertified “soon” but wanted to provide their customers reliability and confidence during “the busiest travel period of the year.”
American was cancelling about 90 flights per day through early June, but runs more flights and has less fleet flexibility in the peak summer travel months.
“We’re not denying that it’s going to be a challenge for us,” American spokesman Ross Feinstein said. “That is why if we have to extend cancellations based on aircraft availability we will do so as far in advance as possible.”
A decline in seat capacity could mean higher last-minute summer fares, particularly for business class travelers, aviation consultants and analysts said.
United Airlines, with 14 MAX jets, has largely avoided cancellations by servicing MAX routes with larger 777 or 787 aircraft, but the airline president, Scott Kirby, warned last week that the strategy was costing it money and could not go on forever.
Overall the MAX represents just 5 percent of Southwest’s total fleet and even less for American and United, but the strain on fleets increases as additional MAX deliveries remain frozen.
Southwest has 41 MAX jets pending delivery for 2019, while American has 16 and United 14.
To compensate, global MAX operators have added a flight or two to other aircrafts’ daily schedules and deferred some non-essential maintenance work. Some airlines are also weighing extending aircraft leases and bringing back idled planes, but with unclear MAX timing, no option is clear-cut or cheap, consultants said.
United is due to publish first-quarter results on April 16, followed by Southwest on April 25 and American on April 26.
(Reporting by Tracy Rucinski; Editing by Chris Sanders and Susan Thomas)
Source: OANN
FILE PHOTO: Employees walk by the end of a 737 Max aircraft at the Boeing factory in Renton, Washington, U.S., March 27, 2019. REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson/File Photo
April 14, 2019
CHICAGO (Reuters) – American Airlines Group Inc said on Sunday it is extending Boeing Co 737 MAX cancellations through Aug. 19, leading to about 115 daily canceled flights, or 1.5 percent of its daily summer flying schedule.
In a letter to employees and customers, Chief Executive Doug Parker and President Robert Isom said they believe the 737 MAX will be recertified before Aug. 19, but they want to ensure reliability “for the peak travel season and provide confidence to our customers and team members when it comes to their travel plans.”
Boeing’s 737 MAX aircraft was grounded worldwide in March following a fatal crash on Ethiopian Airlines that killed all 157 aboard, just five months after a similar crash on Lion Air that killed all 189 passengers and crew.
American Airlines owns 24 MAX jets and is awaiting delivery of 16 more this year.
Chicago-based Boeing has been developing a software upgrade for an anti-stall system under scrutiny in both crashes.
Parker and Isom said they are “confident” in Boeing’s impending software updates and new training proposals, and remain in continuous contact with regulatory authorities over the MAX recertification process.
Once the aircraft is recertified, which the executives said they expect will happen “soon,” American plans to initially bring its MAX aircraft back on line as spares to supplement its operation as needed during the summer.
(Reporting by Tracy Rucinski; editing by Grant McCool)
Source: OANN
A helicopter carrying the bodies of the victims of a small aircraft belonging to Summit Air, that crashed with a helicopter parked at Lukla airport, waits to get transported for postmortem examination at a hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal April 14, 2019. REUTERS/Navesh Chitrakar
April 14, 2019
By Gopal Sharma
KATHMANDU (Reuters) – A small plane operated by a private airline in Nepal hit a parked helicopter on Sunday while preparing to take off in a mountainous area near Mount Everest, killing three people including a co-pilot, an airport official said.
The Twin Otter aircraft crashed into the helicopter at Tenzing Hillary Airport at Lukla, known as the gateway to the world’s highest mountain, 125 km (78 miles) northeast of capital Kathmandu.
The plane, operated by Summit Air, was not carrying passengers as it was trying to leave what is considered to be one of the world’s most dangerous airports due to the shortness of its runway and its location surrounded by mountains.
Officials said the cause of the incident was not immediately known.
“Two people died on the spot and the third one died while undergoing treatment in a hospital in Kathmandu,” airport official Pratap Babu Tiwari told Reuters.
The dead included two security guards who were near the helicopter. The pilot of the plane was among three people injured, though the lone stewardess escaped unhurt.
Air crashes are common in mostly mountainous Nepal, home to eight of the world’s 14 highest mountain peaks, including Mount Everest.
In February a helicopter carrying seven people including the country’s tourism minister crashed in bad weather in eastern Nepal, killing seven all on board.
The Lukla airport was built by New Zealand mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary – who together with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay became the first to reach the 8,850-metre (29,035-foot) Everest peak in 1953 – as a gift to the people of the remote Solukhumbu region where it is located.
In 2008, another Twin Otter plane carrying 16 passengers and three crew crashed shortly before it was due to land at Lukla.
(Reporting by Gopal Sharma; Editing by Krishna N. Das and Jan Harvey)
Source: OANN
Apr 13, 2019; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Orlando Magic guard D.J. Augustin (14) goes up to make a basket as Toronto Raptors guard Danny Green (14) looks on during game one of the first round of the 2019 NBA Playoffs at Scotiabank Arena. Orlando defeated Toronto. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski-USA TODAY Sports
April 14, 2019
D.J. Augustin scored the final five points of the game, including a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 3.4 seconds left, as the Orlando Magic upset the host Toronto Raptors 104-101 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference first-round series Saturday.
The Magic, the seventh seed in the East, won their first playoff game since their most recent postseason appearance in 2012. The Raptors, the second seed, fell to 2-14 all time in series-opening games.
Kawhi Leonard scored four straight points to give the Raptors a 101-99 lead with 1:02 left. After Augustin tied the score with a driving layup with 44.9 seconds left, Marc Gasol’s open 3-pointer from the corner rimmed out.
The Magic didn’t call timeout on their way up the floor, and Augustin sank the go-ahead basket as the shot clock dwindled. The Raptors then called timeout, after which Leonard lofted an air ball from 3-point range from beyond the top of the key. Following a timeout, the Magic inbounded the ball without issue to end the game.
Nets 111, 76ers 102
D’Angelo Russell scored 26 points, Caris LeVert added 23 and visiting Brooklyn defeated Philadelphia in Game 1.
Spencer Dinwiddie contributed 18, and Ed Davis had 12 points and 16 rebounds for the sixth-seeded Nets, who competed in their first playoff game in four years after finishing the regular season at 42-40.
Jimmy Butler led the third-seeded Sixers with a career-high 36-point performance in the playoffs. Joel Embiid had been doubtful with left knee soreness and was cleared to play less than 10 minutes before the game. Embiid, who missed 14 of the team’s final 24 games, finished with 22 points and 15 rebounds but clearly looked bothered by his injury.
Spurs 101, Nuggets 96
DeMar DeRozan had 18 points and 12 rebounds, Derrick White scored 16 and San Antonio beat host Denver in Game 1.
LaMarcus Aldridge and Bryn Forbes scored 15 each for the seventh-seeded Spurs, who grabbed the lead early and never relinquished it.
Nikola Jokic had 10 points, 14 rebounds and 14 assists for a triple-double in his first playoff game for Denver. Gary Harris had a game-high 20 points, and Jamal Murray scored 17.
Warriors 121, Clippers 104
Stephen Curry complemented a game-high 38 points with a career-playoff-high 15 rebounds in a historic performance as Golden State opened defense of its NBA title with a win over Los Angeles in a volatile Game 1 in Oakland, Calif.
The matchup of familiar Pacific Division rivals featured the ejections of the Warriors’ Kevin Durant and Clippers’ Patrick Beverley, each of whom was nailed with a second technical foul for a verbal altercation near midcourt midway through the fourth quarter.
Curry’s 38 points included 8-for-12 shooting on 3-pointers on a night when he passed Ray Allen (385) for the NBA all-time career playoff record. Curry finished the game with 386 career threes.
–Field Level Media
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The world’s largest airplane, built by the late Paul Allen’s company Stratolaunch Systems, makes its first test flight in Mojave, California, U.S. April 13, 2019. REUTERS/Gene Blevins
April 14, 2019
By Dan Whitcomb
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The world’s largest aircraft took off over the Mojave Desert in California on Saturday, the first flight for the carbon-composite plane built by Stratolaunch Systems Corp, started by late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, as the company enters the lucrative private space market.
The white airplane called Roc, which has a wingspan the length of an American football field and is powered by six engines on a twin fuselage, took to the air shortly before 7 a.m. Pacific time (1400 GMT) and stayed aloft for more than two hours before landing safely back at the Mojave Air and Space Port as a crowd of hundreds of people cheered.
“What a fantastic first flight,” Stratolaunch Chief Executive Officer Jean Floyd said in a statement posted to the company’s website.
“Today’s flight furthers our mission to provide a flexible alternative to ground launched systems, Floyd said. “We are incredibly proud of the Stratolaunch team, today’s flight crew, our partners at Northrup Grumman’s Scaled Composites and the Mojave Air and Space Port.”
The plane is designed to drop rockets and other space vehicles weighing up to 500,000 pounds at an altitude of 35,000 feet and has been billed by the company as making satellite deployment as “easy as booking an airline flight.”
Saturday’s flight, which saw the plane reach a maximum speed of 189 miles per hour and altitudes of 17,000 feet, was meant to test its performance and handling qualities, according to Stratolaunch.
Allen, who co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates in 1975, announced in 2011 that he had formed the privately funded Stratolaunch.
The company seeks to cash in on higher demand in coming years for vessels that can put satellites in orbit, competing in the United States with other space entrepreneurs and industry stalwarts such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX and United Launch Alliance – a partnership between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Stratolaunch has said that it intends to launch its first rockets from the Roc in 2020 at the earliest. Allen died in October 2018 while suffering from non-Hodgkins’ lymphoma, just months after the plane’s development was unveiled.
“We all know Paul would have been proud to witness today’s historic achievement,” said Jody Allen, Chair of Vulcan Inc and Trustee of the Paul G. Allen Trust. “The aircraft is a remarkable engineering achievement and we congratulate everyone involved.”
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; editing by Grant McCool)
Source: OANN
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