CAA suspends Flyglobespan transatlantic flying licence
19.10.07
Scottish budget airline Flyglobespan has had one of its flying licences suspended by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) today, over serious concerns about its operations, the BBC reports. The airline's Extended Range Twin Operations (ETOPS) licence, which allows it to fly over large expanses of water using planes with two engines, has been suspended, which will hit its flights to North America.
The airline mainly flies from Scotland, including from Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh airports, and from northern England, including Liverpool, Durham and Newcastle. Its North American destinations include Calgary, Toronto, Boston and New York. However, it suffered a number of problems on transatlantic routes this summer, including two emergency landings in Canada within a week due to engine problems and another plane was stuck in New York for a week after it was struck by lightening.
The CAA declined to give specific reasons on why the licence has been suspended, but said suspending ETOPS approval 'is not done lightly.' It is the first time in 15 years a UK airline has lost its ETOPS approval.
A statement given to the BBC by the CAA added: 'On Friday 12 October, we provisionally suspended Flyglobespan's ETOPS approval. We will be meeting with the airline later this week to review this decision.' We assume this means that they will meet the airline today or tomorrow.
On transatlantic routes, twin-engine planes without ETOPS are forced to take a flight path that does not take them more than an hour away from the nearest airport, in case of engine problems. This means that the airline can only fly over the Atlantic via Iceland, Greenland and Canada - an indirect, slower route that would also burn more fuel, increasing costs.
A spokesman for Flyglobespan told the BBC that ETOPS approval has only been suspended on a temporary basis, and that this was because of an isolated problem with subcontractors. The airline says it is confident ETOPS approval will be restored soon. It is still promoting its transatlantic routes on its website today.
As well as using its own planes to operate it long haul routes, Flyglobespan also leases aircraft and flight crews from other airlines. They can continue to fly to the US, if they have their own ETOPS licence. In addition, European flights do not involve planes being more than an hour away from the nearest airport, so no ETOPS licence is needed to operate these flights.
Add to: del.icio.us | Digg it | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit
To book edinburgh airport hotels or edinburgh airport parking at the lowest price, click on these links to two great edinburgh airport parking and edinburgh airport hotels price comparison pages.
