What made our aviation news this last week?
Here’s a roundup of the main items for last week, from Monday 10th to Sunday 16th February 2020.
- The coronavirus continues to spread around the world, and the effects on commercial aviation were profound. Airbus closed, then opened limited production at its plant in Tianjin, China.
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- There was a scare at London-Heathrow when a suspected infection on a United flight caused some disruption.
- We reported on the ability of some countries to repatriate its infected citizens by air, whilst containing the COVID-19 virus.
- South African Airways reduced its schedules in an attempt to save costs.
- Airbus reported a loss for the financial year as a result of its huge penalty for the payment of bribes.
- They revealed a radical new design for commercial aircraft.
- The last wing for the A380 left the Broughton factory in North Wales.
- We looked at the continued success for the A220, with Bombardier withdrawing from production.
- Boeing continued to struggle, with no orders in January.
- In our series on the pioneers of aviation, we looked at the Franco-Brazilian, Santos-Dumont.
- Some airlines fell into liquidation; Air Italy and AtlasGlobal.
- An Air India A321 had an incident on take-off from Pune.
- The weather in north-western Europe was foul, with Storm Ciara playing havoc with schedules.
- And on a happier note, British Airways became the first autism-friendly airline
Let’s see what this week brings!