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BOEING

Norwegian to confront Boeing over glitches

The budget airline Norwegian Air Shuttle announced a meeting on Monday with aircraft manufacturer Boeing to discuss technical problems with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

Norwegian to confront Boeing over glitches
Norwegian Airlines - Hans Olav Nyborg
"We have called Boeing to a meeting this week in Oslo," Norwegian spokesperson Aasa Larsson told AFP. "We are going to bring up the latest problems we've encountered with the Dreamliners."
 
The airline operates two Dreamliners from Boeing — part of an eight-plane order — which has been beset by delays and setbacks. Since their delivery the aircraft have experienced a series of technical problems.
   
Larsson said that Norwegian was not considering cancelling their order at this point, despite the setbacks, but the company may raise the issue of
compensation.
   
One of Norwegian's Boeing 787s bound for New York from Oslo was unable to take off at the weekend due to a problem with oxygen delivery to the cockpit, which remained unresolved on Monday, said Larsson.
   
A second Dreamliner then had to be rushed from Stockholm and also fell prey to a technical failure with a valve causing a four hour delay for passengers.
 
The technical hitches with the aircraft were just the latest in a long line of setbacks, including faulty hydraulic pumps, electrical problems and braking
issues which have regularly grounded the planes.
 
The Dreamliner, Boeing's latest commercial aircraft, has been hit by problems worldwide – most notably faulty batteries – which took the entire
fleet out of operation for four months in early 2013. 

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NORWEGIAN

Norwegian ranked most fuel efficient airline

Norwegian Air been ranked the world's most fuel efficient major airline in a new study released on Tuesday, thanks to its growing fleet of fuel efficient Dreamliner aircraft.

Norwegian ranked most fuel efficient airline
One of Norwegian Air Shuttle's Boeing 787 Dreamliners coming into land. Photo: Creative Commons
The study, by the International Council for Clean Transportation (ICCT), found that Norwegian used the least fuel per passenger of all the 20 major non-stop transatlantic carriers, using 51 percent less than the UK's BA. 
 
According to the study Norwegian's Scandinavian rival SAS was among the three least fuel efficient carriers, along with BA and Germany's Lufthansa.  Together, the three laggards account for some 20 percent of the transatlantic air travel market.
 
Air Berlin and Ireland's Aer Lingus came in second and third in the study, which the ICCT said was intended to provide greater insight into the fuel efficiency, and therefore carbon intensity, of international flights.
 
The study, which comes ahead of a Paris conference on climate change due to start November 30, showed Norwegian Air Shuttle, the world's seventh-largest low-cost airline, averaged 40 passenger kilometres per litre of fuel.
 
By comparison, Germany's second-largest airline Air Berlin had a fuel efficiency of 35 passenger kilometres per litre.
 
It was the US-based ICCT which helped to uncover the pollution cheating scandal at German auto giant Volkswagen in September after it tested actual emissions figures for diesel cars and found some Volkswagen models to be above permitted limits.
 
Noting the fuel efficiency disparities between the carriers, ICCT said seat configuration was a key factor in the results and that the average fuel burn of the aircraft used was also significant.
 
It also noted that first class and business class seats accounted for around a third of carbon emissions but only 14 percent of overall seats.
 
“The very high fuel efficiency of Norwegian Air Shuttle demonstrates the central role of technology in reducing CO2 emissions from the aviation sector,” the ICCT concluded.
 
“Airlines that invest in new, advanced aircraft are more fuel-efficient than airlines that use older, less efficient aircraft.”