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Fly your ideas for a prize

EUROPE'S leading aircraft manufacturer, Airbus is launching an international competition "Fly Your Ideas" for student teams worldwide to come up with innovative ideas to shape the future of aviation and help to enhance the sector's eco-efficiency. The objective is to creat more value with less impact on the environment. The competition is open to college and university students from around the world, studying for Masters or PhD in any academic discipline, from engineering to marketing, business to science and philosophy to design. The proposals can look at a wide range of topics including new materials, products, processes as well as aircraft performance, manufacturing and organisational and operational performance.

A top prize of 30,000 euros is offered to the team whose idea demonstrates the greatest potential for improvement. The teams will advance through different competitive and challenging rounds, concluding with a live final at the Le Bourget Airshow in June 2009.

"The Fly Your Ideas competition gives students the opportunity to work with Airbus. Together we can share fresh and innovative ideas and thus shape the future of aviation," said Habib Fekih, President of Airbus Middle East. "As an eco-efficient enterprise, Airbus provides leadership by encouraging and delivering responsible solutions. With our university competition, we want to include new views and ideas in the early stages of our long term technology work," explained Patrick Gavin, Airbus Executive Vice President of Engineering and patron of the Fly Your Ideas competition.

Emergency landing for Lufthansa

A GERMAN Lufthansa Airbus A300-600 aircraft made an emergency landing at Malta International Airport last week after reporting a fire in its cargo hold. Eyewitnesses said the aircraft made a safe landing. The 205 passengers were immediately evacuated and there were no injuries. The plane had left Malta 25 minutes earlier bound for Frankfurt. There was no outside sign of fire. The plane later taxied towards the terminal building under its own power with a fire engine behind it. A faulty smoke detector was reported to be the cause of the incident.

EU rules to show full costs

NEW EU rules come into effect starting 1 November that will require airlines to show the full cost including fees, charges and taxes upfront. The new rules mean that passengers can see the breakdown of different categories of cost that make up the final price. The rules should help people avoid misleading advertising. Airlines will also not be able to impose charges on consumers without their consent.

BA passengers insulted

BRITISH Airways staff are mocking passengers as "smelly and annoying" and reckon Heathrow's new Terminal Five is a disaster. Some passengers are rated downright disgusting according to a Facebook page created by "BA London Gatwick Ground Staff". Their biggest hate is listed on the social networking site as "Passenger that puts boarding pass/passport in his/her mouth and then hands it back to you". Staff member "Suely" says her biggest gripes include smelly passengers and snotty celebrities. "Deepa", another staff, adds: "They ask which gate with their stupid American accent -- aaargggh!!! Its soooo annoying!!!!" BA boss Willie Walsh is mocked over Heathrow Terminal 5's shambolic opening in "Terminal Panic", a game in which he's hit by trolleys. A song has the words: "You can shove this terminal up your a**e." Two weeks ago Virgin Atlantic sacked 13 crew who branded passengers "chavs" on Facebook. BA, whose TV ads boasted they were "the world's favourite airline", said bosses will talk to staff involved about their "disappointing and unwise" comments.