All Airframers articles – Page 1569

  • News

    JAL renews attack on costs

    1997-04-16T00:00:00Z

    Japan Airlines (JAL) is stepping up efforts to cut costs and restructure the company, including the shedding of 2,000 jobs, as the group once again faces a return to losses. The airline's newly unveiled medium-range plan for the five years through to March 2002 also calls for a ...

  • News

    Order boom forces Boeing to raise production rates

    1997-04-16T00:00:00Z

    Boeing is planning another increase in production rates as it prepares to keep pace with a surging orderbook and growing delivery backlog, now moving towards 1,500 aircraft. New urgency was injected into the company's continuous assessment of production rates by the Delta Air Lines order in March for ...

  • News

    Saab discusses South Pacific venture

    1997-04-16T00:00:00Z

    Saab Aircraft is discussing the setting up of a new South Pacific airline operation, in response to what it believes are unfounded complaints over the unreliability of the Saab 2000 being operated by state-owned Air Marshall Islands (AMI). Saab blames the AMI problems on inadequate spares support and ...

  • News

    Explosive progress

    1997-04-16T00:00:00Z

    On 5 May, 1987, a British Aerospace 146-200QT "Quiet Trader" freighter operating between Prestwick in the UK and a hub at Nuremburg, Germany, launched the European freight operations of Australia's TNT Transport group, which now trades as TNT Express Worldwide. In the ten years since then the company has established ...

  • News

    Weight of the world

    1997-04-16T00:00:00Z

    Until 1993, the world of freighter wet-leasing was an obscure one. This relatively minor niche in the air-transport business had few participants, most of them well-established, specialist all-cargo carriers. In 1993, however, Michael Chowdry, chairman and chief executive of Atlas Air, entered the scene with a "lone flyer" ...

  • News

    Boeing chases Paris launch for 777-200/300X

    1997-04-09T00:00:00Z

    Boeing has presented 777-200X/300X proposals to four major US and Asian airlines in an effort to launch the planned long-range twin derivatives in time for the Paris air show in June. At the same time Rolls-Royce (R-R) has become the second powerplant manufacturer to sign an agreement to offer a ...

  • News

    BGTlooks to pilot low-cost fly-by-wire for Tu-204

    1997-04-09T00:00:00Z

    German systems house Bodenseewerk Gerätetech-nik (BGT)has launched a feasibility study with Tupolev over fitting future versions of the Tu-204 twinjet with its low-cost, advanced, digital fly-by-wire (FBW)flight-control-system (FCS) technology. The contract with Tupolev comes as BGT steps up efforts to secure applications for its FBW technology, which it plans to ...

  • News

    Fokker Aviation selects R-R Tay 620 for re-engined F28

    1997-04-09T00:00:00Z

    Fokker Aviation has selected the Rolls-Royce Tay 620 engine for its proposed F28RE re-engineing programme, and is now entering final negotiations with the engine manufacturer. The engine, which has been chosen over the BMW Rolls-Royce BR710 and General Electric CF34-8C, already powers the F28's successors, the Fokker 70 ...

  • News

    Egypt's AMC orders launch MD-90-30ER

    1997-04-09T00:00:00Z

    AMC Aviation of Egypt has placed the launch order for the McDonnell Douglas MD-90-30ER (extended range), with a contract for two aircraft. The MD-90ER features increased maximum take-off weight (MTOW) and additional fuel tanks, to boost range to over 4,000km (2,200nm). Compared to the standard MD-90, ...

  • News

    Airbus offers extended-range HGW A330-300s

    1997-04-09T00:00:00Z

    Airbus Industrie is actively offering an increased weight, extended range derivative of the A330-300 twinjet, as final assembly of the first A330-200 progresses at Toulouse. The range of the new high-gross-weight (HGW) version of the -300 would typically be boosted by some 1,300km (700nm) to around 10,200km. The ...

  • News

    British Midland selects Airbus A320 family for fleet renewal

    1997-04-09T00:00:00Z

    British Midland Airways (BM) expects to sign a $1 billion firm order with Airbus Industrie for A320s and A321s in May, having concluded an initial memorandum of understanding in early April for up to 20 aircraft. The airline, which selected the Airbus single-aisle family over Boeing's 737-800 and ...

  • News

    Southwest's 737-700 enters flight-test...

    1997-04-09T00:00:00Z

    The second Boeing 737-700 is now flying in the colours of launch customer Southwest Airlines. The aircraft, which was unpainted for its maiden 2h 4min flight from Renton on 27 February, achieved an altitude of 41,000ft (12,500m) on 15 March, setting a new record for the type (Flight International, 26 ...

  • News

    Gulf Air reactivates TriStars following disposal of 767s

    1997-04-09T00:00:00Z

    Gulf Air is planning to return up to three of its five stored L-1011 TriStar 200s to service, for operation on services within the Gulf, and to the Indian sub-continent. The move comes in the wake of the sale of six Boeing 767-300ERs to Delta Air Lines. One ...

  • News

    Delta selects Trent to power Boeing 777s

    1997-04-09T00:00:00Z

    Rolls-Royce has secured its first US airline customer for the Trent 800, with the selection by Delta Air Lines of the Trent 892 to power its ten optioned Boeing 777-200s. The US carrier has placed a $500 million contract with General Electric to power the Boeing 767 component of the ...

  • News

    MDC talks up MD-80 freighter for China

    1997-04-09T00:00:00Z

    McDonnell Douglas (MDC) remains optimistic that its MD-80 cargo conversion plan proposed to Aviation Industries of China (AVIC) earlier this year will receive the go-ahead before the end of 1997, despite uncertainty caused by the planned merger with Boeing. A key aspect of the plan is the supply ...

  • News

    Air France re-activates Concorde from storage

    1997-04-09T00:00:00Z

    Air France is boosting its operational BAC/Aerospatiale Concorde fleet to six, with the planned return to service in early July of an aircraft which has been in storage at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport for the past five years. Despite plans for an expanded fleet, however, the French ...

  • News

    Indian carriers receive aircraft import...

    1997-04-09T00:00:00Z

    India's Civil Aviation Ministry has given the go-ahead for three domestic private airlines to increase their fleets by importing more aircraft. The approval, announced by the ministry's Aircraft Acquisition Committee (AAC), affects Skyline NEPC, JVG Group and Bengal Air. Bombay-based NEPC Skyline will add two Boeing 737-200s to ...

  • News

    Vietnam Airlines revises growth plans

    1997-04-09T00:00:00Z

    State-run Vietnam Airlines is revising plans to expand its passenger fleet in the wake of slower-than-expected traffic growth. In 1996, Vietnam Airlines carried 2.5 million passengers, an 18% increase over 1995. Senior airline officials, however, had been projecting growth of between 25% and 28%. As the result of ...

  • News

    Ill fated ambitions

    1997-04-09T00:00:00Z

    The Romaero Rombac BAC One-Eleven programme is rooted in former Romanian leader Nicolae Ceausescu's ambitions to make Romania independent of the Soviet Union. As a maverick among the former Communist Bloc leaders, Ceausescu had refused to take part in the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, and later exploited initially good ...

  • News

    Auditors warn on TWA losses

    1997-04-09T00:00:00Z

    TRANS WORLD Airlines (TWA)has been dogged by further poor financial news, with a warning from the group's auditors over the carrier's future in the light of mounting losses and falling cash reserves. The warning from KPMG Peat Marwick accompanies TWA's official filing of its annual results with the ...