All Airframers articles – Page 1575
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News
Regionals split from British Midland
Airlines of Britain Holdings (ABH), which owns British Midland (BM),has split off its regional airlines into a separate grouping, in a move designed to free the operations to increase their franchise links with British Airways as BM moves closer to Lufthansa. The bulk of ABH's regional operations, which ...
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Royal Brunei outlines its plans for fleet replacement
Royal Brunei Airlines is looking to re-equip with a new fleet of longer-range, larger-capacity, narrow and widebody aircraft, to support its strategic goal of operating worldwide by 2000. The airline is talking to Airbus Industrie and Boeing about acquiring additional aircraft or new types by the end of ...
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Cargo gets top priority in China
China plans to virtually triple its cargo-aircraft fleet to 660 by the year 2000. The increase forms part of ambitious plans to expand its airborne freight market by around 14% a year, making it the main priority of the national aviation growth strategy. Zhou Baokou, deputy director of ...
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Lufthansa Cityline
Lufthansa is fighting hub congestion by offering an increasing number of direct city-to-city flights, both within Germany and to destinations in Europe, avoiding its hubs at Frankfurt and Munich. Flying 320 flights daily to European centres on routes for which traffic is too light for a 100-seat aircraft is the ...
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The importance of independence
Sir - Andrew Tetley, in his letter about the UK Civil Aviation Authority-proposed stick-shaker for the Dassault Falcon 2000 (Flight International, 12-18 February, P55), refers to an important matter of principle which has received little or no public debate. It concerns the ability, or otherwise, of national airworthiness authorities of ...
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Aircraft news
Emirates has ordered 16 Airbus A330-200s, with options on a further seven, with deliveries of the Trent 700-powered aircraft starting in 1999. Dragonair has ordered one A330-300, scheduled for delivery in late 1998. Croatia Airlines has ordered six A319s, with deliveries commencing in early 1998. ...
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Viasa future looks bleak
Iberia and the Venezuelan government were playing a game of brinksmanship at presstime after flag carrier Viasa ran out of cash and ceased operations on 23 January. Both sides are believed to be willing to let the airline fold but, according to one source close to the negotiations, ...
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Surviving the customer
Innovation has always been difficult in the airline business. The basic airline product is uniform throughout the industry, and any incremental change by one carrier is usually taken up by its competitors quickly - if it is successful. To survive and stay ahead of their competitors, airlines are constantly looking ...
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Freight frighteners
After persistently failing to ensure on-time delivery of its product to Japan by air, a major European pharmaceutical company was forced to take a multi-million dollar stake in a local Japanese drug company to ensure consistency of supply in a last desperate bid to retain a foothold in this lucrative ...
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Alitalia and Honeywell/Racal to run Aero-1 satcoms trial
Alitalia is to run a single-aircraft trial of new-generation satellite-communication (satcom) avionics intended to reduce call charges drastically. The Italian flag carrier has agreed with the Honeywell/Racal Avionics satcom team to put the Aero-I equipment on a McDonnell Douglas MD-80 once the new service is implemented by Inmarsat - ...
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Lufthansa and SAS extend partnership to cargo flights
Lufthansa Cargo and SAS Cargo have prepared a plan to extend the Lufthansa/SAS strategic partnership - which has to date concentrated on passenger operations - into the cargo field. From the end of March, the airlines' cargo sales teams will offer both companies' products and services. Integration of ...
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News
Qatar finalises fleet renewal plan
Qatar Airways has arranged to lease two Airbus A300s to replace its fleet of Boeing 747s on long-haul services from its base in Doha. The airline, which underwent a major management and strategic revamp late in 1996 (Flight International 11-17 December 1996, P10), will introduce two ex-Garuda Pratt & ...
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Airbus to introduce 'build to order' for A300/A310s
Airbus Industrie is to start producing its A300 and A310 widebody twins on a "build-to-order" basis, in an effort to cut the number of aircraft which are having to be stored before delivery to customers. The A300/A310 firm backlog stands at only 29 aircraft, and the current production rate ...
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Manx Airlines selects EMB-145
Manx Airlines has finalised its long-awaited regional-jet order with a contract for up to five Embraer EMB-145s, the first of which will be delivered in June for operation on the airline's British Airways Express franchise services. The airline selected the Brazilian regional jet after a three-way fight involving ...
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Norway narrows fighter choice to EF2000/F-16
The Norwegian defence ministry has confirmed that it has shortlisted the Eurofighter consortium and Lockheed Martin to begin negotiations to select a winner to meet its KFA-96 fighter requirement to replace its obsolescent Northrop F-5s. The decision, first revealed in Flight International (12-18 February), will eventually lead to ...
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S-80 heads for 1998 first flight
Sukhoi is to complete manufacturing tooling in March for series production of its S-80 passenger/utility aircraft at the KNAAPO production plant in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Russia. The fuselage and wing of the first prototype are being assembled, and nose sections of the first three aircraft are now complete. Current plans ...
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Extra investigates turboprop EA 400
German aircraft manufacturer Extra Flugzeugbau is investigating a turboprop version of its six-seat EA 400 tourer machine. According to Extra, the idea has attracted strong interest from potential customers, particularly in the light of the US Federal Aviation Administration's forthcoming repeal of the ban on commercial, instrument-flight-rules (IFR), ...
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NTSB springs 737 rudder surprise
The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) surprised Boeing and the Federal Aviation Administration on 20 February by unexpectedly announcing recommendations for modifying Boeing 737 rudders. Initial reports view the NTSB recommendations as a move to speed up the retrofit and inspection programme agreed by Boeing and the ...
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KLM selects vendors for 747 upgrade
KLM has selected Canadian Marconi to provide the integrated global-positioning-system/flight-management system and act as systems integrator for the Dutch carrier's planned flightdeck upgrade for its fleet of 13 Boeing 747-200/300 Classics. Other vendors selected include Litton Aero Products, to supply the replacement inertial-reference system, and Smiths Industries, to ...
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Kawasaki, R-R reconsider plans for Trent 900 engine
Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) is considering relinquishing its 6% risk-sharing stake in Rolls-Royce's Trent 900 programme, as both companies study whether the potential market for the engine justifies the estimated $450 million development cost. Boeing's decision to shelve its 747-X project earlier this year leaves the Airbus A3XX, which will ...