All air transport news – Page 2234
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Routes
-Royal Brunei Airlines gives "the regional economic situation" as its reason for "temporarily" suspending scheduled services between Bandar Seri Begawan in Brunei and Osaka, Japan. -Northwest Airlines is to double its seasonal frequency between Tokyo, Japan and Anchorage, Alaska, by operating two weekly McDonnell Douglas DC-10 flights. -Royal Air Maroc ...
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Swiss World seeks protection from bankruptcy
Swiss World Airways (SWA) suspended operations on 2 December after suffering consistently poor load factors on its single route between Geneva and New York Newark. The airline has informed the Swiss Federal Office for Civil Aviation (OFAC) that it is seeking Chapter 11-style bankruptcy protection through the courts and ...
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Moscow court case brings end to Aeroflot/Transaero union
Alexander Velovich and Paul Duffy/MOSCOW The two-year-old alliance between Aeroflot Russian International Airlines and Transaero has ended, following a Moscow court ruling that Aeroflot must pay Transaero R3 million ($176,000) as a balance of mutual financial claims by the two airlines. In early September, Aeroflot officially informed Transaero ...
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Belgium's City Bird announces first profits
Herman De Wulf/BRUSSELS Belgian long haul airline City Bird is diversifying into main-deck freight operations with a deal to acquire two new Airbus A300-600Fs for delivery in mid-1999. The expansion comes as the low-cost passenger carrier recorded its first net profit since starting operations on 27 March,1997. Last ...
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Frontier share purchase makes Vanguard tie-up a possibility
The main shareholders of Kansas City-based Vanguard Airlines have taken an 8% shareholding in Denver-based Frontier Airlines and hinted about a possible combination of the two regional US airlines. The investors, headed by William Hambrecht, say that it is desirable for Frontier to explore various relationships with Vanguard or ...
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Government saves Air Namibia
Hilka Birns/CAPE TOWN The Namibian Government has injected N$20-million ($3.7 million) into Air Namibia and has appointed a Malaysian financier to restructure, and re-capitalise the troubled national carrier as a state-owned company. The move takes the airline out of the control of state holding company TransNamib, which has ...
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Deadline looms over subsidy allegations
Rival manufacturers Bombardier and Embraer will complete their presentation of written submissions by 15 December to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over a long-running wrangle involving the alleged use of subsidies to sell regional aircraft. The manufacturers have made a formal submission and rebuttal to the two WTO dispute ...
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Waiting to happen
If airline flight safety is the issue, the US Federal Aviation Administration is almost always a world leader in developing systems to promote it. There is one area - flight operations quality assurance (FOQA) - however, in which it has long wanted to advance, but has been immobilised by circumstances ...
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Lockheed urged to hurry C-130J orders
Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC Political pressure is mounting on the US Air Force to accelerate its planned purchase of additional new Lockheed Martin C-130J transports by up to four years to fill a shortfall in orders after 2000 and a threatened temporary shutdown in production. Lockheed Martin has existing ...
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F-22 Raptor flight testing clears critical targets
Flight testing of the Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor has passed the critical 183h mark, clearing the way for the US Congress to release $800 million in funding for two production representative test vehicles (PRTVs) and long-lead items for the initial Lot I batch of six fighters. The first two ...
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Agreement reached on J-STARS work
Northrop Grumman and Raytheon have agreed to develop the Radar Technology Insertion Programme (RTIP) radar upgrade for the Northrop Grumman Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS), ending a row between the companies over the project. Research and development work will be split 50:50, with Raytheon becoming a subcontractor ...
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Dawn of the auxiliary
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Tables complied by Air Transport Intelligence Auxiliary Power units (APUs) rarely grab the headlines. Until recent times, any mention of APUs has generally been for the wrong reasons - failures, poor reliability and inadequate support. Now it seems the tide has turned in virtually every aspect ...
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ATR holds 728JET partnership discussions
Julian Moxon/PARIS ATR is holding discussions on a possible regional jet partnership with Fairchild Dornier, as it postpones plans to launch its proposed ATR Airjet 70 into 1999. The Aerospatiale/Alenia partnership is also continuing talks on a tie-up with Embraer. Industry sources say the surprise talks between the ...
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Joint Strike Fighter engines under test
All four engine variants for the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) concept demonstrators are under test at Pratt &Whitney. The F119 derivative, which will power Boeing's X-32B short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) JSF demonstrator, entered ground testing in late November, joining three other engines already being tested for the programme. ...
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Dasa Airbus looks for staff as order grows
DaimlerChrysler Aerospace (Dasa) Airbus is to recruit 850 staff during the next 12 months to help it keep pace with the Airbus consortium's growing orderbook. In return for the extra jobs, the company has secured major union concessions that should allow it to react more quickly to production rate ...
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Swissair reveals Express brand
Swissair is introducing an Express brand to coincide with the launch on 5 November of wet-lease services by Debonair of the UK on behalf of the Swiss flag carrier and Italian independent airline Air One. Debonair will operate one of its British Aerospace 146-200s, painted in Swissair Express colours, ...
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Business Express sale
US carrier American Eagle is to purchase Business Express Airlines. The carrier operates 43 Saab 340s from major bases at Boston Logan and New York LaGuardia. The value of the deal has not been disclosed. American Eagle will initially operate Business Express as a separate company and gradually combine operations. ...
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Developing crisis
It is a nightmare scenario for any company. Immense production problems are overcome at huge expense, just in time for the market to collapse. For Boeing, the timing could hardly be worse. As quickly as the company's production recovery takes effect, the deepening impact of the Asian economic crisis starts ...
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Aer Lingus will sign up strategic partner 'by the first half 2000'
Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON Aer Lingus should be ready to decide on its strategic partner by the end of the first quarter of 1999, enabling a firm agreement to be finalised during 2000. The airline's executive vice-president for Europe, Richard Luchente, says that the carrier is discussing a strategic partner ...
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Air France plans US link to pave the way toward a global alliance
Julian Moxon/PARIS Air France expects to join a global airline alliance based on an agreement with one of its two US partners, "before the end of 1999", according to the airline's president Jean Cyril Spinetta. The signing of the co-operation pact between KLM and Alitalia on 27 November ...