All air transport news – Page 2325

  • News

    Eleven men to go at MEA

    1998-02-01T00:00:00Z

    Lois Jones Struggling Lebanese flag carrier Middle East Airlines has named a new seven-man board of directors, after the former board was ousted amid corruption allegations. MEA's outgoing 11-man board has been replaced by one headed by Mohammed Hout, the director of real estate affairs at Banque du ...

  • News

    Mesa is no longer united

    1998-02-01T00:00:00Z

    Karen Walker A parting of the ways between codeshare partners United Airlines and Mesa Air Group is posing questionmarks over Mesa's future and possible new partners for United. Regional independent Mesa, which operates as America West Express, United Express, US Airways Express, WestAir and Mesa Airlines, has been ...

  • News

    Cheap thrills with no frills

    1998-02-01T00:00:00Z

    Lois Jones Low-cost startups are beginning to looking extremely vulnerable as more majors launch low-cost subsidiaries, ignoring the argument that the independent players should instead be left to satisfy the demand for low fares in underserved markets. By Lois Jones. To your corners, please. To the left of the ring ...

  • News

    US hubs need to be consolidated

    1998-02-01T00:00:00Z

    Karen Walker Driven as they are by the shareholder, the major US carriers will no doubt sit up and take notice of a new report from a Wall Street analyst that assesses their growth potential, and therefore investment worth, based on the relative strengths and weaknesses of their hubs. ...

  • News

    Embraers to Spain

    1998-01-28T09:58:00Z

    Embraer has received an order from new Spanish carrier European Regions Airlines for two RJ145s, to be delivered in December 1998 and January 1999, with three options. The airline will operate the aircraft at its Palma, Majorca, base and Vitoria on the mainland.   Source: Flight International

  • News

    Fairchild Dornier flies 328JET

    1998-01-28T00:00:00Z

    Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH Fairchild Dornier flew its prototype 328JET for the first time on 20 January, bringing it a step closer to entering the emerging 30-seat regional-jet market. The aircraft took off at 11:16 local time from the company's Oberpfaffenhofen site near Munich, and was flown for nearly 2h over the ...

  • News

    Boeing 737-600 takes off

    1998-01-28T00:00:00Z

    Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES The Boeing 737-600 had a successful 2h 28min first flight from Renton on 22 January on a day when firm orders for Next Generation aircraft climbed to 811, with the sale of 59 more to launch-customer Southwest Airlines. The -600's take-off weight was a relatively light 50,395kg, ...

  • News

    Blue Sky prepares for launch as PAL 737-300s are secured

    1998-01-28T00:00:00Z

    Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON British Airways has secured a fleet of eight Boeing 737-300s to launch its low-fare subsidiary at London Stansted Airport. The airline, known as Operation Blue Sky, has also applied for its operating licence. The airline, which is believed to be aiming for a launch in April, has filed ...

  • News

    Air China agrees deal to acquire 737-800s

    1998-01-28T00:00:00Z

    Air China has signed a purchase agreement with Boeing for five 737-800s and taken options on another 15 as part of China Aviation Supplies' (CASC) recently announced order for 50 widebodies and narrowbodies. The five 167-seat aircraft are the first Next Generation 737s to be officially purchased by a ...

  • News

    Boeing perseveres as EVA discusses A340 order

    1998-01-28T00:00:00Z

    EVA Airways has opened contractual negotiations with Airbus Industrie on ordering six A340-500s, plus six options, but has not ruled out placing orders with Boeing. It holds an unsigned letter-of-intent (LoI) for a similar number of proposed 747-200ERXs. Despite EVA having earlier signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with ...

  • News

    Iberia delays order plans following Air Europa deal

    1998-01-28T00:00:00Z

    Iberia Has alleviated its fleet-capacity shortfall in the near term by signing a franchise agreement with its Spanish rival Air Europa, while at the same time delaying its planned acquisition of new aircraft. Iberia has been wet-leasing two Boeing 757s from Air Europa for the past six months, along ...

  • News

    KLM finalises rebranding of European partners

    1998-01-28T00:00:00Z

    KLM is to unveil plans to rebrand its European airline partners, co-ordinating the separate companies' images more closely with its own. Air UK is set to cement its role as the UK arm of KLM by unveiling a new image and renaming itself "KLM UK". The new name will ...

  • News

    Thrusting ahead

    1998-01-28T00:00:00Z

    Hurel-Dubois has transferred work on thrust reversers for the Embraer RJ145 regional-jet family to its UK plant in Burnley, Lancashire, from its French site "for financial reasons". The contract, awarded in May 1995 to its International Nacelle Systems joint venture with Shorts Brothers, is worth up to $100 million, says ...

  • News

    Airbus output boost

    1998-01-28T00:00:00Z

    Airbus Industrie financial controller Ian Massey says that the manufacturer's five-year plan includes the target to cut production lead-time for narrowbodied aircraft to six months from the current nine months, while that for widebodied aircraft will be reduced to ten months from the current 15.5 months. Source: Flight International

  • News

    Airbus set for A319 order from Royal Brunei

    1998-01-28T00:00:00Z

    Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE Royal Brunei Airlines (RBA) has reached a tentative agreement with Airbus Industrie to place an initial order for two A319s, in a move which will affect its wider-ranging selection of a new fleet of widebodies. The airline has accepted an Airbus offer on two A319s available ...

  • News

    Airlines want Regional's Saabs

    1998-01-28T00:00:00Z

    Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON Two European airlines, Business Air and CityJet, are in negotiations to acquire secondhand Saab 2000s from Regional Airlines, the second-largest operator of the type, which is preparing to standardise on the Embraer RJ145 regional jet. Regional has a fleet of 11 Saab 2000s, including six delivered new to ...

  • News

    Routes

    1998-01-28T00:00:00Z

    -From 21 February Qantas will suspend its twice weekly Brisbane-Jakarta-Kuala Kumpur and Melbourne-Jakarta services, suspend its thrice-weekly Brisbane-Bangkok service and extend its thrice-weekly Perth-Jakarta service to Bangkok, adding one flight a week while suspending its non-stop Perth-Bangkok service. -Dragonair plans to launch a new thrice weekly passenger service from Hong ...

  • News

    United includes San Francisco in Express agreement with SkyWest

    1998-01-28T00:00:00Z

    United Airlines has selected SkyWest Airlines to replace Mesa Air Group's WestAir as the United Express regional carrier in San Francisco, California, from 1 June. SkyWest began United Express operations in October 1997, replacing WestAir in Los Angeles. The carrier says that talks continue with United about also replacing ...

  • News

    Funding cut signals end to Japan regional jet

    1998-01-28T00:00:00Z

    Japan is preparing to call a halt to its long-running YS-X regional-aircraft study, with the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) refusing to pump further funding into the project beyond the end of the financial year. The Japan Aircraft Development (JADC) consortium is understood to be drawing up ...

  • News

    Dasa achieves record figures

    1998-01-28T00:00:00Z

    AndrzejJeziorski/MUNICH Daimler-Benz Aerospace (Dasa) has underlined the turnaround in Germany's long-suffering aerospace industry, revealing record sales for 1997 and promising profits across the group. Full profit figures will be revealed on 8 April, but Dasa chairman Manfred Bischoff claims that the results will exceed expectations, with every business unit back ...