All air transport news – Page 2339

  • News

    Boeing hits bottleneck

    1997-12-01T00:00:00Z

    Boeing is trying hard to swallow a bitter pill of late delivery charges and costs linked to production delays and to get back on top of its aircraft production rate buildup. Boeing's decision to shut down its B747 and B737 production lines for a month follows a frenzy of ...

  • News

    Hangover cure

    1997-12-01T00:00:00Z

    Karen Walker 'Swire prince' are words often whispered in the wake of David Turnbull, an acknowledgement of his rapid rise through the management strata of the Swire Group. His 21 years of experience at Swire have been tested severely over the last 12 months, however, since he inherited one ...

  • News

    Taiwanese ties that bind

    1997-12-01T00:00:00Z

    China Airlines may have replaced the national flag on its aircraft tail with a plum blossom, but it is still struggling to disentangle itself from government interference. The reins of power controlling China Airlines are firmly back in the grip of Taiwan's ministry of transport and communications, after the ...

  • News

    China cries out for more

    1997-12-01T00:00:00Z

    The announcement of a $50 billion order by China for Boeing aircraft coincides with an unseemly scrap for the Airbus aircraft ordered four years ago. Some carriers are set to miss out on their request for Airbus A320s and A321s as demand outstrips the 30 aircraft ordered by China ...

  • News

    Shanghai shangrila

    1997-12-01T00:00:00Z

    Lois Jones Any visitor to Shanghai is easily charmed by its bewildering mix of old and new. Neon lights bejewel 1920s façades, and rickshaws vie for space with resplendent new Volkswagens in the city's ever-widening roads. It's fitting that as the main carrier serving China's eastern gateway, China ...

  • News

    Southern belle

    1997-12-01T00:00:00Z

    Lois Jones Chairman Mao would not have approved. If, as Mao alleged, western-style commercialism and capitalism are corrupt, then China Southern Airlines is rotten to the core. As China closes the book on socialist economic dogma and emancipates its state-owned enterprises, China Southern is one of the first ...

  • News

    Sabena lures City Bird

    1997-12-01T00:00:00Z

    Sabena has stepped up the defence of its Brussels base by taking an option to buy up to 25 per cent of City Bird, the low-cost Belgian long-haul start-up. However, the deal threatens to send out confusing signals to Sabena's alliance partners and passengers who are already struggling with ...

  • News

    Airline News

    1997-12-01T00:00:00Z

    Air France relocated its London/Heathrow-Strasbourg service to London/City on 27 October, and began codesharing with Finnair on three daily Paris/Charles de Gaulle-Helsinki flights. Jersey European Airways is oper-ating franchise services for Air France on Paris/CDG- Birmingham-Glasgow. Air France has launched a new twice weekly Paris/CDG-Newcastle service in a franchise deal ...

  • News

    Airlines drop French polish

    1997-12-01T00:00:00Z

    French carriers are lining up to follow the lead taken by startups Virgin Express and EasyJet, with the first no-frills operator due to enter the market by the end of March 1998. A former EuroBelgian Airlines commercial director, Bernard Brejoux, is working on plans to launch a low-cost operation, ...

  • News

    Hong Kong lowers fees

    1997-12-01T00:00:00Z

    It sometimes pays to complain. Airlines have won their battle against the proposed fees at Hong Kong's new Chek Lap Kok airport, which were originally to have been double those at Kai Tak. After more than a year of heated negotiations, the airport authority has sliced between 25 per ...

  • News

    Japan-Taiwan make a deal

    1997-12-01T00:00:00Z

    After a decade of talks Japan and Taiwan have finally reached an agreement on increased air services, including clearance for a Taiwanese carrier to operate directly into Osaka for the first time in quarter century. Under the deal, Taiwan's EVA Airways will be allowed daily flights into Osaka/Kansai airport ...

  • News

    US veers to port in Japan

    1997-12-01T00:00:00Z

    The US is continuing its hard line in bilateral talks with Japan in the wake of its victory over the shipping showdown with Tokyo. The chances of an outline agreement being signed at the Apec economic summit in Vancouver on 24 November seemed slim but an accord seemed imminent. ...

  • News

    Jet propelled into action

    1997-12-01T00:00:00Z

    India's second biggest domestic airline, Jet Airways, is shedding long-time equity partners and forging links with new allies, as well as gearing up to take on rivals Air India and Indian Airlines on international services. It's all change as far as Jet's partners are concerned. Middle East operators Gulf ...

  • News

    Born again airlines

    1997-12-01T00:00:00Z

    Karen Walker. Those low-fare, low-cost US airlines still standing as the year draws to a close may well wish to take a bow. In sharp contrast to the US majors, for them 1997 will have been a year of survival rather than profitability. For the low-cost airlines that are ...

  • News

    Conquering TAP's markets

    1997-12-01T00:00:00Z

    Portugalia has cemented its position as the first and, so far, the only home-grown challenger to TAP since its launch in 1990. The carrier is one of the best examples of the gradual impact of deregulation in Europe. It has followed an opportunistic path from the domestic market through limited ...

  • News

    Saab out but Fokker in?

    1997-12-01T00:00:00Z

    As Saab prepares to make its formal exit from the manufacture of regional aircraft, attempts to resurrect the production of Fokker jets are continuing. Saab's official statement merely says that the company is examining the possible closure of its Saab 340 and Saab 2000 aircraft production lines, but a ...

  • News

    S Africa to sell airports

    1997-12-01T00:00:00Z

    At least 29 airport operators from Europe, North America and Asia have expressed an interest in the privatisation of South Africa's nine state-owned airports. According to the Department of Transport's advisers, Deutsche Morgan Grenfell, the government initially plans to sell 49 percent of the Airports Company South Africa (ACSA), ...

  • News

    A pan-European hubbing pioneer

    1997-12-01T00:00:00Z

    As its chairman and chief executive officer, Franco Mancassola makes no apology for his personification of Debonair's brand image. And with a penchant for designer clothes, expensive cars and the more upmarket passenger, nor does he make any attempt to disguise his disdain for some more downmarket, no-frills rivals. ...

  • News

    Easy does it

    1997-12-01T00:00:00Z

    Easy come, easy go. Hopefully EasyJet's use of this slogan to depict its ticketless booking and rapid check-in and boarding procedures will never apply to its presence in the European airline industry. Few think it will. The airline's charismatic chairman, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, has made sure his startup uses technology ...

  • News

    A tale of two startups

    1997-12-01T00:00:00Z

    Jackie Gallacher Two startup carriers, two philosophies. Ironically, while EasyJet and Debonair have a lot in common, their differences are at the root of the strong rivalry between their chairmen, respectively Stelios Haji-Ioannou - the young and wealthy owner of a Greek shipping company - and Franco Mancassola, an ...