All air transport news – Page 2386
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News
BA demands give Airbus and Boeing delivery headaches
Max Kingsley Jones/LONDON British Airways is entering final negotiations with Airbus and Boeing to acquire its new short haul fleet, but the two manufacturers are having to discuss deals with leasing companies to help them meet the airline's requirements for early delivery slots. The UK carrier is aiming ...
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Asian crisis prompts Boeing to slow production
Boeing has confirmed that production of the 747 and 777 will slow next year in response to the economic downturn in Asia. The expected axing of some 12,000 jobs is also beginning as the company overcomes the worst of its fraught production ramp-up. Boeing's official production rate announcement for ...
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Business Air ponders ERJ-145 acquisition
Business Air is examining the Embraer RJ-145 as an alternative to the Saab 2000, which it had been planning to introduce as part of its expansion under British Midland (BM) ownership. The Aberdeen, Scotland-based regional wants a 50-seater to operate alongside its Saab 340s, and was close to a ...
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Cimber picks ATR 72s in fight to win Danish rail travellers
Julian Moxon/SONDERBORG Danish regional airline Cimber Air is to expand its fleet with the purchase of ATR 72s and, eventually, regional jets. The plan follows the airline's sale of a 26% stake to SAS. The carrier has been linked with SAS since October 1995, operating feeder services into ...
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Corsair moves to Airbus from all-Boeing fleet
French charter airline Corsair has confirmed its purchase of two Airbus A330-200s, with Rolls-Royce Trent 700s. The decision in favour of the European consortium was taken, says Corsair president Jacques Maillot, "-because Airbus reacted most quickly" to the request for proposals and "-presented the best financing package". The ...
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Garuda is in 'critical condition'
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE The situation at cash-strapped Garuda Indonesia looks set to deteriorate further, with debts mounting and warnings that the airline could face repossession of leased aircraft. Indonesian state enterprise minister Tanri Abeng has described the airline's condition as "critical", with reports that the carrier has $200 million ...
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Japan promises no-notice safety inspections
Andrew Mollett/TOKYO Japan, Shocked by fatal accidents to foreign airliners in its own territory, is to carry out no-notice inspections of aircraft starting next year, according to the Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB). The Bureau expects to conduct ramp inspections, implement tighter safety administration of wet-leased foreign aircraft, and ...
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Lufthansa looks at cargo version of Tu-204
Sirocco Aerospace demonstrated the Rolls-Royce RB211-powered Tupolev Tu-204-120C to Lufthansa in early June as a potential medium haul freighter for the airline's cargo division. Lufthansa is the technical advisor to the Sirocco programme, but wanted to check the freighter version's capacity to load/unload the containers and pallets used by ...
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Marketplace
-Air Macau is subleasing an Airbus A320 and five crews to TAP Air Portugal for six months during the period of the Lisbon Expo. The airline, in which TAP holds a 25% stake, has been suffering from falling demand on some Asian routes. -US Airways has accelerated deliveries of its ...
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Qantas picks RB211 power for 747-400s
Qantas has selected the improved Rolls-Royce RB211-524GT turbofan for its three recently ordered Boeing 747-400 passenger aircraft, clearing the way for a decision on a powerplant retrofit to the Australian carrier's 18 747-400s. The airline opted for the R-R engine after a competition involving the General Electric CF6-80C2 and ...
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Routes
-Iberia and Royal Air Maroc have signed a code-sharing agreement. -Swissair has added four new destinations to its route network, with the introduction of scheduled services from Zurich to Malabo (once weekly) and Skopje (four flights a week), as well as daily flights to Bologna and Venice in co-operation with ...
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Workshop
-Gulf Aircraft Maintenance (GAMCO) and Pratt & Whitney Eagle Services have signed a memorandum of understanding to "-further define business arrangements" to incorporate GAMCO into its global engine support operation. -Rotables management specialist Arinmar has signed a three-year agreement with British Aerospace RegionalAircraft to manage the repair and overhaul of ...
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Xian signs Y-7 deals with five Chinese domestic airlines
Xian Aircraft (XAC) has signed initial sales agreements with five domestic airlines for 11 Y-7-200A passenger aircraft, following recent Chinese airworthiness certification of the improved twin-turboprop development. China's Changan Airlines, Guizhou Airlines, Sichuan Airlines, Swan Airlines, and Zhongyuan Airlines have each signed letters of intent to take two to ...
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Alenia turns down Aerospatiale shareholding offer
Julian Moxon/PARIS The president of Alenia's defence division, Pier Francesco Guarguaglini, has rejected an invitation to become a shareholder in Aerospatiale and has questioned the French Government's "logic" in its approach to restructuring the European missiles industry. In French financial daily Les Echos, Guarguaglini says Alenia wants to ...
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Airline comeback disguises Asian crisis
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON Airline profits rebounded strongly to near record levels last year, says the International Air Transport Association (IATA),but director general Pierre Jeanniot again warns that margins remain too low and that the headline figures disguise the crisis still unfolding in Asia. The detailed figures, issued in the ...
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Thai puts aircraft deliveries on hold as financial woes bite
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE Thai Airways International has been forced to place on hold the delivery of seven new Airbus and Boeing aircraft as it struggles to secure $700 million in financing. At the same time, the state-owned carrier has moved a step closer to partial privatisation with Thai Government approval for ...
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Ailing Tigers
Anyone still nursing hopes that the Asian downturn would prove to be a short, albeit sharp, shock to the region's once buoyant airline industry, will have struggled to retain their optimism in the face of the extraordinary news pouring out over the past fortnight. Perhaps most ominous was the ...
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Australian purchase
Australia is close to finalising its purchase of Lockheed Martin/Rafael AGM-142 medium range air-to-ground precision guided missiles. Canberra announced its intention to buy the weapon two years ago and Lockheed Martin expected that details on the scope and value of the sale would be worked out before the end of ...
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Ageing airliner census 1998
SUPERSONIC Aerospatiale/BAe (BAC) Concorde Of the 20 Concordes built, 14 were delivered to Air France and British Airways between 1975 and 1980, and 13 remain in service. The remaining six aircraft - two prototypes, two pre-production aircraft and two production aircraft - were used for testing and not ...
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Supersonic rising sun
Paul Lewis/MITIKA Japanese engineers have long displayed a distinctive flair for futuristic transportation thinking. While there may be a tendency in the West to confine many such notions to the realms of science fiction, it is worth remembering that Japan is the home of the Shinkansen "bullet train" and the ...