All air transport news – Page 2452

  • News

    Varig entry boosts number of Star Alliance destinations

    1997-10-29T00:00:00Z

    Brazil's Varig Airlines has joined the growing list of Star Alliance members, with Lufthansa's president Jürgen Weber promising further signatures from "at least one" Asian carrier before the end of the year. The entry of Varig, which flies to every major South American destination, is initially restricted to ...

  • News

    FAA rethinks fuel-tank approval

    1997-10-29T00:00:00Z

    Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC In an apparent change of heart, the US Federal Aviation Administration is considering the case for changing the way it certificates commercial-aviation fuel tanks, say senior officials close to the year-long investigations into the mid-air explosion of a Trans World Airlines Boeing 747-100. ...

  • News

    US Airways selects engines and secures deliveries for A320s

    1997-10-29T00:00:00Z

    Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTONDC US Airways has moved closer to finalising its long-standing commitment for up to 400 Airbus A320 family aircraft, with the selection of CFM International CFM56 engines, and an agreement over the delivery schedule for the first 30 aircraft. Some of the early delivery positions ...

  • News

    Kiwi expands fleet

    1997-10-29T00:00:00Z

    Kiwi International is formalising plans for the acquisition of new aircraft types as it prepares to undertake gradual expansion. The airline will acquire four more aircraft to add to its fleet of eight Boeing 727-200s, with the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 or Fokker F28 being considered. Kiwi says that ...

  • News

    New BMW R-R chief cuts board numbers

    1997-10-29T00:00:00Z

    New BMW Rolls-Royce chairman Klaus Nittinger has started making moves to tighten the firm's management by removing the finance director. Former finance director Günter Frölich left the company early in October. BMW R-R says that this reduces the membership of the company's board of management from five to ...

  • News

    Virgin Express plans to join public bandwagon

    1997-10-29T00:00:00Z

    Virgin Express is to become the latest of Europe's low-cost carriers to seek a public listing ,with plans to launch on the Brussels stock exchange and the USNASDAQ exchange. Start-ups UKDebonair and Belgian's City Bird have sought listings on Europe's EASDAQ, while Ireland's Ryanair has also recently floated. ...

  • News

    Balancing Act

    1997-10-29T00:00:00Z

    Boeing is losing money because it's making too many airliners; Saab is losing money because it's making too few. Both are victims of a market which refuses to conform to the normal laws of economics - but each could benefit from the other's woes. Boeing's ...

  • News

    Boeing hopes to clinch Kuwaiti Apache contract

    1997-10-29T00:00:00Z

    Boeing expects to sell 16 AH-64D Longbow Apache helicopters to Kuwait before 1998, but the foreign-military-sales deal may not cover the Longbow fire-control radar (FCR). In September, the Clinton Administration disclosed that Kuwait is seeking to buy 16 AH-64Ds, 384 Hellfire missiles, spare engines and other related weapons ...

  • News

    Airbus supplement: A320 family

    1997-10-29T00:00:00Z

    The decision to develop the Airbus A320 around a fly-by-wire flight-control system was "-one of the most difficult I ever made", says the consortium's ex-president Roger Béteille. "Perhaps we were too bold - we had no choice. Either we were going to be first with new technologies or we could ...

  • News

    Airbus supplement: A330 A340

    1997-10-29T00:00:00Z

    When Airbus first discussed the A340 seriously with potential customers in the mid-1980s, "...the maximum range requirement was not much more than 6,000nm [11,100km]," recalls Airbus vice president strategic planning Adam Brown. "By launch in 1987 this had grown to 6,600nm [12,200km], and the A340-300 now in production can fly ...

  • News

    Airbus supplement: A3XX

    1997-10-29T00:00:00Z

    When it enters service in 2003, the A3XX will be the world's biggest civil aircraft. Perhaps more significantly, at least from the commercial point of view, the European giant will complete the Airbus range and remove at a stroke Boeing's long-held monopoly in extra-large people carriers. For three ...

  • News

    Airbus supplement: Pioneer to pace-setter

    1997-10-29T00:00:00Z

    Airbus Industrie's ultimate greatest impact will be on the shape of the European industry, but for much of its history so far the biggest headlines have been about its technology. The driver of much of that headline-grabbing technology has been Bernard Ziegler, who recently retired as senior vice president engineering. ...

  • News

    Airbus supplement: Restructuring

    1997-10-29T00:00:00Z

    Wherever aerospace executives gather to discuss consolidation of Europe's aerospace industry, it will not be long before the talk turns to Airbus Industrie and its anxiously awaited restructuring. Whatever other pitfalls may yet befall Europe on the way towards the holy grail of consolidation, it has become an ...

  • News

    Airbus supplement: Airbus; 25 years after take-off

    1997-10-29T00:00:00Z

    Airbus Industrie has come a long way since its first aircraft, the A300, took to the air 25 years ago this week, on 28 October, 1972. What was once regarded as something of a curiosity by its rivals across the Atlantic has emerged as the only world challenger to the ...

  • News

    Airbus supplement: A300 A310

    1997-10-29T00:00:00Z

    When Airbus Industrie rolled out its first A300 at Toulouse in September 1972, the aircraft received perhaps less attention from the assembled crowd than it deserved. Parked opposite was one of the prototype Concordes, which was still grabbing headlines around the world. Yet, while the sleek supersonic airliner may have ...

  • News

    American Blimp lines up A-150 production

    1997-10-29T00:00:00Z

    American Blimp lines up A-150 production American Blimp, of Severna Park, Maryland, has launched production of the nine-passenger Lightship A-150 having "-clearly identified" customers for the first five airships. The A-150 was awarded US certification in September, and the first airship has been delivered to The ...

  • News

    777 suffers new engine troubles

    1997-10-29T00:00:00Z

    Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Pratt & Whitney and General Electric are inspecting their respective PW4090 and GE90 engines for the Boeing 777, after a new series of problems with powerplants on British Airways and United Airlines aircraft. The GE90 suffered a crack in a rotating seal on ...

  • News

    BA boosts Gatwick by transferring 777-200s

    1997-10-29T00:00:00Z

    British Airways is to widen the role of Airline Management (AML), its low-cost joint venture which operates long-haul routes from Gatwick Airport, as part of an expansion which will see BA's capacity from London's second airport increase by 25% from mid-1998. It has confirmed plans to transfer five ...

  • News

    Boeing pays the price for production crisis

    1997-10-29T00:00:00Z

    The full financial impact of Boeing's growing commercial production and delivery crisis has been revealed, with costs estimated at $2.6 billion attributed to late deliveries and recovery plans. The bulk of the costs, some $1.6 billion, are associated with penalty payments for late deliveries in the third quarter, ...

  • News

    EC will inspect Delta's new Boeing sole-supplier deal

    1997-10-29T00:00:00Z

    Delta Air Lines has signed a definitive 20-year, 644-aircraft, sole-supplier contract with Boeing, but says that the manufacturer cannot enforce any exclusivity provisions unless permitted by the European Commission(EC). The EC has said that it will examine the contract, which Boeing maintains meets the terms imposed as a ...