All Networks news – Page 1246

  • News

    French Government gets going on Air France privatisation

    1998-02-11T00:00:00Z

    Julian Moxon/PARIS The privatisation of Air France has officially been launched, with the appointment of the two investment banks which will handle the sale for the French Government. Astake of close to 50%could be sold, including a holding for staff. The USA's Morgan Stanley and France's Crédit Agricole ...

  • News

    Moving goalposts

    1998-02-11T00:00:00Z

    The UK Government's decision to give British Aerospace £123 million ($200 million) launch aid for development work on the wing of the Airbus A340 500/600 airliner may give a much-needed morale boost to the UK aerospace industry, but it may also do little to bolster (and may even harm) the ...

  • News

    New stretch of 747 defined

    1998-02-11T00:00:00Z

    Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Boeing has revised its future 747 growth studies to include a 500-passenger stretch version with a larger wingspan, known as the -400Y Stretch, while dropping another long range variant dubbed the -400ERY. The company stresses that the only new version of the 747 being formally ...

  • News

    Airbus puts back entry into service of A3XX

    1998-02-11T00:00:00Z

    Julian Moxon/PARIS Airbus Industrie is to delay the entry into service of its planned 555-seat A3XX by at least nine months, to the third quarter of 2004. The consortium claims that the delay is "minor" and says that the current economic chaos in key Asian markets is not responsible ...

  • News

    EC to decide on Alitalia state aid probe

    1998-02-11T00:00:00Z

    Julian Moxon/PARIS Marco Messala/ROME The European Commission(EC) is to decide on 11 February whether to open an investigation into allegations that Alitalia has broken the state aid deal agreed in July 1997. EC transport commissioner Neil Kinnock has written to Italian minister for transport and navigation Claudio Burlando, ...

  • News

    Iberia picks Airbus A320 family for short haul fleet

    1998-02-11T00:00:00Z

    Iberia is to standardise on Airbus Industrie aircraft for its short haul fleet, following a decision to place orders for up 76 A320 family aircraft. The airline is to add 16 additional Boeing 757s for its short term needs, however. The Spanish flag carrier has signed a memorandum of ...

  • News

    ICAO examines global aviation impact model

    1998-02-11T00:00:00Z

    The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is considering adopting a model developed by Dutch civil-aviation authority, the RLD, to predict the environmental and socio-political effects of aviation regulatory decisions. Richard Hancox, project manager for UK transportation modelling specialist MVA, believes that Project AERO represents "the only detailed global model ...

  • News

    Regional revolution

    1998-02-11T00:00:00Z

    Kevin O'Toole/LONDON Regional aircraft manufacturers must, by now, be getting used to living in a perpetual state of revolution, and 1997 was no disappointment. The year began with Fokker delivering its last few aircraft and ended with the loss of another famous name, as Saab Aircraft announced its retreat ...

  • News

    Jet age dawns for 328

    1998-02-11T00:00:00Z

    Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH When the completed Fairchild Dornier 328JET was first shown to Reinhold Birrenbach, head of the 328 project since its turboprop days, he must have felt a little self-satisfied. "This is the way the aircraft always should have looked," he said, observing the clean lines of the newly fitted ...

  • News

    Brit float

    1998-02-04T10:20:00Z

    French regional airline Brit Air has floated 37% of its shares with the aim of raising around Fr150 million ($25 million) to help finance its new franchise operations for Air France. Under a deal signed in October, Brit Air will operate franchise services on 32 domestic routes. It is also ...

  • News

    Alliance Express

    1998-02-04T10:08:00Z

    Alliance Air has confirmed that it has taken a 49% stake in Air Rwanda, which it will run as Alliance Express. The new airline will start operations on 1 March from Rwandan capital Kigali, using a leased Boeing 737-200. Alliance hopes to establish an African feeder network to support its ...

  • News

    Air Europa focuses on feeding Balearic Islands

    1998-02-04T00:00:00Z

    Air Europa has revised its involvement in its regional subsidiary, Air Europa Express, focusing on feed within the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean. Air Europa Express began operations in early 1997 as a 50:50 joint venture between Air Europa and Canary Islands start-up Canarias Regional Air (CRA). It initially operated ...

  • News

    Boeing weighs up crisis in Asia

    1998-02-04T00:00:00Z

    Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Boeing expects to deliver 60 fewer aircraft, mainly 747s and 777s, to Asian airlines over the next three years, because of the region's economic downturn. The revised forecast implies the near-term cancellation or deferral of orders in hand from Asian airlines, but the company has yet ...

  • News

    Qantas and Virgin compete for Cathay's surplus 747-200s

    1998-02-04T00:00:00Z

    Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE Cathay Pacific Airways has entered into detailed discussions with Qantas of Australia and Virgin Atlantic Airways to sell its fleet of seven surplus Boeing 747-200 passenger aircraft. Qantas is also being offered an interim development of the proposed 747-400 increased-gross-weight (IGW) variant by Boeing to meet the carrier's ...

  • News

    Marketplace

    1998-02-04T00:00:00Z

    -Egyptair has signed a firm contract with Airbus Industrie for four A340-600s, including two orders and two options. It will introduce the 400-seat, Rolls-Royce Trent 500-powered A340 in 2003. -Southern Air Transport has taken delivery of a Boeing 747-200F, acquired from Northwest Airlines, which is being operated ...

  • News

    South African long-haul airline prepares to launch

    1998-02-04T00:00:00Z

    A new South African airline, Air South Africa, plans to launch services between Johannesburg and London with a Boeing 747 during the third quarter of this year. Although Air SA's licence was approved by Pretoria's Air Services Licensing Council in 1997, the launch has been postponed twice after delays in ...

  • News

    Ratioflug grounded

    1998-02-04T00:00:00Z

    The German civil-aviation authority (LBA) has withdrawn the operating certificate of Cologne-based Ratioflug because of unspecified financial problems. Ratioflug now has six months to bring its house in order, otherwise "one can assume that the company has ceased operations", says the LBA. The charter carrier operates two Fokker F27s two ...

  • News

    Routes

    1998-02-04T00:00:00Z

    -Northwest Airlines is suspending its three-times-weekly services between Detroit and Seoul, South Korea, from the beginning of February because of the economic downturn in the region.. -Frontier and Mountain Air Express (MAX)will start codesharing on 4 March at Denver International Airport, Colorado. -Canadian Airlines and LanChile will begin an ...

  • News

    US airline profits are 'best ever'

    1998-02-04T00:00:00Z

    The major US airlines ended 1997 with their strongest profits on record, but the celebrations were accompanied by the promise of more turbulence ahead, with the fall-out from Asian economic crisis and the prospect of a renewed round of consolidation closer to home following the Continental/Northwest Airlines tie-up. With only ...

  • News

    US giants digest their mergers

    1998-02-04T00:00:00Z

    Kevin O'Toole/LONDON After five years of breakneck consolidation, positions are firming up at the top of the US aerospace league, but attention now turns to digesting the latest, and probably last, series of mergers and acquisitions. With the 1997 round of annual financial results, Boeing reclaims its position at the ...