All Networks news – Page 1256

  • News

    Safe and sound

    1997-12-03T00:00:00Z

    Once in a while, a proposal emerges that has so many clear benefits and so few potential dangers, that the only question is why it is still just a proposal. Within a few weeks, Europe's transport ministers will be faced with just such a compelling idea when they are asked ...

  • News

    Boeing's long stretch

    1997-12-03T00:00:00Z

    Guy Norris/SEATTLE BOEING'S stretched 777-300 carries a list of superlatives almost as long as the aircraft itself. The latest member of the Boeing family is the largest twin-engined aircraft ever built, the world's fastest widebody twin, the longest airliner ever made and the first transport big enough to replace the ...

  • News

    Asia's economic haze

    1997-12-03T00:00:00Z

    Brent Hannon/KUALA LUMPUR Concerns over the state of the once-unstoppable Asia-Pacific airline market were underlined again as the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) met in Kuala Lumpur in mid-November for the 41st assembly of presidents. The latest figures show a 25% drop in collective operating profits over ...

  • News

    Air France 'must spend more money' on new aircraft

    1997-12-03T00:00:00Z

    Julian Moxon/PARIS Air France must invest at least Fr40 billion ($6 billion) on new aircraft over the next five years if it is to remain competitive, the airline's new president Jean-Cyril Spinetta told a French Senate committee on 20 November. Aircraft-renewal plans centre on the need to replace ...

  • News

    Third MD-95 comes together

    1997-12-03T00:00:00Z

    Boeing has begun final assembly of the third MD-95 test airframe, called the T-3, with the fuselage barrel mated to the wing on 24 November. The first MD-95 is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year, with a first flight due to take place in early 1998. ...

  • News

    SAS Commuter looks to Dash 8-300X to replace Saab 2000s

    1997-12-03T00:00:00Z

    Ramon Lopez/TORONTO SAS Commuter underlined plans to standardise on the Bombardier de Havilland Dash 8 family for its regional-fleet needs at the unveiling ceremony of the new 70-seat Series 400, when it revealed that it will dispose of its 50-seat Saab 2000s when their leases expire early in the ...

  • News

    SIA is set to become star in the East

    1997-12-03T00:00:00Z

    The Star Alliance looks set to gain a seventh member as Singapore Airlines (SIA) officially broke away from its long-standing alliance with Swissair and Delta Air Lines on 25 November in favour of a wide-ranging partnership with Star-founder Lufthansa. Lufthansa chairman Jurgen Weber, speaking after the signing in Singapore ...

  • News

    Sabena optimistic

    1997-12-03T00:00:00Z

    Sabena president Paul Reutlinger believes that the airline's 1997 financial results will be better than the predicted BFr1.5 billion ($43 million) loss after a strong traffic performance during the first ten months of the year. Passenger numbers have grown by one-third and load factors on the core European network are ...

  • News

    The wall comes tumbling down?

    1997-12-01T00:00:00Z

    Lois Jones The Great Wall of China runs slap bang through Air China's offices. Or so it seems to the uninformed outsider. Over the years, the state-controlled Civil Aviation Administration of China has constructed a wall of resistance designed to keep outside influences and potential friends and foes away ...

  • News

    Hub fever

    1997-12-01T00:00:00Z

    In many industries, concentration forces have led to a few large mass producers with a global reach, each striving to achieve the lowest unit costs through increased efficiencies and higher production volumes. In the airline industry, global alliances are being created to achieve similar goals. However, the individual airline operators ...

  • News

    Hitch for BA and Qantas

    1997-12-01T00:00:00Z

    Alliance partners planning extended codesharing between Europe and Australia have had their strategies thrown into disarray by the Australian government's route rights authority. In a draft ruling the Canberra-based International Air Services Commission (IASC) shocked Qantas and British Airways by saying it will refuse them permission for a wide-ranging ...

  • 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

    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

    Chinese revolution?

    1997-12-01T00:00:00Z

    What gets bigger must get smaller. An unlikely paradox? Not for the Civil Aviation Administration of China. In its eyes, domestic traffic growth makes only one conclusion possible - the number of airlines must fall. Most airline CEOs would be positively drooling. A population of 1.224 billion is set ...

  • 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

    Autumn break is big turning point

    1997-12-01T00:00:00Z

    The severe turbulence seen in global equity markets this autumn will have a lasting impact on the climate in which publicly-quoted corporations operate. In purely economic terms it almost certainly signals an end to the exceptional growth seen around the world over the last few years. But its financial impact ...

  • News

    Garvey/Slater: great team work

    1997-12-01T00:00:00Z

    In her first major public speech as the US Federal Aviation Administrator, Jane Garvey may not have set the industry on fire, but the underlying message - coupled with recent announcements made by the Department of Transportation - was unmistakeable. Garvey is putting the FAA back on the straight and ...

  • 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

    Alliances: decision time approaches

    1997-12-01T00:00:00Z

    There can be few more important commercial issues for airlines than the future shape of their alliances. A series of regulatory decisions about major alliances is about to be made. The outcome will determine the shape of the airline business, for the next several years at least. At the ...