All Safety News – Page 1264
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Air France plans US link to pave the way toward a global alliance
Julian Moxon/PARIS Air France expects to join a global airline alliance based on an agreement with one of its two US partners, "before the end of 1999", according to the airline's president Jean Cyril Spinetta. The signing of the co-operation pact between KLM and Alitalia on 27 November ...
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UK promises action to crack down on airline violence
Action to stamp out violent behaviour on aircraft has been promised by the UK transport minister, but he has handed to the airlines the task of organising research into the growing phenomenon of "air rage". Following a meeting with airlines and interested organisations in London on 25 November, transport ...
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UK CAA warns against regulatory split
The UK Civil Aviation Authority has urged the government not to divide its regulatory functions between several bodies after the proposed privatisation of its National Air Traffic Services (NATS). The authority, which at present owns and regulates NATS, was responding to options set out in a UK Government consultation ...
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Raisbeck wraps up study into recertification of DC-9s
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Raisbeck has completed a feasibility study into a Stage 3 recertification of McDonnell Douglas DC-9s and is canvassing operators before committing to launch the programme. The aerodynamic modification kit, if given the go-ahead, would be available "on or before 1 January, 2000", says James Raisbeck, ...
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CFIT surge sets US/European safety agendan of DC-9s
David Learmount/CAPE TOWN Accidents involving large jet airliners in controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) have dramatically increased, reversing a trend which had been heading downwards, it was revealed at the Flight Safety Foundation international air safety seminar in Cape Town, South Africa. Concern over CFIT has already seen the ...
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Fire evidence grows as more MD-11 wreckage is found
Evidence of fire in or close to the Swissair McDonnell Douglas MD-11's flightdeck is accumulating as wreckage recovery off the Nova Scotia's coast continues, says the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSBC). Despite the onset of winter, the recovery operation has been continuing sporadically. With 80% by weight of ...
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Northwest eyes regional jets
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC Northwest Airlines is expected to decide early next year whether to equip its Memphis, Tennessee-based Northwest Airlink subsidiary, Express Airlines I, with regional jets, according to industry sources. The matter was discussed at the US major's recent board meeting, but a decision was put off ...
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Lawsuit fails to stop Northwest purchase of Continental stock
Northwest Airlines has completed its $311 million purchase of 51% of Continental Airlines' voting stock owned by David Bonderman's Air Partners investment house, despite anti-trust objections from the US Justice Department. The transaction will lead to a so-called "virtual merger" of the airlines, linking route networks through codesharing and ...
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Piper Training
New Piper Aircraft has finalised an agreement with Belgium's Sabena Airlines for the purchase of 10 new aircraft to be used for ab initio training. The aircraft - five Archer IIIs, three Saratoga II HPs and two Seneca Vs - will replace Sabena's US training fleet based in Scottsdale, Arizona. ...
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Alitalia and KLM sign unity
Julian Moxon/AMSTERDAM KLM and Alitalia signed a far reaching "master cooperation agreement" on 27 November, which, although it stops short of equity exchange, commits the two airlines to "uniting as deeply as possible". Alitalia managing director Domenico Cempella warns, however, that the airline, which is still majority government-owned ...
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PAL/Northwest talks cast doubt on Cathay bail-out
Andrzej Jeziorski/MANILA Philippine Airlines (PAL) has thrown into question Cathay Pacific's attempts to acquire a controlling stake in the debt-ridden carrier, by restarting talks with Northwest Airlines. Northwest has previously shown interest in PAL, as has Singapore Airlines, but talks with all other interested parties had been suspended ...
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Boeing succeeds with fourth Delta
It was fourth time lucky for Boeing's Delta II on 22 November when the booster lifted off from Cape Canaveral carrying Russia's Hughes-built Bonum 1 communications satellite. The launch had been ditched three times on successive days, starting on 19 November, by an engine gimballing problem, a communications glitch and ...
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A300B2/B4 retrofit provides global positioning capability
Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON An electronic retrofit developed by Airbus Industrie for the A300B2/B4 twinjet, which provides increased efficiency and meets new navigation requirements, has been certificated. The B2/B4 variants - the first examples of the A300 to be produced - are equipped with analogue, electromechanical-instrument cockpits and, with a few ...
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Airports Gearing up to grow
An unprecedented enthusiasm for commercialisation is sweeping the world's airports. Old public service concepts are out. The new creed is cost containment, private finance, aggressive marketing and even acquisition strategies. But before the airline customers start to celebrate, there are potential penalties as well as gains from this latest trend. ...
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Star attracts a galaxy
The Star Alliance will expand to nine full members before the end of 1999, following All Nippon Airlines' (ANA) decision to join. ANA president, Kichisaburo Nomura, says his company will take up full membership at the start of October 1999, following the example of Ansett and Air New Zealand, ...
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Newsline Asia
Mandarin merger - China Airlines has set a June 1999 target date for the merger of its subsidiaries Mandarin Airlines and Formosa Airlines. The merged carrier will retain the Mandarin name, but will focus entirely on domestic services. Garuda shake-up - Debt-ridden Indonesian airline Garuda has appointed a new ...
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Russian rates hit North Korea income
"Open your skies and they will come." That was the message North Korea heard when it agreed with the International Civil Aviation Organisation to allow commercial flights through its heavily guarded airspace. Yet, since that agreement took effect in April, use of North Korean airspace has been below projections. ...
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Taiwan eases another notch
In the wake of Koo Chen-fu's trip to China, the highest-ranking Taiwanese visit to China in 50 years, Taipei has eased direct flight restrictions another notch. The first of many Air Macau charters from Ningbo, a Chinese port, flew to Taiwan via Macau under one flight number and without ...
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Preparing for downturn
Any analysts keen to spot signs of an end to the boom, will have found much to whet the appetite as the major US airlines posted their third quarter financials. Even before the results were fully out, nervous equity markets had begun to downgrade earnings estimates for next year. It ...
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Airports can be low cost too
Spurred on by the low-cost carriers, Europe's local airports have begun to reinvent themselves as low-cost alternatives to the major hubs. Much attention has been lavished on the rise of Europe's low-cost airlines. But it is not only the carriers which are cutting costs. Following fast on their heels ...