All Safety News – Page 1309
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News
Proteus market predicted to fly
Guy Norris/MOJAVE Wyman-Gordon is predicting an estimated market for up to 1,000 of the unconventional Proteus high-altitude, long operation (HALO) aircraft being built by its subsidiary Scaled Composites. The US investment company hopes to begin proof-of-concept trials as early as 2000. The prediction, from Wyman-Gordon's chairman and chief ...
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FAA extends checks on ageing airliner fleet
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC The US Federal Aviation Administration has disclosed a series of safety initiatives covering detailed inspection of wiring and other operating systems for older airliners. The phased safety project is similar to the agency's ageing aircraft inspection programme, which covers the structures of vintage commercial transports. ...
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ICAO safety rules meet
Regular compulsory audits by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) of individual states' aviation safety oversight programmes were approved on 2 October at the ICAO Assembly in Montreal, Canada. The ruling becomes effective on 1 January, 1999. Members agreed the audits should not be used for purposes other than safety, ...
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European Commission denied air negotiation rights
The European Commission (EC) has been denied the full mandate it sought to negotiate air services agreements with non-European Union (EU) member states after the transport ministers met in Luxembourg on 1 October. The EC will now take legal action in the European Court of First Instance at Luxembourg. ...
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Cargo alliance
Four independent cargo airlines - Air Foyle, Channel Express, HeavyLift and Atlantic Airlines - are to form the British Cargo Airline Alliance. The move is in response to the British Airways/American Airlines tie-up and the forthcoming US-UK bilateral negotiations. Source: Airline Business
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Fare wars sting Brazil
Deregulation and resulting fare wars continue to bite hard into profits at Brazil's four main airlines, with no sign that the worst is over. Varig is blaming the fare wars for its Real $197 million ($168 million) loss reported for the first half year. This is almost triple the figure ...
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Asians climb out of currency crisis
Two of the flag carriers worst hit by the Asian currency collapse - Philippine Airlines and Indonesia's Garuda - have taken vital steps back from the abyss. PAL has resolved key labour problems while Garuda has renegotiated crippling US-dollar aircraft leases and gained government approval to increase domestic fares. ...
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The rouble plays Russian roulette
First it was the crisis in South East Asia. Now it is meltdown in Russia's financial system that is spreading panic in global markets. The lesson from Asia is that what may start with currency collapse swiftly and inevitably translates into damage for the real economy of production, output and ...
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EC faces tussles over slot sales
As US-UK open skies talks remained scheduled for early October, a clarification of the UK Government's position on the British Airways-American transatlantic alliance was awaited. In deciding how many slots the prospective alliance partners will have to relinquish at London Heathrow and Gatwick airports and whether or not they ...
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British Airways GOes into cut-throat price battleground
Less than five months after British Airways started up its controversial low-cost operation at London Stansted, GO has sparked off what promises to be a cut-throat price war in Europe. The battle began on 7 September, the day before GO launched onto the high density London-Edinburgh route. Determined to face ...
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Russia crisis hits home
A contraction in the Russian airline industry is now almost inevitable, after nearly a month of financial uncertainty left the rouble heavily devalued from its level of mid-August. The devaluation will almost certainly lead to a general economic downturn in Russia with passenger numbers and cargo traffic both dropping off ...
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No limit to liabilities
The crash of Swissair's MD-11 last month could become something of a legal test case. The Swiss carrier is the first signatory to the International Air Transport Association's inter-carrier passenger liability agreement to have suffered a major crash. Insurers and lawyers are watching closely to see the size of damages. ...
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Hercules ends Fine merger
Fine Air and Southern Air Transport have scrubbed merger plans after failing to agree what to do with Southern's Lockheed L-1011 Hercules. The two US second-tier cargo carriers will go their separate ways, even though Miami-based Fine wants to expand its Latin American and Caribbean network. Fine was interested ...
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Narita slot numbers rise
Japan's raising of the number of slots at congested Tokyo Narita Airport for the first time in seven years is seen as a direct result of the new Japan-US bilateral which has forced Tokyo to accommodate more US flights. Of the 202 weekly "new" slots, probably about half are ...
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flexing Muscles
When airline executives dreamed up alliances, some might have imagined that regulatorary approval would be a tough nut to crack, but did they sufficiently weigh up the labour factor? Union cooperation in the formation and development of airline alliances is proving to be crucial. Already, cross-alliance union groups are emerging ...
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Alliances: the next $tep
Can airline alliances take the next step and act like a single commercial business? Frank Berardino and Chris Frankel chart a possible route. Last month, in a report entitled "Keeping the score", USaviation consultancy GRAlaid out the first phase in a strategy for maximising the profits and benefits from an ...
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Bottom line maintenance
The indirect costs of maintaining aircraft and engines need to be attributed in a radical new way to give airlines a clear picture of the real costs involved and support major decisions. Airline maintenance and engineering organisations have struggled, not always with success, to achieve the same kinds of ...
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Lifting the 7th veil
Could the current jitters over alliance plans persuade more airlines to explore fifth and seventh freedom opportunities? British Airways and Qantas use fifth and seventh freedom rights out of Singapore. Fashion is rarely about comfort - ask any model teetering down the catwalk. The same could be said ...
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Hub wars
The big five US interior airports are fighting it out to become the top international gateway in the heart of North America. Patterns of international air service to and from the US are changing. A cluster of airports tucked well inside the continental US are starting to win significant ...
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Cabin trainers
Thomson Training &Simulation has delivered cabin crew trainers to China Southwest Airlines in Chengdhu and THY-Turkish Airlines in Istanbul. China Southwest has four devices including an Airbus A340/Boeing 757 emergency evacuation trainer. Turkish Airlines also has four devices, including an Airbus A310/A340 Boeing 737 emergency evacuation trainer with motion system. ...