All Safety News – Page 1346
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Cockpit inadequacies
David Learmount/LONDON Those who argue that there is a degradation of basic flying skills in line pilots ascribe it to many things, the favourite being flightdeck automation. Parc Aviation consultant Capt Russell Kane, a former Aer Lingus captain, says that there is evidence that giving undue importance to cockpit ...
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Northwest and Continental tie-up raises Alitalia/KLM hopes
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON Julian Moxon/PARIS The tie-up between Northwest and Continental Airlines has been welcomed by European partners Alitalia and KLM, offering the prospect of a global alliance within five years. "The deal opens the door to a much wider co-operation," says Fausto Cereti, chairman of Alitalia, which already ...
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Insurers threaten to withdraw cover unless airlines tackle computer bug
Aviation insurers have challenged airlines to prove that their fleet avionics are free of the "millennium bug" which threatens to disrupt computer software, or lose their cover for any incidents which result from it. The issue, says a major Lloyds insurance-market underwriter, is what may happen to embedded computer ...
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American/BA may give up Gatwick slots
Alan George/LONDON The proposed British Airways/American Airlines alliance may be allowed to include London Gatwick Airport slots among the concessions it needs to make to gain approval from the European Commission for the tie-up. Previously, it was thought that all of the slots to be sacrificed would be at ...
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Delta 2 problem will not delay launches
Investigations into a potential technical problem on the Boeing Delta 2 launcher will not delay the launch of the first two Globalstar mobile-communications satellites and a new set of five Iridium spacecraft scheduled to be placed into orbit in early February. Although successful, the Delta 7925 flight carrying the ...
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Do not pass 'go'
So British Airways' no-frills start-up is "Go"; but will it - and what sort of response will it attract from powerful European competitors like Lufthansa? Even more important, from where will the passengers come to make these no-frills airlines work? The justification for an existing airline to launch a ...
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DOT spotlights fare changes
The US Department of Transportation began publishing its domestic airline fares consumer report in response to an increasing number of inquiries about ticket prices. The first report, for the third quarter of 1996, was released in June last year and the latest report is based on data for the second ...
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French stick over partner
Doug Cameron Investment bankers are sharply split over Air France's ability to secure a strategic airline investor and Air France's advisers have retreated from supporting a trade sale after the collapse of its planned Alitalia agreement. Air France plans an equity issue of FFr18 billion (US$2.9 billion) in ...
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ACI feels out of pocket
Karen Walker Girding itself for a battle with the airlines and with Congress, the Airports Council International, North America, will raise its profile in 1998 with hopes of increasing pressure on those who control its members' funding sources. The ACI is sticking to its controversial claim that US ...
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No more red China blues?
Tom Ballantyne China's airlines are getting their first taste of capitalism as the country's carriers drastically slash their air fares and liberalisation hits the region. The Civil Aviation Administration of China has given its 27 CAAC-approved airlines the go-ahead to cut prices by up to 40 per cent ...
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Deflation alarm bells ring again
Deflation is not an economic term which has tripped off the tongue in the last three decades. Far from it. A series of political crises in the Middle East, starting with the six-day war in 1967, triggered 30 years of almost continuous inflation, fuelled by surging oil and commodity prices ...
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Asia's crisis: a rude awakening
Asia's financial crisis is now threatening to start another global airline recession. What goes up must come down. Of all people, participants in the aviation business should understand this most basic phenomenon. After all, the one certainty of every flight is that gravity will bring it down eventually. All that ...
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Higher US fares are hitting home
As US domestic fares continue to rise, more business travellers are making concessions in order to obtain lower fares, or are switching to low-cost carriers. Report by Karen Walker. The New Year had barely been rung in when both American Express and the US Department of Transportation confirmed what most ...
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Asia's new era
Asia's economic turmoil is going to accelerate long-term structural change as the carriers in the region respond to the challenges. Doug Cameron looks at the impact on aircraft renewal, funding, alliances and liberalisation. Asian executives must be wondering what other calamities fate can possibly have in store for them. ...
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Garuda in dire straits
Tom Ballantyne Reeling from a freefall in its local currency which has blown up debt, Jakarta's state-owned flag carrier Garuda Indonesia may face bankruptcy unless it auctions off assets. The country's economic collapse, coupled with a string of accidents including a major crash last September in which 300 ...
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India airlines in doldrums
T Ballantyne/R Prasad India's hard pressed domestics are facing a double challenge to their shaky balance sheets: the renewed threat of a Tata Industries local startup and massive hikes in airport landing charges. The Tata group had earlier plans for a joint venture with Singapore Airlines, backed by ...
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Born free?
While government regulations were the downfall of most of India's first batch of startups, it appears that a second cycle - involving new players as well as the return of some old contenders - is underway. Like large tracts of Asia, cloaked in the fog from forest fires, India's ...
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Arranged marriage
Indian Airlines is destined to wed Air-India, but first the government must accept some responsibility for its financial troubles. Its proposed 'dowry' would be made up of compensation for the enforced grounding of its entire A320 fleet back in 1990, a subordinated loan, and the injection of new capital. By ...
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Tamed by politics
Report by Tom Ballantyne It seems that every time a new Indian aviation policy ship gently eases itself into port, an election storm rears its head and dashes it onto the rocks. As India's two state-owned airlines, Air-India and Indian Airlines, prepared for the New Year after a ...
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Red ink rains over Korea
Tom Ballantyne South Korea's airlines are scrambling to downsize and slash costs as the region staggers from the blow of Asia's worsening economic crisis. Flag carrier Korean Airlines faces more than US$900 million in foreign exchange losses after the local currency, the won, dived 40 per cent against ...