All Safety News – Page 1417
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News
Who's taking a liberty?
The lure of valuable slots at Paris/Orly has attracted four potential suitors for troubled Air Liberté after the carrier entered receivership on 26 September. AOM, Air France Europe, TAT and Virgin Express have all expressed interest and reopened the debate about the French government's competition policy. Saddled with ...
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DOT bridges policy void
Pre-election sensitivities have frozen US aviation initiatives by legislators, leaving policy-making in the hands of Washington regulators. The reluctance of Congress to tackle tough issues is typified by its unwillingness to extend the recently reinstated airline ticket tax past its end-of-year expiry. Before adjourning for the ...
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Eagle lands in MAS' lair
The Malaysian government has finally acceded to pressure to authorise a second international carrier but will initially protect flag carrier Malaysia Airlines from direct competition. The AirAsia consortium has battled for two years to secure a licence in the face of opposition from MAS and has finally secured ...
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Ansett deals few changes
The shakeup of Australia's aviation sector following Air New Zealand's successful acquisition of Ansett is likely to have more of an impact outside the country than within. ANZ's swoop to appoint Cathay Pacific managing director Rod Eddington to head Ansett is a rare managerial coup in the region. Eddington will ...
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FedEx Fred is top dog
If there was any doubt that Fred Smith is the most important man in US aviation politics, events in early October dispelled them. It was then that the chairman of FedEx Corp decided to reassert his lobbying muscle. Smith regularly deploys his big guns. In large measure, for ...
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US is set to open up Asia
The US has floated a joint approach to open skies talks with the Asia-Pacific region for the first time. While cynics view the move as an attempt to kick-start stalled talks with Japan and deflect attention from the European focus of recent policy, some officials argue it is a genuine ...
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SAA trips on triple threat
South African Airways is having a hard time of it. In mid-October, the carrier was embroiled in a bitter battle with its technical staff and faced a threat of court action from its pilots. Its domestic rivals are turning up the heat through alliances with British Airways and Virgin Atlantic. ...
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Even the good times aren't good
It may appear to be a vintage year but life for some airlines continues to be troubled. A casual reader of this issue of Airline Business could be forgiven for not realising that 1996 is a vintage year for the the airline industry. Just consider some of the stories: ...
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Slots wrong for regionals
Not surprisingly Europe's regional carriers are up in arms over the European Commission's revision of its slot regulation, which is likely to come down in favour of slot trading. And alternative proposals circulating in Germany have heightened the dismay. The board of airline representatives in Germany (Barig) appears ...
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SAS Express is so simple
SAS has responded to the threat of competition on its profitable Nordic services by piloting a new simplified product, SAS Express. SAS Express is being used to brand 14 daily Stockholm-Oslo services for a three-month trial period from 22 October but could be extended throughout its Nordic and domestic network. ...
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Team works at Alitalia
Alitalia is squaring up to its impending scrutiny by the European Commission with the launch of its low-cost operation, Alitalia Team. But the carrier remains dogged by allegations of predatory pricing and collusion on slots. Brussels opened an investigation into the airline's planned 3,000 billion lire (US$2 billion) ...
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US startups lose value
Two low-cost US airlines launched service within a week of each other in late September, including a reborn ValuJet. But the experience of long-ailing Kiwi, which filed for Chapter 11 in early October, seems the more likely barometer for this sector. Some three months after ValuJet was shut ...
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Mooney makes plans for Encore
Mooney Aircraft plans to introduce in 1997 a new, high-performance, turbo-inter-cooled four-seater, called the Encore. The company believes that the Encore will fill a void caused by the withdrawal of its 252TSE, or M20K. It is effectively the same aircraft, with a slightly more powerful engine and three-bladed McCauley propeller. ...
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BA ditches plans for British Mediterranean franchise
British Airways has abandoned proposals to operate its services to the Levant under a franchise agreement with British Mediterranean Airways (BMed), and both carriers say that they will continue to serve the Middle Eastern region independently. The two airlines struck a deal to operate joint services to Amman, ...
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US extends deadline for bag-match test
The US Aviation Safety and Security Commission, which was set up to improve airline security procedures in the wake of the crash of TWA Flight 800, has extended the 60-day deadline for testing a full domestic bag-match programme. US carriers have been able to convince the Clinton Administration ...
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Sabena links with Virgin Express for Heathrow route
Herman De Wulf/BRUSSELS Virgin Express is launching scheduled services between Brussels and London Heathrow, in a code-share deal with Sabena under which it will replace the Belgian flag carrier on the route. The low-cost Brussels-based airline launched services on 27 October with nine daily return ...
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White knight rides in for Kiwi
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC Kiwi International Airlines, facing permanent shutdown of scheduled passenger services after filing for bankruptcy-court protection, has been rescued by Wasatach International, a Florida-based investment concern. The low-fare US carrier, which filed for Chapter 11, on 30 September and forced to suspend, scheduled ...
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The tangled web
As free flight comes closer to reality, all parties involved in the concept find the final details difficult to agree. Julian Moxon and Kevin O'Toole/AMSTERDAM Few concepts have caught the aviation industry's collective imagination as strongly as that of "free flight". The prospect of aircrews being able ...
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CNS/ATM programmes in Europe
PROGRAMME FOR HARMONISED AIR TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT RESEARCH IN EURO-CONTROL (PHARE) Aimed at demonstrating the feasibility and merits of a future air-to-ground integrated air-traffic-management system in all phases of flight. Now part of Euro-control's European Air Traffic Management System initiative. The last of three demonstrations in 1998 will include ...
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EC believes there is 'room for improvement' in open skies
Julian Moxon/PARIS Europe's air-transport liberalisation has resulted in cheaper fares, new airlines and more routes, but "-there is still room for improvement", says the European Commission (EC) in a report anticipating full liberalisation in April 1997. The EC says that it remains concerned about "excessive" ...