All Systems & Interiors news – Page 775

  • News

    Virgin truce puts Irish operation on hold

    1999-08-01T00:00:00Z

    Simon Montlake ATI LONDON Virgin boss Richard Branson has brokered a truce between disgruntled pilots and managers at Virgin Express, the Brussels-based low-cost carrier. But the agreement, signed by Branson and staff representatives, has only put off the day of reckoning for Virgin Express Ireland, the new subsidiary at ...

  • News

    Speedwing tackles Olympic problems

    1999-08-01T00:00:00Z

    Tom Gill/Lois Jones LONDON Next month Speedwing will reveal a rescue plan for Olympic Airways, as the initial phase of the 30-month management contract it won in June. Olympic remains tightlipped about its future and Speedwing says it is too early to say what changes will have to be ...

  • News

    New dawn for Sun Air?

    1999-08-01T00:00:00Z

    Roger Makings JOHANNESBURG South African Airways (SAA) is poised to move in on its ailing domestic competitor, Sun Air, after securing an exclusive three-month agreement with shareholders to work out a commercial relationship. Sun Air, in desperate need of a cash injection following the eight-month price war on South ...

  • News

    Indian fare war erupts

    1999-08-01T00:00:00Z

    India's airlines have slashed their fares by 20-25%, taking them to their lowest level in four years and setting the scene for a long and bitter war. Besides discounts, a wide range of gifts are on offer, from free holidays to complimentary stays in hotels and free travel for spouses. ...

  • News

    Qualiflying seamless service

    1999-08-01T00:00:00Z

    With its new joint sales initiatives, the Qualiflyer grouping could be stealing a march in the alliance stakes. The promise of seamless customer service from the global alliances may seem a little distant, but progress appears to be under way. At the forefront has been a series of announcements from ...

  • News

    Playing your cards right

    1999-08-01T00:00:00Z

    Jackie Gallacher LONDON Frequent flier co-operation is reaching new levels of sophistication within the global alliances, threatening to leave others out in the cold. Not so long ago, an alliance based only on links between frequent-flier programmes (FFP) would have seemed hopelessly optimistic. Yet the real force of the global ...

  • News

    IT Trends Survey

    1999-08-01T00:00:00Z

    Kevin O'Toole GENEVA Joint industry research conducted by Airline Business and SITA attempts to establish how far the airline industry is keeping pace with the new wave of information technology and the dawn of the Internet age. Is the airline industry keeping step with information technology? Less than a decade ...

  • News

    Hubbing on time

    1999-08-01T00:00:00Z

    Wendy Knorren Nichols FRANKFURT Martin Kunz VIENNA Punctuality, as all network planners know to their cost, can make or break the best laid hubbing strategy. Like an artist weaving a tapestry, it only takes one individual to pull a single loose thread for the whole work to unravel. Yet while ...

  • News

    Netting a bargain

    1999-08-01T00:00:00Z

    Now in their third year, sales of discount fares via the Internet appear to be a rousing success for US carriers. Is this a glimpse of the future? American Airlines started it all three years ago. Other US majors were quick to follow. Now, Internet discount fares are beginning ...

  • News

    Light and powerful

    1999-07-28T00:00:00Z

    It may be slower than its competitors, but the power of Bell's 427 light twin turbine, simplicity of operation and overall comfort impressed Flight International's test pilot Peter Gray/MIRABEL Beginning with a clean sheet of paper, a list of desired design criteria and a rigid purchase price goal, Bell Helicopter ...

  • News

    Spoiling tactics

    1999-07-28T00:00:00Z

    When Boeing concluded its recent trade-in deal with Singapore Airlines (SIA) for 10 more 777s in exchange for a guarantee to buy and remarket its entire A340 fleet, the move seemed as capricious as it was masterful. But, with arch rival Airbus Industrie putting the finishing touches to a ...

  • News

    South Africa to levy 'safety' fee

    1999-07-28T00:00:00Z

    Doug Birch/LONDON Foreign airlines flying to South Africa will have to pay fees totalling almost $3 million over the next 18 months as a contribution to an "aviation safety charge", according to the South African Civil Aviation Authority. The fees replace a fuel levy implemented in January by ...

  • News

    Airbus plans to thwart Boeing's SIA deal

    1999-07-28T00:00:00Z

    Andrew Doyle/MUNICH Airbus Industrie has drawn up a confidential business plan aimed at frustrating Boeing's efforts to remarket 17 A340-300s it is to acquire from Singapore Airlines (SIA)as part of a recent 777 deal. The consortium declines to comment on the plan, but a source familiar with its contents says: ...

  • News

    NASA Messenger mission will map Mercury

    1999-07-28T00:00:00Z

    NASA plans to return to Mercury, after an absence of more than 30 years, when its Messenger spacecraft reaches the innermost planet in 2008. The Messenger mission to map Mercury is one of two new projects selected for NASA's "quicker, cheaper" Discovery programme (Flight International, 21-27 July). The other ...

  • News

    Airbus expects Asian order bonanza after recovery

    1999-07-28T00:00:00Z

    Andrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPOREAirbus Industrie is predicting that Asia's airlines will order 4,300 passenger aircraft worth $450 billion over the next two decades as the Far East renews its economic growth. Adam Brown, Airbus vice-president, forecasting and strategic planning, says signs of recovery in the Asia-Pacific market will appear by the second ...

  • News

    Jetphone hangs up on airline market

    1999-07-28T00:00:00Z

    Emma Kelly/LONDON In-flight telephone service provider Jetphone will cease operations on 31 December following a lack of demand by airline passengers for in-flight telephony. Jetphone is in discussions with its airline customers on service cessation, which will leave Europe without a terrestrial flight telecommunication system (TFTS) service provider following ...

  • News

    Japan medical

    1999-07-28T00:00:00Z

    MD Helicopters has delivered an air medical Explorer to Japanese distributor Tomen Aerospace for use by Aero Asahi, which will operate the helicopter for a hospital as part of a government-supported trial. Air Methods provided the interior for the helicopter. Colorado-based Air Methods believes the trial, the first air medical ...

  • News

    Routes

    1999-07-28T00:00:00Z

    American Airlines will begin seasonal daily services to Los Cabos, Mexico, from Chicago O'Hare on 1 November, using Boeing MD-80s. The airline will also launch three daily Boeing 727 flights between Miami and Tampa on the same day, replacing services provided by regional partner American Eagle, which will reduce its ...

  • News

    Air Wisconsin aims to trade turboprops for regional jets

    1999-07-28T00:00:00Z

    Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC Air Wisconsin wants to trade in its Fairchild Dornier 328 turboprops for new 32/44-seat regional jets, while playing down interest in the British Aerospace Avro RJ-X in the face of United Airlines' scope clause restrictions. The United Express carrier is evaluating the newly certificated Embraer RJ-135 ...

  • News

    Safety surprises

    1999-07-28T00:00:00Z

    A relatively safe first half of 1999 included some landmark events in airline flight safety David Learmount/LONDON An airline industry-feared rise in air transport accidents is not happening. A marked flight safety improvement has occurred in the first half of this year, compared with the same period last year, despite ...