News from FlightGlobal – Page 2564
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THE GE 747 testbed
THE SHEER SIZE AND extra capacity of General Electric's Boeing 747 test-bed gives it an obvious advantage over its smaller predecessors. "It is five, or even ten times, as efficient as the 707," comments Phil Schultz, GE flight-test organisation (FTO) chief pilot. "We can run five or six objectives in ...
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Japan gears up for US bilateral battle
Kevin O'Toole/TOKYO BATTLE LINES are being drawn up in Japan and the USA as pressure mounts on both sides of the Pacific for a renegotiation of the controversial passenger bilateral between the two countries. Although talks are now under way over a revised cargo agreement, ...
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ANZ optimistic of Ansett deal
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON AIR NEW ZEALAND (ANZ) remains optimistic that it can go ahead with the proposed deal with TNT to acquire up to half of Ansett Australia. The agreement with TNT, which owns half of Ansett together with News Corporation, is still under negotiation, but ...
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Private Qantas delivers on performance promise
QANTAS IS HOLDING its own, despite competition in international and domestic markets, says chairman Gary Pemberton, revealing the group's first financial figures, since it completed privatisation in mid-1995. Pemberton reports that Qantas pushed up profits by more than 15%, to A$148 million ($110 million) in the first half ...
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KLM pulls directors from Northwest board
KLM HAS WITHDRAWN its three senior executives from the board of Northwest Airlines in a further twist to the boardroom bust-up between the two alliance partners. KLM's president Pieter Bouw, managing director Leo van Wijk and chief financial officer Rob Abrahamsen have resigned their places on the ...
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Eva races to first profit
FAST-EXPANDING Eva Air has turned in profits a year ahead of schedule, only four years after its launch as Taiwan's first privately owned carrier. The airline has also announced it is to launch a new airline in Panama by the end of the year. The carrier, ...
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EMB-145 'exceeds expectations'
EMBRAER'S EMB-145 regional jet is performing better than predicted, the Brazilian manufacturer says. One prototype and two pre-series aircraft are now in flight-test and a fourth EMB-145, is scheduled to have been flown, by 20 March. Engineering director Luis Affonso says that the performance is exceeding specification because ...
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Air Canada chairman Harris to step down
Hollis Harris, Air Canada's chairman and chief executive, will step down at the airline's next annual meeting on 14 May. His replacement is Lamar Durrett, a former Delta Airlines executive who came to Air Canada with Harris in 1992. Harris stays as executive chairman. Durrett worked at Delta ...
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Northwest takes A320s and defers A330 deliveries
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC NORTHWEST AIRLINES has postponed and may eventually cancel delivery of 16 Airbus A330s in favour of acquiring 20 more A320s and hushkits for its 32 Boeing 727-200s and McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30s. The decision puts in doubt the US carrier's intentions of ever ...
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ARIA prepares to expand Shannon hub
Paul Duffy/SHANNON THE AEROFLOT Russian International Airlines (ARIA) hub, set up at Shannon in the west of Ireland in 1995 to transfer Russian and CIS airline passengers to transatlantic services to the USA, is to be expanded to take in more airlines and routes. Set up ...
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Nepal looks to modernise fleet
NEPAL'S FLEDGLING airline industry is looking for more modern aircraft, in response to market deregulation, growing competition and new regulations forcing the retirement of older equipment. The number of fixed-wing Nepali carriers has grown to four since deregulation of the country's domestic services in 1992. State-run Royal Nepal ...
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Sell-off costs push Aviall into losses
Graham Warwick/DALLAS AVIALL HAS reported a loss of $241 million for 1995, mainly because of a $212 million fourth-quarter charge to cover disposal of its airline engine-overhaul business. The Dallas, Texas-based company has agreed to sell the business to Miami-based Greenwich Air Services for $260-280 million (Flight International, ...
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'Bitter' union conflicts force Sabena chairman to resign
SABENA CHAIRMAN and chief executive, Pierre Godfroid has resigned, to be replaced by Swissair executive Paul Reutlinger. Godfroid ran into a bitter dogfight between the management and the airline unions over a controversial restructuring plan involving a pay freeze and longer working hours. Two other senior Sabena managers have been ...
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Thai Airways plans fleet shake-up over five years
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE THAI AIRWAYS International is to purchase 21 new jet-powered airliners and dispose of 31 older aircraft, under a five-year fleet-rationalisation plan approved by its directors. The carrier's 1996-2000 long-term plan calls for a reduction from 14 to six baseline aircraft types and a ...
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BAe calls for Airbus restructuring
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON AIRBUS INDUSTRIE must start to rework its consortium structure and finances, before going ahead with the launch of a new A3XX large-aircraft project, says British Aerospace chief executive Dick Evans. There is little prospect of BAe approving a new Airbus programme "...unless there ...
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Second Trent 777 returns to Seattle after testing
THE SECOND Rolls-Royce Trent 800-powered Boeing 777 was expected to return to Seattle on 1 March after undergoing 91 route sectors with Cathay Pacific Airways. Boeing is striving to achieve early extended-range twin-operations (ETOPS) clearance for the aircraft. By the end of February, the Trent 777 had undergone ...
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Lufthansa and United apply for anti-trust immunity in USA
LUFTHANSA AND United Airlines have applied for US anti-trust immunity to expand their strategic alliance. The move came just hours, after a new open-skies bilateral air accord was initialed, by US and German transport officials. Final signature on the bilateral is expected by the third quarter. German transport ...
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How open skies?
GERMANY HAS become the latest and largest catch in the US drive to sign up Europe to open skies. With this new bilateral safely initialed, the USA has now signed up 11 European nations to open skies, representing 40% of the region's air market. The deal marks ...
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Combi Saab 2000 nears certification
SAAB AIRCRAFT is hoping to complete development and certification of a passenger/cargo combi version of its Saab 2000 turboprop by the end of 1996, in an effort to boost flagging sales. The Swedish manufacturer is proposing two different basic combi configurations. The aircraft can be configured typically for ...
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JAL takes keys of first 777
JAPAN AIRLINES WAS HANDED the keys to its first Boeing 777-200 at a ceremony in Seattle on 16 February. The aircraft, which has 389 mainly economy seats, will begin services between Tokyo's domestic hub at Haneda and Kagoshima on 26 April. The airline has ten 777-200s on order and another ...