All Ops & safety articles – Page 1172
-
News
Taiwan bars all flights as Philippines talks collapse
DAVE KNIBB SEATTLE Talks between the Philippines and Taiwan to resolve the dispute over air services between the countries collapsed in December just as a solution looked close. As a result, Taiwan barred charter flights by three of its carriers to the Philippines and no new talks are planned. The ...
-
News
Airports
Orlando Sanford Airport has begun expanding its terminal building. The $25 million expansion will add a two-storey terminal facility of more than 11,150m² (120,000ft²) and will increase the airport's annual capacity by 3 million passengers when completed by February next year. Nice Cote d'Azur Airport is to spend almost Fr1 ...
-
News
Cargo airlines impose surcharges as fuel soars
PETER CONWAY LONDON Many of the world's major cargo carriers have given in to the inevitable after a rise in the fuel price index by announcing fuel surcharges on their rates, effective from 1 February. Among the airlines which added surcharges in late December were Lufthansa Cargo, Air France, ...
-
News
Indian Airlines to be privatised
Julian Moxon/MUMBAI Mehar Singh/NEW DELHI India's new coalition government has announced the privatisation of Indian Airlines, opening one of the world's largest domestic carriers to investors. Foreign airlines will be barred from the bidding process, however. In a parallel move by prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, five of the ...
-
News
Tests of Australian aircraft show most suffer contamination
More than 90% of the grounded Australian piston-engined aircraft fleet tested are polluted with the ethylene diamine fuel contaminant. Tests are continuing on the rest of the 5,000 suspect aircraft. Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has issued an airworthiness directive calling for tear-down inspections of aircraft fuel systems ...
-
News
Airbus finally takes a lead
Airbus has taken the lead in its long-running annual order battle with Boeing and is drawing level on backlog, but there is still all to play for as the two manufacturers head into 2000. The battle has been fought out for the best part of three decades, but as ...
-
News
Air Canada free to ring the changes at Canadian
Air Canada has taken over Canadian Airlines following Ottawa's approval, ending a long and bitter battle for control of Canada's skies. Changes are already becoming apparent. Canadian had suspended Hong Kong and Manila flights and sold its Tokyo Narita slots to Air Canada, but Air Canada has started further ...
-
News
Sun Air recovery hopes hit by SAA deal with Safair
ROGER MAKINGS JOHANNESBURG The saga over the liquidation of South African domestic carrier Sun Air has taken a further twist. Liquidators claim to have unearthed a deal between South African Airways (SAA) and leasing company Safair which effectively kills any chance of revival for the defunct carrier. SAA's bid ...
-
News
Ahead of the game
PETER MORRELL & CHERIE H-Y LU CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY The 1990s have seen substantial improvements in productivity and costs in the airline industry, even if the gains have not been uniform. When Cranfield University last probed the productivity and efficiency of the industry five years ago, the emphasis was on lean ...
-
News
AEA calls for details of countries' radio capacity plans
The Association of European Airlines (AEA) has written to the directors general of civil aviation of seven countries requesting information on their plans to open new sectors following the implementation of 8.33kHz channel-spacing last year. The mandatory carriage of 8.33kHz-compatible airborne radio equipment came into effect in October above ...
-
News
Mesa picks ERJ-145 for feeders
The Mesa Air Group plans to standardise its US Airways Express feeder operations around the Embraer RJ-145 following finalisation of a long-awaited deal for up to 100 of the Brazilian-built regional jets. The Phoenix-based carrier has ordered 36 of the 50-seat ERJ-145s with options on 64 more, which can ...
-
News
Workshop
Guangzhou Aircraft Maintenance Engineering (GAMECO) has won approval for Airbus A320 and A321 maintenance up to C3 check level and Boeing MD-11 line maintenance from the European Joint Aviation Authorities. The approval is reflected in revised JAR-145 certification, which the Sino-US joint venture has received, having been certificated to this ...
-
News
Preparing for safety
The 1990s was a decade of preparing for better airline safety rather than delivering David Learmount/LONDON The number of airline accidents worldwide increased by 28% in the 1990s compared with the 1980s, and fatalities rose by 12.5%. A total of 11,950 people died in 480 accidents during the ...
-
News
NASDA kills key programmes
Andrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPORE Japan's National Space Development Agency (NASDA) has cancelled the H-2 launch vehicle programme and suspended several others, to focus development efforts on the H-2A rocket. Japanese space industry sources confirm that NASDA has completely reviewed its programmes and budget for the 2000 fiscal year, following the ...
-
News
Promising future
The 1990s were years of unprecedentedly intense activity aimed at improving airline safety. So what happened? There were more fatal accidents and more human casualties in that decade than in the 1980s. Despite active flight safety campaigns by major international agencies, more modern aircraft and air traffic control systems, ...
-
News
Fuel prices mar US results
Chris Jasper/LONDON The spiralling cost of aviation fuel prevented the USA's major carriers from improving their performances in 1999, although they reported largely positive results. Share disposal windfalls saved the net results of most, however. American Airlines' parent AMR, the world's biggest airline group in terms of turnover, saw ...
-
News
Reasons to be fearful
The downward trend of fatality numbers continues, but worries remain over differences in regional safety standards David Learmount/LONDON All is not well with airline safety. Despite fewer fatalities in 1999, accident numbers equalled those in 1998, and some significant international airlines - most notably a few key carriers in the ...
-
News
Crossair crash update
Preliminary analysis of the cockpit voice and flight data recorders (FDR) from the Crossair Saab 340 which crashed shortly after take-off from Zurich on 10 January has failed to yield any clues as to the cause of the accident. Swiss investigators say the crew did not discuss any technical problems, ...
-
News
Comment by Pierre Jeanniot, Director General, IATA
"For the 21st century, the most critical question is whether - given the increasing technical sophistication of our industry and the expectations of the public - ICAO's 185 sovereign member states will all develop the individual competence and financial means to provide effective safety oversight and "state-of-the-art" infrastructure. A ...
-
News
Comment by Stuart Matthews, Flight Safety Foundation President and Chief Executive
"Rapid air traffic growth in the 1990s was spurred by liberalisation, reduction in fare levels, the collapse of the former Soviet Union and economic expansion. Fly-by-wire systems are common; more powerful and reliable engines have made extended-range twin-engine operations commonplace, and regional jets are revolutionising short-haul services. Increased ...