All Ops & safety articles – Page 1175
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News
Mexico's smaller players struggle to compete
DAVID KNIBB SEATTLE Mexico's third and fourth largest airlines have both experienced problems that harm their ability to compete against the duopoly of Aeromexico and Mexicana. Taesa, Mexico's number three carrier, remains grounded for safety reasons following a fatal crash on 9 November. Mexico's communications and transport ministry says inspectors ...
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News
Clean and lean
Environmental issues and the demands of safety and reliability drive airliner design as much as technology Ever since the first powered machines flew at the start of the 20th century, aviation has been driven by the quest to improve aircraft efficiency. With extraordinary persistence, often surmounting seemingly impossible technical barriers, ...
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News
EC vows to clamp down on noise and emissions
ALAN GEORGE BRUSSELS The European Commission (EC) has restated its determination to introduce stricter international standards for aircraft noise and emissions, with or without international agreement. In a policy document on the environment adopted in early December, the EC Transport Directorate "seeks to reconcile competitiveness in the air transport ...
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News
China tax threatens leasing company growth
A new Chinese tax on aircraft operating leases is emerging as a potential threat to leasing companies hoping to profit from expectations that China's airline industry will grow at a faster-than-average rate over the next 20 years. The new withholding tax was quietly introduced by the Chinese Government, effective ...
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News
Chicago revisited
KAREN WALKER CHICAGO Transport ministers from around the world joined airline and industry chiefs in Chicago in December to discuss how to shed the bilateralism legacy of the historic 1944 Chicago Convention and also move beyond the current open skies regime to multilateralism. US Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater lost few ...
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News
Cause and effect
The aircraft ghosts in to land, the loudest sound being the squeal of tyres on touchdown. Engine noise, so long the bane of aircraft and airport developers alike, has been banished to the history books. What is more, the only significant emission from this generation of powerplants is completely ...
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News
Cargo shapes up for rapid shake up
PETER CONWAY LONDON The year ahead looks likely to see dramatic changes in air cargo, with more and more carriers offering time-definite services, and the old wholesale-retail relationships between airline and forwarder becoming more flexible. Wilhelm Althen, retiring chairman of Lufthansa Cargo, which introduced time-definite services and a programme of ...
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News
Business as usual as Macau is returned to China
DAVID KNIBB SEATTLE Two and a half years after the UK handed back Hong Kong to China, it was Portugual's turn on 20 December to return a South-East Asian colony, when China resumed rule of Macau. Like Hong Kong, Macau will remain a special administrative region of China for ...
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News
In Brief
Asiana offer Asiana Airlines expects to raise 375 billion won ($325 million) through an initial public offering of 50 million shares. Shares were made available early in December ahead of a listing on South Korea's secondary Kosdaq share market at the end of the month. Public and institutional investors ...
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News
In Brief
Asiana offer Asiana Airlines expects to raise 375 billion won ($325 million) through an initial public offering of 50 million shares. Shares were made available early in December ahead of a listing on South Korea's secondary Kosdaq share market at the end of the month. Public and institutional investors ...
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News
EC rethink on safety body
ALAN GEORGE BRUSSELS Further delays in the establishment of the proposed European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) seem inevitable following an intervention by the new Transport Commissioner Loyola De Palacio. She now wants the EASA to be established as part of the European Commission (EC), reversing the previous compromise by which ...
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News
Free flight and beyond
Increased automation of air traffic management, on the ground and in the air, will be a driving force for future change Like a colossus, the controller walks around her sector, keeping watch on arrivals and departures in the terminal area. Around her a myriad of miniaturised aircraft, holographically replicated ...
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News
Star wins battle over Canadian future
DAVID KNIBB SEATTLE Star Alliance has won the battle with oneworld for control of Canadian Airlines. Under a deal hammered out between American Airlines parent AMR and Air Canada, American will retain certain codeshare rights, but Canadian will effectively withdraw from oneworld. This ends a five-month see-saw battle in ...
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News
A sense of balance
CHRIS TARRY COMMERZBANK IN LONDON The traffic forecasting model developed by Commerzbank and Airline Business highlights the extent to which capacity ran ahead of demand in 1999. But the coming year could bring markets back to balance. If further evidence was needed over the pain that excess seat capacity can ...
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News
Investors emerge for Ansett New Zealand
News Corporation's efforts to sell Ansett New Zealand may have better luck with a new group of New Zealand investors than it has had over the past 12 years with Qantas Airways. News Corp and Qantas were unable to agree on a price, and there is no assurance the ...
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News
Airports and airlines join forces over ATC delays
GÜNTER ENDRES LONDON The Airports Council International Europe (ACI Europe) and the Association of European Airlines (AEA) have agreed to fight the growing problem of flight delays in Europe, targeting air traffic control (ATC) in particular. The joint resolution comes after the International Air Transport Association (IATA) put forward its ...
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News
Clearing the air
With its Beyond Open Skies ministerial meeting in Chicago, the USA has finally brought the debate about bilaterals out into the open. From now on, the issue will not be easy to force back into the shadows. It is all too easy to be cynical about what happened at ...
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News
Settling in
The problems that have plagued Hong Kong's new Chek Lap Kok Airport are being resolved Andrzej Jeziorski/HONG KONGThe new Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) has been surrounded by controversy from the outset. A disastrous opening period, high airport charges, slow traffic growth and simmering worries about weather phenomena have threatened ...
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Marketplace
Air Seychelles has signed a 10-year lease deal with ILFC for a General Electric CF6-80C2-powered Boeing 767-300ER, for delivery in April 2001. Swiss charter carrier Edelweiss Air has agreed to lease a new Airbus A330-200 from CIT Group from the fourth quarter of 2000. The Rolls-Royce Trent 772B-powered A330-200 is ...
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News
In the front seat
Flight International samples Airbus' new flight desk technology for the A3XX Peter Henley/TOULOUSEAirbus Industrie has built up vast experience in the design and production of fly-by-wire commercial aircraft. A bedrock philosophy behind the consortium's ever-expanding family has been to achieve maximum commonality between cockpits. This means pilots can fly ...