All Ops & safety articles – Page 1207
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Study reveals steady safety improvement
David Learmount/LONDON Airline safety is improving more quickly than traditional statistics indicate, says a study by Airclaims in association with the European Union. The annual number of aircraft totally destroyed in airline accidents has been steady since 1970, despite a 350% expansion of the world fleet and an increase ...
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Mixed messages from Japan
On the surface, results from Japan's big three carriers seemed to offer a few grounds for optimism. All showed better operating profits for the first half of their latest financial years, yet concerns linger. Lower fares have stimulated traffic and changes in depreciation have skewed results so it is still ...
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Slots Logjam
ALAN GEORGE BRUSSELS KEVIN O'TOOLE LONDON Hopes are growing that the new team at the European Commission could finally end the long wait for new regulations on airport slot allocation. Even the contentious issue of slot trading could be back on the agenda. Could Europe at last be ...
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Sky Opener
KAREN WALKER WASHINGTON DC US Department of Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater has blazed a trail of open skies agreements around the globe. Now he is looking to this December's DoT international aviation summit in Chicago to provide a launch platform for the next step. Rodney Slater has a vision. "I ...
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Return to School
KAREN WALKER WASHINGTON DC Competition is heating up to provide MBA programmes for airline middle managers on the fast track. Such programmes are helping to breed a new generation of business-savvy executives. Why is it that airlines are looking outside of the industry to appoint senior executives? Academics believe it ...
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Boeing claims 747-X will catch A3XX
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Boeing is claiming that its new stretched 747-400X design is capable of meeting and even beating the direct operating costs of the all-new Airbus A3XX. The startling assertion is based on revised performance estimates for the 747-400X, plus new, independent airline analysis of the latest A3XX proposals. ...
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Leasing companies drop 767-400ER commitments after poor demand
Andrew Doyle/MUNICH Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Leasing companies General Electric Capital Aviation Services (GECAS) and International Lease Finance (ILFC) have dropped their combined orders for seven Boeing 767-400ERs after failing to find sufficient market interest in the stretched twins. ILFC says it has switched its four remaining -400ER commitments for ...
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737 safety probe prompts tests
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Boeing is modifying a 30-year-old ex-United Airlines 737-200 for ground and flight tests of the rudder system as part of a US Federal Aviation Administration-led safety evaluation. The 737 is being leased from Indiana-based Purdue University, which acquired the aircraft after United Airlines retired it in 1997. ...
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Catching African bugs
Age is beautiful for many African airports, which have avoided the biggest problems in becoming Y2K compliant Michael Wakabi/KAMPALA Africa is never short of contradictions. In the run-up to the year 2000, the very things that made some African airports the laughing stock of yesteryear are the reason that ...
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Southern Air ready to go after DoT vote
Start-up cargo carrier Southern Air has won US Department of Transportation approval to begin operations, but will have to do so without routes from bankrupt Southern Air Transport (SAT). Services will begin next year. The Columbus, Ohio-based company plans to offer aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance (ACMI) wet-lease services ...
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EgyptAir data fail to supply any answers
David Learmount/LONDON Initial evaluation of the crashed EgyptAir Boeing 767-300ER cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR) has failed to confirm the causes of the dive which began the fatal manoeuvre sequence, says US National Transportation Safety Board chairman Jim Hall. On 17 November, Hall released ...
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UK plans partial ATC sell-off
David Learmount/LONDONUK air traffic control (ATC) is on course for partial privatisation by the middle of next year, with the government last week announcing plans to put a bill transforming the National Air Traffic Services (NATS) into a "public private partnership" before parliament during the 1999/2000 session. As the government ...
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Canadian regionals may merge
Brian Dunn/MONTREAL A Toronto-based business group, Regional Airlines Holdings, aims to establish a new national airline by buying and merging the regional carriers of Air Canada and Canadian Airlines. The move would appear viable if the two majors themselves merge. Regional Airlines Holdings wants Ottawa to force Air Canada to ...
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Eurocontrol plan for congestion gets green light
Julian Moxon/PARIS Eurocontrol's Provisional Council has approved the agency's plans to reduce air traffic congestion in the short-to-medium term after a year in which delays have been among the worst on record. Although the Kosovo crisis has been blamed for causing most of the delays from April-July, the ...
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Vulcan delivers Observer to Italian police force
VulcanAir has delivered its first Partenavia P68 Observer 2 to the Italian State Police, around 18 months after the Casoria, Naples-based company acquired fellow Italian company Aerocosmos, former owner of the P68 type certificate. The Observer 2 piston twin, an upgraded version of the standard Observer model, offers a ...
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Guesstimation
Accident investigation is in danger of getting a bad name. The three US authorities - the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) - associated with the EgyptAir flight 990 investigation deserve some understanding given the ferocity of the media ...
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Mexican crash kills 18
Investigators are searching for evidence in the crash of a TAESA McDonnell Douglas DC-9 on 9 November. The crash happened shortly after the aircraft left Uruapan airport in central Mexico. All 18 people on board, including five crew, were killed when the DC-9-31 (XA-TKN), operating TAESA flight 725, nose-dived into ...
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AlliedSignal prepares for integrated A3XX cockpit
David Learmount/RIO DE JANEIRO AlliedSignal is working on an integrated navigation/hazard display which would be suitable for new aircraft types, such as Airbus Industrie's proposed A3XX ultra-large airliner. The large liquid crystal display will combine the navigation display with all hazard information, without cluttering the picture. Although this ...
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LAAS trials show Category 3 accuracy
The US Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS) has demonstrated the required accuracy for Category 3 approach and landings in the latest in a series of flight trials. The GPS-based LAAS is being developed as a government-industry partnership to replace the existing Cat 1/2/3 instrument landing systems in the USA. ...
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LTU starts fleet update with A320s
Andrew Doyle/MUNICHGerman charter carrier LTU International Airways is acquiring 12 Airbus A320s in the first stage of a fleet restructuring that will lead to the selection of a new widebody type to replace its Boeing 767-300ERs. The company, 49.9%-owned by the SAirGroup, is also considering concluding a sale and leaseback ...