All Ops & safety articles – Page 1228
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Is Europe ready for recession?
Europe's major airlines are faced with the prospect of falling profits and traffic in 1999, but are they doing enough to limit the damage? If current traffic predictions hold true, then Europe should have a relatively easy ride over the coming year or so, despite the spectre of a ...
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Crises contained?
Fears of an outright recession have begun to recede, but world economic growth is still expected to slow in 1999 and serious risks remain. Concerted action by the world's economic policy makers appears to have paid off. The threat of global recession that loomed during the crises of 1998 ...
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Could you please confirm
No-one can hope to predict when a crisis will strike but you can be ready to limit the damage to brands and reputation It is the moment every airline executive dreads. To be woken in the early hours of the morning by the insistent summons of the telephone and ...
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New commission cap sparks fury
United Airlines has capped commissions on international tickets at $50 one-way and $100 roundtrip, setting off a furore in the US travel agency community. The move has prompted the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) to put together plans to file a complaint to the US Department ...
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PAL buys time
The owners of Philippine Airlines (PAL) are buying time with a proposal to inject their own capital into the airline while they ask creditors to give them another three more months to find investors willing to put up more. That is the nub of PAL's plan filed with the ...
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Debonair broadens its horizons
The last few months of 1998 have been a busy time for ambitious UK low-fare airline Debonair. First came the regional frequent flier initiative, followed by approval from above for an extensive air-bridge operation for pilgrims travelling to the religious sanctuary of Lourdes from 10 European cities. Then came ...
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News in Brief
Round-the world - British Airways and Qantas have added six new one-stop round-the world codeshare flights. Passengers from London Gatwick, Birmingham and Manchester will be able to use the alliance to connect directly to Australia, or via Paris or Frankfurt. Fairbanks flights - Lufthansa Cargo has added three weekly ...
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Jet Airways expansion questioned
The 25 aircraft expansion programme of Jet Airways, India's largest independent domestic carrier, has run into trouble. The finance ministry has requested details from its civil aviation counterpart on why the Tata-Singapore Airlines (SIA) joint venture was rejected while approval was given for Jet Airways ...
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Airport planning delays hit China as finances falter
Airport planning delays are becoming common in Hong Kong and China due to financing and other difficulties. The chaos caused by Chek Lap Kok's premature opening has led to the postponement of its second runway. Hong Kong's airport authority has pushed back opening the parallel runway by six months, ...
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Air France on course
Air France is on course for a stock market flotation of a 20% stake in the first quarter of 1999 but despite pressure from its US partners, the carrier is still equivocating on an alliance. This was the airline's position as outlined by chief executive Jean-Cyril Spinetta, following the ...
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Taking action over passives
In the battle to cut distribution costs, the airlines are fighting hard to reduce computer reservation fees for passive and duplicate bookings. But despite progress on both sides of the Atlantic, the issue remains a cause of tension. Passive or duplicate ticket bookings may be sound harmless enough, but airlines ...
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Rivals act on SAA's domestic fares
South Africa's three independent airlines, BA-Comair, Sun Air and Nationwide, have lodged an urgent complaint to the Competition Board claiming South African Airways is charging fares that are "below cost and therefore constitute predatory behaviour on the part of the dominant carrier". The board's chief director support ...
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Lufthansa adds A340
Lufthansa Flight Training has ordered an Airbus A340-300 full flight simulator from CAE Electronics, which will be installed at its Frankfurt training centre in February 2000. Lufthansa has selected Evans & Sutherland's new ESIG-3800 visual system for the simulator, with options to replace the SP-X visuals on all its existing ...
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Moving swiftly
Kanichi Amano/TOKYO Andrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPORE When the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) approved funding for a new supersonic engine demonstrator programme, Tokyo once again proved its readiness to put real money behind the development of technology for a new supersonic transport (SST) aircraft. In September, the ...
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Thai probe focuses on ILS and weather
Andrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPORE Investigations into the accident which destroyed the Airbus A310 operating Thai Airways International flight TG261 on 11 December are focusing on weather conditions, human factors and the lack of a working instrument landing system (ILS) at Surat Thani Airport, Thailand. The 12-year-old A310-200 (HS-TIA), one of ...
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The final frontier
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Every time a Space Shuttle blasts off, its booming sound waves pass unseen over the forgotten bones of a long abandoned project. Lying at the edge of the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, are the forlorn remains of Boeing's 2707-200 supersonic transport (SST) full-scale mock-up. Abandoned when the ...
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US DoT delays ruling on Northwest routes
The US Department of Transportation (DoT) is delaying its investigation into whether the "virtual merger" of Northwest Airlines and Continental Airlines constitutes a transfer of international routes to Northwest. The DoT gave the airlines a one-year exemption from a new law requiring DoT approval of foreign route transfers. It ...
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Pylon crack
Boeing has amended its inspection procedures for Boeing 747 engine pylons after the discovery of serious fatigue cracking in a Cathay Pacific 747 pylon. The crack, in the number one engine pylon, was discovered during a post-flight inspection in December 1996. According to an incident report released by the Hong ...
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Hughes technology transfer error helped China's missile programme
The US Department of Defense has confirmed that Hughes Space and Communications inadvertently aided China's missile and satellite programmes during an investigation into the failure of a Long March 2E launcher attempting to orbit the Hughes built ApStar 2 satellite in 1995. The Pentagon says that Hughes gave China ...
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Chasing a dream
Paul Duffy/PERM The last seven years have been difficult for the Russian aviation industry. Long accustomed to producing to Soviet state orders, the industry's finance and income also came from the same source. Now in crisis, most state-owned companies in the industry are waiting for state rescue. If ...