All Ops & safety articles – Page 1252
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EC closes issue of Air France state aid despite court decision
The European Commission (EC) has effectively laid to rest the issue over its four-year-old Air France state aid package, brushing off legal questions raised by last month's decision in the European courts. Air France should now be free to press ahead with its planned share flotation. The European Court ...
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ARAC advises caution on fuel tank safety improvements
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC An aviation industry advisory group led by Boeing and Airbus Industrie says the US Federal Aviation Administration should continue to investigate cost-effective ways to enhance fuel tank safety on in-service and new airliners while ordering the changes for new aircraft designs. Six months ago, the ...
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Brake warning
An Airbus Industrie A320 overran a runway because sealant missing from a cap over its braking dual distribution valve allowed water ingress and freezing. This disabled the aircraft's standby braking system, according to a US Federal Aviation Administration emergency airworthiness directive, which calls for checks to be carried out within ...
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Pressure points
International pressure is mounting for the process of aircraft accident investigation to be opened up, just as it is increasing on those countries seen to be underperforming in airline safety. It is vital to understand the positive and negative effects of this pressure for transparency, however. Investigators themselves are ...
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Marketplace
-Continental Airlines has taken delivery of its first of 28 Boeing 737-800s. -Airtours International has confirmed its order for two additional Rolls-Royce Trent 700-powered A330-200s, bringing its orders for the type to four. The second batch will be delivered in the fourth quarter of 1999 for operation by Airtours' Danish ...
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Going separate ways
Andrzej Jeziorski/TOULOUSE After months of negotiations, ATR and British Aerospace put an end to their Aero International (Regional) (AI(R)) partnership on 3 July with the signing of the official termination documents, retroactively valid from the beginning of the month. Two-and-a-half year old AI(R) - formed under French law as a ...
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PAL rescue plan goes into extra time
Philippine Airlines (PAL) has been given US and Philippine bankruptcy protection until the end of July, allowing the local Securities Exchange Commission (SEC)-appointed "rehabilitation committee" extra time to finalise and present a financial rescue plan. The troubled national carrier is temporarily shielded by the SEC from any claims made ...
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Double standards
Any remaining doubts that action on airline safety is needed in South Asia and Asia-Pacific have been dissolved by the accidents that occurred in the first six months of 1998. After the 2 February Cebu Pacific Air fatal accident, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) broke its characteristic neutral silence ...
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Delta III waits on launch pad for maiden flight
Boeing's first Delta III is pictured on Pad 17B at Cape Canaveral, Florida, being prepared for its maiden flight scheduled for 3 August, carrying the Hughes HS-601 Galaxy 10 communications satellite. The Delta III, which can place 3,810kg into geostationary transfer orbit, comprises a stretched Delta II first stage ...
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Weather briefing
Weather Services International is planning to launch an Internet-based weather briefing system for pilots. The new international service will be announced at the Farnborough air show in September and will become operational shortly after. The product will enable pilots to access weather data via fixed and wireless telephone systems, thereby ...
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Boeing sued over SilkAir crash
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE The first of several expected lawsuits arising from last December's crash of a SilkAir Boeing 737-300 has been filed against Boeing, in an attempt to force the Indonesian-led investigation to release more information about the possible cause of the accident at Palembang, Indonesia. A US firm ...
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Augsburg considers flotation to maintain expansion rate
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH Augsburg Airways is considering a public flotation to keep its expansion rolling, although the German regional carrier says that such a move is at least three years away. Augsburg has financed its fleet growth, now planned at two aircraft a year, through private debt placement, but concedes that ...
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More Asian carriers negotiate order deferrals
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE Korean Air (KAL) and Singapore Airlines (SIA) are negotiating with Airbus Industrie and Boeing to defer up to 16 widebody aircraft due for delivery in 1999 and 2000, as Asia's economic downturn takes its toll on air traffic. Industry and airline sources suggest that KAL is ...
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All Nippon Airways'debt downgraded
Lead US rating agency Moody's has downgraded All Nippon Airways' long-term debt below its traditional investment grade, raising concerns over growing competition in deregulated Japanese markets and recession in the domestic economy. The warning comes after another round of losses among the major Japanese carriers was confirmed by the ...
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AirTran Airlines leaps back into profit
AirTran Airlines has turned in its first quarterly profit since the Florida crash two years ago which forced the carrier, then called ValuJet, to suspend services for several months. The new group, which emerged last year from the merger of AirTran Airways and ValuJet, is forecasting a "solidly profitable" ...
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Nuclear experts aid air safety
Ian Sheppard/LONDON Sandia National Laboratories is helping the US Federal Aviation Administration to devise a new approach to airline safety which the FAA hopes will assist its 3,500 inspectors in tracking safety trends and predicting airline operating deficiencies. Calling on its knowledge from decades of systems engineering work ...
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North Korea agrees to open up Pyongyang overland route
North Korea has agreed to the opening of the first overland route through the Pyongyang flight information region (FIR), clearing the way for more direct flights from Japan to China and Europe. International flights have also been started on two new air routes through Afghanistan between Asia and Europe. ...
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BA reviews low-cost, long-haul plans after Flying Colours sale
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON British Airways appears to have scaled back plans for its low-cost, long-haul franchise partner Airline Management (AML). The rethink follows a change of ownership for Flying Colours, the charter carrier which has been providing AML with cabin crew and management. AML was set up a year ...
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Further delays hit PW4098-powered 777-300
The long-delayed flight tests of the Pratt & Whitney PW4098-powered Boeing 777-300 are not expected to resume until at least the end of this month following an incident at SeaTac International Airport, near Seattle, in which a new engine slipped in its handling cradle. P&W says that the PW4098, ...
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Dragonair forges independence
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE Dragonair has taken a further step towards independence from Cathay Pacific Airways with the purchase of an Airbus A320 full flight simulator from CAE Electronics. The Hong Kong-based airline, which has also taken an option with CAE for an Airbus A330 simulator, will open its own ...