All Ops & safety articles – Page 1255
-
News
Boeing loses ground to Airbus in backing of firm orders
Boeing again sold more aircraft than Airbus Industrie in 1998, but its high delivery rate, combined with cancellations, saw it lose ground to its European rival in terms of firm order backlog. Provisional figures from Airbus suggest its share of the total backlog in the 100-seat plus sector grew ...
-
News
Thai authorities push for ILS at regional airports
The Thai Civil Aviation Department is pushing for government funds to upgrade landing aids at 16 provincial airports, following the recent crash of a Thai International Airbus A310 on approach to Surat Thani. The instrument landing system (ILS) at Surat Thani had been out of commission for two years ...
-
News
Belt and braces
Achieving a satisfactory level of safety used to be considered straight-forward: build good aeroplanes, train good pilots, respect an aircraft's limitations in the face of the elements, and take off, trusting that nothing beyond the capabilities of the aircraft/pilot team will occur. Key words in the traditional approach included "belt ...
-
News
JAL shareholder calls for senior management resignations
Andrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPORE The biggest single shareholder in Japan Airlines (JAL) has called for top management resignations following the airline's drop in profit and turnover in recent years. Eitaro Itoyama who owns about 4% of the airline, has demanded that the company's board of directors and president Isao Kaneko ...
-
News
Israel opens up cargo market
El Al is to decrease its cargo carrying capability in reaction to an Israeli Government committee recommendation to allow a private company to fly scheduled cargo services from the country. The committee, headed by the director-general of the Israeli ministry of transport, has recommended that Cargo Air Lines (CAL) ...
-
News
Software problems delay WAAS implementation
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has delayed initial fielding of the Raytheon Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) by at least 14 months because of software development problems. The WAAS was to have entered service in July 1999, but the FAA says this has been pushed back to September ...
-
News
Dynamic explorers
Tim Furniss/LONDON Three small NASA spacecraft will explore the earth's dynamic systems early in the new millennium. One of the satellites, called Volcanic Ash Mission (Volcam), will demonstrate the operational and scientific applications of monitoring volcanic clouds and small atmospheric particles, known as aerosols, from a geostationary orbit. Volcanic clouds ...
-
News
Crossair predicts big profit for 1998 but warns on ATC delays
Andrew Doyle/MUNICH Swiss carrier Crossair is forecasting bumper results for 1998 on the back of a 26% surge in scheduled passenger traffic. But the SAirGroup regional subsidiary complains that European air traffic control (ATC) delays reached their worst ever level last year - a situation it describes as ...
-
News
Debonair extends AB Airlines link with Boeing 737 lease
Debonair has expanded its co-operation with fellow UK low fare airline AB Airlines and boosted its fleet capacity with a nine-month deal to lease a 139-seat Boeing 737-300. The London Luton-based carrier will use the aircraft to supplement its fleet of 12 smaller British Aerospace 146s, initially to increase ...
-
News
Alitalia's Cereti sets out main objective as AEA chairman
Alitalia chairman Fausto Cereti has pledged to place engine emissions and air traffic control (ATC) delays at the top of his agenda when he takes over as the chairman of the Association of European Airlines (AEA) this year. In a speech setting out his objectives as the head of ...
-
News
Continental Express aims for all-ERJ fleet within five years
Paul Lewis/SAO JOSE DOS CAMPOS Continental Express is committed to replacing its entire fleet of 98 turboprop aircraft with new Embraer ERJ-135/145 jets within five years, but has ruled out a near-term requirement for a larger 70-seat regional transport. The Continental Airlines subsidiary has ordered 75 ERJ-145s and ...
-
News
Sundstrand boosts Airbus APU life
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Sundstrand's Auxiliary Power International (APIC) plans to boost the in-service life of its APS 3200 auxiliary power unit on the Airbus single-aisle aircraft family with a block upgrade in the next few months. APIC is confident of growing business on the 100-seat A318 after being selected ...
-
News
Cathay seeks higher productivity in costs drive
Andrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPORE Cathay Pacific Airways has agreed on productivity increases with ground staff as it negotiates with cabin crew and begins early talks with pilots' unions, as part of its drive to improve efficiency and cut costs. According to the airline, the productivity gains are being rewarded with ...
-
News
Economic crisis hits Russia's commercial traffic
Russia's Federal Aviation Service (FAS) expects its 1998 passenger traffic levels to be about 10% down because of the country's economic crisis. FAS director Gennady Zaitsev says results for the first 10 months of 1998 show a 10% drop in passenger and 20% in cargo air traffic. To combat ...
-
News
SilkAir probe 'may prove inconclusive'
Andrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPORE Twelve months after the crash of a SilkAir Boeing 737-300 on 19 December 1997, officials investigating the accident admit that "human factors" are the only avenue of investigation which remains open. But they add that it is difficult to assess accurately the state of mind of ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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 ...
-
News
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, ...
-
News
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 ...