All Ops & safety articles – Page 1275
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Sensing safer skies
Guy Norris/SEATTLE The aviation industry's continual search for safer skies is reaching "crusade" status as the chilling implications sink in of predicted traffic growth on accident rates. The US Federal Aviation Administration, for example, expects "a serious accident" every week by 2015 unless some radical changes are made. That ...
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China all cargo
Beijing has decided to allow Chinese airlines to operate all-cargo flights. China Eastern Airlines quickly announced the start of China Cargo Airlines, a joint venture with China Ocean Shipping Co. Air cargo within China is growing faster than passenger traffic and is expected to accelerate. Source: Airline Business
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Report weakens airport campaign
First, the good news. According to an official report, most of the runways in the US national airport system are in good to excellent condition. The bad news is that this may not be good for the airports. It will not be good news if the report, compiled by ...
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Pilots fear US alliance
Concern over job security in light of the proposed alliance with Continental Airlines has emerged as the key issue that could lead Northwest Airlines' pilots to strike from 29 August. The pilots' union says that, contrary to company statements, the dispute is about protecting jobs, not pay. The Air ...
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US alliances meet silence
A Wall Street analyst is predicting that none of the proposed US domestic airline alliances will be approved by the Department of Transportation because of the unfavourable environment in Washington DC and concerns about competition. Candace Browning, an analyst at Merrill Lynch in New York, points out that the ...
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United's answer to Travelocity
UAL, the parent company of United Airlines, is somewhat belatedly taking a more aggressive tack in selling its online services. For several months United has been offering tickets on its world wide web site including weekly deeply discounted, Internet-only fares, actions most of its competitors took months ago. More ...
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Europe: few direct answers
Will Europe's aviation industry be ready for the year 2000? The honest answer is that nobody yet knows. To date, companies have largely been preoccupied with their own internal compliance issues, but the wider debate over how the issue will affect the industry as a whole has only just begun. ...
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Asia-Pacific
As Asia rocks from the effects of the year-old financial crisis, a new demon is lurking on the horizon in the shape of the year 2000 date change. The big question is whether Asian airlines will fix the millennium bug in time. Estimates of the global cost to make ...
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Will Gangwal get BA back?
US Airways' president and chief executive officer, Rakesh Gangwal, is hinting strongly of renewed interest in British Airways as an attractive prospective alliance partner. The US airline has been free to pursue its expansion plans since signing an agreement with its pilots' union last year. According to Gangwal, efforts ...
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Beware treading the bear market
The world economy is in precarious shape.The Asian crisis is expected to cut growth by over one third in 1998. The Japanese economy will contract by at least 1 per cent, prolonging the slump throughout the East Asia region, despite the big expansion package put in place in Tokyo. The ...
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Brussels has the last word
Europe's privately owned and publicly quoted airlines must be wondering what they have to do to make a dent in the European Commission's stance on state aid. Their jubilation at the European Court of Justice's annulment of the FFr20 billion (US$3.3 billion) aid package to Air France on 25 June ...
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a nasty bug
The actions being taken to make all systems year 2000 compliant in time for the deadline vary greatly between regions. And while some carriers are busy putting their own house in order, they must ensure that their suppliers follow suit. The millennium bug is already causing some unpleasant stomach ...
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A time for celebration
While 1997 certainly broke all industry records for profitability, there were already dark clouds on the horizon as the effects of the Asian currency crisis began to make themselves felt. There will be worse to come this year as economies in the region continue to slow. So while the ...
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Deregulation dogfight
The US majors are responding to the Department of Transportation's proposed policy against predatory behaviour by arguing that it will deter them from offering cheaper fares. The irony is obvious. This year is the 20th anniversary of deregulation in the US and the industry should be celebrating two decades ...
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The devil's in the detail
The European Commission's rulings on two transatlantic alliances will be poured over by interested parties before official comments are filed. Now that the European Commission finally has produced its conditions for approving the American Airlines/British Airways alliance, lawyers will be scrambling to examine the detail. The Commission's competition directorate, ...
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Indian policy up in the
Even after six years of liberalisation, the Indian aviation sector is groping for direction. There is no consistent policy and the Civil Aviation Ministry has amended wet-leasing guidelines less than a month after banning the practice. The Foreign Investment Promotion Board has again deferred its decision on the Rs14 ...
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Two set for Tokyo launch
Japan has taken several more steps towards deregulating its skies by liberalising overseas fares and licensing two new domestic airlines. The Ministry of Transport is promoting fares competition by allowing higher discounts on international tickets. From October, fares for overseas tours may be 35 per cent below International Air ...
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One Eleven Stage 3 hushkit begins flight testing
Ian Sheppard/LONDON European Aviation and Quiet Technologies have completed initial flight tests of a proof of concept BAC One-Eleven Stage 3 hushkit prototype, and are satisfied that the aircraft will meet Stage 3 noise limits. The companies are to continue with development, having also shown that the fuel ...
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A3XX model tested
British Aerospace Airbus is testing a 1/28-scale model of the proposed 480/660-seat Airbus A3XX in the pressurised 5m windtunnel at the UK Defence Evaluation and Research Agency's Farnborough site. BAe, part of the integrated wing team with Aerospatiale and Daimler-Benz Aerospace, is testing slat and flap deployment angles to investigate ...
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Turbulence injures US Airways 737 passengers
Wake turbulence during the cruise phase of a flight is suspected as the cause of an incident which resulted in injuries to passengers during a US Airways Boeing 737-300 flight between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Las Vegas, Nevada, on 7 August. The captain reported the aircraft as acting "-like something ...