All Ops & safety articles – Page 1280

  • News

    BA reviews low-cost, long-haul plans after Flying Colours sale

    1998-07-22T00:00:00Z

    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 ...

  • News

    North Korea agrees to open up Pyongyang overland route

    1998-07-22T00:00:00Z

    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. ...

  • News

    Nuclear experts aid air safety

    1998-07-22T00:00:00Z

    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 ...

  • News

    AirTran Airlines leaps back into profit

    1998-07-22T00:00:00Z

    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" ...

  • News

    All Nippon Airways'debt downgraded

    1998-07-22T00:00:00Z

    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 ...

  • News

    More Asian carriers negotiate order deferrals

    1998-07-22T00:00:00Z

    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 ...

  • News

    Augsburg considers flotation to maintain expansion rate

    1998-07-22T00:00:00Z

    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 ...

  • News

    Boeing sued over SilkAir crash

    1998-07-22T00:00:00Z

    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 ...

  • News

    Weather briefing

    1998-07-22T00:00:00Z

    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 ...

  • News

    Delta III waits on launch pad for maiden flight

    1998-07-22T00:00:00Z

     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 ...

  • News

    Double standards

    1998-07-22T00:00:00Z

    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 ...

  • News

    PAL rescue plan goes into extra time

    1998-07-22T00:00:00Z

    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 ...

  • News

    Going separate ways

    1998-07-22T00:00:00Z

    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 ...

  • News

    Marketplace

    1998-07-22T00:00:00Z

    -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 ...

  • News

    Pressure points

    1998-07-22T00:00:00Z

    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 ...

  • News

    Lufthansa Cargo slams Boeing for closing down MD-11 production

    1998-07-15T00:00:00Z

    Lufthansa Cargo has criticised Boeing's decision to cease production of the MD-11. Speaking during the ceremony to hand over the carrier's first two tri-jet freighters at Frankfurt early this month, Lufthansa Cargo chairman Wilhelm Althen described the production shutdown decision as "very regrettable". He described the arrival of ...

  • News

    P&W warns partners on future of V2500 engine programme

    1998-07-15T00:00:00Z

    Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE Pratt & Whitney has warned its International Aero Engine (IAE) partners that it will pursue development of the PW6000 and geared PW8000 turbofan family unless agreement can be reached on the future direction of the collaborative V2500 programme. "Pratt can't survive without participating in the largest ...

  • News

    Western Michigan University jets ahead with plans to acquire 737-400 simulator

    1998-07-15T00:00:00Z

    Western Michigan University plans to acquire a Boeing 737-400 flight simulator and to offer a jet orientation course as part of its ab initio airline pilot training programme. Based at Battle Creek, Michigan, the University's International Pilot Training Center is training cadets for Aer Lingus and British Airways. Eight ...

  • News

    Taiwan's U-Land links up with Air Philippines

    1998-07-15T00:00:00Z

    Brent Hannon/TAIPEI Taiwan's U-Land Airlines has wet-leased the first two of three Boeing MD-82s to Air Philippines as the first step towards acquiring a 35% stake in the Philippine domestic carrier. Talks between the two airlines have been speeded up because of the Philippine Airlines (PAL) strike. Since ...

  • News

    Sextant wins Airbus displays contract

    1998-07-15T00:00:00Z

    Airbus Industrie has awarded Sextant Avionique a contract to be sole supplier of flat-panel liquid crystal displays (LCD) for the new A340-500/600 and for all the production fly-by-wire Airbus types from mid-2000. The move comes in the face of requests from airlines to be allowed a choice of supplier, for ...