All Ops & safety articles – Page 1304
-
News
Routes
-Sabena has signed a partnership with French airline AOM covering routes between Brussels and the French cities of Toulon, Nice and Marseille, but extending also to French overseas territories, enabling both airlines to offer more frequencies and co-ordinate schedules. -Japan Airlines (JAL) plans to launch a twice weekly non-stop ...
-
News
Delta 2 problem will not delay launches
Investigations into a potential technical problem on the Boeing Delta 2 launcher will not delay the launch of the first two Globalstar mobile-communications satellites and a new set of five Iridium spacecraft scheduled to be placed into orbit in early February. Although successful, the Delta 7925 flight carrying the ...
-
News
Myanmar F27 crash
A 20-year-old Myanmar Airways Fokker F27 600 suffered a fatal accident during take-off from Thandwe, Myanmar, on 28 January, killing 14 of the 45 people on board. An engine problem appears to have caused the aircraft to veer off the runway. Source: Flight International
-
News
Crashed SilkAir 737 hinge bolt 'was installed'
Boeing says that an elevator hinge bolt, previously believed to be missing from the SilkAir Boeing 737-300 which crashed on 19 December, 1997, was installed at the time. In a letter sent on 27 January to all 737 operators, the manufacturer says: "An examination of the wreckage gives clear evidence ...
-
News
US airline profits are 'best ever'
The major US airlines ended 1997 with their strongest profits on record, but the celebrations were accompanied by the promise of more turbulence ahead, with the fall-out from Asian economic crisis and the prospect of a renewed round of consolidation closer to home following the Continental/Northwest Airlines tie-up. With only ...
-
News
Insurers threaten to withdraw cover unless airlines tackle computer bug
Aviation insurers have challenged airlines to prove that their fleet avionics are free of the "millennium bug" which threatens to disrupt computer software, or lose their cover for any incidents which result from it. The issue, says a major Lloyds insurance-market underwriter, is what may happen to embedded computer ...
-
News
Northwest and Continental tie-up raises Alitalia/KLM hopes
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON Julian Moxon/PARIS The tie-up between Northwest and Continental Airlines has been welcomed by European partners Alitalia and KLM, offering the prospect of a global alliance within five years. "The deal opens the door to a much wider co-operation," says Fausto Cereti, chairman of Alitalia, which already ...
-
News
American/BA may give up Gatwick slots
Alan George/LONDON The proposed British Airways/American Airlines alliance may be allowed to include London Gatwick Airport slots among the concessions it needs to make to gain approval from the European Commission for the tie-up. Previously, it was thought that all of the slots to be sacrificed would be at ...
-
News
Cockpit inadequacies
David Learmount/LONDON Those who argue that there is a degradation of basic flying skills in line pilots ascribe it to many things, the favourite being flightdeck automation. Parc Aviation consultant Capt Russell Kane, a former Aer Lingus captain, says that there is evidence that giving undue importance to cockpit ...
-
News
Safety-authority plans detailed
Julian Moxon and Alan George/BRUSSELS New details of the planned European Air Safety Authority (EASA) have been revealed by European transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock. In spite of the progress, he admits that there remain "several very difficult political issues" to be resolved. The European Commission (EC) has called ...
-
News
Do not pass 'go'
So British Airways' no-frills start-up is "Go"; but will it - and what sort of response will it attract from powerful European competitors like Lufthansa? Even more important, from where will the passengers come to make these no-frills airlines work? The justification for an existing airline to launch a ...
-
News
The impossible target
David Learmount/LONDON Training to be a commercial pilot under the new joint European rules is going to be harder, the training industry warns. With the first of the new courses about to start, this is not exactly what aspiring fliers were hoping, or even expecting, to hear. Under the new ...
-
News
DOT spotlights fare changes
The US Department of Transportation began publishing its domestic airline fares consumer report in response to an increasing number of inquiries about ticket prices. The first report, for the third quarter of 1996, was released in June last year and the latest report is based on data for the second ...
-
News
ACI feels out of pocket
Karen Walker Girding itself for a battle with the airlines and with Congress, the Airports Council International, North America, will raise its profile in 1998 with hopes of increasing pressure on those who control its members' funding sources. The ACI is sticking to its controversial claim that US ...
-
News
US lusts after Latins
Karen Walker US majors are looking southwards as American Airlines receives its long-awaited go-ahead for a codeshare with the Taca group and jockeys with its competitors for other prized Latin American alliances and routes. After 18 months, and a storm of protest from other US and central American ...
-
News
Deflation alarm bells ring again
Deflation is not an economic term which has tripped off the tongue in the last three decades. Far from it. A series of political crises in the Middle East, starting with the six-day war in 1967, triggered 30 years of almost continuous inflation, fuelled by surging oil and commodity prices ...
-
News
India airlines in doldrums
T Ballantyne/R Prasad India's hard pressed domestics are facing a double challenge to their shaky balance sheets: the renewed threat of a Tata Industries local startup and massive hikes in airport landing charges. The Tata group had earlier plans for a joint venture with Singapore Airlines, backed by ...
-
News
Arranged marriage
Indian Airlines is destined to wed Air-India, but first the government must accept some responsibility for its financial troubles. Its proposed 'dowry' would be made up of compensation for the enforced grounding of its entire A320 fleet back in 1990, a subordinated loan, and the injection of new capital. By ...
-
News
Asia's crisis: a rude awakening
Asia's financial crisis is now threatening to start another global airline recession. What goes up must come down. Of all people, participants in the aviation business should understand this most basic phenomenon. After all, the one certainty of every flight is that gravity will bring it down eventually. All that ...
-
News
Asia's new era
Asia's economic turmoil is going to accelerate long-term structural change as the carriers in the region respond to the challenges. Doug Cameron looks at the impact on aircraft renewal, funding, alliances and liberalisation. Asian executives must be wondering what other calamities fate can possibly have in store for them. ...