All Ops & safety articles – Page 1305
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No more red China blues?
Tom Ballantyne China's airlines are getting their first taste of capitalism as the country's carriers drastically slash their air fares and liberalisation hits the region. The Civil Aviation Administration of China has given its 27 CAAC-approved airlines the go-ahead to cut prices by up to 40 per cent ...
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Born free?
While government regulations were the downfall of most of India's first batch of startups, it appears that a second cycle - involving new players as well as the return of some old contenders - is underway. Like large tracts of Asia, cloaked in the fog from forest fires, India's ...
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Greek dance for chairmen
Doug Cameron The lure of leading Olympic Airways out of trouble is proving too strong for some to resist; the Greek flag carrier will have been through two new chairmen before the end of January. Unsatisfied with the many applicants for the chief executive's post, Olympic has combined ...
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Cheap thrills with no frills
Lois Jones Low-cost startups are beginning to looking extremely vulnerable as more majors launch low-cost subsidiaries, ignoring the argument that the independent players should instead be left to satisfy the demand for low fares in underserved markets. By Lois Jones. To your corners, please. To the left of the ring ...
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US hubs need to be consolidated
Karen Walker Driven as they are by the shareholder, the major US carriers will no doubt sit up and take notice of a new report from a Wall Street analyst that assesses their growth potential, and therefore investment worth, based on the relative strengths and weaknesses of their hubs. ...
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Garuda in dire straits
Tom Ballantyne Reeling from a freefall in its local currency which has blown up debt, Jakarta's state-owned flag carrier Garuda Indonesia may face bankruptcy unless it auctions off assets. The country's economic collapse, coupled with a string of accidents including a major crash last September in which 300 ...
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Higher US fares are hitting home
As US domestic fares continue to rise, more business travellers are making concessions in order to obtain lower fares, or are switching to low-cost carriers. Report by Karen Walker. The New Year had barely been rung in when both American Express and the US Department of Transportation confirmed what most ...
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French stick over partner
Doug Cameron Investment bankers are sharply split over Air France's ability to secure a strategic airline investor and Air France's advisers have retreated from supporting a trade sale after the collapse of its planned Alitalia agreement. Air France plans an equity issue of FFr18 billion (US$2.9 billion) in ...
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Red ink rains over Korea
Tom Ballantyne South Korea's airlines are scrambling to downsize and slash costs as the region staggers from the blow of Asia's worsening economic crisis. Flag carrier Korean Airlines faces more than US$900 million in foreign exchange losses after the local currency, the won, dived 40 per cent against ...
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Tamed by politics
Report by Tom Ballantyne It seems that every time a new Indian aviation policy ship gently eases itself into port, an election storm rears its head and dashes it onto the rocks. As India's two state-owned airlines, Air-India and Indian Airlines, prepared for the New Year after a ...
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NTSB calls for software rethink after A300 lost speed in descent
Software redesign following investigation of an in-flight upset to an American Airlines Airbus Industrie A300-600R has been recommended by the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The aircraft's airspeed was allowed to decrease dangerously when it levelled out at 16,000ft (4,900m) during descent, before the stall-warning sounded and the aircraft ...
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Airbus set for A319 order from Royal Brunei
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE Royal Brunei Airlines (RBA) has reached a tentative agreement with Airbus Industrie to place an initial order for two A319s, in a move which will affect its wider-ranging selection of a new fleet of widebodies. The airline has accepted an Airbus offer on two A319s available ...
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Fairchild Dornier flies 328JET
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH Fairchild Dornier flew its prototype 328JET for the first time on 20 January, bringing it a step closer to entering the emerging 30-seat regional-jet market. The aircraft took off at 11:16 local time from the company's Oberpfaffenhofen site near Munich, and was flown for nearly 2h over the ...
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Asian crisis sees Asiana drop A330
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE Asiana Airlines is scrapping its plans to purchase Airbus A330s and is cutting back drastically on an Airbus A321 order. Overall, the number of cancelled aircraft orders and deferred deliveries in Asia continues to grow, with Singapore Aircraft Leasing Enterprise (SALE) rescheduling Boeing 777-200 deliveries and Thai Airways ...
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Boeing perseveres as EVA discusses A340 order
EVA Airways has opened contractual negotiations with Airbus Industrie on ordering six A340-500s, plus six options, but has not ruled out placing orders with Boeing. It holds an unsigned letter-of-intent (LoI) for a similar number of proposed 747-200ERXs. Despite EVA having earlier signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with ...
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Boeing 737-600 takes off
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES The Boeing 737-600 had a successful 2h 28min first flight from Renton on 22 January on a day when firm orders for Next Generation aircraft climbed to 811, with the sale of 59 more to launch-customer Southwest Airlines. The -600's take-off weight was a relatively light 50,395kg, ...
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Work on turbulence detection device advances in Europe
Ian Sheppard/LONDON A new detection device which could allow civil pilots using head-up displays to "see" invisible atmospheric hazards such as wake vortices, windshear and clear-air turbulence (CAT)at long range is being developed by a European consortium led by Sextant Avionique of France. The European Commission (EC)-backed Multifunction ...
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Continental and Northwest lead profit surge in USA
Continental and Northwest Airlines remained tight-lipped on their pending alliance talks as the two carriers led the US airline industry in a spectacular round of profit announcements destined to make 1997 the best year on record. Neither of the two airline managements were prepared to answer direct questions on ...
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Turbulence surfaces in crash probe
Turbulent weather has emerged as a possible factor in the SilkAir Boeing 737-300 accident, about which there has been, so far, no statement by the Indonesian investigating authorities. The aircraft disappeared from cruising flight near Palembang, Sumatra, on 19 December on a scheduled flight from Djakarta, Indonesia, to Singapore. ...
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Western Michigan University trains Europeans
Student pilots from Irish carrier Aer Lingus have begun ab initio training at Western Michigan University's (WMU) School of Aviation Sciences at Battle Creek. British Airways students will begin training at WMU in March. The University is negotiating an ab initio contract with a third airline, which would take ...