All Ops & safety articles – Page 1318

  • News

    ModiLuft attempts to relaunch

    1997-05-14T00:00:00Z

    ModiLuft is preparing to relaunch airline operations, despite the fact that it is yet to resolve issues from its previous, abortive attempt to operate a domestic network in India. The Delhi-based carrier was set up in 1993 by Satish Kumar Modi, with assistance from Lufthansa, operating four Boeing ...

  • News

    New initiative revives hopes for central European ATC unity

    1997-05-14T00:00:00Z

    Hopes for the creation of a common central European upper-airspace air-traffic-management centre have been revived with a new initiative aimed at producing a signature from the eight involved nations on 27 June. The Central European Air Traffic Services (CEATS) project, which includes Austria, Bosnia, Croatia, the Czech Republic, ...

  • News

    Lufthansa plans cargo alliance

    1997-05-14T00:00:00Z

    Lufthansa Cargo is to follow its parent airline into a global alliance as part of the plan to return the now independent freight business to profit. The partnership could be set up this year, and will be similar to the forthcoming passenger alliance of Air Canada, Lufthansa, SAS, ...

  • News

    US Airways cuts out loss-making routes

    1997-05-14T00:00:00Z

    US AIRWAYS is eliminating unprofitable routes and grounding 22 aircraft in what could be the first step towards shrinking the nation's sixth-largest airline to a regional carrier. Stephen Wolf, the airline's chairman, has also warned that unless he has concessions from labour unions before 30 September, he will ...

  • News

    TAP chooses Collins MMR for Airbuses

    1997-05-14T00:00:00Z

    TAP-Air Portugal has selected the Collins GLU-920 multi-mode receiver (MMR)to equip its recently ordered fleet of 16 Airbus A319s and six A320s. The MMR is a single unit designed to ease precision approaches using the instrument-and microwave-landing-systems, and the global-positioning system. The 22 aircraft, deliveries of which start ...

  • News

    India/China prepare to sign air agreement

    1997-05-14T00:00:00Z

    India and China are set to sign a new air-services agreement (ASA), paving the way for the first direct flights by their national airlines between the two countries. The agreement is expected to be signed on 21 May during a visit to Chinese capital Beijing by an Indian ...

  • News

    American restructures Boeing fleet deal after delays

    1997-05-14T00:00:00Z

    American Airlines has restructured its massive fleet-replacement deal with Boeing, following the delay caused by the recent pilots' dispute and the ratification of the agreement on its regional-jet operations. The biggest impact of the nearly six-month delay has been on next-generation 737 deliveries, the first of which have ...

  • News

    Crash breaks China's accident-free run

    1997-05-14T00:00:00Z

    A fatal China Southern Airlines Boeing 737-300 crash has broken an accident-free run of nearly three years by China's rapidly growing air-transport industry. The aircraft (B-2925), from China Southern's Shenzhen branch, was on flight from Chongqing to Shenzhen International Airport near Hong Kong, on 8 May, when, because of stormy ...

  • News

    AASI begins revised Jetcruzer stretch

    1997-05-14T00:00:00Z

    Advanced Aerodynamics and Structures (AASI) has begun work at its Long Beach factory in California on the stretched Jetcruzer 500P, a pressurised high-speed version of the original Jetcruzer 450. "It will be pressurised to 30,000ft [9,150m] with a good high-altitude engine," says AASI executive vice-president Gene Comfort. "We're ...

  • News

    JT8D failures studied

    1997-05-14T00:00:00Z

    The US National Transportation Safety Board is investigating an uncontained failure of a Pratt & Whitney JT8D engine which occurred to a Northwest Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-9 during take-off from Memphis on 24 April. The take-off was aborted safely. It is the latest of a series of incidents involving the ...

  • News

    Trent 700 suffers another in-flight shutdown

    1997-05-14T00:00:00Z

    Rolls-Royce has again suffered an in-flight shutdown of a Trent 700 turbofan engine fitted to an Airbus Industrie A330 twinjet - the third such occurrence in less than six months. In the latest incident, on 6 May, the No 2 engine on a Cathay Pacific Airways A330 ran ...

  • News

    UK AAIB investigates BA services with damaged 747-400

    1997-05-14T00:00:00Z

    The UK Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) has launched an investigation into an accident in which a British Airways Boeing 747-400 sustained significant damage in a "heavy landing", but continued to be flown on two revenue flights before the extent of the damage to the aircraft was realised. ...

  • News

    China Eastern beats its 1996 profits forecast

    1997-05-14T00:00:00Z

    China Eastern Airlines managed to post better-than-forecast profits for 1996, providing some good news in the wake of its February listing on the Hong Kong and New York stock exchanges. In its prospectus for the flotation (the first by a Chinese carrier), China Eastern had warned that declining ...

  • News

    Regional Airlines prepares to accept EMB-145 after delays

    1997-05-14T00:00:00Z

    The Embraer EMB-145 regional jet was expected to gain European Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA)certification on 12 May, around six months later than originally planned, clearing the way for European launch customer Regional Airlines to put the type into service in early June. The delay was caused by JAA ...

  • News

    MD 600N ticket close

    1997-05-07T15:32:00Z

    The delayed US certification of the McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Systems (MDHS) MD600N is expected early in May. MDHS has raised the rotor minimum speed and moved the tail-thruster exit to on top of the tailboom to eliminate blade strikes on the boom caused by rotor droop during control reversals at ...

  • News

    Sharing the loads

    1997-05-07T00:00:00Z

    The utilisation by major carriers of regional airlines with low cost bases to operate low-volume, short-haul feeder services is a concept that has been established in North America since the 1980s, but has only recently caught on in Europe. British Airways was the first European carrier to conclude a franchise ...

  • News

    Historic manufacturers return

    1997-05-07T00:00:00Z

    Two famous names from German aviation history staged a comeback at the Aero '97 show, with the presentation of new prototypes from Zeppelin and Junkers. The general-aviation show, in Friedrichshafen, Germany, from 23-27 April, featured the public debut of the Zeppelin New Technology (NT) airship, the LZ N07. ...

  • News

    Regional jets find a home

    1997-05-07T00:00:00Z

    LABOUR TURMOIL and strike threats spawned by the introduction of new-generation "regional jets" have diverted attention away from an evolution that is taking place in both the airline and aircraft manufacturing industries. This is the opinion of aircraft manufacturers, airline-industry pundits and air-carrier officials who say that the ...

  • News

    Cathay's mixed fleet cuts costs of crews

    1997-05-07T00:00:00Z

    Cathay Pacific Airways claims that mixed-fleet flying on its Airbus Industrie A330s and A340s has yielded crew-cost savings of up to 25%. The Hong Kong-based airline is a world leader in two-engine/four-engine mixed-fleet flying. Capt John Bent, Cathay's flying training manager (policy), says that, following the initial costs ...

  • News

    US carriers enjoy profits hike

    1997-05-07T00:00:00Z

    Overall profits from the major US airline groups continued to forge ahead in the first quarter of 1997, shrugging aside the hike in fuel costs and re-imposition of the 10% federal ticket tax in early March. The leading airlines made a combined profit of over $750 million, more ...