All Ops & safety articles – Page 1320
-
News
French force unions down
The French may still be demanding liberté but there's less égalité and fraternité as unions resist management attempts to force the lower working conditions of Air France and Air Liberté on to their members at Air France Europe and TAT respectively. Pilots and ground staff from Air France ...
-
News
When the wolf's at your door
Edward Faberman, executive director of the newly formed Air Carrier Association of America, makes an unusual Red Riding Hood, but he is certain he is looking into the eyes of cleverly disguised wolves. Faberman uses chilling language to describe the actions of the US major carriers against their ...
-
News
Delta deal fires debate
Delta Air Lines' decision to sign up with Boeing for 20 years prompted analysts to coo their approvals. But one former Capitol Hill veteran worries that this deal will only stoke the antitrust debate over the proposed Boeing- McDonnell Douglas merger. Mike Korens, managing director at consultants GKMG ...
-
News
EMU on course for scheduled launch
Despite a number of obstacles it is now looking much more likely that European Monetary Union will go ahead as planned on 1 January, 1999. This will be the dominant theme for the Amsterdam summit of European leaders scheduled for June this year. During the build-up to monetary ...
-
News
Chinas start strait talking
The countdown to Hong Kong's handover is starting to realign China-Taiwan aeropolitics. There has been little progress in the two years since Taipei predicted direct flights would start in 1997, but there are signs that China and Taiwan want better relations and are willing to take tentative steps towards direct ...
-
News
China set to fuel mergers
China looks set to hike fuel prices to try to force further consolidation among its many unprofitable local carriers as local fares are set to rise. The authorities have already cleared airlines to raise air fares for local residents by up to 20 per cent from July following ...
-
News
Korea opens with a catch
South Korea, long considered a non-starter in US efforts to forge open skies in Asia, is hinting that it may yet join the party, but Seoul's insistence on preconditions is likely to sit awkwardly in Washington. A Korean transport ministry official says his country is willing to sign ...
-
News
US user fees rock Canada
Canadian government has requested an urgent meeting with the US Federal Aviation Administration over proposed new overflight fees that Ottawa sees as 'highly discriminatory'. From 19 May, the FAA will begin charging fees for aircraft which fly through US airspace, but do not take off or land in ...
-
News
Having fun in Brussels
As Sabena throws itself into revamping its shaky operations it had better remember to watch its back. Both Virgin Express and City Bird are attacking the flag carrier's Brussels base with gusto. The two airlines claim to be revolutionising the services on offer in Europe with a cheap, ...
-
News
Beijing mixes Taipei deals
Taiwan's aeropolitical relations with third countries are experiencing mixed fortunes at the hands of Beijing after China spoiled plans by EVA Air to fly to the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, while being less vociferious in its opposition to China Airlines serving Russia for the first time. After ...
-
News
Battle of wills
Washington has changed tactics on Japan. When President Clinton wrote to Prime Minister Hashimoto last September to urge that Japan and the US replace their contentious bilateral with a new open skies agreement, that represented a change of thinking in Washington. For eight years the administrations had insisted on Tokyo's ...
-
News
India equity ban is shaky
The only consolation the world's air transport industry can take from New Delhi's decision to bar foreign carriers from investing in India's airlines is that the country finally has a firm policy in place. The problem is that the imminent collapse of the government could soon open up the whole ...
-
News
Crossair tries back door
Swiss regional carrier Crossair has taken a 35 per cent stake in a proposed French startup carrier, in an attempt to improve its access to the European Union market. Initially, Euro Continental Airways would operate two Crossair Saab 2000s from major French cities to the French sector of ...
-
News
BA hires and fires equally
British Airways has agreed concessions with one main union but the others may not comply so easily as the carrier launches a recruitment drive to hire 1,300 pilots and 2,000 cabin crew. Ground staff of the transport workers' union, TGWU, voted in favour of a three-year proposal at ...
-
News
Latin cargo tempts Asia
Access to unlimited beyond rights is one of the main goals for the US in its global drive for open skies and now Asian carriers are discovering there may yet be benefits in return, in the booming Latin American cargo market at least. China Airlines will become the ...
-
News
TAM seeks widebodies for new Miami route
BRAZIL'S TAM Group is negotiating to acquire between two and four widebodied aircraft for a Sao Paulo-Miami, Florida, route which it hopes to begin operating by early 1998. Talks are under way with Airbus and Boeing. TAM says that 1997 will be a "year of consolidation". In 1996, ...
-
News
Improved safety
Taiwan's civil-aviation safety-oversight system has been upgraded to Category 1 under the US Federal Aviation Administration's International Aviation Safety Assessment programme, signifying that it is fully compliant with International Civil Aviation Organisation's standards. Under its Category 2 assessment, flights to the USA had been subjected to extra FAA surveillance. ...
-
News
Kansai nears saturation after only three years
Japan's new Kansai International Airport is already near maximum capacity, less than three years after opening, but the construction of second runway and passenger terminal cannot be completed until 2007 at the earliest. The $13 billion airport, built 5km (3nm) offshore on reclaimed land in Osaka Bay, is ...
-
News
Merpati Nusantara ATP crash kills 15 people
A British Aerospace ATP turboprop operated by Merpati Nusantara Airlines crashed on 17 April on the Indonesian island of Belitung, killing 15 of the 53 passengers and crew. It is the first major accident to the aircraft type in ten years of service. The aircraft (PK-MTX) was on ...
-
News
India insists on TCAS in wake of collision
India is to make it compulsory for aircraft being operated in its airspace to be equipped with a traffic-alert and collision-avoidance System (TCAS-II). Director-general of civil aviation, H S Khosla, says that the move is a result of the November 1996 mid-air collision over New Delhi between a ...