All Ops & safety articles – Page 1362
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News
Financial results
Air Macau's operating loss during its first full year was about half of the original forecast. The airline carried 665,000 passengers at an average load factor of 68%. Air Pacific increased its profits during its first full year of flying to Los Angeles and Osaka, although the French ...
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Skating on thin ice
Competition, high costs, declining yields, and powerful unions are weighing heavily on SAS, but salvation could lie in its growing alliance grouping. It must be like hoarding a treasure chest, only suddenly to find a queue of people knocking on your door demanding a share of the booty. SAS ...
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Mutual interests
Mutual funds own substantial shares in most major US airlines. James S Altschul examines how they look at the airline business, and asks how much influence they wield. They are the behemoths of the equity investment world. Fuelled by a surging stock market, growing retail interest in equities, and a ...
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SIA still keen on Sempati
The main reasons behind Sempati Air's delayed initial public offering have now emerged as its deteriorating financial situation and the resulting top management shakeup. These events do not appear to have dampened Singapore Airlines' interest in taking a stake in the Indonesian private carrier. 'Discussions are continuing' about ...
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US pilots are out for profit
Record profits and the use of regional jets are at the root of troubled pilot union negotiations at both American Airlines and United Airlines, and American could suffer a strike. The relationship between American's management and the Allied Pilots Association has changed dramatically since early January, when APA ...
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Tan tough on PAL unions
Philippine Airlines chairman Lucio Tan has displayed characteristic toughness in dealing with the carrier's three unions and has secured a four-year accord after three months of brinkmanship talks. Tan has given the unions a rude awakening after years of capitulation by the carrier's former government owners. Tan set ...
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Sabretech closes another plant in wake of Valujet crash
SabreTech, faced with losing its repair-station licence from the US Federal Aviation Administration, closed its Orlando aircraft repair station on 17 January. The company previously shut down its Miami centre which is alleged to have played a significant role in the crash of the ValuJet McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 on 11 ...
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Trent fixes introduced
The problem discovered in October 1996 with the Rolls-Royce Trent 800's leaking fuel nozzles has been attributed to cracking, possibly because of poor welding. As a precautionary measure, airlines have been sent additional nozzles as replacements. R-R Trent 700 operators are also in the process of modifying the engine's thrust ...
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Exit changes wanted
Investigation of the fatal 19 November, 1996, United Express Beech 1900 runway collision at Quincy, Illinois, has led the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to recommend exit-door improvements. It is believed that occupants survived the collision with a King Air 90, but all 12 died in a fire after ...
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Stage 3 727 without hushkits is certificated
Raisbeck Engineering has won US Federal Aviation Administration certification for a Boeing 727-200 modification which reduces noise below Stage 3 levels without hushkits or re-engineing. The package involves flat-rating the engines to 25íC, rather than the standard 29íC, "over-speeding" the take-off flap settings and restricting maximum take-off weight ...
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Airbus rolls prompt FAA to issue proposed airworthiness directive
Pilot reports of uncommanded rolls between 5¹ and 30¹ in Airbus A320s and A321s have led to a US Federal Aviation Administration proposed airworthiness directive (PAD) for fleet-wide modifications to the elevator and aileron computers (ELACs). Airbus, however, says that 90% of the world fleet and all US-registered ...
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Air Littoral orders more Regional Jets, evaluates CRJ-X
Air Littoral has signed a $133 million deal with Bombardier Aircraft for seven Regional Jets, with options on a further five. The Montpellier, France-based regional airline is also seriously evaluating the stretched 70-seat Bombardier CRJ-X regional jet. All seven aircraft, which are in addition to the nine Regional ...
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MDHS' MD 600N troubles increase
McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Systems (MDHS) is meeting with the US Federal Aviation Administration to discuss design and certification options following another crash of an MD 600N on 18 January during the flight-test programme. The eight place helicopter should have received FAA certification by mid-December 1996, despite earlier delays ...
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Emergency exits: no new dangers
Sir - I refer to the last paragraph in the article "Emergency-exit changes foreshadowed" (Flight International, 18-31 December, 1996, P12). The UK Civil Aviation Authority requires (not recommends, as stated) operators to ensure that Type III exit row seats are allocated only "-to passengers who appear capable of ...
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Does the USA have worldwide rights?
Sir - I read with interest Capt de Piednoir's letter "Déja vu with age-60-years ruling" (Flight International, 8-14 January, P37), about a US Federal Appeals Court panel ruling on whether the US Federal Aviation Administration can continue to bar pilots aged 60 years old from commanding US passenger aircraft. The ...
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AlliedSignal wins $100 million APU/avionics deal
GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS) has selected AlliedSignal Aerospace to supply auxiliary-power units (APUs) and avionics for up to 80 Airbus Industrie A320s which the US leasing company plans to buy, in a deal worth around $100 million. The agreement means that GECAS is likely to be one ...
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Iridium launches will be further delayed after Delta explosion
The much-delayed maiden flight of the first of Motorola's Iridium mobile communications-satellites aboard a McDonnell Douglas (MDC) Delta 2 booster faces a further hold-up pending the investigation into the loss of a Delta 2, 13s after launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on 17 January. MDC had planned seven ...
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JAA alarms GA operators with proposal for new ETOPS limit
General-aviation (GA) industry officials believe that a European Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) proposal to impose a 120min extended-range-twin-engine-operation (ETOPS) limit on twin-engined business aircraft would severely hamper their operations. Late in 1996, a JAA Operations Committee issued a Notice of Proposed Amendment which would set a 120min ETOPS ...
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Virgin Express may pull out of its Brussels base
Virgin Express, one of the pioneers of Europe's low-fares air market, reports that it grew by one-third in 1996 and expects to report a profit despite the dramatic growth. The announcement comes, however, with a veiled warning that Belgium's high social costs could persuade the carrier to leave ...
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R-R and airlines wrangle over cost of -524G/H problems
Rolls-Royce is facing demands that it bear the brunt of the massive costs airlines are incurring because of reliability and performance shortfalls of their RB.211-524G/H engines. The problems, which affect more than 100 RB.211-powered Boeing 747-400s and 767-300s, are estimated already to have cost the airlines more than $200 million ...