All Ops & safety articles – Page 1368
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News
Likud victory fires doubts
The Likud election victory in Israel will have profound implications for both El Al's future and plans for Palestine's fledgling air transport sector. Somewhat surprisingly, El Al changed course in its search for capital before the general election at the end of May. The new policy aims to ...
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Delta does it in triplicate
Anyone who knows, from experience, that reaching an agreement with just one partner can be a difficult process should be at least a little impressed with the record of Delta Air Lines, which put its second trilateral codeshare into operation on 1 May. Having gained from its experience ...
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China boost for Japanese
Japan's major airlines have won clearance to use a new air corridor to Beijing which will save them millions of dollars annually in operating costs and could give them a significant competitive advantage over US rivals. Flight times from Japan to the Chinese capital will be slashed by ...
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Is there any Valu left?
Besides becoming one of the most scrutinised tragedies in US aviation history, the May crash of ValuJet flight 592 has also become one of the most politicised. The low-cost carrier's survival depends on whether it can withstand an intense federal safety audit and re-launch its image while keeping its costs ...
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Ansett deal's finally done
At long last. Air New Zealand's two-year odyssey to win approval for its bid to take a 50 per cent stake in Australia's Ansett finally came to a successful end in early June, at the same time as the prospect for the rebirth of the single trans-Tasman aviation market brightened. ...
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Alliances still not immune from risk
Immunity is in the air. First in this year's clutch came United-Lufthansa, followed by Delta-Swissair-Austrian-Sabena and American-Canadian (even without open skies between the US and Canada). Next up will be United-Air Canada. Then, probably later rather than sooner, American and British Airways will be seeking what has recently become the ...
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All change
Many US carriers are revising their hub strategies. The current trends include continuous hubbing, omni-directional hubbing and de-hubbing. David Treitel and Edward Smick report.In today's airline environment, network design is the key to profitability. But network design, or optimisation, must focus on profit maximisation - which is not ...
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Airline news
Air France Cargo was set to launch a weekly Boeing 747 cargo service from Paris/Charles de Gaulle to Helsinki at the end of May. American Airlines Cargo is to introduce a 4.3 per cent fuel surcharge on its US domestic cargo and priority parcel service charges in July. ...
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Aces high
In-flight gambling is about to make its long-awaited debut, as three of the world's leading carriers plan to test the software over the coming months. Mead Jennings reports on the potential of what proponents claim is the airline industry's next major revenue stream and looks at some of the possible ...
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Two Chinas to build 100?
Taiwan Aerospace Corporation appears to have found a regional aircraft partner in the most unlikely place, after claiming that it has reached an agreement in principle on a production and ownership role in the Chinese-led Asian Express AE-100 project. But four serious doubts still persist over the venture. ...
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Cargo sale
Cargolux has sold its Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7J-powered Boeing 747-200 Freighter (LX-DCV) to Atlas Air. The aircraft, which had been on lease to Atlas, has been leased back by Cargolux for four months, to cover for seasonal demand. Meanwhile, the Luxembourg-based carrier is seeking to accelerate the delivery of its ...
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Rising sun
An awareness of concerted safety action dawns in the Far East and Asia/Pacific. Paul Phelan/JAKARTA OPERATORS IN ASIA/PACIFIC regions, are having to monitor carefully, the stresses on almost every aspect of air safety, caused by the rapid growth of airlines and air traffic in the region. ...
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India's private malaise
MODILUFT'S dispute with Lufthansa over lease payments has made headlines, but it also highlights a deeper malaise afflicting India's fledgling private-airline operators. Of the five major private carriers established in India since liberalisation began some three years ago, only Jet Airways and the cargo carriers appear to ...
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Lufthansa struggles with weak first half
CONCERNS ARE growing among analysts that Lufthansa may be left showing a loss for the first half of the year after a poor set of traffic performances over the first five months of the year. "The traffic figures are not very promising at all. The year has ...
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ValuJet fallout hits FAA
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC THE FALL-OUT from the 11 May crash of ValuJet Flight 592 in the Florida Everglades has spread across the USA, from Long Beach, California, to the inner circle of the US Federal Aviation Administration. The unprecedented commercial-airline safety probe and subsequent grounding ...
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EU to start talks with USA
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON EUROPE'S TRANSPORT Commissioner Neil Kinnock has won a mandate to start negotiations with the USA, which are expected to lead to a transatlantic open-skies pact, possibly within two years. The mandate was agreed by European Union (EU) transport ministers on 17 June, with ...
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China to resume satellite launches
CHINA GREAT WALL Industry (CGWIC) is to resume satellite launches with Asia Pacific Satellite's Hughes-built ApStar 1A aboard a Long March 3 (LM3) booster from Xichang, in July. This follows a hiatus in launches, after the loss of the first Long March 3B booster on 15 February, along with its ...
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Rivals set to benefit from ValuJet suspension of operations
Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON VALUJET HAS built its main hub at Atlanta Harts-field, and at its peak, the airline represented about 8% of the passenger traffic at the airport, ranking it second only to Delta Air Lines. With ValuJet flights unavailable, "price-sensitive" customers from Atlanta have been ...
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Unions agree to Alitalia facelift
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON Andrea Spinelli/GENOA ALITALIA'S UNIONS have given a tentative go-ahead to the airline's increasingly urgent restructuring plans, agreeing to accept cost-cutting in exchange for three places on the board and an eventual 20% stake in the group. The deal was finally thrashed out on ...
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MDHS fights to keep MD600N on track
McDONNELL DOUGLAS Helicopter Systems (MDHS) is instituting "aggressive scheduling" to minimise the impact on the certification and delivery timetable of the crash of the second MD600N prototype. Key to the recovery plan, however, is the findings of the board set up to investigate the 28 May accident. Should ...