Strategy – Page 952
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A sense of balance
CHRIS TARRY COMMERZBANK IN LONDON The traffic forecasting model developed by Commerzbank and Airline Business highlights the extent to which capacity ran ahead of demand in 1999. But the coming year could bring markets back to balance. If further evidence was needed over the pain that excess seat capacity can ...
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Iberia sells Binter to local consortium
BARRY CROSS LONDON Parent state holding company SEPI has given Iberia approval to sell regional subsidiary Binter Canarias to a consortium of local businessmen. The price of Ptas5.5 billion ($35 million), plus Ptas800 million in dividends - the equivalent of 65% of the 1998 profit - is just ...
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In Brief
Asiana offer Asiana Airlines expects to raise 375 billion won ($325 million) through an initial public offering of 50 million shares. Shares were made available early in December ahead of a listing on South Korea's secondary Kosdaq share market at the end of the month. Public and institutional investors ...
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Cargo shapes up for rapid shake up
PETER CONWAY LONDON The year ahead looks likely to see dramatic changes in air cargo, with more and more carriers offering time-definite services, and the old wholesale-retail relationships between airline and forwarder becoming more flexible. Wilhelm Althen, retiring chairman of Lufthansa Cargo, which introduced time-definite services and a programme of ...
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Air Malta prepares for Europe
GÜNTER ENDRES LONDON Increased tourist traffic, a programme of cost reductions and rationalistion of the fleet and route network have significantly improved Air Malta's financial and operating performance as it prepares to join Europe's aviation market. The Air Malta Group recorded a record turnover in the financial year to ...
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Routes
Aer Lingus spreads in Europe Aer Lingus will introduce two new routes out of Dublin, serving Munich and Stockholm from April. These latest additions are part of a relaunch of the airline's business strategy in the continental European market. Frequencies to Amsterdam, Milan and Rome are also to be ...
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Ramp Up
TOM GILL LONDON Deregulation in Europe's ground handling market is improving prices - but not necessarily service levels This year will be a busy one for European ground handling. By January 2001, most of the region's airports must have opened their doors to competition, ushering in a new era of ...
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Sabre rattling
TOM GILL LONDON Sabre is moving ahead with its bid to be the leading single-source supplier of IT services to the airline industry. Completely out-of-control is how John "Bo" Boedecker describes the state of the information technology budgets of some its prospective client airlines. According to Boedecker, Sabre's president, worldwide ...
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Spinning a Web
KAREN WALKER WASHINGTON DC A smart and easy-to-use web site may become an airline's most powerful tool for retaining control over the customer. But most carriers have a lot of work ahead of them before their sites meet passenger expectations. Airline managers might want to try an experiment: log on ...
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Marketplace
Air Seychelles has signed a 10-year lease deal with ILFC for a General Electric CF6-80C2-powered Boeing 767-300ER, for delivery in April 2001. Swiss charter carrier Edelweiss Air has agreed to lease a new Airbus A330-200 from CIT Group from the fourth quarter of 2000. The Rolls-Royce Trent 772B-powered A330-200 is ...
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Forecasts for 2000 - Safety
Global pressures will force airlines to improve David Learmount/LONDON During 1999, new global forces for aviation safety kicked in for the first time in the form of sanctions. Where carrots failed, the stick was applied, and Korean Air felt the effect. Powerful global safety forces have recently come into ...
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Lido plans navigation breakthrough
Andrew Doyle/MUNICH Lufthansa's rapidly expanding flight planning subsidiary Lido will launch a flight management system (FMS) navigation database service in April and is forming an aeronautical charting joint venture company with SAS and Air France. The German company's entry into the FMS data market follows its abortive attempt ...
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Air Canada secures hold on Canadian's Tokyo slots
Air Canada has achieved one of the main goals in its bid for Canadian Airlines International by buying Canadian's landing slots at Tokyo's Narita Airport, enabling it to launch direct Toronto-Tokyo services. The deal will also provide cash-strapped Canadian with bridging finance until its C$92 million ($62.5 million) takeover ...
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AMR plans to spin off Sabre information technology arm
American Airlines' parent AMR is to spin off its computer reservations and IT subsidiary Sabre as a separate company, allowing it to focus on the airline and its sister regional airline, American Eagle. AMR will spin off its 83% interest in Sabre early next year by distributing its 107 ...
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Merpati considers help from SIA
Andrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPORE Singapore Airlines (SIA) may be called in to act as management consultant to troubled Indonesian carrier Merpati Nusantara, according to the Indonesian Government. "It is possible that SIA may co-operate with Merpati," says Indonesian communications minister Agum Gumelar, who ruled out a rumoured similar tie-up with ...
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Russia plans manual Y2K override
Alex Velovich/MOSCOW Russia's Federal Service of Air Transport (FSVT) will have extra staff on 31 December/1January to take over air traffic control and other procedures manually if necessary, says FSVT director Vladimir Andreyev. Although the FSVT is predicting a smooth Y2K transition for Russian commercial aviation, only half of ...
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Where to build
Vital decisions have yet to be made on A3XX assembly Andrew Doyle/HAMBURG Julian Moxon/TOULOUSE The location for final assembly of the A3XX remains the only major technical decision for the consortium following the 8 December decision to go ahead with a limited commercial offer to the airlines. The original ...
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Family rivalry
For decades, Cathay Pacific has dominated the skies over Hong Kong, unchallenged by local airline competition. That could soon change Andrzej Jeziorski/HONG KONG Hong Kong's skies are still clearly divided as far as the region's indigenous airlines are concerned and are dominated by well-established long-haul giant Cathay Pacific Airways. Cathay ...
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SAS board approves A330/A340 purchase
The SAS board has finally approved the Scandinavian flag carrier's long-awaited purchase of four A330-300s and six A340-300s to replace Boeing 767-300ERs on long-haul routes. The airline's selection of the Airbus types over the rival 777-200ER was revealed by Flight International in January, although the order was delayed until internal ...
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Forecasts for 2000 - Airlines
Global alliance-forming is nearing its endgame Chris Jasper/LONDON The dominant trend in the airline industry in 1999 was the continuing expansion of global alliances, taking place against a background of varying financial performance: the USA faring well, Asia beginning to recover from its slump, but Europe suffering a ...