Strategy – Page 985

  • News

    News in brief

    1999-04-01T00:00:00Z

    ProAir eyes public - Detroit-based ProAir plans to go public this year. The new entrant carrier is completing its final, $30 million, private placement and is planning an initial public offering. ProAir, which has received a fourth Boeing 737 and plans to add five this year, aims to add to ...

  • News

    THY awaits election, privatisation

    1999-04-01T00:00:00Z

    THY Turkish Airlines is awaiting the country's national elections on 18 April with bated breath, as its future privatisation and relationship with Qualiflyer partner Swissair hang in the balance. The hope is that a strong coalition government will emerge with the political backing to implement a package of ...

  • News

    News in Brief

    1999-04-01T00:00:00Z

    New Cambodian - A new carrier, President Airlines, has been launched in Cambodia. It operates a single Fokker F27 on four domestic routes from Phnom Penh, plus charters to Bangkok in Thailand and plans to start scheduled services to Bangkok and Singapore. Opening up - Brunei and New ...

  • News

    Fine extends range with Arrow addition

    1999-04-01T00:00:00Z

    Fine Air's purchase of Arrow Air could make it the largest of Miami's all-cargo international airlines, and will certainly extend its reach into South America. Fine Air has been seeking growth through acquisitions for some time. Last year it completed a $120 million bond offering that insiders predicted ...

  • News

    Swissair resists Air France deal

    1999-04-01T00:00:00Z

    Any remaining speculation that Swissair could be headed for an alliance with Air France has been brought to an abrupt end, with group chief executive Philippe Bruggisser taking the opportunity of the SAirGroup annual results round to kill the possibility stone dead. Speculation had rested on the alliance ...

  • News

    Brussels gears up to tackle aviation

    1999-04-01T00:00:00Z

    The mass resignation of European Commissioners could hardly have been poorer timing for those in Brussels gearing up to tackle major issues in aviation. Brussels had planned to start the year running with initiatives spanning everything from alliances through to Eastern Europe and the environment. The Competition Directorate ...

  • News

    Malev restructures and hunts for partners

    1999-04-01T00:00:00Z

    Hungarian flag carrier Malev is gearing up to join one of the global alliance groupings while pushing ahead with a restructuring programme. New chief Antal Pongracz is keeping its options open, but re-opening talks with British Airways, which broke off last May, will be high on his agenda. ...

  • News

    Three's a crowd

    1999-04-01T00:00:00Z

    The narrowbody engine market has heated up since International Aero Engines snatched the market lead from CFM International on the A320. And a third competitor, Pratt & Whitney, is set to make the chase even more intense. Report by Karen Walker. A large banner hangs over workers at the CFM56 ...

  • News

    News in Brief

    1999-04-01T00:00:00Z

    BA's pilot deal - BA has sealed a comprehensive agreement with pilots union BALPA, which provides pilots flying for its controversial long-haul charter arm AML and short-haul routes out of Gatwick with the same terms and conditions as BA mainline pilots. In return pilots have agreed to relax some flying ...

  • News

    Malaysia's spring clean

    1999-04-01T00:00:00Z

    A house-cleaning exercise appears to be taking place at Malaysia Airlines (MAS), as the loss-making airline undergoes a major shake-up in its top ranks. In mid-February, MAS, which in the second half of the last calendar year had a debt of 11.8 billion ringgit ($3.1 billion) and was ...

  • News

    SAA profits just in time

    1999-04-01T00:00:00Z

    After a radical restructuring, South African Airways (SAA) has claimed it is again profitable just as the South African Government confirmed the timetable for its privatisation. The corporatisation of SAA as a separate entity will be completed by the end of March. Privatisation is on schedule for mid-June with ...

  • News

    CAL and EVA go Canadian

    1999-04-01T00:00:00Z

    Taiwan is changing the face of its presence in Canada and in the process has added a second player. Now the question is whether Ottawa will do the same in Taipei. Before the latest update in the Taiwan-Canada bilateral, Mandarin Airlines, a subsidiary of China Airlines (CAL), was Taiwan's ...

  • News

    JAL slows on oneworld

    1999-04-01T00:00:00Z

    Japan Airlines is in no hurry to join the oneworld alliance, despite its growing array of codeshare and reciprocal frequent flier agreements with its members British Airways, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Qantas and Canadian Airlines. For now, JAL says it wants to keep these only as bilateral pacts. "Membership of ...

  • News

    Austrian spring

    1999-04-01T00:00:00Z

    Six years ago, Austrian Airlines was in severe difficulties. Then Mario Rehulka and Herbert Bammer took the helm. Peter Bennett talkes to the two presidents about their carrier's dramatic transformation. It is early spring in Vienna. It has been a cold and snowy winter, but now the first buds ...

  • News

    Cheating on aviation

    1999-04-01T00:00:00Z

    Electronic systems continue to transform the airline industry, bringing savings, efficiency gains and-an increase in fraud. The potential to "earn" big money quickly in a multi-million-dollar business like the airline industry has already bred fraudulent activities in the shape of bogus spare parts, false maintenance records and fictitious frequent flyer ...

  • News

    Fictitious aircraft

    1999-04-01T00:00:00Z

    Some transactions that may fall short of criminal fraud can nevertheless result in heavy losses, court actions and deep unhappiness. When businessman Thor Tjontveit and his Dallas-based company Air Alaska (also trading as World Pacific Air Lease Inc) were ordered by a New York court to pay compensatory and ...

  • News

    Spanair in the works

    1999-04-01T00:00:00Z

    Straddling the charter-schedule boundary, Spanair is making a name for itself in Europe while also trying to gain a foothold in the transatlantic market. This will be a pivotal year for Spanair, Spain's fast-growing, charter-cum-scheduled airline. Eleven years old this spring, Spanair started scheduled flights just five years ago, ...

  • News

    The size equation

    1999-04-01T00:00:00Z

    Airbus forcasts show that demand for the A3XX rests partly on the shifting balance between high and low yield traffic. Few new airliner births can have had such an agonisingly slow and controversial labour as that which has accompanied the launch of a new large aircraft. After almost a ...

  • News

    Get your aircraft economics right

    1999-04-01T00:00:00Z

    Operating ageing aircraft can be an expensive business, as cost figures for the US majors clearly demonstrate. But how great is the cost difference between old and new? There has always been a trade-off between the cheap acquisition cost of older aircraft and the slick operating economics of modern types. ...

  • News

    Iberia gets down to business

    1999-04-01T00:00:00Z

    With the BA equity deal all but sealed, membership of oneworld under its belt and full privatisation slated by year end, Iberia has much to be cheerful about. But while the Spanish flag carrier reinvents itself as a serious international business airline, it will need to keep a close eye ...