All Systems & interiors articles – Page 774
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Qualiflying seamless service
With its new joint sales initiatives, the Qualiflyer grouping could be stealing a march in the alliance stakes. The promise of seamless customer service from the global alliances may seem a little distant, but progress appears to be under way. At the forefront has been a series of announcements from ...
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Speedwing tackles Olympic problems
Tom Gill/Lois Jones LONDON Next month Speedwing will reveal a rescue plan for Olympic Airways, as the initial phase of the 30-month management contract it won in June. Olympic remains tightlipped about its future and Speedwing says it is too early to say what changes will have to be ...
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Hubbing on time
Wendy Knorren Nichols FRANKFURT Martin Kunz VIENNA Punctuality, as all network planners know to their cost, can make or break the best laid hubbing strategy. Like an artist weaving a tapestry, it only takes one individual to pull a single loose thread for the whole work to unravel. Yet while ...
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Virgin truce puts Irish operation on hold
Simon Montlake ATI LONDON Virgin boss Richard Branson has brokered a truce between disgruntled pilots and managers at Virgin Express, the Brussels-based low-cost carrier. But the agreement, signed by Branson and staff representatives, has only put off the day of reckoning for Virgin Express Ireland, the new subsidiary at ...
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Indian fare war erupts
India's airlines have slashed their fares by 20-25%, taking them to their lowest level in four years and setting the scene for a long and bitter war. Besides discounts, a wide range of gifts are on offer, from free holidays to complimentary stays in hotels and free travel for spouses. ...
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Delaying the inevitable
Europe's latest crisis in air traffic control looks unlikely to be its last unless the region faces up to the need for long-term solutions. Air traffic control (ATC) authorities have been forced to resort to crisis management. At the route of the problem is the patchwork nature of the ...
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Copa reveals new image
Brian Homewood RIO DE JANEIRO Copa Airlines of Panama has unveiled a new company image, the result of an alliance with Continental Airlines. The new look is shown on a Boeing 737-700, one of 12 scheduled for delivery over the next few years to replace existing aircraft. Copa Airlines ...
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Cool head in a hot seat
The glass must always look half full to Fernando Pinto. The first thing that Varig's president and chief executive officer wants to point out is that his airline is in a better position today than it was three years ago. It would be easy to overlook this piece of ...
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Playing your cards right
Jackie Gallacher LONDON Frequent flier co-operation is reaching new levels of sophistication within the global alliances, threatening to leave others out in the cold. Not so long ago, an alliance based only on links between frequent-flier programmes (FFP) would have seemed hopelessly optimistic. Yet the real force of the global ...
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Netting a bargain
Now in their third year, sales of discount fares via the Internet appear to be a rousing success for US carriers. Is this a glimpse of the future? American Airlines started it all three years ago. Other US majors were quick to follow. Now, Internet discount fares are beginning ...
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Australian ownership rules criticised
Australia's new limits on airline foreign ownership have come under fire due to the special treatment of Qantas. British Airways chairman Lord Marshall claims the new limits discriminate against the foreign owners of Qantas, particularly BA. In June, Australia's government announced, as part of a package of ...
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JetBlue takes on Big Apple
Carol Shifrin NEW YORK The largest metropolis of the USA - New York City - is about to gain its first low-fare, home-town airline in more than a dozen years. JetBlue Airways, the best-financed of any start-up since US airline deregulation, plans an early 2000 launch from New York's underused ...
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Airlines check out from Galileo ties
Jane Levere NEW YORK Ties between Galileo and its major airline owners have unravelled further, as four carriers have reduced or entirely eliminated their ownership in the global distribution system (GDS). United Airlines, its largest shareholder, began a search for a new vendor to act as its host and potentially ...
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New dawn for Sun Air?
Roger Makings JOHANNESBURG South African Airways (SAA) is poised to move in on its ailing domestic competitor, Sun Air, after securing an exclusive three-month agreement with shareholders to work out a commercial relationship. Sun Air, in desperate need of a cash injection following the eight-month price war on South ...
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Agency incentives fines may go further than BA
Alan George BRUSSELS Lois Jones LONDON British Airways may not be the only European carrier to be punished over travel agent incentives by the outgoing European Commission (EC). EC competition authorities have begun an investigation into commission payments to travel agents by eight European flag carriers - Air France, ...
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Ground handling goes acquisition crazy
Tom Gill LONDON SAirGroup's move to buy Dynair, a major US ground handler, accelerates the market's rapid consolidation. SAirGroup's Swissport International, which claims to have become the world's largest ground handler as a result of the acquisition, also absorbed Amsterdam Schiphol-based Dutchport and the operations of France's Air Littoral ...
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Spoiling tactics
When Boeing concluded its recent trade-in deal with Singapore Airlines (SIA) for 10 more 777s in exchange for a guarantee to buy and remarket its entire A340 fleet, the move seemed as capricious as it was masterful. But, with arch rival Airbus Industrie putting the finishing touches to a ...
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Safety surprises
A relatively safe first half of 1999 included some landmark events in airline flight safety David Learmount/LONDON An airline industry-feared rise in air transport accidents is not happening. A marked flight safety improvement has occurred in the first half of this year, compared with the same period last year, despite ...
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Routes
American Airlines will begin seasonal daily services to Los Cabos, Mexico, from Chicago O'Hare on 1 November, using Boeing MD-80s. The airline will also launch three daily Boeing 727 flights between Miami and Tampa on the same day, replacing services provided by regional partner American Eagle, which will reduce its ...
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NASA Messenger mission will map Mercury
NASA plans to return to Mercury, after an absence of more than 30 years, when its Messenger spacecraft reaches the innermost planet in 2008. The Messenger mission to map Mercury is one of two new projects selected for NASA's "quicker, cheaper" Discovery programme (Flight International, 21-27 July). The other ...