All Systems & interiors articles – Page 840
-
News
Gulf Air aims salvo at Delhi
Gulf Air has fired a broadside at the Indian government's insistence that the Arab carrier sell its 20 per cent stake in Jet Airways, just as New Delhi looks set to bring an end to the ownership debacle by reversing the ban on foreign airlines holding stakes in Indian carriers. ...
-
News
Boeing hints at MD-95 family commitment
Boeing has hinted strongly that it is committed to continuing with the former McDonnell Douglas MD-95 and is likely to introduce derivatives of the 100-seat aircraft. The news comes as ValuJet - the only MD-95 customer so far, with 50 on firm order - says that it expects to exercise ...
-
News
Lauda prepares to introduce its first Boeing 777
Niki Lauda, chief executive of Austrian carrier Lauda Air, took delivery of the airline's first Boeing 777-200 on 25 September. The aircraft, which is the first of four 777-200IGWs (increased gross weight) to be delivered to Lauda, is equipped with General Electric GE90 engines. The cabin is fitted with a ...
-
News
Fuel-pump problem results in 767 AD
Boeing 767s must be operated with at least 450kg of fuel in their centre-wing fuel-tanks to help prevent an explosion caused by the ignition of fuel vapour, according to a new US Federal Aviation Administration airworthiness directive (AD). A centre-wing fuel-tank explosion is suspected as the cause of ...
-
News
Alitalia brings A320s into Airbus contract
Marco Massela/ROMEJulian Moxon/PARIS Alitalia is negotiating with Airbus Industrie for the conversion of its 23 outstanding A321 orders to include some smaller A320s, which would be the Italian carrier's first order for the 150-seat member of the Airbus narrowbodied family. The airline is also examining its longer-term strategy ...
-
News
Fijian start-up plans scheduled services
A Fijian start-up carrier is planning to launch scheduled passenger and freight services from Nadi to selected Asian, European, Indian and South Pacific destinations from early 1998. According to Fiji International Airway's Singapore-based chief executive, Alan Lindrea, the company hopes to be granted an air operator's certificate by ...
-
News
Deal opens French door for Swissair
French independent airline AOM has agreed a "commercial and industrial" alliance with Swissair. Switzerland is not a member of the European Union (EU), and the alliance with AOM will provide Swissair with access to the lucrative French internal market for the first time. The deal, which is expected ...
-
News
Beating the weather
Graham Warwick/Atlanta In late August, NASA's Boeing 757 testbed was to be seen taxiing around Atlanta, Georgia's, Hartsfield Airport, occasionally taking off, only to land a few minutes later. Despite the excellent weather, NASA was testing technology which comes into its own when visibility deteriorates. The Low Visibility ...
-
News
IFE problems make BA reconsider programme
Emma Kelly/ORLANDO British Airways is re-evaluating its interactive in-flight entertainment (IFE) programme following reliability problems with the B/E Aerospace Multi-media Digital Distribution System (MDDS). The deal is valued at up to $225 million, depending on the number of aircraft equipped. The MDDS, selected by BA in ...
-
News
AOPA demands free databases for GPS
Free or low-cost updates of navigation databases may be provided by the US Federal Aviation Administration in a bid to promote general-aviation use of the global-positioning system (GPS). The US Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) says that update costs of up to $700 a year associated with ...
-
News
Airbus/CASC finalise Hua Ou support centre
Airbus Industrie and China Aviation Supplies' (CASC) new Hua Ou Aviation Training and Support Centre in Beijing is in the final stages of being fitted out and is scheduled to begin full operations at the end of October. The joint venture recently received its final approval from China's ...
-
News
AmWest pilots clear Airbus deal
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES America West has confirmed a deal valued at $1.4 billion for up to 46 Airbus Industrie A319-100s and A320-200s after securing a last-minute agreement with the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA). The order was initially outlined a year ago, but prolonged negotiations over ...
-
News
Emirates 777 Trent engine fails during take-off
A Trent 800 engine from an Emirates Airlines Boeing 777 which suffered a catastrophic engine failure during take-off is being examined by Roll-Royce. The take-off was continued and the crew shut down the engine and returned to Dubai, where the aircraft was landed safely. Emirates declines to comment, ...
-
News
Dasa tests flight management
AndrzejJeziorski/MUNICH Daimler-Benz Aerospace (Dasa)is beginning a six-month flight-test campaign for a new flight-management system (FMS), the NFS-5000, developed by its Ulm, Germany-based subsidiary Navigation and Flight Guidance Systems (NFS). The system creates flight plans for pilots, who simply have to enter their point of departure and ...
-
News
Low fares or bust?
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON Air South's recent bankruptcy has struck a chill note for US start-up airlines. Although the carrier may have been a relatively small player, its demise is dangerously close to home for a low-cost airline sector in which nobody is looking secure. The financial performance ...
-
News
Zurich leads battle to penalise polluters with landing-fee rise
AndrzejJeziorski/MUNICH Zurich Airport has become the world's first major airport to introduce an emissions charge, amounting to as much as 40% of normal landing fees, for operators of aircraft which fail to meet the highest environmental standards. The charge, introduced from 1 September, is balanced by ...
-
News
AEA hits out as Europe's ATC delays soar
AndrzejJeziorski/MUNICH The Association of European Airlines (AEA) is calling for a fresh drive towards a single integrated European air- traffic-control (ATC) system, in response to rising traffic and record delays in Europe in recent months. Worsening punctuality figures on European routes show a "severe problem", with ...
-
News
Boeing outlines five 747 growth options
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DCPaul Lewis/SEATTLE Boeing is discussing with airlines five possible 747 derivatives as it moves towards a decision in early 1998 on which (if any) option to pursue. Airlines are being shown study aircraft with various combinations of capacities for up to 500 passengers and ranges of ...
-
News
Into the limelight
Despite the loss of the first prototype, Beriev's Be-103 shows great promise Paul Duffy/TAGANROG Of the ten major ex-Soviet design bureaux, perhaps the least known to the outside world is Beriev. There are two main reasons for this. Firstly, Beriev is based in Taganrog, a ...
-
News
Keeping promises
Emma Kelly/London The in-flight-entertainment (IFE) industry has undergone a radical change this year, with the leading hardware providers finally conceding that they are guilty of over-promising and under-delivering to their airline customers. After years of trying to meet airline requests for ever-more ambitious IFE applications, the makers have ...