All Systems & interiors articles – Page 923
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News
Airbus cracks down on manufacturers of IFE
Kieran Daly/TOULOUSE AIRBUS INDUSTRIE is launching a two-pronged campaign to improve in-flight entertainment (IFE) equipment-performance. The move comes amid growing concern on the part of airframers that poor IFE reliability is adversely affecting overall aircraft reliability. Airbus is stressing that it will give ...
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Lufthansa and SAS form strategic alliance
Andrzej Jeziorski/COPENHAGEN LUFTHANSA AND Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) have forged an alliance linking their traffic systems and putting an end to SAS's role in the European Quality Alliance. No equity exchange is involved. The agreement, signed on 11 May in Copenhagen, will combine the partners' ...
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Japan and Boeing back off from contest
JAPAN'S PROPOSED YS-X aircraft will not be offered in competition with the new Boeing 737-600, and an initial agreement on co-operation with Boeing is still expected to be signed in the next few months, say Japanese aerospace officials. The YS-X is the subject of a joint feasibility ...
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Coping with technology
Kieran Daly/TOULOUSE The almost universal use of cockpit-resource-management (CRM) techniques will be one of the major features of training as airline pilot-recruitment reaches its next peak. Even though the concept is today far from new, its practice is still very much in development and is having to evolve ...
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Tying the knot
In the world of airline alliances, few proposed so far have implications as great as that between Lufthansa and Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) - not entirely from what is being done (though that is impressive enough), but also from what is not. This deal pulls together, in ...
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Low-cost measures
Agreeing to new training regulations is one thing - being able to afford them is another. Graham Warwick/ATLANTA Regional airlines have long hoped for advances in technology, which would make flight simulation more affordable. Now US regulatory changes are planned which will make simulator training ...
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Airbus challenges 737 'grandfather' allowance
AIRBUS INDUSTRIE is bracing itself for a bitter struggle to force the European Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) to decline "grandfather" certification-rights for Boeing's new 737 family. The consortium is determined to raise the profile of the issue, which has become a key factor in recent airline aircraft-selections. ...
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Airbus homes in on future derivatives
GROWTH VERSIONS OF Airbus Industrie's A319 and A340, together with a "shrunk" A330, are emerging as the priority items in the manufacturer's continuing studies of possible new models. A further stretch of the A321 - the so-called A322 - has been ruled out for now, but the consortium ...
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Cargo boosts long-haul economics
TWO OF AIRBUS Industrie's long-haul customers are using their aircraft to fly pure-freight services. Cathay Pacific has found the A330 and A340 sufficiently efficient to operate as lower-deck-only freighters once their day-time passenger duties are completed, and Aer Lingus says that it converts one of its three A330-300s ...
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ERS 2 in orbit after Ariane success
The European Space Agency's (ESA) ERS 2 remote-sensing satellite was safely placed into a 770 x 797km, Sun-synchronous polar orbit on 21 April, after launch by an Ariane 40 from Kourou. Following a three-month commissioning phase, the ERS 2 - which has a predicted operational lifetime of 30 ...
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CIS engine head defends PS-90A
THE HEAD OF THE CIS aero-engine manufacturers' association (ASSAD) has hit out at Western and Russian firms which, he claims, are plotting against the Aviadvigatel/Perm Motors PS-90A turbofan. Victor Chuiko, president of ASSAD, failed to show up at the conference for unspecified reasons, but his presentation was included ...
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EU proposes trans-Atlantic bilateral treaty counter-attack
EUROPEAN Commission (EC) Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock, has warned that, unless the EC is given a mandate to centrally negotiate future aviation agreements with the USA, "we will witness implementation of a policy that is not just America first, but America first, last, both ways across the Atlantic and within ...
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FDRs ruling unites carriers/airframers
OPPOSITION IS growing to the US proposal to force the retrofitting enhanced flight-data recorders (FDRs) to early-model Boeing 737s and other aircraft. Airlines and manufacturers insist that the proposed installation deadlines are unrealistic and that, in any case, the move is not economically justifiable. The ...
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GAO allies to profit motive
It may come as no surprise that the long-awaited study by the US General Accounting Office has concluded that codesharing alliances can be lucrative. But what is surprising is the degree to which these partnerships profit, and the speed with which the agreements produce results. The GAO study, ...
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Singular battle over EU currency
At the core of the heated debate in Europe about the future of the European Union lies the concept of the single currency. While the politicians battle it out as to whether a common currency across the EU would be a political act with a loss of sovereignty, the technical ...
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Fuel tax debate is primed to heat up
In a time of US budget cutting, when small government endowments say, support for non-commercial public broadcasting, and big federal agencies, like the Department of Transportation are all facing funding recisions, the idea of subsidising the airline industry through tax exemptions of close to $530 million seems absurd. That ...
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Meeting market needs is essential
Airlines are turning their organisations upside down - creating new problemsIn examining the airline business, many company strategists are working overtime these days. Following the disastrous start to the 1990s, most airlines are going through the most intensive period of soul-searching ever. They are asking questions like: What is our ...
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Tough finding the right niches
There are encouraging signs of start-ups and expansion in Europe though financial returns and yields are low. Europe's regional airlines are emerging from the recessionary gloom comparatively unscathed. The last three and a half years have seen their share of closures, but on balance the sector is growing. ...
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French malaise
Air France is moving in the right direction to achieve profitability but some serious contradictions risk undermining its credibility. Jacqueline Gallacher reports from Paris.Air France Group is on the defensive these days, but after receiving a highly controversial FFr20 billion ($4 billion) in state aid, who wouldn't be? With appeals ...
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Networkers of the future
As deregulation bites, Europe's airlines will have to chose between being network managers or capacity or service providers, says an analysis by consultants McKinsey & Company. Europe's airline industry has traditionally been characterised by monolithic national carriers with strong links to their national governments, a lack of competition on routes, ...