December 2009 Archives

Mystery surrounds the destination of the Air West Il-76 (registration 4L-AWA) that was detained in Bangkok with a load of arms over the weekend.

According to various reports, the aircraft was on its way from North Korea to Sri Lanka loaded with weapons that could have been made in either China or North Korea. It makes little sense if Sri Lanka was the final destination, given that Colombo buys arms directly from China and has few or no ties with Pyongyang.

Air West, according to our records, is based in Sudan. However, industry sources say that Air West, which operates charter flights, was struck off the Sudanese civil aviation authority's registry three years ago.

According to our database, Air West is also linked to Sudan-based Sun Air - which, according to its website, offers scheduled and charter services and aircraft lease management. Sun Air, in turn, is linked to Sudan's Matthew Group, which sells jet fuel at various airports in Sudan.

So far, it is all still a mystery but the indications certainly point to Sudan as a possible destination. If anyone has any information, let me know.

The way is now clear for JAL to choose an American partner, and it looks like it will be a very tricky decision.

Both Delta Air Lines and American Airlines offer significant benefits to the Japanese flag carrier, but what is more important is that the airline itself undertakes the necessary reforms to restructure its operations and returns to profitability.

It must do away with the unprofitable routes, trim its fleet size and cut costs. Without all of this, the $1 billion odd package that Delta and American are offering will just go down the drain.

Another Sukhoi Su-30MKI crash in India has resulted in the grounding of the entire fleet of the country's front-line fighters. The crash comes days after India's president Prathiba Patil went on a high profile flight on board one of the fighters.

Whether this is due to an aircraft fault of technical error, it certainly adds to the long-standing perception that the country's fighter fleets are highly susceptible to crashes. The decimation of India's MiG-21 and Sea Harrier fleets is just a case in point.

The IAF needs to take a long hard look at the incident, and work with both the manufacturers and the training academies to ensure that it can reduce these incidents to a minimum.