FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1981
1981 - 0355.PDF
FLIGHT International, 7 February 1981 333 FAA is 'on autopilot' "WE'RE on autopilot" says US Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Dennis Feldman when asked who is running the agency since Administrator Langhorne Bond was relieved of office by the Reagan Government. It was widely reported that the new administration would choose a retired Admiral to lead the FAA, writes our Washington correspondent. But the candidate required that he be paid the post's $63,000 salary in addition to his service retirement pay. Con gress had allowed this for a previous incumbent, General McKee, when he was appointed by President Johnson. Reagan's Congress is unlikely to repeat this action, which had made Administrator McKee the highest- paid civil servant in the Government at that time. • The FAA has renewed its efforts to obtain cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder (FDR) tapes from commercial air craft for use in a human factors study already underway. After receiving 52 comments on the original proposal— three in favour and 49 against—the FAA has issued a supplemental rule making notice to explain its inten tions more fully. The notice says the FAA "does not intend to use the tapes ... in any civil penalty or cer tificate action involving any crew- member." This is a reaction to violent aircrew opposition to the plan. But another section of the proposal reads "FDR data are no different from any other record or report required by the regulations, and information from these recorders may continue to be re viewed and used in investigations and enforcement proceedings" although such data will not be used for enforcement purposes when the FDR is removed in conjunction with the CVR. Comments on the proposal are to be submitted by May 18. New Italian charter carrier Altair has received the first of three Ca>avelle 3s purchased from French domestic airline Air Inter. The other two will follow in March and June. Altair hopes that low overhead costs will compensate for the Caravelle's high fuel consumption. Only 25 people are employed, rising to 40 when operations start in March Airliner market • Airbus confirms that Brazilian carrier Vasp has ordered three A300B2s (see this column last week) for delivery at the end of next year. Vasp's A300s will be powered by General Electric CF6-50C2s and will feature the forward facing crew cock pit and digital avionics. The aircraft will be operated in an all-tourist 260- seat layout. Vasp currently operates a 30-aircraft fleet of Boeing 727s and 737s, and becomes the third Brazilian airline, after Cruzeiro and Varig (two A300B4s each) to buy the type. • Airbus Industrie president Bernard Lathiere forecasts that Asian and Australasian airlines will buy at least 200 A300s and A310s up to the end of this decade. • Air US has become the second customer for the Gulf stream American Gulfstream 1-C conversion of the Grumman Gulfstream executive turbo prop. The airline is a commuter carrier based in Denver and serves points in Colorado and Wyoming, using Handley Page Jetstreams and Piper Navajo Chieftains. The Gulfstream 1-C will be delivered in May. New England-based Air North has already put the first of two Gulfstream 1-Cs into service. G New York Air, which recently started high-frequency, low-fare ser vices between New York and Washing ton with two McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30s, plans to expand its fleet to eight aircraft in the next six months. Two aircraft have been purchased from Air Canada and another four are being leased from parent company Texas Air Corporation. Paris Airports have poor growth year AEROPORT DE PARIS—the authority which controls Orly, Roissy/Charles de Gaulle and Le Bourget Airports— announces that the three airports to gether handled 26-4 million passen gers in 1980, a 4-8 percent increase in traffic over 1979. Freight handled and commercial aircraft movements are also up 3 per cent and 1 • 6 per cent respectively at 570,000 tonnes and 291,000 movements. The Authority states that the 1980 percentage in creases are artificially high because figures for the latter part of 1979 were adversely affected by a French air traffic controllers' strike. After allowing for the strike's effects, the three airports' 1980 international com mercial movements, and international passengers, are down 3 and 2 per cent respectively compared to the pre vious year, while domestic movements are up by 3-5 per cent and passengers by 11-5 per cent. Although these statistics generally reflect a slow-down in traffic growth compared to the previous five years, Aeroport de Paris is confident that its airports are per forming well compared to those of other European cities. After London, Paris is Europe's busiest destination in terms of passengers and aircraft movements, and is third in terms of freight handled. Dan-Air to restructure UK network FOLLOWING the sale of two of its Viscounts, Dan-Air plans to cut some of its turboprop-operated UK domes tic routes and extend its jet services. Flights between Bournemouth, Car diff, Manchester, Leeds/Bradford and Birmingham are to stop in March. But jet flights Dublin-Newcastle are to be extended to Teesside, there will be more seats on Channel Island ser vices, and more flights, including weekend operations, Gatwick-New- castle and Belfast-Newcastle. New routes, Gatwick-Cork and Berlin-Amsterdam, will be flown from early April, and routes applied for include Gatwick and Glasgow to Dublin, and Gatwick to Zurich and Dusseldorf. • A Dan-Air BAe 748 (G-ATMJ) returned to Leeds/Bradford Airport shortly after take off on December 15 when an overwing emergency exit window blew out.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
