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Aviation History
1984
1984 - 0513.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT Unrest at El Al TEL AVIV After a year of peaceful labour relations El Al Israel Airlines is once again experiencing industrial unrest, this time by striking union employees in New York, reports Charles Fleming. In an attempt to keep El Al flying the transatlantic route the airline has sent extra management staff and about 20 workers from Tel Aviv to New York to join its 100 non union staff employed in the city. El Al has 300 employees in New York, two-thirds of whom are unionised. The dispute broke out after El Al management demanded that workers take a 10 per cent cut in salary as part of its current streamlining pro gramme. The airline also wants to reduce its total New York staff by 10 per cent. The union workers have said they will only agree to work in other positions if they get more money. El Al manage ment has refused to contem plate such a step and has now adopted a "wait and see" atti tude. Both sides have been to US Federal mediation but to no avail. An El Al spokesman says that since the previous labour contract had expired management was entitled to change operating procedures and wage structure, which would save the airline an esti mated $2 million a year. Cargo and passenger flights to New York, which account for about half of El Al's total traffic, have so far been unaffected by the dispute. 9 Israeli domestic carrier Arkia is expected to sign an agreement shortly for the lease of one of El Al's Boeing 707s including crew for its flights to Cairo, Cyprus, and Turkey. Arkia is also pressing for a package deal whereby it would fly El Al passengers on short-haul routes in its smaller Dash 7s, if it were Uneconomical for El Al to use its Boeing 737s. § El Al will be the first airline to carry fare-paying passen gers across the Atlantic on the new Boeing 767ER. This week the Israeli flag carrier takes delivery of the type in 'Montreal, and will fly the aircraft to Tel Aviv in an esti mated ten hours. To comply with the Federal Aviation Administration's rule for twin-engined aircraft the 767 will take a northerly route over the Atlantic, taking in Newfoundland and Iceland. In addition to fare-paying passengers, officials from Boeing and Pratt & Whitney will travel on the delivery flight. El Al's 767ER will seat 220 passengers, although the final configuration has not yet been decided. AirUK plans hub development STANSTED Air UK has ambitious plans for the development of London's Stansted Airport as a major hub in its network. The carrier is adding two new routes from Stansted in the next few days, and wants to fly to several major European destinations from the airport in the next year or so. From April 2 Air UK will offer three F.27 services every weekday linking Stansted with Edinburgh. Two of these will continue to Aberdeen. On the same day the airline is beginning a weekday Stansted-Brussels service using either a Bandeirante or a Snorts 330; it hopes to increase the frequency to two flights a day by the beginning of 1985 if traffic is encour aging. According to Air UK managing director Stephen Hanscombe, the airline also wants to operate from Stansted to destinations such as Frankfurt, Zurich, and Milan. It has already ap plied for rights to operate between Stansted and Copenhagen, but is expecting a great deal of opposition to its application because British Airways and SAS are currently the only two carriers licenced to operate London- Copenhagen flights. The UK- Scandinavian "bilateral" treats the three "London" airports as one destination, according to Hanscombe. Air UK has also applied to oper ate to Copenhagen from Leeds, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh. Hanscombe adds that traf fic on Air UK's Stansted- Amsterdam route is devel oping so well that it is adding a fourth weekday service from April. Hanscombe expects 25,000-30,000 passengers on the route this year. The airline has also just been awarded the right to double capacity on its Stansted-Paris route, so it will replace a Bandeirante with a Shorts 330 on the Paris run "as soon as we can get our hands on one". SAFETY UPDATE An investigatory team from the International Civil Air ports Association has conclu ded that sign equipment and illumination at Madrid's Barajas Airport meets Icao's Category 1 standards. The team, headed by Berlin Airport chief Robert Grosch, spent three days examining all of the airport's visual marker installations as a result of the two major acci dents occurring there within two weeks at the end of last year. According to the team, signals, illumination, and placing of signs is above the necessary level for Category 1, Barajas' current operating standard. The team's report states that runway and apron signalling complies with Icao recommendations. One recommendation in the report, however, is that yellow marking lines should be used instead of the current blue lines. It also says that sections of the old 23L runway (now a taxiway) should be more clearly marked. The use of double lines in the Oscar taxi ing area is considered a posi tive point. No lighting deficiencies are mentioned. The report says that Runways 01/19 and 15/33 and taxiways all have central lighting lines, and that positioning lights on the runways are superior to Cat 1 requirements. Final assembly of the first A TR 42 proceeds at Aerospatiale s Toulouse plant. Engines have now been fitted, and flight-test equipment is being installed 'Lit,, T International, 31 March 1984 795
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