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Aviation History
1985
1985 - 1098.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT New ATR42 is launched TOULOUSE The ATR42 test programme has given the aircraft's Aerospatiale/Aeritalia manu facturing partnership such confidence that they are now to certificate an uprated version by the same target date as the originally-planned ATR42-200. The new marque, to be known as the ATR42-300, will have improved range and pay- load, and will be certificated by September this year like the -200, Aerospatiale says. The company also says that it is "a matter of a few weeks" away from launching the 66-70 seater ATR-ST which could be on the market in 1988. H. Puel, senior vice- president marketing and product support at Aero spatiale, and Aeritalia's Sr Gazzaniga, director market ing and sales, announced the ATR42-300's launch thus: "Taking into account the first very encouraging results of the two prototypes' flight-test as well as the early static tests, we have agreed upon immedi ately launching an ATR42- 300 version. "It will significantly improve the aircraft range by 245 n.m.—and the maximum pay load will go up by 300kg." The two flying prototype ATR42s have now recorded more than 500hr in the air. Liat juggles with makers ANTIGUA Leeward Islands Air Trans port continues to confound predictions with its fleet replacement choices, to astound everyone with its apparent fleet expansion rate, and to take considerable advantage of the intense com petition for its business, even though it has no money (Flight, December 29, 1984, page 1664). Liat has now formalised an order for two more BAe Super 748s, having taken delivery of two at the end of last year. Finance for the whole deal has been backed by the UK Government and the •mm i ATR 42-300: principal weight changes ATR42-300 Maximum take-off weight 16,1 50kg (35,604lb) Maximum landing weight 16,OOOkg (35,270lb) Maximum zero fuel weight 14,800kg (32,628lb) ATR42-200 15,750kg (34,7221b) 15,500kg (34,1711b) 14,500kg (31,9661b) It turns out that the ATR42 can deliver more than planned, the makers say Caribbean Development Bank. The European Economic Community had refused financial backing for the 748 order, insisting that financial help would be forthcoming only if Liat were to buy the ATR42 from Aerospatiale/Aeritalia. Liat, previously a 748 operator, decided to stay with the 748. Meanwhile two other manufacturers have been bidding for a deal with Liat. Though predictions were that the 748 deal would completely satisfy Liat's requirements, the airline may acquire five de Havilland Canada Dash 8s (36-seaters compared with the 48-seat 748). DHC, the offi cial story goes, has arranged soft loans which make the offer difficult to refuse. The unofficial story is that DHC is giving away two Dash 8s provided that Liat agrees to buy three more. What Liat would do with the capacity is not clear, since the Dash 8s would join, or possibly replace, the much smaller fleet of Twin Otters, Island ers, Trislanders and a Bande- irante. It is possible that Liat would extend its route network north to San Juan and south to Caracas, and try to increase its share of regional traffic. The other contender for Liat's attentions is Saab- Fairchild, but being a non-government-owned (or backed) independent organi sation it cannot compete with the financing terms of BAe or DHC. Airport costs beat fuel EAST MIDLANDS Airport charges this year will, for the first time ever, over take fuel costs as the main element in overall operating costs on scheduled UK domestic routes, says British Midland Airways chairman Michael Bishop. Bishop discloses that 36 per cent of BMA's predicted oper ating costs on its scheduled domestic routes this year would go to airport operators, while about 29 per cent would be attributable to fuel. The British Airports Authority, to which a sizeable proportion of British Midland's airport charges are paid, is currently working out whether it believes this figure. Bishop says that the UK's various airport authorities will be primarily responsible for any rise in domestic air fares, claiming that competi tion "has now squeezed the last drop of efficiency out of the airlines". The BAA had attempted to increase airport charges asso ciated with the seven domes tic routes British Midland operates from Heathrow by 67 per cent this year, starting at the beginning of this month—11 times the national rate of inflation, Bishop says. BAA says that the figure was not 67 per cent but 38 per cent. "Only by playing rough and tough and getting the poli ticians involved have we managed to get this demand reduced to 14-5 per cent—a mere three times the inflation rate". BMA has held off from formally accepting even this proposed increase. The BAA's explanation for these demands, which are apparently so far out of line with inflation, is that it is gradually implementing Heathrow rates as agreed with the airline users under a Memorandum of Under standing. The MoU had resulted from a major legal challenge by Heathrow users which was instigated in 1980. The airlines had agreed that, because runway capacity in the UK's South East is so scarce and would therefore naturally tend to be expensive, Heathrow should move towards a flat-rate land-% ing charge, the BAA explains. The BAA is doing this, with the result that A300 users find very little real change to charges, 747 users get good value, and operators like BMA, which fly smaller aircraft such as DC-9s and Shorts 360s, do not like the changes at all. The Authority says that its own calculation of British Midland's Heathrow landing charges per passenger is that they have increased from £2 • 22 to £2 • 54. FLIGHT International, 13 April 1985
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