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Aviation History
1985
1985 - 1477.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT Profits dive at Dan-Air LONDON Pre-tax profits at Davies & Newman Holdings, the parent company of UK independent Dan-Air, dived by 28 per cent in 1984 to £3-1 million on a turnover of £242-8 million. The company blames "intensive competition" in its aviation business which accounts for some 99 per cent of group turnover. Despite Dan-Air boosting its own turnover by 24 per cent, profits were squeezed in both its scheduled and charter operations. Its scheduled services division, based at London Gatwick, carried more than 1 million passengers for the first time and although load factors were generally high, fierce competition on some routes, such as London-Belfast, forced fares down to uneconomical levels. During the financial year ending on December 31, 1984, Dan-Air spent some £20 million on aircraft purchases, buying two 727-200s, one BAe 146, and one BAe One-Eleven which had been on short-term lease. This month the airline took delivery of its first 737- 300 with CFM56-3B power, which will be used on Euro pean charters. The airline carries 20 per cent of the total UK passenger charter market. The signs for the coming year are not very encouraging. Pre-season bookings are down in the depressed UK charter market and Dan-Air has re arranged its flight programme to utilise aircraft to the full. Davies & Newman says it is too early to forecast likely results for 1985. • In 1984 Dan-Air started new scheduled services on the Gatwick-Belfast, Manches ter-Zurich, and Berlin-Saar- brucken routes. The charter operator flew to 80 destina tions from the UK, operating 450 flights weekly during the peak season. Dan-Air carried 4-6 million sector passengers in 1984 and its aircraft flew 120,000hr, both of which rep resented an increase of 24 per cent over the previous year. ,f-'f, T _^r »»••«•»-»•• i~ ^^^^^^^^H —— Dan-Air's new 737-300, with a 149-seat configuration, will be used on European charter services Airmisses increase in USA WASHINGTON D.C. Airmisses in the United States increased by 44 per cent in the first quar ter of 1985 compared to the corresponding period last year. Of the 141 reports of "near midair collisions" received by the Federal Aviation Administration between January 1 and March 31, 20 involved at least one commer cial airliner. There was only one inci dent in which two com mercial aircraft were in volved, but there were 15 involving an air carrier and a general aviation air craft and four involving an air carrier and a military aero plane. Referring to the overall figures, FAA administrator Donald Engen says that he is worried about the number of incidents in which the aircraft were less than 500ft apart. That figure rose from 53 in the first quarter of last year to 108 in the same period in 1985. Engen says that one reason for the increase could be the improved FAA reporting procedures. The number of incidents involving two general avia tion aircraft was 44. There were 31 incidents reported between general aviation and military aeroplanes and ten between two military aircraft. MARKET PLACE Alitalia is wet leasing a Boeing 707 freighter from Ghana-registered West Afri can Airways through UK- based aircraft broker Intavia. Alitalia plans to fly some 500hr on the aircraft this year on regular cargo runs from Rome to Tripoli and Ben- ghasi. Since Alitalia replaced 727s with MD-80s on sched uled passenger services, the Italian carrier has had to reduce belly transport of freight on shorter routes. This week the Loganair/ British Midland board of directors is due to make its decision on whether it will buy four new Dornier 228-200s to replace the small Scottish operator's Twin Otters. If the order is placed, and it looks likely, Loganair will be the West German manufacturer's first UK customer. Managing director Scott Grier says that it will be a sensible replacement for the Twin Otters. The 228-200's short field performance will enable it to go into Loganair's uncon ventional landing sites such as Tingwall in the Shetlands and Barra Beach in the Hebrides. The aircraft would also be used to develop new European routes, should the UK Civil Aviation Authority decide to award some to Loganair. Under the UK Government's White Paper on Airline Competition Policy Loganair has applied for routes from Glasgow to Brussels and Cologne, Edinburgh to Brussels and Copenhagen, and from Manchester to Rotterdam and Cologne. Eventually Loganair would like to rationalise its fleet to one aircraft type. Having secured its finance, French regional Brit Air has confirmed its order for two Aerospatiale/Aeritalia ATR42s. The aircraft will be configured for 50 seats and the first will be accepted in February 1986. No 2 will come on line in March. Initially the aircraft will fly on the Rennes-Lyon route, and Brit Air will increase its frequency on the Morlaix-London Gatwick route offering a service by both Bandeirantes and ATR42s. NEWS SCAN Aeroflot has introduced four new routes in its summer timetable: Moscow- Lanarca, Moscow-Dusseldorf, Leningrad-Leipzig, and Kiev- Salzburg. Tu-134s will oper ate on all these routes. Swissair and Viasa, the Venezuelan national carrier, will launch scheduled Zurich- Caracas services in June. Both airlines will operate a weekly flight. US Air reported a first quar ter net profit of $10 million, down from $27-3 million for the corresponding period last year. Passenger revenue, however, was up by 5-7 per cent and the load factor rose from 52 • 9 per cent in the first quarter of 1984 to 55-7 per cent in 1985. The Norwegian Army chartered two British Island Airways BAe One- Elevens for recent military manoeuvres in the Arctic circle. Sabena and Luxair are to retrofit their 737 with Bendix PPI-1U colour weather radar indicators. FLIGHT International, 18 May 1985 7
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