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Aviation History
1985
1985 - 2408.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT Fokker 100 breaks into US market WASHINGTON D.C. ~~ Fokker has achieved a "breakthrough into the North American 100-seat market" with US Air signing a letter of intent to buy 20 Fokker F.lOOs and placing options on a further 20. Fokker calls the deal an order: US Air calls it a letter of intent, but sounds very certain of itself while discussing the nature of the agreement. In October last year the airline's president Edwin Colodny had told the industry that US Air was looking for a "rugged, durable twin jet" as part of its fleet modernisation programme. The aircraft is intended for use primarily out of US Air's busy Pittsburgh hub in its 105-seat configuration on the "small and medium spokes", and an airline spokesman explained that the company chose a type which can take the punishment that constant short sector work and rapid turnaround hands out. Ed Colodny says that "the 105-seat Fokker 100 is a fuel- efficient and quiet stage three aircraft. It was selected after careful analysis of the oper ational, technical, and economic factors of a number of aircraft designs". US Air says that it is not buying the F.lOOs specifically to replace its 21 BAe One- Elevens, or its older DC-9s, but as part of a general modernisation plan which will be implemented as the market demands. The order is worth about $350 million, and US Air will take delivery of the first F.100 in the second half of 1988; then one aircraft a month will be delivered until the order is fulfilled. The F.lOO's engines are Rolls-Royce Tays which produce 13,5001b and have uprate capability to 15,0001b. R-R says that the order is worth over $100 million including spares. Other Brit ish components in the F.100 include the wings, which are built by Shorts, and the land ing gear from Dowty. Orders for the F.100 stand now at 38, with 31 options. In addition to the US Air deal the US market KLM has ordered ten, and launch customer Swissair starts to take delivery of the first of eight F.lOOs in 1987. The aircraft will make its maiden flight in the middle of next year. Production rate for the type will be decided at the end of this year or early in 1986, but it is expected to be in the region of 48-60 airframes a year starting in 1987. BCal pitches into Hong Kong battle HONG KONG ~ British Caledonian has joined the race to launch new inter national services out of Hong Kong by setting up a separate subsidiary airline, Caledonian Far East Airways (CFEA). The carrier has applied to the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Authority for an Air Oper ator's Certificate (AOC), and it has also filed applications to launch scheduled services to six cities in China and 12 more throughout South-East Asia. A BCal spokesman said that if CFEA's proposed services were approved, oper ations with a fleet of up to four 737-200s could begin by early next year. CFEA, which has been incorporated in the British Colony, has thrown its hat into the ring relatively late. Hong Kong already has two brand new airlines, Oriental Pearl and Dragonair, the latter having just received its AOC and begun inaugural charter flights. But CFEA believes it can still catch up. BCal says that it has been investigating the possibility of launching a Hong Kong-based regional airline since it started London-Hong Kong services five years ago. It says that its planned network, serving mostly non-capital cities in 11 countries, has been carefully constructed to exploit largely untapped markets. For the time being, says BCal, CFEA is simply a com mercial operation which will also help to fill seats when it introduces 747s on its trunk route into Hong Kong, ex pected next year. Neverthe less, BCal realises there are political implications in set ting up an airline in Hong Kong in the run-up to the return of the British Colony to China in 1997. Under the 1997 agreement the post- colonial Hong Kong Govern ment, rather than Beijing, will be responsible for negotiating the lucrative air services for Hong Kong-based airlines. CFEA intends to be around in 1997, and is likely to seek local investors before that date to make it acceptable to Hong Kong's new masters. Although Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong's de facto flag carrier, reacted strongly to the CFEA launch, most of the proposed planned services are not directly competitive with its own routes. That is not the case with Dragonair. It recen tly asked the Hong Kong Air Transport Licencing Auth ority for scheduled services to eight Chinese cities, and faces objections from CFEA at next month's hearing into the application. Dragonair, how ever, with its strong backing from local businessmen and Chinese controlled institu tions, is confident it will get the routes it wants. It plans to start charter operations into China as preparation for its scheduled service. Telephoning to stop shoot-downs WASHINGTON D.C. ~ It was partly the lack of communication links between national air traffic control centres which led to a Korean Air Boeing 747 being shot down over Soviet waters in the north-western Pacific in 1983. Now the United States, the Soviet Union, and Japan have agreed to establish a telephone line connection linking the three countries' air traffic control centres in the northern Pacific, reports Bob Burkhardt. The agreement is tempor ary, pending a formal exchange of notes among the three countries. Following the exchange it is expected that technical delegations from the three countries will meet to establish a direct telephony line among the air trafiw control centres to prevent recurrence of a shoot-down like that in September 1983, in which all 269 people aboard a Korean Air 747 were killed. The agreement is a result of talks over a period of 18 months among the three nations. The intention is that if an aircraft strays off its assigned route over Soviet territory, or away from the US airway over Alaska or the Japanese airway in the west ern Pacific, telephone inter communications will help to identify it. It can then be directed back towards its correct course. US Trans portation Secretary Elizabeth Dole, who announced the agreement, said that is was "an encouraging step toward enhancement of the safety of civil air traffic in the north Pacific region". The Department officials involved in the discussions said that no particular date had been set for the formal signing of an agreement. The talks among the three countries were part of an agenda set up by the USA in an attempt to resolve diffi culties which are straining relations between the USA and the Soviet Union. The new procedures are expected to link the ATC centres at Anchorage, Tokyo, and - Khabarovsk. 4 FLIGHT International, 10 August 198S
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