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Aviation History
1986
1986 - 0609.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT Leasing companies goforMD-83 SHANNON & BALLARAT~ McDonnell Douglas has sold 13 MD-83s to leasing com panies on the opposite sides of the world. Trans Pacific Enterprises (TPE) Inc, a subsidiary of Ansett Transport Industries of Australia, has ordered its first MD-80-series aircraft with this purchase of six MD-83s, and has taken options on a further six. Irish Aerospace of Shan non, Ireland, a joint venture of the Guinness Peat Aviation Group and the McDonnell Douglas Corporation, has ordered seven MD-83s for delivery in Spring 1988, bring ing the company's total orders for the type to 19. Ansett's organisation is now the owner of an inter esting fleet of medium-range narrowbodies. In addition to the new MD-83 order it has bought eight Airbus Industrie A320-200s (with nine on option), and 12 Boeing 737-300s. With this extraor dinary mix of similarly-sized aircraft Ansett is well-placed to operate an extremely flex ible fleet in its own airline, and to offer on the worldwide leasing market a range of new airliners compatible with anyone's fleet. On ordering the A320s in June last year Ansett chief Sir Peter Abeles said that his organisation planned to become "an international aviation operation as well as an airline". At that time the order for the 737s had not been placed, and TPE had not formally come into existence. Announcing the MD-83 order, Sir Peter, who is joint chairman of Ansett with Press entrepreneur Rupert Murdoch, said that, in addi tion to the aircraft, TPE would provide "other airline- related services such as train ing, flight services, marketing assistance, and maintenance". The aircraft available for lease are to be marketed by Ansett Worldwide Aviation Services. Trans Pacific is to take delivery of the six MD-83s next year, and if the options are taken up three will be delivered in 1987 and three in 1988. Irish Aerospace president James King says: "the MD-83 will be one of the most sought- after new aircraft of the decade. With a capacity of 165 seats and a range of 2,500 n.m. it is in that category which will dominate new aircraft deliveries between now and 1995." Irish Aerospace specialises in offering MD-83s on operating leases world wide, generally of three to five years' duration. The company will be taking delivery of seven of the type this year, five of which have been lease- contracted (one to British West Indies, four to Frontier, and two unannounced). The order from TPE means that the MD-80 series now has 35 customers, and at the beginning of this month McDonnell Douglas had delivered 277 of the type. The MD-83 is the higher-gross- weight, longest-range variant of the series. • The Shannon-based Guin ness Peat Aviation Group has just taken delivery of the first of 15 Boeing 737-300s which it will acquire over the next year. This aircraft will go straight to Monarch Airlines of the UK, which has taken it on a five-year operating lease. Monarch will take delivery of two more GPA-leased 737-300s in May. Six more deliveries to lessees will be made during 1986; three to VASP, two to Transbrasil, and one for Air Berlin. LEA appeals for rescue LUTON London European Airways, the embattled UK regional which is suing the UK Government over its liberal isation policy, faces a mid- June deadline for reorganising its finances. The UK Civil Aviation Authority has suspended LEA's licences for three months while the airline restructures its capital (LEA is not bankrupt, as stated in last week's Flight). But the CAA's action, taken at LEA's own request, eases the imme diate threat of licence revocation. LEA suspended its daily Amsterdam and Brussels services last month, laying-off 44 of its 50 staff. LEA's finances are now being handled by a team headed by insolvency special ist Christopher Morris of Touche Ross, who was liquidator for Laker Airways. The team believes it can restructure the company without it going out of busi ness, using a "special agreement"—the first time such a formula has been put together for a UK airline. "It is a move towards a US-type Chapter 11 situation," comments one team member. The more usual method of relaunching by dissolving the original company and forming a new one is not feasible for an airline because licences would be withdrawn on dissolution. Managing Director Nigel Harford says he is hopeful that LEA will soon be back in the skies. An appeal in Febru ary for "white knights" to help pay off the airline's £300,000 debt in return for a substan tial stake in the company aroused interest from more than a dozen parties. An unof ficial creditor's meeting last week accepted a restructure package which included them writing off the debt. The proceeds from the sale of LEA's impounded Viscount to Caribbean carrier Caicos International, and other tang ible assets, will be used to pay back ten pence in the pound to creditors. Although Harford says the first reasonable offer for 51 per cent of LEA will be accepted by shareholders, the airline's directors, who are also shareholders, are consid ering a rights issue to raise the £300,000 needed to relaunch the airline. It will operate much as before, using a Shorts 330 or 360, says Harford. LEA is also pressing for £300,000 damages from Transport Secretary Nicholas Ridley. Harford alleges that LEA's financial plight results from its being forced to buy rival carrier Euroflite, to which Ridley, overturning a CAA ruling, had granted a competing licence. Air Atlantic feeds CP Air CP Air's latest commuter partner, Air Atlantic, has launched services flying two leased Dash 7s. The St. John's based regional, which feeds CP Air from Newfoundland and the Maritime Provinces, will be operating four Dash 8s by the end of the year. CP Air has a minority stake in Air Atlantic, and the two carriers will be co-operating on marketing, schedule integration, handling, and reservations. Air BC is already a CP Air commuter, and Nordair Metro of Quebec will join the family shortly. -,?". m. JPF FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 22 March 1986
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