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Aviation History
1988
1988 - 0276.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT New An-28 operates The new Antonov An-28 commuter airliner began service with the Tajikistan directorate of Aeroflot last November. Designed by Antonov in the USSR, the aircraft is built at Mielec in Poland. Range at maximum payload (l,750kg/3,8501b) is 700km/377 n.m., speed is 195kt, and service ceiling is 13,500ft. This aircraft is seen refuelling at Dushanbe. Arkia prepares for expansion TEL AVIV Arkia Airlines, Israel's inde pendent carrier, is planning its 1988 strategy in the light of a 35 per cent boom in total traffic in the past year, reports Robin Blech. The company operates three Boeing 707s leased from El Al on European charter routes. New airport noise criteria have forced the airline to start a hushkitting pro gramme, and work on the first aeroplane is already under way in Los Angeles. The work has been arranged through El Al, and the aircraft is due back in Tel Aviv in mid-February. Arkia's technical staff want to evaluate the effect of the $3 million retrofit before com mitting their second 707 to the programme, company president Yossef Rosen tells Flight. Rosen plans to trade Arkia's third 707 for another Boeing type, either a 727 or a 737. A decision will be made "within the next three months", but neither choice poses training problems because Arkia has operated both types before, and its 707 pilots and engineers are already qualified on type. The demand for flights to Israel is particularly strong in .West Germany, with regular flights to Hamburg, Stuttgart, Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne, and Nuremburg, and regular flights also to Paris (Orly). In addition, four flights per week to London (Gatwick) are scheduled this summer. Busi ness has not been affected by media concentration on Israel's security problems. Manston in Kent, UK, will be used for trials during July and August to test passenger acceptability. Rosen recog nises that Manston (which recently dubbed itself Kent International) has the cap acity to allow increased fre quency, which Gatwick does not. Rosen sees Manston as a more attractive alternative than Stansted, having Boeing 707 servicing facilities and a new terminal opening in May. "If passenger reaction is favourable we will use Manston increasingly," he says. Rosen is encouraged by the fact that European traffic is genuine tourism rather than VFR (visiting friends and relations), and this year's 40th anniversary of the founding of Israel is expected to have a beneficial impact. Traffic is expected to increase by a further 20 per cent in 1988. The Aerospatiale ATR72 is presently the front-running contender for a larger aircraft in Arkia's domestic fleet. Domestic capacity is currently 500,000 passengers per year, the bulk of it carried in three de Havilland Dash 7s, and the remainder in Piper Chieftains. The Dash 7 has insufficient seats for peaktime flights to Eilat, Israel's expanding Red Sea resort. A larger turboprop aircraft is being sought, to operate from Tel Aviv's small and noise-sensitive Sde Dov city airport. Presently fav oured is the 78-seat Aero spatiale ATR72, though the BAe 146 and the Dash 7-400 are also contenders. "We have a preference for the ATR72, which is being offered on attractive terms, but will make a decision within the next two to three months," says Rosen. Arkia still awaits a pool route between Eilat and Luxor. Agreed in principle between President Mubarrak of Egypt and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres last year, it has been bogged down by administrative delays. The route would be shared between Arkia and Air Sinai. 12 NEWS SCAN Airbus Industrie's Global Market forecast for the next 20 years predicts a total market of about 10,000 pas senger jetliners of 100 seats or more. It is based on a 5-5 per cent western world traffic growth assumption, including China, Romania, and Jugo slavia. The largest single cate gory of demand is predicted to be short-to-medium-range single-aisle aircraft, which are expected to capture about half the market. Birmingham Executive Airways, which relaunched in October Flight, October 31, page 8), carried a record number of passengers during November. Its six-aircraft fleet carried 4,848 passengers during the month, a 28 per cent increase on November 1986. Scottish carrier Loganair has become the UK's biggest operator of Post Office flights. It now services seven nightly contracts with its fleet of Shorts 360 and Fokker F.27 aircraft. The International Air ports Authority of India (IAAI) is to invest Rs.250 million ($11 million) on improving cargo handling facilities at the four airports in Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras. From next summer, Luft hansa will introduce daily flights between Frankfurt and Hong Kong. It will also reduce the number of stopovers on flights between West Germany and Australia, and West Germany and South Korea. The Hong Kong Govern ment has appointed a consul tant to study the territory's air transport requirements and to examine the capacity and potential of Kai Tak Airport. The consultant will produce a forecast of Hong Kong's air traffic demands to the year 2010. Northwest Airlines plans to start a non-stop scheduled service between Amsterdam and Boston next June. Sub ject to Government approval, it will initially fly the route four times a week, using McDonnell Douglas DC-10- 40s. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 6 February 1988
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