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Aviation History
1989
1989 - 0063.PDF
Braniff A320 order boosts V2500 US airline Braniff will take up to 100 International Aero Engines V2500-powered Airbus A320s, in part by buying Pan Ameri can's 50 A320 delivery slots. The Pan Am order was for 16 aircraft, with a further 34 options. In taking up the Pan Am slots, Braniff has converted the original 34 options into firm orders and has taken out a further 50 options. This brings A320 commitments to 444 firm orders and 241 options from 23 customers, with 13 aircraft now delivered. Braniff will retain the V2500 engines that Pam Am had ordered. The order is a major confidence booster for the IAE consortium, which has had a troubled run-up to engine certi fication, due this spring. Lufthansa had ordered the V2500, but changed its decision and ordered the rival General Electric /Snecma CFM56-5 powerplant, which is already in service. All Nippon Airways was expected to order the V2500 because of the Japanese involvement in the ' engine consortium, but it, too, selected the proven CFM56. The Braniff order breaks a sales drought for the V2500 which has lasted since the middle of 1986. Indian Airlines is the only other major customer for the engine. Including options, the order is worth about $3-5 billion to Airbus and $1 billion to International Aero Engines: two-thirds of the engine manufacturer's orderbook. The consortium claims that its engine is quieter and more economical, but many airlines have decided against it on the grounds that the perceived technical risk of an unproven engine more than outweighs any of its marginal performance benefits. Deliveries to Braniff will begin in July 1989, and will be completed six years later. Ireland-based aircraft lessor GPA will purchase 26 of the aircraft. A further 16 will be leased from Airbus and IAE, with Braniff raising finance for the purchase of the remaining 58 aircraft itself. Braniff will become the second US operator of the A320 after Northwest, which has also ordered 100 aircraft. The A320 order represents a major expansion for Braniff, whose fleet presently consists of 25 Boeing 727-200s. These aircraft are to be progressively replaced by Fokker 100s. Braniff agreed to acquire 12 of these aircraft from GPA in mid- 1988 and has now agreed, as part of the same deal, to double this number. GPA has a 10 per cent interest in the US carrier which it acquired in June last year. Pan Am cancelled its A320 order because restructuring of the airline removed its require ment for the aircraft. Instead, it plans to buy four Airbus A310-300s, two for delivery in Spring 1990 and two on option for delivery in 1991. The airline expects to exercise the options early next year. The airline has 19 A310s, seven -200s and 12 -300s in service. These have been used to replace the airline's ageing fleet of 727s, which it is gradually phasing out. Pan Am believes that, with its current route structure, the A310 order offers it the greatest operating flexibility. The airline does not rule out the possibility of ordering the A320 in future, however. UK & USA order tighter security A fortnight after the Pan Ameri can World Airways sabotage incident at Lockerbie in Scot land, both the British and US authorities have announced new security standards. US Federal Aviation Admin istration (FAA) Administator Allan McArtor has announced that American airlines flying out of more than 100 airports in Europe and the Middle East must step up passenger screen ing and baggage examination procedures. This is understood to entail X-ray and selective search of all hold baggage, and searches of all passengers and their hand baggage. These "and other unnamed steps" were to take immediate effect. The FAA also requires all US airports to install computerised security systems, starting next month. All airport employees will have to carry magnetic identity cards to enable their whereabouts to be monitored. British Transport Minister Paul Channon indicates the areas in which he considered security needed tightening: "We have already taken a number of steps to increase security on hold baggage, and also to stop unauthorised access to aircraft." Boeing leads in record sales year Last year set a record for West ern civil airliner sales. Boeing led with orders for 636 aircraft worth $29-6 billion. In total, 1,121 new jet airliners were ordered and vari ous commitments made on several hundred more last year (see- table), compared with orders for 635 airliners in 1987. For Boeing, 1988 was very much the year of the 757. In its first ten years this single-aisle twin-jet accumulated orders for just 241 aircraft. - Last year Boeing took orders for 161 and commitments on many more. Some 158 Boeing 737-300s, 46 -400s, and 71 ,-500s (plus 69 "undecided" 737s) took the type's total orders beyond 2,250. Boeing received orders for 82 767-200/300s and 49 747s, all but six of the latter being for -400 variants. Boeing's order backlog stands at 1,107 aircraft, valued at $51 billion. Airlines ordered 203 McDonnell Douglas MD-80s and 43 MD-lls, and took options and reserved places on 295 additional aircraft last year. The company's orders totalled about $9 billion in value last year. ' Airbus orders last year comprised 21 A300-600s, 24 A310s, 116 A320s (plus options taken on 76), three A330s, and three A340s (with options on two). Total A330/ 340 "commit ments" now cover 157 aircraft: 15 A330s (32 options), and 71 A340s (39 options). Also in last year's figures are orders for 34 (plus 20 options) and 15 (plus 16 options) for unidentified customers. The British Aerospace 146 is enjoying strong growth, with orders for 40. Fokker sold 32 Fokker 100s in 1988, and total orders stand at 118, with options taken on a further 88 aircraft. World airliner orders-1986-88 Year Boeing Orders Value McDonnell Douglas Orders Value Airbus Industrie Orders Value ' British Aerospace Orders Value Fokker Orders Value * Excludes military orders for 11 1986 341 $ 19,000m 2^S — 170 — 21 $400m**** 47-" $9C(Qm**** 'commercial" aircraft. ** "Contract bookings", excluding options and reserves. *** Excludes "commitments". "Fir **•* Orders for British Aerospace m" orders only. and Fokker assume a 1987 355* $20,200m 134 — H4.*« — 31 $620m 1 $20m rcraft valued al $20m each 1988 636 $29,600m 246** — 167*** — 40 $800m 32 $640m n 19SS. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 14 January 1989 5
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