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Aviation History
1989
1989 - 1543.PDF
UTA denied Paris/Newark direct route French privately-owned carrier Union de Transports Aeriens (UTA) has finally won its battle to fly passengers to Newark, New York, but only from Marseilles, Toulouse, and Bordeaux, in southern France. UTA has again been denied permission to carry passengers from Paris to Newark in direct competition with flag-carrier Air France, which flies to John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. UTA chief executive officer Rene Lapautre is not satisfied, and has already filed a request with the Transport Ministry for permission to run another service from northern France, from Strasbourg and Lille to Newark. He believes that at least five French cities should be linked to Newark by DC-10s and Boeing 767s three times a week, and in due course with daily flights. Again, UTA faces resistance from -^Air France, which is planning a similar service from Mulhouse, Lille, and Lyons to J. F. Kennedy, to match American Airlines' successful flights from Lyons to New York. UTA has been granted permission to fly to Newark by the Conseil Superieur de UTA has complained to the EEC about Air France obstructiveness l'Aviation Marchande (CSAM), the French higher council for civil aviation. It follows a bitter fight by UTA in the face of what the independent carrier consid ers to be obstructive practices by Air France. UTA has also filed a direct complaint with the Euro pean Community Commission in Brussels. The CSAM ruling is subject to approval by the French Transport Ministry, which has hitherto systematically opposed competition between French airlines on international routes. CSAM officials argue that, by taking off from a provincial centre, "UTA will shoulder and complement Air France rather than hinder the flag carrier" in the tough competition between the national French airline and American carriers, which to gether accounts for 65 per cent of passenger traffic between France and the United States. From September, UTA will run twice-weekly passenger services—one Marseilles- Bordeaux-Newark, another Marseilles - Toulouse - Newark, and a third Newark-Toulouse- Bordeaux-Newark. UTA's medium-term strategy through 1993 is to capitalise on new European Community regulations that will allow more than one airline to operate regu larly on routes with traffic exceeding 250,000 passengers —a threshold which is to drop to 200,000 in due course, and eventually to 150,000. UTA has already filed applications to fly passengers from Paris to London, Rome, Milan, Madrid, Athens, Amsterdam, Copen hagen, Frankfurt, and Dussel- dorf, and from Nice to London. Lapautre's airline has an extensive African network and regular passenger services to the Pacific via Noumea, New Caledonia, San Francisco, and Los Angeles, as well as to Tahiti and the now impending flights to Newark. It has put its subsidiary, Aeromaritime, back into operation to cash in on the growing charter business, and Lapautre is confident that it will soon be making at least two or three Boeing 737-300 flights daily. Dead Sea services launched by Israel Two Israeli domestic airlines have inaugurated scheduled flights to the Dead Sea. The flights, from Tel Aviv's Dov Airport, use two landing strips 396m below sea level. Arkia Israeli Airlines, the country's largest privately owned carrier, has leased a 19-seat DHC-6 Twin Otter for the Dead Sea flights. Zvi Gonen, Arkia's vice-president commercial, says that the company operates two weekly flights between Tel Aviv and the Bar Yehuda landing strip at the foot of Massada Mountain, 2km west of the Dead Sea. "We have a plan to use the 'Dash 6' for a direct connection for European tourists landing at the Uvda airfield north to Eilat," says Gonen. The military air base at Uvda, 60km north of Eilat, is used by wide- body aircraft operating charter flights from Europe to the Israeli Red Sea resort. Some tourists combine an Eilat trip with a Dead Sea visit and, according to Gonen, the Twin Otter flights will provide the best connection. Scheduled flights between Tel Aviv and the Dead Sea are also operated by Canari, a new Israeli domestic airline, using a Pilatus Britten-Norman Trislander. The 16-seat aircraft was bought recently in England, and is used for three-weekly flights. These flights also take off from Dov Airport in Tel Aviv and land at a 900m-long landing strip on the Dead Sea shore. Yoel Sever, Canari's chief pilot, says that a second Trislander will soon be operated by the company on other domestic flights. NEWS IN BRIEF "2 Lufthansa-China deal Lufthansa and Air China have signed their long-planned agreement for a joint venture to expand and modernise the Chinese airline's Beijing tech nical base. Lufthansa is contributing 40 per cent of the capital 0C127 million) and Air China 60 per cent. D El AJ tests TCAS El Al Israeli airlines will install a traffic alert/collision avoid ance system (TCAS) on one of its Boeing 747s before the end of 1989 for evaluation. The airline says the system to be evaluated will be selected in the next few months. After eval uation is completed and a system selected, TCAS will be installed on El Al's 18-aircraft all-Boeing fleet of 737s, 747s, 757s, and 767s. D Algerian maintenance base Air Algerie is to start construc tion in January 1990 of a $89 million maintenance base. Work on the 24,000m2 hangar, ten main workshops, and a series of smaller shops and offices is scheduled to take four years. Austrian Airlines share sale The second stage of Austrian Airlines' privatisation is taking place, with All Nippon Airways taking a 3-5 per cent share holding in the carrier. Swissair is increasing its stake from 3 per cent to 8 per cent, with the over all share capital of Austrian Airlines increasing from ASchl-8 billion to ASch2-2 billion ($135 million to $165 million). Austrian Airlines has a tri partite commercial agreement with All Nippon Airways and Aeroflot for its services from Vienna to Tokyo, via Moscow. In the third stage of privatisation in 1990/1991, All Nippon Airways will increase its stake to 5 per cent, and Swis sair to 10 per cent. The general public, institutional investors, and Austrian Airlines' employ ees will hold 34 per cent of the carriers' shares, with the Government retaining a major ity holding of 51 per cent. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 27 May 1989 17
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