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Aviation History
1990
1990 - 2911.PDF
FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS, England FtlGHT TELEPHONE NUMBERS It dialling from outside the United Kingdom prefix lumbers with +4481, For example D61-661 3321 becomes +4481 661 3321 EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES: 081-661 3321 EDITORIAL FAX: 081-661 3840 DISPLAY ADVERTISING: 081-661 3315 DISPLAY ADV. FAX: 081-661 8981 CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING: 081-661 6373 CLASSIFIED ADV. FAX: 081-642 4431 TELEX: 892084 REEDBP G EDITOR Allan Winn 081-661 3882 DEPUTY EDITOR Graham Warwick 081-661 8808 ASSISTANT EDITOR ART AND PRODUCTION Forbes Mutch 081-661 3852 ASSISTANT EDITOR, SPECIAL PROJECTS Tom Hamill 081-661 3096 NEWS EDITOR Andrew Chute' 031-661 3843 OPERATIONS EDITOR Mike Gaines 081-661 8809 TECHNICAL EDITOR Guy Morris 081-661 3835 AIR TRANSPORT EDITOR David Learmount 081-661 3845 REPORTERS Douglas Barrie 081-661 3836 Eric Beech 081-661 3837 Simon Elliott 081-661 3838 Ian Goold 081-661 3834 Alan Postlethwaite 081-661 3839 CHIEF SUB EDITOR Stephen Spark 081-661 3837 SUB EDITOR Annabel Goddard 081-661 3848 ART EDITOR Colin Paine 081-661 3850 LAYOUT ARTIST Mike Wells 081-661 3828 TECHNICAL ARTISTS Ira Eplon 081-661 8054 Tim Hall 081-661 8047 David Halchard 081-661 8047 John Marsden 081-661 8054 EUROPEAN EDITOR Julian Moxon (32) 2 657 9689 FAX (32) 2 657 5260 PHOTOGRAPHER (EUROPE| Mark Wagner 0272 358200 WASHINGTON BUREAU Kieran Daly (202) 547-2624 FAX (202) 547-5338 LOS ANGELES BUREAU John Bailey (714) 760-6618 FAX (714) 760-5619 PHOTOGRAPHER (USA| Craig Schmlman (213) 3918981 PARIS CORRESPONDENT Gilbert Sedbon (1) 4825 5261 ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT Atie Egozi (3) 9671155 US WEST COAST CORRESPONDENT Norman Lynn (408) 778-0889 FAX (408)778-9976 SPACEFLIGHT CORRESPONDENT Tim FurniSS 02375 756 FAX 02375 600 DISPLAY ADVERTISEMENT SALES MANAGER Clive Richardson 081-661 3315 VICE-PRESIDENT US SALES John Tidy (714) 756-1057 CLASSIFIED ADVERTISEMENT SALES 081-661 6373 RECRUITMENT 081-661 6373 ADVERTISEMENT PRODUCTION Howard Mason 081-661 3267 PUBLISHER Gavin Howe For full advertisement sales information see page 56. SUBSCRIPTIONS MANAGER A Waiden (04441441212 SUBSCRIPTIONS ENQUIRIES Oakfieid House, Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex RH16 3DH,England BACK NUMBERS Limited numbers ot RECENT ISSUES ONLY are available at E1.757copy (CASH WITH ORDER ONLY) from Flight International, Room L531, Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton Surrey SM2 5AS USA NEWSSTAND SALES ENQUIRIES Worldwide Media Services Inc (toll-free), 1-B00-345-6478 EBJ, Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation C OHMEHT East is West and West is...? October 3 will come and go like any other day. Except that, at its end, Germany will once again be united. For aviation, both civil and mili tary, this raises some important issues, many of which are still unresolved. First of all Lufthansa, for the first time since the war, will be allowed to fly direct to Berlin. Initially, it will lease the existing nine Pan Am Boe ing 727s that have been flying the inter-German route, but hopes by mid-1991 to have replaced them entirely with either A320s or Boeing 737-300s. Lufthansa will add more aircraft to the route as soon as it can. No longer will the West German flag-carrier have to stand by and watch allied air lines fly the three corridors from West to East Germany. From 3 October, Berlin will begin the long haul to becoming one of Lufthansa's major international hubs. East Germany has no regional airline network at all. The future here is unclear. The appalling state of the road transport system makes it likely that, at least in the short term, a regional airline network of some sort will be needed. Much depends on how quickly development of a ground infrastructure can take place. Once railways and roads are in good shape, the need for a highly developed regional airline system fades — although cities like Leipzig, Dresden and Rostock will always demand proper air access u> Berlin and beyond. The West German constitu tion, which from 3 October will cover all of Germany, allows free access to the market. It will be interesting to see how it develops. If Germany wants Berlin to become a real "gateway to the East", it will be essential for it to build a new airport before the surrounding countryside is eaten up by developers. Berlin can expect at least a doubling of air traffic by the end of the century. At present, it will have to be handled by Schoenefeld and Tegel — both badly outdated airports near to the centre of the city (it is worth remembering that after 3 With the Soviets remaining in 'East' Germany until 1994, how will it he possihle to co-ordinate their military activity with 'West' German airspace policing?" October, East Germans will have the same rights of appeal against noisy aircraft as West Germans already do). Even if approval came today, it would be at least ten years before a new airport could be completed. Given the Munich 2 experience, it will probably take closer to 15 years. In the meantime, Berliner Flughafen, the Berlin airport authority, is work ing desperately on plans to update the two existing airports. On the military side, unification means simply that the Bonn Govern ment, through its Ministry of De fence, becomes re sponsible for po licing unified Ger man airspace. Since the war, policing has been carried out by the air forces of the allied nations, while on the East ern side it has been done by the Soviet-backed military. The question remains as to how a unified Germany will be policed and, in the new world, against what threat. Also, with Soviet troops and aircraft remaining in East Germany until 1994, how will it be possible to co-ordinate Soviet military activity in formerly East German air space with Western policing? Air traffic control in West Germany is run by civilians. In the East, it has been the responsibil ity of East German airline Interflug — using military controllers leased from the air force. This will obviously have to change. But the agenda for doing so has yet to be decided. The recent squabble between West Germany and the UK on low-flying rights over West German soil was resolved by allowing one squadron of British Tornados to continue prac tising against the day they could be needed to fight Iraq. The dispute highlighted the fact that, from 3 October, it is Germany, all of it, that takes responsibility for its own airspace. Huge prob lems remain before the condition of that air space reflects the high ideals of unification. There is no reason to believe that Germany is not perfectly equipped to solve them. •
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