FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1991
1991 - 3205.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT 'S i Air Pacific leads new co-operation attempt South Pacific airline pool advocated BY PAUL PHELAN IN PORT MORESBY Air Pacific chief executive Andrew Drysdale has started work on proposals to pool the resources of regional carriers in the South Pacific. Drysdale has raised the pro posal preliminarily with Air Pac ific's board, but it does not yet have the ratification of either the board or the Fiji Government. "I do believe my board would see some sense in a proposal like ihat although it was not dis cussed and there was no deci sion taken on it," he says. "The concept that I'm propos ing to them is that, rather than every country operating its own aircraft, we create a pool of aircraft owned by a number of different countries." The concept will initially in clude Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, t,he Solomons and Fiji. Drysdale says Papua New Guinea and the Solomons could make a similar deal between themselves for services between the two coun tries. "I believe there is a chance we could see a form of co operation emerging between the carriers of the Pacific which makes a lot of commercial sense," says Drysdale. Airlines involved could in clude Air Caledonie, Air Marshall Islands, Air Niugini, Air Pacific, Air Vanuatu and Solomon Airlines. Under Drysdale's proposal, route capacity would be shared by participating island nations which would provide their own cabin crew on relevant sectors on a "damp lease" arrangement. "If you do that between all the major islands of the Pacific, particularly those with aspira tions for tourism, then you begin to make logical use of resources because, at the end of the day, the actual ownership and operation of the aeroplane is unimportant. What is important is the marketing and distribu tion system," he says. Drysdale hopes to begin dis cussions, probably in mid- January next year, with his counterparts in the other air lines. Previous attempts to form joint airlines have foundered on national priorities and sover eignty issues. Drysdale's co-operation pro posals were supported indirectly by International Air Transport Association director-general Gunter Eser. Speaking at the Association of South Pacific Air lines meeting in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, he said that small national airlines will find they can only survive by closer interaction between carriers — judicious swapping of routes, co-ordination of timetables and pooling of spares. • Douglas slashes jobs and cuts production Douglas Aircraft has revealed further drastic job cuts and slashed production of its MD-80 and MD-11 aircraft at its Long Beach factory in California. Douglas president Robert Hood says the cuts are needed because: "Our financial perform ance compared to Boeing is still poor and leaves us with a com petitive disadvantage". Layoff notices have been sent to 2,200 workers. "Overall, we expect a reduction in force of an additional 1,800 to 3,800 jobs over the next 18 months, from both commercial and govern ment programmes, through lay offs and normal attrition." The layoffs are in addition to 1,000 job losses announced by Douglas earlier this year. The latest round of redundancies will begin to take effect at the start of next year. Douglas has also revealed the exact numbers involved in the cutback on production. MD-80 rates will drop by over a third from 140 this year to 100 in 1992. For the MD-11, Hood adds: "We plan to produce at a 40 aircraft per year rate from 1992 until 1994". The company adds that "...although it was known that we wanted to cut back on MD-80 production, this is the first time we have speci fied exactly what cuts we will be making in 1992". Although Hood says the tri-jet rate cut is "...to improve our predictability and increase per formance on the MD-11", the 40 a year rate is a significant with drawal from the company's orig inal plans to produce between 45 and 50 MD-lls annually from next year onwards. The news comes at a bad time for Douglas's aggressive MD-11 production acceleration pro gramme, led by vice-president and general manager Joe Pirkle. This was well on the way to success, having virtually reached the one aircraft per week rate, (Flight International, 4-10 Sep tember), with expectations of 36 aircraft being delivered this year. Confirmation of the Douglas production cutbacks follows similar action by Airbus Indus trie and Boeing following re quests from customers to slow down deliveries. • Chef Air employee held over bomb An employee of Chef Air, a catering company which supplies Air India's 747s, has been arrested as Indian police step -up their inquiries into a possible conspiracy over the failed attempt to blow up an airliner on 1 December. The fire bomb which con tained batteries, a 100ml bottle with a petrol-like substance and an aerosol container with liquid propane gas, was found on flight AI111 from New Delhi to New York with 416 passengers and crew on board. Catering officer Balvinder Singh Nigah's statement in the judicial magistrate court says he "...planted the crude device with an intention to remove it on board, in the presence of his senior, in order to set an award", for his action. The chief -public prosecutor (CPP), however, says that Balv inder made a detailed disclosure saying "...if the bomb had ex ploded I would have become the area commander of the Khalis- tan Liberation Force". According to the CPP, Balvin der said that he had been prom ised Rs500,000 ($19,310) to plant the bomb. The device was discovered by a steward in a routine check of flight containers before depar ture. The Indian Government has called for an investigation into the breach of security procedures. • Council voices BA Berlin fears In the latest twist in British Airways' (BA's) attempts to set up Deutsche BA (DBA), the air line has been accused of consid ering using a charter company as the basis for its operation 'rather than its own Internal German Service (IGS). The claim is being made by the works council representing the 500 IGS staff. It says: "BA is trying to do this without our staff, it is trying to use a charter airline called Germania Flug." BA says it had talked to Ger mania but only about the possib- lity of leasing aircraft. The airline's attempts to set up a Berlin-based operation using its IGS as the core, is now running almost a year behind the original plan. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 11 - 17 December, 1991 11
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
