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Aviation History
1992
1992 - 0295.PDF
MR TRANSPORT A340 might make its show debut at Singapore Airbus A340 slated for Singapore show Airbus Industrie is planning to exhibit its A340 wide- body at the Asian Aerospace '92 show in Singapore at the end of February — if the flight-test programme is on schedule. A show debut would mark the A340's first public appearance since the rollout last October, and the first time it has been flown outside Europe. The new widebody is less than one-quarter of the way through the 2,000h, 14-month test pro gramme. A second aircraft joined the test programme ear lier this month. Robert Dunsterville, vice- president of Asian Aerospace managers, Cahners Exposition Group, says: "We have had dis cussions with Airbus, and they say that it is their intention, but they can't give us a definite 'yes or no' at this time." An appearance in Singapore would be a useful marketing exercise for Airbus, which has two firm A340 customers in the region, and memoranda of un derstanding with at least two others, including Singapore Air lines. The A340's closest com petitor, the McDonnell Douglas MD-11, will be the only other widebody at the show. If the A340 is released by Airbus, it would probably be out of flight-test for up to ten days, although the trip to Singapore would be used as a non-stop endurance exercise.. • APC starts without traffic rights Air Philippines (APC), the express cargo airline ven ture between Philippine Aero space Development and TNT, has decided to start operations, even though it is still awaiting the granting of some important traffic rights. • Initially, the airline hoped to start operations in 1991, but was held up by traffic rights prob lems. The airline says that two BAe 146-300Ts, which have been awaiting delivery in the UK since December 1990, should arrive in the Philippines during before the end of the month. An agreement has recently been struck between Taiwan and the Philippines which allows the airline to fly five nights a week to Taipei. In return, EVA Air will begin three times a week Boeing 767 passenger services to Manila. The deal adds to the traffic rights already secured by APC to Singapore, Brunei and Jakarta. Rights for Hong Kong, the most important part of the proposed network, however, have still not been secured. Traf fic rights for Kuala Lumpur and Seoul are. also outstanding. Negotiations were due to begin again in Manila with the Hong Kong authorities on 10 February. Further bi-lateral ne gotiations, between the Philip pines and Malaysia, Thailand, Japan and Korea, have been scheduled to take pake over the next few months. Whatever the outcome of the negotiations, APC has decided to start operations. The carrier says: "If we fail again with the Hong Kong talks, then we will just have to start with Singapore and Taipei as the two main points. If we get Hong Kong, then we can bring in a third aircraft into operation." D All Nippon strives for 10% growth target All Nippon Airways (ANA) has set itself a target of increasing its international busi ness by 20% a year as part of a five-year, 10% growth target to be obtained between Fiscal Year 1991 and FY1995. The carrier aims to achieve an average 4% annual increase in its business (measured in passen ger-kilometres) on Japanese do mestic routes, where it already leads the market. On interna tional routes, where ANA is challenging Japan Air Lines' dominance, it aims for an annual increase of 20%. ANA says it will increase its jet fleet to 122 aircraft by the end of FY 1995, from 103 at the beginning of FY 1991. The car rier plans to retire all of the 12 Boeing 737s and 11 Lockheed LlOlls it was flying in April 1991 and replace them with larger aircraft — mainly Boeing 747s, Boeing 767s, but also the smaller Airbus Industrie A320s. In FY 1995, ANA says it will have 47 B747s (up from 25), 63 B767s (up from 45) and 12 A320s (up from 2). It will also begin introducing Boeing 777s by the end of the plan. The new Kansai Airport, due to open near Osaka in summer 1994, will play a major role in the international route expan sion. The company says it will initially concentrate on links be tween Kansai and the Asia- Pacific region. Its proposed destinations from the airport will include: Honolulu, Sydney, Hong Kong, Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, and Singapore. New destinations ANA plans to serve from Tokyo's Narita Airport during the period in clude: Honolulu, Frankfurt, Shanghai, Barcelona and Milan. Its services to New York, Paris, Singapore and Bangkok are to be increased to daily flights. A new route is also planned between Fukuoka and Dalian, China. ANA hopes to strengthen its domestic business by increasing the number of flights on its trunk routes, linking Tokyo, Osaka, Sapporo, Fukuoka and Naha, Okinawa. It plans to begin feeder serv ices to the new Kansai Airport in 1994. The existing Osaka Air port will then become the air line's regional hub. The carrier plans to overcome the problem of Japan's pilot shortage by hiring overseas from July 1992. It expects to have about 200 non-Japanese pilots and co-pilots by 1995, 130 based outside Japan and flying B747s on its international routes, and the remaining 70 operating 767s within Japan. All ANA's foreign pilots will be employed through leasing agencies, the company says. D NEWS IN BRIEF NEW Do.328 ENGINES Deutsche Aerospace subsidiary Dornier has begun installation of the Pratt & Whitney (P&W) 119A turboprop engine on its Dornier 328 regional twin tur boprop prototype. The aircraft initially flew with the P&W 119; the A version will provide up to a 10% improvement in cruise performance. Dornier says it will resume flight testing the aircraft next month. • NEW EXEL ROUTE Air Exel Netherlands started scheduled services between Maastricht in the Netherlands and London Stansted on 10 February. The service, three return flights daily, will use a 30-seat Embraer 120 Brasilia turboprop aircraft. POLYNESIAN MANAGER The Government-appointed board of directors of Polyne sian Airlines are to appoint their own general manager to replace the management con tract with Ansett which expires in April. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 12 - 18 February, 1992
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