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Aviation History
1993
1993 - 0140.PDF
HEADLINES German budget cuts blight Eurofighter 2000 BY DOUGLAS BARRIE IN MUNICH G ermany is facing a serious cash shortfall as it attempts to finance its share of 1993 development spending on the four-nation Eurofighter 2000 programme. The funding difficulties are believed to have been high on the agenda of a recent Euro fighter directors' steering com mittee meeting. German defence minister US airlines record miserable year The major US airlines flew fewer passengers on domes tic services in 1992 than they managed two years earlier. Year-end figures from the US Air Transport Association (ATA) show that domestic passenger numbers grew by only 3.4% compared with war-struck 1991 and, at 412.8 million, were fewer than in 1990. Domestic journeys have grown by less than 1.0% since 1989. Nevertheless revenue passen ger miles (RPM) covered grew by 4.0% over 1991 and the average load factor crept up from 61.3% to 62.6%. International passenger num bers rose by 7.5% to 41.6 mil lion; but that figure is virtually the same as in 1990. Interna tional RPMs leapt by 13.3% over 1991 to 128,243,664, but the average load factor stayed virtu ally constant at 67.0% as more seats were offered. • NEWS IN BRIEF COURT BATTLE General Dynamics is suing Rockwell International after losing a competition to up grade McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantoms for South Korea. GD claims that the upgrade, which involves modernising the cockpit displays of the F-4 to standards compatible with South Korea's F-16s, uses proprietary GD software. Volker Riihe had previously re duced the German calendar year 1993 budget allocation for the European Fighter Aircraft (ERA) by DM310 million ($192 mil lion), leaving only DM520 mil lion for the programme. The cut has been further exac erbated by some DM180 million of this money having to be earmarked to pay for work in curred in 1992. The German defence ministry admits that some of the 1993 budget has already been spent, but declines to specify the amount. The ministry says that the budget office is still examin ing the figures. One source close to the pro ject says: "Everybody is focusing on the problem of the 1993 budget. There is only DM300 million for 1993. Deutsche Aer ospace [DASA] reckons this will all be used up by April." DASA will not comment on funding issues, although one of ficial admits that there has been an "overflow [in charges] from 1992", and that "the remainder seems to be pretty scarce". The funding problems have arisen in part out of Rtihe's abortive attempts to scrap the programme and his desire to reduce costs. The German min istry says: "There are ongoing discussions as to the impact of the cuts." Several options are open to Germany to help cover the cash crisis. Alternatives include fur ther slowing of the development programme; the industry provid ing bridging funding; using cash earmarked for other program mes; or providing new funding. The potential for implement ing a further development delay is limited because of the agreed in-service date of 2000 for Ital ian and UK aircraft. The allocation of new funding is considered unrealistic, given the state of Germany's economy. While industry may be willing to accept deferred payment, offi cials indicate that this figure is likely to be small. One official suggests that the outcome will be "...the forma tion of a package including some slowdown, industry taking some of the strain and funds being diverted from other projects". • EC ministers approve slot allocation rules The European Council of Ministers has approved for mally the new rules for airport- slot allocation developed by the European Commission. Brussels stopped short of altering the system of "grandfather rights", which has been criticised by airlines such as Virgin Atlantic for killing competition. The rules, which become law in February, are similar to the informal slot-allocation guide lines developed over the past few years by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), except that the proce dure is now enshrined in Com mission law — a change which has met with some resistance because of the loss of flexibility and extra bureaucracy it implies. The law is only considered to be an interim measure, accord ing to Ludolf Van Hasselt of the Commission's transport director ate and one of the law's principal architects. "Things are develop ing rapidly. We'll review the situation in three years time," he says. Van Hasselt adds that the next set of rules will "...probably be more drastic". Under the new rules, the IATA system giving an airport "co-ordinator" the ultimate re sponsibility for allocating slots at congested airports re mains. Now, however, it be comes the spe cific responsi bility of the member state to declare that one of its air ports has a ca pacity problem serious enough to warrant des ignation as co ordinated. Industry The tale from Brussels may not satisfy Virgin completely pressure during the development of the rules channelled the Commission away from some of the more extreme measures it was consid ering, such as slot confiscation. Financial incentive and lottery- based systems were also dis carded. "When it came down to it, everybody said that what we've got now works pretty well," says Mark Hawse, IATA's director of traffic support. Hawse says that the new rules contain unanswered questions which could lead to different interpretations of the allocation procedure. "If the definition in one part of the Community dif fers from that in another part, there could be big problems," he says. Hawse is also concerned in case 1ATA and Commission pro cedures drift apart in the future. Airlines which want to pre serve their "grandfather" rights at a busy airport must demon strate that they have made use of their scheduled slots "...for at least 80% of the time during the period for which they have been allocated". Failure to achieve that level will result in the slots being placed in a pool for distribution — 50% of those subsequently handed out must be given to "new entrants". • See News Analysis, p 14 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 27 January - 2 February, 1993
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