FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1994
1994 - 0062.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT SAS suggests Latvian joint-venture carrier BY AISDRZE] JEZIORSKI IN MUNICH SAS is proposing a joint ven ture with Latvian Airlines (Latavio) to form a new airline based in the Latvian capital Riga, in which the Scandi navian carrier would hold a 40% stake. The new venture would in herit Latavio's existing routes, offering SAS increased access to Eastern Europe and the CIS. "There's very little that we take more seriously than our Baltic- hub strategy," says SAS, adding that it was the first Western airline to open routes into the independent Baltic states of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. The venture follows a feasi bility study which was begun by SAS in November, at the same time as its Alcazar merger talks with KLM, Swissair and Austrian Airlines were running into trouble. SAS says that it expects to sign a memorandum of understanding with Latavio by mid-year. State-owned Latavio has been caught up in debts, some of which date back to its crea tion after the break-up of the former-Soviet flag-carrier Aero- flot. Auditors have yet to un ravel the full extent of the airline's liabilities, but the Lat vian transport ministry esti mates that they are between SI million and $10 million. The aim is to raise cash through the sale of assets, in cluding part of the Soviet-built fleet. This is based largely on Tupolev Tu-134s and Tu-154s. Funding for Latvia's 60% of the joint venture is likely to come from the Latvian Government and local banks. The proposed tie-up has raised fears in neighbouring Baltic states that their airlines could lose business. Talks be tween Latvia and Estonia were scheduled for 6 January. On the agenda were the SAS pro posal and the possibility of an alternative joint venture be tween a number of the new Baltic airlines. Further talks, including Lith uanian and Belarussian partici pation, are planned for Febru ary, although the Latvian trans port ministry is doubtful if a Baltic alliance could provide a substitute for a partnership with a Western airline. D WORKSHOP SHANNON DEAL A three-year contract to strip and paint Air 2000's fleet of Boeing 757-200s has been won by Shannon Aerospace. The Irish maintenance concern ex pects to undertake work on between three and four aircraft a year. The first 757 will arrive on 19 January. AVIATION SALES Two McDonnell Douglas DC- 10-10s, belonging to United Airlines, have been disman tled by Aviall subsidiary Avia tion Sales. Parts from the air craft are now available for sale HEAVYLIFT 727s The UK's Heavylift Engineering was due to start work on 10 January on the first of two Boeing 727-200s belonging to Istanbul Airlines. The £2 mil lion deal will see the Southend airport-based company un dertake heavy maintenance, in cluding belly-skin replacement and work under the ageing aircraft programme. US/UK bilateral negotiations falter Prospects outcome for a successful of the forthcom ing round of US/UK bilateral air-transport talks look grim mer than ever. Officials of US President Bill Clinton's Admin istration say that the process is at an impasse because UK negotiators refuse to grant ad ditional access for US carriers to London's Heathrow Airport. The negotiating teams are next due to meet in Washington DC on 18 January, but there are no plans for US transportation sec retary Federico Pena and his UK equivalent, John MacGre gor, to meet. The UK says that, at the unproductive December round, it offered "the most radical measure of liberalisation out side Heathrow and a slight degree of liberalisation at Heathrow and Gatwick", so that "...it is up to the USA" to produce a new idea. The USA responds, however, that "...the UK proposal...offers virtually no access to Heathrow in a commercially viable timeframe. We need substantial access to Heathrow Airport. That is the heart of the matter." It has, however, extended its approval of expanded code- sharing services by USAir and British Airways to 17 March. In March 1993, the USA granted the two carriers authority to code-share to several US desti nations for a period of one year while the bilateral talks contin ued. In November, it awarded Pena (top) and MacGregor away from bilaterals meeting slay code-sharing rights to addi tional US airports under an approval due to have expired on 14 January, but which is now being extended. The USA is now bringing increasing pressure to bear on the UK to use possible capacity increases at Heathrow to open it up to US carriers. It is widely recognised that Heathrow oper ates below optimum capacity. The single biggest change with capacity benefits could be to allow "mixed-mode" use of the airport's two parallel run ways. Each runway is now used either for take-offs only or landings only at any one time, with a switch-over during the day. That system is intended to reduce the noise burden on local residents and has been considered to be too environ mentally sensitive to change. It has emerged, however, that the UK Civil Aviation Au thority is discussing with Al- HedSignal the possibility of using its precision runway monitor (PRM) at Heathrow. The PRM has an electroni cally scanned radar, with a four-scan/s update rate and a dedicated controller console, to allow simultaneous approaches to parallel runways with re duced aircraft-separations. A CAA delegation has visited the first US PRM installation, at Raleigh-Durham, North Caro lina. A source familiar with the talks says, however, that the UK wants to use the AlliedSig- nal software with Heathrow's existing, mechanically driven antennae. These have a lower scan rate and would greatly reduce the potential benefits of using PRM. • 12 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 12 - 18 January, 1994
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
