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Aviation History
1994
1994 - 0132.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT A330s to replace 747s in Aer Lingus strategy Aer Lingus is tolease three Airbus A330s from Inter national Lease Finance to re place Boeing 747-100s on transatlantic services. The airline's new transatlan tic services will now consist of Dragonair A330s depose TriStars Dragonair has become the latest Asian carrier to specify the Airbus A330, agreeing to lease two aircraft from International Lease Fi nance (ILFC) as a replace ment for its Lockheed L-1011 Tristars. The Hong Kong- based regional airline also has an option on a third aircraft. Like the A330s ordered by Dragonair's sister Cathay Pa cific, all of the leased aircraft will be powered by Rolls- Royce Trent 700s. The Dragonair deliveries are scheduled for May and September 1995. The A330s will be used initially on the carrier's major trunk routes from Hong Kong to Beijing and Shanghai. The two L- 1011s, leased from Cathay, will be returned for disposal. The A330s will make Dra gonair an all-Airbus airline, as it already operates six A320s leased from ILFC, with a sev enth due to arrive in March. It has options on three A321s, available from November 1995, although chief operat ing officer Simon Heale says that extra capacity may be needed sooner. Dragonair is recording "very high" load factors on its A320 services into China, and Heale says: "The two prob lems we face are that Kai Tak is still congested, and the continuing doubt with CAAC [the Civil Aviation Admini stration of China] about what is an appropriate number of flights to have." • year-round, daily, non-stop Dublin-New York and Shan non-New York services, as well as Dublin-Shannon-Boston daily services in the peak northern-summer season. The first aircraft is due to enter service in June, followed by another a month later and the third in November. Aer Lingus will operate two A330s and two 747s this sum mer, but is planning to offload all 747s "by the end of the financial year". The General Electric CF6- 80E1 -powered A330s are on initial six-year leases and could be exchanged for A340s, espe cially if Aer Lingus decides to serve Los Angeles. It may also lease a fourth A330 to cope with summer demand. Aer Lingus wants to attract passengers who have previously flown to Dublin via London or other hubs, to avoid Aer Lingus is teasing three A330s for its new transatlantic routes the Shannon stopover. The Shannon stopover has, until now, been mandated by the Irish Government. The service re-vamp will in crease Aer Lingus' Ireland-New York capacity by around one- third and will include competi tive fare-cuts and a US marketing drive, as well as an in-flight service upgrade. The deal also triggers the A330's entry into transatlantic service. Paperwork for ex tended-range twin-engine oper ations approval of the CF6- powered A330 is due to be completed shortly. • Tu-154 engine warnings were Ignored7 BY ALEXANDER VELOVICH IN MOSCOW Numerous warnings pre ceded the engine fire which brought down the Baikal Airways Tu-154M at Irkutsk, Siberia on 3 January, the en gine manufacturer is reported to have said. In the crash, 124 people on the aircraft and one person on the ground died (Flight Interna tional, 12-18 January, P9). The investigating commis sion is expected to complete its work by 3 February. Mean while, a representative of en gine manufacturer Perm Aviadvigatel has told the Rus sian press that "a red warning light" showed in the cockpit during the start-up procedures before the fatal flight. The flawed engine, the cen tre of the aircraft's three tail- mounted power units, took 15min to start and a technical team from the airport's mainte nance shop had been called to solve the problem indicated by the warning. The Russian newspaper Kom- somolskaya Pravda reports that the same engine had failed in flight over China six months earlier, forcing the crew to carry out an emergency land ing. The newspaper also quotes pilots as saying that they had filed reports on the engine, which was a relatively young unit, having been operated only 5,000h out of an expected 20,000h life. Meanwhile, aircraft industry representatives have expressed discontent that the investiga tion is chaired by transport minister Vitaliy Yefimov. De spite some decentralisation of control over Russian civil avia tion, the Department of Air Transport (DAT), part of the transport ministry, is still largely responsible for various state-owned airlines, including Baikal Air. Victor Chuiko, president of ASSAD, the association of aero engine manufacturers, sug gested that an unbiased investigation could have been provided by the Inter-State Avi ation Committee (MAK). Division of responsibilities between MAK and DAT has yet to be clarified. • Irkutsk Airport suffered two more incidents within a day of the Baikal Air accident. Only a few hours after the crash, an Ilyushin 11-62, with 100 pas sengers on board, snagged a self-propelled boarding ladder and pulled it all the way to the runway. During the take-off run, the ladder became de tached and it was discovered by accident at the runway's edge by a technician. The next day, an Ilyushin freighter was in a collision with a fuel bowser. • w FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 19 - 25 January, 1994
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