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Aviation History
1994
1994 - 0651.PDF
MR TRANSPORT Ansett is to convert A321 orders to A320s Swissair and Ansett adjust orders BY KIERAN DALY IN SHANNON AND PAUL PHELAN IN CAIRNS Swissair and Ansett Australia have changed the details of their orders for Airbus narrow- bodies, to cope with shifting market needs. Ansett Australia and Airbus Industrie have agreed to the carrier's proposal to convert its order for ten Airbus A321s to the same number of additional A320s. First deliveries have been brought forward to late USAir's costs are the highest of the major US carriers (see table, opposite page). Schofield says that the goal is to bring costs down from 06 per availa ble seat-kilometre (<tll.09/seat mile) to around the G5.5 mark. British Airways has further intensified the pressure on USAir by announcing that it will not go ahead with a fur ther $450 million investment in the carrier until it knows the outcome of the re-structuring. BA's announcement appears aimed squarely at the USAir unions, since further invest ment is not due to be com pleted until 1997. The issue is further complicated by the ne gotiations taking place over the US-UK bilateral, which could effectively block BA's plans for closer links with USAir. BA chairman Sir Colin Marshall has also been playing down the value of benefits from the airline's existing $400 million investment in USAir, arguing that the potential synergies are likely to be "in the range of $30-37 million per year". D 1995 from the originally agreed late 1996. Ansett declines to confirm details of a widely expected widebody purchase, but says: "Kansai Airport starts opera tions in September. All our planning is being done on the basis of the need to have an operation in place by the last quarter of this year." Swissair has signed for three A319s from Airbus and two more from International Lease Finance, taking its total Airbus commitments to 29 — 16 A320s, eight A321s and five A319s, all powered by CFM International CFM56s. Deliveries will start in Janu ary 1995 and run at one a month until May 1997. The aircraft will replace McDonnell Douglas MD-81s and Airbus A310s in Europe. • Shannon Aerospace — a joint venture of Swissair, Lufthansa and GPA — is trying to persuade its airline parents to put their A320 family heavy- maintenance work at the Irish base instead of performing it in Switzerland and Germany. Shannon Aerospace deputy chief executive Willy Pfister — seconded from Swissair — says: "The ideal situation for Shannon would be to get Lufthansa and Swissair to put their entire A320 fleet [over haul] here. But over-capacity at Lufthansa means extreme diffi culties with the unions if they decided to farm out the entire fleet and lose more jobs." Pfister says that the Swissair aircraft will not require major maintenance until late in the decade, but he notes that "...Swissair strategy is that you really want no overlap in alli ances generally". • US airlines diverge on bilateral policy BY KIERAN DALY The US Government is being given widely differing mes sages by its biggest airlines as it nears the deadline to renew British Airways' code-sharing deal with USAir. American Airlines and Delta Air Lines are urging transport secretary Federico Pefia to end the code-sharing and renounce the existing bilateral agreement with the UK on 17 March if there are no signs of the latter liberalising its market and opening up London Heathrow. United Airlines, however, is "disassociating itself to a cer tain extent" from that message and is calling for further US/ UK negotiations. USAir, which sees its very existence threatened by a break-down in relations, is openly criticising the US stance and wants to have the code- share issue separated from the wider bilateral talks. Delta chairman Ronald Allen says that the Clinton Adminis tration must have "...the re solve to say that no agreement is better than an agreement that fails to meet the test of fairness, reciprocity and equiv alent benefits". American Airlines chairman Robert Crandall says: "It is our view that the USA should re nounce the bilateral with the UK." He repeats his view that American is being prevented from competing because of the lack of access to Heathrow and beyond-rights from London. United Airlines executive vice-president — corporate af fairs Larry Nagin says, how ever: "There is no question that the agreement should be much more liberal, but there is also no question that the USA is able to compromise and even negotiate. The same applies to the UK." USAir chairman Seth Scho field says that code sharing is "a common industry prac tice...elevated to the interna- Crandall: wants bilateral to end tional bargaining table". He continues: "The USA rightly criticises other govern ments for not living up to their bilateral agreements. But this time the US is the one threatening to break its agree ment by not renewing the USAir/BA code-share." • Sahara 737 crashes A Sahara India Airlines Boeing 737-200 crash- landed on a stationary Aero- flot Ilyushin 11-86 at Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi, India, on 8 March. First reports suggested that the 737 (VT-SIA), on a train ing flight with three trainee pilots and an instructor on board, completed four touch- and-goes but suffered a fire in the left Pratt & Whitney JT8D engine shortly after a fifth take-off. The four 737 crew died, along with two Russian personnel attending the 11-86, and an employee of Bharat Petroleum. The 11-86, which had been re-fuelled, broke into three pieces and was destroyed in the daytime accident. Debris was scattered over a large area, destroying several vehi cles and three air-bridges. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 16 - 22 March, 1994
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