FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1995
1995 - 3341.PDF
HEADLJ J NEWS IN BRIEF • MANX EYES EMB-145 British Airways Express carrier Manx Airlines is emerging as a possible cus tomer for Embraer's EMB- 145 50-seat regional jet. A senior Manx official says: "We are certainly looking to do something with re gional jets, and it looks as if it will probably be with Embraer." • CONSOLATION PRIZE Cathay Pacific has signed a deal to purchase a further two Rolls-Royce-powered Airbus A3 30s to add to the nine aircraft already on order. A further boost is likely from Aeroflot-Russian Internat ional Airlines which is in talks with Airbus Industrie over the lease up to seven more A310s, to add to its existing fleet of six. • INDIAN MURDER Thakiyudeen Abdul Wahid, managing director of India's largest private airline, East West Airlines, was killed on 13 November in Bombay in a gangland-type shooting. SHUTTLE DOCKING The Space Shuttle Atlantis, making its 15th flight on mis sion STS 74, docked success fully with the Russian space station, the Mir 1 on 15 November, three days after its launch from the Kennedy Space Centre. Boeing/MDC talks raise pressure for Airbus rethink KEVIN O'TOOLE/LONDON GUY NORRIS/LOS ANGELES R EPORTS THAT Boeing and Mc Donnell Douglas are exploring options for a mega-merger have raised pressure on the Airbus partners to accel erate their own sluggish restructuring efforts. The Boeing-MDC talks came to light in a report in the Wall Street Journal on the 16 November. Negotiations appear to be at a prelimi nary stage, with no signs yet of whether they will result in a full blown merger or stop at a more limited asset swap. A full merger would create a powerful $35 million grouping, dwarfing even the largest of the new US giants which have emerged from the latest round of consolida tion. It would face a tough fight to get a deal past US anti-trust rules. Although a merger of the civil businesses would technically give the new group a dominant share of the world jet-airliner market, it is difficult to see how the two com peting ranges could continue to be run alongside each other for long. One possibility is for MDC to concentrate on die lower-capacity Boeing's civil business already dwarfs that of MDC regional-aircraft sectors, while dropping its other products. The potential for major rationali sation would help add to Boeing's plans to slash aircraft production costs, lead times and purchase prices. The threat of such competition is already focusing minds within Europe on the issue of how to reform the Airbus consortium structure. Calls from the German and UK partners, now increasingly backed by pressure at Government level, are for a commercial holding- company structure free to take greater control of its costs. Sources close to the negotiations suggest that moves have so far been blocked by French hesitance over any change to the existing regime, but there are signals that France, too, considers change as inevitable. Boeing has a clear lead in civil markets, and is more likely to be inter ested in getting its hands on MDC's valuable mili tary business to sit along side its own relatively small defence business. If Boeing's fighter busi ness, created to develop its one-third share in the F-22 with Lockheed Martin, were absorbed by die much larger MDC operation, the new grouping would hold half of die F-18 production and, poten tially, two-thirds of the Joint Strike Fighter (based on die current team ing arrangements). A more straightforward link could be forged on helicopters, where Boeing's CH-47 Chinook offering would fit wellwith the MDC AH-64 Apache and Explorer. Boeing signalled a desire to rationalise the helicopter sector earlier this year, when it opened merger talks with Bell Helicopter Textron — its partner on the V-22. The only major conflict between Boeing and MDC's space businesses would be on Space Station Alpha for which Boeing is prime contractor and MDC a major subcontractor.Q SIA goes for 777 with Rolls-Royce powerplants S INGAPORE AIRLINES (SIA) has placed an order for 34 Boeing 777s, with options on an additional 43 aircraft. Deliveries will run from 1997 to 2004. The $12.7 billion deal includes spares and the selection of Rolls-Royce Trent 800-series engines. The selection of R-R was the biggest surprise — die UK engine builder having come off second- best in most of the big 777 engine competitions to date. R-R claims that the engine order is worth £1.2 billion, if the options are taken up. This is based on a standard list-price, however, and fails to take account of the sizeable discounts required to secure most large engine orders in today's mar ket. The deal includes spares equivalent to 30 engines. The airline's 23 Airbus A310s now in service will be phased out as the 777s become operational. SIA plans to finance the purchase from its own cash flow and reserves. The order is based on the 7,600km (4,100nm) range, 300-seat 777- 200B, but permits SIA to switch to other types of die 777 family as diey appear on the market. Of particular interest to SIA is the stretched version — the 3 50- seat 777-300 — which could re place the Boeing 747-400 on some Asia-Pacific sectors. The 15,700km range 777-100, on the other hand, could be employed on transpacific routes and a lower-gross- weight version of the -100 could also figure for some of the airline's regional routes — although SIA hints tthat here may be another competition for "one other smaller-capacity aircraft type". As it has done before, SIA may put some of its 777 options into a future competition. The order includes six aircraft and ten options for the Singapore Aircraft Leasing Enterprise in which SIA has a 50 % interest, but no decision has been made on pow erplants for these aircraft. • See Air Transport Analysis, PI6. 4 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 22 - 28 November 1995
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
