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Aviation History
1996
1996 - 0014.PDF
uu^jmmmm NEWS IN BRIEF • B-2 PLANT REPRIEVE Northrop Grumman has pushed back closure of its B- 2 plant at Pico Rivera, California, by two years, to 1999, preserving some 4,000 jobs, in part because the lat est US defence budget includes $493 million added by Congress to begin pro curement for a second batch of 20 B-2 bombers. • HOWMET DEAL DONE A Thiokol/Carlyle Group joint venture has completed the $750 million acquisition of US casting specialists Howmet and Cercast Group, from France's Pechiney International. Howmet and Cercast together have annual sales of around $900 million. • MAGNOVOX ACQUIRED Hughes Electronics has com pleted the acquisition of defence-electronics specialist Magnavox Electronic Systems from the Carlyle Group for $370 million in cash. Magnavox had 1994 sales of $400 million. ValuJet offloads reservations VALUJET AIRLINES has turned its reservations system over to outside contractors in a bid to retain its competitive edge and preserve "a low-cost, low-fare niche in the industry". Some 1,000 employees — about one- third of the airline's workforce — are to be offered jobs with the out side contractors, Amlease and Foxtrot Aviation Services. Amlease, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, takes over man agement of the reservations centre at Valujet's base in Atlanta, Georgia, while Foxtrot takes on the running of a second centre in Savanna, Georgia. ValuJet plans to open a third reservations centre in the first quarter of 1996, to be managed by TAD Resources and Dakota Reservation Services. • DASA stands by ailing Fokker ANDRZEJ JEZIORSKI/MUNICH DALMLER-BENZ Aerospace (DASA) has confirmed it will continue to fund Fokker into the new year, in a move to counter growing fears that the manufactur er would be left to fend for itself unless a funding agreement was agreed with the Dutch Gov ernment before the year-end. DASA announced in a public statement on 15 December that it would continue to take responsibil ity for Fokker's liabilities as long as talks continue with the Dutch Government, calming nerves on the Amsterdam stock market. Fokker has been allowed to retain its market listing "...for the time being". The German aerospace giant had earlier agreed to guarantee Fokker's debts until the end of 1995, when a rescue plan, includ ing DM1.5 billion ($1 billion) in fresh funds, was due to have been agreed between DASA and the Dutch Government. Talks between the two major shareholders have been dead locked, however, with DASA say ing that it would not go ahead with the rescue unless die Dutch Government joined in the refi nancing, but with senior Dutch politicians expressing opposition to any further subsidies. Fokker says that it will continue in business in the new year by enter ing into commitments only "...on the basis of and within the scope of authorisations granted by DASA". DASA has recently transferred 35 Fokker-owned aircraft to its debis financing arm to help strengthen die Dutch company's Fokker will not be frozen out by DASA in 1996 balance sheet. The remaining Fokker fleet is due to be trans ferred in early 1996 Flight International, 6-12 December). Despite its financial crisis, Fokker is beginning to see signs of recovery in the regional-aircraft market. The manufacturer was expected to have ended 1995 show ing 46 new orders for its regional jets. Deliveries ran to 41 aircraft, mostly of the smaller Fokker 70, during the year. A better year was rounded off with an order from Austrian Airlines for a further three Fokker 70s in an 80-seat configuration, with three options. The new aircraft will start to join die carrier's existing fleet of four at the end of 1996. Fokker has also received an order from commuter airline Nakanihon Airline Service, for a third 56-seat Fokker 50 turboprop. • DASA itself remains embroiled in heated debates with unions and politicians over its "Dolores" (Dollar Low Rescue) restructuring plan and is considering a fresh bout of lobbying to win support from politicians and customers. The company has floated plans for an 18-man task force in Bonn to draw- up a "total aerospace strategy". • Japanese Daimler-Benz director found dead EX-DAIMLER-BENZ finance director Gerhard Liener, who raised a storm in July with the publication of a fierce attack on the company's former president Edzard Reuter, has apparently committed suicide. Liener, 63, was found dead on 14 December at his home in Bad Wiessee, Bavaria. A suicide note was also discovered. Liener's devastating broadside at Reuter, written after he quit the financial director's post — staying on initially as an advisor on international activities to Reuter's successor Jiirgen Schrempp — led to the immediate termination of his contract. The ex-finance chief wrote, among other bitter personal and professional criticisms, that Daimler's acquisition of the Dornier aircraft and electronics business was "...the most mis erable contract we have ever completed", costing DASA mas sive amounts of money Flight International, 2-8 August). • USAir predicts surprise profits for 1995 USAIR CHAIRMAN Seth Schofield says that the carri er's profits performance for 1995 is on course to exceed even the most optimistic of expectations among financial analysts. Speaking at a meeting of analysts in New York, Schofield confirmed that traffic figures have stayed strong throughout the fourth quar ter of die year, while an overall upturn in US fares has helped USAir record a 13 % rise in passen ger yields. Schofield predicts that demand and yields will remain buoyant at least through the first quarter of 1996. The optimism is in stark con trast to the gloom a year ago, when USAir appeared close to collapse, having racked up another S680 million in net losses, and with cash of only $450 million. Schofield says that he now expects to end the year with nearly $1 billion in cash and significant profits, making good on the projection made in mid-1995 that the airline would turn the corner by die year end The improvement has been helped by the shift of the carrier's international gateways to Philadelphia and Boston. The move has resulted in "significant" improvement in yields and traffic, says Schofield. • 12 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 3 - 9 January 1996
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