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Aviation History
1996
1996 - 0015.PDF
U U' £j J 'JSJ' JE'£> £> Condor adds more travel agencies CONDOR FLUGDIENST, Lufthansa's charter subsidiary, is to add to its growing portfolio of interests in tour operators, with a decision to take stakes in two more travel agencies. Condor will acquire all of Diisseldorf-based Fischer Reisen in 1996, and is taking a 10% stake in Hamburg-based Oger Tours, Germany's top agent for travel to Turkey. It has also received super visory board approval to increase its stake in Turkish airline Sun- Express, from 40% to 49%. The latest investment in tour operators follows the 1995 acquisi tion of a 37.5% share in Kreutzer Touristik and a 30% stake in Alpha holding, with its subsidiary Air Marin Flugreisen. The acquisitions are part of broader moves towards consolida tion of Europe's growing holiday market. Condor expects to show a 6.2% increase in passenger volume for 1995, taking the total to 6 mil lion. Sales are forecast to rise by a similar amount, to reach a record DM2 billion ($1.4 billion). • Study shows cost of El Al Sabbath EL AL COULD HAVE MADE a profit of around $50 million in 1995, if the Israeli airline had been allowed to operate seven days a week, including Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath. The conclusion comes from a two-month-long study on the air line completed by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in the run-up to the airline's planned pri vatisation. BCG concludes that El Al's 1996 market value is likely to be around $385 million, but could be $507- 527 million if the airline were allowed to operate seven days a week. An analysis of airline perfor mance suggests that El Al could have improved its profits by $34-38 millionin 1994 if the ban had been lifted. The airline, in fact, returned a profit of $14 million, with a simi lar return expected for 1995. • Boeing to raise output as markets begin to stir KEVIN OTOOLE/LONDON BOEING IS TO raise aircraft production rates towards the end of 1996 in a move which the company says reflects the begin nings of an upswing in aircraft demand, as well as efforts to catch up from the ten-week strike. Production is expected to recov er to pre-strike levels during the first quarter of 1996, but Boeing faces a backlog of more than 50 air craft delayed by the action. The company says that it will now begin to raise production rates to help make up the shortfall over 1996. Output had been due to fall to a trough of only 210 aircraft in the year, but with the adjustments, Seattle now looks like producing closer to 250, provided that full production is restored quickly. The most significant rate adjust ment is for the 737. Boeing had envisaged reducing output from seven to five aircraft a month from April, as production of the existing models is wound down in favour of the new-generation series. Instead, Boeing will now raise monthly production to 8.5 aircraft in the fourth quarter. Also in the final quarter, Boeing will raise 747 production from two to 3.5 a month and lift the 767 rate from 3.5 to four. Production rates for the 757 will still go down from Seattle will begin to get busy again towards the end of 1996 four to three aircraft as planned, but the change will be delayed until September, rather than be imple mented in June as originally announced. Output of the 777 will continue to climb to 3.5 aircraft a month in the second half of the year, on the way to a steady production rate of five a month early in 1997. "This is a positive sign to see the beginning of an upswing in pro duction rates," says Ron Woodard, president of Boeing Commercial Airplane Group, adding that it reflects a gathering recovery among airline customers. By mid-December, Boeing had a tally of 2 5 5 new orders for the year, worth almost $18 billion. That is more than double the 120 orders secured in 1994 and well ahead of Airbus and McDonnell Douglas. Boeing says that discussions continue with customers over rescheduling deliveries hit by the strike, and promises to announce a full 1996 production forecast this month. Boeing adds that it will also then reveal "any impact" that the production adjustments may have on employment. • Hamilton Standard signs with Russian firm HAMILTON STANDARD has signed a joint venture with Nauka, a Russian designer and manufacturer of environmen tal-control systems (ECS). The joint company, announced in Moscow at the end of November, is already set up for Westernised production of ECS units. The venture employs 3 5 work ers, but there are plans to expand its operations in the five-storey building which it occupies in Moscow. Hamilton Standard invested $2 million of its own money in the project, with another $15.5 million provided by the OPIC finance group and $1 mil lion from US defence conversion funds. Hamilton-Standard will take a controlling 51% of the venture, adding to the extensive Russian interests of its parent United Technologies in aero-engines, ele vators and air-conditioning systems. The joint venture delivered its first two ECS units for certification tests on the TupolevTu-204, which is expected to be completed by March. It intends to offer its ECS systems for all major commercial aircraft in development in the CIS, including the Tupolev Tu-334, Antonov An-70, Ilyushin 11-96 and 11-114. The new venture faces competi tion from the Teploobmennik plant in Nizhny Novgorod which is discussing the possibility of assembling ECS units in Russia in collaboration with AlliedSignal. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 3 - 9 January 1996 13
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