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Aviation History
1996
1996 - 1652.PDF
'* l) ZJ hi si ZJ zJ NEWS IN BRIEF • REPRIEVE FOR RYBINSK... Russia's privatisation com mittee has been ordered to cancel the auction of a 37% stake in Rybinsk Motors. The cancellation marks a victory for the plant's management, which has been fighting the privatisation for two years through the courts. Man agers have argued that the plant should be included on the list of companies deemed important to national security which are protected from pri vatisation. The defence min istry, which has also opposed the share sale, says that the company will now be listed. • ...BUT NOT SARATOV Unpaid workers at Russia's Saratov Aircraft Production plant have demanded an in vestigation into the crisis-hit company, which builds Yak- ovlev Yak-42 airliners. The governor of the Saratov re gion has responded with a promise to set up an audit commission to report on whether the plant is still viable. Yak-42 production has dwindled to only two or three a year and salaries have not been paid for three months. The plant is itself still owed $14 million from the Ros- voorousheiye arms agency. • PHI EXPANDS Petroleum Helicopters (PHI) has acquired half of Clinton- dale Aviation, a New York- based charter transport com pany with which it is already linked through a joint venture in the former USSR. Since early 1995, both firms have operated a joint venture in the region and PHI says that the acquisition will further help it to expand operations. • TAM BUYS HELISUL Brazilian carrier TAM has acquired regional operator Helisul for R$2 million ($2.2 million). Helisul's five-air craft fleet will be incorporat ed into TAM's Brasil Central subsidiary. rive bokkers sold, this one to Alpi Eagles, andjive to go as BAe Asset Management jorges ahead I y BAe looks to cash in on jets KEVIN O'TOOLE/LONDON BRITISH AEROSPACE'S jet-aircraft leasing arm has an nounced the sale of another three ex-Swissair Fokker 100s, and says that it plans to take advantage of the market upturn to begin selling down more of its fleet of BAe 146 regional jets. BAe Asset Management-Jets (AMJ), as the leasing business has been renamed, took on ten Fokker 100s as part of the deal to sell new Avro RJs to Swissair. Two of the aircraft were sold at the end of January, but Fokker's subsequent bankruptcy raised fears over the prospect for further sales, admits AMJ general manager An drew Davies. He adds that it has now become clear that the bank ruptcy has had little effect. The latest sale is to Alpi Eagles, a new entrant in Italy's liberalised regional-airline sector. The first aircraft has already entered service, being flown on routes from the prosperous north-east of the coun try and Rome. Davies argues that the sales are evidence of AMJ's increasing suc cess in selling aircraft. "We're pret ty aggressive, and we're going to take advantage of the hardening in the market," he says. AMJ is also looking to realise cash on some of the 106-strong fleet of BAe 146s, all which are now in service. A handful has already been sold, including one to Manx Airlines earlier this year. Davies believes that, with firmer lease rates and longer-term com mitments of five years or more, the economics of purchasing over leas ing begin to become persuasive. The second prong of the strategy is to move aircraft away from small er start-up carriers, which Davies says is designed to create a stronger, more secure, lease portfolio going into the next downturn. AMJ acknowledges that aircraft are un likely to sit in the fleets of the major carriers, but has been increasing its presence within the regional affili ates which come under their umbrella. The company has just an nounced the lease of five aircraft to Qantas to serve with the carrier's regional subsidiaries, Airlink and Southern Australia Airlines. Aer Lingus also took its fourth BAe 146-300 in June. The stability of the fleet now means that AMJ has only around five or six aircraft a year coming back off lease, although Davies expects to play an as-yet-undefined role in managing new RJ aircraft as they come off lease. He gives the example of another eight BAe 146s due to come back from Sabena at the start of 1997 as the carrier, like its partner Swissair, standardises on RJs. • IFE market starts to come right for BEA BE AEROSPACE (BEA) claims that the long-awaited upturn in its fortunes is at last in sight, after returning a modest $1.4 million profit for the first quarter — the group's best quarterly performance in two years. Ayear ago, the cabin-equipment group had posted a loss of $33 mil lion as it battled with depressed refurbishment markets and delays in deliveries of its MDDS interac tive inflight-entertainment (IFE) systems. Development spending on the system has now begun to fall while cost-cutting has also begun to feed through. Chairman Amin Khoury identi fies a clear "step up" in airline spending on aircraft, refurbish ment and new IFE equipment. He adds that BEA ended its first quar ter to May with a record backlog of $475 million. Sales almost doubled, to $97 mil lion, helped by the recent acquisi tion of Burns Aerospace. The underlying rise was around 27%, without Burns. BEA should receive another sales boost later this year as deliveries begin to British Airways. Meanwhile, Interactive Flight Technologies (IFT), the latest arrival in the IFE market has reported its first-ever revenues, totalling $1.6 million. These came in the second quarter to the end of April, with the acceptance of the contract with Alitalia. The cost of research and devel opment on the digital interactive system is continuing to outweigh sales, however, leaving IFT show ing a deficit. IFT has since signed up Debonair, Oasis Airlines and Swissair. "We are in various stages of negotiation with several inter national and domestic carriers," says Michail Itkis, IFT's chief executive. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 3 - 9 July 1996
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