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Aviation History
1997
1997 - 0070.PDF
BUSINESS NEWS IN BRIEF • AIR 21 CEASES SERVICES US start-up Air 21, based in Fresno, California, has ceased all scheduled services through to 15 January, and is due to file for bankruptcy. The airline's chairman, Mark Morro, had stepped down in December as discussions (which subsequently failed) were being held with Pacific Southwest Airlines on a pos sible take-over. Air 21 began operations in late 1995 with a small fleet of Fokker F28s which had been leased from USAir. • BUFFET COMPLETES FSI... Berkshire Hathaway, the investment firm headed by financier Warren Buffet, has completed its acquisition of FlightSafety International (FSI) after winning approval from a majority of the US safety organisation's share holders. The acquisition, which is valued at $1.5 bil lion, is being made with a mix of cash and Berkshire shares (Flight International 23-29 October). • ...BARLOW BUILDS CCAIR Investment group Barlow Partners reveals that it has built up a 6.6% stake in grow ing USAir Express carrier CCAIR. The regional airline says it welcomes the move and expects to offer a seat on its board to Barlow. Gentian industry sees growth KEVIN O'TOOLE/LONDON GERMANY'S beleaguered aerospace business is showing its first signs of growth for five years, according to the year-end report from the BDLI industry association. The "cautious opti mism" comes, however, with warnings on the need for greater European integration and the need to fight military-spending cuts. German aerospace sales have plummeted from the peak in 1991 when they came close to DM27 billion ($18 billion). By the end of 1995, sales were at their lowest point in more than a decade, at DM15 billion. Early estimates for 1996, however, suggest that indus try sales grew by around 8-10%, largely following the recovery in civil-aircraft markets. The industry is expected to regain more ground this year, tak ing sales back above DM 18 billion, says BDLI managing director Hans Eberhard Birke. Despite the expected growth, the workforce, which has fallen by one-third since 1990, will continue to decline. Employment ended 1995 at only 63,330 people — its lowest for more than 15 years — with the industry in the middle of shedding another 6,000 by the end of 1997. Birke says that there is hope for a "gradual increase in jobs" from 1998 onwards, provided that mar kets for commercial-aircraft remain buoyant. Military-aircraft production has suffered the worst job cuts, with employment falling from as many as 50,000 down to less than 18,000. Germany's overall defence-indus try employment has halved to H0,000 since 1991, following severe military-spending cuts. The BDLI warns that "...fur ther substantial programme reduc tions would be fatal", jeopardising Germany's ability to maintain key defence capabilities, especially in the second tier of equipment manufacturers. It goes on to cau tion that Ger many's hand in negotiating posi tions on future international ven tures would be "profoundly weak ened" by such cuts. The association also stresses the need for urgent restructuring of Europe's civil-air craft industry, bas ed around Airbus Industrie. Birke argues that the talks now taking place on turning Airbus into a stand-alone com pany should lead to "the full integra tion of its partners' capabilities from concept design to final assembly", a move the French have resisted. He adds that the partners would become sharehold ers on the new company's board and "...must have exactly those voting rights which correspond to their share in the company". That would give Daimler-Benz Aero space an equal voice to that of Aerospatiale, potentially challeng ing French dominance within the consortium. The BDLI also sug gests that, in the future, Airbus could be the model for European combat-aircraft production. • •rid:iAM!lil: 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996e 1997f |tHM'!il: Civil aviation ii'iMAM*?-!!:** Sales (DM ml 18.194 20,813 20.879 23,212 24,624 25,372 26,768 21,952 18,630 16,808 15,357 16,739 18.245 tiiWJ.WJIJIill Sales (DM m) 7,866 Military aviation 5.065 Space Total Civil aviation 2,425 15,357 Employment 31,094 Military aviation 17,752 Space Apprentices Total 5,177 9.312 63,335 !lili.Vi]:J!Mi!.U:ll:!:!.-M Workforce 79,832 85,021 86,573 93,561 94,456 95,042 86,299 78,501 72,895 67,965 63,335 60,335 57,335 am 95/94 change -5.9% -22.7% 28.1% -8.6% 95/94 change -6.7% -14.7% 3.5% 5.3% -6.8% Source: BDLI South Korea calls off Samsung's proposed rescue of Fokker THE SOUTH KOREAN Government is understood to have given formal notice that the Samsung Aerospace bid to rescue Fokker has been abandoned. Administrators of the bankrupt Netherlands aircraft manufacturer announced at the end of 1996 that Samsung's latest rescue plan had run out of time following the announcement by UK manufac turer Short Brothers that it would no longer build wings for Fokker regional jets (Flight International, 4-10 December, 1996). The administrators said at the time that they would still continue looking for a buyer and that Samsung could submit a fresh busi ness plan, but the South Korean Government now appears to have ruled out that option. Samsung's bid met delays after being submitted for approval to the South Korean Government, which has had a long-standing ambition to set up production of 100-seater regional jets in the country. Sam sung would have led a consortium of other South Korean industrial giants, including Daewoo and Hyundai, in the rescue. Russian design bureau Yakovlev says that it is still in the running to rescue Fokker, although those close to the fortunes of the Dutch company say that no detailed plans or funding options have yet been submitted. A series of Dutch entrepreneurs has also been linked with potential Fokker res cues, but no firm proposals have yet emerged. The administrators admit that the chances of resurrecting the company are now "extremely small", with a critical deadline looming as the final handful of air craft is completed early this year, leaving the assembly lines idle. Shorts has already dismantled its wing production line, and although president Roy McNulty says that the company would be willing to help move the operation to another manufacturer, he admits that such a solution would add to the costs of a rescue, which have already risen by tens of millions of dollars because of the delays. • 16 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 8 - 14 January 1997
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