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Aviation History
1997
1997 - 3296.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT Asiana defers 777-200/300 deliveries PAUL LEWIS/SINGAPORE ASIANA AIRLINES is to defer delivery of its first Boeing 777 on order because of South Korea's worsening eco nomic difficulties, and will instead acquire additional 767-3OOERs and 747-400 freighters. The airline is planning to push back deliveries of its first 777- 2 00/3 00s by up to two years, say local sources. Asiana has already traded one 777-200 and a -300 deliver)'position for a 767 and 747- 400F respectively. It is now dis cussing taking four more smaller - 300ERs instead of 777s. Asiana officials acknowledge that fleet plans are under review, but will only confirm that the first 777-200 on order, originally in tended for delivery at the end of 1998 to mark the carrier's tenth anniversary, has been substituted for a 767. Delivery of another 747- 400F has also been delayed, but in this case because of production hold-ups at Boeing. The airline only recently received final approval to order an initial three 777-200IGWs and two -300s, along widi two 767- 300s, a single 747-400F and six Airbus Industrie A330-200/300s (Flight International, 3-9 Septem ber). Plans called for a second tranche often 777s, two 747-400Fs and 12 A330s to be delivered between 2001-05. Airbus deliveries remain on schedule, with the first A330-200 and -300 due for delivery in 1999. Asiana had earlier asked the European consortium to swap an A3 30 delivery position for two additional A32 Is, but with no suc cess. It is also due to receive the first of 18 recently ordered A321 s early next year. The airline says that it will also proceed with delivery of two leased 777-200s in October 1999 and May 2000. It reached agreement with International Lease Finance earlier in the year to take die two aircraft on a nine-year lease, and says that these are separate from the 15 777-200/300s it originally intended to order. • NEWS IN BRIEF • UK NOISE CURB ATTEMPT The UK Government has launched another attempt to reduce the noise limits at London's Heathrow, Gat- wick and Stansted airports to below international stan dards. The new proposals would lower the current lim its of 97dBA (day) and 89dBA (night) to 94dBA and 87dBA, although "Stage 2" aircraft approved for gradual phasing out by the European Commission would still be exempt, as would the BAC/ Aerospatiale Concorde. A court injunction prevented the previous proposals being imposed in December 1996. • EASYJET LOOK AT HUDS Easyjet is considering fitting the 12 Boeing 73 7-300s it has on order with head-up dis plays (HUDs), which would allow them to be operated in Category Ilia conditions from runways equipped only for Category I. The aircraft will be equipped with en hanced ground-proximity warning systems and will probably have Airborne Communications-Addres sing and Reporting Systems, says Reed Aerospace's on line service, Air Transport Intelligence. The airline would be the first in the UK to operate with a HUD sys tem in regular service. Braathens settles into KLM alliance IAN SHEPPARD/OSLO BRAATHENS SAFE has entered into a co-operation agreement with Northwest Air lines, strengthening its alliance with KLM and allowing it to link its Scandinavian routes to the US carrier's Detroit and Minneapolis hubs through Amsterdam's Schiphol and London Gatwick. Anders Fougli, Braathens direc tor of planning, says that the airline will probably operate some of KLM's existing routes to Scandinavia, with the Oslo and Amsterdam frequencies likely to increase from four to "six or seven" flights a day. He adds that prospects with other KLM-partner airlines, such as Air UK and Kenya Airways, are "exciting". Northwest Airlines is also looking at direct flights to Oslo's new Gardermoen Airport when it opens in October 1998. Meanwhile, Braathens, which has 51 % of the Norwegian domes- Braathens^all-"'31fleet will soon be canying Northwest passengers tic market, faces new threats fol lowing the SAS acquisition of a 29% stake in local rival Wideroe from Fred Olsen. It has an option to purchase his remaining 34.2% share. The SAS move was sparked by concern that Braathens, which has an 18% stake in Widerae, would move to acquire a control ling share in the carrier. • The Norwegian Government is considering a new environmental tax on airline seats into the country from 1 April, 1998. The proposal would costNKrl42 ($20) for every seat operated into Norway, even if empty, and NKr71 for domestic seats. Gardermoen's traffic-devel opment manager, Knut Stabaek, says that starting on a new route with the typical 30-35% load fac tor would prove "dramatically expensive...forcing airlines to use smaller aircraft". J Airtours International closes on order for A330-200 AIRTOURS International is believed to have selected the Airbus A3 3 0-2 00 for its long-haul fleet needs, and is in negotiations on an order for up to three aircraft. The UK charter airline, based in Manchester, has been evaluating the Airbus long-haul twinjet, along with the Boeing 777-200IGW (increased gross weight), to oper ate services now flown by the air line's fleet of three Boeing 767-300ERs (flight International 15-21 October). Airtours is unavailable for comment. Airtours also operates ten Airbus A320s and seven Boeing 757-200s. Flightdeck commonality between the A320 and A330 will enable crews to be requalified on to the new- aircraft, and also to be rated to fly both simultaneously. Talks are under way with Airbus and Inter national Lease Finance about the introduction of two to three A3 30- 200s by early 1999. Meanwhile, die airline also wants additional widebody capacity from late 1998, and is seekingxMcDonnell Douglas DC-10-30s on five-year leases. It is not clear whether the DC-10s are being sought for opera tion by Airtours itself, or if they will be transferred to Danish sister com pany, Premiair, which already flies five DC-10s. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 3 - 9 December 1997
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