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Aviation History
1998
1998 - 0012.PDF
A9R TRANSPORT MARKETPLACE ++ Air Macau has placed its first direct aircraft-purchase order with the signature of a contract with Airbus Industrie for one Inter national Aero Engines V2500-pow- ered A321-200, which will be delivered in November. ++ Olympic Airways has signed a contract for two additional Airbus A340-300s, plus two options, to add to the two similar aircraft that the Greek flag carrier ordered in August 1997. The newly ordered aircraft will be delivered in 1999. ++ Boeing has confirmed Luft hansa's $825 million order for five additional General Electric CF6- 80C2-powered 747-400s, which was approved by the airline's board in December 1997. Deliveries will be made between 2000 and 2002. ++ City Bird has placed an order for a second Boeing MD-11, powered by Pratt & Whitney PW4000s, for delivery in April. ++ UK-based freight special ist Ocean Airways is to lease a Lockheed L-1011-200 freighter from Chartavia from February. The freighter will be operated on air craft, crew, maintenance and insur ance contracts for other carriers. ++ South African company Valitrade has purchased the eight remaining Fokker F27 Troopships from the Royal Netherlands Air Force, and will use them to set up a cargo and passenger operation in southern Africa. ++ Ansett Worldwide Aviation Services has leased a Pratt & Whitney PW4158-powered Airbus A300- 600R, which was previously with Garuda Indonesia, to the Nigerian airline Bellview. The lessor has also placed a third A300-600R with Qatar Airways. ++ East wind Airlines, a new US entrant, has leased a third Boeing 737-200 from CIS Air for delivery in February. The aircraft will be used prior to delivery of two New Generation 737-700 aircraft sched uled to arrive in April and June. ++ Garuda Indonesia has renewed its seasonal wet-lease of a World Airways Boeing MD-11 between March and May 1998. The aircraft will be used for transporting pil grims to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. First Boeing 737-600 is rolled out at Renton BOEING ROLLED OUT THE FIRST 737-600 at its Renton, Washington, factory in December 1997. The aircraft, which is the smallest member of the Next Generation 737 family, is the first of three 737-600s which will be involved in the flight-test and certification programme. Delivery to launch customer SAS is scheduled for September. Proteus bolsters Beech 1900 fleet for franchise operations JULIAN MOXON/PARIS PROTEUS AIRLINES is set to more than double the size of its Raytheon Beech 1900 fleet with a $50 million order for ten 20-seat 1900Ds. The airline has also taken options on a further ten aircraft. The French regional carrier already has eight 1900s in service, including six 1900Cs and two 1900Ds, making it Europe's largest operator of the type. Deliveries of the new aircraft have begun, and will continue through to the third quarter of 1998. The airline oper ates the 1900s from its St-Etienne base to cities including Bordeaux, Lille, Nantes, Nice, Toulouse and Strasbourg. Exercising the 1900 options will, says Proteus president Franklin Devreux, depend on the develop ment of the carrier's franchise agreement with Air France and on its relationship with Delta Air Lines, which took a 34% stake in Proteus in November. "If our strat egy corresponds to a need for more 20-seaters, we will take the extra aircraft," he says. Proteus is the launch customer for the new Fairchild Dornier 328JET, which it plans to put into service in early 1999. Devreux says that he is "still looking closely" at the planned 45- and 70-seat deriv atives of the 328JET, "...but we'll have to see how things develop". The airline saw its business triple in 1997, with 2 20,000 passengers car ried on its own routes and a further unspecified number under the Air France franchise, to which it now dedicates three aircraft. Devreux says that the deal with Delta is unconnected directly with die proposed Air France/Delta tie- up. "It is part of our strategy of forging alliances with foreign air lines", he says. Operational plan ning with Delta will begin this month and take around 18 months, he adds. "At present, our role is to provide feeder services to our part ners using 20 to 30-seat aircraft, but if the volume of business grows we'll look at other arrangements, including codesharing, and pur chasing larger aircraft". • Boeing delivery delay forces Hokkaido to defer start-up ADELAY IN the delivery of air craft has forced the Japanese start-up Hokkaido International Airlines to postpone its launch of regular services until mid-1998. The airline's first aircraft, a new Boeing 767-300ER leased from Ansett Worldwide Aviation Services, was scheduled for delivery in February but will now be up to two months late. The Sapporo-based company, also known as Air Do, had planned to start low-priced services three times weekly between Sapporo's Atami Airport and Tokyo's Haneda Airport on 25 April. The airline says that production hold-ups at Boeing, which have delayed air craft delivery until March or April, have forced it to put back the start up date to 1 July. The airline adds that the start-up is so seriously concerned about the delivery delays that its planned acquisition of a further two 767s could be scrapped, and a different type of aircraft could be acquired if it were available for delivery sooner. "It looks as if we will not get the other two 767s before 1999, which is bound to cause a serious problem for us", says Hokkaido, but adds that as this switch would significantly increase maintenance costs, it will only be taken "as a last resort". CJ FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 7 - 13 January 1998
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