FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1998
1998 - 0806.PDF
MARKETPLACE ++ Tower Air will wet-lease two Boeing 747-100 freighters to Chilean cargo airline Fast Air Cargo for one year. Fast Air oper ates three McDonnell Douglas DC- 8-73s on services within Latin America and to the USA. ++ Willis Lease Finance has committed to purchase 12 Boeing 747-lOOs and spare engines from United Airlines, which it plans to break for spares for onward sale or lease. The 25-28 year old aircraft are equipped with Pratt & Whitney JT9D-7A engines. Willis expects that some will be suitable for its operating lease portfolio. ++ Colombia's state-owned regional carrierSATENAtookdeliveryoftwo additional Fairchild Domier 328- 120 turboprops in mid-March. A sixth is scheduled for delivery in early June. SATENA introduced its first three 32-seat 328s in December 1996, replacing older HS 748s and CASA 212s, to take over some routes operated by Fokker F28 jets. ++ GB Airways has introduced two Boeing 737- 300s delivered directly from Boeing, which represents its first major investment in aircraft owner ship. A third 737-300 has also just been delivered on lease. ++ Kellstrom Industries of Sunrise, Florida, has taken delivery of an ex- Trans World Airlines, 1970-build Boeing 747-100 for dismantling, in a deal arranged by Fortis Aviation. ++ Sabena has con firmed its commitments for 34 Airbus A320 family aircraft, with deliveries starting in early 1999. CFM International CFM56-5 en gines were selected for the aircraft in February. Sabena also ordered two more Pratt & Whitney PW4000- powered A330-200s. ++ L'Aero- postale is to acquire three ex-Olympic Airways Airbus A300B4s on lease from Aircargo Capital. The aircraft will be con verted to freighters by Sogerma between September 1998 and early 1999. ++ Tunisian regional carrier Tuninter has added an ex- Bouraq Indonesia Boeing 737-200, on lease from Indigo Aviation. Three MDC DC-9-30s and two AI(R) ATR 72s are now operated. Italy's Eurof ly seeks 767s as it aims for long haul expansion MARCO BONELLI/ROME ITALIAN CHARTER airline Eurofly, controlled 45% by Alitalia, has revealed plans to intro duce long haul services, beginning by the end of this year. The carrier is seeking at least two Boeing 767-300ERs, which could be purchased by Alitalia, in addition to the three leased 767s taken on board for its low cost Alitalia Team subsidiary. Eurofly already operates short and medium haul flights with four leased Boeing MD-83s and two owned DC-9-50s and wants to add a fifth MD-83 to its medium range fleet. Since October 1997 it has been operating scheduled domes tic and East European routes on the Alitalia network under a wet- lease arrangement, and has already expressed interest in taking on some of Alitalia's scheduled European Union routes that have been released as part of the European Commissions (EC's) conditions for state aid. Competitors are concerned that the new 767s may be used to get around the EC's restrictions on Alitalia's capacity-growth .especial ly on the potentially busy hub at Milan Malpensa, where all Milanese traffic will be concentrat ed from 26 October. The EC agreement does, however, also put a limit on growth by Alitalia's sub sidiaries and associates as well as on the mainline airline. Meanwhile, Alitalia is believed to be looking to build up its region al fleet with at least 15 aircraft in the 70-100 seat range. The airline says that neither the Aero International (Regional) Avro RJ family nor the Boeing 717-200 entirely meet its requirements, although Boeing is known to have provided outline details of its 100-seater. Rekkof Restart, which is attempting to relaunch the Fokker 70/100, is also understood to have made a proposal. The Italian carrier originally selected the Eokker 70 for its short haul needs, signing a contract for 15 aircraft in 1995. Alitalia can celled the order after just five air craft had been delivered and disposed of the fleet, as a result of Fokker's shut down. • Armenian begins fleet renewal with Airbus A310 ARMENIAN Airlines has begun the first phase of its fleet modernisation with a deal to lease a secondhand A310-200, which it expects to be the start of move to a large Airbus fleet. The deal, which represents Armenia's acquisition of its first Western-built aircraft, will see a Pratt & WhitneyJT9D-7R4-pow- ered A310-200 introduced in the middle of this year. The airline has an option to buy the aircraft as part of the lease deal, and plans to operate 10 Airbus air craft by 2005. Armenia's national airline will use the 194-seat A310 on services from its Yerevan base to points within Europe and the CIS, replac ing ex-Soviet-built aircraft. Destinations in its expanding European network include Amsterdam, London, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Paris and Sofia. The air line is also evaluating long haul ser vices to Asia and North America. The carrier's existing fleet includes two vvidebody Ilyushin II- 86s as well as some 16 TupolevTu- 134 and Tu-154 narrowbodies. Armenian's managing director Tigran Achoyan expects that the A310 will offer fuel savings of 3 5% over the current aircraft, and will replace "three or four" of them. The move to a Western fleet could also see the introduction of single-aisle Airbus aircraft, which Armenian has been evaluating together with the Boeing 737, to replace its Tupolevs. • Burbank Stage 3 hushkit for Boeing 707 nears approval BURBANK Aeronautical (BAC) has started the final flight tests of its BAC II Stage 3 hushkit, fitted to the Pratt & WhitneyjT3D-3B engines of a Boeing 707-300. Certification is expected in May. The hushk it has been shown to attenuate by 30dB the noise of a Stage 1 aircraft, and by 15dB the signa ture of a Stage 2, JT3D-7 pow ered aircraft. BAC claims that the BAC II eliminates the in creased fuel consumption ex perienced with older hushkits. 14 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 1 - 7 April 1998
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
