FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1998
1998 - 2794.PDF
_ HEADLINES Airbus may move wing production to China China is a major A 320 market and could become involved in production response has offered China pro duction of the 717 wing to supple ment its existing supplier I Ivundai. The offer to establish a second A320 wing line in China is under stood to be closely associated with Chris Geoghegan, former head of British Aerospace Airbus and one of three recently appointed strate gic advisors to Airbus chief execu tive Noel Forgeard. Airbus' 20% partner BAe is the sole supplier of wings for all Airbus aircraft. Airbus Industrie confirms that talks about joint manufacturing with China are under way. "We are in discussions with AVIC and the Chinese industry to explore co operation possibilities about joint manufacturing of Airbus aircraft," it says. It is thought the wing proposal was related to the visit of two AVIC and Civil Aviation Administration of China delegations to BAe's Filton and Chester plants in the UK last month. Forgeard more recently joined French prime min ister Lionel Jospin on a visit to China, while a large UK aerospace delegation will accompany UK prime minister Tony Blair on his trip to Beijing later this month. BAe's apparent willingness to Philippine Airlines reprieved by union deal PAUL LEWIS/SINGAPORE A 1RBUS INDUSTRIE is XAproposing to transfer part of its A320 aircraft series wing produc tion to China, in a move intended to compensate for the recent demise of the Sino-European AE31X regional jet programme and to counter a similar offer of 717 wing work from Boeing. The European consortium has been reviewing a range of manu facture options with Aviation Industries of China (AVIC), fol lowing the scrapping of the pro posed AE3IX joint development. Airbus has acknowledged that the focus of talks is not on a new air craft, but about the transfer of tech nology from existing programmes to assist Chinese industry. The "unanimous decision" to abandon the AE31X in favour of the A318 has upset Beijing, say Chinese insiders, despite public statements to the contrary. This and the subsequent termination of the Boeing MD-90 TrunkLiner project has thrown the future of AVIC's Xian and Shanghai plants into uncertainty. Boeing in NEWS IN BRIEF • AOM SALE PROGRESSES The first phase in the sale of France's largest independent airline AOM was completed on 2 October, with the receipt by major shareholder Credit Lyonnais of bids from interested purchasers. Sever al European airlines are known to have been invited to tender for the carrier, including Air France, British Airways, Iberia, Lufthansa, and the SAir Group (owner of Swissair). Corsair is also thought to have tendered. The initial bids will take the form of a "statement of inter est", possibly accompanied by a preliminary financial offer. These will then be open to further competitive ten ders leading to a final offer and a decision "by late December", say sources. GROUNDED Philippine Airlines (PAL) has won a reprieve from a final shutdown, fol lowing a "yes" vote by ground staff to accept a government-brokered last-ditch deal to revive the ailing carrier financially. The 6,500-strong PAL Employees Association voted on 2 October by a two-to-one margin to accept the deal reached with the airline's management five days ear lier. The result reverses an earlier union vote to reject the labour agreement which resulted in PAL's chairman and 67% owner, Lucio Tan, closing the airline on 23 September. PAL plans to resume limited domestic services from 7 October, operating to 14 destinations from .Manila. It initially intends to put nine of its former 54-strong fleet of aircraft back into service on that date, comprising three Airbus A330-300s, two A320s and four Boeing 737-300s. "The resump tion of international services is now being reviewed," says PAL. The move could spell an early end to Cathay Pacific Airways and its sister carrier Dragonair operat ing on Philippine domestic routes. Under a 30-day wet lease agree ment with the state-run Philip pines National Bank Holdings, Cathay Pacific has been operating six daily return flights from Manila to Davao and Cebu since 28 September, using A330s, while Dragonair added three daily A320 flights to Bacolod and Cagayan de Oro from 1 October. Cathay's parent Swire is one five foreign parties named by PAL as being interested in investing in part or all of the the carrier. The others include EVA Airways of Taiwan, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines and Northwest Airlines. With PAL's debts close to matching its $2.1 billion worth of make AVIC a second A3 20 wing supplier is believed to be linked to the IK manufacturer's manoeuv ring to play a larger role in the planned new Airbus single corpo rate entity. The UK, furthermore, is keen to curry favour with Beijing, having taken the lead in a push to sell the new Rolls-Royce Trent 500-pow- ered A340-500/600 to Chinese carriers. Linked to the China offer is the need for Airbus'partners to expand their production capacity, with air craft deliveries this year set to increase by 30% to 234 jets and by a further 20% to 285 in 1999. With the addition of the new 107-seat A318, the European consortium says production of the single-aisle A320 family could climb to 24 air craft a month by 2002. The offer of A320 wing produc tion to China is likely to raise more than a few eyebrows, particularly given the sensitivity of wing tech nology. One Airbus source, howev er, sought to allay such fears, noting, "...it's one thing getting them to manufacture the wing, it's quite another to get them to design it." J assets, the airline is in urgent need of finance. Ahead of the employees' vote, Tan asked up to 100 senior man agers to tender resignation letters to ".. .give prospective investors in PAL a free hand in organising a new team". Philippine law caps for eign ownership at 40%, while Tan and the government have both agreed to give employees a 20% share and four seats on the board in return for a suspension of collective pay bargaining. The challenge is now to restruc ture the airline and its 8,700 remaining staff before the Security and Exchange Commission lifts its protection from creditors on 20 November. Some 16 lessors have filed to take possession of 24 PAL aircraft, while two 747-400s have already been seized by the Exim bank and the first of eight leased A340s and A300B4s have been returned to Airbus. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 7 - 13 October 1998
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
