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Aviation History
1999
1999 - 3424.PDF
Canada 3000 was the first airline to operate the A3 30-200, flying its first services in May 1998 tsmmmMmm the most successful Airbus widebody twinjet in recent times, outselling its larger sister at the ratio of almost 3 to 1. The GE-powered version was the lead A3 3 0- 200 model, with the first example flown in August 1997. European Joint Aviation Authorities and US Federal Aviation Administration approval were received simulta neously in March last year, and the GE- powered model entered service with Canada 3000 in May of that year on lease from launch customer ILFC. The first P&W version was delivered to Austrian Airlines in August 1998, while Air Transat received the first R-R-pow- ered version on lease from ILFC last February. SWISSAIR - LARGEST FLEET Swissair took delivery of its first Pratt & Whitney PW4168A-powered A330-200 in September lastyear and is now the largest oper ator of the model, with 12 in service. The total fleet will number 16 aircraft by the second quar ter of2001. The airline selected the A3 3 0-2 00 in December 1996 for its medium-capacity long- haul requirements following a joint evaluation with its alliance partners Sabena and Austrian Airlines (the latter having since severed its links with Swissair). Swissair's status as a major launch customer enabled it to heavily influence the air craft's design and avoid deviation from the basic specification, explains SR Technics A3 30 fleet manager Felix Ammann. "Overall, we quite strictly followed the standard definition of the aircraft," he says. Swissair maintenance sub sidiary SR Technics is responsible for support ing and maintaining the airline's A3 3 0s. Swissair, Austrian and Sabena selected the PW4168A to power their aircraft because of SR Technics' extensive experience in maintaining the PW4000, which powers the Swiss carrier's Boeing MD-1 Is. The maintenance company had already overhauled some PW4168s powering the A330-300s operated by LTU of Germany by the time the A3 3 0-2 00 entered service. The Swiss airline had a demanding pilot training schedule for the new aircraft, although the process was eased by the fact that all of the A330 flightcrews have been cross-qualified from the A3 2 0 family, which features an identi cal flightdeck. "With one new aircraft coming every month we had to train a large number of pilots from the very beginning," says Swissair A320/A3 30 chief pilot Marco Mullen Again, Swissair turned to an associate carrier already operating A330-300s, in the shape of Belgian flag carrier and fellow Qualiflyer Group member Sabena. Four Swissair training captains worked as line pilots on Sabena A3 30s for four months before Swissair's first A3 3 0-2 00 arrived. Swissair has 650 pilots rated on the A320 family, of which 320 will have been rated on the A3 30 and entered the mixed fleet flying (MFF) pilot pool by the end of this year, according to Mullen This will rise to 450 next year. New pilots coming onto the A320 fleet will fly the type for a year and a half before being rated on the A3 3 0 as well, he adds. Swissair pilots log around 50% of their annu al duty days on narrowbodies and 50% on the widebody, says Mtiller. This is because the A3 3 0s fly longer sectors on average and require nine crews per aircraft compared with 4.5 for theA320. Swissair says it has been satisfied with the quality of the A3 3 0s it has received so far. "We were really happy with the first aircraft," says Ammann. "Everything was finished and ready for operation." He adds that the trend has con tinued with the exception of "some" minor glitches. The A3 30 fleet's dispatch "was always above 98%", says Ammann. "It is 99% every week. We did not expect it to be so reliable." By the end of August, the Swissair A3 3 0 fleet was recording a daily usage approaching 13.5h, with average sector length running at 4-5h. MAX KINGSLEY-JONES/LUTON GUY NORRIS/LOS ANGELES I "The A330-200^ introduction was like theA321...we learned from earlier versions," - Airbus' Roger Lecomte FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 17 - 23 November 1999 ROGER LECOMTE, Airbus Indus trie's vice-president of engineering support, says: "The introduction of the A3 3 0-200 was like that of the A3 21 [after the A320] for us. We were able to benefit from the lessons we learned with the introduction ofthe A330-300 and A3 40." Lecomte says that the design of the A3 30-200 for longer-range missions than its A3 30-300 sister did not pose problems. "System-wise, the new model is essentially the same as the [long-range] A3 40 - in fact, the aircraft's utilisation is comparable to the A340's," he says. Airbus says that the A330-200 fleet is being used on average around 10-15h a day, which is similar to that ofthe A3 40 fleet, and somewhat greater than that of the A330-300. The larger model, which tends to be used more on regional ser vices, averages 6-10.Sh daily utilisation. The difference in the two A3 30 mod els' roles is highlighted more by the average flight-sector times, which, on the A330-200 is 3.5-8h (similar to the A340), compared to 1.7-3.5h for the A330-300. Lecomte says that the A330- 200 fleet is showing an hours-to-cycles ratio of 4:1, compared to the -300's 2.2:1. Canada 3000 and Monarch have the hardest-working fleets, topping the A3 3 0-200 utilisation figures with 15h a day. The worldwide A3 30-200 fleet is recording a dispatch reliability (depar ture within 15 min of schedule) of 98.9%. For Airbus, the two most serious issues during the A330-200's first phase of service have been the nosegear steering limitations and leaking shock absorbers. A 60° limit on the turning angle ofthe nosegear was imposed on all A330s and A3 40s following a landing accident involving a Sabena A3 40 at Brussels in August last year. The Sabena incident, in which one ofthe attachment fittings on the aircraft's Messier Dowry-built main landing gear (MLG) failed, was found to have been caused by excessive side-loads placed on the gear during taxiing. Originally the type's brake/steering unit was programmed to allow a maxi mum 78° of deflection. Operators were also permitted to use differential thrust and braking during turning manoeuvres, but these can no longer be employed. The limitation can cause problems at airports that do not have full-length taxi- ways because the aircraft has to be able to make a 180° turn at the end ofthe runway. 41
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