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Aviation History
2000
2000 - 0639.PDF
Swissair to hand over most Geneva flights to Crossair ANDREW DOYLE/MUNICH SWISSAIR IS transferring the bulk of its Geneva-based services to regional subsidiary Crossair in a bid to cut costs and allow frequencies to be boosted on a large number of routes through the use of smaller aircraft. From the start of this year's sum mer timetable, Crossair will take over flights to Athens, .Madrid, Rome and Lisbon, leaving Swissair aircraft serving only New York, London, Moscow and Zurich from Geneva. The two airlines, together with their codeshare partners and other Qualiflyer Group carriers, serve 35 destinations from Geneva. Extra flights to be added from Geneva this summer include an additional weekly connection to Swissair will focus on its Zurich hub, as most Geneva flights pass to Crossair Tel Aviv, operated under a code- share with El Al, three daily ser vices to Vienna to be flown by Air Littoral, and a daily flight to Rome operated by Crossair. Meanwhile, Crossair has restructured its net work, dropping flights from Basle to Dresden and Prague and has shelved its new Helsinki route. Plans to increase frequencies have been abandoned. "While Swissair's smallest air craft has 120 seats, the smaller air craft of Crossair and other partners are ideal for serving certain desti nations several times a day," says Swissair. The changes remain sub ject to approval by Crossair's board, which meets on 30 March. Crossair will transfer to Geneva capacity freed by its decision to rein in growth on some routes from its Basle hub and by accelerating de liveries of EmbraerRJ-145 region al jets. Orders for the 50-seater are being increased by 10 to 2 5. • Small increase in US accidents revealed PRELLMINARY US airline accident figures for 1999 indi cate a slight increase in the total accident rate. The statistics, from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), reveal the accident numbers and rate for US Federal Aviation Regulation Part 121 (large aircraft) scheduled oper ators were up slightly on 1998, with 48 accidents, compared with the previous year's 43. The only US Part 121 fatal acci dent last year was an American Airlines Boeing MD-80, which crashed on 1 June at Little Rock, Arkansas, killing 11 people. The fatal accident rate is 0.18 per mil lion flights, compared to the world average of about 1.2 fatal accidents per million flights. Scheduled Part 135 carriers (commuter carriers operating air craft with fewer than 19 seats) suf fered six fatal accidents. • CAT detector ready for tests FLIGHT TESTS of the first predictive warning system for clear air turbulence (CAT) are set to begin by the middle of this year on a Honeywell-owned Boeing 720 testbed. The tests, if success ful, will pave die way for eventual series production of a hybrid weather radar/infra-red (IR) laser radar warning system in 2003. "Plans are still finning up," says Paul Reveley, director of business development for Coherent Tech nologies (CTI)-a Colorado-based laser radar specialist which has teamed with Honeywell on the CAT project "We will be flying a prototype system this summer," says Reveley, who adds that the pre-production system is expected to be in test by late 2002, with manufacturing of the full-up system due to start the following year. The unit will combine Honey well's RDR-4B weather radar with CTI's eye-safe IR laser radar, which will be able to detect CAT and give the crew up to lmin advance warning of severe turbu lence, and a minimum of 2 5s warn ing 95% of the time. In tests in 1998, as part of NASA's Aviation Safety Pro gramme, "we saw everything from 20-40s warning with a prototype system," says Reveley. These tests with the prototype 100Hz system were conducted at generally lower altitudes than normal jet aircraft cruise levels, so one of the main aims of die 720 tests will be to "get to cruise altitude as quickly as we can and see if we find anything unexpected. The IR system for the trials is a 2p pulse-Doppler radar which will transmit a 400 nanosecond light pulse up to 200 times a second. It will have a resolution of 100-300m (3 30-990ft) over a range of 300m to as much as 20km (11 nm). • MARKETPLACE ++ Air France has signed a five- year lease agreement with International Lease Finance (ILFC) for three General Electric GE90-powered Boeing 777- 200ERs. The aircraft will be delivered between April 2001 and February 2002. ++ Brymon Airways has taken delivery of the first of seven Embraer RJ-145S it has on order. ++ Sabena has firmed up its memorandum of under standing placed in December for four new Airbus A340-300s, plus options on a further four A330/A340s. Deliveries will take place in 2001 and 2002. ++ Raytheon Aircraft has leased a used Beech 1990C to San Juan-based Servicios Aereos Profesionales for freight services in Puerto Rico. ++ Peru's AeroContinente will take delivery of two Boeing 767- 200ERs on lease from ILFC this month. According to Flight International's sister on-line news service Air Transport Intelligence, the aircraft will sub stitute for the Boeing 757s used on the Lima-Miami route, which are on short-term wet leases from Air 2000. ++ Cathay Pacific Airways will receive a new Airbus A340-300 on five year leases from ILFC next January. ++ Two of four Airbus A330-200S ordered by British Midland recently will betaken on eight year leases. Delivery of the 211-seaters is set for next April and May. ++ The govern ment of the Republic of Cape Verde has acquired an ex-Air Malawi Fairchild Dornier 228- 200 to replace the aircraft lost in an accident last year. The deal was arranged by ISIS Aviation Services. ++ Singapore Air craft Leasing Enterprise has selected International Aero Engines V2500s to power 20 Airbus A320 family aircraft ordered last October. ++ GE Capital Aviation Services has delivered two ex-Aeroflot. Pratt & Whitney PW4000-powered Boeing 767-300ERS to TWA on eight year leases. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 7 - 13 March 2000
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