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Aviation History
2000
2000 - 1316.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT EU close to wider open skies ANDREW DOYLE/MUNICH THE EUROPEAN UNION (EU) is close to sealing an agreement for the integration of 10 more states into Europe's liber alised single aviation market. The deal, to be signed in the next few weeks, will see Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Rom ania, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia join a "common aviation area", which includes die EU countries, plus Iceland and Norway. As well as fully liberalising inter national air services between them selves, members must agree to open their domestic markets and relax rules governing foreign own ership of airlines. "We are very close to an agree ment," says EU head of air trans port economic policy, Frederik Sorensen. "It should be a matter of weeks before we have an under standing we can initial." The agreements will be subject to ratifi cation by each of the 10 countries. Some of the lOwillbeallowedto phase-in liberalisation over several years, particularly where there are concerns over the ability of nation al carriers to sustain increased competition in the near-term. It is understood that some states will be exempt from the immediate intro duction of improved, Western- standard navigation equipment. Negotiations are under way between the EU and Cyprus, but are not expected to be completed for months. The EU has reached a bilateral agreement with another non-member, Switzerland, which will join Europe's liberalised air market, subject to a public referen dum on 21 May. • Boeing prepares 717$ for low-cost Impulse services in Australia BOEING IS preparing the first of five 717s at its Long Beach plant for delivery to new Australian customer Impulse Air lines this month. The New South Wales-based airline is taking three air craft on lease from Bavaria International and two from Pembroke Capital for its new low- cost domestic operation (Flight International, 18- 24 April, PI 3). CFM tests high-pressure parts for Tech56 technology programme TESTS OF two major new high-pressure (HP) compo nents, an advanced compressor and turbine, have begun as part of CFM International's Tech56 programme - a three-year effort to develop technology for CFM56 upgrades as well as a potential new generation of engines. The tests, involving a six-stage HP compressor and a reduced shock HP turbine, follow the suc cessful completion of full-scale blade-out rig tests on a 152cm (60in)-diameter, wide-chord, swept-blade design. CFMI, which tested the new blade configuration at Villaroche, France and Peebles, Ohio, says the tests revealed more than 2 % higher flow at speed compared to the CFM56-7, which has the first wide- chord blade design in use on a CFM56 variant. "In the same size fan, the swept blade could provide 5% to 6% more thrust and as much as a 1% fuel burn improvement compared to the current CFM56-7 wide-chord fan," says CFMI. A new series of tests are planned using a 172cm-diameter hollow swept fan for potential application on Airbus aircraft. "Studies on the potential application of this tech nology will continue over the next 18 to 24 months," says CFMI, which is to conduct performance, crosswind and ingestion tests on the larger fan in an exact repeat of its earlier tests on the Boeing 737- sized blade set. The blade-out tests, meanwhile, caused "only limited damage to die surrounding blades and no materi al loss other than the released blade. All parts were contained," says CFMI. Tests of the new compressor, which is designed to achieve a higher pressure ratio with three fewer stages than the current design, will run for about lOOh, over the next six weeks and will val idate the performance, operability and aeromechanical characteristics of the new design. The HP turbine tests, which will evaluate the effect of the new design on reducing downstream turbine shock strength and the interaction between high- and low-pressure turbine stages, will run for 75h over about four weeks. J Plans for Canadian budget airline revive PLANS FOR a new Canadian low-cost airline have been revived, with Canjet aiming to start operations this summer using Boeing 7 3 7s. Canjet's owner, the IMP Group of Halifax, Nova Scotia, cancelled plans in February to launch the low-cost carrier from a hub in Hamilton, Ontario, citing compe tition from Air Canada's planned low-cost airline, and Calgary- based Westjet, which introduced services from Toronto/Hamilton last month (Flight International, 22- 28 February). The new plan calls for Canjet to fly to most major airports between St. John's, Newfoundland, and Winnipeg, Manitoba. This follows the official bankruptcy of InterCanadian, which provided feed for Canadian Airlines between Newfoundland and Ontario, after efforts to revive the airline failed. Canjet had previously planned to operate Boeing 717s, but its new business plan calls for around 20 new Boeing 737 twinjets. The air line may also use up to eight turbo- props (British Aerospace J3 Is and Bombardier Dash 8-100s) from the stored fleet of defunct Canadian regional airline Air Atlantic, which LMP owned. IMP chairman Kenneth Rowe says the location of the base, or a firm start date, have not yet been decided. He believes that, with LMP having maintenance facilities at all major airports in eastern Canada, Canjet will have the low est costs of any Canadian airline. • 10 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 25 April - 1 May 2000
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