FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
2000
2000 - 1585.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT Hapag 737-800s to get winglets ANDREW DOYLE/HANOVER HAPAG-LLOYD will become the first airline operator of the Aviation Partners Boeing (APB) blended winglet-equipped 737-800s early next year when it starts a major retrofit programme for its in-service fleet. The airline is in "final negotia tions" with APB and a memoran dum of understanding is due to be signed imminently, according to Hapag-Lloyd managing director Wolfgang Kurth. The drag-reducing winglets - expected to cut block fuel con sumption by at least 3.5-4%- were initially developed for the Boeing Business Jet, but are now being offered for the 737-800. South African Airways recently became the first airline to specify the winglets for die type, but Hapag- Lloyd will be the first operator. Kurth says the airline will retro fit nineteen 737-800s and include the 2.4m (7.9ft)-tall winglets on all future deliveries, with 26 of the type to have the modification by next May. He says die winglets are expected to pay for themselves widiin five years. List price for a kit shipsetis$725,000. The modification requires "minor reinforcements at die rip of the wing", says APB 737 pro gramme manager Bob Riser. These will eventually be included Hapag-Lloyd's 737-800fleet will I I with whtglets by next summer as standard on all new 737-800s to be built. Boeing and APB are to carry out a joint certification programme using one of Hapag's 737-800s, which is expected to include 125h of flight testing. Approval of the wing structural modifications is expected by November, with winglet certification following in January 2001. Most of die retrofit work-about 900 man hours over five or six days of downtime - concerns wing strengthening, which Hapag will start once that portion of the certi fication is complete. The blended winglets are also offered for the 737-900 and 737- 700C combi, diough Boeing is still evaluating die feasibility of fitting them to the -600 and -700, which use a structurally different wing. • Polar route viability set to soar DAVID LEARMOUNT/HONG KONG CHINA IS to make flight clear ance dirough its airspace sim pler, which could revolutionise die relatively rare use of high Arctic routes between Europe or America and Asia. The new rules, expected to come into effect on 3 0 June, will give air lines operational flexibility which could mean the difference between profit and loss on new polar routes. Speaking on Cathay Pacific's first commercial Canada-Hong Kong non-stop service via the North Pole, the International Air Transport Association's assistant director of infrastructure, David Behrens, explained that China requires 15 days' notice of which routeing and entry point into China every flight will choose. Under die new rules die flight plan can be filed on die day. The existing rule prevents air lines from using upper wind pat terns to determine the best of four possible routeings for die day. Planning 15 days in advance forces carriers to use seasonal wind aver ages to choose a routeing and, because diis can mean diat a non- optimum route is flown, it makes a significant difference to the pay- load that the airline can plan for. Behrens emphasises that China's stance on this point "literally decides whether these [polar] routes will be used at all". Cathay's Toronto-Hong Kong flight on 18 May via the Polar 2 route - die closest of all die Nordi America-Asia routes to die North Pole, passing it within 80km (45nm) - was flown by an Airbus A340-300 carrying 134 passengers, 16 crew and 2.5t of freight. The time taken for die 12,565km Toronto-Hong Kong flightwas 15h 17min,asavingof3h on the one-stop service via Anchorage, Alaska, Cathay's nor mal routeing from Canada, which uses about 30tmore fuel. This flight, which was die first polar flight out of Canada, used its inertial reference system as die pri mary means of polar navigation, updated by die global positioning system. Routeing was out of Toronto via Hudson Bay, the Pole, entering Russia at its northern-most point, then over eastern Siberia, Mongolia and China. • Varig's financial blues see boss Pinto ousted VARIG'S CHIEF executive Fernando Pinto has been dis missed after die airline reported a $94 million loss for the 1999 fiscal year. Ozires Silva, a former Embraer boss and Brazilian minis ter of planning, has succeeded him. Pinto's departure follows die failure of his attempts to steer flag carrier Varig dirough die difficul ties the Brazilian airline industry has experienced over the past 12 mondis following die devaluation of die Real. The carrier was hard hit by the disbursement of around $44 mil lion as amortisation on foreign exchange operations, while the re- admission of 700 ex-Varig em ployees cost $34 million. Silva, 69, was a voting member of Varig's administrative council and financial controller of two Varig-owned regional carriers, Rio Sul and Nordeste. The new chief executive says one of his first tasks will be to begin a fleet rationalisa tion programme, which is expected to see the airline move ahead with plans to replace Boeing MD-lls with 777s. Conceding that Varig's opera tional expenses are too high, Silva says: "We want to better employ our assets, increase growth in spe cific areas such as tourism and, for example, perform packaged char ter flights." Silva dismisses die possibility of mergers with other airlines in the region, or any financial association with foreign carriers, but says Varig would be interested in taking over routes to Europe and the USA recently abandoned by VASP, die country's second largest carrier. Varig is about to begin services between Sao Paulo and Munich. With Varig still in debt and VASP's future in the balance, Brazil's third and fourth largest air lines, TAM and Transbrasil, have concluded a codesharing agree ment that is being viewed by some as the first step towards a merger. The deal will initially encompass the 600 daily domestic flights offered by die two airlines. J 10 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 23 - 29 May 2000
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
