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Aviation History
2000
2000 - 1950.PDF
Air France responds to SAir moves with Brit Air buyout JULIAN MOXON/PARIS AIR FRANCE has taken 100% control of its former regional franchisee Brit Air in a move to consolidate its dominant position in the French regional feeder mar ket. Meanwhile, the SAir Group's attempt to merge three other French regionals has met stiff resis tance from unions. Brit Air joins other recent Air France purchases, Regional Air lines and Proteus/Flandre Air. The Morlaix-based carrier was sold for €96 million ($90 million) on 19 June after shareholders agreed the deal would "guarantee the backing of a major player in a regional tran sport consolidation context". Xav- ier Leclerc will remain president. Brit Air has grown in recentyears and in 1999/2 000 posted an income of €8.2 million on operating rev enues of €257 million. It operates 38 aircraft and carried 2.2 million passengers during the period. Air France president Jean-Cyril Spinetta says the degree of integra tion of its regional airlines "has not been hilly decided. We don't want to keep it as distinct elements, but Brit Air franchise has been converted into a merger by Air France we also don't want a single entity". The SAirGroup's recent pur chase of Air Littoral and its plans to merge it with AOM and Air Liberte, in which it acquired an interest when British Airways left the French market earlier this year, form the core of the Swiss carrier's attack on the French domestic market. The scheme has run into trouble with the three airlines' unions, however, who have threat ened strike action over job losses resulting from any merger. SAirGroup president Philippe Brugisser says he will present his plan in October. He has already announced that the group's French possessions will be split into two components operating under the same commercial banner. AOM and Air Liberte, which both have strong international operations and similar aircraft types, will be based at Paris Orly, while Air Littoral, which operates smaller aircraft, will move its main centre of operations from Montpellier to Nice. • IFN moves to put airline passengers on line THE NEWS Corporation-Rockwell Collins joint ven ture In-Flight Network (IFN) has teamed with satellite communica tion provider Globalstar and digi tal wireless communications specialist Qualcomm in a move to provide in-flight broadband inter net and e-mail services to airline passengers by early next year. The partners are jointly devel oping a system to provide broad band internet access, e-mail, paging and voice-over-IP applica tions directly to aircraft. Services will be transmitted via the Globalstar satellite network and back-up geostationary satellites, yet to be decided. The 48-satellite low-Earth orbit (LEO) Globalstar system, which provides personal telecommunication services, is limited to data rates of only 9.6kbit/s. Qualcomm-developed enhancements to its code division multiple access (CDMA) technol ogy will push the datalink speed to in excess of 200kbit/s, says Globalstar. Further CDMA devel opments will increase the data rate to 800kbit/s next year, it adds. These data rates are higher than any available to/from aircraft today. The current Inmarsat-3s, over which most of the proposed in flight e-mail services will be deliv ered, have a maximum data speed of 64kbit/s, while the new Inmarsat-4s, which will be opera tional from 2004, will increase data rates to 43 2 kbit/s. The partners are also evaluating other satellite- based products and services avail able from Globalstar and its parent Loral Space & Communications. IFN was formed earlier this year to provide airlines with live televi sion, internet access and e-mail services, as well as standard video and audio programming. A prototype system was tested on flights over North America ear lier this month and laboratory demonstrations to airlines start in mid-July, with in-flight demon strations from a southern Californ- ian airport to follow later this year. The alliance is a boost for Globalstar, which is the only LEO global satellite system operator still in its original form. Former com petitor Iridium went bankrupt ear lier this year, while ICO is merging with Teledesic following its rescue from bankruptcy protection. Globalstar has not been without its problems, however, with the operator conceding that the roll out of its services has been slower than expected and it will need an extra $160 million in funding by the end of the year. J PEOPLE ++ Honeywell has appointed Barry Johnson to the new post of senior vice-president (VP), chief technology officer. He joins from Motorola. ++ Terry Morgan has become managing director of BAA International, heading the UK- based airport operator's push for overseas business. ++ Sikorsky Aircraft has named Rene Beau- champ VP government business development, responsible for mar keting programmes towards US military and government cus tomers. He wasdirector of commu nications. ++ James Walsh becomes president of New York- based aircraft leasing and man agement company, C-S Aviation Services. ++ American Airlines has named Dan Huffman as senior VP maintenance and engi neering, succeeding David Kruse, who retires in October. ++ William Moore has joined Northrop Grumman as VP and deputy pro gramme manager of its Joint STARS programme. He is a former US Air Force major general. Northrop Grumman's Electronic Sensors and Systems Sector (ES3) has named Michael Lennon VP electro-optical and infrared targeting programmes. He was ES3 director, radio frequency electronic warfare programmes. ++ E-based procurement solutions provider Aero Inventory has ap pointed Frank Turner deputy chair man. ++ L-3 Communications has appointed James Dunn presi dent of its Link Simulation and Training division. He was previ ously president of Lockheed Martin Tactical Defence Systems. ++ton- guard Airlines has appointed Jeff Potter chief executive and presi dent. Potter, previously VP market ing for Frontier Airlines, replaces Robert Spane, who will become chairman. ++ Michael Carpenter has been named president and chief operating officer (COO) of Raisbeck Commercial Air Group's subsidiary, Raisbeck Engineer ing. ++ Montreal-based business aircraft maintenance and comple tion specialist Innotech-Execaire Aviation has named Kirk Rowe as executive VP and COO. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 27 June - 3 July 2000 21
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