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Aviation History
2001
2001 - 1967.PDF
•&3J&JMX&5 OKB Sukhoi sees growth in 2001 VLADIMIR KARNOZOV/MOSCOW EXPORT ACTIVITIES at OKB Sukhoi continued to keep the design bureau afloat last year although it was also boosted by a rise in funding from the Russian Government. Speaking at the annual share holders meeting on 26 May, OKB Sukhoi general director Mikhail Pogosyan indicated that the com pany would be increasing the tempo of work this year, with plans for over 2,000 test flights of its var ious products compared with 1,200 last year and 800 the previous year. Sales and profits advanced strongly in comparison to the pre vious year. This was partly due to a substantial increase in the volume of funding from the Russian min istry of defence. In 1999 Moscow's share of OKB funding was only 2%; last year it rose to 18%. The company's fiscal year 2000 report says that the increase in MoD funding permit ted OKB to "largely cover its own investments" in national defence programmes and to substantially increase the volume of work. Although reliance on revenue from foreign contracts declined from 97 % in 1999 to 81 % last year NEWS IN BRIEF • LEGEND LEADER Allan McArtor has been named as the head of Airbus' North American operation, replacingJackSchofield who resigned in March. McArtor co-founded Dallas-based Legend Airlines, which went bankrupt earlier this year. • LUFTHANSA SALE Lufthansa is to sell its ground handling subsidiary Globe- Ground to Penauille Polyservices for €3 70 million ($315 million). The as-yet- unapproved deal would result in. the formation of the world's b\ggest ground han dling operation as the French company also owns Servisair. the company's export success effec tively kept OKB Sukhoi in business as a viable entity. The major achievement on the export front was completion of flight tests on the Su-30MKK that permitted the related KnAAPO factory to launch production and deliver the first aircraft to China. Among the major activities undertaken last year were develop ment and testing of the Su-30MKI and Su-30MKK export variants of the basic multi-role twin-seat fighter, customer support for licence production of the Su-2 7 SK in China and Su-30MKI in India, and upgrade work and deliveries of Su-24M strike aircraft to Algeria. The Moscow-based design house has a workforce of about 4,000. The major focus this year is said to be development of the Su-32 interdiction aircraft and upgrade packages for the Su-24M, Su-2 5 and Su-2 7 tactical aircraft. In addition, flight-testing of the Su-37 single-seat fighter with thrust-vectoring engines and the upgraded Su-33, single-seat and Su-27KUB twin-Seat naval fight ers are planned, v Later thj£ year the S-37-1 Berkut experimental fighter with forward-swept wing will resume its flight-test programme after main tenance work on its D-30F engines. Sukhoi says this year the aircraft will face "much more aggressive tests than previously", since its maiden flight in 1997. OKB Sukhoi also intends to test- fly two new commercial designs this year. The S-80 28-seat twin- boom twin-turboprop and Su-3 8L single-piston agricultural aircraft are to fly in the next few weeks. The share of civil programmes in the OKB workload continues to grow. Founded last year, the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft branch is working on two major projects, a family of regional airliners in the 50 to 90 seat category and a superson ic business jet. Sukhoi is also preparing to begin development of next-generation combat aircraft and recently signed a framework agreement with 12 other companies, including AVPK Sukhoi, TsAGI, GosNII AS, Tekhnocomplex, Lyulka- Saturn, Vympel and Zvezda-Strela to boost work on fifth-generation fighter technologies. The next phase will be to sign up production factories, Sukhoi savs. —I Chinese Su-iOMK development boosted Sukhoi's workload last year Air France on sparkling form despite fuel prices AIR FRANCE has turned in a fourth consecutive year of bumper profits despite fuel cost increases of 60% and the financial effect of absorbing several domes tic carriers. The French flag carrier announced group net profit for the year ending 31 March up 18.9% at €421 million ($358 million) on turnover up 19% at €2.28 billion. Passenger numbers rose 6.5% to reach 42.4 million while, the aver age load factor for 2000-01 increased by two points to 78.1%. Airline chairman Jean-Cyril Spinetta says: "The last four years have seen Air France on a profitable growth strategy and, at Charles de Gaulle Airport, we have built an efficient European hub with 15,000 medium- and long-haul connec tions. We have a strong domestic market and are in a major alliance- these are our trump cards." As with other carriers fuel costs remain a ma jor headache, however, and despite a policy that will see some 56% of Air France's needs hedged until next year, the airline was forced to absorb a 60% increase in fuel prices. Spinetta also revealed that the grounding of its Concorde fleet had resulted in costs of €3 5 million. Spinetta says alliance discussions with Alitalia are "going forward in an extremely serious manner," although he adds diat nothing is yet definite and that "several other European carriers are also talking to Alitalia." Air France continues to watch the problems unfolding at French rival AOM-Air Liberte, having started to reorganise its own domestic operations with the pur chase of carriers like Proteus and Regional Airlines. Spinetta also says that he "understands the worry" concerning the reduction of services by AOM-Air Liberte to overseas French territories, but maintains that: "Air France is not responsible for the situation." The AOM-Air Liberte situation is one of apparent stalemate, with disruption due to industrial action still occurring sporadically as unions continue to protest at man agement plans to slash jobs and halve the fleet in an attempt to cut heavy losses and find a buyer. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 5 - 11 June 2001 23
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