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Aviation History
2001
2001 - 3012.PDF
IN BRIE CONCORDE DELAY UK and French certificating authorities for the Aerospatiale/ British Aerospace Concorde have said that they need more time to study safety modifications to the aircraft after they were presented with additional data on 24 August. Approval to restart services had been expected last week. Now they are reluc tant to predict when they will be ready to make a recertification decision, putting into doubt the hoped-for service entry dates of late September for British Airways and late October for Air France. The aviation authorities say they have been seeking more data on possible combinations of circumstances. Air France conducted test flights at supersonic speeds with its first modified Concorde (F-BVFB)on22,24and27 August. RUSSIAN WINNERS The Russian Government has revealed the winners of its "com petition" for state support of aviation lease proposals. Ilyushin Finance will receive funding for 10 Ilyushin ll-96-400s for Atlant-Soyuz, but not for 10 Tupolev Tu-204s it is leasing to Transaero and partners. Financial Leasing, the Tatarstan Government-spon sored company set up by oil and gas corporation Tatneftgaz, will be supported for 10 Tu-214s. The government plans to allo cate 3 billion roubles ($102 million) this year, and 1 billion or possibly 2.1 billion roubles next year. KLM ALLIANCE KLM is reviewing its options fol lowing the ending of talks aimed at forming an alliance between its Engineering & Maintenance division and United Technologies. Both sides say negotiations on nose-to-tail maintenance have been termi nated after 18 months because the would-be partners' goals could not be reconciled. The announcement will not influence KLM's partnership with UTC subsidiary Hamilton Sundstrand for pneumatic systems maintenance. HEADLINES AIR TRANSPORT SIMON WARBURTON / PARIS EasyJet sees opportunity for French market foray UK carrier seeks to take slots relinquished by struggling AOM-Air Liberte at Paris Orly UK low-cost carrier EasyJet wants to base up to seven aircraft at Paris Orly if it successful in obtaining up to 20,000 slots at the airport, after the restructuring of struggling French carrier AOM-Air Liberte. The move - which would mark the Luton Airport-based airline's first foray into the French market - is dependent on regulatory approval from COHOR, the French slot co ordination service which involves airlines and airport authorities. AOM-Air Liberte is believed to be relinquishing 36,000 of its 72,000 slots at the airport south of Paris and EasyJet says the move is a "one-off opportunity" to secure a foot in the door of the hitherto highly slot-constrained destination. "We are initially looking for 8,500 slots for the winter season using three aircraft but want to ratchet this up to 20,000 and seven aircraft eventually," says EasyJet. The airline estimates that with a seven-strong fleet it could attract "2.5 million passengers per year - a figure that the market could sustain and would be incremental growth." The carrier has a fleet of Boeing 737-300s and -400s and has a large EasyJet expects French services to attract 2.5 million passengers a year number of aircraft on order from Boeing. It also has a 40% share in EasyJet Switzerland, a low-cost car rier operating out of Geneva. France is not normally viewed as fertile ground for low-cost or for eign-owned carriers, but EasyJet maintains it is "not scared" of start ing an alternative to mainstream services. Earlier attempts to succeed in the French market by the likes of British Airways and Swissair have ended in disappointment. "This is the first time since [European air] liberalisation that such a block of slots has become available at Orly, which has tradi tionally been restricted to a total of 250,000 movements per year," adds EasyJet. The airline is evaluating services from the French capital to Edin burgh, Geneva, Liverpool, London (Luton), Madrid and Nice. The lat ter destination would see Air France seriously challenged on what it considers to be one of its prestige domestic routes but EasyJet says: "This is what liberali sation is all about - our average fare across the network is £47 ($67)." The French civil aviation author ity - the DGAC - says that no timetable has yet been fixed for slot allocation but confirms that COHOR is in contact with EasyJet. AIR TRANSPORT GUY NORRIS / LOS ANGELES GE looks to fix GE90 seal problem General Electric is to inspect and modify GE90 engines after a series of recent incidents in which damaged low-pressure compressor (LPC) seals led to two in-flight shut downs on Boeing 777s, and an Air France aircraft experiencing a "stall event". A Saudi Airlines 777 suffered engine vibrations after take-off from Jeddah on the 19 August. The crew shut down the engine and returned. GE says this incident was the second in-flight shut down to be caused by the suspected seal problem - the first being on an Asian-based aircraft on 31 March. The crew of the Air France flight kept the engine running, but elected to land after the "stall event". GE says initial Snecma borescoping of the engine, which suffered a compressor stall on climb out from Jakarta on 18 August, appeared to show damage around the LPC stage-four toggle seal. The seal is connected to the rotor adjacent to the stator vane where the clearance is, according to GE, "a little tight". The company says contact between the vane and the seal "liberated material", which led to the stall. Following this incident, GE initiated a "control plan" to manage the problem in the field using a network of "quick-turn facilities" at GE90 overhaul sites. The plan, covering 230 high- time, high-cycle engines, involves inspecting the toggle seal and replacing worn units. The correc tive action scheme, which started on 1 September, involves trimming material from the stator vane to improve the clearance between the third and fourth stages in the LPC. A longer term fix, based on a redesign of the stator vane, is under way says GE. S 4-10 SEPTEMBER 2001 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.fliqhtinternational.com
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