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Aviation History
2001
2001 - 3599.PDF
• Austrian Airlines and Emirates have become launch customers for Airbus' "AIRMAN" software package which enhances airlines' on-line and night check maintenance operations. • Emirates Engin eering has been awarded five engineering contracts. The Dubai-based airline has started its first major third-party main tenance check, a 4C on a Boe ing 777 for Lauda Air. Mean while, Switzerland's Balair has signed for Boeing 757 line main tenance; Malaysia Airlines for Airbus A330 maintenance; and the UK's Airtours and Air 2000 both for Boeing 767 line maintenance. • AAR Com ponent Services - Amsterdam is to provide component man agement and repair for KLM uk's 15 Fokker 100s under a three-year deal with KLM uk Engineering. • UK-based Euravia Engineering has launched a new, fully JAR-145 approved, PT6A series mainten ance, repair, overhaul & test facility. • Qatar Airways has launched a feasibility study into the creation of an aircraft main tenance company at its Doha base. The study is in conjunction with EADS Sogerma Services, with whom Qatar has signed a long term support contract for its Airbus fleet. This includes a five year contract for total component support of its six A300-600Rs and five A320s. AIR TRANSPORT TERROR AFTERMATH NICHOLAS IONIDES & DAVID FULLBROOK / SINGAPORE SI A delays plans for e-mail as capacity cuts mount Carrier claims system - though popular with passengers - was unstable during trials Singapore Airlines (SIA) has put on hold plans to introduce Tenzing's in-flight e-mail and internet offer ings and made more drastic net work cuts as it continues to suffer from a sharp fall in business follow ing the US terrorist attacks. The carrier says it will discon tinue the e-mail service, introduced on one aircraft in April and origi nally planned for fleet-wide intro duction within 14 months. "The decision was taken after Tenzing, the owner of the software, said it would be reviewing its development plans in light of the prevailing economic situation," SIA says. The carrier claims there were problems with the e-mail software and says the system was unstable during trials, although it was popu lar with passengers. It is now con sidered unlikely the service will be introduced again until at least late 2002 or 2003. Last month it emerged that Seattle-based Tenzing, in which Airbus holds a 30% stake, was slashing its 150-strong workforce by more than half as part of a restructuring effort in the wake of the airline crisis Flight International, 23-30 October). Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways, meanwhile, which owns 10% of Tenzing, says its plans to introduce e-mail services fleet-wide are con tinuing as scheduled. The system is already operational on a handful of aircraft. The announcement came as SIA unveiled a further round of drastic network cuts that will see it sus pending Singapore-Amsterdam- Chicago services, which were only introduced on 1 August. Chicago services will be sus pended between 13 January and the end of April, although it hopes to reinstate them on 1 May. It is also cutting frequencies on Singapore-Frankfurt-New York, Singapore-Amsterdam-New York (Newark), Singapore-Taipei-Los Angeles and Singapore-Seoul-San Francisco routes. The cuts mean SIA's total seating capacity to the USA will be reduced by 20%. The airline adds that it will continue to watch for changes and will further adjust cap acity "to meet market demands". Services to Osaka, Nagoya, Fukuoka and Hiroshima in Japan will also be reduced, leaving SIA with 47 weekly services to the country, down from 55. This translates into a 13% capacity reduction between 13 January and the end of April. Taipei frequencies will be cut to 18 from 22 weekly from 13 November, while Perth services will be cut to 18 from 21 weekly between 3 January 2002 and 30 March 2003. In September SIA suspended services to Karachi and Lahore in Pakistan and reduced frequencies on five other routes. It later suspended services to Kota Kinabalu and Kuching in Malaysia, as well as to Macau, while sub sidiary SIA Cargo unveiled a major network revamp. SIA has been suffering badly in recent months. In October it said its net profit for the first half ended 30 September fell 88% and warned that it could post a full-year loss, which would be the first since its establishment. SAFETY Airlines in FOOA move Additional US airlines are expected to establish voluntary flight opera tions quality assurance (FOQA) programmes following publication of the final rule prohibiting use of the collected data for enforcement action. An exception is made in the case of deliberate or criminal violations of safety regulations. Ten US airlines are already oper ating FOQA programmes and at least six other carriers are expected to follow suit now that the US Federal Aviation Administration has published the final rule protect ing the data from public disclosure. The voluntary FAA-industry effort, which has been under way since 1995, now encompasses over 1,500 aircraft of 13 types and has already resulted in safety improvements. Under a FOQA programme, the airline routinely collects and analy ses information from aircraft digital flight data and optical quick-access recorders. The data is also supplied to the FAA, to be combined with that from other airlines in an effort to detect wider safety trends. This raised the spectre of federal enforce ment action, and possible public disclosure under the US Freedom of Information Act, and necessitated the new rule protecting the data. The rule applies only to FAA- approved FOQA programmes. EXPANSION Macair boosts Saab 340 fleet to fill void left by Flight West Australian regional Macair Airlines is expanding its fleet to fill the void left by the demise of rival Flight West Airlines. The move also follows the Townsville, Queensland-based carrier's recent alliance agree ment with Qantas. The airline, which has one Saab 340B in service, has just added the first of of three more on lease from the manufact urer. The other two turboprops are to enter service early next year. www.fliqhtinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 13-19 NOVEMBER 2001 29
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