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Aviation History
2002
2002 - 2219.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT FLEET RENEWAL VLADIMIR KARNOZOV / MOSCOW Aeroflot eyes A320 and 767 deals Airline ready to sign letters of intent for replacement of its Western-built fleet, but is limited to 27 aircraft Aeroflot Russian Airlines has moved a step closer to finalising the renewal of its fleet of Western airliners and is believed to be favouring the Airbus A320 for its narrowbody requirements, with the Boeing 767 the front runner for its widebody needs. Board approval for Aeroflot to begin restructuring its 27-strong Western-built fleet (excluding freighters) came on 16 July, with The 767 looks set to be the backbone of Aerof lot's widebody fleet the airline's general director Valery Okulov cleared to sign letters of intent with suppliers - manufactur ers and/or leasing companies. According to the airline, its aim is to have the contracts ready for consideration in September. Aeroflot's Western fleet com prises 11 Airbus A310s, 10 Boeing 737-400s, four 767-300ERs and two 777-200ERs, and the Russian gov ernment will not allow it to be expanded beyond 27 aircraft. The airline is believed to be planning the acquisition of around 18 A320s for its medium-haul services to Europe and up to nine 767s for intercontinental flights. Deliveries are likely to begin in 2004, at a rate of around eight air craft a year, with some (probably the widebodies) possibly coming from the secondhand market. Potential offset deals as part of the planned A320 acquisition were discussed by Russian president Vladimir Putin and prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov and their French counterparts earlier this month. Boeing is, however, known to be aggressively trying to persuade Aeroflot to retain the 737. Aeroflot is aiming to reduce the number of Western types in its pas senger fleet to just two and the air line is likely to trade the A310s in as part of the A320 deal. Its fleet of 737-400s will also become surplus to requirements. Meanwhile, the airline's 51% owned subsidiary Aeroflot-Don, has signed a letter of intent with RSK MiG to take four Tupolev Tu-334s between 2006 and 2010. • Russian carrier KrasAir is finalis ing negotiations with leasing com panies for two secondhand 767s, for delivery by September. STORAGE WATCH Idled aircraft numbers begin to level out The fleet of idle jet airliners, which had soared to more than 2,100 aircraft after the traffic collapse following the 11 September terrorist attacks, has begun to shrink. According to UK consultancy Airclaims, the idle fleet peaked in May at around 2,150 aircraft and the total has now dropped to below 2,100. The fall in numbers is due to a combination of factors, with aircraft returning to service or broken for spares in greater numbers than those being removed from service. Data compiled from the Airclaims CASE database shows that during the first six months of this year, the idle fleet dropped by a net total of 43 aircraft to 2,094 aircraft. At the same time at least 140 aircraft have been permanently withdrawn (scrapped). The three oldest types operated in large numbers - the Boeing 727, Boeing 737-100/200 and McDonnell Douglas DC-9 - still domi nate the idle fleet, accounting for almost 50% of the total. "The number of stored passenger aircraft is still close to 1,600 units, but • this is stabilising through a combination of increased permanent retirements and some placements, which have countered the continued addition of aircraft to the inventory," says Airclaims director of consultancy Edward Pieniazek. "For example, 65 jet airliners have gone into store so far this month, but 83 came out." Pieniazek says that he expects the vast majority of the approximately 1,500 older narrowbodies (for instance 727s, 737-200s and DC-9s) and first generation widebodies (such as Boeing 747 Classics, Lockheed L-1011 TriStars and McDonnell Douglas DC-10s) that are stored will not return in large numbers to the marketplace. "The effective stored fleet surplus to the current market but available to future markets is closer to 600 units," he says. AIR TRAFFIC SERVICES DAVID LEARMOUNT / LONDON Eurocontrol seeks clarification Changes to prevent another mid air collision are at the top of the agenda for Eurocontrol's "high- level European air traffic manage ment (ATM) safety action group", which was established this month in the wake of the 1 July mid-air collision over Germany. Present standards for pilot reaction to on board collision avoidance alerts leave room for confusion. Objectives include deciding whether or not to make pilot response to airborne collision avoidance system (ACAS) alerts mandatory, and how best to inform air traffic control (ATC) that an ACAS resolution advisory (RA) has "intervened". On 1 July a DHL Boeing 757 and a Bashkirian Airlines Tupolev Tu-154 collided over southern Germany despite the pilots receiv ing ACAS RAs that would have sep arated them. Following the RA to climb, the Tu-154 pilot was told twice by ATC to descend and fatally did so. Eurocontrol says it has found the latest ACAS opera tion - version 7 - satisfactory, so no change is needed. But the organisa tion says the collision has made it clear that it is not enough to have advice on how to react to an RA "in training material only". A crucial issue for the safety action group is whether standard operating proce dures (SOP) should be developed and made mandatory. Operators can use their discretion in drawing up SOPs for their pilots. Euro- control says it intends to work with the International Civil Aviation Organisation, the Joint Aviation Authorities, pilots' and controllers' organisations and the airlines. Meanwhile, there are two possi ble choices for notifying controllers that an ACAS RA has triggered. One is verbally - the pilot talks to ATC; the other would use the Mode S secondary surveillance radar (SSR) datalink to give the controller on-screen information. However, RA data is not one of the items planned at present for down linking to ATC and there are only seven out of the 31 Eurocontrol countries that plan to have Mode S capability by 2005. www.flightinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 23-29 JULY 2002 19
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