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Aviation History
2002
2002 - 3221.PDF
RESULTS DAVID LEARMOUNT / LONDON ATS providers count the cost of terrorist attacks Traffic fall blamed for losses, while industrial unrest threatens more gloom Three autonomous air traffic service (ATS) providers - Nav Canada, Germany's DFS and the UK's National Air Traffic Services (NATS) - have declared losses following the drop in traffic after last year's US ter rorist attacks. Industrial unrest also threatens DFS and Nav Canada. Nav Canada has declared rev enue of C$875 million ($561 mil lion) - C$145 million below fore casts - in the year to 31 August. It expects traffic and revenue to stay below pre-11 September levels in the 2002/03 fiscal year, when it predicts a revenue shortfall of C$80 million despite a 3% fee increase. Among the losses was C$7.3 mil lion owed by bankrupt charter car rier Canada 3000. Nav Canada says it remains nervous about the prospect of bankruptcy for several large customers, such as United Airlines. For the first three quarters of its current financial year, DFS is €57 million ($56 million) below pro jected revenue, although it says monthly earnings are better than early in the year. Traffic is down 4.8%, and Lufthansa's move to smaller aircraft has lowered its ATS bill. DFS faces a demand for a 10% wage rise from operational workers, including the newly independent air traffic controllers' union. Part-privatised NATS has declared an operating loss of £30 million ($47 million) in the year to March 2002. It projects a revenue shortfall of £230 million over the next five years. It suffered in partic ular from a 15% drop in North Atlantic traffic, which has tradi tionally brought in 45% of the company's revenue because the air craft, on average, are heavier and pay more. NATS plans to cut its costs by £170 million by 2005, and is awaiting an expected relaxation of its price-capping mechanism and a capital injection of £130 mil lion, split 50/50 between the gov ernment and airports group BAA. With many ATS providers being government-run, it is not possible to compare results with neighbour ing providers, in France and the USA for example, because account ing procedures do not show them. ACQUISITION ATK buys seeker specialist's assets US munitions manufacturer Alliant Techsystems (ATK) has acquired the assets of Science and Applied Technology (SAT), a small missile seeker specialist. The deal will strengthen ATK's precision-guided weapons capability and position the company to become a missile prime contractor. The acquisition could also safe guard the US Navy's decade-long programme to develop a successor to the AGM-88 high-speed anti- radiation missile (HARM), which has been threatened by the indict ment of the owner of privately held SAT for alleged illegal political contributions. ATK says it is acquir ing only the assets of the San Diego-based company, and has no liabilities linked to the charges brought against SAT's founder, Parthasarathi Majumder. SAT has worked on the Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile (AARGM) technology demonstra tion since 1990 and has received over $130 million in US Navy fund ing. The programme adds a termi nal seeker to the HARM'S radar- homing sensor to give a hard kill capability against non-emitting air defence systems. AARGM is to enter development next year. The same multi-sensor seeker will be used in the US Navy's High- Speed Anti-radiation Demonstra tion programme. ATK's purchase of SAT's assets may remove the need for the US Navy to take contractual action that would harm both programmes. SAT, with annual sales of $40 million, will be renamed ATK Missile Systems and be part of the company's Precision Systems group. ATK, which will have sales of around $2.1 billion in 2003, pro duces ammunition and precision munitions, rocket motors and composite structures. BUSINESS LITIGATION BAE briefs defence against fraud charge BAE Systems is preparing to defend itself against accusa tions of conspiracy to defraud an Italian investor group of £6 mil lion ($9.3 million) over its involvement with collapsed British Airways franchise opera tor National Jet Italia. In a claim lodged with the High Court in London, Italian finance house ABM alleges that BAE and Aviation Partners Worldwide (APW, formerly Tolmount), the latter owned by the late Peter Sutch, former Cathay Pacific chief executive, conspired to mislead it over APW's acquisition in July 2001 of National Jet Italia. Both defendants have said they will oppose the charges, but have declined to comment any further. ABM says that it agreed to invest £6 million in APW to give it the cash to buy National Jet Italia, but only if another investor was found to provide another £7 million. BAE, it alleges, put up this money, but only on the basis that it would receive the money back from National Jet Italia after the takeover, as a deposit on four regional jets which the airline would buy at an inflated price. The takeover went ahead; BAE received its deposit; and the airline, hit by a cash short age and the post-11 September crisis, ceased operations last November, after being sold for £575,000 - a fraction of the £30 million that was paid for it earlier that year. don't get cyberspace sponsored by SIT* find out who is already online with .aero@www.information.aero the domain of aviation www.fliqhtinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 5-11 NOVEMBER 2002 25
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