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Aviation History
2002
2002 - 3286.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT RESTRUCTURING Regionals fear United knock-on Bombardier and three US regionals hope restructuring at United Airlines will not affect the carrier's regional jet plans. United Express is committed to taking an extra Bombardier CRJ every 4.5 days over the next five quarters, roughly dou bling its previous delivery rate. But the bankruptcy threat at United, mounting losses at its Express division and the possi ble launch of a new low-fares unit threaten this expansion. A Chapter 11 bankruptcy pro tection filing could force United to downsize and release it from CRJ commitments. A new mainline pilot contract authorises at least another 150 CRJs, eliminating a scope clause and freeing United Express to add all 118 CRJs on firm order, plus many of the 80 on conditional order for 2004. But the contract also opens the possi bility of relaunching United Shuttle, a low-fares carrier on short-haul routes before it shut down last year Bombardier and United Express partners Air Wisconsin, Atlantic Coast Airlines (ACA) and SkyWest Airlines claim United is committed to making CRJs a focal point of its planned restructuring and, if anything, bankruptcy could hasten route transition to regional operators. Bombardier has the most at stake, with 85 United CRJs set for delivery in its fiscal year from next February. At its current pro duction rate, United will account for 45% of all CRJ deliveries over the next 15 months. SkyWest chief financial offi cer Brad Rich says United still wants the 35 CRJs the former is due to add by early 2004, but says he is in talks with other potential partners. Air Wisconsin has forged a new feeder deal with AirTran Airways. ACA plans to add seven CRJs this quarter, 35 next year and 12 more in early 2004. The carrier denies it is in talks with potential partners, but says Delta Connection expansion is possible. Two of BMI's A330s are to head for South Africa for use by SAA next month instead of crossing the Atlantic STRATEGY MAX KINGSLEY-JONES / LONDON BMI suspends Washington service in SAA leasing deal Two of the carrier's A330-200s will begin operating from Johannesburg next month change and the route will be reacti vated next year. Daily Manchester- Chicago services will continue. BMI has three A330-200s, two of which are leased from Inter national Lease Finance and deployed on the transatlantic ser vices. The third aircraft, leased from Singapore Aircraft Leasing Enterprise, has been idle at BMI British Midland is dropping one of its two transatlantic services after securing a short-term lease deal with South African Airways (SAA) for two of its three Airbus A330-200S. The airline says it will suspend daily services between Manchester and Washington DC next month, but insists the move is a seasonal DELAY SAA joins A340-600 queue South African Airways (SAA) has become the fourth A340-500/600 cus tomer to suffer a delay to its delivery schedule, with the arrival of its new A340-600s slipping to the end of January. The airline ordered nine A340-600s in March as part of a major deal for 41 Airbus aircraft, which included 26 A319/A320s and six A340-300s. SAA was able to secure an early delivery schedule for its A340-600s by taking over whitetail -600s that were being built against a cancelled Swissair con tract, and the first aircraft were due arrive in October. Deliveries were rescheduled for December and have now been delayed by another month to the last week in January to give extra time to complete the configuration of the aircraft. The lease of BMI A330-200s next month will enable SAA to start line training of Airbus crews ahead of the A340-600's delayed introduction. "It's a minor delay giving us sufficient time to ensure proper configuration to SAA's specification," says Airbus. The A340-600s will initially operate services from Johannesburg to Frankfurt and Hong Kong. The third aircraft is due to arrive in February. Virgin Atlantic was launch customer for the A340-600, with deliveries of its initial batch of aircraft starting in July and running about a month later than scheduled. Cathay Pacific is due to become the second -600 operator at the end of this month, when its first aircraft arrives around two months late. Deliveries of the first A340-500s to launch customer Air Canada are due in March, four months behind schedule. Manchester for a year awaiting an expansion of BMI's long-haul ser vices. This has been stalled by the lack of progress in a renegotiation of the US-UK bilateral that prevents BMI operating to the USA from London Heathrow. The SAA deal is a semi-wet-lease contract which will see BMI provid ing training captains to operate the aircraft with SAA co-pilots and a flight-training programme for SAA. The two aircraft will join SAA next month, one on a five-month lease and the other on a year's contract, to operate services between Johannesburg and Milan and Paris. BMI chief executive Austin Reid says: "BMI's advance bookings on flights to Washington DC are reflecting the seasonality of the route and fall short of an economic operation during the winter period. We came to the conclusion that a better option would be to meet the needs of SAA for a second A330 and to suspend the Manchester- Washington service." Reid says while Manchester- Washington DC services will resume in June, "we cannot ignore indefinitely the financial implications of sustaining schedul ed services from Manchester without an equal opportunity to serve Heathrow". 10 12-18 NOVEMBER 2002 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
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