FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
2003
2003 - 0014.PDF
ROUT • On 30 March, Virgin Express will introduce a daily return ser vice between Brussels and Bordeaux, and a four-times weekly service to Palma, Majorca. The latter route will be served daily from July. • UK regional airline Rybe British European is undertaking a major expansion of its operations at Southampton, adding seven new routes, initially, a four-strong fleet of BAe 146s and Bombardier Dash 8 Q400s will be based at Southampton and the intention is to expand to a dedicated 10- strong fleet when further services are introduced into the network. • Northwest Airlines has begun daily services from Detroit to Nassau in the Bahamas* Luxembourg-based Luxairisto begin weekly services to Dubrovnik, Croatia, on 18 May. Operated by an Embraer ERJ- 145, the service supports the airline's tour operating subsidiary Luxair Tours. • VLM Airlines has inaugurated a scheduled ser vice between Rotterdam and Milan in co-operation with Italian carrier Azzurra Air. Meanwhile, its loss-making route between Rotterdam and Mdnchen- gladbach will cease on 1 March. • Air Canada no-frills sub sidiary Zip will begin daily flights from Calgary and Winnipeg to Montreal and Ottawa in eastern Canada, and Abbotsford and Victoria in the west on 2 February, using Boeing 737s. • AirTran Airways will begin daily Boeing 717 services between Baltimore/ Washington International and Freeport, Grand Bahamas, on 4 March. • Korean Air is expand ing services to China, with the introduction of services from Busan to Xian and from Cheongju to Shanghai. • Belgian charter airline Sobelair has started a three times weekly service between Brussels and Johannesburg operating a 767. • Delta Air Lines will begin daily flights between Atlanta and Vancouver on 17 May, using a Boeing 757. • EasyJet will start daily services between London Gatwick and Inverness from 3 February. • GrupoTacahas begun three weekly flights between Chicago O'Hare and Guatemala City, with continuing service to San Jose, Costa Rica. AIR TRANSPORT COMMUNICATIONS DAVID LEARMOUNT / BRUSSELS Eurocontrol and FAA look ahead to next datalink With VDL-2 not even implemented yet, new generation system already being considered Eurocontrol and the US Federal Aviation Administration say they are already having to consider what controller/pilot datalink communi cations (CPDLC) mode will follow the embryo VHF datalink mode 2 (VDL-2), even though they have not yet implemented the first system. What they both fear is that, having co-ordinated over the implementation of VDL-2, they might diverge at the next stage, according to Eurocontrol Link 2000 programme manager Alex Wandels. Neither organisation has set a target date for the advance to a "NEXCOM" mode because the studies are at an early stage, and they hope to learn lessons from the operational experience of VDL-2, says Wandels. Operational trials with VDL-2 are being carried out by the Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center in the USA and the Maastricht centre in Europe with the co-operation of a group of vol unteer carriers led by Delta Air Lines and Lufthansa. By the time the VDL-2 "first step" air traffic control datalink sys tem has been implemented on both sides of the Atlantic, Eurocontrol and the FAA admit that they will have to know what system they will upgrade to next because VDL-2 can only handle the type of information - albeit much faster - that can be passed by air traffic control voice communica tions and the airborne communica tions and reporting systems (ACARS). This is not enough to make the necessary future gains in air traffic management capacity. Implementation of the Inter national Civil Aviation Organ isation standard VDL-2 datalink will start as soon as Eurocontrol and the FAA can get critical mass airline participation and arrange for the core area air traffic service providers to equip and train in Europe. Eurocontrol expects this to happen in about 2010. Meanwhile, the FAA is already planning for a "seamless transfer" to its "NEXCOM" VDL-3 and Eurocontrol is studying VDL-4 with Honeywell. VDL-4 is capable of taking air traffic management into a new era, in which pilots could be enabled to arrange their own separation because they could be given the quality of information that con trollers have about the traffic in their vicinity. Sweden wants to adopt it without going through the mode 2 and 3 stages, but Eurocontrol argues that while it may be good enough already for the quieter skies of Scandinavia, the technology is not yet capable of coping with the high-density traffic in Europe's core states. DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS China re-opens its doors to Taiwan Taiwanese carriers are preparing to make their first flights to China in over 50 years amid an easing of ten sions between the two countries. China considers Taiwan a rene gade province and there are no diplomatic relations or non-stop flights between the two sides, although airlines from Hong Kong and Macau do carry passengers between China and Taiwan through their respective home bases. Last month, however, Taiwan said it was willing to allow its air lines to serve Shanghai via Hong Kong or Macau during the lunar new year holiday period between the end of January and early February. Chinese carriers will still not be allowed to serve Taiwan, however. Far Eastern Air Transport was the first Taiwanese airline to win approval for a handful of indirect Far Eastern Air Transport was the first airline to win approval to fly to China charter flights. It will operate Boeing 757s on a Taipei-Macau- Shanghai return routing between 27-29 January, and again between 5-7 February. Five other Taiwanese airlines later won approval for services to Shanghai from either Taipei or Kaohsiung - with brief transit stops in Hong Kong or Macau - namely China Airlines, EVA Air, Mandarin Airlines, TransAsia Airways and UNI Air. The carriers hope the temporary introduction of indirect charter flights will lead to regular services, eventually without stopovers in third points. 12 14-20 JANUARY 2003 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
