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Aviation History
2003
2003 - 0139.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT AIR TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT DAVID LEARMOUNT / SWANWICK Scottish control moves southward Prestwick centre will be first "user-driven system" and will take charge of part of London Flight Information Region The new Scottish air traffic control the New Scottish Centre because (ATC) centre at Prestwick will its control area will extend south- extend its airspace coverage south- wards by 150-200km into England ward by 150km (80nm) into the - "approximately as far as present London Flight Information Manchester", says Chisholm - and Region (FIR), says UK National Air the Manchester terminal area con- Traffic Services chief operating offi- trol centre will move to Prestwick. cer Colin Chisholm. Prestwick will be "the first user- Meanwhile, its new-era air traffic driven system" into operation management (ATM) systems will since NATS became a public/pri- be provided by a Spanish consor- vate partnership two years ago, tium and the US aerospace com- says Everitt. pany Raytheon, says chief execu- Whereas the London Area tive Richard Everitt. Control Centre (LACC) at Planned to open during the Swanwick - which went opera- 2008-09 low season, the New tional a year ago this week - was a Prestwick Centre "will be the start major upgrade of the existing point for a new [ATM] system", National Airspace System (NAS) says Everitt. It is no longer called software rehosted on modern DOWNGRADING IGOR SALINGER / SKOPJE Political changes mean MAT ALLIANCES AARON KARP / WASHINGTON DC l T may have to lower Macedonian flag US carriers dig in for codeshare fight with DoT Delta Air Lines, Continental Airlines and Northwest Airlines are preparing for a potentially pro tracted regulatory battle with the US Department of Transportation (DoT) over their proposed code- sharing agreement. The airlines plan to implement their three- way alliance without adhering to certain conditions imposed by the DoT, which says it will chal lenge the legality of the unprece dented pact. The DoT conditionally sanc tioned the alliance on 17 January, but placed numerous restrictions on the arrangement. The alliance carriers last week declared these conditions "unacceptable" and "above and beyond" US anti-trust law. They say they will move for ward with the alliance, adhering to less restrictive terms set forth by the US Department of Justice (DoJ), but ignoring some of the DoT's requirements. The alliance carriers say it is nec essary to go forward with their plans to remain competitive with US Airways and United Airlines, which had a codesharing deal cleared by the DoT last year. hardware, Prestwick's system will comprise commercial off-the-shelf packages. Impressed with Spain's new ATM systems, NATS is now working with a consortium led by Spanish ATM agency AENA and Madrid-based information technology company Indra, together with partner Raytheon. Prestwick will be one of the first European centres designed from the outset in co-operation with Eurocontrol. Meanwhile, Chisholm believes that there were just five risk-bear ing airprox events (near misses) in UK airspace last year - a 10-year low - although data has not yet been fully analysed. Only one of MAT Macedonian Airlines may lose its flag carrier status due to its level of foreign ownership combined with recent political changes in the region. According to the Macedonian daily newspaper Vest, the recently appointed head of the Macedonian Civil Aviation Authority (UCVP), llir Mehmedi, requested in December that the contract giving MAT flag car rier status be cancelled. UCVP claims that when MAT's flag carrier status was granted in November 2001, the The DoT plans to initiate a for mal enforcement proceeding to challenge the three-airline alliance, which would be the largest- ever domestic US arrangement of its kind. The DoT says it "intends aggressively to enforce its statutory authority to challenge the s transaction and require such condi tions as it deems necessary to - preserve competition", r The DoT enforcement proceed- i ing is the first step in what the :, alliance airlines acknowledge could 1 be a long and bitter legal battle. The airlines have vowed to appeal these events might have been LACC-related, he adds. But from May to mid-August, the average UK air traffic control delay rose from 1.5min per move ment to 2.6min, while the rest of Europe improved. Chisholm admits this was caused by a controller shortage. Swanwick uses a tactical and a planning controller at each work station, whereas at its predecessor centre, West Drayton, there was one tactical controller per workstation and a supervisor for several sectors. Recruitment and training should solve the shortage within three years, Chisholm estimates. airline was "owned by foreign capital". It has also questioned the level of debts MAT has with Eurocontrol, Skopje Airport and UCVP itself. UCVP recently cancelled licences of seven of the 17 Yugoslav pilots that are fly ing for MAT and instructed the carrier to employ Macedonian crews. Set up in May 1994, MAT operates two Boeing 737-300s on lease- purchase from Yugoslav carrier JAT MAT implemented a four-year business plan in 2001. to the US federal court over the issue if the DoT's ruling is not in their favour. Delta chief executive Leo Mullin calls the DoT's conditions "intru sive and constraining". Conditions the airlines found untenable include the DoT having the right to confiscate what it deems to be "underutilised gates" at the carriers' hub airports; the DoT's plan to limit permanently the scope of their codesharing; and restrictions on the carriers' ability to sign joint contracts with corporate customers. www.fliqhtinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 28 JANUARY - 3 FEBRUARY 2003 9
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