FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
2003
2003 - 0853.PDF
BUSINESS BAIL-OUT US airlines awarded emergency war funding Congress has approved $3.1 bil lion in assistance for US airlines as part of an emergency spend ing bill worth nearly $80 billion to fund the Iraq war effort. The bill gives carriers breaks on security costs and provides benefits for more than 100,000 laid-off indus try workers. The relief package suspends passenger and airline security fees from 1 June to 30 September. It also provides $2.4 billion in security-related grants for airlines, of which the first $100 million is to reimburse car riers for cockpit door reinforcing. The remaining funds will be dis tributed based on each airline's share of security costs paid to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). In addition, the legislation extends government-backed airline war risk insurance for a year. It also provides an addi tional 26 weeks of unemploy ment benefits for laid-off airline workers, estimated to be worth $200 million. US airlines hailed the legisla tion as much-needed relief, although it fell short of providing the $9 billion "tax holiday" the industry sought at the Iraq war's outset. Also included in the Iraq war funding bill is a provision stating that US military cargo contracts cannot go to foreign-owned air lines and redefining what constitutes foreign ownership - moves that could have an impact on DHL Airways. The bill redefines foreign own ership in a manner that appears to attempt to reclassify DHL Airways, a Chicago-based com pany that operates aircraft in North America for German cargo giant DHL Worldwide Express network, as non-US owned. US cargo carriers FedEx and United Parcel Service say the legislation could complicate the planned DHL/Airborne Express merger. RESTRUCTURING ALEXANDER CAMPBELL/LONDON EADS merges operations to shift defence focus Consolidation of military units aimed at winning systems integration work EADS is amalgamating the bulk of its defence operations into a single division to better position the com pany to bid for major systems inte gration contracts. Defence and Security Systems will combine the manufacturer's Milit ary Aircraft and Defence & Civil Sys tems units, under current Defence & Civil Systems head Thomas Enders. While EADS says the main aim of the move is not to cut costs, it will ultimately "provide a better cost base" and staff numbers may be cut. EADS hopes the reorganisation will boost its position against rivals, including Boeing, for large systems integration contracts on future pro grammes such as unmanned com bat air vehicles and European com bat aircraft. A still unnamed "systems house" will be created by EADS to combine the telecommuni cations and systems operations of Defence and Security Systems. Enders: creating a better cost base Of the company's €29.9 billion ($32.2 billion) revenue in 2002, €6 billion came from defence sales. EADS believes this will, grow rapidly as projects move into large-scale production, balancing the continu ing decline in commercial sales. EADS predicts its overall sales this year will remain at the same level as 2002. With no recovery expected in the commercial aviation market before late 2004 at the earliest, according to EADS chief executives Philippe Camus and Rainer Hert- rich, the defence business will be the main source of growth next year, with revenues forecast to rise to €9 billion. In the longer term, EADS aims to get 60% of revenues from Airbus and 30% from military sales. In 2002 the split was roughly 65% Airbus to 20% military. The new division includes most of EADS's defence business, with a forecast revenue this year of €5 bil lion, rising to €7.5 billion next year. Military space operations remain with the Space division, accounting for only 10% of its space business. The move follows Boeing's deci sion to merge its military, space and communications operations. EADS is following Boeing's lead, saying: "We are doing it for the same rea sons...this is not an industry first." Boeing and DynCorp team for military deals Boeing and DynCorp have formed a joint venture to bid for US mili tary support contracts. Aviation Technical Services, owned equally by Boeing Aerospace Support and DynCorp Technical Services, has submitted its bid for the US Navy's T-45TS training system contractor logistics support programme and will compete for the maintenance contract at the US Army's Fort Rucker aviation training centre. Boeing is the incumbent con tractor for T-45TS support, while DynCorp has the Fort Rucker con tract, but the two companies believe their chances of winning the follow-on work will be improved if they combine their skills. Raytheon Aerospace and Sikorsky Aircraft are expected to compete for both contracts. Raytheon Aerospace has been majority-owned by Veritas Capital since its divestiture in 2001, while Sikorsky acquired aftermarket spe cialist Derco Holdings last year. Aviation Technical Services plans to combine DynCorp's service experience and cost structure with Boeing's technical capability. The manufacturer produces the US Navy's T-45 Goshawk advanced jet trainer, and its CH-47 Chinook and AH-64 Apache are among the US Army helicopter types maintained under the Fort Rucker contract. The new venture believes support ing the upgraded CH-47F and AH-64D, and the Boeing Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche now under development, will require increased technical capability from the winning contractors. JOINT VENTURE Shanghai Sikorsky gets airborne Light-helicopter joint venture Shanghai Sikorsky Aircraft (SSAC) has begun operations after receiving approval from Chinese authorities. The ven ture between Sikorsky and Shanghai Little Eagle Science and Technology (SLEC) has received a letter of Intent for Its first sale, a Shen 4T single-tur bine helicopter- a licence- produced Schweizer 333 - for delivery later this year. Negotiations are under way for 2003 deliveries of all three models to be produced by SSAC, including the Shen 2B and 3A piston-single heli copters - licence-produced versions of the Schweizer 300CBi and 300C, respectively. 26 22-28 APRIL 2003 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.fllghtinternatlonal.com
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
