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Aviation History
2003
2003 - 2548.PDF
Diar 11-13 November Airport, Port and Terminal Security London, UK jknaggs@iirx.co.uk www.terminalsecurity.info International Aviation Safety and Security London, UK jknaggs@iirx.co.uk www.avsafety.info Transport Terminal Solutions London, UK jknaggs@iirx.co.uk www.terminalsolutions.info 12-14 November 14th Annual Airport Concessions Analysis Conference Calgary, Alberta, Canada Tel: +1 202 293 8500 ext 3023 lwerner@aci-na.org 13-14 November Military Logistics Conference Arlington, Virginia, USA Tel:+1310 5631223 hoodk@ttcus.com 17-18 November Aircraft Asset Management New York, USA Tel:+44 1342 324 353 events@everestevents.co.uk 18-20 November Avsec 2003 Athens, Greece Tel: +1 514 874 0202 pinsonneal@iata.org www.iataonline.com 25-26 November CANSO Asia-Pacific Conference Bangkok, Thailand Tel: +31 23 568 5380 www.canso.org 1-3 December 5th Ground Handling International Conference Prague, Czech Republic Tel:+44 1892 839203 jean@groundhandling.com 7-11 December Dubai Air Show Dubai, United Arab Emirates www.dubaiairshow.com 30 March-1 April 2004 Aerospace Testing Expo Hamburg, Germany Tel:+44 1306 743 744 www.ukintpress.com/ aerospacetesting www.fligfitinternational.co otters flight.international@rbi.co.uk Flight International welcomes letters on any aspect of the aerospace industry. Please write to: The Editor, Flight International, Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Sutton, Surrey SM2 5AS, UK. Or email f light.inter national®^.co.uk The opinions on this page do not neces sarily represent those of the editor. Letters must be no more than 250 words in length. STAFF CUTS Is deregulation working? S G Stott expressed some grave concerns about current safety standards at Olympic Airways in his letter (Flight International, 9-15 September). He points out that with such a drastic reduction in staff (5,000 to 1,850) safety cannot but suffer. Confirmation of his concerns came a month later. The article "Safety audit poses threat to Olympic's game plan" Flight International, 21-27 October) points out that the US Federal Aviation Administration is refusing to upgrade the airline to Category I status based on safety concerns. This hardly comes as a surprise. In the name of deregulation and market competition the airline is enforcing some "revolutionary" reforms. It is refusing to pay for overnight hotels and is demanding that its flightcrews fly the aircraft, with passengers, after having overnighted in the aircraft. It is firing 25% of its pilot workforce. To minimise costs it elected to start at the top of the seniority list. That means that all of its experienced, long and medium range pilots will be fired. There can be no doubt here. Deregulation and competition are having an effect oppo site to that intended. They are destroying infrastructure instead of enhancing it. It is time for those that engineered this free-market reform to step in and perhaps save some lives. Name and address supplied Change this proposal The European Regions Airline Association (ERA) is far more likely to mount a legal challenge against the recently agreed European Union regulation on passenger compensation and assistance than to give it a "cautious welcome" (Flight International, 21-27 October). Europe's regional airlines will be forced to refund entire interconti nental round-trip tickets when bad weather delays a flight from, say, Manchester to Inverness. The eco nomic impacts are indescribable. This flawed regulation should not become law. The European Commissioner for Transport claims that the law will provide fair and proper compensa tion for passengers. In fact, all Europe's air travellers will pay higher fares to over-compensate a very small minority of passengers who are inconvenienced. The European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers have one last chance to reject the agreement. Political compromise should not take priority over understanding the consequences of a regulatory act. A vote against this appalling and com plex proposal will be a vote for sim ple, rational and effective consumer protection law. Mike Ambrose Director General, European Regions Airline Association, Chobham, Surrey, UK A problem of obesity After your original reference to the weight problem on the Lockheed Martin F-35 (Flight International, 25- 31 March), you report three more instances of overweight problems in one issue (Flight International, 14-20 October) - on the Boeing Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche helicopter, Pratt & Whitney's F135 engine for the F- 35, and the proposed weight increase of the Eclipse 500 due to replacement of the Williams FJ-22 engine with the P&W610. The most serious relates to the Comanche, with a proposed $50 million redesign programme designed to achieve a weight reduc tion of 90kg (2001b). The Ecllipse 500 change may be judged to be a sound business deci sion, but the same cannot be said for the Comanche or F-35 pro grammes. Boeing and Lockheed Martin have recently undergone major reorganisations, followed by significant staff reductions. In the process, two things seem to have happened: engineering pro grammes are no longer the product of an advanced engineering pro gramme; and the introduction of "workstations" and computing sys tems seems to have created a cul ture of introspection. This is borne out by the Comanche problem, where it apparently took a brainstorming to come up with solutions. It seems that board members need reminding that engineers are born and are not the product of virtual reality, and that when the development programme starts, innovation stops. D F Newland Stanmore, Middlesex, UK Where are the instructors? Whatever the benefits of the pro posed UK Military Flying Training System may prove to be, where are the contractors expected to find fly ing instructors with suitable back grounds and experience? Existing contractors are using mainly for mer service instructors who are on their second circuits and, before long, most will head for retirement. Without the need for the Royal Air Force to provide its own instructors, presumably the Central Flying School will cease to train new ones and the cupboard will be bare. What will happen then? David Ogivily President, UK Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, London, UK Concorde rumbles on I read with interest your interviews with the eight individuals who played a key role in the introduc tion into service of Concorde (Flight International, 21-27 October). There is no disputing how important these people were in 52 4-10 NOVEMBER 2003 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
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