FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
2003
2003 - 2850.PDF
MARKETPLACE • China's Sichuan Airlines has ordered four Airbus A319s to be delivered from next year The International Aero Engines V2500-powered aircraft are part of a 30-aircraft order signed in April by China Aviation Supplies Import & Export Group. • International Lease Finance will supply two Airbus A340-600s to Iberia on 12-year leases under a recently firmed-up agreement. The aircraft will be delivered from February 2005. • BAE Systems Regional Aircraft has leased two 68-seat ATP turboprops to Philippine domestic airline Asian Spirit. The ATPs will be delivered from this month, replacing NAMC YS- 11s. Ireland's City Jet has taken delivery of an additional BAe 146-200 on lease from BAE Systems Regional Aircraft. • Focus Aviation has placed 10 Boeing 737-200s with AeroContinente of Peru on behalf of El-Salvador-based TACA International Airlines. AeroContinente also operates Boeing 757s and 767s. AIR TRANSPORT CARGO KIERAN DALY / LONDON Volga-Dnepr firms up its scheduled freight plan Carrier to start operations with two Boeing 747-200FS, adding one a year to 2010 Russian outsize freight specialist Volga-Dnepr will in April launch a scheduled operation branded Air Bridge Cargo (ABC) which, it believes, will account for 70% of revenues within a decade. The airline is acquiring two Boeing 747-200Fs and expects to add around one a year through to 2010, with more than 20 mid-size Russian freighters for feeder services. Initial routes will comprise Luxembourg-Moscow Domode- dovo-Shanghai and Luxembourg- Novosibirsk-Tianjin, China. Rapid growth in South-East Asian and south-east European markets via the initial two Russian hubs, plus Khabarovsk, is then planned. ABC will loosely co-operate with Cargolux. Operations from Khabarovsk to New York, Chicago and other US cities are planned. Volga-Dnepr hired former Atlas Air executives Stanley Wraight and Peter Yap to create the new opera tion after concluding there was no suitable expertise in Russia. Group president Alexey Isaikin says: "ABC is synergetic with our core business. Most customers will be the same companies, so we use the same sales and marketing net work." He is unconcerned by the difficulties faced by all-cargo, long- haul carriers in recent years, saying: "Their strategies were wrong. Airlines were formed with strategies that were not for the long-term. People had a strategy of developing an operation a little bit and then closing it down. We are determined to develop a long-term business. "The crucial thing is the profes sionalism of the management. For the last three years I have spent 50% of my time with head-hunters and dealing with personnel." Finance is coming mostly in the form of loans, but Isaikin adds: "We are also conducting negotia tions with potential investors - who are also potential customers." The first two aircraft are coming from Alitalia, although Volga- Dnepr will not confirm this. It says Boeing is asking too high a price for new 747-400Fs, but it may acquire freight-converted 747-400s. SEE THE FLIGHT INTERVIEW P27 "Thanks to the FF MIRROR in SAS' s cabin, I did not lose my key case in the bin!" "I travel overseas two or three times a month. I use Scandinavian Airlines System ten times a year. Because overhead stowage bins are set up quite high in the aircraft cabin, I have to grope around inside them to check if I have left anything behind. This was the case when I took SAS, from Narita to Copenhagen a year ago. After the plane landed at Copenhagen Airport, I groped about the overhead bin as usual and couldn't find anything. However, when 1 was standing in the aisle waiting to deplane, I happend to catch a glimpse of the keycase reflected in the mirror above. As I stared at it, I realised that itwas my key case! Although I had put it in my bag, it had fallen out.I hadn't realised that there was a mirror in the bin. The mirror was very helpful. " AZDENCO..LTD. Mr. TANIGUCHI see everywhere in the bin SAS's Cabin the first in the world FF MIRROR AIR I^AmV Tel 81-48-268-5311 Fax 81-48-268-5314 Ly-,nr.w IV,-'I I I J 4-1-9 Kamiaokinishi Kawaguchi Saitama Japan WWW. K!-Tny.CO.jp AIR TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT EMMA KELLY / PERTH Melbourne incident prompts union to renew airspace fight Australian air traffic control union Civil Air has renewed calls for the government to suspend its airspace modernisation after an incident involving a Virgin Blue Boeing 737- 400 and a Cessna 421 near Mel bourne last week. The calls come as the air traffic services provider accuses the union of distorting the facts about safety incidents. In the incident, on 3 December, the crew of the 737 received a reso lution advisory (RA) from the air craft's traffic collision avoidance sys tem (TCAS) when separation was lost with the Cessna 421 as the 737 descended. An air ambulance was nearby but not involved, says air traffic services provider Airservices Australia, and all aircraft were known to air traffic control. Civil Air says the incident is a result of the latest stage of the National Airspace System (NAS), which introduces Class E airspace and a greater reliance on see-and- avoid procedures. The union claims the 737 and Cessna were 20s from a mid-air collision. Airservices says it is too early release details. It adds that TCAS RAs are not irregular and a spate of separation breakdowns earlier this year, before the imple mentation of NAS, prompted an investigation. Airservices and the Australian Transportation Safety Bureau are examining this incident. Civil Air says NAS reduces safety standards and claims that in its first few days there were more than 20 incidents involving light aircraft straying into major city flightpaths. Aircraft flying above 10,000ft (3,000m) must have transponders, but the union says controllers are reporting around four transponder failures an hour, while pilots are using incorrect frequencies, as maps no longer provide frequency information. Airservices chief executive Bernie Smith accuses Civil Air of a "gross distortion of the facts". Airservices is investigating nine incidents in NAS airspace, the bulk of them not serious safety occurrences. 12 9-15 DECEMBER 2003 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
