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Aviation History
2004
2004-09 - 1046.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT LAUNCH DARREN SHANNON / WASHINGTON DC Virgin America ready for take-off US domestic low-cost venture set to begin operations in mid-2005 with fleet of at least 33 Airbus A320s Richard Branson's US domestic low-cost venture will operate a fleet of at least 33 aircraft from the Airbus A320 family, and holds options on a further 72. The airline, now officially named Virgin America, will take delivery of the first aircraft early next year, indicating a mid-2005 launch, says chief executive Frederick Reid. Its corporate offices are in New York and the carrier will have its operational headquar ters in San Francisco (Flight International, 16-21 June). Of the firm orders, IS A320s will be leased from GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS). The remaining firm fleet consists of 11 A319s and a further seven A320s. All the air craft will be CFM International CFM56-5B-powered. Virgin America has not applied for its air operator's certificate, wait ing instead until it has a "highly adequate" amount of equity before approaching the US Department of Transportation (DoT) for operating rights. "The goal is to be well capi talised; we know it is a rough mar ket," says Reid. Although he declines to be specific, he says that "we want a highly adequate capital base, and I know the DoT will also be looking at how much we have". The airline's citizenship will be solidly compliant with current US ownership restrictions, according to Reid. "This airline will be very much 'born in the USA', despite its illustrious foreign investor. "By that, I mean an ownership structure that includes US majority equity investors with 75% voting rights, fully consistent with US laws, and run by a US management team," he adds. Branson for several years has lobbied the US government to relax its foreign ownership restric tions from 24.9% of a domestic car rier's voting stock and 49.9% of its total equity. However, despite sup port from the current White House administration, this appears unlikely for at least another year. CUT-BACKS GRAHAM WARWICK / WASHINGTON DC Song hits low note as season ends Delta Air Lines' low-fares unit Song is to cut flights by 25% in September to match reduced demand after the peak summer season ends. Boeing 757s taken out of service will undergo routine maintenance, and Delta says the unit's schedule will return to normal in October. Song's steep reduction comes after a planned expan sion was put on hold while Delta completes a six-month strategic review ordered by Gerald Grinstein when he took over as chief executive in January. Routes affected will include flights from Los Angeles to Orlando and Tampa in Florida, the airline says. In a message to employees, Delta stressed the move was not unusual and "should not be taken as a signal". New York-based Song has just installed in-seat live tele vision across its fleet of 757s and has begun an expansion to include on-demand pay-per-view movies. AIRCRAFT DEVELOPMENT Supply snags delay first flight of An-148 The first flight of Antonov's new regional jet, the An-148, has slipped from July to September because of a delay in the supply of components. Antonov general director Vladimir Korol says the outer wing sections were late being delivered from the KhGAPP plant in Kharkov to the Antonov experimental factory in Kiev, which is building the An-148 proto types. The sections finally arrived on 7 June. The completion of the first set of ZMKB Progress D-436-148 turbofans for the prototype is also behind schedule. Although Moscow-based MMPP Salyut delivered its components to the final assembly line at Motor-Sich in Zaporozhie in April, another supplier - UMPO - missed the deadline for the parts it builds. As a result Motor-Sich had to initiate a contingency plan and manufacture in-house some components it had outsourced to UMPO. Completion of the second An-148 is still planned for October/ November, and the third, a static test airframe, for December. Series production will be undertaken at two plants - VASO in Voronezh, Russia and KhGAPR VASO will build An-148s for the Russian market, with Aeroflot and Volga-Dnepr seen as potential customers. The future of the khGAPP line in Ukraine remains in question, as it is overloaded with An-140 and An-74 production, which could see An-148 assembly being moved to the Aviant plant in Kiev. • Russia's third largest airline, GUAP Pulkovo, is to take up to 10 An-148- 100s and five Tupolev Tu-204-300 airliners, with first deliveries next year. The aircraft will be provided via llyushin-Finance. The airline had been considering an order for up to 10 Tupolev Tu-334s, but has followed KrasAir in dropping the twinjet from its evaluation. GROWTH? First we were selected for the electrical power management. Then we took on the actuation for the unique vertical lift system. Then the canopy frame, standby flight display, components, weapons management system, airborne file server and video recorder. Step by step, we've built more of the machine. The program may grow to 5,000 aircraft. But Smiths involvement has grown even faste SMITHS PERFORM www.smiths-aerospace.com smiths www.flightinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 22-28 JUNE 2004 11
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