FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
2004
2004-09 - 2423.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT SALES GRAHAM WARWICK / WASHINGTON DC Embraer finishes year on a high Order bonanza lifts Brazilian manufacturer, although continuing difficulties at US Airways take gloss off record quarter With a launch order for 15 Embraer 175s from Air Canada, a letter of intent from Ecuador's TAME for seven Embraer 170/190s and a likely China Eastern Airlines deal for 10 Harbin Embraer ERJ-145s, the Brazilian manufacturer is end ing the year strongly. But US Airways' continuing diffi culties took the gloss off a record third quarter, which saw Embraer's net sales more than double over the same period last year, to $937 million, and net income increase almost fivefold, to $114 million. Higher deliveries - 28 ERJ-145 fam ily aircraft and 13 Embraer 170s - drove the increase. But a rise in inventories and accounts receiv able tied to US Airways' bankruptcy pushed the company's net cash down 27% from the previous quar ter to $220 million. Although Embraer 170 deliveries under an 85-aircraft order were sus pended when US Airways' filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September, Embraer continues to provide temporary financing for seven of the 22 aircraft already delivered. US Airways is paying the leases on time and is not in default, says Antonio Luiz Pizaroo Manso, Embraer chief financial officer. In addition, four of the 14 air craft that were scheduled for deliv ery to US Airways this quarter have been completed and painted and are being held in inventory pend ing the outcome of the airline's reorganisation. The aircraft still in production have been redirected to other customers, Manso says. Despite the new orders booked since the end of the third quarter, Embraer is sticking to its reduced forecast of 145 commercial-aircraft deliveries for this year and next. Delivery of the 15 firm plus 15 option 73-seat Embraer 175s to Air Canada will begin next July, ahead of the November delivery of the first of 45 firm and 45 option Embraer 190s ordered in September. TAME, meanwhile, plans to acquire two Embraer 170LRs and one Embraer 190, plus four options. Manso also reveals the Brazilian and Chinese presidents, meeting earlier this month, agreed "a good intention" to complete a contract for 10 Harbin Embraer ERJ-145s for China Eastern. This will provide a lifeline to the Chinese assembly line, which will deliver the last of six aircraft to China Southern in January. The new deals have yet to be added to the manufacturer's backlog, which stood at 146 ERJ-145 family aircraft and 289 Embraer 170/190s. MERGER China moves in final phase The final phase of a state- backed consolidation exercise involving the takeover of two smaller carriers by China Southern Airlines is nearly com plete, with the major airline agreeing to acquire 16.9 billion yuan ($2 billion) worth of assets from its parent. Guangzhou-based China Southern will acquire the assets of China Northern Airlines and Xinjiang Airlines. The deal will increase China Southern's fleet by more 50% to 214 aircraft. Shenyang-based China Northern and Urumqi-based Xinjiang are wholly owned by CSAHC, while China Southern is 50.3%-owned by CSAHC. CSAHC acquired the smaller carriers in 2002 in line with gov ernment efforts to consolidate the crowded airline sector in China, and China Northern and Xinjiang now operate all their services under the China Southern flight code. China Southern has long planned to take over the airlines. It has agreed to acquire their air craft and other assets worth 16.9 billion yuan, largely by assuming debts of 15 billion yuan. SAFETY MAX Kl NGSLEY-JONES / LONDON UK CAA steps up campaign in bid to eliminate runway incursions In its drive to raise runway incur sion prevention awareness, the UK Civil Aviation Authority's flight operations department has pro duced a communication notice which bundles advice and reminders on operating procedures at or near airfields. The document (FODCOM25) is part of a long-running CAA project to increase awareness of the dan gers of runway incursions and is part of a wider initiative that also involves UK National Air Traffic Services and Eurocontrol Flight International, 26 October-1 November). The CAA says the new docu ment draws together information from a number of sources to remind airport operators and flightcrews of the procedures and phraseology that they should be using to help reduce the number of incursions. "It is a part of the much bigger CAA project also covering air traffic control, airside drivers and airport management," says the authority. Overseen by the UK Runway Incursion Steering Group, the "drip-feed" awareness cam paign recently saw a series of poster 33% of an runway incursions involve conditional line-up clearances be careful - don't issue or accept an unclear clearance | Conditional clearances is one of the focuses of the poster campaign campaigns, the current focus of which is on airside driver safety. The first section of the new doc ument, covering flightcrew best practice, has been drawn together from a number of sources. It com prises advice and reminders about taxiing operations covering issues such as planning, briefings, cross- monitoring of clearances, obser vance of standard operating proce dures (SOP), use of logo lights to increase visibility, and the adop tion of a sterile flightdeck while manoeuvring on the ground. A second component covers radiotelephony (RT) phraseology and procedures, which the CAA says has been taken straight from the existing CAP413 RT document. Issues covered include differences between phraseology in different states, conditional clearances (ie where an instruction becomes valid after another event has occurred), observance of SOPs, read-back requirements, taxi instructions (such as different uses of "hold short"), pre-departure manoeu vring and runway vacating. 10 23-29 NOVEMBER 2004 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.fliqhtinternational.com
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
