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Aviation History
2004
2004-09 - 2507.PDF
mm THAI GO-AHEAD Thai Airways International has secured in-principle approval from Thailand's cabinet to order eight Airbus and six Boeing widebody aircraft, but the coun try's prime minister is threatening to delay a formal signing of the Airbus deal due to a trade spat with the European Union. The Airbus portion of the deal is to cover six A380s for delivery in 2008 and 2009, one additional A340-500 for delivery in 2007 and one additional A340-600 for delivery in 2008. The Boeing portion of the deal is to cover six 777-200ERs. MYTRAVEL WIN UK tour operator MyTravel Group - parent of MyTravel Airways - won its court case last week to initiate contingency restructuring plans, which will enable it to pro ceed with a shake-up without the approval of its bondholders. MyTravel Group sought court intervention after its bondholders turned down a deal to swap £800 million ($1.5 billion) of the com pany's £1.3 billion debt for an equity stake in the organisation. The decision allows MyTravel to convene a meeting of sharehold ers and creditors on 13 December to discuss alternative restructuring plans. MYAIR FLIES MyAir, a new Italian low-cost car rier which started operations earlier this month, has been set up by a group of former senior managers of the defunct Volare Group. The airline is operating three Airbus A320s from its main base at Orio al Serio airport near Milan to Naples, Brindisi and Catania, in southern Italy. An additional five A320s will join the fleet next year. Volare sus pended flights in November and has now declared insolvency. ANA EXPANDS All Nippon Airways (ANA) is expanding its presence in central Japan by taking a majority stake in Nagoya-based operator Nakanihon Airlines. Nakanihon recently became a 55%-owned subsidiary of ANA through the purchase of shares from an affili ate of Nagoya Railroad. ANA already held a 20% stake. AIR TRANSPORT INVESTIGATION LEITHEN FRANCIS / SINGAPORE & DAVID LEARMOUNT / LONDON Chinese CRJs grounded CAAC takes precautionary move after crash to carry out investigations on fleet Bombardier said last week it had no reason to believe that the Yunnan Airlines CRJ200 that crashed shortly after take-off from Baotou in northern China suffered any technical faults. The manufacturer confirmed, however, that the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) had asked Chinese opera tors of CRJ200S and CRJ700s to keep them grounded until precau tionary inspections have been car ried out by the authority. After taking off from Baotou - 500km (300 miles) west of Beijing - bound for Shanghai at 08:20 local time on 21 November, the aircraft crashed into a small frozen lake in a park about 2km from the airport. All six crew and 47 passengers were killed, along with two people on the ground. It took three days for the flight data recorder (FDR) and cockpit voice recorder to be recovered, and they have been taken to Beijing. A team of three Bombardier techni cians are on site to help the CAAC There were no survivors among the 53 people on board the CRJ with its investigation, along with a representative of Canada's Transportation Safety Board. The aircraft that crashed (B-3072), was powered by two General Electric CF34-3Bls and was delivered to Yunnan in November 2002. CRJs with Shanghai Airlines and Shangdong Airlines were also affected by the grounding: Yunnan Airlines and Shanghai Airlines each have five CRJ200s, while Shandong Airlines has nine CRJ200s and two CRJ700s. Last week, the authority could not say how long it would be before it would be cleared to fly, but Bombardier did not expect the grounding to last for long. The Yunnan accident is the worst to befall the CRJ since it entered service in 1992. Over 950 of the 50-seat CRJ models have been delivered worldwide and four have been written off in accidents, of which three resulted in fatalities. (This excludes a flight-test crash.) OUTLOOK Embraer 2006 forecast reflects fall in demand for 50-seat regionals Regional jet manufacturer Embraer has set its projected 2006 deliveries at the same 145-aircraft level expected this year and already fore cast for next year, reflecting the drop in sales of 50-seat airliners. The Brazilian manufacturer has substantially reduced its 20-year forecast for deliveries in the 30- to 60-seat segment to 1,950 aircraft, down from the 2,600 units pro jected last year as the North American and European markets slow down. Beginning next year, the 70- to 110-seat Embraer 170/190 family will account for more than half the company's fore cast deliveries. Apart from a slight shift to the larger-capacity segment, Embraer's 20-year forecast for the 61- to 90- seat and 91- to 120-seat markets remains essentially unchanged from last year, at 2,850 and 3,000 aircraft respectively. Embraer's 2005-14 market out look is for 650 deliveries in the 30- to 60-seat segment (down from 1,150 in last year's 2004-13 fore cast); 1,300 deliveries in the 61- to 90-seat category (unchanged); and 1,250 in the 91- to 120-seat sector (also unchanged). The company's forecast for 2015-24 is for 1,300 deliveries in the 30- to 60-seat segment (down from 1,450 12 months ago); 1,550 in the 61- to 90-seat category (down 50); and 1,750 in the 91- to 120-seat sector (up 50). Meanwhile, Canada and Brazil have pledged to work towards reaching an accord that would pre vent future disputes over regional aircraft subsidies. Embraer's fore cast underlines that funding for Bombardier's new CSeries 110-130 seater will be the next issue. During a meeting held last week in Brazil, Canadian prime minister Paul Martin and Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva "agreed to work towards an early agreement that may pave the way to further progress in this area", says the prime minister's office. Canada and Brazil have been negotiating since early 2003 over the sensitive issue of subsidies to Bombardier and Embraer, respec tively. Both manufacturers have taken their complaints about claim ed subsidies provided to the other to the World Trade Organisation on several occasions. Neither has launched trade retaliation. 14 30 NOVEMBER -6 DECEMBER 2004 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
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