Airframers – Page 1520
-
News
British Midland expects to make record profits for 1997
British Midland (BM) expects to return record profits for 1997, after having successfully fended off growing competition from low-fare airlines, and benefited from the industrial dispute at British Airways. The news comes as the airline reveals plans for head-on competition with BAon the London-Manchester route. BM expects to ...
-
News
Fairchild Dornier posts first result
Fairchild Dornier has revealed its financial figures for the first time, claiming strong net profits of just over $70 million for its latest 1996/7 year to the end of September. The privately owned US company, which has given out almost no financial information since taking over the troubled Dornier ...
-
News
PIA chairman begins mission to restore 'financial discipline'
New Pakistan International Airlines(PIA) chairman Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has set about a clean sweep of the carrier's finances, taking heavy write-offs in the latest 1996/7 accounts and pledging to "restore operational and financial discipline". The accounts, which show a heavy Rs4.8 billion ($110 million)net loss in the year to ...
-
News
Rocky Mountain high
Guy Norris/VANCOUVER We pull out of a 3g turn over Garibaldi Lake and fly towards the Black Tusk rock. The immense flanks of the mountain rear up in front and, for a moment, it seems as if my flight with the Canadian Forces Snowbirds aerobatic display team is about ...
-
News
747-400IGW gets go-ahead
Guy Norris/SEATTLE The Boeing board has given its civil-aircraft sales team authority to offer a growth version of the 747-400 with a maximum take-off weight of 413,140kg and a range of up to 14,245km (7,700nm). The decision is the first significant growth step for the aircraft since the ...
-
News
737 production recovery disappoints Boeing
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Boeing "is not seeing the improvement anticipated" for its production-recovery programme on the Next Generation 737, admits Commercial Airplanes Group president Ron Woodard. The number of jobs behind schedule have stayed essentially static since October, despite Boeing's efforts to "rebalance" the 737 production line. Woodard ...
-
News
Guarantee allows Garuda to receive 737s at last
Garuda Indonesia will finally begin taking delivery of six completed Boeing 737-300/500s parked in the USA, following a long-awaited guarantee from the Indonesian finance ministry on lease financing. Delivery of the aircraft has been on hold since August after demands from the US Eximbank for a guarantor to agree ...
-
News
P&W considers new rival for CFM56
Guy Norris/EAST HARTFORD Pratt & Whitney has begun studies of an advanced-technology geared-fan engine in an initiative to re-enter the narrowbody market and challenge the dominance of CFM International. The study outlines an initial series of engines for the 107-156kN (24,000-35,000lb)-thrust range, and is based around the use ...
-
News
BA pioneers global monitoring
Ian Sheppard/LONDON British Airways is using an aircraft visual-tracking system which allows it to monitor the position of aircraft and immediately react to unforeseen events which cause flights to be diverted. Previously a diversion decision by a flightcrew would require "a call to tech-dispatch and manual calculation of ...
-
News
Pathfinder 21 flight tests to begin
Soloy's Pathfinder 21 modification to the Cessna Caravan 208B is set to begin flight- testing in January following US Federal Aviation Administration supplemental type certification of the 1,000kW (1,330shp) Soloy Dual Pac, which combines two Pratt & Whitney PT6-114As driving a single-propeller shaft (Flight International, 3-9 December). Flight-testing will ...
-
News
Italy ponders AMX disposal
Andrea Spinelli/GENOA The Italian air force is considering selling off some of its Alenia/Embraer AMX fighter aircraft as it struggles to rationalise the number of variants of the type in the fleet and to improve its poor availability. The AMX disposal option has emerged from the highest echelons ...
-
News
ST Aero purchases Dalfort maintenance
Singapore Technologies Aerospace (ST Aero) has acquired Dalfort Aviation's maintenance site in Dallas and is planning to expand its Mobile Aero- space Engineering (MAe) subsidiary in a move to increase capacity in the USA. The Singapore company has agreed with Astraea to purchase the leasehold, assets and inventory of ...
-
News
Snecma lands in full control of Messier-Dowty as TI sells out
Snecma plans to take full control of the Messier-Dowty landing-gear business just three years after the Anglo-French joint venture was founded in a 50/50 partnership, together with the TI Group. The company now plans to create a major landing-systems business, including its Messier-Bugatti brakes unit. Under the terms of ...
-
News
LTU dismisses managers as 767 cracks show poor maintenance
AndrzejJeziorski/MUNICH German charter operator LTU has sacked three senior managers after the discovery of a series of maintenance deficiencies in the fleet of Munich-based sister airline LTU Süd. LTU says that it is unable to name the managers concerned for legal reasons, but they included one of two ...
-
News
Next Generation 737 delivery encounters further delay
Delivery of the first Boeing Next Generation 737-700 to Southwest Airlines has been held up again, this time because of last-minute modifications to the lateral trim system. The first aircraft was originally due to be handed over to launch customer Southwest in October, but this slipped to late November ...
-
News
Fairchild rolls out first 328JET
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH Fairchild Dornier has unveiled the first 328JET prototype at Oberpfaffenhoffen, and is to begin trials this month. The aircraft has been created by the conversion of the second Dornier 328 turboprop prototype. Its first flight is due on 20 January, weather permitting, says Fairchild Dornier president ...
-
News
Marketplace
++ Mexicana has leased an ex-Sunways Boeing 757-200 from Sunrock Aircraft, along with an ex-SAS Boeing 767-300ER from GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS). The 757 was repossessed by Sunrock in September when the Swedish charter airline folded. Another ex-Sunways 757 has been leased to Britannia, by Tombo Aviation. ++ British ...
-
News
MAS warns Boeing to raise 777X tempo
Paul Lewis/LANGKAWI Malaysia Airlines (MAS) has reiterated that it is still interested in launching the proposed ultra-long-haul Boeing 777-200X, but in the wake of the recent slowdown in the programme, the carrier is warning that there is a limit to its patience. In March, the Malaysian carrier signed ...
-
News
Routes
++ US Airways is seeking US Department of Transportation (DoT) permission to start services to Amsterdam early in 1998 from Philadelphia International, where the airline is to build a $300 million terminal. ++ Northwest is seeking US DoT approval to codeshare with KLM on its Philadelphia-Amsterdam route, to begin on ...
-
News
Environmental pressure could force change-over to hydrogen fuel
Pressure on the aviation industry to bear its share of the planned reductions in greenhouse gas emissions could force it to switch to alternative fuels such as hydrogen, according to speakers at a London conference on aerospace propulsion. A report by Daimler-Benz Aerospace (Dasa) Airbus says the projected 1.5-2% ...