All aerospace news – Page 1807
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News
On track
NASA has started full-engine hot-fire testing of the low-cost Fastrac rocket engine at its Marshall Space Flight Center at Huntsville, Alabama, with a 20s full-power test to demonstrate the operation of the complete engine system. Up to 84 engine test firings are planned this year. The 210,000lb-thrust (935kN) Fastrac will ...
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The environment starts to hot up
The environmental debate, it seems, is back with a vengeance. Europe's decision to call a halt to hushkitting has already sparked an acrimonious transatlantic row and there is every indication that this is only for starters. A discussion paper is due from the European Commission (EC) within weeks and, if ...
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Routes
Southwest flies east - Southwest Airlines plans to begin services from Raleigh/Durham, North Carolina, on 6 June, in its latest move into the US East Coast market. The low-fares airline will offer daily nonstop service to five cities: Baltimore/ Washington, Chicago Midway, Nashville, Orlando and Tampa. Raleigh/ Durham-based Midway Airlines ...
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Swissair resists Air France deal
Any remaining speculation that Swissair could be headed for an alliance with Air France has been brought to an abrupt end, with group chief executive Philippe Bruggisser taking the opportunity of the SAirGroup annual results round to kill the possibility stone dead. Speculation had rested on the alliance ...
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Zurich Airport put on notice over capacity
Two years ago, as he made his debut as SAirGroup chief executive, Philippe Bruggisser raised a local political storm by pulling back the bulk of Swissair's intercontinental flights from Geneva to the main Zürich hub. Now he has issued a blunt warning that Zürich "is in danger of losing its ...
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Malev restructures and hunts for partners
Hungarian flag carrier Malev is gearing up to join one of the global alliance groupings while pushing ahead with a restructuring programme. New chief Antal Pongracz is keeping its options open, but re-opening talks with British Airways, which broke off last May, will be high on his agenda. ...
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News in Brief
BA's pilot deal - BA has sealed a comprehensive agreement with pilots union BALPA, which provides pilots flying for its controversial long-haul charter arm AML and short-haul routes out of Gatwick with the same terms and conditions as BA mainline pilots. In return pilots have agreed to relax some flying ...
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Cheating on aviation
Electronic systems continue to transform the airline industry, bringing savings, efficiency gains and-an increase in fraud. The potential to "earn" big money quickly in a multi-million-dollar business like the airline industry has already bred fraudulent activities in the shape of bogus spare parts, false maintenance records and fictitious frequent flyer ...
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Premium Sales
With the worst over in the airliner discount wars, John Leahy is focused on securing a premium for Airbus technology. Salesmen stuck with a mundane commodity product must look with green-eyed longing at the airliner market. What could be further from the stack it high and sell it cheap philosophy ...
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The size equation
Airbus forcasts show that demand for the A3XX rests partly on the shifting balance between high and low yield traffic. Few new airliner births can have had such an agonisingly slow and controversial labour as that which has accompanied the launch of a new large aircraft. After almost a ...
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Get your aircraft economics right
Operating ageing aircraft can be an expensive business, as cost figures for the US majors clearly demonstrate. But how great is the cost difference between old and new? There has always been a trade-off between the cheap acquisition cost of older aircraft and the slick operating economics of modern types. ...
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Iberia gets down to business
With the BA equity deal all but sealed, membership of oneworld under its belt and full privatisation slated by year end, Iberia has much to be cheerful about. But while the Spanish flag carrier reinvents itself as a serious international business airline, it will need to keep a close eye ...
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Food for thought
Most airlines are contracting out in-flight catering and are increasingly looking for suppliers with a global presence. When casting around for ways to reduce costs and strip out non-core businesses, airline chief executives did not take long to focus on the opportunities to be had from outsourcing their in-flight ...
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Safety in numbers?
Until now, Air Namibia's future looked limited and its finances precarious. But hopes are pinned on a new managing director, a restructuring programme and an alliance with South African Airways. Jaafar Ahmad freely admits that his first reaction when asked to head up struggling carrier Air Namibia was: "What ...
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Maintenance gets smart
Every business has its dark corners. Secret fiefdoms or forgotten Cinderellas, where planning is a black art and true costs difficult to pin down. By tradition, maintenance has been one such corner of the airline industry. The label may be an exaggeration, but the boardroom drive to get a stronger ...
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Proposed US-EU dialogue may ease tensions
Alan George/BRUSSELS The European Union and the US Government have discussed the establishment of a 'structured dialogue' aimed at defusing aviation tensions between the two sides. The talks, between EC Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock and US Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater, took place in Brussels last week. Slater went to ...
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Delta's retiring Boeings find a new future in freighter role
Pratt & Whitney and the Republic Financial Corp-oration have jointly acquired the rights to 119 Boeing 727-200s being retired by Delta Air Lines. The move secures airframes for conversion to freighters and perpetuates JT9D-15/15A engine overhaul and spares work. Delta is due to withdraw all of its 727s from ...
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Honeywell ready to sign LAAS development agreement
Honeywell will sign an agreement in early April with the US Federal Aviation Administration to begin development of the local area augmentation system (LAAS), which will allow the global positioning system (GPS) to be used as the sole source of navigation information. Honeywell has assembled a team which includes ...
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R-R tackles Trent 700 surge/vibration issues
Andrew Doyle/ZURICH Early operators of Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines powering the Airbus Industrie A330 twin are working with the manufacturer to eliminate surge, vibration and turbine disk corrosion problems. These have led to a higher than expected number of engine removals recently. R-R has developed solutions for the surge and ...
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Prime time
The success of Canada's big four aerospace firms has been the spur for growth among other companies Canada's growth as an aerospace manufacturer is mirrored by that of its primes. Now companies are emerging from the industry's mass of smaller firms with hopes of matching, through consolidation and growth, the ...