All news – Page 7832
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Saudis finally sign for 61 airliners
SAUDI ARABIA has signed a $6 billion deal to buy 61 US-built airliners on 26 October, but details of financing have yet to be revealed. The order, to re-equip state-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines, consists of 23 Boeing 777-200s and five 747-400s, worth around $4 billion, plus 29 McDonnell Douglas (MDC) ...
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NASA F-16 tests SLFC wing panel
NASA HAS begun test-flying its Supersonic Laminar Flow Control (SLFC) wing panel on the Lockheed Martin F-16XL test aircraft. The SLFC project, managed by the Langley Research Center, will investigate methods of maintaining laminar airflow over the wing of a supersonic aircraft, as part of NASA's High Speed Research Program, ...
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UK launches stealth demonstrator project
Douglas Barrie Andrew Doyle/LONDON THE UK MINISTRY of Defence (MoD) has launched a highly sensitive programme to develop a third-generation stealth strike aircraft, under the High Agility Low Observable (HALO) project, which should produce a full-scale flying demonstrator by 2000. The HALO project is already ...
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Boeing admits strike is biting
BOEING CHAIRMAN Frank Shrontz has warned that the group's profitability, already hit by heavy restructuring charges and depressed airliner-sales, will be damaged further as the machinists' strike drags into its fourth week. He admits that the group now faces a "substantial" number of delivery delays over the remainder ...
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Aerospatiale chief delivers job warning
Julian Moxon/PARIS AEROSPATIALE president Louis Gallois has warned that the state-owned French aerospace group will have to lose up to 3,000 jobs over the next two years. Following the lead set by Daimler-Benz Aerospace (DASA) in Germany, he claims that the low value of the US dollar ...
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France to open competition
FRANCE IS to open up internal competition within its domestic air market from January 1996, in preparation for the fierce competition, which is expected to follow the completion of the European single air market in April 1997. The French Government says that it will allow all French operators ...
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Hong Kong runway
The Orient Airlines Association (OAA) has joined with the International Air Transport Association to press Hong Kong to begin work on a second runway at Chek Lap Kok Airport. The OAA warns that Hong Kong's new airport could be saturated when it opens in 1998. Source: Flight International
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Agent blues
The traditional role of the travel agent in distributing airline products is being challenged by CRS pricing polices, ticketless travel, the Internet and commission capping by airlines. Does this mean the end of the travel agent as we know it? Chris Lyle discusses the implications.In theory, travel agents should be ...
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Growing up
The flag carriers of the scattered Pacific islands are maturing and learning how to cooperate both with one another and major airlines. However, geography and colonial legacies remain the biggest obstacles to their future development. David Knibb reports. Isolation makes the scattered Pacific islands different from all other developing countries. ...
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Czech or cash?
The communist legacy has left CSA Czech Airlines short of cash, but the national carrier is underpinned by an expanding economy and a flourishing tourist industry. Jackie Gallacher reports from Prague. Ask any manager at CSA Czech Airlines what the carrier's key challenge is for the future and the answer ...
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EVA enjoys the fruits of youth
If spectacular improvements in efficiency and productivity are a measure of success, then on the surface at least Taiwan's international newcomer EVA Airways appears to be setting new standards. Productivity, measured in terms of revenue per employee, soared 62 per cent last year. Unit costs plunged 21 per cent and ...
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Profit share: a stroke of genius
Singapore Airlines' chairman J Y Pillay has absolutely no doubt that in an unforgiving airline industry, survival rests on the continuing struggle to improve productivity and keep ahead of costs. And there can be little doubt that Pillay's message is getting through at an airline which consistently turns in some ...
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Getting IT right
What does a business do when none of its computer systems support its core business processes? Simple. It realigns its information technology with those processes, then develops a plan to put the systems in place. UK-based Britannia Airways has done just that, showing how IT can add significant extra ...
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Designer networks
Management Fewer market restrictions mean more carriers are free to plan their networks with the passenger's complete journey in mind and can adapt their pricing and distribution policies to match. By Richard Bond.Deregulation brings with it plenty of changes but none so great as in the area of network management. ...
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Gains will come from change
KLM has made impressive leaps in efficiency since it launched its cost control programme in 1991. But with the sizeable efficiency boost in the last financial year driven more by expansion than by productivity measures, the carrier is now facing a future of diminishing gains. The carrier is keen to ...
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Growth spurs on drive for cuts
Air Canada, in the midst of a significant growth phase, is attempting to counteract the costs of expansion with employee productivity gains and new technology. Air Canada expects to double its transborder service to the US within the next three years and in recent months has added new flights ...
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Get smart inside the system!
For Northwest Airlines, record profits this year have been less a result of recent, company-wide efficiency programmes than of a series of initiatives - including route restructuring, employee concessions and alliance-building - stretching back several years. Nonetheless, 'smarter' flying and pricing have produced lower costs and higher yields for the ...
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China cuts its numbers
Beijing has formally declared its intent to consolidate China's airlines after two years moving in that direction. The number is set to shrink by 40 per cent, but more carriers are likely to receive international designation as well. Li Zhao, deputy director of the Civil Aviation Administrat- ion ...
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Cape crusaders
Helped by the traffic boom, South Africa's domestic carriers are expanding into regional markets. By Sara Guild.Like most South African businesses in the post-apartheid, post-general election period, the domestic airlines are looking for opportunities - outside South Africa. Although international foreign tourist arrivals to South Africa should rise 30 per ...
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Fruits of change
South African Airways has had a year of radical change. Profitable at last, bolstered by high load factors and a new partnership with Lufthansa, the carrier is optimistic about the future. Sara Guild reports from Johannesburg. The days of the orange and blue aircraft are numbered. By the turn of ...