All Safety News – Page 1347

  • News

    Do not pass 'go'

    1998-02-04T00:00:00Z

    So British Airways' no-frills start-up is "Go"; but will it - and what sort of response will it attract from powerful European competitors like Lufthansa? Even more important, from where will the passengers come to make these no-frills airlines work? The justification for an existing airline to launch a ...

  • News

    DOT spotlights fare changes

    1998-02-01T15:17:00Z

    The US Department of Transportation began publishing its domestic airline fares consumer report in response to an increasing number of inquiries about ticket prices. The first report, for the third quarter of 1996, was released in June last year and the latest report is based on data for the second ...

  • News

    French stick over partner

    1998-02-01T00:00:00Z

    Doug Cameron Investment bankers are sharply split over Air France's ability to secure a strategic airline investor and Air France's advisers have retreated from supporting a trade sale after the collapse of its planned Alitalia agreement. Air France plans an equity issue of FFr18 billion (US$2.9 billion) in ...

  • News

    ACI feels out of pocket

    1998-02-01T00:00:00Z

    Karen Walker Girding itself for a battle with the airlines and with Congress, the Airports Council International, North America, will raise its profile in 1998 with hopes of increasing pressure on those who control its members' funding sources. The ACI is sticking to its controversial claim that US ...

  • News

    No more red China blues?

    1998-02-01T00:00:00Z

    Tom Ballantyne China's airlines are getting their first taste of capitalism as the country's carriers drastically slash their air fares and liberalisation hits the region. The Civil Aviation Administration of China has given its 27 CAAC-approved airlines the go-ahead to cut prices by up to 40 per cent ...

  • News

    Deflation alarm bells ring again

    1998-02-01T00:00:00Z

    Deflation is not an economic term which has tripped off the tongue in the last three decades. Far from it. A series of political crises in the Middle East, starting with the six-day war in 1967, triggered 30 years of almost continuous inflation, fuelled by surging oil and commodity prices ...

  • News

    Asia's crisis: a rude awakening

    1998-02-01T00:00:00Z

    Asia's financial crisis is now threatening to start another global airline recession. What goes up must come down. Of all people, participants in the aviation business should understand this most basic phenomenon. After all, the one certainty of every flight is that gravity will bring it down eventually. All that ...

  • News

    Higher US fares are hitting home

    1998-02-01T00:00:00Z

    As US domestic fares continue to rise, more business travellers are making concessions in order to obtain lower fares, or are switching to low-cost carriers. Report by Karen Walker. The New Year had barely been rung in when both American Express and the US Department of Transportation confirmed what most ...

  • News

    Asia's new era

    1998-02-01T00:00:00Z

    Asia's economic turmoil is going to accelerate long-term structural change as the carriers in the region respond to the challenges. Doug Cameron looks at the impact on aircraft renewal, funding, alliances and liberalisation. Asian executives must be wondering what other calamities fate can possibly have in store for them. ...

  • News

    Garuda in dire straits

    1998-02-01T00:00:00Z

    Tom Ballantyne Reeling from a freefall in its local currency which has blown up debt, Jakarta's state-owned flag carrier Garuda Indonesia may face bankruptcy unless it auctions off assets. The country's economic collapse, coupled with a string of accidents including a major crash last September in which 300 ...

  • News

    India airlines in doldrums

    1998-02-01T00:00:00Z

    T Ballantyne/R Prasad India's hard pressed domestics are facing a double challenge to their shaky balance sheets: the renewed threat of a Tata Industries local startup and massive hikes in airport landing charges. The Tata group had earlier plans for a joint venture with Singapore Airlines, backed by ...

  • News

    Born free?

    1998-02-01T00:00:00Z

    While government regulations were the downfall of most of India's first batch of startups, it appears that a second cycle - involving new players as well as the return of some old contenders - is underway. Like large tracts of Asia, cloaked in the fog from forest fires, India's ...

  • News

    Arranged marriage

    1998-02-01T00:00:00Z

    Indian Airlines is destined to wed Air-India, but first the government must accept some responsibility for its financial troubles. Its proposed 'dowry' would be made up of compensation for the enforced grounding of its entire A320 fleet back in 1990, a subordinated loan, and the injection of new capital. By ...

  • News

    Tamed by politics

    1998-02-01T00:00:00Z

    Report by Tom Ballantyne It seems that every time a new Indian aviation policy ship gently eases itself into port, an election storm rears its head and dashes it onto the rocks. As India's two state-owned airlines, Air-India and Indian Airlines, prepared for the New Year after a ...

  • News

    Red ink rains over Korea

    1998-02-01T00:00:00Z

    Tom Ballantyne South Korea's airlines are scrambling to downsize and slash costs as the region staggers from the blow of Asia's worsening economic crisis. Flag carrier Korean Airlines faces more than US$900 million in foreign exchange losses after the local currency, the won, dived 40 per cent against ...

  • News

    US lusts after Latins

    1998-02-01T00:00:00Z

    Karen Walker US majors are looking southwards as American Airlines receives its long-awaited go-ahead for a codeshare with the Taca group and jockeys with its competitors for other prized Latin American alliances and routes. After 18 months, and a storm of protest from other US and central American ...

  • News

    Greek dance for chairmen

    1998-02-01T00:00:00Z

    Doug Cameron The lure of leading Olympic Airways out of trouble is proving too strong for some to resist; the Greek flag carrier will have been through two new chairmen before the end of January. Unsatisfied with the many applicants for the chief executive's post, Olympic has combined ...

  • News

    Cheap thrills with no frills

    1998-02-01T00:00:00Z

    Lois Jones Low-cost startups are beginning to looking extremely vulnerable as more majors launch low-cost subsidiaries, ignoring the argument that the independent players should instead be left to satisfy the demand for low fares in underserved markets. By Lois Jones. To your corners, please. To the left of the ring ...

  • News

    US hubs need to be consolidated

    1998-02-01T00:00:00Z

    Karen Walker Driven as they are by the shareholder, the major US carriers will no doubt sit up and take notice of a new report from a Wall Street analyst that assesses their growth potential, and therefore investment worth, based on the relative strengths and weaknesses of their hubs. ...

  • News

    Fairchild Dornier flies 328JET

    1998-01-28T00:00:00Z

    Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH Fairchild Dornier flew its prototype 328JET for the first time on 20 January, bringing it a step closer to entering the emerging 30-seat regional-jet market. The aircraft took off at 11:16 local time from the company's Oberpfaffenhofen site near Munich, and was flown for nearly 2h over the ...