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Aviation History
1992
1992 - 1155.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT Northwest faces loss of New York-Sydney rights DASA — slill confident that Regioliner will become a reality DASA may reconsider Regioliner schedule Northwest Airlines faces the loss of its rights to fly from New York to Sydney via Osaka, unless it can increase rapidly the number of its passengers origi nating in the United States or in Australia. The Japanese ministry of Verdict of murder follows accident Three Italian executives of Alitalia subsidiary Aero Trasporti Italiani (ATI) and a French executive of Avions de Transport Regionale, makers of an ATR42 airliner which crashed, have been found guilty of multiple murder without mal ice by an Italian appeal court. The judgement confirms the criminal court verdict on three ATI executives given two years ago on responsibility for the ATR42 accident in northern Italy in October 1987. The appeal court also added Jean Rech, the chief of the engi neering office of Aeerospatiale, French partner in the ATR con sortium, to the .list of those found guilty. Italian law does not require prison sentences following this verdict, which is analagous to criminal negligence in countries with a common-law system, and the men will not be jailed. The way has been cleared, however, for the families of the 37 victims of the crash to take civil action for compensation from the four men. Such a case would take some years in the courts, or may be settled out of court. The pilots, who died in the accident, have been cleared of responsibility, which was caused by icing during a climb through cloud, resulting in loss of con trol. The pilot's operating manu als for the type were judged not to have given effective instruc tions for procedures under icing conditions. ATR aircraft have since been modified to improve anti-icing systems and handling of the aircraft under these conditions. • transport (MoT) has given Northwest Airlines one month in which to conform to its stipu lation that 50% of the traffic on the route must be end-to-end. On 28 February, Northwest's permit was renewed for only one month, giving it little time in which to introduce new market ing initiatives. The operator's failure to meet the 50% requirement since it opened the thrice-weekly service last year has led to protests from Japan Airlines, and an investiga tion by theTvtoT (Flight Interna tional, 18-24 December 1991). Qantas was also unhappy that Northwest was granted landing rights by the Australian Gov ernment, as the Australian car rier has been unable to gain access to Osaka because of slot congestion. Figures produced by the MoT during the first month showed that through-traffic from New York numbered just 25 passen gers on four flights, compared to 582 flying New York-Osaka and 538 flying Osaka-Sydney. On the reciprocal services, the figures were 367 for. Sydney-Osaka, 519 for Osaka-New York, and just 14 through passengers from Sydney to New York. Northwest explained that it had insufficient time to market the new service, and that the figures would improve. Since then, up to 95% of the passen gers carried between Osaka and Sydney have originated in Japan, according to the MoT. • Deutsche Aerospace (DASA) has admitted that it will reconsider the timescale of the proposed Regioliner regional jet family if its negotiations with Fokker on regional aircraft co operation are successful. DASA programme manager for the Regioliner R92 and R122, Jurgen Thomas says: "If the ne gotiations are successful....the programme will come, but to a different time schedule." Fokker and DASA are discussing coop eration on the proposed Fokker 70/130 programmes which would compete directly with the proposed Regioliner family. The Dutch company has stated that for DASA to work on these it rriust drop the Regio liner, which the German com pany is developing with Aerospatiale and Alenia. Delaying the Regioliner devel opment may be enough to sway Fokker on this issue however. Development of the Regioliner family continues to slip with availability of the 90-seat R92 now expected no sooner than the second half of 1997 and the 120-seat R122 in 1999. Thomas says that if a launch campaign with selected airlines is success ful, "...the programme will go ahead in early 1993," 12 months later than was expected. A go- ahead on the programme was expected earlier this year. A decision on the launch en gine for the aircraft is due during the second half of this year. • Air Littoral, the French re gional carrier, plans to intro duce London-Stansted services to Montpellier and Biarritz and flights between Manchester and Bordeaux. Using Fokker 100s, Air Littoral will serve Biarritz four times a week and Montpel lier three times. An initial weekly Manchester-Bordeaux service with Embraer Brasilias will be increased to three days a week from 28 June. Lyons flights from Manchester are being doubled in number to eight times a week. Birming ham European Airways has DESTINATIONS introduced a daily jet service to Dublin from Birmingham. Czechoslovak Airlines is intro ducing weekly services from Prague to Toronto and to Chi cago and a twice-weeRly opera tion to Dtisseldorf. From 1 June, it will fly to Manchester (UK) on Mondays arid Satur days and from 16 July*' on Thursdays as well. Delta;Air Lines will begin daily non-stop flights between Chicago and New York Kennedy on 1 June. Taiwan-based EVA Air has started a thrice-weekly Taipei- Manila service using Boeing 767-300ERs. Indonesian flag- carrier Garuda has begun weekly flights from Denpasar (Bali) to Munich via Medan and Abu Dhabi. Japan Airlines (JAL) has inaugurated Osaka- Sydney services, the first time a Japanese carrier has flown the route. The three-times-a-week flight will be operated with Boeing 747s, while McDonnell Douglas DC-lOs are to be used for four Osaka-Bangkok-serv ices every week, of which one will return via Singapore. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 6 - 12 May, 1992 11
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