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Aviation History
1996
1996 - 0358.PDF
Aflf TRANSPORT Air UK Leisure set to replace Boeing 737-400 fleet AIR UK LEISURE is set to order four narrowbody airlin ers to replace its fleet of seven Boeing 737-400s, which will be withdrawn from service by 30 Ap ril. The UK charter carrier says that it has short-listed the 737-800 and Airbus A320/321. Meanwhile, the airline will operate three leased Airbus A3 20s on European and Mediterranean routes, as well as its two long-haul Boeing 767-300ERs. The 180- seat A3 20s are being taken on two-year leases from GATX, and will be delivered between March and May. Tour operator Unijet, which owns 40% of Air UK Leisure, is to take a greater role in the manage ment of the airline, which will be re-branded Leisure International and will move its headquarters from London Stansted to Gatwick Airport. Philip Ovenden, respon sible for Unijet's aviation activi ties, becomes managing director of Air UK Leisure on 1 April. • Flightline to take surplus BAe 146s THE FIRST OF 18 surplus USAir British Aerospace 146-200s will soon re-enter com mercial service with UK-based Flightline. The UK firm formally accepted the aircraft from USAir Leasing on 5 January. The aircraft, leased via Alpine Aviation, will be used on a London-Switzerland route. Before its acceptance, the 146- 200 underwent a complete C check at Canadian Regional Air lines (formerly Time Air) in Cal gary, Alberta. Its four AlliedSignal LFS02 engines have been overhauled and no corrosion or major structural defects were discovered. The low-time aircraft was manufactured in 1985. USAir inherited it when it acquired Pacific Southwest Airlines in 1988. Pacific had operated the air craft on short intrastate routes. • Lufthansa/United begin push for anti-trust protection ANDRZEJ JEZIORSKI/MUNICH LUFTHANSA SAYS that it will apply "immediately" for anti trust immunity for its alliance with United Airlines, following the sig nature of a preliminary open-skies agreement between the USA and Germany. German transport minister Mat thias Wissman and his US counter part Federico Pena reached an accord after months of negotia tions. The agreement is expected to lead to full liberalisation of transatlantic traffic in the second- biggest market in Europe. The accord was welcomed as "...a model for die further liberali sation of European air traffic" by Lufthansa chairman Jiirgen Weber. The initial accord proposes lifting restrictions on the number and fre quency of flights for US and German carriers, and on pricing and codesharing. These are contained in the cur rent temporary German/US bilat eral. The pact may also liberalise cargo services. Negotiations on a detailed text for the agreement will begin on 22 February in Washington, and are expected to be completed in March at the latest. The final agreement should be signed by the third quarter, says the transport ministry. Germany will only sign a final agreement if the Lufthansa/United alliance is granted the anti-trust immunity which the two airlines want. Once confirmed, the immu nity "...should allow both [air lines]...to harmonise their businesses better", says Wissman. Lufthansa says that the agree ment, combined with anti-trust immunity, will "...broaden the pos sibilities" for its co-operation with United, but says that it cannot dis cuss contractual details yet. To date, die only transatlantic partnership with immunity of this kind is in the KLM/Northwest Airlines alliance. Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), which started co-operation with Lufthansa at the beginning of this year, is set to bring its own codesharing alliance with United into play in March. While the agreements are said to be indepen dent, the deal opens up the possi bility of a future tripartite transatlantic alliance — Sweden already has an open-skies deal with die USA, and SAS says that it may apply for anti-trust immunity for its alliance with United. The European Commission (EC) says that the prospective agreement with Germany under lines the need for a mandate allow ing it to negotiate for all 15 European Union member states in future, adding that the German Government "...could have kept [the EC] better informed" about its negotiations with the USA. "We are in favour of open skies, but it should at least be done according to rules which are free, fair and transparent," says the EC. In 1995, the Clinton Admin istration concluded open-skies agreements with Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. Previously, the USA and the Netherlands had agreed to expand air services. • Russia's air-traffic volume continues to fall TRAFFIC VOLUMES in Russia have fallen for the fifth successive year, according to the Russian Transport Department's 1995 annual report, due to be pub lished on 16 February. The latest decline leaves passenger numbers at barely one-third of 1990's peak, when 90.7 million boardings were recorded in Russia, then part of the former Soviet Union. Total passenger numbers in 1995 were down by 5.6%, com pared with 1994, at 30.9 million. Revenue passenger kilometres fell to 71.4 billion, a 1.3 % decline from a year earlier. Freight tonne kilo metres, meanwhile, were up by 7%, to 1.56 billion, despite a 1.6% fall in overall freight tonnage. Just ten of the 37 airlines listed by the report as being the top carri ers in Russia recorded increases in Transaero passenger traffic almost doubled in 1995 passenger volumes. Transaero, the only passenger airline listed which was not formerly a division of Aeroflot, nearly doubled its traffic during the year, to 1.03 million. Aeroflot-Russian International Airlines and Domodedovo each saw passenger numbers grow by 16.3%, to 3.47 million and 2.82 million, respectively. Surprisingly omitted from the top 37 are other commercial, non- Aeroflot airlines, including Avia- energo, AJT Air International, ALAK and Orient Avia, each of which carried more passengers in 1995 than did several of the listed carriers. The top 37 listed airlines transported 90% of Russia's air traffic in 1995. • 22 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 14 - 20 February 1996
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