All Systems & interiors articles – Page 823

  • News

    Two Bobs stir the immunity debate

    1998-05-01T00:00:00Z

    Could the two Bobs - Ayling and Crandall - have had an inkling of the amount of controversy they would raise when they first aired their plan to forge an alliance between their airlines? That controversy took yet another turn in March when Robert Ayling, chief executive of British ...

  • News

    Rule Britannia?

    1998-05-01T00:00:00Z

    Backed by their tour operators, UK charter carriers Airtours and Britannia Airways are expanding into European markets like Germany and Scandinavia, pushing prices down and disturbing the cosy status quo. Report by Tom Gill When Britannia began providing intercontinental services out of Germany late last year, alarm bells began ringing ...

  • News

    Continental leads CRS bypass move

    1998-05-01T00:00:00Z

    The continuing battle between airlines and computerised reservations systems over rising costs took an unexpected twist in late March when Continental Airlines forced Galileo International to rescind a new fee it planned to impose on electronic tickets. Continental also announced that it planned to cut its distribution costs further by ...

  • News

    World woos coy Cathay

    1998-05-01T00:00:00Z

    Every major airline group in the world is wooing Cathay Pacific to join its alliance. And Cathay admits that the time has come to end its long-standing aloofness and join ranks with other carriers. Cathay has been talking to all the major groups. It will not say in which ...

  • News

    Competition rules in US

    1998-05-01T00:00:00Z

    A new US Department of Transportation policy document defining anticompetitive behaviour, is prompting cries of 'reregulation' from most US majors. The document has appeared in the wake of a Senate hearing on the competitive impact of the US hub-and-spoke system, adding heat to an uncomfortable spotlight that seems set ...

  • News

    Crossing into the EU

    1998-05-01T00:00:00Z

    The launch of its French subsidiary will give Crossair greater access to southern European markets and boost its Basle hub. Tom Gill reports. 'Some guys talk about the Star Alliance; well, we have our own new born star.' The star Crossair's president and CEO Moritz Suter is hailing is a ...

  • News

    Delta's quick fix?

    1998-05-01T00:00:00Z

    Delta Air Lines' new chief executive Leo Mullin is getting to grips with the idiosyncrasies of the airline industry and rapidly addressing issues like service and low staff morale. But his options on the alliances front look limited. Karen Walker reports. 'This is a very strange industry,' remarked Delta ...

  • News

    Suffering from exposure

    1998-05-01T00:00:00Z

    As the Asian crisis bites deeper, the potential impact on the values of widebody aircraft in particular is only just beginning to become apparent to investors. Report by Angus Williamson. The financial and economic crisis affecting several of the East Asian 'tiger' economies has so far produced muted repercussions ...

  • News

    French open gates to US

    1998-05-01T00:00:00Z

    Both Continental Airlines and Delta Air Lines were swift to respond to the new US-French bilateral by declaring their intentions to formalise codeshare agreements with Air France. The bilateral, initialled in Paris on 8 April, will allow full open skies to be phased in over five years, and immediately ...

  • News

    Reform is vital to Japan's recovery

    1998-05-01T00:00:00Z

    An overriding objective for the Western industrial nations during the East Asian financial crisis has been to limit the contagion in the region - specifically, to keep it away from Japan. There has been a clear awareness that Japan, the world's second most productive economy, has acute problems in both ...

  • News

    Swiss qualify new partners

    1998-05-01T00:00:00Z

    Swissair has expanded its European alliance to include TAP Air Portugal, THY Turkish Airlines and AOM of France and agreed to buy up to a 20 per cent stake in TAP. TAP, Turkish Airlines and AOM will join Swissair's existing partners Austrian Airlines and Sabena in an alliance to ...

  • News

    Japan considers SARV-22 tiltrotor

    1998-04-29T00:00:00Z

    Japan's Defence forces and its Maritime Safety Agency (MSA) are showing growing interest in a search and rescue (SAR) version of the V-22 Osprey, which Bell and Boeing are promoting as one of several future military variants of the tiltrotor. Japan has opened tentative discussions with Bell Boeing on ...

  • News

    Airbus lowers A3XX numbers

    1998-04-29T00:00:00Z

    Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON Airbus Industrie's latest long range market forecast has maintained a bullish outlook for jet airliner demand over the next 20 years, despite the present Asian economic crisis, but its analysis has shifted towards greater demand for smaller aircraft compared to 1997 predictions, and reduced the size of ...

  • News

    China demands CAAC shake-up

    1998-04-29T00:00:00Z

    Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has been instructed to submit proposals by the end of April on drastic reductions to the size of its organisation, in line with a wider Chinese Government push to cut the country's bloated bureaucracy. China's newly installed premier Zhu ...

  • News

    The vital combinations

    1998-04-29T00:00:00Z

    Shahe Ouzounian/LONDON and FRANKFURT, Brent Hannon/TAIPEI ACCORDING TO Wilhelm Althen, chairman of the executive board of Lufthansa Cargo, the revolutionary break in January 1995 with the passenger side of Lufthansa's business was "-a process that hasn't just been about the last three years, it's a 20 year old road ...

  • News

    Japan promotes unmanned helicopters for crop dusting

    1998-04-29T00:00:00Z

    Paul Lewis/GIFU, JAPAN Two Japanese aerospace manufacturers have begun to promote the commercial use of unmanned helicopters for agricultural crop dusting and airborne surveillance missions. Kawada Industries has developed the RoboCopter 300 based on the Schweizer 300CB and had accumulated 40h of flight time by mid-April. The company hopes ...

  • News

    RTCA wins debate on GPS risk evaluation

    1998-04-29T00:00:00Z

    The US Federal Aviation Administration is to fund an assessment of the risk which is associated with using the global positioning system (GPS) as the sole means of navigation. A special committee, including representatives of the air transport and general aviation sectors, will report back to the FAA by ...

  • News

    Laser link lined up

    1998-04-29T00:00:00Z

    Tim Furniss/LONDON The European Space Agency's (ESA) Artemis project is now well on its way after cost and technical problems combined to delay the satellite, which had been originally due to be in orbit now. The flight model has been completed by Alenia Spazio in Rome and will soon ...

  • News

    Single Mandate

    1998-04-29T00:00:00Z

    British Airways and American Airlines appear on the verge of securing the long-awaited competition approval for their alliance from the European Commission (EC) with Brussels insiders set to give a mid-May date and a painful but probably realistic demand for slot surrender at London Heathrow. With some irony, however, ...

  • News

    Mitsubishi tackles vibration problem

    1998-04-29T00:00:00Z

    Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) is working to reduce vibration levels in its new MH2000 helicopter, as part of several design refinements targeted at securing full Type A airworthiness certification for the civil machine. Company efforts are focused on improving the twin-turboshaft helicopter, including better dynamic system damping and demonstration ...