British Aerospace Asset Management-Jets (AMJ) has sold two BAe 146 quadjets to the ANZ Investment Bank, for more than US$21 million. The two aircraft, both -200 series, were on lease last year to the Australian carrier National Jet Systems (NJS), which provides service on behalf of Qantas. Now, the bank will lease them directly to NJS. The transaction "marks an early continuation in 1997 of the AMJ program of focusing on selective aircraft sales which results from the establishment of a quality lease portfolio," BAe-AMJ said in a prepared statement.
American Airlines pilots have done more to promote the Canadair Regional Jet than all of the marketing efforts of Bombardier could ever do. Three months ago, the general public did not know the difference between a regional jet and a Boeing 747. Today, thanks to the threatened strike over American Eagle's operating jets, the traveling public has been educated about the CRJ by The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today and electronic media. The blitz does nothing, however, to improve the public's negative perception of the regional turboprop.
Delta Connection affiliate SkyWest Airlines flew 55.6 million revenue passenger miles last month, a 13.3% hike from January 1996. Capacity rose faster - 15.23% to nearly 119 million available seat miles. The resulting load factor of 46.7% was 0.9 percentage points lower than the January 1996 figure.
CityBird S.A., new Belgian no-frills airline, has appointed the French ground-handler, Societe de Fret et de Services (SFS), to handle its cargo at Paris Orly Airport. CityBird operates a single McDonnell Douglas MD-11 with cargo capacity for six pallets but plans to add a second aircraft to its operations in June.
Teal Group believes Boeing will produce the 747-500/600 - despite Boeing's decision in January to shelve the project - in order to "prevent Airbus Industrie from capturing the crucial launch customers" for superjumbo aircraft, lead analyst Richard Aboulafia, said this week in Seattle. Speaking at the 1997 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Aboulafia said there is room for only one such aircraft for at least the next 12 years.
Operators of 727s converted to freighters were awaiting FAA permission yesterday to operate the aircraft for 120 days while devising ways to strengthen the floors, which the agency believes are too weak for the loads imposed on them. The 120-day extension is an alternative to an immediate rulemaking, and industry offered at a meeting last week in Renton, Wash., to limit cargo weight during that period. FAA said yesterday it is "still at the information-gathering stage. We have not made a decision on what is to be done, if something is to be done." About 229 U.S.
U.S.-U.K. bilateral talks concluded yesterday on a cordial note although no dramatic advances were made. In a joint statement, the government delegations said the talks were useful and had "made progress to an agreed text" for a new bilateral. "On those issues where agreement was not reached in this round, the delegations did achieve a fuller understanding of their respective positions," they said. Further views will be exchanged through diplomatic channels, including a schedule for the next round. A U.S.
Officials at Albany, Ga.-based Ayres Corp., which this month firmed up an order from Federal Express Corp. for 50 Loadmaster LM200s and options for up to 200 more, believe they can sell as many as 200 more aircraft worldwide than they projected last fall when they unveiled the aircraft (DAILY, Feb. 14). The purchase order converts letters of intent FedEx signed in November into firm orders. Ayres, the manufacturer of the Turbo Thrush ag aircraft, hopes to deliver the first Loadmaster to FedEx in December 1999 and continue delivery at a rate of two a month.
AI(R) has leased, and delivered one ATR 42 to Maracaibo, Venezuela- based Santa Barbara Airlines and will deliver another aircraft in early April, AI(R) reported. AI(R) said it "continues to achieve results" in Latin America, having placed 34 aircraft with eight airlines in six countries, including Mexico and several in Central America.
National Transportation Safety Board said it is concerned that FAA's new controls on handling explosives training aids, set up after the crash of TWA Flight 800, do not go far enough. A dog handler had spilled trace amounts of explosives while placing training aids aboard the aircraft during a proficiency training exercise. Failure to report the spills led to confusion concerning forensic evidence during examination of the debris from the July 17, 1996, crash, the board said.
Domestic air passenger volume in Taiwan increased 24% in 1996, to 17.6 million, but nearly all domestic airlines reported lower revenues because of increased competition and deep price cutting. More than half of Taiwan's air travelers were on the two most heavily traveled routes - Taipei-Kaohsiung, with more than 7.2 million passengers, and Taipei-Tainan, with more than 2 million.
In the wake of a National Transportation Safety Board urgent recommendation to improve Beech 1900 exit door instructions, FAA by priority letter has ordered operators to install new exterior operating instruction placards for doors on the aircraft. The action, followed up with a confirming airworthiness directive in yesterday's Federal Register covering operators not included in the Feb. 4 emergency letter, stems from the Nov.
Bruce Nobles, chief executive officer at Hawaiian Airlines, will discuss airline economics, airline-airport relations, user fees vs. the ticket tax and other subjects on Aviation News Today, to be aired Sunday, on Washington's NewsChannel 8 from 12:30 a.m. to 1 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 2 p.m.
Hughes Information Technology Systems has developed a flight and radar data processing system for Indonesia and will begin soon to integrate the equipment into the new Jarkarta Automated Air Traffic Control System (JAATCS) at Soekarno-Hatta Airport. Site acceptance tests are scheduled in late March. Replacing an aging system, the automated JAATCS is intended to accommodate Indonesia's projected air traffic growth, 9% per year through 2010. Hughes said the new system will be the most advanced in Southeast Asia.
With little more than a year before it opens, Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok Airport recorded its first aircraft landing yesterday. A Beech Super King Air operated by the Hong Kong government touched down at the facility, and a U.S. FAA BAe 125-800 is scheduled to arrive today to begin an eight-week flight program to validate the airport's navigation aids. Hong Kong and China, which will take control of Hong Kong on July 1, have pressed during the past year to overcome delays and escalating costs in the airport development program.
Lufthansa Technik AG (LTAG), the aircraft maintenance subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group, has become the first in its field to be certified under the European Union's "eco-audit" environmental regulations. Its newly attained eco-audit certificate is valid for three years. The EU's green audit rules, which came into force two years ago, are non-binding but offer marketing advantages. Companies that adopt them can apply the EU's eco- audit logo to their goods and services.
International Lease Finance Corp. said yesterday it has leased six new 737- 700 aircraft to Braathens of Norway in a transaction totaling $200 million. The carrier said earlier this month it had ordered six 737-700s valued at $255 million, with deliveries from 1998 through 2000. The carrier also placed options on 10 more of the 134-passenger aircraft. Braathens currently operates a fleet of 737-400s and -500s.
The Civil Aviation Bureau of Japan's Ministry of Transport (MoT) has selected the Saab 2000 to perform low-altitude checks of navigation aid facilities, replacing Nihon YS-11 aircraft. MoT has placed an order for two aircraft at a cost of 7.082 billion yen (about US$57.1 million), including equipment for navaids flight checks. The two aircraft will be delivered before February next year. The bureau operates five 30-year-old YS-11s for low-altitude flight checks together with a Gulfstream IV for high-altitude checks.
Saying recent tests show that rudder reversal on 737s "can no longer be considered an extremely improbable" event, the National Transportation Safety Board recommended yesterday that FAA accelerate its schedule for installing new rudder servo control valves in the U.S. fleet.
British Airways is at an advanced stage of negotiation with Racal Avionics over the sale of Aerad, its aeronautical information subsidiary. Staff and trade unions were briefed this week, after an extensive 12-month assessment of the business. The proposed sale of Aerad - which provides essential aeronautical operation and procedural information, such as en route navigation charts and terminal approach procedures - forms part of BA's drive to improve services and reduce costs.
American Trans Air's traffic fell to 651.7 million revenue passenger miles in January, 13.1% less than in January 1996. Capacity totaled 909.6 million available seat miles, down 17.4%. The load factor rose 3.5 percentage points to 71.6%. The airline carried 401,620 passengers during the month, an 18.5% decrease. American Trans Air started pulling back from scheduled service in August to focus on charter flights. Its charter block hours were up 2.8% in January and scheduled service hours were down 29.7%.
Bombardier's formal announcement of the 70-passenger CRJ-700 program in Montreal this week featured large posters depicting the tails of all of its CRJ-customer aircraft. One was a white tail, however, apparently representing the Atlantic Coast aircraft. That carrier is still in limbo as to whether it will be able to operate the aircraft - 12 firm orders and 36 options - in the United Express livery or as an independent jet operator. The regional-jet issue still is being discussed by the United pilot group, which is in labor negotiations of its own.
Midwest Express negotiated a 15-year, $9.25 million deal to put its name on the Wisconsin Center, a convention center scheduled to open in Milwaukee in July 1998. The new name, the Midwest Express Center, is subject to final approval from the Wisconsin Center District's board, expected on March 5.
The Saab Group, including Saab Aircraft AB, Thursday reported a before-tax $130 million loss for fiscal 1996, including an extraordinary write-down of $175 million "to support the repositioning of the Saab 2000." The loss came on total sales of $1.78 million. Saab Aircraft itself reported $415 million in total sales, down 14% from 1995.
