British Airways CitiExpress is cutting a dozen unprofitable routes as it attempts to save 20 million pounds ($29 million) a year by 2004. The BA subsidiary plans to cut 10 aircraft from its 92-aircraft fleet and reduce staff by 500. CitiExpress expects to add two routes to the schedule and increase frequencies on several key business routes. As part of its ongoing rationalization BA expects to roll up BA Regional and Manx Airlines into BA CitiExpress this year.
The U.S. Air Force is beginning definition of a space-based tracking range to oversee the launch and recovery of reusable launch vehicles fired from locations in the U.S. other than Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg AFB, Calif. The initiative is noteworthy in that it illustrates the Defense Dept. is increasingly serious about a ``launch anywhere concept'' that unchains launch operations from the major infrastructures at the Eastern and Western ranges in Florida and California.
Paul J. (Pat) Hurley has been appointed general manager of Raytheon Electronic Warfare Systems, Goleta, Calif. He was president/CEO of BAE Automated Systems Inc., Carrollton, Tex.
Margaret Ng has been named director of Consolidators International's Chinese operation, Rapid Dragon Express. She succeeds Alice Hsiao. Ng was director of customer service for Emery Worldwide in Los Angeles.
The U.S. Air Force will implement sharp across-the-board space contractor performance tracking standards in the wake of $3 billion in overruns on its new missile warning spacecraft and growing concern that a trend toward contractor ``systems engineering problems'' is beginning to affect military space projects. The more rigorous assessments are designed both to peer deep into the subcontractor ranks and better track the performance of the primes.
As the world's airlines cope with new security screening requirements and the demands of convincing passengers to stay loyal and keep flying, some businesses are seeing opportunity. Unisys Corp. has created applications software for biometric identification systems for frequent travelers as well as airport and airline employees. Partnering with Unisys' Transportation Group in the project are Germany's Wincor Nixdorf for equipment kiosks, Materna for the operating system and Iridian Technologies for the biometric identification systems.
BAE SYSTEMS REPORTS its AAR-57 passive missile warning system successfully underwent live-fire tests on board a QF-4 drone at White Sands Missile Range, N.M., on Mar. 11-13. A total of eight man-portable infrared-guided surface-to-air missiles were fired at different angles and distances. The AAR-57, like the Northrop Grumman AAR-54 MWS, uses multiple sensors which detect the ultraviolet emission of a missile's rocket engine. On Mar.
Airports Authority of India will invite requests for proposals in May for 30-year leases to run the Delhi, Mumbai (Bombay), Kolkata (Calcutta) and Chennai (Madras) airports. A short-listing of interested parties will follow in June, which will give them access to financial data on the airports. The AAI says it had a positive response from some 70 potential backers at a briefing in London earlier this month.
A Belgian court is desperately seeking to sell a charter operator to reliable investors. Sobelair, formerly a subsidiary of bankrupt Sabena Belgian World Airlines, survived its parent company's demise late last year and is operating under Chapter 11-like protection. The court's agreement to sell the airline to Aldo Vastapane, a business tycoon who heads a highly diversified group, last week failed to materialize when pilots rejected proposed salary cuts. Sobelair's executives and flight crews are expected to submit a management buyout plan to the court soon.
Robert Schlax has been named vice president-finance of the Mercury Air Group Inc. of Los Angeles. Serguei V. Kouzmine has been appointed to the board of directors. He is managing general partner of Russian Investment Solutions.
AIRPORT COMMUNICATION for ground operations is rapidly switching from voice-only analog to one with packet data, networking and voice, using Arinc's Digital Wireless Dispatch system. Paralleling the frequency congestion in the air, lack of frequencies and increasing radio traffic also hamper ground efficiency. At 17 major airports ground ramp and servicing operations are still coordinated using inefficient ``group-talk'' or party-line voice communication, according to Arinc.
The U.S. dominates the military use of space in a way that no other nation can hope to match, but it has managed to paint itself into a corner when it comes to satellite exports. The U.S. military depends on satellites, but U.S. regulations weaken the industry that preeminence in space depends upon. This discrepancy between goals and means is based on an unwillingness to recognize the growth in commercial satellite services. The result has been to damage national security.
NASA's Space Launch Initiative has pushed the U.S. propulsion industry into a four-way competition to develop an advanced hydrocarbon rocket engine with a million lb. of thrust to surpass the Russian state of the art.
SOME SMALL, INNOVATIVE COMPANIES ARE pursuing organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs) and betting that they will be able to challenge active matrix liquid crystal displays (AMLCDs). At the moment, the commercial successes of AMLCDs give them the edge. But OLED advocates argue that their color displays use less power, are thinner, and have faster response times, higher brightness and wider viewing angles. The U.S.
Japan's Transport Ministry has decided to support the Sapporo-based carrier Hokkaido International Airlines (Air Do). Vice Transport Minister Shizuo Sato said Air Do will be given priority in the reallocation of slots that are expected to be returned from Japan Airlines (JAL) and Japan Air System (JAS) at Tokyo's all-important Haneda airport. Additional slots will allow Air Do to lease another aircraft to expand its service offerings.
Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta last week lifted flight restrictions at Reagan Washington National Airport allowing it to return to pre-Sept. 11 levels of scheduled service--about 800 flights per day. For air carriers, that means planes with more than 156 seats, particularly the Boeing 757, are now allowed to use the facility.
Marion G. Mistrik, librarian of the Washington-based Air Transport Assn. has been chosen as the first recipient of its Nancy L. Cunningham Award of Excellence. The late Ms. Cunningham was a 37-year ATA employee. The award recognizes loyalty, professionalism, trustworthiness, dedication and the pursuit of excellence.
Aviation Week&Space Technology's Laureates Hall of Fame recognizes all of the Laureates winners selected by the magazine's editors since 1988. Each year, the current Laureates are added to the Hall of Fame following the award ceremony. The Hall of Fame display--featuring the Laureate Trophy, Legends plaque and a listing of the members who have been inducted to date--is on exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington. AERONAUTICS/PROPULSION Pierre Baud Laurent Beaudoin
The Bush Pentagon is pressing weapons contractors for equipment that is easier to maintain and is more fuel-efficient, while businessmen are urging defense officials to address problems like the high cost of fixing old hardware. The Pentagon agrees that the government, like private consumers, must refuse to put up with things that routinely break. ``We still tolerate stuff that breaks . . . and has short lives between failure or resupply,'' Michael W. Wynne, a Pentagon acquisition official, told a private business colloquium.
Senior Boeing officials last week suggested the Sonic Cruiser program might not enter service until 2010, bringing the company's own public projections closer to some of its likely industry subcontractors, who privately suggest 2012 as a manageable date. Boeing had originally been looking at 2006-08 as the initial window for an in-service date for its intercontinental twin-engine transonic passenger aircraft.
Lufthansa German Airlines plans to reactivate 18 parked aircraft this summer, following indications that traffic is gradually rebounding. Shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that exacerbated an emerging economic downturn, Lufthansa parked 43 aircraft to slash capacity.
Contractors hoping the war on Afghanistan will derail Pentagon plans to forgo some weapon systems that officials believe have become unnecessary may be in for a rude awakening. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has put out word that he is once again looking for programs to cut as the services develop their Fiscal 2004 spending plans. The endangered species list includes many of the same programs that have been on such shortlists before but managed to survive--the V-22 tiltrotor, Comanche light attack helicopter and Crusader, a tracked artillery vehicle.
The Russian Soyuz TM-34 crewmembers, including millionaire South African space tourist Mark Shuttleworth (see photo), were to dock with the International Space Station Apr. 27 and then return to Earth by late this week, following their launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 12:26 p.m. local time on Apr. 25.
Alison Gemmell has become director of corporate communications and marketing for SkyWest Airlines. She was director of marketing. Scott Vest has been promoted to director of people resources and development from people program manager.
American Airlines flight attendants Hermis Moutardier and Cristina Jones did more than save a planeload of people three days before Christmas when they prevented alleged terrorist Richard Colvin Reid from igniting plastic explosives concealed in his sneakers. The Boeing 767 was carrying 185 passengers and crewmembers from Paris to Miami.
