The Swissair Group plans to sell two more subsidiaries, Swissport and Nuance, in an effort to generate cash rapidly, reduce debt and restore profitability. During the first half of this year, Swissair revenues increased 8% to $4.9 billion, but the company posted $140 million in losses after providing more than $150 million to cover losses from subsidiary LTU. Swissair owns 49.9% of the Germany-based charter operator.
Air Liberte and AOM will be combined into a unified airline and adopt a new identity in the next few weeks. The as-yet-unnamed ``new'' French carrier intends to quickly create a strong corporate structure on the ruins of its predecessors and hopes to restore profitability by 2003, according to company executives. Under the umbrella of Holco, its new owner, it is downsizing to 28 aircraft, cutting jobs, eliminating unprofitable routes and establishing tight cost control.
Hughes Electronics announced a reduction of up to 10% of its U.S. workforce, which now totals about 7,900. The company-wide cuts will result in a one-time charge to third-quarter earnings, according to company officials. CEO Jack A. Shaw attributed the layoffs to ``the strain of the current economic downturn and sluggish economy.''
Engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center completed preliminary cryogenic fill tests with a composite liquid oxygen tank designed and built by Lockheed Martin Space Systems-Michoud Operations in New Orleans. The 9.5-ft.-long, 500-lb. tank is the first of its size built at Michoud to be compatible with LOX, and will face thermal and pressure loads as the test series continues. Tanks of composite materials like the carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer matrix used in the Michoud test article hold promise for reducing weight in second-generation reusable launch vehicles.
POLAND HAS COMPLETED final site acceptance of Raytheon's Virtual Tower ATC Simulator System, which adds a tower trainer and expands the radar approach capabilities at the Warsaw facility. The tower simulator gives a complete 360-deg. field of view with four trainer positions. Radar approach training increased from two to six positions, which can be run in parallel and in sync with the tower simulation. Ten pseudo-pilot positions add realism and can be divided between the simulators.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said a restructuring of Thai Airways International is to be completed within a month. Terms of such a sale are unclear. The government has proposed selling 23% of its holdings--13% to the public and 10% to a foreign carrier--but sale to a foreign carrier has generated opposition within the airline.
The US Airways pilots' union is advising its members to vote against a stock incentive plan that would further compensate three of the carrier's senior executives who next month may qualify for a severance package valued at a total of $45 million. The union's ire is directed at Chairman Stephen M. Wolf, President/CEO Rakesh Gangwal and Lawrence M. Nagin, executive vice president of corporate affairs and general counsel, each a former executive at United Airlines prior to the 1993 Employee Stock Ownership Plan.
Israel completed the second of a set of more realistic tests with its Arrow theater ballistic missile defense system. The Arrow missile destroyed the F-16-launched Black Sparrow target that was aimed at the country's coastline, the second such scenario. In earlier trials, the interceptor followed the target. It was the ninth Arrow test overall. Performance of the ``Green Pine'' radar and ``Citron Tree'' fire control system was deemed nominal, according to the system's prime contractor, Israel Aircraft Industries, and the U.S. Army, which is supporting the program.
Stephen Smith has been appointed president/CEO of the low-fare carrier that is scheduled to be launched later this year by Air Canada. He was president/CEO of WestJet Airlines and a past chairman of the Air Transport Assn. of Canada.
The Wideband Gapfiller Satellite (WGS), set for launch in early 2004, has completed a series of preliminary design reviews. The high-capacity military satellite communications system, with a potential value of $1.3 billion, is being developed by a team headed by Boeing Satellite Systems. The joint service program is funded by the U.S. Air Force and Army, with USAF's Space and Missile Systems Center serving as procuring agency. Critical design review is set for later this year.
As summer waned, the pace of airline labor developments quickened. American Airlines and the Transport Workers Union agreed on a series of three-year contracts covering about 15,000 dispatchers, meteorologists, instructors, simulator technicians, technical specialists and clerks. But the Allied Pilots Assn. turned down American's ``fast-track'' proposal for contract negotiations, aimed at an agreement by next June.
Robert M. Kuhn has been named president/CEO of the Safire Aircraft Co., West Palm Beach, Fla. He was chairman/CEO/ president of Goss Graphic Systems, president of Hamilton Standard and senior vice president-business development for parent United Technologies Corp.
Denmark's Thrane&Thrane has selected SED Systems under a $14.5-million contract to supply radio frequency and global resource management subsystems for Thrane&Thrane's radio access network. The radio access equipment will be installed in Inmarsat Ltd.'s broadband global area network.
A pair of U.S. and French scientific missions have been delayed due to component problems, just weeks after similar glitches forced the postponement of a NASA/USAF payload launch. A Delta II launch carrying Jason-1, a oceanographic satellite mission developed by NASA and French space agency CNES, and Timed, a NASA mission to study the mesosphere and lower thermosphere/ionosphere, was pushed back to Dec. 7 when Jason-1 mission engineers discovered a pair of component failures during tests of similar components in France.
Travel agent commissions, one of the few airline cost centers that have declined in recent years, are expected to plunge again this quarter in the wake of a new round of cuts imposed by the carriers. North American airlines, led by American and its merger partner TWA, reduced the maximum cap from $50 to $20 for each round trip sold in the U.S. and Canada. The new one-way maximum is $10. Most major airlines including Air Canada matched the offer as of last week. The base commission rate remains unchanged at 5% (see p. 27).
Maj. Barry R. Cornish has received the U.S. Air Force's Koren Kolligian, Jr., Trophy for 2001, the service's highest safety award. It is presented to an air crewmember who uses skill, alertness, ingenuity or proficiency to minimize or avert an accident. While assigned to the 58th Fighter Sqdn. at Eglin AFB, Fla., one of the main landing gears on Cornish's F-15 failed on the first attempt at landing and caused severe damage to the aircraft. He got the plane back in the air and with just enough fuel left to get back on the ground, landed approximately 30 ft.
NavCanada's $5.7-million Air Operations Center in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, opened for business last week. The center, which is staffed by 18 air traffic controllers, 10 electronics technologists (who maintain navigation, communication and other systems) and eight Flight Service Station specialists, is set to handle some 110,000 aircraft movements annually.
Reacting strongly to Indian reports that blame ``poor quality MiG aircraft for the high accident rates of the Indian air force,'' Russian officials have counterclaimed that MiG fighters wouldn't crash so often if the Indians stopped buying ``low-quality'' spares. The Russian reaction has occurred as the Indian air force (IAF) has begun talks with the Israelis about upgrading more than 100 MiG-27 and 66 MiG-29 fighters.
The Polish air force has ordered eight C-295 twin-turboprop airlifters produced by EADS Espana, formerly known as Construcciones Aeronauticas. They are scheduled to be delivered in 2003-05.
Japan's Ministry of Education and Science has ordered the nation's three space-related bodies to merge into a single organization as part of the wide-ranging reforms instituted by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. The decision involves bringing together the National Space Development Agency (NASDA), which heads the largest of Japan's space efforts, with the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) and the National Aerospace Laboratory.
Neal E. Minahan has been named general counsel of the Raytheon Co., Lexington, Mass. He was vice president/deputy general counsel/assistant secretary. Minahan succeeds Thomas D. Hyde, who has joined Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Terrance D. (Bart) Barcellos has been promoted to vice president-corporate business development for Army programs from director of Army direct and indirect fire programs for Raytheon in Arlington, Va.
NASA has dropped an effort to help startup space launch services win private financing by offering payloads for the first flights of untried launch vehicles. The agency cited a weak commercial market for launching small payloads to low-Earth orbit (LEO) and unresponsive proposals from the two bidders who replied.
Moody's Investors Service analysts are concerned that 2003 will mark the start of an anemic period for the commercial aircraft industry. High deliveries of commercial jetliners in 2001 and 2002 and projected low traffic growth--combined with airlines' mediocre profitability and an unfavorable economic environment--will create a noticeable aircraft surplus, they predict.
Boeing Satellite Systems says it will add 33,000 sq. ft. to its 100,000-sq.-ft. high bay test and integration facility at its El Segundo, Calif., factory. The expansion work includes additional test equipment and new facilities for containerization and acoustic testing. The expansion was prompted by a need to prepare to build 12 Block IIF Global Positioning Satellites beginning late next year (see rendering). The Air Force's GPS satellites had been built at Boeing Space&Communication's Seal Beach, Calif., facility, which will no longer handle satellite construction.
