Newsdesk – Commercial

Qantas Sells Second Boeing 747:

Qantashassolditssecond7 47, VH-EBB, to the Irish-based Guinness-Peat and Associates trading company.The final fate of EBB is unknown as Guinness-Peat leases aircraft to a number of international carriers. Ironically, the first operator, in the aircraft’s new ownership, will be Qantas itself as the carrier leases EBB back till thenew747-300scomeonlinethroughtheearly months of next year. It is believed Qantas realised around$24 million for the aircraft,the second such sale in the past six months

A Military ATR42?

Aerospaliale and Aeritaliaareactivelyexaminingthepossibilities of building a military freighter version of their ATR42 twin-engined commuter airliner. With more than 60 firm orders in hand and the first aircraft just having entered the flying programme the consortium are suggesting the fitment of an 8.2 ft cargo door in place of the standard 4 9 ft unit Thiswouldopeninwardwhiletheprovision O·farearloadingrampisalsobeinginvestigated. Development meanwhile proceeds on the ATR42andATR62whichwillhavetheirentry to airlineservice1n1985and1987/88respectively

Swissair Launch Fokker 100 With Prestigious Order:

Swissair has signed with Fokker of Hofland foresight of their rew F100 100-seat class twin-turbofan airliners Additionally the Swiss carrier has taken options for a further six aircraft with the first of type being deliveredearlyin1987 Thisisthefourthaircraft typethatSwissalrhasbeenlaunch customer for, having previouslylaunchedtheDC-9 Super 81 as it was then known (now MD-81), the Airbus A310 and the Boeing 747-300. The Fokker 100 will meet all current and expected noise and other environmental regulations. Its Tay engines will use 150/o less fuel duringcruisethantheRollsRoyceRB183Spey asusedontheF28, whileproducing35%more power at takeoff The Sw1ssairaircraft will have 84seats,8 in First-Class, 53inBusinessand23 inEconomywhileinthecharterconfigurationthe F100canaccommodateupto107passengers. The Swissair F100s will replace the DC-9-30s which is ironic considering that the first sale jet should be for the very replacement of a type that McDonnell Douglas themselves chose not to provide a follow-on programme for when they opted out of the promising MD-90 project in late 1983.

Jetstream 31 output to increase 50 per cent:

Production of the Jetstream 31 is tobeincreasedby50percentto36ayearatthe British Aerospace factory in Scotland. The decision to step up manufacture at Prestwick over the 1984 figure of 24 planes follows safes successes, the most recent of which include a fourth model for McAlpine AviationofLuton, to be used for business charter work, and two for the Royal Navy for training purposes. Orders for Jetstream 31 from worldwide customersnowtotal42 and independent market surveys show that there is a requirement for about 2000 aircraft of the type over the next ten years.

March quarter reveal ssignificant Growth Fnairline Uplift:

The provisional air transport statistics covering the March quarter suggest that Australia’s domestic airlines could best to recover in line with other sections of the economy. The provisional statistics show that the quarterly decline in airline activity in 1983 slowed in the latter half of the year. Airlineactivityinthe Marchquarterthisyearshowedasignificantrise. As shown in the table below, percentage changes in total tonne-kilometres for the four quarters in March 1984 indicate that the aviation industry may be recovering from the poor performances of recent years. The table compares each quarter with the corresponding quarter of the previous twelve months.

June Quarter 1983 -11.7

September Quarter 1983 – 1 4

December Quarter 1983 – 0.2

March Quarter 1984 + 5.4

The March quarter also showed improvements against the previous March quarter in passenger-kilometres, which rose by 4.5% to 2359million; freight to nne-kilometres which rose by 11.5% to 29.9million; and passengers carried whichrose4.40/oto2 6million.The statistics cover activity performed by operators under a full airline licence

Aas Sell Their Last Friendship:

Australian Aircraft Sales have sold their final Fokker F27F friendship in the most recent batch they acquired in 1983. Durlngear1yJulythefour ex-TAA F27s (VH-TFM, TOP, TOO AND TON) departed for refurbishing at Air UK’s Norwich headquarterspriortodeliverytoSAS. VH-NLS, still wearing its faded NAC/Air New Zealand livery was scheduled to depart late in August bound for Busy Bee of Norway. Over the past fouryearsAAShavetradedsome28F27aircraft and at one time were the world’s largest owner of the type. Intact the Sydney-based AAS has a considerable track record that has few rivals. Upto the endofthe1983/84 financial yearAAS hadsold1117aircraft, including155DC-3s, six Sunderlands,14DC-4sand22DC-6Bs. Established in 1946, AASwereactlveinthesale ofTAA DC-9sandstillhold options to purchase on the remaining nine when they are eventually replaced a new-generation 100-seater later this decade.

Airship Interest Increases:

Airship lndustries,300/oofwhichisownedbyAlanBond, who 1salsoChairman, is attracting considerable interest from a number of government organisations. The US Coast Guard is presently conductingasixmonthtrialstudyusingaleased Skyship 500 to investigate the use of airships for certain USCG duties. The British hand French Navies have finalised similar studies which also investigated the possibilities of using airships in the convoy escort AEW and ASW roles. The latest interest comes from Canada where the government is considering leasing a Skyship 500 for use in resupply operations in support of remote bases in the Yukon region. A number of Skyship 500s have already been sold while Airship Industries report interest in the larger, more capable, Model 600is strong. Bond Corporation is also hoping to bring a Model 600 out to Australia next year for publicity purposes as a run-up to the America’s Cup challenge.

De Havilland Canada Looking Better:

De Havilland Canada are looking better with reported 1984 sales (June to May) up 30% as against the previous year. The company to date has written orders against 142 Dash 78 and 810 Twin Otterswhile first customer delivery of the new 36-seat Dash 8 is scheduled to take place early next year. At time of writing there were orders and options on 92 Dash 88 while flight testing has now exceeded 1200 hours. The venerable Twin Otter is now in its 18th year of production while the twelve highest flight time aircraft have all accumulated more than 30,000 hours, the longest serving of which has logged more than 40,000 hours and an impressive 80,000 cycles. DHC report that some 85% of Twin Otters manufactured are still in regular service.

United Is the Biggest:

United Airlines doesn’t have to try hard to be the Western World’s largest airline. According to Air Transport World magazine, United is the biggest in-five of the seven categories that rank airlines. Operating a fleet of 329 aircraft United uplifted 38,199,000 passengers in 1983 for a total of 70,465,000 Revenue Passenger Kilometres which grossed the airline $5,373,000,000. United employs around 43,000 people.

Chicago Again Hosts the World’s Busiest Airport:

Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport again tops the charts as the busiest airport, according to the Airport Operators Council International 1983 Traffic was up 13.5% to 42.9 million passengers handled. Second was the new Hartsfield-Atlanta complex with 37.9 million passengers while nine of the ten busiest airports were found in the USA. London’s Heathrow was the foreign participant, coming in at sixth position with 26.7 million passengers Sydney’s KSA in 1983 is believed to have seen just under eight million passengers by comparison.

Federal Express Give Commercial DC-10 a New Lease of Life:

The recent Federal Expressorder forsixDC-10jetlinershas given a new lease of life to this programme FedEx will use the aircraft as freighters while McDonnell Douglas executives now expect further orders for the DC-1o as a result of commercial production being reintroduced. During the past year, the only DC-10 production at LongBeach was the USAFKC-10Extender tanker/transport.Despitethesurprisescrapping late in 1983 of the promising MD-100 DC-10 derivative, MDChopetobeabletonowcontinue commercial DC-10 production and proceeded to develop the MD-XXX for airline launch by 1988. The MD-XXX is not that dissimilar to the scrappedMD•100andfeaturesa major systems update of the standard DC-1o along with new technology &Whitney PW4000 and andGeneral Electric CF6-80C which should combine to improve fuel burn by up to 20% per seat kilometres Additionally the new range would include extended fuselage and ultra-long range variants offering a considerable degree of flexibility in that the marque would be the only medium to long-range bodied trijet on the market.

So What Does It Take to Paint a Plane?

Ever wondered how long it takes, or how much paint is used in painting a large transport aircraft? Rebel Air have recently repainted flagship PWMin her new livery, a job that took Winrye Aviation of Banks townt and a half weeks using four specialists full time. In addition to spraying a thick layer of Aladine primer over the entire airframe some 37 litres of Eurocryl paint are required to finish the job. If that doesn’t sound a lot, then consider that repainting a typically configured Boeing 747 adds between four and four and a half tonnes of extra weight in paint to its ramp weight!

More Airbus Aircraft Into the US:

Capitol Air has become the third US carrier to operate the Airbus A300 twinjet. Easternwasthe first with 34 new A300s in an order that dated back to 1978 while more recently upstart operators, Northeastern International Airways and capital Airhave each acquired two second-hand A300s for domestic routes. Airbus Industrie are marketing hard to get a toehold in the potentially lucrative US used market as their used A300srepresentexcellentbuyingvaluefor aspiring longer haul domestic operators Airbus are also well aware that the ability to be able to quickly move a large number of of A300sthat might occur with a Lufthansa roHover on A310s and A300-600s(as an example) would be a vital sales asset. Conversely,US operators might later wish to upgrade with new Al products once they are introduced to the type.

Concorde for Sydney:

British Airways and Cunard are planning a Concorde charter from London to Sydney in February1985which will hopefully see new records set on a number of traditional subsonic sectors. The entire journeyistaggedtotakenolongerthan16hours and will track from London via Cairo, Colombo and Perth. The Perth to Sydney flight time 1s scheduled for 2½ hours. BA currently operates six Concordes and is investigating placing their seventh SST in service to meet with an increasing charter demand for the SST.BA this year plan to operate more than 100 Concorde special charters for organisations ranging from Cunard down to English country pubs.

New Federal Police Unit to Eventually Supersede Coastwatch:

Following tabling of the Beazley Report into Australia’s EEZ patrol requirements in Parliament, the government has decided to set up a Coastal Protection Unit that will be entirely run by the Canberra-based Federal Police. The Unit will operate within the Australian Coastal Surveillance Centre and be a joint user of that centre with the Department of Transport. The Department of Transport will continue to manage the functions of the centre and will retain responsibility for maritime safety and related SAR functions. The Coastal Protection Unit will plan and set priorities for surveillance and implement response and enforcement action. It will direct officers of Customs, Defence and Transport as appropriate in its primary role as a coordinating body. There will be much closer Customs involvement in the new arrangements with Customs officers being attached to the Coastal Protection Unit and participating in appropriate response and enforcement actions. There are a range of matters which the Government requires the unit to examine once it has been established. These include an assessment of whether there is justification for introducing night surveillance capability: the civil requirement for air space surveillance with the development and integration of over Horizon radar whether in the light of its assessment of the adequacy of Commonwealth and State resources, it may be necessary to equip the unit with additional US Coast Guard-style patrol craft or aircraft suitable for operations in particular areas. The Report indicated that it was against the continuing S-2G Tracker EEZ patrol operations but thought that these aircraft might be viable if operated in civil guise sans their ASW kit.

Flying Tigers Starts Second Weekly Flight From the US to Australia:

Flying Tigers, the world’s largest air cargo carrier, which began flying to Australia last September, started a second weekly scheduled flight from the United States to Australia during July. Flying Tigers inaugurated its southbound scheduled US-Australia service in September • 1984, operating a Saturday departure from Los Angeles with a Monday arrival in Sydney and Melbourne ‘We are pleased to commence this second weekly flight to meet the increased demand for all-cargo service to Australia,’ said Paul A Stokes, vice president of Asia-Pacific of the Los Angeles-based carrier. In the last six months, Flying Tigers have operated a number of extra flights from the US to Australia, with approval of both governments, to satisfy the transportation needs of US exporters and Australian importers. By providing a second weekly flight, Flying Tigers hope tooffer an alternative for shippers with time-sensitive shipments, allowing them to plan for either the midweek or Saturday departure.

767 Jetlinersetsnew Flight Record:

The first 767 jetliner for Ethiopian Airlines has set a new nonstop record for a commercial twin- jet on a flight from Washington DC. to Addis Ababa. Total distance flown was 7500 statute miles (12,082 km)-the longest nonstop flight

ever made by a commercial twinjet. The previous known distance record by commercial twinjet was also set by a 767-on an ElAlflightin March from Montreal to Tel Aviv covering 5800 statute miles (9120 km). The Ethiopian delivery flight took a Great Circle route across the North Atlantic, Europe, the Mediterranean, over Egypt and the Sudan, and into Ethiopia. It stayed within the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s 90-minute guideline during the entire flight. The guideline recommends that twin-engine aircraft always remain within 90 minutes’ flying time of en-route airports at all-engine speed. Such regulations are being studied to determine if time limits should be extended or even removed in light of the high reliability of modern turbofan engines and aeroplane systems. This would permit more direct extended-range operations.