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Once capital is forthcoming in July. Compass will also be able to firm up its lease of five A300-600Rs with San Francisco based Polaris Leasing. Compass is also actively bidding for several large freight contracts to fully utilise the substantial underfloor freight capacity of its A300s and is currently eyeing the $30m Australia Post contract recently won by Australian Airlines which is up for renewal this December.

Ansett/Tnt Bid for International Freight Status:

Ansett Air Freight and TNT have bid for the right to be Australia’s second designated international air freight airline.

If successful, the group would expand their operation to include an initial fleet of 5 Boeing 707 aircraft with additional freighters planned as the initial route network expands. The proposal takes in what is believed to be a $100m investment in equipment and support infrastructure with the primary base being at Tullamarine.

If successful, AAF/TNT will operate once weekly services to Canada, China, the Philippines and South Korea with twice weekly services to Europe, Hong Kong and Japan. New Zealand would be served six times a week while Niugini would have three services. Additional ad hoc charters would fly to Vietnam, Mauritius and Brunei.

The proposal is presently before the Federal Government and it is hoped that a decision will be made during the course of this issue.

BDW Aviation Services and Australian Aviation Team to Promote Seminars:

Blake Dawson Waldron’s recently launched specialist Aviation Services division and Australian Aviation magazine have teamed to develop and promote high interest airline seminars.

The first seminar will be held on the 24th and 25th of September at Sydney’s Regent Hotel and will focus on the importance of the Computer Reservation System (CRS) in the deregulated airline environment. CRS of course has emerged over the years as one of the key tools of maintaining profitability in the cut and thrust world of deregulation. Speakers have thus been chosen carefully to reflect the lessons available to the Australian and regional airline community and they will no doubt be able to pass on a significant level of intel that could well prove invaluable in such a low yield industry as air transport.

For more information please refer to the BDW/AA advert on page 28 of this issue.

New Paper:

With this issue we have moved over to a high quality, lowsheen paper stock which should make it easier to read your favourite aviation magazine under artificial lights due to its lower reflective glare.

Another benefit of using the new paper is that it is wholly produced in Australia where- as before our stock came from Scandinavia. This was traditionally the only sector of the magazine that involved imported goods as we have been proud from Issue One to have placed as much work in Australia as possible. Previously Australian paper mills have not produced a magazine quality stock that was suitable for our high standards.

 Credit Cards the New Weapon in Air War:

First it was Ansett linking with Diners Club via Golden Wing and now it is Australian and American Express retaliating punch for punch in the lead up to deregulation.

The battle is about the commission paid by merchants, or in this case travel agents, when customers use a credit card to pay for their tickets. A commission of 3% is traditionally charged to the agent by the card company. Ansett teamed earlier this year with Diners to not only allow its 65,000 Golden Wing members free membership of Diners but Diners also agreed to waive their commission on Ansett tickets booked via travel agents using the card. This naturally would have moved any thinking travel agent to want to direct more traffic to Ansett, a move that Australian have now nicely countered via their linkup with Amex who will now also absorb the commission on behalf of the airline.

Whilst international airlines have always absorbed the merchant fee this is the first time that this practice has moved across to include domestic air travel. International airlines allow a commission of between 9% and 14% on their fares whilst the domestics allow only 5% though the new entrants will increase this to make up for the greater rate of discount on their standard advertised fares. Thus a 3% merchant fee eroded greatly the yield available to a travel agent when booking a domestic ticket via a credit card.

Air Transport Projects Survey Underway:

Three senior RAAF officers from HQADF Development Division and the RAAF Material Division are to visit a number of overseas countries to gather information for aircraft replacement and other projects which form part of the ongoing study of the RAAF’s future air transport and training needs, reports Tom Muir in the Australian Defence Intelligencer Countries to be visited between late June and the end of July include the USA, Canada, UK, Spain, Italy and Israel. One of their more pressing tasks concerns the replacement or refurbishment of the Air Force’s main transport fleet of 12 C-130Es, 12 C-130H Hercules and 21 Caribous. The visit will enable team members to meet with aircraft manufacturers and other Air Forces to determine what the rest of the world will be doing in this area.

It is understood that a decision to rewing or replace the C-130Es is growing in urgency because of corrosion and fatigue problems with aircraft which are now more than 20 years old. Relevant to this decision (in that it may involve the acquisition of additional C-130 aircraft) is the Caribou replacement project which is also becoming increasingly critical because of difficulties in obtaining spares for this Vietnam vintage aircraft.

Besides discussing refurbishment and other options with Lockheed, it is under- stood that team members, in consulting with other service users about current developments in military air transport, may look at possible cost sharing arrangements on future C-130 projects as well as the C-130 and Caribou replacement projects. The team will also be looking at other aspects of the RAAF’s future transport requirements including different concepts of air-to-air refuelling, simulators, avionics and navigational training aids.

There is also speculation that the RAAF may be giving consideration to airborne refuelling of the Army’s Black Hawk helicopters as an alternative to airdropping or pre-positioning fuel in the event that none of the Chinook helicopters are retained in service. And although no formal request has yet been received from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, there is no doubt that approaches will be made by aircraft manufacturers to discuss with the team the PM’s well publicised preference for a larger VIP aircraft than the five Falcon 900 trijets recently introduced into service.

The original proposal for a new VIP fleet was based on two larger aircraft capable of carrying 30-40 passengers and three smaller aircraft for 10-15 passengers each in VIP configuration. The team will visit British. Aerospace, CASA, and Aeritalia where it is expected they will take the opportunity to discuss a range of issues and aircraft options available, including the BAe 146, as a possible transport candidate, and the CASA CN-235, as a STOL replacement for the Caribou.

Elders to Sell Northwest Shares:

The Elders Finance Group has decided to sell its 14% stake in US based Northwest Airlines back to the airline.

Elders invested $US80m in NWA during 1989 in support of Californian investor Mr Al Cheechi’s $US3. 4bn bid for control of the US mega carrier. It is believed that Elders actually realised a slight profit on the deal which now sees Mr Cheechi reducing his ownership of NWA from 55% to 45% following his decision to sell a parcel of his stock to KLM. The Dutch flag carrier now owns some 20% of NWA and is increasing its co-operative agreement with the US airline to give it greater overall access and presence to the vast Pacific Rim/Asian basin.

Warpac to Go the Same Way as NATO?

With the long term military future of NATO in doubt, it is not surprising that the various Warsaw Pact countries are even less enthusiastic about continuing their presence in what is now little more than a military allegiance in name only.

Speaking recently in Moscow at a conference to decide the future of the Pact, the Hungarian Prime Minister stated “We consider the Warsaw Pact an outdated organisation which has lost its function in the Europe of today. We believe its military organisation is not needed in the future and think it would be desirable that the Pact should be abolished in its current form by the end of 1991.

It is expected that, like NATO, the Warsaw Pact may become more of a mutual security and trading pact to better represent the long term aspirations of what is nowadays being referred to as Central Europe rather than the Eastern Bloc.

Qantas Trims Senior Staff as Revenue Fall Off Bites:

Qantas CEO, Mr John Ward, has advised the General Managers of the airline’s 12 operating divisions that they will have to cut senior level staffing positions in a move to trim costs.

Qantas employs around 600 senior management people and the cuts are expected to involve 10% of these. In some cases, modifications to each division’s operating objective has meant that changes can be rationalised due to previous functions being amortised into existing operations. Selected staff are thus being offered either a redundancy package or redeployment. Redeployment in some cases may be welcomed as the airline has had a hiring freeze in place since late last year in an effort to curb its expected 1989/90 loss.

Fortunately the airline will be able to bolster its reduced passenger earnings, caused principally by the domestic pilots’ dispute, late delivery of 747-400 aircraft from Boeing and a substantial increase in the cost of fuel, by the sale of early model 747-200 aircraft. At presstime there were encouraging signs that inbound traffic was beginning to strengthen and that the worst of the longer term after affects of the pilots’ dispute would be over by year end.

Atof Likely to Represent Airline Pilots:

The Australian Transport Officers” Federation, which currently represents the majority of white colour and professional employees within the airline industry, is now seen as the most likely union to officially represent the bulk of domestic airline pilots in Australia.

ATOF has been acting as an agent for the Ansett, IPEC, Australian and EWA pilots during the recent national wage case awards where the pilots were granted a 3% increase as the second tier of last year’s 6% national increase. ATOF will know by August 27 whether or not its claim before the Industrial Relations Commission is successful in gaining official sanction to represent the domestic pilots in industrial and safety matters previously the province of the Australian Federation of Air Pilots.

While the AFAP has recently been readmitted into the industrial relations system under existing awards by the IRC, it is considered unlikely that many current airline pilots will wish to join it, considering the events of the past year. ATOF has also received interest from second level and GA pilots that have indicated a desire to leave the AFAP. Whether or not the IRC grants the ATOF approval to represent all pilots, or just airline pilots, is not yet known. Meanwhile the AFAP’s challenge to the Immigration Dept on the issuing of visas to foreign pilots employed by the airlines is not expected to be heard before the Federal Court till September at the earliest.

Piper’s Phoenix:

Piper has announced its latest aircraft, a twin turboprop business aircraft called “Project Phoenix.

Based largely on the aerodynamics and manufacturing processes employed in the Malibu pressurised piston single, Phoenix will feature an unusual powerplant installation in that the two PWAC PT68-35F turboprops will be mounted side by side in the air- craft’s nose, driving a single propeller through a Soloy Dual Pac gearbox. The engines have a maximum thermodynamic rating of 850shp but will undoubtedly be heavily derated to about 600shp in the Phoenix. Piper claims the installation will provide several advantages including reduced drag the elimination of significant asymmetrical forces and propulsion system independence, higher speed and improved single engine performance.

No launch date for the aircraft has been set, although the price of the 300 knot aircraft is expected to be similar to the Beech King Air C90A, currently around $US1. 8m.

 A320 Changes Considered:

Airbus is considering possible A320 control law modifications with airlines following the Habsheim and Bangalore accidents.

Although both accidents were caused by pilot error whilst low and slow’, the alterations discussed will prevent pilots getting into the same situation. One idea is to extend the ‘Alpha Floor” protection (which automatically provides full power if angle of attack reaches stall) to below the 100ft above runway height to which it now operates. However, Airbus is reluctant to provide more auto protection lest it promote pilot complacency.

 British Defence Freeze:

The British government has ordered a temporary freeze on defence procurement and civilian recruitment while a review of spending is carried out.

Expected to last only five or six weeks, the freeze will enable officials to draw up plans for short term spending reductions. Higher than expected inflation (currently over 9%) has damaged the only two months old current defence budget which assumed an inflation rate of 6. 5%. The result has been a 3% reduction in defence spending in real terms instead of the planned maintenance of previous levels.

 Qantas Incident Safe:

The arrival of a Qantas Boeing 747 at London Heathrow, allegedly short of fuel, had no safety connotations, according to a report by the United Kingdom Civil Aviation Authority.

The situation arose when the aircraft encountered strong headwinds on its way to London. Close monitoring of the situation revealed that an order to hold near London was not able to be complied with as the aircraft’s holding fuel had been exhausted. The statutory reserve fuel was still on board (the amount the aircraft should have in its tanks on landing) and as a result the captain requested a priority clearance. This was denied unless an emergency was declared, so the captain followed that course of action and was given the clearance. In view of the crash of an Avianca Boeing 707 at New York due to fuel exhaustion and poor communication between the aircraft and the tower early this year, it’s difficult to criticise the Qantas captain’s course of action. Better safe than sorry. . .

 Torres Strait Islands Get Their Own Airline:

Forget Compass, Capitol and Southern Cross, Australia’s newest airline is diminutive Torres Air, a minuscule operation that now links the Torres Strait islands with Australia.

Established with a start up grant of $100,000 from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, Torres Air was set to commence operations on July 1 and will initially fly between the islands and Cairns using aircraft leased from locally based Falcon Airlines. Falcon operates primarily a mix of BN Islander,-Queen Air and light Cessna aircraft. Routes to Nuigini are also planned though are not expected to clear the various diplomatic hurdles till year end.

 Congratulations Gabby:

Gabrielle (Gabby) Skinner, an 18 year old Brisbane lass has not only gained a CPL, an aerobatic rating, single engine instrument rating and an instructors rating since commencing flying lessons in January last year but is also this year’s winner of the prestigious Sir Donald Anderson Trophy, beating 156 other women pilots in the process.

The CAA awards the trophy to the woman with the highest marks in the commercial and senior commercial pilot’s licence theory examinations. Gabby Skinner is the daughter of Capt Geoff Skinner, an Ansett pilot who died in June, 1988.