Newsdesk Commercial Aviation

The 777’s empty weight is believed to

Hughes Wins Swiss Atc Con

have grown by more than four tonnes, although Boeing is continuing efforts to reduce this to specified figures. At the moment though BA has expressed concerns over the payload and range restrictions the weight growth will impose, including the inability of the 777 to operate non stop from London to the US west coast against headwinds with a full passenger load.

If the weight problem is not overcome, British Airways may be forced to reduce the economy class seating from 10 abreast to nine in order to yield the desired range performance. At the same time Boeing may beopen to anumber of compensation claims from its 777 customers.

Meanwhile, Thai Airways is hoping to cancel its order for eight 777s as part of a wide ranging cancellation/order deferral programme announced early this month. The move, if confirmed, would be a blow for the 777 programme as it is also mooted that Cathay Pacific will cancel its 777 order before the middle of next year.

Ansett Acquires Crew Optimisation Software:

Ansett is set to become the first airline in the world to operate a computerised crewing system for its diverse fleet.

Knownas AutoCrew, the Australian Preston Group developed software allows the complex optimisation of flight crew usage while considering the number of company, government and union imposed regulations and restrictions. AutoCrew uses a specifically developed mathematical algorithm to create an efficient flight schedule with thousands of flight legs which also takes into account such factors as aircraft range and crew complements.

180 Minute Etops Forp&W 767:

The Pratt & Whitney PW4000 powered Boeing 767 has been awarded 180 minute extended twin operations (ETOPS) certification by the FAA.

The certification allows 767s with PW4000 engines to fly more efficient extended routes which take the aircraft up to three hours away from an alternate airport. The PW4000 is available in variants producing between 50,000 and 74,000lb thrust, and to date more than 2600 engines have been ordered by 65 operators.

Hughes won the contract over its rival for the 200m Australian system, Thomson. Final offers for the Australian contract are due to be lodged early this month and a decision is expected in December.

Thomson was originally awarded the Australian contract but the competition was reopened after it was found the selection process was faulty and that Hughes had been disadvantaged by it.

The Civil Aviation Authority has unveiled its new uniquely designed air traffic control tower for Sydney airport. The unconventional 45m high tower features a stayed slender central support column and passenger lift plus an enclosed sweeping stairway from ground level to the control cabin. The tower, which will be prominently positioned next to General Holmes Drive, has been designed to give the city and the airport a unique and easily recognised structure, for no more cost than a conventional tower.

Budget Stops Capital Works:

The recent federal budget contained some things which weren’t spread across the front pages of the newspapers but are certainly of interest to the airline industry.

One of them is that an election promise to spend $100m on common user terminals at Sydney, Coolangatta and Melbourne has been abandoned. The works were to be funded by a capital injection to the Federal Airports Corporation, but the collapse of Compass Airlines has now given the an excuse to pull out. It was hoped the money might have been directed to works at Sydney and Brisbane’s international terminals, Air New Zealand wanting ‘nondiscriminatory’ access to international and domestic terminals for its planned Australian domestic operations and Qantas needing additional gates at Sydney to improve its domestic services.

The budget also contained details of the FAC repaying the federal government $300m of a long term loan to help fund the promised personal tax cuts and reduce the FAC’s interest costs. By borrowing at current rates, the FAC could save up to $15m per year.

 Prm Bound for Ksa:

A Precision Runway Monitoring (PRM) radar is due to be installed at Sydney airport following the commissioning of the parallel runway in mid 1995.

PRM radar is designed to optimise parallel runway usage in all weather conditions. PRM alerts operators if an aircraft accidentally crosses into a defined no transgression zone (NTZ) between parallel ILS tracks, and also provides predict warnings if it senses that an aircraft is about to enter a NTZ.

The CAA hopes to have the PRM radar operational by late 1995, with Australia becoming the second country next to the USA to introduce the radar. Project cost for the Sydney PRM is $15m.

Midway Orders Fokker 100:

In what is a further boost for the programme, ‘new’ Chicago based carrier Midway Airlines has ordered eight Fokker 100 airliners.

Powered by 15,100lb thrust Rolls-Royce Tay 650 turbofans, the first aircraft will be delivered this November and the quiet airframe/engine combination will allow Midway to operate from environmentally sensitive airports such as Washington National and Boston Logan.

Midway is the 31st airline to order the Fokker 100, it’s smaller brother, the Fokker 70 is reviewed on p34 of this issue.