Airline Affairs

Sydney based Australia Air has also been offered $5m and various tax benefits by the Victorian government to include Melbourne in the China services, but the catch is that the airline has to move its headquarters to the Victorian capital in order to gain this benefit. The grant also allows just $1m per annum over five years.

Sas & Anz Sign Commercial Agreement:

Air New Zealand and Scandinavian Airlines have signed a preferred partnership commercial agree- ment which will see each carrier feed the others’ services between Scandinavia and the New Zealand and the South Pacific.

The agreement supersedes a similar arrangement that has been in place over the last three years, which has seen them act as general sales agents for each other. This latest arrangement will see the carriers involved in the joint development of frequent flyer opportunities, schedule connections at common gateways, destinational initiatives, interline fare arrangements and potential codesharing opportunities.

All the Mod Cons:

Telephones, laptop computers and other devices will soon become common on airliners if moves initiated by Swissair, USAir and America West are any indication.

Swissair is installing telephones in its fleet of MD-11 trijets, one per seat on first and business classes and two wall phones for economy class to share amongst itself. The phones cost about $US10 per minute and the bill is charged to a credit card.

USAir and America West are also ploneering another symbol of the age of technology, laptop computer jacks in seat armrests. USAir alone has contracted with the In-Flight Phone Corp to install jacks in 412 aircraft. Users who plug in their laptops will have a digital communications capability of 9600 baud/sec at their disposal and will pay $US2 per minute for the service which allows them to access online data, computer networks and even send faxes.

Aus-Air Increases Its Share:

Moorabbin based regional airline AusAir recorded strong growth on its Bass Strait services in 1993.

The airline operates to four Tasmanian destinations plus King and Flinders Islands. It carried more passengers to King Island than any other carrier and high levels of growth to Flinders were recorded. Overall, AusAir carried more passengers in 1993 than any year since 1989.

The airline currently operates a fleet of one Bandeirante and seven Navajos and is looking at upgrading to modern turboprops to increase capacity and flexibility.

Safety Figures Slightly Better:

Statistics released by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) indicate a slight improvement in airline safety in 1993.

Scheduled carriers from ICAO’s 183 member states experienced 34 acci- dents involving passenger fatalities in 1993 compared with 29 the previous year, although the number of deaths was down from 1097 to 936. Passenger fatalities per 100 million passenger kilometres decreased from 0. 06 to 0. 05.

Non scheduled carriers showed a notable improvement in 1993, the number of fatal accidents declining from 44 to 29 and passengers killed from 366 to 144.

On the other hand, the security of the world’s airlines suffered significantly in 1993. Acts of ‘unlawful interference’ rose from 10 incidents involving nine deaths in 1992 to 29 incidents and 27 deaths last year, the majority of them being in the CIS or involving the PRC/Taiwan.

Missed by That Much!:

Predictions that the number of overseas visitors to Australia would reach a record three million in 1993 were missed by the barest of margins according to figures released by the Bureau of Statistics.

The number of visitors reached 2,996,300, which despite being slightly disappointing because it failed to reach the magic figure, was still a record and a substantial 15% improvement on 1992.

As before, Japan, the UK, New Zealand and the USA provided the largest number of visitors, all of them showing growth over the previous year. New Zealand was the biggest improver with 12% more Kiwis coming to Australia last year than in 1992. The others grew by 7-8% The number of Australians who took short term trips overseas remained fairly static, 2,267,22 of them leaving our shores last year, fractionally fewer than 1992. A low valued Australian dollar and the large number of good value holidays available at home are considered major factors in a diminished interest in overseas holidays.

The most popular destinations were New Zealand (up 3%), the USA (down 11%, interestingly), the UK (static) and Indonesia (up 996), the latter figure an indication of the popularity of holidays in Bali and the commencement of in- ternational operations by Ansett with consequent renewed interest in that market by Qantas.

Kansai Controversy Continues:

The controversy over the very high landing charges proposed for Japan’s new Kansai Airport (refer p16 Apr and p24 Mar AA) continues, with the influential Orient Airlines Associa- tion (OAA) calling for the airport’s operators to “seriously reconsider its intention to apply monopolistic charges on airlines otherwise it will have severe repercussions on the future success of the airport”.

The OAA points out that the landing fee of $US9525 for a Boeing 747-400 is six times more than the lowest rate and double the highest charge in OAA member countries. Its parking fee is nine times that of Bangkok. The Association has called for Kansai to redress the situation so that the growth of air traffic in Central Japan will not be affected by airlines reducing their frequencies or deferring operations into the airport. Both Qantas and Ansett are due to commence operating into Kansai later this year.

The OAA points out that Kansai’s pricing policy is apparently for the purpose of prefunding future expansion, an action which is contrary to the International Civil Aviation Organisa tion’s (ICAO) principles. It also notes that member airlines’ landing and enroute fees increased by a massive 14% in 1992/93 and by 43% in the four year period from 1989.

Air Maroochy Expands:

Ansett affiliate and Sunshine Coast operator Air Maroochy Airlines has announced an expansion of its services to points further north in Queensland.

The new services will connect the Sunshine Coast to Hervey Bay, Bundaberg and Gladstone as well as Brisbane, connections which until now have not existed. Previously, it was not possible for passengers to fly north from the Sunshine Coast or South from Gladstone without a stop at Brisbane on the way.

Air Maroochy’s expansion completes the overall interconnecting of major coastal towns between Cairns and Sydney within the Ansett reservations system.

Russian Traffic Down but Profits Up:

Although Russia’s airlines recorded a 35% drop in passenger traffic in 1993, profits are up to about $US200m overall according to figures released by Russia’s Department of Air Transport (DAT).

Registered commercial operators flew 83bn passenger kilometres in 1993 and carried 40 million passengers. The cargo figure of 555,000 tonnes was also substantially lower than the previous year. The profit compares with a loss of about $US35m in 1992, with Aeroflot/Russian International Airlines alone reporting earnings of some $150m.

Airline safety remains a problem in Russia with 11 fatal and 76 non fatal accidents being reported in 1993 with the loss of 222 people and 28 aircraft. Although this figure is better than the previous year, it is largely as a result of considerably fewer hours being flown due to aircraft serviceability problems. Aircraft faults resulted in 634 incidents, the most frequent cause of which was engine failures on the Tu-154 and I1-62 airliners plus the Mi-8 helicopter. Both the Tu-154 and II-62 are powered by the D-30KU engine which has a history of shaft bearing failures. Worryingly, the DAT report notes that no design measures have

Centrespread

This month’s centrespread depicts General Electric’s 747 engine testbed aircraft that it is using to test the new GE90 turbofan for the Boeing 777 twinjet, as it lines up for another test flight departure.

The GE90 is one of three big turbofans in the 90,000lb + 400 (403. 2kN) thrust range vying for business on Boeing’s new big twin, the others being the Rolls-Royce Trent and the Pratt & Whitney PW4084. All three engines are due to be certificated within the next year and all three are capable of more than 100,000lb (448kN) thrust, a truly awesome figure when one considers that the first jet engines produced less than 1% of that figure.

Indeed the GE90 demonstrated a thrust of 110,000lb (492. 8kN) in recent certification testing, a figure twice that of the Pratt & Whitney turbofans which power the first generation of widebody airliners.

been implemented to fix the problem! Four Russian airliners were hijacked in 1993 and preflight security procedures resulted in the confiscation of 1700 firearms, 12,000 knives and other steel weapons, four tonnes of explosives and 40kg of drugs.

Qantas Profit up but Float Delayed:

Qantas has announced an operational profit of $100. 5m for the six months to the end of December 1993 ($71. 7m after tax) but has asked the Federal Government to delay the airline’s privatisation until March next year.

The half year result (which includes four months of full domestic opera- tions) contrasts sharply with the previ- ous six months, during which a loss of $365. 2m was recorded. This however included abnormals such as changes in accounting policies and the once only write off of $282. 3m for intangible as sets associated with the purchase of Australian Airlines.

Qantas has requested the delay in privatisation until things settle down. following the Australian Airlines merger, saying an early float would be “a huge diversion” for management. British Airways (which has a 25% stake) has already pushed for a delay until the airline has consolidated its po- sition and returned to steady profitability. BA says it’s best to avoid the temptation of trying to take advantage of the current bullish stock market.

The oft-delayed float of Qantas shares has had an effect on the managers originally appointed to handle it. Four brokers ANZ McCaughan, County NatWest, CS First Boston and Potter Warburg – were named lead managers to the float, but the delay means the original contracts have expired and the selection process will have to be reopened.