Airline Affairs

New Freight Service Proposed

Gippsland based operator Promair Australia is proposing a new airfreight service between George Town, Flinders Island and Port Welshpool to largely replace the existing Flinders Island shipping service. Using two DHC Caribou aircraft, the company says it could meet most of the island’s freight demands with 46 flights per month while offering lower rates without the need for government subsidies. Some of the island’s needs – such as fuel, fertiliser and some livestock – would still have to be carried by the barge currently operating. The only previous Australian civil use of the Caribou was in the mid 1960s when Ansett-MAL operated a single aircraft in Papua New Guinea. This proved to be an uneconomical exercise, although largely because of the establishment of a road between Goroka and Lae which reduced the need for the Caribou and regulations prevented the airline from using its full STOL potential.

Footy Fever

Major sporting events have always provided a boost for the airlines, apparently none more so than the recent ‘State of Origin’ rugby league match between NSW and Queensland at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The match drew a record 87,000 spectators (in the heart of Aussie Rules territory), with both domestic airlines reporting exceedingly heavy bookings to Melbourne. The hotels also benefited, with all rooms within an 18km radius of the MCG fully booked during the week of the game. Not surprisingly, Melbourne hoteliers are calling for the match to become an annual fixture at what is normally a quiet time of the year!

See The Wonders Of The World

In what may be the first of many such flights, a Qantas Boeing 767 will depart Sydney early this September on a tour of some of the world’s wonders. The chartered aircraft will take its passengers to sights such as the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania and other man-made and natural wonders during a 13-day ‘Captain’s Choice’ tour. The tour has been organised to raise money for the Ronald McDonald Children’s Charities and 205 seats are available at a cost of $9490 each. For details contact Croydon Travel on 1800 65 0738.

Qantas Asks For Ansett Capacity

Qantas has applied to the International Air Services Commission to take over the unused capacity held by Ansett on flights between Melbourne and Japan. In a surprise move, Lufthansa Cityline has announced that it is acquiring three RJ85 Avroliners for delivery this year, with options on a further three for delivery in 1995. The order is a breakthrough for Avro, as Lufthansa Cityline elected not to order Fokker 70s or 100s, despite Fokker’s German ownership. In recent times the RJ series has been quite successful, with recent sales coming from SAM of Colombia, with an order for eight, Turkish Airways and Air Malta.

Lack Of Seats Costs Tourism

The Inbound Tourism Organisation of Australia has claimed Australia is losing up to 1.5 million overseas tourists a year because airlines have failed to take up the rights to fly more people from Europe, Asia and the USA. The organisation claims a huge volume of seat entitlements is not being used, a situation exacerbated by the recent capacity withdrawals from Australia of three US airlines and the spare capacity resulting from that. Organisation chair Jackie Foggitt says that “short term US visitor arrivals still remain below levels achieved in 1988 despite the intensive level of competition for traffic and extremely attractive pricing over the past five years”.

China’s Phenomenal Growth

Recent statistics well illustrate just how prodigious China’s continuing growth in air travel has been. Between 1978 and 1993 passenger traffic increased more than fourteenfold from 2.4 to 34 million, Revenue Tonne Kilometres (RTKs – a standard measure which covers both passengers and freight) flown increased by a factor of 17 and freight carried rose from 63,800 to 700,000 tonnes. In 1978, just 98 airliners operated on 162 routes, compared with 1993’s figure of 316 on 613 routes. The number of airports used by commercial flights has also increased, from 70 to 109. The biggest single increase in RTKs was recorded in 1992, which saw a massive jump of 30% over the previous year. Meanwhile China traffic into and out of Australia continues to soar despite the lack of viable direct air services. The number of Australians travelling into China during 1993 increased by a third with 99,300 visiting compared with 75,570 the previous year. At the same time 22,400 Chinese nationals visited Australia in 1993, representing a 20% increase over the previous year. Most of these people were forced to fly via another Asian port (mostly through Hong Kong) to connect with carriers other than Air China.

Fac Downgraded

The Federal Airports Corporation has had its financial rating slightly downgraded by US ratings agency Standard & Poor’s as a result of uncertainty created by the Federal Government’s plans to privatise Australia’s individual airports. The FAC’s rating has been reduced from AA+ to AA and it has been assigned a “negative rating outlook”. The modest downgrading was largely expected in view of recent events, although a major revision was feared, one which would sharply increase the cost of the Corporation’s funding and jeopardise the bond issue planned for later this year.

Home Prices Unaffected By Airport

One of the main weapons frequently used in the propaganda war against Sydney Airport’s third runway – that homes in the flight path lose value – seems to have no basis of fact if some recent sale prices are any indication. In fact home prices are booming as buyers seemed unconcerned about the ‘problem’. The recent auction of a house in the inner west suburb of Stanmore was on several occasions interrupted by airliners on short finals to the airport but the price – unlike the noise level – went through the roof to a record $477,000. The same house was last sold for $405,000 only a year ago. Another house on the flight path, this time a two-bedroom building in need of renovation at Leichhardt, went for a premium $230,000 on the same day. It perhaps is appropriate to note that the Stanmore property is situated near the NSW Deaf Society’s headquarters!

Trans Tasman Freight Market Coming Alive

International freight transport group DHL is expanding its Australia/New Zealand overnight services from September by linking with new Melbourne freight operator Premier Airlines. DHL currently operates its trans Tasman freight services with Sydney based National Airlines using a Boeing 727-100. Premier will provide a larger capacity 727-200 which will be hushkitted to comply with Stage 3 noise regulations. The 727-200 offers 50% more volumetric capacity than the older aircraft (up to 12 pallets) or a maximum payload of 28 tonnes. The service will operate in conjunction with revised and streamlined Customs procedures in New Zealand which will see high value and urgently needed shipments get pre-clearance approvals.

Southwest Booms In New Market

Successful US domestic operator Southwest Airlines has had a profound effect upon some east coast services following its expansion into that market late last year. The new low fare services are flown from Baltimore/Washington International Airport (BWI) to Chicago Midway and Cleveland. They have stimulated demand to such an extent that passenger traffic between BWI and Cleveland has increased 11-fold, while the BWI/Chicago route has increased by the almost unbelievable factor of 23. Southwest’s presence has also forced a reduction in fares on the routes as competitors try to keep pace. Another side effect has been some substantial drops in traffic on other Washington/Chicago/Cleveland services flown from different airports and not contested by Southwest. Traffic between Washington National and Chicago O’Hare has dropped by nearly 23% and the Washington Dulles/Cleveland market has nearly halved.

Aggro In The Air

A report from the Flight Safety Foundation has suggested that distinctively different cockpit and cabin crew cultures can sometimes jeopardise flight safety. The report lists work area separation, differing management and unions, tradition and a lack of understanding of each others’ jobs as reasons for a lack of communication. Ways suggested to reduce the problem include pilot-initiated flight crew introductions and pre-flight briefings, specific cockpit/cabin co-ordination training, joint crew training, jumpseat familiarisation programmes for cabin crew and joint check-in procedures.

Maintenance Savings For Qantas

A business computer system with the potential to save Qantas up to $10m each year in engineering costs and generate revenue from sales of the system to other carriers is being developed by the airline’s Engineering and Maintenance (E&M) division. The system will improve the planning and control (and therefore cost effectiveness) of aircraft maintenance and is part of EMSYS, an integrated system for the management of all areas of E&M business. It has the potential to reduce airline engineering costs by about 10%. United Airlines has purchased the system and will join Qantas in development work, while other carriers – including British Airways – have shown interest.

Hot Goat Shock Horror Controversy

Thought we’d share this little item we found with you. It helps illustrate the rich tapestry of diversity which makes up the wonderful world of aviation… A Malaysia Airlines flight had to return to Perth recently after the group of live goats it was carrying in the aircraft’s forward hold overheated, triggering fire warning lights in the cockpit. The flight was on its way to Kuala Lumpur when the fire warnings came on and the aircraft returned to its point of departure. No explanation as to why the goats began to generate so much heat has been offered, although it’s probably just as well! Other delightful aeronautical tales from the world of animals recently include a Qantas jet at Darwin being held up on the taxiway for ten minutes while officials chased away a sunbaking two-metre goanna. Meanwhile in the US two national park rangers fared worse whilst monitoring a grizzly bear that was tagged with a tracking device. The duo got so low that they hit foliage resulting in them making a crash landing, whereupon they had to hurriedly climb a large pine to escape the obviously upset and hungry beast that had just moments before been the source of their attention! On a more serious note, it has been alleged that Federal Airports Corporation officers recently shot several pelicans at Brisbane Airport after they wandered too close to the tarmac. Pelicans are a protected species, so the police are now involved. The FAC says it was a choice between the pelicans and the safety of hundreds of people, an argument that’s difficult to disagree with.

Lufthansa has taken delivery of its 100th Airbus aircraft, an A340-300. The A340 was handed over to Lufthansa’s Chief Executive Technical Dr Claus Nittinger by Airbus’ Managing Director Jean Pierson in a ceremony at Toulouse on June 9. Lufthansa and Airbus have had a long-lasting and productive relationship that spans two decades, during which time Lufthansa became the launch customer for the A310, A340 and A321, was an early operator of the A300B2 and now operates the A320 and A300-600. Lufthansa is Airbus’ largest single customer and has placed orders for 111 aircraft with the consortium worth approximately $US6bn. Birdstrikes at Brisbane airport are becoming an increasing problem with large groups regularly transiting the airport during their migrations. Reports indicate that the number of birdstrikes has increased greatly over the past year and that the FAC has set up a special task force to look into ways of tackling the problem.

Lost Luggage

Anyone who has ever had their luggage go missing when flying in the USA may be interested to know where ‘unclaimed’ (a nice way of saying ‘lost’) bags end up. It goes to Scottsboro, Alabama, where the Unclaimed Baggage Centre buys unclaimed luggage from the airlines for next to nothing and resells the contents through four retail outlets and a clearance centre at bargain basement prices. Everyone is happy – except the poor traveller whose bags are missing – it seems, because the airline gets rid of the bags and the buyers get quality goods at low prices. However, the chances of your bags eventually turning up at Scottsboro are fortunately still pretty poor. In any one day, about 1% of all luggage in the USA is mislaid (one and a bit bags per 737 load) but only 1% of those (or 0.0001% of the overall total) is never returned to its owner.

Say Again?

According to reports elsewhere, it is rumoured that Ansett’s promotional efforts in Hong Kong preliminary to it starting services there have struck a small snag. It appears the Chinese alphabet characters which approximate to the word ‘Ansett’ spell out the words ‘peaceful death’, hardly an appropriate image for a safety conscious operator! The airline has apparently been using a variant of its name which translates into ‘safe and speedy’, although perhaps ‘peaceful death’ is at least better than, say, ‘traumatic’ or ‘horrible’ or ‘grisly death’. Transferring popular names from one culture to another is often fraught with danger. When Sikorsky introduced its S-76 Spirit to the Central American market in the mid-eighties they wondered why nobody was interested in even getting brochures on the beast. Turned out that in much of the region the word Spirit was definitely taboo and conjured up all sorts of dreadful voodoo like next life images. Indeed not an ideal theme to be pushing for a flying machine! Even Boeing came unstuck once. When they decided to stretch the upper deck of the 747-200 launching it grandly, and somewhat logically, as the Stretched Upper Deck or SUD, they were met with a barrage of politely hushed explanations as to why this perhaps wasn’t such a great choice of designation. Seems SUD basically translates in the medical profession to Sudden Unexplained Death, a term much used and known to everybody from year one nurses to specialist surgeons. Certainly not the way to entice millions of medicos onto your new airliner. Boeing quickly rejigged it to the Extended Upper Deck (EUD) but was forced later to redesignate it as the 747-300 after everybody would relate the embarrassing SUD story as soon as the EUD came up in conversation. A sort of a no win situation