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Changes At Mas:

There willbe changes at Malaysian Airlines(MAS) following a reshuffling of theairline’s ownership which has seenMalaysian Helicopter Services (MRS)arrange to acquire a 32% stake. That portion of the airline’s shareholding was owned by Malaysia’s central bank and the man behind the move, Mr Datuk Tajudin Ramli, has already indicated changes which “could even involve an entire repositioning exercise for the national carrier”. Tujudin’s various business interests control MRS, which earlier this year took a 25% interest in US cargo and charter operator World Airways. A three way tie up between MAS, MRS and World has already been announced, with a freight service to Europe and the USA the first step.

Qantas Float Delayed:

TheQantas share float has been delayedagain and is now scheduled to takeplace next April, the date most pundits expected. Volatility in the share market and Qantas’ perceived financial state are the reasons given for the postponement, which represents a win for chief executive James Strong who has advocated waiting until the airline’s restructuring and new senior management were in place. The $2.5bn float forms a very significant part of the Federal Government’s asset sales programme and needs to be successful in order to keep its books in order. Without a strong Qantas float, the government’s figures will look very poor compared with what was predicted in the last Budget. Thirteen brokers have been invited to tender their proposals to take on the role of lead manager of the float. From these, a shortlist was due to be announced at time of writing.

Qantas Cancels A320s:

Qantas’ oft-deferred order for nine Airbus A320s has finally been cancelled and the $US10m deposit paid will be used largely to purchase spare parts for its four A300s. The order was originally placed by Trans Australia Airlines (TAA) in 1985 but was deferred when the operator became Australian Airlines and decided to standardise on the Boeing 737 in that capacity class. Several deferrals later, the order has finally lapsed. The popular A300s (also inherited from TAAiAustralian) are now in need of heavy engineering work and following discussions with Airbus Industrie, it has been agreed that the deposit can be used to buy spares for them.

Airports Charges Warning:

Consultants have warned thatcharges at some airports outside themajor trunk routes will increase dramatically if the planned breaking up ofthe FAC goes ahead. Cabinet documents show that charges could increase considerably at Darwin, Hobart, Launceston and Alice Springs and increase by nearly two-thirds at Adelaide. The documents also reveal concerns for general aviation airports at which “industry may not be able to bear thelarge price rise required to make [them] profitable, and consequently, some of these may prove to be non viable in the long term”. The government hopes to raise $460m from the sale of Melbourne and Coolangatta next year, although the Federal Airports Corporation may need a $100m debt for equity swap before the sale. The FAC has been valued at $2.7bn by ANZ Mccaughan and Salomon Brothers, about $1bn more than the provisional estimate in the recent Budget and much more than would be gained by merely selling off the three or four most profitable airports.

Anz Reviews Boeing Order:

Air New Zealand’s $500m order for six Boeing 737-300s is under review as it investigates purchasing the proposed 737-700 variant instead.. The airline needs to replace its noisy and thirsty old generation 737- 200s but a change to the -700 will see this delayed until the end of the decade at the earliest. The 737-300 order has already been postponed. Delivery was originally scheduled for last year but has been delayed until late 1996 at the airline’s request. The airline has also held extensive discussions with rival airframe manufacturers as a possible alternative to re-equipping with Boeing equipment.

More Us Job Cuts:

The USaerospace industry is facing more joblosses with Boeing Helicopters,Hughes and Martin Marietta betweenthem planning to cut employment bynearly 6000. Boeing Helicopters – facing delays in the V-22 Osprey programme and the end of Chinook production next year – plans to cut about 2300 jobs over the next two years, Hughes will add a further 3200 to the total and Martin Marietta will transfer 1800 workers from its San Diego facility to Denver, eliminate 400 jobs and leave just 300 at San Diego by the end of this year. Hughes is consolidating its radar, space and optical systems businesses into a single unit, Martin Marietta is planning to run down the San Diego plant (which it acquired when the General Dynamics space launcher business was purchased last May) and Boeing doesn’t expect its employment situation to improve until 1997 when Osprey production is expected to come on line QANTAS TO FLY WA ROUTES: Qantas has announced that it will tackle Ansett head on in intrastate routes within Western Australia from November this year. The new services will be operated from November 14 by Qantas’ subsidiary Airlink using two class configured BAe 146s. The new return services consist of: two flights a day from Monday to Friday and one flight on Saturday and Sunday on Perth/Kalgoorlie and Perth/Karratha; a daily Perth/Port Hedland return flight; and a return flight on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday on Perth/Broome. These flights will be in addition to new interstate Airlink services to WA to be introduced at the same time, these flights including daily return flights between Perth and Alice Springs, a return Broome/Alice Springs flight every Saturday and a return Kalgoorlie/Adelaide flight every Sunday, which for the first time will give Kalgoorlie a direct link with eastern centres. Qantas, and before it Australian Airlines, has long overlooked internal WA services, something that QF CEO James Strong recently noted had long been a competitive disadvantage for Qantas. Up until now Ansett (formerly Ansett WA) had a virtual monopoly on such routes and the WA government has been keen for some time for a new entrant to enter the market. The WA market has in the past been characterised by fairly low annual growth rates and high fares, the new Airlink services hopefully boosting growth, particularly tourist traffic, and through competition, cutting fares. The services will be operated by Airlink’s BAe 146-lOOs which are currently in service on eastern routes, but are due to soon be augmented by larger 146-200s and -300s. The 146- lO0s will be based in Perth and are currently configured to seat seven business and 58 economy class passengers.

Nz Open Skies Falter:

Another part of the Federal Government’s’One Nation’ economic statement of1992 seems to be faltering with thesingle Australia/New Zealand aviationmarket part of it no closer to reality. Australia seems to be rethinking its stance with requests from New Zealand to increase the number of onward Air New Zealand flights to Australia being refused. ANZ at the moment operates eight such weekly flights with a further four scheduled to be added by the end of the year. It is generally considered locally that the New Zealanders were the big winners out of the CER/One Nation initiative as ANZ aggressively pursues a wide range of fifth freedom opportunities out of Brisbane while Qantas in return receives little due to the small New Zealand beyond market that it now supposedly has access to. New Zealand is disappointed with the slow progress being made on these important ‘beyond rights’ services, but Australia’s reluctance to grant extra services seems based on a lack of reciprocal benefits to Australian carriers at the moment. The Australian and NZ prime ministers recently discussed the issue with issues such as ANZ flying Australian domestic routes and other aspects of One Nation as it applied to air services on the agenda. For Australia’s part, Ansett still considers trans Tasman services as not sufficiently economic to dedicate scant A320 type resources to whilst Qantas will not begin to link up the secondary Australia/NZ ports till its competitor does.

Golden Oldies:

Qantas is offering our mature citizens some bigdiscounts on domestic services untillate September. Those over the age of 60 will be able to travel, for example, Sydney/Melbourne and Sydney/Brisbane for only $170 return, representing a 64% and 68% discount, respectively, off the full economy fare. Substantial discounts are offered on most other routes with reductions of 55-65% available. The discounted fares do not carry the usual advance purchase requirements, although proof of age is required, which is probably a buzz for most as it’s probably the first time they have been asked to supply this since trying to get into pubs when they were much, much younger!

Stars Introduced To Sydney An D Melbourne :

TheStandard Terminal Arrival Routes System (STARS) was introduced at Sydney and Melbourne Ai.rports in lateJune. W hen fully operational, STARS promises to increase the efficiency of the airports and in the case of Sydney, enable an airspace system for the new parallel runway to be established. STARS works in conjunction with Standard Instrument Departures (SIDs) and Standard Radar Departures (SRD) to provide greater efficiency in air traffic management and to increase safety by having aircraft arrive on set tracks to the airport area where they are then handled by the control tower. STARS provides automatic separation of traffic, increases the degree of predictability in the terminal area, provides detailed instructions in a text and diagram format which can be preplanned into flight management systems, makes maximum use of airspace capacity and results in other efficiency and operational benefits. The first few days of STARS operation at Sydney resulted in some disruptions and delays to flights as it was eased into operation. The full benefits of STARS will be realised in 1996 when Sydney’s new radar system is installed, allowing an increase in maximum capacity from the current 70 to 80 movements per hour.

Qantas Gains Ex Ansettman:

Qantas has appointed former Ansett senior manager Ian Oldmeadow as its Executive General Manager – National Operations. The move is regarded in the industry as a major coup for Qantas, as Mr Oldmeadow is the man largely responsible for planning Ansett’s forthcoming foray into international services. At Qantas, he will be in charge of the airline’s domestic operations and as such will lead an assault on his former employer’s market share in that area. Apart from Mr Oldmeadow, Qantas has recently announced several other appointments which virtually complete the senior management restructuring instigated last year.

J41 Australi An Bre Akthrough:

The Jetstream 41 regional turboprop has achieved asignificant sales breakthrough in theAsia-Pacific market with an order for10 aircraft from Sydney based ImpulseAirlines. The order is worth more than $US75m including spares and equipment and the first five aircraft will be delivered this year with the remainder following in 1996. The 29 passenger J41s will be used on NSW, Queensland and ACT services. An in-depth Update on the J41 begins on page 42 of this issue.

C-130j Firms Up:

Lockheedshould have the definitive configuration for its new generation C-130JHercules firmed up by the time thesewords are read, and production planning is well advanced.