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Hong Kong Opts To Retain The Status Quo

The long running bilateral dispute between the Hong Kong and Australian governments was settled in mid December with essentially a return to the status quo. Qantas has been allowed by the HK Government to retain its right to fly HK residents on its ‘Golden Triangle’ services to Bangkok and Singapore, albeit at a capacity cap. However, in reality this presents no problem to Qantas as it has been allowed 200 seats a day out of HK for these services and generally usually only sells 150 to 180 seats on its daily 767-300 intra Asian network. The situation for Qantas would only change if the airline opted to use the larger 747, a move unlikely to occur in the next few years. The decision was seen by both Cathay Pacific and Qantas as being a positive move, certainly important to Qantas as disruption on one of its key routes would have cost it in excess of $50m profit a year if the dispute had not been settled amicably. Ansett has also applied to begin daily Hong Kong services later this year.

Sydney Tower Begins Operations

KSA’s much troubled control tower and parallel approach radar system finally began operations on December 16. For the first few months the new tower will be ‘ghosted’ by the established system in the old tower to ensure accuracy and back up in the event of failure of the new system. Opening of the tower was delayed by more than a year due to an ongoing series of technical problems with computer software and more down to earth problems with the basic physical design of the tower itself. The new tower and PRM radar will enable up to 80 movements an hour at KSA during good weather, albeit all at present on a north/south axis.

Atr Starts Operations

Aero International Regional (AIR), the regional airliner joint venture between Aerospatiale, British Aerospace and Italy’s Alenia, officially began operations on January 1 this year. AIR is responsible for the marketing, sales and support of the Jetstream 41 and ATR 42/72 turboprops and the Avro RJ/BAe 146 family of regional jets. Manufacture and final assembly of the aircraft will remain as before in the UK, France and Italy. AIR is headquartered in Toulouse and has a training centre in Naples, a spares distribution centre at Weybridge and regional offices in Washington DC and Singapore.

Cl-415 In Australia

The Canadair CL-415 amphibious firefighting aircraft began a six week demonstration tour of Australia in mid December. The aircraft was scheduled to conduct demonstrations in Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Adelaide as well as undergoing a comprehensive technical evaluation by the Australian Fire Authorities Council (AFAC). Similar evaluations are underway in the USA, Australian Aviation, Japan, Malaysia, Portugal and Sweden. The Australian visit is part of a 21 country tour over a six month period. The turboprop powered CL-415 is the successor to the CL-215 with piston engines. Over 100 CL-215s (and CL-215Ts converted to turboprops) are operated in the Mediterranean and North America. The CL-415 can scoop 6140 litres (1350 imp gal) of water from just about any body of water in 12 seconds. Twenty-four have been ordered so far by authorities in Italy, France and Quebec, of which nine are in active service.

Dash 8 Simulator

Qantas and National Jet Systems have signed a 10 year contract with Canadian simulator specialist CAE Electronics for the use of the first de Havilland Dash 8-100 flight simulator in the Asia Pacific region. Pilot training and accreditation for the 129 Dash 8 pilots within Qantas’ regional airline network has so far been carried out in real aircraft and use of the simulator will reduce costs and provide each regional operator the scope to improve pilot skills, standardise flight training procedures and release aircraft to generate revenue. The simulator will be based at Sydney Airport and it is expected that operators from the Asia Pacific region and South Africa will also use the facility. Eastern Australia Airlines, Sunstate and Southern Australia Airlines between them operate 14 Dash 8-100s, while NJS has four with another three (-200s for the Coastwatch contract) due in mid 1996.

Qantas Expands At Tulla

Qantas is to invest about $70m in a major expansion of its domestic terminal facilities at Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport. The expansion is to accommodate growing domestic passenger traffic at Melbourne. Qantas has increased capacity to Melbourne by 30% over the past two years. Building will commence in April and is due to be completed in October next year. Work to be undertaken includes adding 200 metres to the length of the terminal, building a second tarmac ‘finger’ which will increase the number of gates from 12 to 16 (seven of which will be able to handle widebodies), increasing the number of check in counters from 16 to 30, establishing new Qantas Club lounge facilities with peak period accommodation nearly doubled to 750 people, improving baggage handling facilities and increasing the number and variety of retail outlets.