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The condition applied by the Commerce Commission is that the News/Ansett NZ deal must be consummated within one working day of the TNT/Air NZ agreement being completed.

The remaining part of the puzzle still to be solved is that of Ansett International. As reported in Newsdesk elsewhere in this issue, there are plans to separate this operation from the rest of the company by increasing share capital and leaving local investors with a controlling 51% interest.

Both Air NZ and Ansett have expressed satisfaction with the NZ Commerce Commission’s approval of the deal. On the acquisition of Ansett NZ by News Ltd, Air NZ managing director Jim McCrea says there is no problem and that Air NZ “never had an interest in this operation and has always expected to see a high level of competition continue in the New Zealand domestic airline market. Our interest has always been to achieve a meaningful stake in Ansett Australia’s domestic and international operations”.

Fokker Assembly Continues

The receivers of bankrupt Fokker have given approval for the production of a further 15 aircraft, as delivery of these aircraft to customers will yield a positive financial result which will be of benefit to creditors.

These are in addition to the 15 aircraft the company announced it would complete and deliver at the time of its bankruptcy.

Following an earlier decision to produce another two Fokker 50s and two Fokker 70s, firm arrangements have now been made with customers, partners and suppliers regarding the terms under which a further seven Fokker 70s and four Fokker 50s will be built and delivered. Manufacture of these aircraft will be partly based on using components which were already in production or in stock at Fokker and its suppliers at the time of the company’s bankruptcy. It is considered that by assembling these aircraft a waste of capital can be avoided.

KLM is the largest customer to receive more aircraft. Last year, the airline ordered four Fokker 70s, three of which have been delivered. In the meantime, KLM has ordered another six Fokker 70s, meaning that seven aircraft will be built for that customer from the new batches. Two Fokker 70s ordered by Vietnam Airlines will also be delivered.

Ethiopian Airlines had ordered five Fokker 50s of which only one had been delivered at the time of the bankruptcy announcement. It will now receive the full order, while existing Fokker 50 customer Formosa Airlines has placed a repeat order for a fifth aircraft. Another Fokker 50 will be delivered to Brazil’s TAM.

Completing these additional 15 aircraft means that Fokker’s assembly line will remain open until at least April 1997 and will save 450 jobs until that time. The benefits will flow on to Fokker’s subcontractors and suppliers and at the same time ensure the company is at least a going concern for any potential purchasers of its assets.

Minister Overrules CASA On ELTs

In a move welcomed by the general aviation industry, Minister for Transport, John Sharp, has overridden advice from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) directive that emergency locator transmitters must be fixed on all aircraft. Instead, removable and portable ELTs may be carried as an alternative.

CASA had proposed that all aircraft be fitted with impact activated fixed ELTs from December 1996, but strong lobbying from the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) and others convinced the minister that providing the option of fitting portable ELTs was the better way to go on the grounds of both cost and safety.

There have been several examples in recent times of aircraft crashing into water and going to the bottom along with their ELTs. In most of these cases, a portable ELT could have escaped the aircraft with its pilot and then been able to operate properly.

Mr Sharp has also extended the deadline by which ELTs must be carried on most flights to July 1997, allowing time for Australian manufacturers to tool up for and produce a pocket sized personal ELT which can be carried in a pocket or on a lanyard around the neck.

The main exemption for the carriage of an ELT is on flights of 50nm (93km) or less. Otherwise, pilots and operators will have the choice of carrying a fixed or portable ELT.

Mr Sharp’s decision again raises the question of his relationship with CASA’s board, which he wants to reappoint due to its mainly non aviation membership.

Charter & Freight Rules Relaxed

The Federal Transport Minister John Sharp has flagged the easing of regulatory restrictions for air freight and passenger charter flights to and from Australia to promote the growth of these links.

New policy guidelines approved by Cabinet in May will allow for the automatic approval of a wider range of passenger charter flights. The Government also intends to stimulate growth in dedicated air freight services by negotiating substantial increases in capacity through new bilateral arrangements, streamlining approval processes and allowing access to freight airlines of third party countries.

Exporters of perishable foods in particular have long lamented the lack of dedicated direct freight flights out of Australia.

Damning Monarch Crash Coroner’s Report

Monarch Airlines, the then Civil Aviation Authority and the NSW Air Transport Council have all come under heavy fire in the critical Coroner’s report into the 1993 Monarch Airlines Navajo crash near Young in which seven people were killed.

The Coroner, John Gould, found that Monarch’s general manager Richard Maclean was “a person who showed scant regard to the regulations and could not be trusted to maintain proper safety standards…” and that the CAA and ATC had “ample warning that Monarch was a disaster waiting to happen.” The report also says that the CAA placed the commercial interests of its ‘customers’ ahead of the safety of the public.

The report found that the main cause of the crash was that the Navajo was missing the computer amplifier and controller from the automatic pilot which meant two directional instruments were not operational, which under CAA regulations would have forced the aircraft’s grounding, and induced skill fatigue. The report also suggests that Monarch’s GM knew the aircraft was missing the component and had gone out of his way to conceal this from the CAA.

Following the release of the report Transport Minister John Sharp announced a wide-ranging review into CASA and AirServices (into which the CAA was split) and promised to improve the level and quality of safety surveillance.

A full report in the Monarch crash will appear in our next issue.