Michael Svedek has been appointed general manager for the Americas, based in Miami Beach, for Lauda Air. He was European manager for Tourism Queensland (Australia).
Eutelsat has approved a package of spacecraft purchases as part of a $1-billion expansion plan intended to meet the growth in demand and reinforce in-orbit-spare capacity. Meeting here late last month, Eutelsat's board of signatories gave the green light to procure the first of a family of multimedia satellites, along with two additional Hotbirds. The purchase of one or two more spacecraft is expected to be authorized during the first quarter of this year, an official said.
Midwest Express will conclude its Indianapolis service after Jan. 6, ending plans to develop the market into a small hub to the East Coast. The Milwaukee-based airline had planned to complement its daily nonstop service from Indianapolis to Boston and New York LaGuardia with service to Washington Reagan National Airport, but lost out to competitors in a bid for landing slots at Washington. Further, the expansion of operations at LaGuardia--due to additional slot allocations--have been causing operational problems.
Virgin Atlantic's commitment to buy six A380s not only provided Airbus the numbers it needed to launch the program. It also is the first airline to endorse the consortium's vision of the mega-transport's potential to become a ``cruise ship'' in the sky.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries will likely produce the main wing for Boeing's 747X super jumbo series, according to a Reuters account of a story first reported in the Japanese financial daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun. The maker of heavy machinery also will contribute around $873 million of the total $3.5 billion in projected development costs for the 747X program. A new plant in Nagoya will be built to handle wing production once Boeing gives the green light. In May, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Boeing formed an alliance to cooperate on building projects.
Sitting for long periods in a cramped airline seat can be risky business. A recent survey conducted by Nippon Medical School clinic at Tokyo's Narita International Airport found that in the past eight years, 25 passengers arriving at Narita after long-haul flights have died of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) or blood clots. The study says 100-150 passengers are treated annually at Narita for the condition dubbed ``economy-class syndrome.''
Anthony Mule has been appointed senior vice president-customer service, John R. Wilson vice president of operations planning and analysis and Theodore Botimer vice president-revenue management for America West Airlines. Mule was vice president-inflight services, while Wilson was senior director of financial analysis. Botimer was managing director of pricing and revenue management for Continental Airlines.
Operational training begins this month at the U.K. National Air Traffic Services' long-awaited Swanwick center. After years of delays due to software problems, engineers finally handed the center over to air controllers last month. The new site in Hampshire, England, is to become operational in January 2002 following a 12-month conversion program for more than 600 controllers and assistants.
Wall Street analysts reacted to Airbus Industrie's launch of the A380 with skepticism, doubtful the program's likely production costs or the market's size will allow the project to generate a profit for the European consortium.
Eurocopter and Romania's IAR Brasov have agreed to form a joint venture early this year to provide marketing and support for the Eurocopter product line and add to EADS' design and production capabilities. Chief focus of the venture will be production of parts and maintenance/overhaul of the twin-engine Puma and the single-engine Alouette that Brasov has been building under license since the 1970s.
The U.S. Air Force has selected Rockwell Collins to provide continued technical support for avionics systems installed in its fleet of C/KC-135 aircraft.
Russian authorities are trying to locate the wreckage of a Cyclone 3 booster which was launched from the Plesetsk military cosmodrome Dec. 27. The booster, carrying six satellites, disappeared from controllers' screens shortly after liftoff and may have come down in the Bering Strait. The six satellites failed to separate from the launch vehicle.
United Airlines will accelerate the retirement of its Boeing 727-200 fleet, retiring 25 aircraft in 2001, a year ahead of schedule. Citing rising fuel and labor costs, the Chicago-based carrier expects to retire its entire 727-200 fleet by year-end 2003; the average age of United's 727 fleet is 21 years. The announcement is in line with the airline's retire-and-replace program. United ordered 13 Airbus A319/320s for delivery in the fourth quarter of 2002.
Jih-Fen Lei has become chief of the Instrumentation and Controls Div. of the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. She was chief of the Sensors and Electronics Technology Branch.
The Malaysian government last month regained control of debt-ridden national flag carrier, Malaysia Airlines, by buying back the 29.09% stake sold in 1994 to the airline's executive chairman, Tajudin Ramli, for MYR1.792 billion ($716.8 million). The government, through the Ministry of Finance, is to pay MYR8 per share for the 224 million shares. Because the local currency depreciated 40% in the Asian financial crisis, the shares are worth only $484 million at the current exchange rate.
Jean-Yves Leblanc has been appointed chairman of Bombardier Transportation. Pierre Lortie, who was president/chief operating officer of Bombardier Capital, now holds those positions at Bombardier Transportation. Robert Gillespie, who has been president of Bombardier Aerospace Business Aircraft, will succeed Lortie at Bombardier Capital, effective Feb. 1. Pierre Beaudoin, who has been president/COO of Bombardier Recreational Products, will succeed Gillespie.
Unison Industries has signed an agreement valued at $1 million with MD Heli- copters to supply mission aircraft wiring harnesses for MD 500E, MD 530F, MD 520N and MD 600N rotorcraft.
The U.S. Army is moving forward with the development of laser weapons, building on the success experienced this year with the destructive intercepts of targets by the U.S./Israeli Tactical High-Energy Laser.
There were no Christmas presents for the F-22 program, and now it enters the new decade facing the same schedule crunch and financial problems that have plagued the next-generation fighter for several years. Told their production program will exceed the congressional cost cap, Air Force officials now are considering restructuring the production plan. That would delay buying some F-22s, and--irony of ironies--free up money to finance cost reduction measures.
The Navy is on course to shutter the E-2C airborne early warning aircraft production line much earlier than expected, unless senior service officials reverse themselves and infuse money into the program. The current line would close around 2003, with the last aircraft delivered in 2006. That would leave the service without a long-term asset to conduct carrier-based airborne early warning. The problem would start manifesting itself in 2012, when the current inventory of aircraft will reach the end of its useful life.
Moscow's Domodedovo airport opened its renovated passenger terminal on Dec. 8 as it seeks to become competitive with the Russian capital's larger international airport, Sheremetyevo.
Boeing will sell nearly 600 commercial transports this year, according to Chairman and CEO Phil Condit. Condit said last week the sales figure includes a record 115 orders for the 777, bringing total sales to date for that program to 561. He added that the company will deliver about 490 aircraft to customers this year and that Boeing commercial aircraft production capacity is virtually sold out for 2001.
General Electric is running performance tests of its 32,000-lb.-thrust F110-GE-132 engine for Block 60 F-16s at its Peebles, Ohio, facility in anticipation of beginning altitude trials next year. The engine--the first complete, purpose-built F110-132--began about 30 hr. of runs at Peebles on an outdoor test stand in late November. Preceding those trials were 30 hr. of tests conducted in indoor facilities at GE's Evendale, Ohio, plant. Those assessments began around Oct. 11 and were finished in mid-November.
U.S. aerospace sales will decline slightly in real economic terms in 2001, according to a new forecast by the Aerospace Industries Assn. of America. The AIA is projecting $143.7 billion in sales of civil and military aircraft, missiles, satellites and related products services in 2000, down from $151.1 billion in 1999. It estimates 2001 sales of $145.3 billion. But when inflation is factored in, the numbers show another decline.
