Exploiting Hong Kong as an Asian hub helped Cathay Pacific Airways pull out of an 18-month financial slump last year and begin thinking again about a fleet renewal. The airline, now in its 54th year, reversed a $70-million 1998 loss--its first in 36 years--to post a 1999 profit of $285 million, largely because of a strong second half. Flights into North America and Europe made up for weakness in the Asian market, where Cathay most often makes its profits.
Strong demand for heavy maintenance has managers at Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Co. Ltd. talking about expansion--but not in Hong Kong. The maintenance affiliate of Cathay Pacific Airways, Haeco has invested $180 million in a 476,500-sq.-ft. maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facility at Hong Kong International Airport. It has room to expand there but land prices and overhead are far too expensive, Engineering Director Andrew Hoad said.
The discussion on how to make up for the Milstar satellite lost last year is on the verge of erupting into a fight between Pentagon acquisition officials and military planners. Military officials are asking for an EHF satellite to be built soon to avoid a long gap in EHF coverage starting around 2003. In response, the competitors for the Milstar follow-on--Hughes and a Lockheed Martin/TRW team--are proposing to join forces to speed deployment of the first Advanced EHF satellite by 18 months. But Pentagon acquisition czar Jacques Gansler wants none of that.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Peter Squire will become chief of the air staff at the Royal Air Force in April, succeeding Air Chief Marshal Sir John Richard Johns. Air Marshal Sir Anthony Bagnall, who is being promoted to air chief marshal, will succeed Squire as commander-in-chief of Strike Command.
United Airlines and SNCF French railways have agreed to expand their pioneering multimodal code-sharing agreement to eight additional French cities. Initially limited to Lyons, the agreement, signed in July 1998, will now also feed passengers from Nantes and Rennes in Brittany, Tours, Poitiers, Angers and Le Mans in the Loire Valley, Bordeaux in the Southwest and the northern city of Lille via high-speed train to United flights at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport.
Honeywell also is studying the addition of runway specifics, such as length, slope, and displaced threshold and overrun parameters, to its EGPWS terrain database. This data would help detect and prevent potential runway overrun and other landing accidents by warning pilots who are continuing to fly an unstabilized, fast or high approach. How to most effectively convey and distinguish such a critical advisory in the busy pretouchdown cockpit environment is under discussion. One half-joking suggestion was to have the box say: ``Stop it. You're scaring me!''
Japan's Meteorological Agency said it will turn to the U.S.' NOAA weather satellites as a fill-in if the GMS-5, whose design life ends this month, quits before it can launch a replacement. The GMS-5 was to be replaced by MTSAT-1 which was lost last November in an H-2 launch failure. Last week, Japan's Ministry of Transport named Space Systems/Loral over Mitsubishi Electric to build MTSAT-1RA as the replacement. Delivery is set for 2002 and launch for mid-2003.
Titanium Metals Corp. (Timet) is taking one of its most important customers--the Boeing Co.--to task for allegedly breaking a long-term agreement (LTA), a charge the airframe manufacturer vehemently denies. In a lawsuit filed last week in state court in Denver, Timet formally accused Boeing of repudiating and breaching the 10-year titanium purchase-and-supply agreement between the companies. Under that contract, Boeing was required to purchase, directly or indirectly, certain minimum volumes of titanium products from Timet in each of those years.
Boeing plans to aggressively expand its aircraft maintenance, modification and logistics businesses and ``bundle'' some or all of these services to promote new aircraft sales.
Miami International Airport's new, $18-million control tower is undergoing a design review and may face a redesign, the FAA says. Air traffic controllers complain that four roof-support columns in the 320-ft. tower's cab obstruct their view and could threaten safe operations at the airport. Controllers have said they will not staff the tower unless the problem is corrected. FAA officials say the columns are needed to meet hurricane-survival requirements of Miami's building code.
Matthew J. Quinn has been named Grand Rapids, Mich.-based vice president-manufacturing operations of Smiths Industries Aereospace. He was operations leader for Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems in Fort Worth.
Spanish carrier Air Nostrum plans to sign an agreement early next month to buy up to 44 new turboprop and jet-powered aircraft from Canada's Bombardier Aerospace.
US Airways was a study in contrasts last week as the carrier took delivery of its first A330-300 aircraft just three days ahead of a threatened flight attendant strike. The fourth largest airline (as measured by passengers boarded) plans to introduce three-class transatlantic service on May 4, when the new 261-seat Airbus widebody enters service. It's also receiving Airbus A320-family aircraft at the rate of about one per week, primarily for use in North America.
U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen has told Japanese Foreign Minister Yohei Kono the U.S. may return rights to the radar approach control (Rapcon) in Okinawa to his country. Japan has repeatedly requested authority over the Rapcon, which the U.S. has held since 1972. The approach control covers a circular air space with a 50-mi. radius from the U.S. Air Force base at Kadena to an altitude of 20,000 ft. Kadena AB is about 12 mi. north of the Naha International Airport. The Japanese complain that U.S.
Virgin Australia, the no-frills regional carrier Virgin Atlantic is to start Down Under, said it will lease 10 737-800s from International Lease Financing Corp. for delivery in March 2001. Services are to start by July, however, so the new airline will fill in with 737-300s.
Tom Baker has become chief operating officer of LMI Aerospace Inc. of St. Louis. He was executive vice president-North American operations for the Allied Automotive Group. Baker succeeds Steven Marcus, who has resigned.
Boeing engineers and technicians voted by better than a 2-1 margin to return to work last week after a 40-day strike that crippled aircraft production and slowed vital defense programs.
Boeing is relying on three-dimensional solid product definition techniques and a toolless final assembly environment to design, develop, manufacture and build two F-16-sized unmanned combat aerial vehicles for the U.S. Air Force and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Significant progress has been made in the program: Both demonstrators are already in final assembly and Boeing is aiming at a September rollout for the first aircraft. The contract was awarded about a year ago (AW&ST Mar. 29, 1999, p. 84).
German engine manufacturer MTU has decided to set up a new subsidiary in the U.S. as part of a plan to reinforce ties with its strategic partner, Pratt&Whitney.
A Titan IV solid rocket motor upgrade (SRMU) with new nozzle material was static test fired successfully at the Air Force Research Laboratory's Test Stand 1-C on Edwards AFB, Calif. The 140-sec. test on Mar. 19 was intended to provide system data to validate performance of the new materials used in manufacture of the enhanced carbon-carbon nozzle of the three-segment SRMUs. The motors, which produce 1.7 million lb. of thrust, are manufactured by Alliant Tech Systems. An SRMU was last fired on Test Stand 1-C in late 1993.
Runway incursions are the target of joint FAA/airline industry efforts to develop guidelines to standardize ground operations of commercial transports. A subgroup of the Commercial Aviation Safety Team that has been investigating the cause of runway incursions--in which an aircraft or vehicle strays onto a runway from which another aircraft is taking off or landing--found that no industry-wide standard procedures for ground operations exist.
The Czech Republic cabinet is scheduled to meet on Apr. 15 to decide whether to accept a security council recommendation to move ahead with plans to acquire new fighter aircraft. If the recommendation is approved, as some observers expect, a request for proposals to industry would follow with a 60-day response time. The Czech air force would like first deliveries in early 2005.
For Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminal, 1999 was the year of ``Back to the Future.'' HACTL overcame recession and the embarrassing debut of its $1.2-billion automated processing center that it calls SuperTerminal 1, to regain its leadership role in international air freight at Hong Kong's new Chek Lap Kok airport.
The airline industry's foray into cyberspace, which already has altered the system for ticket distribution, is taking new directions that promise to revolutionize the airline travel experience. Air carriers are moving toward broad access to comprehensive Internet-based information systems designed to serve both commercial aviation and consumers. New travel portals on the Internet, more effective search engines and new handheld wireless devices connected to the Internet are promising great change.
