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UPDATE 
Week ending February 6, 2000
+++ SAirGroup to take 34-per-cent stake in TAP Air Portugal +++ Frankfurt airport expansion gets Mediation group nod +++ Raytheon's P1/ATCAS declared operational in Germany +++ Czech Aerospace Association joins AECMA +++ German Air Force obtains advanced Air Surveillance Centre +++ mySAP.com offered for Aerospace and Defense Industry +++ News in brief +++

SAirGroup to take 34-per-cent stake in TAP Air Portugal
Schweizer steigen bei TAP ein

The SAirGroup is taking a 34-per-cent equity stake in TAP Air Portugal as part of the Portuguese government's efforts to privatise the airline. A corresponding agreement was signed on February 3 in Lisbon by representatives of the government and SAirGroup Management. The deal remains subject to approval by EU authorities. The SAirGroup and TAP Air Portugal have worked together since September 1997. Both Swissair and TAP Air Portugal are founding members of the Qualiflyer Group, the alliance of European airlines created in March 1998.
The stake in TAP Air Portugal was made available as part of the Portuguese government's efforts to privatise the state airline. The remaining 66 per cent of TAP Air Portugal will stay in government hands for the time being. Medium-term plans call for as much as ten per cent to be held by the airline's staff. The SAirGroup holds an option, that must be exercised within the next four years, for a further five per cent of the airline's share capital.

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Frankfurt airport expansion gets Mediation group nod
Neue Bahn in Frankfurt befürwortet

Being on the edge of capacity with 80 aircraft movements per hour the Frankfurt Airport (FRA) urgently needs an enlargement in shape of a fourth runway, the Frankfurt Airport Aktiengesellschaft (FAG) had warned a couple of years ago, but with an additional runway 120 aircraft movements per hour could be reached. The optimum runway construction that only could take place in a legally protected forrest evoked the protest of environmentalists. To find a proper solution to the satisfaction of all people concerned the former "red-green" local government of Hesse founded a mediation group of 24 representatives of policy, economy and society.
Now, after having spent half and a year of time as well as five million DM the mediation group recently finished its work, and on February 1st 2000 made an announcement pro enlargement (i.e. the construction of a fourth runway) of the Rhine-Main Airport. The decision is based on economic reasons, because with an enlargement 250000 new jobs could be created until 2015. On the other hand the mediation team added some conditions to its vote, such as a prohibition of night flights between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. or noise protection measures (concerning housing and "bonus fees" for quiet aircraft) that should be paid by the passengers. According to the mediators the landing fees at FRA should be rised and a charge of five DM per passenger is realistic. On basis of the mediatior's recommendation the local government of Hesse will come to a final decision referring the FRA enlargement until May 2000.

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Raytheon's P1/ATCAS declared operational in Germany
Neues Flugsicherungssystem in Langen einsatzklar

Raytheons state-of-the-art P1 Air Traffic Control Automation System (P1/ATCAS) at the Langen Area Control Center near Frankfurt, Germany, has been declared fully operational by the Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH (DFS). This milestone followed nine months of comprehensive operator training, during which P1/ATCAS demonstrated its effectiveness in air traffic management in the Frankfurt airspace, one of the busiest flight corridors in the world, which accommodated more than 43 million passengers in 1999.
"It was a long way to go to successfully meet and prove the functionality required by the DFS for the Frankfurt P1/ATCAS system," said Christian Opphard, the DFS P1 Program Manager. "During the five-year implementation, the Raytheon P1/ATCAS team has shown itself to be a highly knowledgeable and motivated partner. Raytheon's program effort continues to be remarkably focused to comply with the DFS needs," Opphard added. "P1/ATCAS incorporates new technological capabilities designed to meet the demands of today's high-volume air traffic, laying the DFS' foundation for the largest en route ATC center in continental Europe," said Frank Marchilena, president of Raytheon's Command, Control, Communications and Information (C3I) Systems business unit.
In May 1994 the DFS contracted with a Raytheon-led team that included Indra Systemas of Torrejon, Spain, and Terma of Copenhagen, Denmark, for the development of P1/ATCAS. The contract award followed the successful implementation of Raytheon's DERD (Display of Extracted Radar Data), DERD-X and DERD-XL systems at 10 ATC centers throughout Germany from 1980 to 1994. The selection of Raytheon's AutoTrac system for P1 reaffirmed the DFS' confidence in Raytheon's design, development and implementation capabilities in air traffic management. Furthermore, the decision solidified the DFS' 22-year working relationship with Raytheon.

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Czech Aerospace Association joins AECMA
AECMA: Neues Mitglied aus Tschechien

AECMA has welcomed the Association of the Aviation Manufacturers of the Czech Republic (AAM CR), the first member of AECMA from an accession country to the European Union. The Czech aerospace association joined AECMA, the European Association of Aerospace Industries, on 1 January 2000. About 10,000 employees work in 35 manufacturing companies as well as in research, development and project organisations within the Czech aviation industry. The industry products are both civil and military, in particular trainer, light combat and regional transport aircraft. The Czech association joins the aerospace associations of all 15 EU member states who are members of AECMA. This new membership reflects the ongoing process of industry integration between the countries of the EU and a number of central and eastern European countries* that are aiming at accession to the European Union. Czech aviation authority expects to become full member of the JAA (Joint Aviation Authorities)during the first half of this year.
Milan Holl, President of AAM CR, sees membership in AECMA as an important step to bring the Czech aerospace industry into the community of high quality aviation manufacturers in Europe. Our companies aim at an active involvement within the structures of the European industry", he states.

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German Air Force obtains advanced Air Surveillance Centre
Modernes CRC andie Luftwaffe übergeben

The German Air Force is now equipped with the most advanced air surveillance centre (Control and Reporting Centre CRC) in the Western world. The Defense and Civil Systems business unit of DaimlerChrysler Aerospace AG (Dasa/Munich), located at Dornier GmbH, has delivered the new CRC in Schönewalde, south of Berlin, to the Federal Procurement Office (BWB). CRC is a command and control system for air surveillance and defence. This centre, with a contract volume of DM 50 million, was implemented by Dasa in co-operation with the U.S. company Raytheon. Upon final installation of all systems in a new and secured building, the system is scheduled to start service in spring 2000.
There are eight CRCs in Germany and more than 60 within the European NATO states. The centrepiece of the new CRC is the Dornier-developed Multi-Sensor Tracking System MST. This system edits the raw data received from the various radar systems and displays them. MST has already proven successful in field trials of the German Air Force and in the NATO Shape Technical Centre. At the hand-over of the new centre in Schönewalde, thesystem demonstrated its capability: display of more than 1,200 tracks as symbols on the monitors of more than 30 workstations, reception of 250 flight schedules via the Eurocontrol line, input of data received by ten radars. Almost every object moving between Italy and Lithuania could be viewed on the monitor.

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mySAP.com offered for Aerospace and Defense Industry
SAP bietet Internet-Dienste für Luft- und Raumfahrtindustrie

German SAP, the leading provider of inter-enterprise software solutions, has announced enhancements to the mySAP.com solution for the aerospace and defense industry that will enable companies to collaborate with trading partners via the Internet using SPEC 2000, the industry standard for exchanging electronic business documents. With the next update of mySAP.com for Aerospace & Defense in March, SAP will provide electronic-commerce applications for the buying and selling of aircraft parts based on the Air Transport Association (ATA) SPEC 2000 standard, delivered via the Extensible Markup Language (XML). Companies will benefit from dramatically lower transaction costs and expanded opportunities to collaborate with a larger number of trading partners through the Internet.
"SAP is the first to provide the SPEC 2000 standard via the open XML language. By adopting the SPEC 2000 industry standard, SAP is making it easier for our aerospace and defense customers to conduct one-step business with their suppliers, contractors and other trading partners in the Internet economy," said Nils Herzberg, vice president of the Aerospace & Defense Industry Business Unit at SAP AG. By combining SPEC 2000 via XML with the mySAP.com solutions for electronic buying and selling and making them available through the mySAP.com Marketplace at http://www.mySAP.com, SAP will deliver a comprehensive solution for Internet-based procurement in the aerospace and defense industry that supports the entire purchasing process. Companies need only Internet access to communicate with their business partners and conduct transactions using the SPEC 2000 standard.

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NEWS IN BRIEF / KURZMELDUNGEN

German aerospace association BDLI has sharply criticised the new weapons export guidelines worked out by the ruling SPD/Greens coalition government in Berlin. This will penalise German compnaies in the European restructuring process, it said.
+++
KLM has announces a deep restructuring programme, with cuts in routes and aircraft. Also, investments will be postponed. A few thousend jobs are also at stake, after the company had to report disappointing results for the last quarter.
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A successful first launch of a Raytheon Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) from the Tornado F-3 Air Defense Variant (ADV) aircraft at a UK test range has been performed recently. The launch involved an AMRAAM separation integration vehicle (SIV) fired from the fuselage eject station of the Tornado. The SIV, used to evaluate aircraft/missile separation characteristics, flew a pre-programmed maneuver after launch. The test team described the live-launch as "excellent;" separation and in-flight maneuvering performance was as predicted. Along with Tornado, the UK Sea Harrier and Eurofighter employ the AMRAAM for the air superiority mission.
+++
On February 3, a Boeing 757-300 left Seattle for a three-week, around-the-world tour that includes flight demonstrations for airline executives and staff, news media, government officials and other aviation representatives. During the tour, the airplane, which entered service last year, will be showcased at stops in 16 cities in the United States, Iceland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, the People's Republic of China and Taiwan. The airplane returns to Seattle from Taiwan on Feb. 24. Boeing urgently needs to promote the stretched 757 as sales so far have been disappointing.
+++
New changes are on the way for the assembly of the International Space Station, if one believes NASA administrator Daniel Goldin. He said the U.S. will launch its own service module late this year if Russia fails to put up a module by July. Goldin said that he is waiting to see if the Russians are serious about fixing the Proton and then launching the service module before the U.S. puts the final touches on an American service module.
+++
On February 3, a Russian Progress supply ship loaded with a cargo of fuel, oxygen, water and essential equipment successfully docked with the Mir space station. Officials at mission control said the docking was trouble-free, and they appeared relieved that the complicated operation was such a success after the recent spate of mishaps. The Progress ship is being used to push Mir approximately 30 miles (48 km) further away from Earth into a new orbit some 230 miles (370 km) away from the planet, reversing Mir's gradual approach to Earth. The freighter's docking will enable a new crew of cosmonauts to fly to Mir as planned at the end of March.
+++
Sea Launch and the PanAmSat Corporation have announced an agreement for Sea Launch to deploy up to five new spacecraft using the Sea Launch rocket and launch platform. The agreement calls for the launch of the advanced Galaxy IIIC during the second quarter of 2001 and provides PanAmSat with the option for four additional Sea Launch missions through 2003. Sea Launch begins 2000 with a two-for-two launch success record, including the extremely successful demonstration launch in March and equally successful first commercial launch in October, both in 1999. The "bull's eye" accuracy of these launches proved the reliability of the system, the performance of the rocket and the extraordinary teamwork of the international Sea Launch partnership. In January, Sea Launch completed sea trails of its launch support vessels, the assembly and command ship and the self-propelled launch platform, in preparation for its next launch, planned for March.
+++
As in the new aircraft market where Airbus Industrie achieved in 1999 the largest market share in terms of order intake (476 new firm orders), the European consortium was first in the re-marketing of used aircraft, confirming the strong demand for Airbus products and their high residual values. Transactions by the Airbus Asset Management Division, which manages all Airbus used aircraft deals, involved 49 aircraft, with 19 customers, including three aircraft remarketed on behalf of the European Export Credit Agencies (ECAs). Widebody twin A300/A310s, popular both as passenger aircraft and freighters, counted for 60 per cent of these transactions, including 12 A300s and 17 A310s. Six single aisle A320s and ten A330/A340s were also remarketed. On the delivery side, the Airbus Asset Management Division handed over a total of 28 aircraft to 13 customers in 1999, including seven which were new operators for Airbus or new to the type.
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On February 2, Arianespace and iSKY announced an agreement for the launch of two Ka-band geostationary satellites dedicated to Internet services for homes and small businesses. These broadband satellites will offer users high-quality, high-speed transmission services with extremely short response times over North and South America. iSKY-1 and iSKY-2 will be launched from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. The first iSKY satellite will be built by Space Systems/Loral in Palo Alto, California. Weighing five to six tons at launch, it will be positioned at 109 degrees West. iSKY-1's launch is slated for the third quarter of 2001. Arianespace Finance will extend construction period and long-term financing for a total amount in excess of $100 million. Providing an excellent fit with Arianespace's other services, the 100%-owned Arianespace Finance organization offers personalized, value-added financing solutions to help customers in strong growth sectors get their innovative projects off the ground at a very early stage.
+++
On February 3, Boeing announced that installation of Radar System Improvement Program (RSIP) kits has been completed on NATO's fleet of 17 Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft. NATO now has the first AWACS fleet to be fully equipped with this advanced radar capability. Retrofit was accomplished on schedule and on budget. Daimler-Chrysler Aerospace, under subcontract to Boeing, installed the kits at its facility in Manching, Germany. The $515 million, multi-national contract includes 18 RSIP kits to NATO, eight to the United Kingdom and four to the U.S. Air Force, with options for 11 more. The RSIP kit, built by Boeing and Northrop Grumman's Electronic Sensors and Systems Sector, consists of a new radar computer, a radar control maintenance panel, electrical and mechanical hardware and new radar software.
+++
Aircraft orders and deliveries of products continued on a solidly upward trend in 1999, bringing revenue and backlog numbers to record levels for Cessna Aircraft Company. Sales revenues of $2.2 Billion were the highest in the company's 72-year history. In addition, the current backlog totals 1,102 units worth more than $5.3 Billion. Cessna's 1999 aircraft deliveries totaled 1,210 units: 224 Citations, 87 Caravans, and 899 single-engine piston models, an 11% increase over 1,077 aircraft delivered in 1998. Sales activity for the Cessna Citation, Caravan and single-engine piston aircraft increased 22% over 1998, with an impressive 1,394 firm orders.
+++
In the course of a tour through Europe, five astronauts--three Japanese and two Europeans--of the planned future International Space Station visit DaimlerChrysler Aerospace's Space Infrastructure Business Unit located in Bremen on Thursday. For the first time, Satoshi Furukawa, Akihiko Hoshide, Naoko Sumino, André Kuipers, and Frank de Winne have the opportunity of taking a closer look at the real size model of the space laboratory Columbus, their future workplace, Europe's contribution to th International Space Station. Dasa is prime contractor of both the Columbus laboratory and the Columbus simulator, in which astronauts are trained prior to their mission.
+++
Rockwell Collins has been selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to lead a team for development of a satellite-based graphical weather information service. Satellite weather will provide worldwide, real-time weather data to aircraft, allowing pilots to make earlier decisions during changing weather situations. The award will fund advancement of the technology for air transport and business and regional aircraft applications. With satellite-based graphical weather information, airlines achieve higher on-time arrival rates and improve fuel savings, provide a more comfortable ride for passengers and enhance flight safety. Two American Airlines' Boeing 777 aircraft travelling between the United States and Asia will be equipped with satellite receivers and laptop computers displaying strategic weather. Graphical weather data will be produced by Jeppesen, transmitted via WorldSpace Corporation's Asiastar satellite and received by Collins Integrated Information System (I2S). The flight tests are scheduled to begin in April and conclude in November 2000.
+++
The Swedish Saab AB and the Finnish Patria Finavitec Oy of Patria Group have signed a Memorandum of Understanding concerning co-operation in penetrating the System and Training markets for military helicopters, initially in the Nordic countries and later on the European market. The aim is, assumed positive market penetration, to establish a jointly owned entity to support helicopter suppliers and their end customers with competitive operations in respective country for helicopter training and system work, especially continuous upgrades, mainly performed by new editions of software. The business concept is built on one joint resource responsible for joint System and Training requirements with related training equipment and simulators, engineering rigs, configuration control, support of airworthiness etc. National resources could focus on the equipment with needs for daily access or national security.
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The airlines of the SAirGroup's SAirLines Division - Swissair, Crossair and Balair - transported more than 17.9 million passengers in 1999. This figure represents an increase of 16.6 per cent over the 1998 figure. An increase in production of 8.0 per cent triggered an 8.9-per-cent jump in demand, measured in terms of revenue tonne-kilometres. The overall load factor was 0.5 percentage points higher at 69.5 per cent. In 1999 Swissair transported some 13.9 million passengers, 13.6 per cent more than in 1998. The seat load factor in 1999 was 72.7 per cent versus 72.3 per cent in 1998.
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On February 1st 2000 the oneworld alliance, led by British Airways, American Airlines and Qantas, announced its first anniversary. In its first year of operation, oneworld has expanded substantially, helped millions of travellers reach more places more easily and firmly established itself as one of the world's leading and most widely recognised alliance brands. In the alliance's first year of operation, its member airlines carried almost 200 million passengers - equivalent to one in 30 of the world population, and have flown 2.2 billion miles (3.5 billion kms) - equivalent to around 12 return trips to the Sun. They operated around two million flights - with a oneworld airline departure somewhere around the world every 14 seconds.
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Previous updates are still available:
Die News der letzten Wochen sind weiter abrufbar:

*January 30, 2000 *January 23, 2000 *January 16, 2000 *January 9, 2000

*December 19, 1999 *December 12, 1999 *December 5, 1999

*November 28, 1999 *November 21, 1999 *November 14, 1999 *November 7, 1999

*October 31, 1999 *October 24, 1999 *October 17, 1999 *October 10, 1999 *October 3, 1999

*January to September 1999 *January to December 1998 *January to December 1997 *September to December 1996

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