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Word is expected Friday February 25 of solid ground for establishing air cargo charter service between mainland China and Taiwan, although exact date of start up is uncertain. The best part of the announcement, is that while the politicos talked it up to make the deal, insiders said one event that really juiced up the process was something airlines always like to do—they threw a big party.
Actually a Lunar New Year Festival party has been an annual event hosted by the CAAC to treat senior airline executives from the mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao. Reportedly six Taiwanese airlines attended a shindig on Feb 22 , that was closed to the media.So while outwardly heads may be knocking, inside the airlines still know how to party.
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Bird In Hand Worth Two In Bush?
Two Texas-based airlines American and Continental from a place which the current USA President calls home and once served as governor of, get U.S. permission to launch passenger flights to China this year and in 2006 by the U.S. Department of Transportation, while Georgia-based Delta Air Lines got stiffed in its bid to fly Atlanta/ Beijing.
What’s more, Delta is the only one of the five largest U.S. passenger carriers without flights to China.
DOT awarded cargo flights to FedEx Corp., United Parcel Service Inc., Northwest Airlines Corp. and Polar Air.
Other U.S. flag carriers that failed to win the additional service approval include United, which wanted to add passenger services between San Francisco and Guangzhou; Hawaiian Holdings Inc., which offered San Diego-Shanghai flights via its Honolulu base; and North American Airlines, which applied to fly from Oakland, California, to Shanghai and Guangzhou via Honolulu.
Also failing to win flights were cargo carriers World Air Holdings Inc., Gemini Air Cargo and Evergreen International Aviation Inc.
But for the aforementioned shut outs, maybe better luck next time.
The 26 new flights being awarded (after comment) ramp up number of weekly U.S.-China flights to 133.
Another 116 will be added by 2010.

Cathay Pacific Cargo launched its Boeing 747-400F freighter today (February 23) less than a week after picking up the new jumbo from Boeing. Service runs Hong Kong to Singapore but will be moved later this year to European cargo routes.

Meantime how about the return of the swing-tail freighter?
Boeing is developing a swing-tail modification for two B747-400s that will allow the freighter’s aft fuselage to open for moving components of the new 787's large composite structures. The expanded girth swing-tail freighter will hold three times the cargo by volume of the 747-400. Way back when air cargo people remember the Canadair “swing-tail” CL44-A’s of Seaboard World Airways and Flying Tiger Line. From somewhere on the other side we can almost hear Bob Prescott murmuring: “What goes around comes around.”
Amen to that brother!

Austrian Airlines and Slovak Airlines (AU Group owns 62% of Slovak) will increase the number of flights from Bratislava to Brussels. From March 27 until June 30 and from September 1 through October 31 there will be 10 flights a week from Bratislava to Brussels. July and August schedule will temporarily be reduced to eight frequencies.

United Airlines launches a daily nonstop flight between Chicago O'Hare and Munich on June 7, 2005. New service is added to existing daily Washington Dulles-Munich service and will be operated as a code share with Lufthansa.

Air Cargo Association at JFK said guest speaker for this Thursday’s (February 24) luncheon is Joseph Badamo, Vice President of Sales at Evergreen International Airlines. Mr Badamo’s presentation will include an overview of the Boeing World Air Cargo Forecast for 2004/2005, coupled with new data from the U.S. Census Bureau highlighting export trends, markets and growth. At the Holiday Inn JFK cocktails and luncheon follow at 11:45. Members $30.00-Non members $35.00.
The JFK Air Cargo Expo occurs on Thursday, March 31, 2005 at the Holiday Inn JFK. The club promises interesting speakers and a bigger exhibition than ever before.The JFK Air Cargo Expo has very quietly become one of the industry’s premier events, serving as an easy-to-reach, intelligent one-day affair.Contact: Johnn Norcum 718-656-8111 or Jerry Kash 718-995-9178.

Emirates will launch daily flights from Dubai to Beijing on Feb. 1, 2006 using an Airbus 340-300 aircraft. Beijing will be the Emirates' fourth destination in China, after Shanghai, Hong Kong and Dalian. The new route is part of the company's strategic growth plan for its China operation, which includes expanding from 12 to 17 flights a week into Hong Kong by the end of 2005.

Giving Art The Gate

  We have been thinking about those “Gates,” the fabric bonanza put up by the same people who once wrapped up the Reichstag in Berlin.
  “Gates” is hanging all over Central Park here in New York.
  Everybody, it seems, loves “Gates,” but we are afraid that when the exhibit is given the gate in two weeks it won’t be soon enough for us.
  To start with, “Gates” is orange. International orange, the orange of aircraft life vests, the same color early aviators used to paint the top of aircraft wings, so in an emergency a Pan Am flying boat or a C46 that flew above the Himalayas in the China/India/Burma Hump cargo flights could be spotted from the air.
  We wonder why, in the great sanctuary of trees and rocks and grassy hills that lie sleeping in the center of a bustling, metal city, the color of “Gates” isn’t that first blush of lime green that creeps out of winter-weakened trees, why not the awakened color of Spring?
  Around these parts the days are getting longer, and that bright orange seems to be launching us headlong into Summer.
  Yesterday pitchers and catchers reported to the baseball camps in Florida, and soon color will return to this brown and bare land.
  The color, like the outfields in the baseball parks, will be light green not flat orange.
  Despite the fact that fashion week just ended in New York, the miles of orange fabric surrounding every walkway in Central Park is not light and airy and silky translucent in the sun, like those runway foxes modeling new uniforms for Delta. Instead, it is rather heavy and dull looking, like a burlap tarp.
  In low light and still wind, “Gates” just seems to hang everywhere and look, well, orange.
  But “Gates” does have positive advantages.
  Bad news was knocked off newspaper front pages for a moment, even if the effort of New York to appear as “Fun City” might have been a bit of a stretch.
  We also rediscovered The New York Botanical Garden in a borough of the City called the Bronx.
  Inside, lush acres of greenery abound under a geodesic dome filled with beautiful, blooming flowers. Lunch up there is pretty good, and they let you bring your own picnic even in the middle of the winter.
www.nybg.org.