Aviation Sector

Air France-KLM foresees large operating loss for 2008-2009

Air France-KLM foresees large operating loss for 2008-2009Paris - French-Dutch carrier Air France-KLM said on Thursday that it expects to register an operating loss of about 200 million euros (270 million dollars) for fiscal year
2008-2009 because of the effects of the economic crisis and variations in the cost of crude oil.

If confirmed, it would represent the first such negative result for the company since it was formed in 2003.

Air France-KLM is also pessimistic for 2009-2010, "which will begin in the context of an unprecedented crisis," the company said in a statement.

Mitsubishi to build Boeing wing flaps in Vietnam

Mitsubishi to build Boeing wing flaps in Vietnam Hanoi - Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Vietnam will launch an aircraft component assembly factory in Vietnam in June, local media reported Wednesday.

The state-run newspaper Lao Dong quoted Stanley A Deal, Boeing's deputy chairman of Asia-Pacific sales, as saying the factory would produce wing flaps for Boeing 737 aircraft.

The company is a subsidiary of Japan's Mitsubishi corporation.

The 7-million-dollar factory, located 15 kilometres north of Hanoi, has been under construction since January 2008.

Bailed out J P Morgan Chase to spend 120 m dollars on corporate jets

Bailed out J P Morgan Chase to spend 120 m dollars on corporate jetsNew York, Mar. 24: A bailed out J P Morgan Chase has announced plans to spend 120 million dollars on buying two luxury corporate jets similar to the Gulfstream V model.

In the latest example of stunning tone deafness among the corporate swells, high-flying financiers will use these plush new luxury jets, and the company is also building a fancy new hangar to house them.

ABC News reports that the firm is forking out a monumental 138 million dollars for the two projects.

Australian man held in connection with airliner bomb hoax

United KingdomLondon  - A 23-year-old Australian man was charged Monday in connection with an alleged bomb hoax which prompted the evacuation of an Emirates plane shortly after landing in London, the authorities said.

Matthew Carney was charged with communicating information believed to be false with the intention of inducing "a false belief that a thing liable to explode or ignite was present in the cargo of a plane."

Carney, who is from Melbourne, did not enter a plea when he appeared at Crawley Magistrates' Court Monday, the court said. He was remanded in custody to appear via a prison video link on March 26.

Brazil studies loan to Argentina airline

Brazil studies loan to Argentina airlineRio de Janeiro  - Brazil's national development bank mulls a 700-million-dollar loan to Argentina's national carrier Aerolineas Argentinas to finance the acquisition of Brazilian-made planes.

Luciano Coutinho, the president of Brazil's national development bank BNDES said Friday that the country would provide a loan to the Argentinian government.

Aerolineas Argentinas is said to plan buying 26 of Brazil's Embraer 190 passenger planes to replace older Boeing and McDonnell Douglas jets.

Poll: Czechs continue to oppose US missile shield radar

Poll: Czechs continue to oppose US missile shield radar Prague  - Czechs continue to reject US plans for building a missile defence radar base on Czech Republic soil, according to an opinion poll released Thursday, less than three weeks before US President Barack Obama's planned visit to Prague.

The regular survey by the state-funded CVVM polling institute, conducted in early February, said that 70 per cent of the 1,113 polled Czechs opposed the base, while 25 per cent backed it. Five per cent were undecided.

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