Last update: 14.10.2001

1 Year of Newsletter EAP - Thanks for your support and interest !

The October Newsletter EAP is the 12th issue which we were able to pull off from scratch. Many more issues will follow !
12 months of putting together this newsletter provided many occasions to meet people fully committed to commercial aviation.
Also, interesting topics captured our minds in the course of producing this electronic periodical.
Now, we wish to enter the second year newsletter with a set of questions which we consider as important at this moment and further down the avenue of time. Because pressing agenda items may call for our attention when the horrors of New York and Washington finally give way to sinister reflections and an awareness that times may come when we have to see the departure of long accustomed travel patterns with no other formulas around. Generally, the future belongs to those who start searching for alternatives when others don't. 

Will people change their basic travel preferencies when choosing the airways ? - Is the travel industry ready to quickly adapt to those changes ? - What are the future stakes for major and regional airlines, for smaller, mid-sized and large airports, the latter as hubs for the majors ?
If this issue is worth a comment to you, we would welcome your writing which will be posted in one of the upcoming newsletters, thanks. 

LATEST NEWS

A FULLY DEDICATED APRON FOR EXPRESSCARGO A-310 & B-757 AIRCRAFT IS SOON TO BE OPERATIONAL. Parking is scheduled to be in place by November 1, at the latest. DHL, Fedex and TNT are now operating with larger aircraft which have sofar been positioned on scarce parking at the passenger ramp. The relocation of the expresscargo freighters to the western side of the present cargo warehouse had to be approved by DGAC which was reluctant to approve any parking at first as they feared navigational interference with the ILS to RWY 16 if large-tailed aircraft such as the A-310 were to be parked too close to the main take off stretch. 

AN AIR PLUS AIRBUS 310 WAS CHARTERED BY HOTELPLAN to manage the weekend charters to Heraklion, Kos and Palma de Mallorca from October 5 thru 7 due to the temporary grounding of Balair in the wake of the Swissair Group's demise. Two Boeing B-757-200ER are on a ten year lease financed by Hotelplan. Balair is operating these aircraft on behalf of the Swiss tour operator until further notice. For the time being all flights have to be paid in cash by the TO. In the course of Swissair Group's rapid decline, heated debates over the future of Balair as operator of the B-757s took place between Hotelplan, Crossair and Swissair. With the Group's call for a moratorium on debts the issue is no longer of any relevance. News has arrived that a new brand company called Belair will step in to take over flight operations as soon as possible. 

A CROSSAIR SAAB 2000 HAS LEFT FOR SWEDEN. Swedish regional carrier Golden Air has received Saab 2000 HB-IZR the first aircraft of this type in its fleet of seven Saab 340A and B. Crossair is operating 35 Saab 2000 (minus the one which left for Golden Air) of which 10 aircraft are being leased from various leasing companies.

U.S AIR SERVICE IS A NEW TENANT AT THE AIRPORT. The company is of American origin with branch offices in many countries outside the United States. In a recent issue of Travel Inside of Switzerland advertisements were posted which offered air links to Australia via Dubai from the EuroAirport. The Newsletter team has contacted the represantive in charge. More news are forthcoming.

STATISTICS 2001: SEPTEMBER 2001 REPORT

REGIONAL AIRLINE MATTERS

THE EUROPEAN REGIONAL AIRLINE ASSOCIATION (ERA) held its general assembly in Athens from October 10 thru 12. High priority on the agenda received the issue of increasing insurance costs to cover potential liabilities which may stem from aircraft accident impacts on the ground as it was suggested by the insurance underwriters. Also, higher costs at airports as a result of tightened security measures after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, and the fighting of ever increasing en-route charges by EuroControl gave further reasons to be deeply concerned. Additionally, fears were expressed that the present state of the majors and the demise of some of them (Swissair and possibly Sabena) might tempt governments to step in order to safeguard their lifelines which would be much to the disadvantage of a viable regional airline industry.

CARGO NEWS

KOREAN AIR IS SERVING THE EUROAIRPORT WITH BOEING B-747-400 FREIGHTERS until further notice. The airline has operated 508 flights with the older B-747-200F aircraft on the Seoul - Basel route since April 1995. On Monday, September 24, a freighter of the 400 - series carried KE's import and export loads for the first time. 
Swisscargo has withdrawn its block space commitment as codeshare partner of Korean Air on October 4, 2001 as a result of the Swissair Group's request to be protected under the Swiss equivalent to Chapter 11 (to be dissolved by court after October 28).

The aircraft also received much attention from the airport's noise monitoring team. Noise emissions during take off from RWY 16 showed 104 dba. over a time stretch of 28 seconds. Four sets of microphones are installed at the threshold of each runway. In the runway heading over Allschwil the noise was down to 77.5 dba. The noise track was noticably lower than with the 200 -series which produces 112 dba. during 48 seconds at the end of RWY 16 and 82.3 dba. over Allschwil. The EuroAirport's Ciemas system (computer integrated measuring system) allows precise noise and flight path trackings of aircraft movements. However, this data is not available to the public because of its confidential nature (DGAC statement). 

SWISSCARGO/MASKARGO PUT AN IMMEDIATE STOP TO THE TWICE WEEKLY KUALA LUMPUR FREIGHTERS. The decision came as direct consequence of Swisscargo's filing for a moratorium on debts. Swisscargo decided to end the codeshare with MASKargo weeks ago due to weak markets to and from Asia. 
The Newsletter EAP has learned that Swisscargo posted a loss on its all-cargo operations. The freighters to Kuala Lumpur made up 51% of this financial shortcoming.
All Gemini and Cargolux flights to Chicago (2), Bombay/Madras (2) ex BSL and to Hongkong (1) ex ZRH have also been halted. 
Up to fourty cargo staffers have lost their jobs with Swissport at the EAP. This leaves Swiss exporters with just two all-freighter services for large and outsized cargo ex Switzerland (Korean Air to Seoul ex Basel). It is not known to this date if Crossair is to launch a cargo program of some scale for this airfreight segment. It was pointed out to the Newsletter team that the EAP may be the only candidate for all-freighter operations ex Switzerland. The costs and and efficiency are considered to be in tune with the freighter market. Now this message has to reach the cargo community. The collapse of Swisscargo is leaving large volumes of airfreight stranded at various gateways throughout Europe. 

NEWS FOR AIR TRAVELERS

AUTOGRILL AG WILL SUCCEED GATE GOURMET FRANCE AS AIRPORT RESTAURANT OPERATOR. The new company will be ready for business on January 1, 2002. The firm is also active at Geneva and Zürich airport, at train stations, rest areas along major motorways and at shopping malls.
At the EuroAirport all services are offered such as two restaurants, six bars, a food take-out specialized on fingerfood (sandwiches etc.), catering services for conventions and special events and for a new business center which will open its doors in the terminal area, finally a cafeteria for airport staff.
The location of the various service outlets are spread all over the refurbished and new passenger terminal which is still under construction. The commercial area dedicated to Autogrill is more than 1'600 sqm. About 110 service people are finding employment with the new caterer. They will be hired under French and Swiss labour laws. The company is expected to honor existing contracts with food, beverage, and catering suppliers. At this stage the site of jurisdiction is under review. It may be either in France or Switzerland.

TRANS CABO VERDE AIRLINES WILL COMMENCE AIR SERVICES TO THE EAP ON NOVEMBER 1, 2001. A Boeing B-757-200ER is serving the route every Thursday (SAL. Dep. 00.20, AMS arr. 08.20, dep. 09.40, EAP arr. 11.00, dep. 12.00, SAL arr. 16.00). 80 seats of a total number 186 are earmarked for the EAP's trinational market (France, Southern Germany and Switzerland) in both directions. A number of tour operators and travel agents will market this capacity (France : Starter Voyages, Switzerland : Olimar, Panorama Voyages, ITV Imholz as major sales agents, and Airline Center Switzerland as gsa for Trans Cabo Verde Airlines). The carrier hopes to have about 40% of leisure traffic and 60% of affintiy traffic aboard. Indeed there are large communities of ex-patriots from the Cabo Verdes living and working in Switzerland (French section), and in France (Belfort - Mulhouse - Colmar area). In the trinational region of the airport this community is about 10'000 people strong. On December 13 and 20 a full turnaround is scheduled to take off from the EuroAirport to meet peak-time travel needs at the end of 2001.

AIR FRANCE IS SCHEDULING DAILY NICE SERVICES BEGINNING ON OCTOBER 28. An Embraer 135 jet will be put on this route. It is expected that Nice is served once a day. Four aircraft rotations are likely to be on the rooster: 1st MLH - LYS - MLH, 2nd MLH - NCE - MLH, 3rd MLH - LYS - MLH, 4th MLH - LYS - MLH. Crossair is set to reduce its services down to one daily flight at the same time.

NEW AIRPORT SERVICES AT THE EAP

WEATHER PROTECTED CAR PARKING FOR 820 VEHICLES IS NOW FULLY READY. The parking is designed to cater to travelers who are away on business for one or two days. The charge is set at CHF 25 a day in the Swiss sector. Direct access to and from the arrival and departure terminals is available by elevators and stairways. Non-sheltered parking for 500 automobiles are in walking distance to the terminals in the EC and Swiss sectors. 
In mid-December 2001 a new access regime for cars and coaches will also be in place on the Swiss side. The infrastructure is matching the one in the EC sector which has been in service for one year. The departure areas are directly connected with the motorways over a viaduct. The arrival areas are just underneath and offer sheltered loading & unloading of passengers. Short-term and curb-side car parking are restricted in terms of time and availability.

AIRTRAFFIC PROMOTION GROUP, WANDERSTRASSE 77, 4054 BASEL - TEL./FAX. ++41 61 302 5775 / E-MAIL. WISCHMID@DATACOMM.CH

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