THE ALLIANCE - UPDATE

The first stage of the long awaited ALLIANCE venture is now operational. EOAC and Rogue Air now operate full code-share on all routes world-wide, opening up completely new markets for both airlines. EOAC will now be able to tap into the immense North American, using the Rogue Air hubs at Charlotte and Portland. Rogue Air will in turn be able to tab into the existent EOAC network within Asia and Africa. Two of the linchpins of this network are the new Rogue Air Tokyo and the EOAC Singapore hubs. Scheduled flights between the two have been increased to an unprecedented level to accommodate for the expected increase in passengers.

Phase 2 of The Alliance venture is now underway as a joint set of world-wide schedules are constructed, maximising the potential of a joint fleet numbering in excess of 1000 aircrafts. Target date for completion of this phase is December 30th 2000.

The Alliance wishes to state that talks with another potential African based partner are ongoing and that further regional partners are being sought.

Negotiations with Duckling Air have ceased at this time, as the Denmark based airline do not feel able to commit to the venture. Both EOAC and Duckling Air have stressed, however, that the close relationship will continue and that anything is possible in the future.


EOAScandinavia?

With the failure to reach agreement with Duckling Air EOAC are conducting a feasibility study into the possibility of a Scandinavian based division. No further details are available at this time but at present an outside risk sharing partner is preferred.

Whatever the final solution, EOAC are keen that this does not impact the relationship with Duckling Air.

Comments: eoac_2000@hotmail.com


UK OPERATIONS ARE GO!

European Overseas Heathrow operations finally began on October 23rd at 13:07 when G-EOVE set out for Chicago, followed at 13:08 by a second MD-11 bound for Los Angeles and at 13:10 by one of the company's 747-400s on route to Alliance partner Rogue Air's hub at Charlotte. The next half hour saw flights depart for Porto, Belfast, Glasgow, Cologne, Montreal, Edinburgh, Munich, Warsaw, Bangkok, Lyon and Madrid. During the same period the first inbound flights landed from Madrid, Paris, Helsinki, Barcelona, Valencia, Stuttgart and Dusseldorf.

With twenty aircraft movements in the first hour of operations the European Overseas launch could only be described as a success. In the first week 2474 EOAC and EAC flights arrived or departed Heathrow moving it ahead of both Brussels and Paris in terms of movements.

Problems at London:

Storm force winds and torrential rain caused problems at Heathrow on Monday 30th October. Inbound flights were diverted in the morning due to the conditions and many outbound flights were delayed. This caused problems across The Alliance Network as passengers missed connecting flights.

Arrangements were quickly made to minimise inconvenience, with additional flights laid on wherever possible. With further inclement weather due, passengers are warned that contingency plans have been made and some changes to scheduled flights may be necessary. Further information can be gained from local customer service centres.

EOAC wish to apologize if this causes any undue problems.

 

Training Deal with Swiss FIR

Serge Lukic, one of the 'Gang of Five' EOAC Senior Directors has been in discussion with Andreas Fuchs of Swiss FIR. Once concluded the arrangement will allow EOAC (and possibly Alliance) pilots the opportunity to brush up or gain new IFR skills with the aid of the excellent Swiss FIR facilities and staff. This arrangement will hopefully eventually bring European Overseas to the forefront of SATCO operations.

Serge Lukic commented: "EOAC highly values the achievements of Simulated Air Traffic Organization (SATCO) in the global FlightSim community. We fully endorse SATCO operational guidelines, and their achievements in IFR education & support, and we encourage our pilots to use SATCO resources whenever they can, whether they fly online or off line. EOAC will also provide support to every our pilot wishing to fly utilizing SATCO's online infrastructure. Swiss FIR has generously offered support to EOAC pilots by providing extra help in regular training sessions."

Obviously, all at EOAC are heavily indebted to Andreas for this opportunity.

In other related EOAC/SATCO activities, SATUK, UK division of Simulated Air Traffic Organization has listed EOAC as VA affiliate, and has reserved the callsign "Vantage" (VNT). EOAC is thankful for the endorsements and looking is forward to the opportunities to utilize services of SATCO.

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