Issue 28

President’s Speech

by Bijan Vasigh, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Estimating an aircraft’s value and forecasting its future price is a complex process. Aircraft values depend not only on such factors as aircraft overall condition, maintenance quality, the time to the next major check, fuel and seat capacity, they also depend on general economic conditions. Since the same type of aircraft can be operated on different stage lengths (i.e., routes with different distances), the average number of landings per hour can vary. Therefore, factors determining an aircraft’s value include the aircraft’s age, physical condition, maintenance status, maintenance documentation, and the inflation rate.

by Lucas van Gerwen, VALK Foundation / Leyden University

Fear of flying should be taken very seriously because an estimated 10 to 40 % of adults in the general population experience some type of fear in response to air travel. Although the residents of the Netherlands believed in 2000 that aviation had become safer in the last 5 years, approximately 2.5 million Dutch people still suffer in some way from fear of flying and one out of every seven adult Dutch men and women (14%) refuses to fly because of fear.

by Isabelle Dostaler and Triant Flouris, Concordia University Aviation MBA, Montreal

The business strategy theory is very useful to help aviation researchers and practitioners to make sense of the current competitive pressure under which airlines all around the world seem to be. As one of the key fields of administrative sciences, strategy can be envisioned as a hierarchy reflecting the organizational structure of multidivisional corporations in which corporate strategy states the general direction – in terms of scope and choice of business sectors – that the firm will follow, while business strategy is a formulation of how the business unit intends to compete in its given business sector.

by Roger Cannegieter

This article focuses on the suppliers for the Boeing 7E7 new generation aircraft as well as technologies used in the 7E7 compared to current technologies. Furthermore, the articles provides some information on competitive aircraft like the 767, 757, A330, A300, A310 worldwide airliner fleet to determine the market demand based on this information. The article is closed with a look ahead.

By Stephan Peters

The Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport is a medium-sized airport in San Jose, which is California’s 3rd largest and the nation’s 11th largest city with a population of 925,000 (2003). The airport is located at the northeast end of the city, near the intersection of two major freeways. Read this review to learn more about this U.S. airport.

Aerius 10th anniversary: Celebration at Lelystad Airport

By Roger Cannegieter
This article provides you with a look ‘behind the scenes’ at the formation of Venezuela’s newest airline ‘Conviasa’ and its plans, Venezuelan air transport, aircraft fleet & financing and concludes with a personal opinion. Will Conviasa be a reality or an illusion?

By Amrita Bose

This book makes it clear that diversity among aviation professionals do not merely exist at the superficial level of theoretically using a language; the comprehension of a language has to do with much more, such as underlying cultural values. These values not only influence communication across cultures it also influences communication between men and women.

By Eric Pels

Unfortunately, life is not as simple as it seems. Airports may not be natural monopolies, and regulation may do more harm than good. This book brings together a number of papers of recognized experts in the field. The book describes recent developments in airport regulation in various countries.