Tag: Italy (Page 5 of 7)

NATO Gives Boeing $1 Billion Deal to Upgrade AWACS Reconnaissance Planes

November 27, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

– AWACS part of NATO investment in hi-tech surveillance

– Announcement comes days before NATO summit in London

BRUSSELS, Nov 27 (Reuters) – NATO on Wednesday awarded Boeing Co a $1 billion contract to upgrade its fleet of AWACS reconnaissance planes, a deal officials said showed the strength of transatlantic cooperation days before an alliance summit in London.

First flown in 1982 and repeatedly modernised, the Boeing-made planes, which can detect hostile aircraft, missiles, ships and other weaponry far beyond NATO borders, will be overhauled with more powerful computer processors, servers and equipment.

The 14 planes, based at an air base in Germany, can already exchange information via digital data links, with ground-based, sea-based and airborne commanders, but need a greater capacity to transmit data as technology develops.

The upgrade will keep one of the few military assets owned and operated by the Western alliance in service until 2035.

AWACS have been flown in support of the international coalition against Islamic State, gazing deep into Syria from Turkey, as well as along NATO’s eastern flank following Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

“The modernisation will ensure that NATO remains at the leading edge of technology,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told a news conference alongside Boeing President Michael Arthur, standing in front of one of the planes.

“It will provide AWACS with sophisticated new communications and networking capabilities, so these aircraft can continue their vital missions,” he said.

One NATO official described AWACS, which have crews drawn from 18 different allies, as a symbol of NATO unity, at a time when U.S. President Donald Trump has questioned its value and French President Emmanuel Macron last month said NATO was dying.

The upgrade will be funded by 16 NATO allies, including the United States, Germany, Turkey, Italy and Spain, and some work will be subcontracted to European suppliers including Leonardo and Airbus.

The modernisation comes as NATO takes delivery of the first of five Global Hawk drones, which will be based in Italy.

After years of delays, the high-altitude drones made by Northrop Grumman give the alliance its own spy drones for the first time and will work with the AWACS to protect ground troops, as well as other tasks.

The drones will be able to fly for up to 30 hours at a time in all weather, providing near real-time surveillance data.

(Reporting by Robin Emmott Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Italian Airline Alitalia’s Rescue in Doubt as Atlantia Backtracks

November 19, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

MILAN, Nov 19 (Reuters) – Italian infrastructure group Atlantia said on Tuesday it was not ready to join a consortium led by Italian railway group Ferrovie dello Stato to rescue loss-making carrier Alitalia, casting a shadow on the entire project.

After months of negotiations and with just one day left before a deadline expires, the group controlled by the Benetton family said that the conditions did not exist yet for it to join a consortium working on Alitalia.

Atlantia added, however, it remained available to engage in negotiations to seek for an industrial partner for the carrier.

A deadline to present a binding offer for Alitalia expires on Thursday, after being postponed several times.

Loss-making Alitalia has been run by special administrators since May 2017 and talks led by Ferrovie have been going on for a year without a deal.

The carrier, which is burning through its cash reserves, is expected to finish its money at the end of this year.

Ferrovie and Atlantia have been in talks with both U.S. carrier Delta Air Lines Inc and, recently, with German airline Lufthansa.

Delta said it was ready to invest 100 million euros ($111 million) in the Italian carrier but sources had said it did not agree with Ferrovie and Atlantia over the development of the Italian carrier’s long-haul business.

On the other hand, Lufthansa said it was prepared to set up a commercial partnership with the Italian carrier but did not want to take a stake in the group before it has gone through a complete restructuring.

“We will not invest in current Alitalia, but we are interested being a commercial partner,” said Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr at an event in Berlin on Tuesday.

Italian daily La Repubblica on Tuesday said the airline could be nationalized for some years before being sold.

Analysts calculate that Italian taxpayers have spent more than 9 billion euros to support Alitalia, which has undergone two previous failed rescue attempts.

($1 = 0.9028 euros)

(Reporting by Francesca Landini; Additional reporting by Ilona Wissenbach in Berlin; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Alstom to Deliver 19 Electric Regional Trains in Germany

November 14, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

Alstom will deliver 19 Coradia Continental electric regional trains to the state of Baden-Württemberg. The contract, signed with DB Regio, is worth approximately €120 million. The trains will be built at Alstom’s site in Salzgitter.

Beginning in December 2022, the new trains will be gradually deployed on the routes from Karlsruhe to Heilbronn, Achern, as well as via Freudenstadt to Herrenberg.

The new trains have been designed to optimise passenger experience while meeting the region’s operational requirements. In addition to high-performance WiFi, they will include spacious multi-purpose areas in each car and a large capacity for bicycles. The trains are specifically designed to cope with the steep gradients that punctuate the tracks running through the Black Forest.

“Passengers in the Karlsruhe region can look forward to modern, proven and reliable trains. Our trains not only satisfy passengers, but are also known for outstanding reliability and availability, thus offering absolute planning security for operators,” says Jörg Nikutta, Managing Director of Alstom in Germany and Austria.

The Coradia Continental is part of Alstom’s Coradia range of modular trains that benefits from more than 30 years of know-how. To date, over 2,800 Coradia trains have been sold and 2,400 are currently in service in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Sweden and Canada.

The new vehicles will be procured by DB Regio AG on behalf of the Ministry of Transport of the state of Baden-Württemberg as the responsible public transport authority for this network. After delivery of the vehicles, they become the property of the Landesanstalt Schienenfahrzeuge Baden-Württemberg (SFBW) and are leased by DB Regio for the term of the 13-year transport contract.

Alstom Begins Delivery of New Regional Trains to Veneto and Liguria in Italy

November 13, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

Alstom has delivered the first Coradia Stream “Pop” trains destined for operation in Italian regions of Veneto and Liguria. The trains are part of the framework agreement signed in 2016 between Alstom and Trenitalia for a total of 150 new medium-capacity regional trains. Veneto will receive a total of 31 trains, Liguria 15. Deliveries will continue at a rapid pace into 2020.

14 Coradia Stream trains are already in passenger service in Emilia Romagna, the first region to have placed a firm order under the 2016 agreement.

The new trains are part of a wider relaunch plan initiated by Trenitalia (FS Italian Group) to develop regional transport. This plan foresees a total investment of around €6 billion for 600 new trains, lead to the renewal of 80% of the fleet within 5 years. Due to the number of trains and its value, it is an unprecedented project for Italy.

The Coradia Stream, dubbed “Pop” by the Italian customer, is a single-deck electric multiple unit (EMU) designed for regional lines. It represents the latest generation of the Coradia family of trains. It can transport 300 passengers seated, has a top speed of 160 km/h, and offers easy accessibility thanks to its low floor. Designed to be eco-friendly, Coradia Stream consumes 30% less energy than previous train generation.

“Over the past 15 years, more than 412 regional trains have been designed, produced and put into commercial service by Alstom in Italy. To these figures, we will gradually grow the Pop fleet. We are proud to have been chosen by Veneto and Liguria, and to support Trenitalia in this major project to improve regional and intercity transport throughout the country,” said Michele Viale, Managing Director of Alstom in Italy and Switzerland.

The Coradia Stream trains are manufactured by Alstom in Italy. Project development, most of the manufacturing and certification are performed at Alstom’s site in Savigliano (CN). Design and manufacturing of the traction systems and other components takes place at the Sesto San Giovanni (MI), and the on-board signalling systems are delivered by the Bologna site.

Alitalia Administrators Neutral on Delta, Lufthansa Offers

November 6, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

MILAN, Nov 6 (Reuters) – Alitalia’s administrators said they had no preferred option between Delta Air Lines and Lufthansa, the two groups talking with rail operator Ferrovie dello Stato about a rescue for the troubled Italian carrier.

Ferrovie, which is leading a state-orchestrated effort to rescue Alitalia, will have to choose between the two foreign carriers in the next weeks as the financial performance of Alitalia was deteriorating, the administrators said.

“We do not have any preference about the industrial partner for Alitalia, we are unbiased,” Daniele Discepolo, one of the three administrators in charge of the airline told a parliamentary hearing.

Delta and Lufthansa belong to rival respective airline alliances and are both interested in the lucrative Italian market, one of the world’s top tourism destinations which is seeing good growth in foreign visitors.

Lufthansa wrote to Ferrovie recently offering a commercial partnership with Alitalia and saying it could take a stake in the carrier under certain conditions to be agreed with other partners.

The German carrier, however, has so far refrained from indicating precisely how much it was prepared to pay and under what conditions. In the letter Lufthansa only said it could invest more than Delta, which, so far, has committed around 100 million euros ($111 million) for Alitalia.

Discepolo and fellow administrators Enrico Laghi and Stefano Paleari said the government’s planned grant of a fresh 400 million euros bridge loan was needed to keep Alitalia’s airplanes flying until the rescue was successfully finalised.

The state has already granted a 900 million euro loan for the carrier and analysts calculate that Italian taxpayers have spent more than 9 billion euros to support Alitalia, which has undergone two previous failed rescue attempts.

Paleari said Alitalia’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were negative to the tune of 164 million euros in the first half of this year, worsening from a 124 million euro loss in the same period last year partly due to higher fuel costs.

($1 = 0.9020 euros)

(Editing by Susan Fenton)

Delta Might Pull Out of Alitalia Bid Consortium

November 3, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

MILAN (Reuters) – Delta Air Lines <DAL> could pull out of a consortium looking to rescue Italy’s Alitalia as it is unwilling to enter a possible bidding war with Lufthansa <DLAKY>, newspaper Il Corriere della Sera reported on Sunday, citing two sources.

Delta is expected to say it will not raise its offer to invest about 100 million euros ($112 million) in Alitalia in a letter to be sent in the middle of this week to its consortium partners, Italy’s state railways firm Ferrovie and infrastructure group Atlantia, Il Corriere reported.

It said the rough investment figure could go as high as 120 million euros.

But Germany’s Lufthansa might invest about 150 million euros, Il Corriere said.

Lufthansa is seeking up to 6,000 job cuts, however, versus 2,500 envisaged by a plan drafted by the Delta consortium, the newspaper reported.

A source said last week Lufthansa was ready to invest up to 200 million euros in Alitalia which is running out of cash and scrambling to find new funds.

Italy’s industry ministry has extended to Nov. 21 a deadline for binding bids after an Oct. 15 deadline passed without an agreement among potential rescuers.

Alitalia’s temporary administrators said last month that the company’s liquidity amounted to 310 million euros at the end of September.

But that figure was inflated by advanced payments on pre-paid tickets, Sunday’s Il Sole 24Ore newspaper reported, citing unidentified sources.

The report added that adjusted for future costs, the cash amounted to just 160 million euros, and that it would run out in December.

($1 = 0.8957 euros)

(Reporting by Giulio Piovaccari; editing by Jason Neely)

Bangladesh Orders Leonardo High-Tech Air Surveillance Radar

November 2, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

Leonardo’s KRONOS family of radar products are multi-functional, multi-mission solutions
The KRONOS LAND radar is highly mobile and quick to deploy: it can be brought into operation in the field in just 15 minutes

The Bangladesh Air Force (BAF) has ordered Leonardo’s KRONOS LAND radar to provide air surveillance, allowing operators to detect and track targets in tactical environments. Leonardo has announced the contract at BIDEC (Bahrain International Defence Exhibition and Conference) tri-service exhibition, which is taking place at Manama (Baharain) from 28 to 30 October.

Leonardo will also supply communications equipment, twelve months of technical support services, spare parts and a comprehensive training programme for Bangladeshi Air Force personnel with modules in Italy and Bangladesh. As a complete package, this contract will enable the BAF to develop a long-term maintenance capability and preserve the functionality of the system.

Completely designed and developed by Leonardo, the KRONOS LAND is a multi-functional, multi-mission 3D radar for air surveillance and defence, based on latest-generation Full Active-Electronically-Scanned-Array (AESA, also known as E-scan) technology. Leonardo has sold more than 40 KRONOS family systems worldwide.

The contract to supply KRONOS LAND to the Bangladesh Air Force bolsters Leonardo’s presence in Bangladesh. It follows the earlier provision of the RAT31 surveillance system to the BAF for early warning and air defence.

Bombardier Celebrates 25th Anniversary of Germany’s First Automatic People Mover System

October 27, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

INNOVIA APM vehicles carry twelve million passengers annually at Frankfurt am Main Airport – with almost 100 percent reliability
The system’s 25-year anniversary corresponds with Fraport’s opening of Terminal 2

Bombardier’s Frankfurt team celebrating the 25th anniversary of successfully operating and maintaining the INNOVIA APM fleet at Frankfurt Airport.

Today, global mobility solution provider Bombardier Transportation celebrates 25 years of fully automatic BOMBARDIER INNOVIA APM 100 people mover system’s operation at Frankfurt am Main Airport. The system and Fraport’s Terminal 2 opened on the same day 25 years ago. Since 1994, Germany’s first elevated passenger transport system called the SkyLine, has connected Terminals 1 and 2. With an average reliability of 99.83 percent, twelve million passengers and guests per year safely and comfortably arrive at their destinations in the terminals – around the clock.

“We’d like to congratulate our customer on this quarter century anniversary. We have a very successful and long-standing partnership with Fraport, which marks our joint success in moving millions of travelers between terminals at the Frankfurt Airport,” said Michael Fohrer, Head of Bombardier Transportation Germany.

“Fraport benefits from a high-performing turnkey transit system, which was not only manufactured by Bombardier, but also operated and maintained. I am grateful to all our committed and competent employees, without them this milestone would not have been possible,” emphasized Alexander Ketterl, Head of Sales and Delivery German cities at Bombardier Transportation.

Volker Maul, Head of the Bombardier team at Frankfurt Airport, can look back on the people mover system’s 25 years of service. “The excellent cooperation within our team and with our customer built the foundation for the system’s near 100 percent reliability. Bombardier’s operations and maintenance program is carefully designed to optimize system performance and ensure potential problems are identified and resolved before the service’s efficiency is compromised,” he explained.

Fraport’s fleet of 18 INNOVIA vehicles transport around thirty-five thousand passengers daily, on the 3.8 km route between departure terminals. During peak times, the trains depart every 90 seconds with each wagon carrying up to 60 passengers and their luggage.

In 1994, Fraport was the first German customer to invest in Bombardier’s driverless system, installed with the proven BOMBARDIER CITYFLO 550 signaling system. CITYFLO delivers the highest levels of safety while meeting customer demand for flexible, high-performance and cost-effective solutions. More than 30 Bombardier people mover systems are in successful operation worldwide, including urban areas such as Guangzhou and airports in London, Rome, Madrid, Phoenix, Dubai and Tampa among other cities.

Alitalia Set for Temporary Reprieve as Rescue Deadline Nears

October 14, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

MILAN, Oct 14 (Reuters) – Alitalia is set to win a temporary lifeline on Tuesday, when its latest rescue deadline expires, with toll road operator Atlantia expected to give a conditional green light to hundreds of millions of euros of investment, according to two people close to the situation.

The future of the troubled Italian carrier remains in doubt with no binding offer and no clear business plan in sight but it should avoid an immediate liquidation after the expiry of the Oct. 15 deadline set by the industry ministry.

Atlantia, which is controlled by Benetton family, has been in talks since July over taking part in a government-orchestrated rescue of the airline, together with railway group Ferrovie dello Stato, the treasury and Delta Air Lines.

“Atlantia is expected to give its commitment to invest in Alitalia subject to several conditions,” one of the sources said. But issues that still cause concern range from potential antitrust problems, treatment of state aid under European Union rules, the cost of possible redundancies and the future of the carrier’s long-haul routes, the source said.

Oct. 15 is the latest in a series of deadlines set for Ferrovie and potential partners in a rescue for Alitalia, which has been under special administrators since May 2017 and needs new funds to continue flying.

The board of Atlantia, which runs Rome’s airports through its Aeroporti di Roma unit, is expected to approve a preliminary commitment to the Alitalia rescue on Tuesday, the sources said.

The rescue plans include potential investment of a total of around 1 billion euros in the carrier, which has cut costs under the special administrators but still burns cash and had only 310 million euros left at the end of September.

Atlantia is expected to invest some 300 million euros, depending on commitments from other partners.

A second source said more time was needed to iron out a complete business plan for Alitalia. Possible involvement by Delta Air Lines or Germany’s Lufthansa AG is still under discussion.

A third source said Atlantia, Ferrovie and other potential partners were under pressure from Italy’s Industry Ministry to present a binding bid and take control of the carrier which in the past two years has already received 900 million euros from the state to stay afloat.

Atlantia’s participation in the rescue was put in doubt this month when it wrote to the Industry ministry, urging a radical overhaul of the Alitalia plan if talks were to go ahead.

(Reporting by Francesca Landini, Stefano Bernabei, Giuseppe Fonte. Editing by Jane Merriman)

An Alitalia Airbus A320 takes off on September 26, 2017 from Toulouse-Blagnac airport in southwestern France. / AFP PHOTO / PASCAL PAVANI

Arms Firms Fret Delays in Franco-German Fighter Project

October 7, 2019 / WIL BALDWIN

PARIS, Oct 7 (Reuters) – France’s Dassault Aviation and Europe’s Airbus have stepped up pressure on France and Germany to agree on the next stage of a planned fighter project, warning Europe’s arms industry and long-term security could suffer from delays.

The two companies are the leading industrial partners in a project to build a futuristic swarm of manned and unmanned warplanes, announced by the leaders of France and Germany two years ago and expanded earlier this year to include Spain.

Dassault and Airbus won a 65-million-euro contract in January to develop the concept for the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) but await a new contract to build demonstrators for interlinked fighters, drones and an “air combat cloud” by 2026.

Dassault Aviation Chief Executive Eric Trappier told a conference of policymakers last month that the demonstrator contract should have been launched in September but this was now slipping towards end-year. He called it “indispensable” to avoid any further delays in order to maintain the 2026 deadline.

No reason has been given for the delays.

On Monday evening, Dassault and Airbus amplified those warnings with a joint statement.

“If Europe does not move forward — and move forward quickly — on this programme, it will be impossible to maintain the development and production capabilities needed for a sovereign defence industry,” the companies said.

The warplane system is expected to be operational from 2040, with a view to replacing Dassault’s Rafale and the four-nation Eurofighter, in which Airbus represents both Germany and Spain.

The new project faces competition from Britain and its plans for a new combat jet dubbed “Tempest”.

The fighter developments have split the current Eurofighter consortium and led to a shake-up of industrial alliances as Italy joins Eurofighter partner Britain on Tempest, turning its back on Germany and Spain, while Sweden has opened the door to abandoning its independent stance by co-operating on Tempest.

The FCAS is also overshadowed by differences between France and Germany over export policy after Germany imposed a ban on arms exports to Saudi Arabia over the death of killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi a year ago by Saudi operatives.

The ban, recently extended to March, has raised questions over a long-delayed Saudi border systems contract run by Airbus.

Airbus Defence and Space Chief Executive Dirk Hoke called in a magazine interview last week for the export ban to be relaxed. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has said there is no reason for the moratorium to be lifted.

France and Germany are expected to discuss the issue at ministerial meetings this week.

AIRBUS SETBACK IN SPAIN

Airbus meanwhile faces a battle to shore up its position as a top defence contractor in Spain after losing its place as the representative of Spain’s interests on the upcoming fighter project to local defence electronics firm Indra Sistemas.

Spain last month named Indra as contractor for the Spanish share of the Franco-German-led FCAS project, displacing Airbus from the Spanish coordinator role it had held on Eurofighter.

Airbus officials have pledged to try to overturn the move but a Spanish defence source told Reuters there was no change in the decision.

Indra declined to comment.

Publicly, Airbus has said it was surprised by the decision but has pledged to continue to defend Spain’s best interests.

Dassault will meanwhile mark a long-awaited milestone on Tuesday when it delivers the first of 36 Rafales to India, the culmination of a fighter procurement process that lasted almost 20 years and involved the cancellation of a much larger deal.

La Tribune reported on Monday that France and India were discussing a possible repeat order for 36 more Rafales.

(Additional reporting by Emma Pinedo Gonzalez in Madrid, Tassilo Hummel in Berlin, Editing by Deepa Babington)

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