ATLAS and KSSU consortium

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The ATLAS consortium and the KSSU consortium were two separate alliances to which various European airlines were assigned from the end of the 1960s . The aim of the companies was to reduce the costs of operating future aircraft types by working together and sharing tasks. In addition to the procurement of the same aircraft models with identical components (e.g. engines ), it was also necessary to standardize maintenance procedures, operational planning and training programs. The ATLAS and KSSU groups are considered to be the forerunners of the modern aviation alliances that were formed in the late 1990s.

background

In 1966, Lufthansa was the first European airline to order the Boeing 747

The American manufacturer Boeing presented the first wide-body aircraft in the mid-1960s with the design of the Boeing 747 . The introduction of this new type of model posed considerable problems for the European airlines: The model was not only considerably more expensive to purchase than all previous jet aircraft, the follow-up and fixed costs that arose from the operation of the aircraft had to be taken into account. At the beginning of 1967, the airline Air France , taking into account all costs, came to the conclusion that the procurement of this model would only be economically viable for a company if a minimum of 12 machines were used. Such a fleet size was not achieved by any European airline at the time, because the need for a Boeing 747 was only given on a few main routes. For example, Lufthansa was the first European company and the third company worldwide to order only three aircraft on June 27, 1966. Air France saw the problems mainly in the following factors:

  • With a unit price of 23 million US dollars, the Boeing 747 was around three times more expensive than a Boeing 707 and eight times more expensive than a Sud Aviation Caravelle .
  • The size of the aircraft made it necessary to convert or build new hangars and shipyard facilities.
  • In order to ensure the operation of only a few aircraft, a company had to keep a large number of spare parts in stock. This caused a high capital commitment .
  • The technical staff and the ground crew had to be trained comprehensively in order to be able to carry out maintenance and repairs on the numerous components themselves.
  • Flight simulators had to be purchased to train the crews , even if only a few pilots would use them.

In June 1967 Air France invited the representatives of the European airlines to Paris for talks, which had already bought the Boeing 747 or were planning an order. The companies discussed the possibilities of a Europe-wide cooperation and formed the Montparnasse Committee for this purpose . At several follow-up meetings, general principles for cooperation were formulated, but it also became clear that a pan-European solution could not be achieved. The airlines KLM , SAS and Swissair , which had already cooperated for a long time and formed the so-called KSS group , preferred a smaller solution. The three companies Aer Lingus , British Overseas Airways Corporation , and Iberia wanted to wait for the further development and initially played an observer role.

The ATLAS consortium

The ATLAS Group was formed from the Montparnasse Committee in the spring of 1968 . This initially consisted of the airlines Air France ( A ) , UTA ( T ) , Lufthansa ( L ) , Alitalia ( A ) and Sabena ( S ) . In the course of 1968, the five companies specified the cooperation measures and defined areas of responsibility for the individual companies. The ATLAS members initially concentrated on the introduction of the Boeing 747 before making a decision for other models. The French airline UTA had meanwhile decided against buying this type and turned to the KSS Alliance in the spring of 1969 , which was already planning to order machines of the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 type . The Belgian state-owned company Sabena was also briefly traded as an exit candidate because some state politicians preferred to work with the Dutch KLM .

The ATLAS consortium was officially founded on March 14, 1969. The founding members were Air France , Lufthansa , Alitalia and Sabena . The Spanish Iberia joined the consortium in January 1972 as the fifth and final airline .

The cooperation was initially limited to the commissioning, operation and overhaul of wide-body aircraft . The maintenance and repairs on their smaller aircraft types, such as the Boeing 727 or the Douglas DC-9 , were organized by the members alone and were not assigned to the consortium.

organization structure

The management of the ATLAS consortium initially consisted of a four- person management committee - when Iberia joined , a five-person management committee (one representative per company) and a permanent secretary general. Three further committees ( sub-committees ) were subordinate to this board group , which consisted of permanent or temporary working groups. The working groups consisted of employees from the companies involved. The sub-committees were:

  • Project Engineering : Responsible, among other things, for the definition of specifications for the selection of new aircraft types and the system groups to be installed on board.
  • Production : responsible, among other things, for the procurement of spare parts, warehousing, material planning and the control of material costs.
  • Operations (flight operations): Responsible, among other things, for training crews, carrying out flight planning, creating navigation maps and recording flight operating costs.

The management committee (the board of directors) also set up other advisory groups as required, which were active, for example, in the areas of financing , machine insurance and legal issues.

History and division of tasks

Lufthansa (ATLAS) and Swissair (KSSU) were the first customers of the Airbus A310

The main principle of the consortium was to distribute the responsibilities evenly so that no company was taken advantage of and costs were reduced for all companies. For example, the following rules applied:

  • Each member took on a specific area of ​​overhaul and repair of an aircraft type. For this purpose, the main responsible persons (so-called central agencies ) were determined for the individual components and system groups. The responsibilities were redefined for each aircraft type ordered.
  • The storage of spare parts was distributed among all companies. Every member could access all components.
  • Minor maintenance work could be carried out by the individual members themselves. Here, however, defined standards had to be observed.
  • The purchase of new aircraft types was decided jointly, although a member did not necessarily have to order a specific aircraft type.
  • If more than two members ordered a new type of aircraft, the entire ATLAS group was involved in its maintenance.
  • All on-board systems and assemblies in the aircraft ordered were standardized according to the consortium's specifications. From this, fixed norms developed, for example the ATLAS norm for galleys and trolleys.
  • The flight simulators purchased by a member were used by all companies so that the training could be centered in one place.
  • The crews were trained according to uniform standards and with identical navigation material (the so-called ATLAS maps were created from this ).

For the Boeing 747, the distribution of tasks was initially as follows: As the so-called General Agency , Air France was responsible for the components of the airframe, Lufthansa provided the flight simulators and, as General Agency, took over the repair of the engines, Alitalia and Sabena were responsible for the maintenance of the APU , on- board electronics , cockpit instruments and other components.

The ATLAS members ordered further Boeing 747s (including cargo planes) in 1969 and the Douglas DC-10 as the second aircraft type in 1970 . Although Air France did not acquire this model, the company took over responsibility for its engines. The Alitalia was as General Agency in charge of the overhaul of the DC-10 airframe. In January 1972 Iberia joined the ATLAS group , whereupon the tasks within the consortium were partially redistributed. The Iberia of participated in port on purchasing Airbus A300 (not appointed by Sabena ) and was in the 1970s, among other things responsible for the overhaul of the Concorde -Triebwerke type Olympus . The members also ordered the Airbus A310 (introduced in 1983 by Air France , Lufthansa and Sabena ), Boeing 747-400 (introduced in 1989 by Air France and Lufthansa ) and Airbus A340 (introduced in 1993, but not by Alitalia ) . In the 1980s, the companies involved increased their respective fleets so that individual types and components could no longer be overhauled at one location. For example, Boeing 747 aircraft were serviced by Air France , Iberia and Lufthansa at the end of the 1980s . As a result, the consortium allowed more intense competition between the individual locations from 1989 (for the twentieth year of existence), with the ATLAS maintenance contracts now being tendered and awarded internally or externally.

Alitalia was responsible for the overhaul of the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 in the ATLAS consortium

In 1990 the maintenance offer of the ATLAS members was as follows:

  • Air France offered maintenance services on the Boeing 747, the Airbus A300 and CF6-50 engines .
  • Alitalia was solely responsible for the maintenance of the DC-10 airframe and for the auxiliary power units (APU) of the DC-10 and the Airbus A300.
  • Iberia carried out maintenance on the Boeing 747 and on the JT8D engines .
  • Lufthansa overhauled aircraft of the types Airbus A300 and Boeing 747 as well as engines of the types CF6-50 and JT9D .
  • Sabena was responsible for the maintenance of the Airbus A310 (also for its APU) and also overhauled the auxiliary power units of the aircraft types Boeing 727 , Boeing 737 and Boeing 747.

The storage of spare parts and components was distributed within the consortium in 1989 as follows:

  • Airbus A300 and A310 components were stored at Lufthansa (66%), Iberia (16%), Alitalia (14%) and Sabena (4%).
  • Boeing 747 components were stored at Air France (42%), Alitalia (42%) and Sabena (16%).
  • DC-10 components were stored at Alitalia (79%), Sabena (17%), Iberia (2%) and Lufthansa (2%).

In the early 1990s, Lufthansa reconsidered its involvement in the ATLAS consortium . At this point, the company began modernizing its long-haul fleet. New Boeing 747-400 and Airbus A340 should gradually replace the older Boeing 747-200 and McDonnell Douglas DC-10. The Lufthansa planned a larger number to provide both types of aircraft in service and had now sufficient capacity to maintain these themselves. Further participation in the consortium would therefore no longer bring the company any economic benefit. In addition, the DC-10 was the last type of aircraft to leave the fleet that could not be overhauled in the company's own shipyards. Because the partner companies also decommissioned their older long-haul machines at the same time, the responsibilities in the ATLAS group would have had to be reorganized. The Lufthansa therefore, decided to wait for her in service from January 1993 Airbus A340 itself. After the last DC-10 was taken out of service, the German company ended its participation in the consortium. When Lufthansa left the ATLAS consortium in 1994.

The KSSU consortium

The KSSU Group was the first to order the DC-10-30

The KSSU consortium was founded in February 1970 and consisted of the airlines KLM ( K ) , SAS ( S ) , Swissair ( S ) - these previously formed the KSS group - and the French airline UTA ( U ) . Individual collaborations within the consortium go back to 1958.

History of the KSS Group

On April 3, 1958, Swissair and SAS signed an agreement on a joint specification of the Douglas DC-8 to be ordered . This was followed by an extended ten-year collaboration. In addition to the joint overhaul of Douglas DC-8 and Sud Aviation Caravelle aircraft, the contract also provided for the rental of these aircraft, so that Swissair could fall back on rented Caravelle from 1961.
Both companies took part in a flight demonstration of the Boeing 707-100 , on which the machine got into an almost uncontrollable flight condition. As a result, the Convair CV-880 was given preference, of which Swissair ordered five and SAS two copies. Because the range of these aircraft was considered too short, the orders were later changed to the larger Convair CV-990 Coronado ; Swissair increased its order to seven copies. Swissair was to take over the
maintenance of all Convair 990s , while SAS was entrusted with the overhaul of all Douglas DC-8s. Due to delays in delivery, SAS withdrew from the purchase agreement with Convair , which initially resulted in an imbalance in favor of the Swedish company. This was partially offset by Swissair leasing two Coronados long-term to SAS and taking over the engine maintenance for their Douglas DC-7 . After Swissair had ordered its first Douglas DC-9 at the end of 1965 , SAS followed suit and commissioned the Swiss partner company with engine maintenance. At the same time, the Dutch KLM also opted for the DC-9. KLM had been servicing Swissair's DC-8 engines since 1963, and in return, it entrusted the maintenance of their DC-9 engines to them. Because SAS continued to be responsible for the overhaul of the Swiss DC-8 aircraft fuselages, a triangular relationship resulted.

In December 1967, SAS ordered two Boeing 747s; Swissair ordered this type at the beginning of 1968. The Dutch KLM had already opted for the “ Jumbo ” in 1966 . In 1968 Swissair and SAS extended their cooperation, whereby KLM was included as a further contractual partner. The three companies shared the responsibilities for the Boeing 747 among themselves. This alliance was called the KSS group .

History of the KSSU consortium and its division of tasks

Swissair was the first customer of the 747-300 . However, the first aircraft was put into service on March 1, 1983 by the KSSU partner UTA .

In the spring of 1969, the KSS group planned to buy another wide-body aircraft, the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 . The French UTA took part in the joint order on June 7, 1969 and also sought cooperation in maintenance, which led to the official establishment of the KSSU group on February 18, 1970 . The four companies agreed to work together for ten years (until December 31, 1980), which was later extended. Similar to the ATLAS group , the KSSU members used uniform and standardized components in their aircraft, for example the KSSU standard for galleys was created . A cockpit layout with a few rectangular instead of round instrument displays was also typical. For the aircraft of the KSSU group , the following distribution of tasks was agreed in 1971:

  • KLM was responsible for the Boeing 747 airframe, the engines of the DC-10 (type: CF6 ) and the DC-8 engines of Swissair .
  • Swissair overhauled the DC-10 airframe and DC-9 engines.
  • SAS was responsible for the engines of the Boeing 747 (type: JT9D ) as well as for the fuselage maintenance of the DC-8 of Swissair .
  • UTA maintained the auxiliary power units (APU) on all Boeing 747 and DC-10s.

In addition to the aircraft of its own members, the consortium also overhauled the identical aircraft from its subsidiaries Balair , Martinair and Scanair . From 1972 the KSSU companies also cooperated in the field of aircraft insurance. In 1975, Finnair airline put its first DC-10 into service and signed long-term maintenance contracts with the KSSU group , but did not join the consortium. Other KSSU customers included Air Afrique , Austrian Airlines , Garuda Indonesia and Thai . From the end of the 1970s, Allianz also serviced Airbus A300 aircraft for its customers, although this aircraft was only used by SAS within the consortium . Joint orders from the KSSU members were made for the Boeing 747-300 (operated by UTA , Swissair and KLM from 1983 ), the Airbus A310 (operated by Swissair and KLM from 1983 ), the Fokker F-100 (operated by KLM and KLM from 1988 Swissair ) and for the Boeing 747-400 (operated by UTA and KLM from 1989 ). While all overhaul work on these types was divided up within the consortium, SAS and Swissair carried out the maintenance on the McDonnell Douglas MD-80s they ordered in large numbers , so that this type, like the Boeing 737s operated by KLM , did not belong to the " KSSU aircraft " counted.

At the end of the 1980s, SAS lost its importance in the consortium because, in contrast to the ATLAS group, responsibilities within the alliance always remained centered on one location. The Swedish company was responsible for the maintenance of the JT9D engines , with which the first Boeing 747 and the Airbus A300 of the KSSU were equipped. These aircraft were retired by 1990. All 1975 delivered Boeing 747 KSSU had CF6-50 engines , the same design as those of the DC-10 and were therefore at KLM in Amsterdam have been waiting for. In addition, the consortium could not agree on a common successor model to replace the McDonnell Douglas DC-10. While SAS ordered the Boeing 767 and UTA the Airbus A340 , KLM , Swissair and long-standing KSSU customer Finnair gave priority to the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 . In 1992, UTA was absorbed by Air France and left the consortium. The French company had until then been responsible for the overhaul of all auxiliary power units (APU) and most of the landing gear . At the end of the 1990s, the KSSU group finally broke up, as SAS and Swissair separately joined the newly founded aviation alliances Star Alliance and Qualiflyer Group .

literature

  • Birger Holmer, Ulf Abrahamsson, Bengt-Olov Näs: SAS flygplan 1946 - 2014 , Svensk Flyghistorisk Förening, Stockholm 2014, ISSN  0345-3413 (Swedish)
  • Benedikt Meyer: In flight. Swiss airlines and their passengers, 1919–2002. Chronos, Zurich 2014, ISBN 978-3-0340-1238-6 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c d e Regionalism in Air Transportation: Cooperation and Competition, April 1983
  2. ↑ a b c The story (PDF) Lufthansa Technik. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved January 19, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lufthansa-technik.com
  3. ↑ Reading Eagle - Airlines Are Getting Ready In Europe For Jumbo Jets . Google News archive search. March 3, 1968. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  4. ↑ ITF Newsletter (PDF) library.fes.de. March 1969. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  5. ^ The history of Deutsche Lufthansa 1926-1976 ", Lufthansa, December 1975, p. 97
  6. ↑ jp airline-fleets international, various annual issues
  7. ↑ a b c d Flight International (PDF) flightglobal.com. February 25, 1989. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  8. ^ Flight International . flightglobal.com. February 11, 1992. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  9. ↑ Meyer, 2014, pp. 117–120
  10. ↑ SAS flygplan 1946 - 2014, p. 55
  11. ↑ SAS flygplan 1946 - 2014, p. 60
  12. ↑ SAS flygplan 1946 - 2014, p. 61
  13. ↑ SAS flygplan 1946 - 2014, p. 63
  14. ↑ SAS flygplan 1946 - 2014, p. 59
  15. ↑ SAS flygplan 1946 - 2014, p. 87
  16. ^ Flight International . flightglobal.com. January 18, 1968. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  17. ↑ Flight International (1-4-71) flightglobal.com. Retrieved January 19, 2014.
  18. ↑ Meyer, 2014, p. 203
  19. ↑ jp airline-fleets international, annual editions 1978 to 1990