When European air traffic control agency Eurocontrol insisted on enforcing a mandatory 8.33 kHz radio frequency spacing rule beginning Oct. 7, avionics shops in the U.K. were inundated with operators trying to get their aircraft in compliance on time.

Efforts to install 8.33-kHz radios in aircraft before Eurocontrol's October 7 deadline are reaching fever pitch in Europe. Aircraft with a CAA dispensation will be allowed to fly into the country without radios having 8.33-kHz spacing until the January 2001, but beginning October 7 they will not be allowed into the congested airspace over the European continent above FL 245.

Metro Business Aviation, the largest FBO chain in the United Kingdom, is erecting a new hangar at London's Luton Airport. The 23,000-square-foot building, which is to be operational in November, is designed to accommodate aircraft as large as the Boeing Business Jet or Airbus A319CJ.