UPS yesterday announced it will build major new facilities at Vancouver Airport that will make it the carrier's third-largest hub in Canada, after Toronto and Montreal. The 125,000-square-foot facility will open in 2004 and will have three times the sorting capacity of the current Vancouver operation. It will feature four acres of ramp space and will be situated on land adjacent to the north runway earmarked for airside commercial and cargo operations.
At a joint news conference Monday in Lima, Peru's Minister of Transportation Luis Chang and U.S. Ambassador John Hamilton confirmed that FAA granted Peru full Category 1 status in its safety oversight assessment. Chang said, "This is the result of major effort undertaken to meet observations made previously by said U.S. government agency." The news conference followed up meetings between Peru's civil aviation authorities and the FAA inspection mission now in Peru (DAILY, April 22). One airline observer said, "This means we can now operate to the U.S.
Nav Canada said traffic in February dipped compared to the same month last year, and the trend is expected to continue for the rest of 2002. En-route "charging units" dipped 12.3% in February, while terminal services resulted in 12.5% fewer units.
Great Lakes Aviation yesterday was warned by the Nasdaq stock market that the company is not in compliance with requirements for continued listing on the Nasdaq SmallCap Market. Based on full-year 2001 financial information, Great Lakes is not in compliance with the required minimum of $2 million in net tangible assets, $2.5 million in stockholders' equity or $500,000 of net profit from continuing operations for the most recently completed fiscal year or two of the last three years.
United's board yesterday decided not to waste any time to start an immediate search for a successor to current CEO Jack Creighton. The company's board hired Russell Reynolds Associates to conduct a nationwide search for candidates for the chairman and CEO position. The search should not come as a complete surprise as Creighton said last year when he started that he would only stay long enough to set the carrier on a path to recovery.
Delta yesterday got the green light from DOT to code share between the U.S. and Taiwan with China Airlines. Delta will start offering the new service June 1. Delta and China Airlines last year signed a marketing deal that included an opportunity to put Delta's code on China Airlines' daily flights from Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York Kennedy to Taipei. China Airlines, in turn, will add its code to Delta flights from LAX and San Francisco to Atlanta, Dallas/Fort Worth, Salt Lake City, Tampa and Cincinnati.
The Czech government this week rejected a plan tabled by Transport Minister Jaromir Schling to compensate Czech airlines for losses incurred as a consequence of the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. The government estimated that the losses in question were not large enough to cause serious problems, the minister explained. The Czech authorities did support the airlines indirectly in 2001 by relieving them of customs duties on imported aircraft components. -JF
Northwest plans to add two weekly seasonal roundtrip flights between Minneapolis/St. Paul and Tokyo, starting July 5 and ending Sept. 28. A third additional weekly roundtrip will be added to the schedule, starting Aug. 4 and operating through Aug. 25. With the additional flights, Northwest's service to Tokyo will reach a record high of 149 weekly passenger flights during the summer peak season. Northwest will operate the additional flights with Boeing 747s.
French-Italian turboprop manufacturer ATR is making reinforced cockpit doors available as a retrofit to in-service aircraft. ATR said the doors will be able to withstand heavy gun bullets and can be locked from inside. ATR also said airlines can equip their aircraft with cockpit door cameras for pilots to be able to monitor the area immediately outside the door. According to the manufacturer, the doors comply with regulations on smoke, fire detection and cabin depressurization. ATR said the reinforced doors will be available in September.
FAA this week proposed a $247,500 civil penalty against American for offering an unmarked oxygen generator to FedEx to be flown from New York Kennedy to Tulsa, Okla., a violation of federal hazardous material regulations. FAA alleges that a package containing the generator was not properly classed, described, packed, marked, labeled and in condition for shipment when it was offered to FedEx on Aug. 21, 2001. The shipment was carried onboard a FedEx flight from JFK to AA's Tulsa maintenance center, where the violation was discovered by AA personnel.
Air France pilots called off a strike planned this week after they reached an agreement with management over a pay raise. Neither side provided details, but the pilots demanded a 1.5% pay increase and the introduction of regular talks about salaries, according to wire reports. -JF
United's board yesterday decided not to waste any time to start an immediate search for a successor to current CEO Jack Creighton. The company's board hired Russell Reynolds Associates to conduct a nationwide search for candidates for the chairman and CEO position. The search should not come as a complete surprise as Creighton said last year when he started that he would only stay long enough to set the carrier on a path to recovery. "I was brought in for the short term to stabilize United and improve the relationship between management and employees," Creighton said.
The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association has called on federal agencies to lift restrictions that prevent transient general aviation aircraft from using three small airports in the Washington, D.C., area. In a letter sent to the Transportation Security Administration last week, AOPA proposed a number of measures that could be applied to transient traffic at these airports to ease security concerns.
Continental today starts its previously announced daily nonstop service between Houston and Amsterdam. Amsterdam is the third European city served nonstop from Houston by Continental, after London and Paris. Continental also operates daily nonstop service between Newark and Amsterdam, launched in 1999.
Air France pilots called off a strike planned this week after they reached an agreement with management over a pay raise. Neither side provided details, but the pilots demanded a 1.5% pay increase and the introduction of regular talks about salaries, according to wire reports.
Atlas Air recently terminated Arthur Andersen as its independent auditors after seven years. "In light of the difficulties that they currently face, we believe it is in the best interest of our company and our shareholders for Atlas to make a change," said Chief Financial Officer Douglas Carty. At the same time it dismissed Andersen, the company chose Ernst & Young as its new independent auditor. To accommodate the change in auditors and "provide for an orderly transition," the company's release of its first quarter earnings will be delayed until early this month.
German regional carrier Eurowings has named Peter Kranich to serve as Senior Vice President Flight Operations. Kranich directly reports to President and CEO Friedrich-Wilhelm Weitholz. Kranich most recently was chief operating officer of Deutsche BA and previously worked for Lufthansa CityLine, German Cargo and the German armed forces.
The Czech government this week rejected a plan tabled by Transport Minister Jaromir Schling to compensate Czech airlines for losses incurred as a consequence of the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. The government estimated that the losses in question were not large enough to cause serious problems, the minister explained. The Czech authorities did support the airlines indirectly in 2001 by relieving them of customs duties on imported aircraft components.
An arbitrator released a decision Monday on a dispute between TWA and American mechanics' unions that defines how seniority will be affected by the integration of these two groups of workers. Arbitrator Richard Kasher said at the St. Louis and Kansas City airports, TWA employees will be allowed to exercise their full seniority. At cities or stations where TWA's capacity was more than 10% of the combined total of the two carriers, TWA employees will be awarded 25% of their acquired seniority.
French-Italian turboprop manufacturer ATR is making reinforced cockpit doors available as a retrofit to in-service aircraft. ATR said the doors will be able to withstand heavy gun bullets and can be locked from inside. ATR also said airlines can equip their aircraft with cockpit door cameras for pilots to be able to monitor the area immediately outside the door. According to the manufacturer, the doors comply with regulations on smoke, fire detection and cabin depressurization. ATR said the reinforced doors will be available in September.
Hungarian flag carrier Malev and Spain's third-largest airline Air Europa signed a code-sharing agreement for flights between Budapest and Madrid, announced both airlines yesterday. Joint operations start today, and the agreement will be extended to frequent flyer systems and ground-handling. "Since Hungary is one of the first candidates which will integrate an enlarged European Community, this agreement is of great importance to Air Europa' international development strategy", said Air Europa General Manager Manual Panadero. -JF
The transport committee in the Swiss national parliament has voted against ratification of the treaty between Germany and Switzerland regulating traffic to and from Zurich airport. The move will most likely spark another round of political tension and, possibly, lawsuits between the two countries.
