U.S. Major Carriers Atlantic Share of Service Third Quarter 2001 Total Revenue Departures American 6,675 ATA 1,780 Continental 4,259 Delta 7,282 Northwest 3,322 TWA 716 United 5,893 US Airways 2,774
Amadeus promoted Kay Urban to chief operating officer for its North American operations. Urban will assume responsibilities for the day-to-day management of Amadeus's Miami-based operations serving the U.S. and Canada. She will retain her additional role as director of global customer support for Amadeus.
Brussels Airport passenger traffic plunged 43% in January to fewer than 800,000 due to the collapse of Belgian flag carrier Sabena. The number of transit passengers fell 90% to fewer than 24,000.
With just years to go until the expiration of the Lufthansa Technik-Air China agreement on the Beijing-based Aircraft Maintenance and Engineering Corp (Ameco), the future of the joint venture remains uncertain. The initial agreement was signed in 1989. Negotiations between parties have been ongoing and were supposed to have been concluded last August with an extension of the agreement for another 18 years. A 30-year extension also was being considered.
The demand for turboprops as cargo and passenger aircraft is far from over, panelists at the U.S. Regional Airline Valuation Conference said this week. The demand for turboprop freighters will continue growing by about 6% annually, a little more slowly than in recent years but still resulting in a doubling of current requirements by 2020, Bud Calloway, president of Northstar Aviation Services said.
Two-thirds of the U.S. major passenger carriers have signed up for Boeing-designed Phase II cockpit door kits, and Airbus hopes to have designs for its aircraft finalized in the coming weeks.
Continental CEO Gordon Bethune last year received $838,150 in salary, down 13% from 2000 largely due to his decision not to take a salary or bonus from Sept. 26 through the end of the year. Even without a fourth quarter bonus, Bethune still received $967,320 in bonus money for 2001. In 2000, he received more than $2 million in bonuses. President Larry Kellner saw his annual salary fall slightly to $571,106 as he, too, waived fourth quarter payments. Chief Operating Officer C. D. McLean, however, saw his pay jump 36% to $627,407.
Emirates, in an effort to meet burgeoning demand for seats between Dubai and Britain, will add four services to London Gatwick, starting Aug. 1, making 11 a week. The flights will be operated on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Sunday using Airbus A330-300s. On Sept. 2, another three flights a week will be offered for double daily service between the two points. The service will be upgraded to the Boeing 777-300. Emirates, also offers three daily flights to Heathrow and daily to Manchester and Birmingham.
Warren Jenson, Amazon.com's chief financial officer and former Delta executive, will resign from Amazon later this year. Jenson served as CFO since September 1999, when he left Delta after working at the airline for 18 months.
Boeing Commercial Airplanes yesterday named Louis Mancini VP-maintenance operations services. Mancini joins Boeing from United, where he served as VP-engineering and technical support since 1995. He also held positions at Northwest.
Delta plans to add 23 nonstop roundtrip flights between Atlanta and Augusta, Ga., to accommodate increased passenger traffic expected during this year's Masters Golf Tournament at Augusta. About 6,700 seats will be added April 7-15 and will be operated by Delta and Delta Connection. The carrier normally offers 10 daily flights on the Atlanta-Augusta route, but it will offer 18 on several days.
Finnair posted a pre-tax profit EUR8.9 million (US$7.73 million) in 2001, down 93% from the previous year, but the Finnish airline was satisfied with the results, in a year that "ravaged" the industry. "We came out of the final part of the year safe and sound. Compared to the rest of the industry, we can regard this as at least a moderate achievement," said Finnair CEO Keijo Suila. The Finnish carrier managed to react quickly to the slump in demand by cutting capacity and labor costs and rescheduling or canceling aircraft orders.
US Airways yesterday named former Continental executive David Siegel as the carrier's new president and CEO, who will face the challenge of boosting the airline's regional jet flying and returning the company to profitability. Siegel, 40, on Monday takes the full reins of the airline from Stephen Wolf, who will retain the title of chairman but retire from the day-to-day operations of company. Siegel comes to US Airways from Avis Rent A Car, where he was CEO for about six months.
Sabre this week started its cash tender offer for the remaining 30% of outstanding publicly held shares of Travelocity.com that Sabre does not already own. Sabre is offering $23.00 per share to acquire the balance of the stock (DAILY, Feb. 20). The tender offer started March 5 and is scheduled to expire at midnight April 5.
February traffic for U.S. major carriers was stronger than forecast, dropping 10.9%, while capacity fell 13.7%. Since more people flew than expected, load factor rose 2.1 percentage points to 67.7%. "While we had been anticipating that traffic results would keep pace with year-over-year capacity reductions, it appears that traffic has been somewhat more robust," said DB Alex Brown analyst Susan Donofrio.
U.S. Major Carriers Latin Share of Service Third Quarter 2001 Total Revenue Departures Alaska 1,734 America West 748 American 23,001 Continental 11,349 Delta 4,895 United 3,330 US Airways 2,603 Total 47,660
American has canceled plans to start service on the New York Kennedy-Ontario, Calif., route. A spokesman attributed the change to "economic factors, which have changed since we made our original decisions." The carrier already launched two daily nonstops between JFK and Oakland. The service is competition for JetBlue's existing double daily on the route (DAILY, Jan. 30).
All Nippon Airways yesterday applied to Japanese government to start code sharing on domestic flights operated by Nakanihon Airlines and The Fair Inc. ANA wants to put its code on Nakanihon-operated routes between Tokyo Narita and Nagoya, beginning April 18, the day the second runway opens at Narita. The flights would establish "ANA Connection" service, offering a total of two daily code-share flights in addition to ANA's own daily service. Nakanihon operates Fokker 50s on the routes.
Spirit Airlines in May plans to add new service from Detroit to Fort Lauderdale and Oakland. Starting May 23, the carrier will offer three daily flight from Detroit to Fort Lauderdale and two flights to Oakland. As of yesterday, the airline opened new ticket counters at Detroit Metro and moved to different gates in Terminal C.
American Trans Air, among the first customers to buy Raisbeck cockpit security systems designed to satisfy FAA's so-called Phase II upgrade requirements, will opt instead for Boeing-supplied systems for its aircraft, including 16 Boeing 737-800s that already have the Raisbeck product.
Thai Airways' board named airline-outsider Kanok Abhiradee as the carrier's new president. Kanok, currently president of the government-run Small Industry Finance Corp., was seen as the frontrunner despite his lack of industry experience. He will start as the airline's president later this month, officials said. Kanok was chosen from a shortlist of three candidates that also included Nopadol Suanprasert, a consultant to the transport minister, and the airline's Executive VP-Customer Services Suthep Suebsantiwongse.
United believes it can reach an aggressive on-time departure goal for 2002 despite the new security procedures. United told employees yesterday that it is aiming for 58% on-time zero departures -- exactly on scheduled time -- which is up from its actual on-time performance of 54% last year. "The on-time performance we have seen so far in 2002 should give us every confidence that United can meet the 58% goal we've set for ourselves in 2002," said Pete McDonald, VP-airport operations. Year-to-date, United's on-time departures are six points ahead of that goal.
Security hiccups, such as unplugged screening machines and passengers breaching concourse checkpoints by going in through out gates, are an inconvenience for airlines and their customers and an embarrassment for regulators. But they are also serving as quick lessons for how the airport security process must be improved.
American Eagle plans to launch regional jet service from Dallas/Fort Worth to Boise, Idaho. The carrier will offer two daily roundtrip flights, beginning May 15, using the 70-seat Canadair Regional Jet. The service on the 1,271-mile route will be Eagle longest flight and its first to Idaho.
