The House Transportation Committee last week unanimously approved H.R. 3347, the General Aviation Reparations Act of 2002, to help companies that suffered severe financial losses from Sept. 11. The bill offers $5.5 billion in relief, of which $2.5 billion is direct assistance to cover losses from airspace restrictions. It empowers the President to establish priority for compensation to GA businesses based on the length of time they were shut down and offers direct compensation to employees who lost jobs after the attacks.
Singapore companies have expressed interest in investing in a major Indian airport project. A business delegation from Singapore recently met with Maharashtra State Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to discuss investments in the upcoming international airport project in the Navi Mumbai area.
The User Request Evaluation Tool (URET), the final element of Free Flight Phase 1, is up and running at five regional air route traffic control centers (ARTCCs), and both feedback from controllers and data culled from trial periods suggest the technology is paying huge dividends for the National Airspace System.
FlightSafety Boeing Training International signed a long-term pact with China Northern Airlines to provide full-flight simulator training for MD-90 pilots.
FAA's estimate of $112.7 million for U.S. carriers to install new cockpit doors is based on an upper limit of $17,000 per kit, installation included. But Boeing-designed kits ordered for some 1,600 aircraft list for as much as $40,000, with options that can run the cost up to $90,000. Airbus hasn't made its pricing public.
Midwest Express, which has firm orders for 20 Boeing 717s and options on 30, is talking to Boeing about advancing its delivery schedule, spokeswoman Lisa Bailey said Friday. Deliveries will begin in January 2003, and the airline is on target to take six each year. But Bailey said that could change, depending on several factors. She declined to reveal how many aircraft the company would take in a year but noted that the request for accelerated delivery came from Boeing.
The U.K.'s Transport Ministry said Friday that reports about a possible fourth London-area airport still were speculation. A spokesman for the ministry said that in order to meet future air traffic growth "all sorts of options are being looked at," but he would not confirm if a completely new airport was among them. The Financial Times reported in its Friday edition that Transport Secretary Stephen Byers was considering building another airport east of London near the river Thames estuary with space for four runways.
Cordoba, Argentina-based Southern Winds, with an impressive record, first as a commuter and more recently as a regional airline, will go international in May with long-haul flights between Argentina and Miami and Madrid, using state-of-the-art Boeing 767s on three weekly frequencies to both destinations, according to DAILY affiliate AvNews Latin America&Caribbean. In mid-March, the carrier will inaugurate service to Santiago, Chile, and Santa Cruz, Bolivia, and later this year, to Brazil, Peru and Paraguay.
Ecuador's two recent fatal air crashes might jeopardize the country's protracted technical efforts to have FAA upgrade its current Category 2 status to Cat 1, according to Director of Civil Aviation Cesar Naranjo. He told local media last week that authorities are looking forward to this month's visit of a mission from FAA to study the situation in depth before issuing a category ruling in April.
30 years ago March 9, 1972 -- Airline hijacking, bombing and extortion are "the toughest and most pressing problem ever faced by the air transport industry," FAA Administrator John Shaffer said, with DOT security head Benjamin Davis adding, "We are in a fight for the survival" of the industry following the TWA bomb threat. 10 years ago
DOT Secretary Norman Mineta is expected to return to work officially today following surgery to replace his left hip on Jan. 31. He is "full of energy and raring to go," according to DOT spokesman Chet Lunner, who said Mineta gave radio interviews and speeches from home in between physical therapy sessions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
American Civil Liberties Union has logged nearly 90 complaints of Muslims being profiled and detained and in some cases denied boardings on U.S. airlines since Sept. 11. ACLU wants the government to set up a commission to study the discriminatory effects of profiling as currently implemented and set up an independent entity to investigate complaints.
SkyWest has shown strong traffic growth -- 102% year-over-year in January on 63% capacity growth, notes James Parker of Raymond James. SkyWest will take 29 regional jets this year, for a total of 78. Parker attributes the airline's growth to majors replacing mainline narrowbodies with RJ service. SkyWest will release its quarterly results today.
Wood Group Turbopower named Michael Autrey manager-PT6 field service and special projects; Joseph Hansford manager-North Bay, Ontario Regional Turbine Shop, and Russ Morris Turbine Shop, and Russ Morris manager-regional sales for the mid-Atlantic states.
CAE will install an Airbus A320 simulator at the Singapore Airlines Training Center in Changi to be used for SilkAir's pilot training. Excess simulator time will be offered to other airlines in the region. With a fleet of five A320-200s and three A319-100s, SilkAir operates 98 scheduled flights a week to 21 destinations in the region.
Air Line Pilots Association, which has come out strongly in favor of arming pilots, last week asked DOT for a rule to allow pilots to have guns in the cockpit under certain conditions. ALPA submitted a petition contending that an armed cockpit crew could be an important deterrent to potential hijackers. ALPA President Duane Woerth said, "An armed flight crewmember would be the last line of defense and would be able to protect his/her crew, the passengers and ultimately people and property on the ground.
Mexico Undersecretary of Transportation Aaron Dychter announced last week that a special trust fund of one billion pesos has been set up at the banking institution Nacional Financiera (NF) to aid Mexican airlines that were severely jeopardized by the events of Sept. 11; the package was approved two months ago by the nation's congress. Up to now, airlines have been making their own adjustments to face the crisis, at least partially; they will now start submitting requests to NF for assistance.
Aviation Industry Stock Performance, February 2002 Closed Closed Monthly Change Majors Ticker 2/28/2002 1/31/2002 ($) (%) Alaska Air Group ALK 31.050 30.660 0.390 1.3 America West (Class B) AWA 3.610 3.960 (0.350) (8.8) AMR AMR 26.100 24.940 1.160 4.7 Amtran AMTR 14.100 13.000 1.100 8.5
Singapore Aero Engine Services Private Ltd. (SAESL) opened its Rolls-Royce Trent overhaul facility last week, with its executives expressing confidence that the industry's recent economic struggles won't hinder the facility's growth.
Patricia Siles, legal counsel for Cielos del Peru Airlines and a director of the Peruvian Association of Airlines, after attending a meeting in Geneva on security in the air, suggested swapping foreign debt for investment in security in civil aviation to cover the huge revenue and job losses experienced after Sept. 11. She said, "Security in the air is not an unilateral problem -- it affects the whole world. All countries concerned must make substantial investments in this area to regain the traveling public's confidence and increase sales.
Peter Rogoff, Senate Transportation appropriations staffer, pointed out that DOT has "tried so many times" without success to find a chief operating officer for FAA's performance-based ATC organization. A reason they "keep coming up short" is that the COO reports to the FAA administrator. "What COO wants a job when they don't know who the CEO is going to be?"
