Swiss has signed an agreement with American on a bilateral alliance that is expected eventually to lead to full membership in oneworld. The carrier said the two sides are targeting code-sharing services around their respective hubs in the U.S. and Switzerland, as well as reciprocal frequent flyer program recognition and other typical alliance features. Swiss also plans to replace its13 MD-11s with 13 Airbus A340-300s in a deal worth $1.3 billion, with deliveries starting in summer 2003. Swiss CEO Andre Dose said he expects to join oneworld this year.
The European Union will launch a four-year development of Galileo, the European satellite global positioning system, EU transport ministers announced in Brussels yesterday. "We now have a `yes' for Galileo," said triumphant EU Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio, adding that Europe will consequently expand its presence on the global research and technology scene.
Atlantic Coast will increase regional jet service from Raleigh/Durham to New York LaGuardia June 1. The Delta Connection airline will offer two additional daily roundtrip flights to LGA and Boston, for a total of five nonstops to LGA and four to Boston. Service will be aboard Fairchild Dornier 328JET regional jets.
American Eagle will reinstate its Burlington, Vt., service in May with two regional jet roundtrips from Chicago O'Hare. Senior VP-Marketing and Planning Tom Bacon said it is the first time Eagle has brought RJ service to Vermont. Eagle is an all-jet operator at O'Hare.
Continental Express will begin daily nonstop Lexington, Ky.-New York/Newark service on June 14. The airline will fly 37-seat Embraer ERJ-135 aircraft under its ExpressJet operation.
FAA recently issued its annual commercial aviation forecast. We all know the bad news. Last year's recession, followed by the terrorist attacks, delivered a one-two punch to commercial aviation. Traffic, yields, revenue " are all down. The good news is next year's recovery, with traffic returning to more normal growth rates by 2004.
DOT yesterday issued its 2001 Federal Radionavigation Plan (FRP), underscoring the government's commitment to push on with GPS modernization and pledging to operate Loran-C "in the short term" while it evaluates the system's long-term benefits.
Pilots at American Trans Air are voting to determine whether they will support a strike if contract negotiations with management fail. Results are expected Apr. 5-6. After 19 months of negotiations, the ALPA unit and ATA are split on scope, pay, retirement and insurance, according to union spokesman Matt Ellis. The talks entered mediation under the National Mediation Board in November.
United this quarter will record a one-time $45-55 million charge because it is closing its Avolar subsidiary. The charge is due to payments on aircraft purchases, termination fees and other costs for its business aircraft unit. On the bright side, UAL recently received a $450 million tax refund due to a new law allowing companies to carry back losses five years instead of two.
Avianca's board, meeting recently before the operational alliance now being implemented with Aces, issued the company's balance sheet for 2001. On operational revenues of $582.5 million, it posted net losses of $125.4 million, or $60.9 million less than $185.8 million in 2000. As part of cost cutting, Avianca canceled long-haul flights from Bogota to Paris, Frankfurt and London, and added one daily frequency to Madrid.
Delta Connection will begin regional jet flights from Midland/Odessa-Texas to Dallas/Fort Worth, starting June 9. Service will be operated by Atlantic Southeast Airlines, which will inaugurate three daily ASA flights with 50-seat Canadair RJs.
Starting July 1, Qantas will code share on services operated by oneworld partner LanChile between Sydney and Santiago. The three-times-weekly service will operate via Auckland. Qantas General Manager-Sales and Marketing John Borghetti said the Santiago service will replace the airline's flights to Buenos Aires. Borghetti said the change is due to a drop in the number of passengers traveling between the Argentine capital and Australia as a result of Argentina's political and economic turmoil.
Northwest plans to retire its remaining fleet of 17 DC-10-40s by the end of the third quarter. In a message to employees, CEO Richard Anderson said the airline is "continuing to closely manage our capacity as we go forward." He reported that most of the widebody DC-10s are being replaced with smaller Boeing 757-200s and 757-300s. Northwest originally planned to operate the DC-10s "a bit longer, but given the environment, we thought it prudent to go ahead and retire those at the end of the summer season." Most of the DC-10-40s were delivered between 1972 and 1974.
Deputy Undersecretary TSA's executive in charge of airports, Associate Deputy Undersecretary Kevin Houlihan, is on leave, and Mike Robinson has been named to take over as acting associate deputy undersecretary, a TSA spokesman said. The position reports to TSA chief John Magaw. TSA Deputy Undersecretary Stephen McHale said at a recent airports conference that Houlihan is hiring a half-dozen deputies to whom the federal security directors (FSDs) would report.
Air Jamaica plans to boost its scheduled service from Boston to Montego Bay from five flights a week to daily frequencies, starting June 20. The route was launched in February 2001.
Long-time FAA executives Alan Moore and Steve Zaidman announced plans to retire in the next few months. Moore, director of airway facilities, has been with the agency, and Airway Facilities, since 1974; he will retire in June. Zaidman, associate administrator for research and acquisitions, has been with FAA for about three decades, and plans to leave the agency next month.
Narita Airport Authority (NAA) has received a total of 1,120 applications from airlines wanting to use the facility's new second runway for flights during peak-hour operations. The number far exceeds the runway's capacity of 882 flights a week during the said period. The DAILY has learned that NAA will approve only 860 flights. A decision is expected soon. The number of applications received represents 97% of the handling capacity, far exceeding the pessimistic projections after the global airline industry took a dive following the Sept. 11 attacks.
Frontier last week announced new service between Denver and Boise, Idaho, and Tampa, starting June 24. The carrier will operate two daily nonstop flights to Boise and one to Tampa.
Flexjet, Bombardier's fractional aircraft program, is not yet turning a profit, CEO Robert Brown confirmed last week during a discussion of the parent company's financial performance last year. He said Bombardier makes its money on the margins when the Flexjet aircraft are sold to customers. He added, "We hope to be close to breakeven on operations this year."
British Airways is planning to retime its daily supersonic Concorde service from New York Kennedy to London. Starting April 1, BA Flight 002 will depart at 8:30 a.m. and arrive at 5:25 p.m. local time. The change will allow passengers to connect to most night European flights and long-haul departures to the Far East, Africa and the Middle East. Since the relaunch of Concorde service last November, the daily flight had departed at 12:15 p.m. using the same aircraft that had arrived at JFK earlier the same morning.
Innovative Solutions International will lead a team doing a feasibility study for Colombia's future Communication, Navigation, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) system. The team will work closely with Unidad Administrativa Especial de Aeronautica Civil (UAEAC) to come up with a detailed plan for getting the system funded and installed in 10-15 years. Team members include Diversified International Sciences Corp. (DISC), Design, Operations, Requirements and Strategies International (DORS), and Colombian consultants ANCLA Ltda. U.S.
Delta CEO Leo Mullin's salary was cut by nearly $200,000 last year after he decided not to take a paycheck from Oct. 1 through the end of they year. Despite the fourth quarter pay cut, however, Mullin received a salary of $596,250 for the year and received no bonus, according to its annual proxy filing. For the airline's fiscal year ended June 30, 2000, Mullin was paid $745,833 with a $1.4 million bonus. President Fred Reid last year was paid more than Mullin, taking home $655,000 with no bonus.
Atlantic Southeast flight attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants, have ratified a one-year contract extension by a 71.6% vote. The current contract becomes amendable in September 2003.
