U.S. Majors' Maintenance Spending 12 Months Ended June 2001 Outsourcing of Direct Maintenance Annual Cost Total Percent of Third Party Direct Third Party Maintenance Maintenance Maintenance Expense America West $241,714,908 $294,522,903 82.1% American $402,357,000 $1,096,335,000 36.7%
Iberia and American expanded their code-share agreement to include Washington Dulles as a new city for Iberia. The carrier now offers service to 24 U.S. cities.
Air New Zealand plans to withdraw the third Bae-146 jet from its domestic fleet effective Feb. 10. The move will affect the current services operated by Mount Cook Airlines from Christchurch to Rotorua and Queenstown. It follows the recent removal of two 146s on Dec. 10, which were replaced by a Boeing 767-200 that was reallocated from international routes.
American Trans Air in February will launch service to several international destinations including Aruba, Cancun, Grand Cayman and Guadalajara. The service will begin Feb. 16 due to the opening of its new international gates at Chicago Midway.
FAA staff support specialists chose the National Air Traffic Controllers Association as their bargaining unit. Staff support specialists interface with controllers in such areas as airspace and procedures development. They are trained and qualified as controllers, NATCA said. The 939 specialists bring total NATCA-organized FAA employees to more than 3,000, not including the core group of 15,000 controllers.
US Airways will close its BWI crew base on June 1, displacing 140 pilots, ALPA says. The Boston crew base will be reduced by 120 at the same time due to 737-300/400 flying moving to other bases. While BOS will remain an Airbus crew base, the 737 positions in BWI will be moved to DCA and the 737 positions in BOS will be moved to Philadelphia.
US Airways, meeting with its pilots, has once again asked its ALPA leadership to allow the carrier to operate a "competitive number of regional jets." The pilot contract now restricts the number of RJs the carrier can operate to 70.
U.S. airlines are keeping their fuel surcharges in place for business travelers and have dropped the surcharges in most of their leisure markets, according to Deutsche Bank. The $40 roundtrip fuel surcharge on business fares "remains in all business markets except the shuttle market on both costs," said Deutsche Bank in a fare and fuel update for the week of Dec. 17. There is a fuel surcharge in three of the 20 leisure markets it follows, the company said. Leisure fare levels are down 10% while business fares remained constant, it said.
NTSB, in a three-to-one decision, held that a nitrite testing process was not scientifically suitable and reversed an FAA order revoking the license of Airborne Express pilot Frank Bosela, his attorneys said. FAA says that nitrites are used by thousands of illicit drug users to mask positive test results for marijuana. The board's decision partly reversed a decision by Administrative Law Judge William Pope.
30 years ago Jan. 5, 1972: Sky marshal program will be cut in half for fiscal 1973 by OMB from its current $37 million annual budget, with many of the 1,500 marshals trained since the program began in 1970 to be used to bolster airport boarding security, where ALPA says screening measures are inadequate. 10 years ago Jan. 2, 1992: American takeover of financially ailing Canadian Airlines could provide the domestic competition to Air Canada as endorsed by Canadian transport minister Jean Corbeil. Five years ago
Raytheon said it signed an agreement to unite its fractional aircraft ownership business, Raytheon Travel Air, with Flight Options, to form a new company, Flight Options LLC. It said the partnership will allow the new company to capitalize on the rapidly growing demand for fractional aircraft ownership services. The new company will have more than 1,600 customers and a fleet of over 200 aircraft. Flight Options will hold 50.1% of the new unit.
30 years ago Jan. 5, 1972 -- Sky marshal program will be cut in half for fiscal 1973 by OMB from its current $37 million annual budget, with many of the 1,500 marshals trained since the program began in 1970 to be used to bolster airport boarding security, where ALPA says screening measures are inadequate. 10 years ago Jan. 2, 1992 -- American takeover of financially ailing Canadian Airlines could provide the domestic competition to Air Canada as endorsed by Canadian transport minister Jean Corbeil. Five years ago
US Airways will close its BWI crew base on June 1, displacing 140 pilots, ALPA says. The Boston crew base will be reduced by 120 at the same time due to 737-300/400 flying moving to other bases. While BOS will remain an Airbus crew base, the 737 positions in BWI will be moved to DCA and the 737 positions in BOS will be moved to Philadelphia.
Atlantic Southeast Airlines signed a lease with the Baton Rouge Airport Authority to build a 39,000 square foot regional jet maintenance facility at Baton Rouge Airport. The facility will be ASA's primary overnight maintenance base for Canadair Regional Jet aircraft serving the Dallas/Fort Worth hub.
Iberia expects to make a net profit for 2001, but said that it is likely to post an operating loss of between EUR24 million and EUR48 million. The airline anticipated operating revenues to be up 5%.
1. CIA's George Tenet 2. John Carr 3. Norman Mineta 4. Loyola de Palacio 5. Jim Parker 6. Don Carty 7. NSC's Condoleezza Rice 8. Alan Mulally 9. Noel Forgeard 10. Jim Goodwin 11. Rakesh Gangwal 12. J.C. Lawson 13. Rod Eddington 14. Jane Garvey 15. Ricardo Cirielli 16. Leo Mullin 17. Rep. John Mica 18. Philippe Bruggisser 19. David Neeleman 20. Kenneth Mead
GE Aircraft Engines promoted Herb Depp to VP-GE aviation operations; Roger Seager to VP-marketing and sales, and Rick Stanley to general manager for the CF6 engine program.
Orbitz has signed a deal to license FareChase's new MarketView Software that proactively monitors all fares listed on the Internet. Orbitz will use MarketView to gauge "how robust its search engine performs in delivering 'best-priced' itineraries" versus the competition. Manual searching web sites to monitor airfares and availability "usually provide inaccurate data."
Conferences & Exhibitions For more information, contact Lydia Janow 212-904-3225, Fax 212-904-3334 Visit our site: www.aviationweek.com MARCH 11-12 -- European Transportation Leaders Conference, in association with Merrill Lynch, The Landmark Hotel, London, www.AviationNow.com/conferences APRIL 9-11 -- Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul Conference and Exhibition, in conjunction with Air Transport Assn. of America's EM&M, Phoenix Civic Plaza & Convention Center, Phoenix, www.AviationNow.com/conferences
Regional airlines appear to be recovering from the Sept. 11 attacks slightly faster than their major counterparts and many say that while year over year yields are down load factors are fairly even with this time last year. Regionals often do better than the majors during a recession, said Tulinda Larson, VP-business development at BACK Aviation Solutions. One reason is that fee-per-departure contract flying offers a steady revenue stream and historically regional traffic tends to be comprised of a higher percentage of business travelers.
