Three airlines that operate between Taiwan and Macau have extended the air services agreement for another five years. The accord paves the way for an increase of 8,000 seats a week to 16,000 on the Macau-Taipei and Macau-Kaohsiung routes operated by EVA Air, Air Macau and TransAsia Airlines.
President Clinton told fellow worshippers at Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, "I anticipate that my Christian bearing will be tested by a return to commercial air travel -- where I will reap the rewards of not having succeeded in one of the things I tried very hard to do, which was to end all those backlogs." DOTIG's report on customer service is expected at monthend, and if airlines fall short on their 12-point commitments, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) plans to reintroduce customer service legislation.
Lauda Air today will start code sharing with Ansett Australia on selected Ansett-operated services from Melbourne and Sydney to major domestic cities. Both carriers are members of the Star Alliance, and Lauda Air has been a participant in Ansett's Global Rewards frequent flyer program since April 1997.
A U.S. Court of Appeals' instruction to a district court to issue an injunction against Delta's Air Line Pilots Association unit has made union leadership nervous about how the rank-and-file will respond. So far, the court has not acted, but the union urges members to "not respond to this decision in any negative way" and to accept overtime flying (DAILY, Jan. 19).
US Airways executives do not believe that United will try to negotiate a new purchase price to acquire US Airways' stock. Despite American's plan to purchase roughly 20% of US Airways' assets, US Airways CEO Rakesh Gangwal told analysts he does not expect any changes to the original $60-per-share bid. "United committed to this transaction the way it has been structured," he said. "Nothing has changed, nothing is changing and there is no discussion on it." US Airways' stock traded at $45 a share Friday.
AirTran on Friday told the Justice Department that allowing merger and buyout proposals by American and United to proceed is "in fact, worse than the anti-competitive disease" they address. It cited "carving up US Airways' assets between United and American and handing "de facto" control of DC Air to American in addition to giving United the benefit of American's 10-year covenant to compete on certain US Airways routes.
Boeing and UPS selected Singapore Technologies Aerospace (ST Aero) subsidiary ST Aviation Services to modify 13 MD-11 passenger aircraft into freighters. UPS also chose the company to perform concurrent maintenance on the aircraft. UPS has options with Boeing for another 22 MD-11s with Boeing responsible for obtaining the aircraft and converting them to freighters. The work is expected to get under way in the second quarter and continue to 2004.
Correction: The FAA airworthiness directive on BMW Rolls Royce BR700 series engines does not include the engine series that powers the Boeing 717. Also, the AD was not an emergency order.
By Luis Zalamea, Correspondent for Latin America, [email protected] and Robert Booth, Publisher, AvNews Latin America&Caribbean
In the past few years, a half dozen indigenous Latin American airlines, beset by financial crises, corporate uncertainty and old-style politics, went belly up, succumbing to Darwin's principle of survival of the fittest. In 2000, others were on life-support systems, among them former powers like Argentina's Aerolineas Argentinas, Brazil's VASP, Venezuela's Avensa, Bolivia's LAB, and Air Jamaica. Several smaller carriers and startups simply folded.
Sabre's revenues for the fourth quarter 2000 jumped 19% to $643.4 million from the same 1999 period because of growth in travel bookings within each of its distribution channels and positive year-over-year revenue gains in its outsourcing and software businesses. Operating income, excluding special items, gained 3.7% to $58.7 million. Net earnings dropped to $32.1 million from $41.7 million. The decline was attributed to the impact of the acquisition of GetThere in October and a one-time dividend paid in February, when Sabre spun off from AMR Corporation.
U.S. National Carriers Traffic as of December, 12 Months 2000 (000) December December % 2000 1999 Change Air Wisconsin Revenue Passenger Miles (000) 108,390 97,592 11.1 Available Seat Miles (000) 169,976 157,837 7.7 Load Factor (%) 63.8 61.8
Atlantic Southeast Airlines will add two daily nonstop Atlanta-Gulfport/Biloxi flights on April 1. The new service will give ASA nine daily nonstops to Gulfport/Biloxi from Atlanta.
AIRCRAFT TRANSACTIONS FOR OCT 30 - 31, 2000 Seller/ New Type / Previous Operator Owner Engine Operator Embraer Continental First Security Embraer Express Bank NA ERJ135/ AE3007A1/3 Air Premiar A/S AerFi Group Airbus Belgium A320-200/
Southwest's board declared a 3-for-2 stock split of the airline's common stock and increased the quarterly dividend. The stock split will be distributed on Feb. 15 to shareholders of record at the close of business Jan. 26.
Frontier Airlines plans to increase its fiscal 2002 capacity by about 23%; it planned a 20% increase in fiscal 2001. Chief Financial Officer Steve Warnecke said the accelerated growth plan results from introducing six new Airbus aircraft into the feet, for a total of 31 by March 2002. "We plan to use these additional aircraft to enter new markets during the year and also to add frequency in several of the markets we currently serve," he said.
The California energy crisis spilled onto airlines Friday, as some started to pay as much as $100,000 a day at certain locations to keep fuel-supply lines running to major California airports, including those in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Ontario, Calif. The airlines are covering a 100-fold energy-use penalty charged to pipeline operator Kinder Morgan under current rules in California.
Lucio Tan, majority shareholder of Philippine Airlines, has used Baguio Gold Holdings Corp (BGHC), a listed company he controls in Manila, to acquire 90% of the carrier's stock. Baguio issued a bulk of new shares in exchange for the PAL stock. It could not be determined how many new shares were issued by BGHC.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has approved Shanghai Airlines' application to go public. One of China's more successful carriers, SAL has operated regional flights for 15 years. It plans to be listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange during the fourth quarter of the year. SAL should consider itself fortunate that CAAC gave the airline the green light, as it was one of the several carriers that disapproved of CAAC's policy on the consolidation of the country's 34 carriers. The other carriers were warned, but SAL escaped.
Japan Airlines and IBM Japan last week signed a partnership agreement to boost the airline's information technology strategy. The deal includes "large-scale outsourcing" of IT systems development, operation and maintenance by IBM Japan working with JAL's Infotech subsidiary. The airline said the agreement "will be progressed by equity participation and assignment of IBM personnel" to JAL Infotech. JAL and IBM Japan will iron out the details of the agreement "after further studies."
FAA plans to implement a Boeing recommendation that will require replacing the escape ropes in the cockpit of Boeing 767s because the existing ropes are too short if the aircraft ends up in a "tail-tip" condition. "The length of the end of the existing ropes is approximately 10 l/2 to 12 1/2 feet above the ground when the airplane is in a tail-tip condition," it said.
