Priceline.com this week reached a settlement with Expedia and Microsoft Corp. on two lawsuits brought against the two companies by Priceline.com in a Connecticut U.S. District Court in October 1999. Priceline's lawsuit contended that the Expedia's Price Matcher service violated patent held by Priceline.com.
Summary of U.S. Major Carriers International Traffic, Second Quarter 2000 Revenue Average Revenue Passengers Length of Passenger Enplaned % Travel Miles % (000) Change (miles) (000) Change Alaska 265 13.35 1,150 305,067 16.33 Latin 265 13.35 1,150 305,067 16.33
Delta, faced with pilots' continued refusal to fly overtime, yesterday asked an appeals court to reverse an earlier federal court decision denying Delta a preliminary injunction against the Air Line Pilots Association. Delta in its appeal said that ALPA has "an affirmative duty under the RLA [Railway Labor Act] to 'exert every reasonable effort' to prevent unlawful job actions by its members, regardless of ALPA's own role in instigating the job action."
New York jet fuel spot prices ended last week at $0.88 per gallon, down 3.4% from the beginning of the week and up 8.9% from a year ago, according to Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown. Crude oil futures for February traded at roughly $29.50 per barrel.
TAM Brazil reported sales that rose 30% to more than $560 million in 2000, Rolim Amaro, founder and CEO, said. He predicted a repeat performance this year. Supporting its projected growth in the New Year, TAM is about to take delivery of 14 new Airbus aircraft for a total of 31 and increase its Fokker 100s to 50. The aircraft are intended for new long-haul routes to Madrid and Frankfurt. Starting in March, TAM will operate five daily frequencies to Buenos Aires.
Nacional Transportes Aereos (Nata) will start operations this month to link cities in Brazil's Northeast with those in the Southeast with a single 170-passenger Boeing 737-400. The carrier plans to acquire two more shortly. Customers will get low fares along with the inconvenience of many stops on "milk-run" routes that bypass Rio de Janeiro. Domestic no-frills Gol Airlines began service earlier this month.
Exostar this week named former PartsBase.com executive Andy Plyler its new president and CEO. Plyler will join Reston-Va. based Exostar, effective Jan. 29. Pyler, chief operating officer of PartsBase.com since May 2000, previously was director of e-business at AlliedSignal. Exostar launched its online exchange in September and was founded by BAE Systems, Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.
FAA in March will introduce changes in the way it classifies operational errors by controllers in the hope that this year will not see a continuation of the alarming 51% increase experienced between fiscal years 1996 and 2000. The DOT Inspector General said reducing operational errors should be approached with a "sense of urgency."
UPS Aviation Technologies said yesterday that it has built the "first" GPS navigation receiver that can use signals from the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) for instrument approaches. Phil Boyer, president of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, hailed the development, which he said will permit vertical approach guidance to "thousands of GA airports." UPS said it has not been determined whether the new system, which it hopes to certify this year, can be used with its existing GPS receivers or whether it will be available only on new products.
Alfonso Pasquel and Fernando Flores, the CEOs of AeroMexico and Mexicana, respectively, have welcomed the announcement by Pedro Cerisola y Weber, secretary of transportation, that studies regarding the breakup of the Cintra holding group and the future disposition of their respective carriers will be ready by February. These are extremely important decisions because Mexico's airline industry is expected to generate some $14 billion this year, or 3.4% of the GNP.
LanChile later this month will offer service from three new U.S. cities -- New Orleans, Philadelphia and Baltimore/Washington -- as part of its code-share alliance with American. Starting Jan. 24, passengers will be able to travel from these cities through LanChile's U.S. gateways of Miami or New York Kennedy to Santiago, Chile. Thanks to its own service and code-share partnerships, LanChile offers service to 16 U.S. cities.
Datalex recently signed a $2 million contract with Singapore Airlines to design, develop and deploy an e-business "middleware" package to be used across the SIA Group. The first phase of the contract already has been delivered. As the prime contractor, Datalex has partnered with Hewlett-Packard Singapore and BEA Systems on the infrastructure. Looking ahead, other Datalex applications will be added to the SIA site including the Datalex Internet booking engine, BookIt! Consumer.
AIRCRAFT TRANSACTIONS FOR OCT 26 - 27, 2000 Seller/ New Type / Previous Operator Owner Engine Operator Airbus Northwest Northwest Airbus A319 Airlines Airlines CFM56-5A4 Boeing AirTran AirTran Boeing Airways Airways 717-200/ BR715C
DOT yesterday finalized its tentative award to UPS of the new U.S.-China designation, along with six of the 10 available frequencies, with the residual frequencies allocated among market incumbents as proposed, with two for United and one each for FedEx and Northwest (DAILY, Nov. 22). (Docket OST-00-6323)
United started aggressively retrofitting its long-haul fleet, altering the layout of all classes and installing its Economy Plus product for international service. United reported this week that the cabin changes will limit its systemwide capacity growth to between 2.5%-3.0% for the year, but the new products will "materially change and improve" the travel experience on its Boeing 777s, 767s and 747s, according to Graham Atkinson, senior VP-marketing. The airline hopes to complete its entire fleet of 106 three-cabin international aircraft by yearend.
Aloha Airlines, reporting on-time figures for the second time in DOT's Air Travel Consumer Report, again led the U.S. carriers in November, with a rate of 89.3%, lower than its October record of 90.5%. The average for the 11 carriers was 72.8%, lower than October's 76.2% and November 1999's 81.4%. Among airports, New York LaGuardia ranked lowest for arrivals in November, 44.9%, lower than in October, 48.3%.
Top 10 combination carriers handled 46.5% of all cargo traffic last year, according to the Air Cargo Management Group. The only integrated express companies in the top 25 international carriers were FedEx, ranked 7th in freight ton kilometers, and UPS, ranked 20th. The top 25 carriers handled 77.6% of all air cargo.
Norman Mineta, DOT secretary-designate, has called inadequate infrastructure -- long decried by industry groups -- the "chief threat to economic growth," according to industry and government leaders hailing his nomination. He intends to build bipartisan consensus for policies and programs to achieve his "overriding goal" -- to create and sustain a transportation system that will drive economic growth and prosperity.
U.S. Trade Representative staff hope to gain assurances that funding for the Airbus A380 launch will be provided on commercial terms during consultations today in Washington with the European Commission, a U.S. trade official said.The USTR wants to make sure that European financial support for the A380 does "not run afoul" of World Trade Organization rules on subsidies.
American's plans for DC Air include not only a 49% stake but also the right of first refusal for the remaining 51% if Black Entertainment Television executive and DC Air CEO Robert Johnson decides to sell his share. DC Air under the proposal also will take over the wet-lease arrangement of 11 American's Fokker 100s, effectively pushing United out of the deal altogether. American will provide pilots, crew and aircraft maintenance.
FedEx Express and the U.S. Postal Service yesterday announced a public-private alliance with two contracts -- one for domestic air transportation of postal shipments and the other for placing FedEx drop boxes at post offices. FedEx said it expects the two contracts to generate about $7 billion over their seven-year lives.
Integrating TWA's Aviators frequent flyer program with American's AAdvantage plan tops American and TWA's agenda, carrier executives said yesterday, adding that teams are already working on the project, TWA CEO Bill Compton said. Bob Baker, American vice chairman, said the carriers will go forward with as much of the integration process as is possible in the interim until the Department of Justice approves the deal. Compton said TWA could be finished with the bankruptcy in three to four months but will continue operating.
AeroMexico set a record in annual passenger boardings on flights between the U.S. and Mexico during 2000, surpassing the 2 million mark in mid-December. Since 1994, AeroMexico increased daily flights between the U.S. and Mexico by nearly 85% to "meet the growing demand in this market," which has sustained a 5.4% annual growth rate since 1988, said Chief Marketing Officer Jose Manuel Diaz de Rivera. Last year, the airline added three U.S. gateway cities to its route system -- Chicago, Las Vegas and Ontario, Calif.
