Latin America is an increasingly important trading partner for the U.S., and aviation is critical to further developing the market, Francisco Sanchez, DOT assistant secretary for aviation and international affairs, told the Colombo-American Chamber of Commerce in Bogota. He noted that the U.S. does "more trade with the 36 million people of the Caribbean Basin than we do with the one billion people of China."
Lion Airline, a new domestic startup in Indonesia, has been granted permission by the government to operate international flights immediately. To start with, it has the rights to operate the Pekanbaru-Singapore route, which was abandoned by SilkAir last year after it upgraded its fleet with the Airbus A320. SilkAir had used the Fokker 70 to fly the route. The narrow runway width at Pekanbaru is unable to accommodate the A320. Lion's other international route is Surabay-Kuala Lumpur, which is currently operated only by Malaysia Airlines.
Worldspan and Unicard.com, a supplier of travel protection plans, signed an agreement enabling Worldspan travel agents to provide clients with travel insurance directly through the Worldspan Go! reservations system. With access to Unicard.com's insurance plans via Go!, travel agents can select a plan for their customers, book it and receive an immediate online confirmation. Travel agents receive a 30% commission on travel insurance booked through the Unicard connection on Go!
PRA Solutions, Inc., a leading provider of airline financial transaction software, signed a deal yesterday to acquire Hewlett Packard's Open Skies subsidiary. PRA Solutions is majority-owned by AC Ventures, the venture capital unit of Andersen Consulting. More than one-third of the world's airline tickets are processed through PRA Solutions' revenue accounting software. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Startup Thai domestic carrier Andaman Airways (ADA) has been granted rights to operate 39 daily services to six major destinations in Thailand from its base in Ranong. The six are Surat Thani, Hatyai, Phuket, Bangkok. Nakhon Si Thammarat and Nakhon Ratchsima. ADA will operate four flights to Nakhon Ratchsima and seven each to the other five points.
President Clinton today is expected to issue an executive order establishing a performance-based air navigation service organization (ANSO) and to name the five-member air traffic control subcommittee of the FAA management advisory council (MAC), as called for in the FAA reauthorization. According to a draft of the executive order obtained by The DAILY, the ANSO will be headed by a chief operating officer who reports to FAA Administrator Jane Garvey.
TRAFFIC DATA FOR NOVEMBER 2000 RPMs Change ASMs Change In From In From Load Airline Billions 11/99 Billions 11/99 Factor Alaska 0.98 +2.3% 1.44 +3.5% 68.0% American 9.06 -1.1% 12.97 -2.9% 69.8% Continental 5.07 +2.5% 6.98 +2.9% 72.6%
AeroMexico plans to launch daily nonstop service from New York Kennedy to Monterrey, Mexico on Jan. 8. SkyTeam partner Delta has filed for DOT approval to place its code on the new AeroMexico flight, which will continue on to Guadalajara. "These new flights make AeroMexico the only airline that offers nonstop service from the U.S. East Coast to Monterrey," said Jose Manuel Diaz de Rivera, AeroMexico's chief marketing officer. AeroMexico will operate the new daily JFK flights with MD-80s.
British Airways yesterday unveiled new details of its plan to significantly cut long-haul operations from London Gatwick over the next two years in addition to reducing capacity on its short-haul network. The carrier first admitted in October it was "reviewing its loss-making Gatwick operations" and abandoning a recent strategy of turning Gatwick into an intercontinental hub (DAILY, Oct. 12).
The Brunei government through the Brunei Investment Agency (BIA) sold 9.09% of its 16.75% stake in Malaysia Airlines to an unidentified Malaysian buyer. The buyer, said to be the Malaysian government investment arm of Khazanah Nasional Holdings, paid a premium of M$0.20 over the MAS closing price of M$3.80 on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange. BIA and Malaysian government officials in Kuala Lumpur declined comment.
Sabena has stopped its weekly service to Burundi after its Airbus A330-200 was shot at upon landing Dec. 4 in Bujumbura. A passenger and a steward were lightly wounded in the attack. Burundi's government still is facing violence from guerrilla groups despite a recent cease-fire agreement.
AIRCRAFT TRANSACTIONS FOR SEPT 19, 2000 Seller/ New Type / Previous Operator Owner Engine Operator Gulfstream Alpine Mallette Beech 1900C International Aviation Family LLC PT6A-65B Gulfstream Alpine Mallette Beech 1900C International Aviation Family LLC PT6A-65B
Shenyang-based China Northern Airlines (CNAL) has entered an agreement with Thailand's Angel Air to wet-lease two Airbus A300-600Rs. Under the agreement, CNAL also will provide omprehensive operational support, which includes engineering. The aircraft would be deployed on routes to Hong Kong, Taipei, Seoul, Dubai, Kunming and Chengdu, for which Angel filed to operate. Angel, designated Thailand's second flag carrier, has an operating license that allows it to fly international routes along with Thai Airways.
Aer Lingus extended its wet-lease agreement with World Airways to support the Irish carrier's transatlantic passenger operations next summer. World has been flying for Aer Lingus on a seasonal basis since 1998, operating an MD-11 six times a week between New York Kennedy and Shannon, Ireland, with the flights continuing to Belfast. The value of the contract extension is about $7.4 million.
Virgin Atlantic does not intend to join one of the large global airline alliances, but instead will expand its network of bilateral partnerships. "Alliances are overrated," Chairman Richard Branson told The DAILY recently. Most corporations and business travelers have "not seen any advantages to alliances," he said. Virgin does plan to increase cooperation with partner Singapore Airlines but "can't see any great advantage" in joining an alliance.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) is willing to have equal party representation with the Democrats on the Commerce Committee but will not share the chairmanship with ranking Commerce Democrat Ernest Hollings (S.C.), a spokeswoman for McCain confirmed. With the Washington state recount settled last Friday, nailing down aviation subcommittee Chairman Slade Gorton's narrow loss to Democrat Maria Cantwell (Wash.), the makeup of the Senate in the new Congress next year will be 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats.
Continental will launch daily nonstop service between Newark and Melbourne, Fla., Feb. 15. The new city will be the airline's 10th point in the sunshine state with nonstop service from Newark. "The demand for Florida flights continues to grow," a spokesman said. Melbourne is served by Spirit Airlines, Delta and Atlantic Southeast, but there is no direct competition to Continental's service. Spirit offers nonstop flights between New York LaGuardia and Melbourne.
The new international terminal at San Francisco Airport will be fully operational on Sunday following six days of moving the 24 international carriers from their existing facilities. The new terminal, measuring 2.5 million square feet, is the largest such structure in North America. Officials also claim the facility is the most technologically advanced terminal in the country, featuring one of the largest "common-use" environments of any U.S. airport. The terminal is prepared to process about 5,000 passengers each hour through the customs and immigration facility.
Air Macau is evaluating widebody aircraft to launch services to Europe during the first quarter of next year. Initially, the airline will lease one aircraft to start flights between Macau and Frankfurt. According to Market Development Manager Dominic Ching, it had planned to launch the Frankfurt service this year but put it on hold until next year because the Asian economic crisis had affected Taiwan, one of its key markets.
Garuda Indonesia will lease six Boeing 737-300s for domestic and regional flights, with four of the aircraft coming from GE Capital Aviation Services. The other two twinjets will be leased from International Lease Finance Corp. Delivery, which began last month, will continue through January. Garuda President A Abdulgani has forecast Garuda's operating profit will double from the US$15.3 million posted in 1999.
Niki Lauda, former chairman of Austrian carrier Lauda Air, will remain chairman of Lauda Air Italia SpA and fly the company's Boeing 767-300R aircraft in order to maintain his pilot's license, said a Lauda Air Italia spokeswoman yesterday in Milan. Austrian Airlines, the new controlling shareholder of Lauda Air, rejected Niki Lauda's contract as a pilot in Austria earlier this week.
Delta will begin code-share service from the U.S. via Paris to Cairo with SkyTeam partner Air France on Dec. 15. DOT last month finalized its decision allocating a U.S.-Egypt third-country code share to Delta (DAILY, Nov. 8).
American's Association of Professional Flight Attendants said an 8% pay raise that American offered on Tuesday was "unacceptable" and is an attempt to "bribe and appease the agitated flight attendants during the holiday period." The National Mediation Board on Monday recessed American-APFA contract talks indefinitely and APFA said it could ask for release from mediation.
United and its International Association of Machinists Unit 141-M will return to the bargaining table today with United Chief Financial Officer Andy Studdert joining the negotiations. Despite continued talks, United said some problems continue, including mechanics not signing up for voluntary overtime, low productivity, an increase in the volume of sick calls, slow maintenance cycle times and higher-than-usual mechanical associated delays.
Flughafen Frankfurt said it expects record traffic this year. "The year 2000 was the best year for our company to date," Chairman Wilhelm Bender said. Frankfurt looks forward to handling 49.3 million passengers, up 7.5% from 1999. Freight volume will grow about 10% this year to nearly 1.6 million tons, while the number of aircraft movements will rise 4.3% to some 460,000.
