TAP Air Portugal's cabin crew union suspended its strike last week. The company's management "will not be in a position to say that it cannot negotiate because we are on strike," said Vera Carneiro, chairman of Portugal's flight personnel and civil aviation union. The strike, which was due to start Dec. 1 at midnight, nevertheless disrupted TAP's traffic, but the company said it transferred passengers onto other airlines. The cabin crew seek higher wage increases than those offered by the cash-strapped Portuguese carrier.
Iberia is planning not to participate in a cash injection into Aerolineas Argentinas, an Iberia source confirmed yesterday in Madrid. As a consequence, Iberia's share of the ailing Argentine carrier would drop to 0.34%, down from 8.5%. Last June, Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales (SEPI), the Spanish state holding company and controlling shareholder of Aerolineas Argentinas, announced a $650 million capital increase for the Argentine carrier, in exchange for a drastic restructuring plan.
The European Commission last week cleared the merger of British automotive and aerospace engineering groups Smiths Industries and TI Group. The merger will create overlaps in the markets for aerospace actuation systems and specialty flexible pressure hoses, the EC said.
Thai Airways has abandoned plans to privatize its engineering and maintenance division. This followed protests from workers since August 1999, when the carrier announced its proposal to privatize the unit, including offering a 40% stake to a strategic partner. The workers, who are unionized, had threatened a wildcat strike should management proceed with the privatization. The airline's plan was to spin off the division as a separate company simultaneously, with the Thai government shedding another 23% of its stake in the airline.
FAA said it will levy a $172,500 fine against Chautauqua Airlines for allegedly failing to conduct pre-employment and random drug and alcohol testing on 21 employees in safety-sensitive positions. Their functions included maintenance, preventive maintenance and dispatch duties. Chautauqua has 530 employees and operates 29 aircraft and has been affiliated with US Airways since 1973, FAA said. FAA said it was required to conduct random testing on 25% of 280 employees, but an inspection alleged it performed only 47 random drug tests and 40 random alcohol tests.
ARINC has deployed its new digital air/ground communications network, known as the Very High Frequency Digital Link Mode 2 (VDLM2) that is expected to bring major improvements in the U.S. and Europe.
AirTran Friday asked the National Transportation Safety Board to "disavow" remarks made by Chairman Jim Hall on Thursday in which he criticized both the airline and the Atlanta airport for the way they handled the emergency landing of a DC-9 due to a fire below the passenger compartment. Hall said the airplane was improperly moved and cleaned and that the airline and airport "should know better than to tamper with evidence of a federal investigation of this nature."
Pichin Corp., a Carl Icahn entity, intends to request termination of two pension plans for about 36,500 TWA employees, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. said Friday. PBGC said the plans are underfunded by $700 million. TWA administers two plans -- the Pilots' Pension Plan with about 4,000 participants is underfunded by $200 million, and the Employees' Pension Plan, with 32,500 people is underfunded by more than $500 million, PBGC said. About 15,000 of the 36,500 still are employed by TWA. PBGC Executive Director David Strauss said that "should Pichin Corp.
EasyJet last week took delivery of its second Boeing 737-700, boosting its fleet size to 20 aircraft. The latest 737-700 has entered revenue service and is part of a total order of 32 new Boeing jets. By 2004 the EasyJet fleet is planned to have 44 aircraft.
TravelNow.com has retained Legg Mason Wood Walker to help it explore "strategic alternatives" that may include a potential sale of the company, new equity partners or joint ventures. "Our financial results continue to be strong and our business is producing sufficient cash to fund our needs for the foreseeable future," said CEO Jeffrey Wasson.
United's on-time arrival performance was 69.4% in November, far short of its goal of 77%, according to the airline. DOT will not release its rankings and statistics for the month until January. The carrier faced a high number of maintenance-related delays toward the end of month. DOT's consumer report for October will be released this week. On Nov. 30, the carrier had a one-day total of 118 systemwide cancellations, 91 of which were attributed to maintenance problems, a spokeswoman said. United has an average of 2,300 daily flights. On Nov.
Aviation Industry Stock Performance November 2000 Closed Closed Monthly Change Majors Ticker 11/30/00 10/31/00 ($) (%) Alaska Air Group ALK 28.125 26.063 2.063 7.9 America West (Class B) AWA 9.688 9.938 (0.250) (2.5) AMR 1 AMR 34.000 33.688 0.313 0.9
The Naples, Fla., airport authority did not follow FAA regulations when it voted to ban Stage 2 business aircraft as of Jan. 1, according to National Air Transportation Association President James Coyne. This means FAA could place restrictions on the ability of the airport to receive federal aviation funds or collect fees from air travelers, he said. He asked FAA to "take immediate steps to enforce its authority and overturn this misguided policy."
SAS's Cabin Attendants Union of Denmark issued a strike warning, effective Dec. 11 after talks on pay and holiday broke down, the union said Friday in Copenhagen. "Nine months of negotiations with SAS management have failed to lead to agreement on job guarantees, one week's extra holiday and pay," the union said. Last week, SAS averted a strike by Norwegian cabin staff, when an agreement was reached a few hours before the stoppage was due to start.
CommutAir, now operating as a Continental Connection carrier, plans to start new service between Philadelphia, Hartford, Conn., and Richmond, Va., on Jan. 5. The new service will operate at least four roundtrip flights daily. Last weekend, CommutAir started code sharing with Continental on more than 280 daily flights to 22 destinations on the East Coast.
Northwest will offer its Internet check-in program to all domestic passengers beginning today. Internet check-in was available in 27 Northwest markets before it went live across the whole network. During the recent Thanksgiving holiday travel season, more than 10,000 customers used Northwest's Internet check-in system. With Internet check-in, passengers can print their own boarding passes from their home or office computers, change to a different flight, change or confirm a seat assignment and upgrade class on available flights.
SAirGroup will apply an average fare increase of 3% to its higher-bracket interlining fares Dec. 15 to reflect the rise of fuel prices, said a spokesman of the parent company of Swissair and Crossair Dec. 1 in Zurich. "The increase was decided at an International Air Transport Association meeting last month in Geneva," the spokesman said.
