Avianca last week signed a six-year agreement extension with Pratt&Whitney Aftermarket Services to provide engine maintenance for all of the PW4056 and PW4060 engines that power the Colombian airline's Boeing 767-200 and -300 fleets. The agreement extension has an estimated value of $30 million. The overhaul work will be performed at Pratt&Whitney's Cheshire Engine Center in Connecticut. Engine components and parts will be handled by Pratt&Whitney's network of about 20 repair facilities around the world.
Southwest's board last week declared a quarterly dividend of $.0055 per share to shareholders of record at the close of business on Dec. 6 on all shares issued and outstanding. The airline's 97th consecutive dividend will be paid on Jan. 3, 2001.
United last week canceled more flights, claiming mechanic-related problems, and sought a temporary restraining order against its machinists one day after saying it would pay them two weeks' wages in a lump sum.
America West's on-time performance in October was about 62% following an improved 75.6% record in September. While DOT data for October will not be out until next month, President Doug Parker told The DAILY that the carrier was negatively affected by 15 days of poor weather in Phoenix, not maintenance delays. When the cloud ceiling drops below 5,500 feet in Phoenix and pilots can't make visual approaches, hourly departures are cut by 50%.
FAA added international airline safety information to its web site, http://nasdac.faa.gov/main.htm, which includes data on domestic airline safety as well. The international database, made available by FAA under an agreement with Airclaims Ltd., provides a summary of foreign carrier safety information from 1990 forward. It includes records of 260 accidents, searchable by airline name, according to FAA.
Braathens is continuing its reorganization in an attempt to boost its earnings. "We are aiming to shift capacity from short and unprofitable routes to routes with potential for growth and longer flying distances," said CEO Arne Jensen last week on Oslo. Braathens will cut domestic services between Oslo and Roros, as well as between Molde and Kristiansund. Flights between Norwegian port city Tromso and Murmansk, Russia, also will be halted. The extra capacity will be used to expand medium-long flights, particularly to Spain, Braathens said.
Emissions-related landing charges imposed by Sweden and Switzerland to improve the environment near European airports are not working, according to a survey reported by the European Regions Airline Association (ERA). Most ERA members -- 91% -- say they have not altered their fleet mix and 67% say they would not consider doing so, although 73% are paying high charges. Switzerland and Sweden want the EU to adopt a common emissions charge system, which ERA strongly opposes.
Star Alliance appointed William Meaney, executive VP-alliances network management and global sales at South African Airways, CEO; Louise McKenvan VP-marketing; Rick Merkatz VP-sales; Horst Findeisen VP-global network and Brock Friesen VP-strategy.
ICAO Council reached a decision denying the European Union's procedural objections to the U.S. Article 84 complaint over the EU's banning of hushkitted aircraft under a design-, rather than performance-, based standard. On Thursday in Montreal the council entered an oral order denying the EU's objections over jurisdiction and authority. In rejecting the EU's stance that sufficient negotiation had not taken place and that other remedies had not been exhausted prior to the U.S. filing March 14, ICAO provided the U.S.
Mesa plans to have 151 regional jets and turboprops in its fleet by 2002. At a Salomon Smith Barney conference last week, Mesa said it will divest five Beech 1900s, three Jetstream 32s and two de Havilland Dash 8s but add 28 Embraer ERJ 145s. Prorate agreements will grow dramatically, eventually representing nearly three quarters of Mesa's code-share structure.
New Zealand's membership in a world-first multilateral open skies agreement with Brunei, the U.S., Singapore and Chile has prompted the government to say that it is working towards allowing further investments in national flag carrier, Air New Zealand (ANZ) to 49% and a maximum of 50%.
Spirit Airlines filed at DOT for four Chicago O'Hare slots for nonstop service to Myrtle Beach, S.C., seeking to enter the market under O'Hare limited-incumbent slot-exemption procedures for new entrants after gaining less than the full complement of AIR-21 O'Hare slots it requested. The carrier has eight O'Hare slots. It was allocated six of 30 available AIR-21 slots -- it had requested 20 -- later gaining an additional two that had been relinquished by Sun Country.
Vietnam Airlines and China Airlines (CAL) last week applied jointly at DOT for U.S.-Vietnam third-country code-share rights, seeking to begin service Jan. 1. They adding their requests to those filed by four U.S. carriers in March, when DOT invited U.S. carriers to bid for Vietnam service. Vietnam Airlines would place its code on flights operated by Taiwan-based CAL between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, via Taipei, with seven weekly roundtrips to Los Angeles and three to San Francisco.
AIRCRAFT TRANSACTIONS FOR AUG 19 - 24, 2000 Seller/ New Type / Previous Operator Owner Engine Operator Singapore Hapag- Boeing Airbus Airlines Lloyd Equipment A310-200/ JT9D-7R4E1 Fairchild- Hainan Hainan Fairchild
Online travel companies must be prepared to merge or be acquired by other firms over the next year, according to PhoCusWright CEO Philip Wolf. "The consolidation train is accelerating downhill without brakes, with no end in sight," he said at his firm's Phoenix conference."The major chunk of travel distribution and supply is for sale." Wolf declared that the industry's "honeymoon is over."
Nigeria's civil aviation authority has removed 450 aircraft from the register of planes licensed to fly in the country's airspace, Reuters reported yesterday. The aircraft, declared unsafe to fly, include five Boeing 737-200s and five Airbus 310-231s previously operated by state-owned Nigerian Airways. Many of the planes have been abandoned following crashes or other damage.
Passenger traffic for the 18-member Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) grew vigorously throughout the first three quarters of the year, culminating in a 13% increase in revenue passenger kilometers in September. The number of passengers carried also rose 13%, pushing passenger load factor to 78%. The cumulative growth rates for the period January-September period were 12.5% for RPKs and 10.3% for passengers, producing a load factor of 75.5%.
US Airways will upgrade its transatlantic Pittsburgh-London and Philadelphia-Manchester, England, service in March with new Airbus A330-300 aircraft. The 226-seat airplane is the largest in the US Airways fleet. It will begin flying the Philadelphia-Manchester route March 4 and Pittsburgh-London Gatwick March 24. The aircraft offers the P@ssport Audio and Video On-Demand personal entertainment system at every seat.
Acela Express, Amtrak's high-speed electronic train, should help relieve congestion at New York LaGuardia and Boston Logan airports, DOT said yesterday following the rail service's inaugural run. The service, which begins Dec. 11, will operate at speeds of up to 150 miles per hour in the New York-Boston market and up to 135 mph between New York and Washington, cutting travel times by about half an hour in each market and comparing favorably with downtown-to-downtown air travel times.
The bid by Continental's 5,400 pilots to open contract talks 14 months early - rejected by the carrier - not only had to do with reaching the industry standard in terms of pay, but also was a "gamut of other issues festering for sometime," said the union's top negotiator. "It amplified the situation," Jay Panarello, chairman of the Independent Association of Continental Pilots' (IACP) negotiating committee, told DAILY affiliate AviationNow.com during an industry luncheon this week.
