Swissair plans to hire 70 new passenger service employees at its Zurich hub in the next six months to tackle its chronic delays. Swissport Zurich, the SAirGroup's local ground-handling company, expects to have the new staff in place by summer, when the new flight schedules begin. "Swissair is doing everything it can to improve the punctuality of its flights at Zurich Airport," the airline said.
BWIA West Indies Airlines wants to serve Barbados as an intermediate point as part of its Trinidad and Tobago-Atlanta service. It plans to add Barbados service to the route, which it serves nonstop, beginning Jan. 6. No carrier offers single-plane Barbados-Atlanta service, BWIA noted, adding that Atlanta's air links to the Caribbean "are limited." The extrabilateral request is consistent with grants of U.S. carrier rights by Trinidad and Tobago and would further Caribbean Basin Initiative efforts, BWIA told DOT.
SIA Engineering Co. said it signed a joint-venture pact with United Technologies Holdings and Singapore Technologies Aerospace to form an engine parts repair business called Turbine Coating Services. The new company will be located in Singapore and will have an initial capital of $13.2 million. It will be the first to bring two new technologies to Singapore -- Electron Beam Physical Vapor Deposition coating and Turbotip plating technology.
FAA's proposal to extend safety certification requirements of big airports to about 40 smaller airports that serve scheduled air carriers with 10- to 30-seat aircraft worries the National Air Transportation Association. "The small communities that will be required to bear the increased cost will have little recourse other than to pass a portion of the increase on to their non-airline tenants" or face loss of scheduled air service, NATA said.
SAS's October traffic increased 4% year-over-year to 2.07 billion revenue passenger kilometers, resulting in a load factor of 68.2%, up 1.3 percentage points. Passenger boardings were up 5% to 2.16 million as freight volume fell 4%.
DOT web sites are slow to correct improper use of "cookies," according to the Inspector General, which promises to make spot checks to ensure certifications of compliance have been filed by the various agencies. The OIG first reported improper use of cookies, a mechanism to collect information on users, on DOT web sites in August. It warns that "until people are confident that their privacy is protected, they will not use the services provided on government sites."
More than half of 13 large western-built commercial jet airplanes that were destroyed in the first nine months of 2000 were involved in approach and landing (ALA) accidents, according to James Burin, director of technical programs for the Flight Safety Foundation. The data were compiled by Boeing for jets weighing more than 60,000 pounds. Five of the ALAs resulted in no fatalities, but the other three claimed 322 lives. Two of the ALAs also involved controlled flight into terrain (CFIT).
New York jet fuel spot prices ended last week at $0.97 per gallon, down 4.0% from the beginning of the week and up 51% from a year ago, according to Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown. Crude oil futures traded at roughly $34.00 a barrel Friday.
Top 25 Domestic City-Pair Markets Under 750 Miles First Quarter 2000 Short Total Average Haul Mkt Non-Stop Psngrs Top Carier Rank Rank City-Pair Mileage Per Day (% Share) 1 1 Boston - New York 183 7,058 Delta (45.4) 2 4 Honolulu - Kahului 100 6,717 Aloha (55.4)
Airlines should be allowed to enter into schedule and capacity agreements three times a year to help alleviate congestion in the skies, Air Line Pilots Association President Duane Woerth said in a letter last week to DOT Secretary Rodney Slater. Woerth is expected to present his proposal today at the Salomon Smith Barney Annual Transportation Conference in New York.
Top 25 Domestic City-Pair Markets O&D Passengers First Quarter 2000 2000 1999 Average Mkt. Mkt Passengers Top Carrier Rank Rank City-Pair Per Day (% Share) 1 5 Boston - New York 7,058 Delta (45.4) 2 1 Los Angeles - New York 6,992 American (35.1)
British Airways and its oneworld partner Finnair extended their code-sharing agreement by adding the first joint long-haul route. Finnair code shares on one of BA's twice-daily London Heathrow-Toronto service. Currently, the BA code appears on 47 Finnair flights to 11 destinations, and Finnair has put its code on 39 BA services to 10 cities.
Delta plans start code sharing with South African Airways on flights via Johannesburg, South Africa, to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Service will start Dec. 1, using SAA's Boeing 767s and Airbus A320s. Delta and SAA currently provide daily, nonstop code-share service from New York Kennedy and Atlanta to Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa. Delta also code shares on SAA flights from Johannesburg and Cape Town to Durban, Port Elizabeth, East London and George, South Africa, and Windhoek, Namibia.
KLM, Kenya Airways and Martinair signed a memorandum of understanding Friday to form a joint sales and service company for cargo operations in Nairobi. The new company plans to launch in January and use Jomo Kenyetta Airport as a hub. The company also will open offices in Johannesburg, Lagos and Dubai, with plans to grow into a cargo airline in several years.
Delta's pilots union may soon seek the help of the National Mediation Board in its contract talks with management. The union's Master Executive Council authorized filing an application for mediation, and MEC Chairman Chuck Giambusso is writing to rank-and-file about the issue. The union also plans to ask the Air Line Pilots Association for $10 million to cover the costs of preparing for a strike. Pilots say they are disappointed by an eight-year proposal put forward by management. Talks resume this week in Atlanta.
Jane Garvey will serve out the remaining two years of her tenure as FAA administrator, no matter how the presidential election is decided. She announced her intentions to FAA staff last week. Garvey is the first administrator appointed to a five-year term.
Pilot hirings continue to break all records, with year-to-date numbers reaching 16,432, more than the 15,747 added to payrolls in all of 1999, according to Atlanta-based AIR, Inc. National carriers continue to hire the most pilots, 5,696 so far this year, followed by the majors with 4,109. In October, 1,840 new pilots found jobs. Nationals hired 692 pilots and majors 400. The rate of hiring will produce about 19,718 pilot jobs in 2000, AIR, Inc. estimates.
Emirates continues to refuse joining one of the big global airline alliances, and the fast-growing Dubai-based carrier has "no alliance arrangements projected until 2008" in its master plan, Chief Director Airline Tim Clark told The DAILY.
Barringer Technologies is working with Lipoxen Technologies of London to develop a new technique for the rapid screening of pathogens. It is already working with the University of Connecticut on the project, which could detect a terrorist or military biological attack.
