Qantas last weekend launched its code-share services on Air Tahiti Nui flights between Los Angeles and Papeete three days a week. Qantas currently code shares on one Air Tahiti Nui flight each week between Auckland and Papeete. The new agreement further expands the Qantas network across the Pacific, bringing to 57 the number of weekly transpacific flights the carrier operates from Los Angeles.
Delta and Czech Airlines (CSA) applied at DOT for broad U.S.-Czech Republic rights available under open skies, requesting blanket authority for reciprocal code sharing. The carriers asked DOT for a decision by Dec. 15 in order to implement their joint service about March 25, 2001. Delta wants to place its code on CSA flights between Prague and 17 points in Europe as well as Dubai (DAILY, Oct. 30).
Crossair has added a sixth daily frequency to its London City-Zurich service. The new frequency means that Crossair offers 880 seats daily on the route with Avro regional jets.
FAA and the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority agreed to cooperate in promoting compliance with international standards for safe transportation of dangerous goods. Under an agreement signed Sept. 19, the two agencies agreed to coordinate the investigation of incidents and share safety information on dangerous goods including safety alerts bulletins and advisories. They also will share proposed and final enforcement actions and incident reports on shipments between the two nations.
FAA should suspend transfer or lease of slots at Washington National Airport, Air Carrier Association of America (ACAA) again urged the agency. ACAA filed a petition yesterday for rulemaking at FAA pointing to leasing or sales of DCA slots by Northwest and asking FAA to block the transaction. ACAA filed a similar request over DCA slot transactions by TWA.
SAS and Icelandair, which last month gained approval and antitrust immunity for their alliance in Docket OST-00-7248 (DAILY, Oct. 17), notified DOT that they plan to begin code sharing between Reykjavik and Orlando, with SAS placing its code on Icelandair flights, beginning Dec. 1. Icelandair displays SAS's code on flights from Scandinavia to Baltimore/Washington, Boston and Minneapolis, via Reykjavik. The carriers earlier told DOT that Icelandair, which also serves New York, is contemplating adding a sixth U.S. point in summer 2001 (DAILY, April 14).
United gained DOT authority to display Thai Airways' code on London-New York/Chicago flights. DOT granted Thai Airways an exemption for service on a code-share basis between Thailand and New York/Chicago, via London, without local traffic rights. (Docket OST-00-7955)
Aviation Industry Stock Performance, October 2000 Close Close Monthly Change Majors Symbol 10/31/00 9/29/00 ($) (%) Alaska Air Group ALK 26.063 24.250 1.813 7.5 America West AWA 9.938 12.870 (2.933) (22.8) (Class B) AMR 1 AMR 33.688 34.620 (0.932) (2.7) Continental CAL 51.000 46.000 5.000 10.9 (Class B)
EasyJet, the London Luton-based low-cost carrier, will launch direct flights from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport to Edinburgh, Belfast and Nice, starting Jan. 5, 2001. Services to Edinburgh will be operated twice daily and frequencies to Belfast and Nice will be daily. All services will be operated with 149-seat Boeing 737 aircraft. "These new destinations will be the first step in the process of establishing Amsterdam as a new base airport for EasyJet," the carrier said.
PROS Revenue Management this week reported its most successful third quarter in its history thanks to record revenues and profits. The privately held company posted a 50% increase in revenue, and the first nine months of 2000 were cash flow positive. The strong results follow record annual revenues and profits during 1999. "The third quarter of this year proved to be another landmark with record revenues, record profits and the launch of new products in the energy market," said CEO Bert Winemiller.
Deutsche BA will take over a daily service from Cologne/Bonn to London Heathrow from British Airways with the winter timetable. The flight will be operated under a BA flight number. Deutsche BA will add one daily roundtrip to Berlin from Munich, for a total of 11, and one from Cologne/Bonn, for a total of 10. The airline also will boost weekend frequencies from Berlin to Stuttgart and Munich, and from Munich to Cologne/Bonn.
Eugene Liipfert, 80, long-time Washington transportation attorney, died Monday. Funeral services will be held at 1 p.m. Nov. 4 at Christ Episcopal Church in Kensington, Md.
European travel distribution company Amadeus announced this week that it purchased Vacation.com, a U.S. Internet consortium for travel agents, for $57 million in cash. "Vacation.com is North America's largest vacation-selling network or consortium, which serves more than 8,400 travel agencies in the U.S. and Canada," said Amadeus. The members of Vacation.com account for nearly one-third of the U.S. leisure travel market and have more than $20 billion in annual sales. At the same time, Amadeus announced its acquisition of Vacation.com.
Malaysia Airlines will take 20 aircraft out of service, effective Jan. 1, following an Oct. 12 meeting by senior executives. The meeting was the second by the carrier's finance and business challenges team. While few details were available, it is believed the decision to reduce capacity is due to a revamp of operating patterns and changes in airport slots across the carrier's network. Worst hit would be the Boeing 747 fleet of 16, which will be reduced by eight aircraft -- six -400s and two -400Cs.
Spirit Airlines, which last week launched service from Washington National to Melbourne and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said it would like to increase its ratio of business to leisure travelers and this week will begin testing non-refundable fares in the Melbourne and Fort Lauderdale markets.
National Transportation Safety Board said yesterday it has dispatched an eight-member team led by Al Dickinson to Taiwan to aid in the investigation of a crash by a Singapore Airlines 747-400. Singapore Flight 006 crashed back onto the runway shortly after takeoff at 11:18 p.m. local time on Oct. 31 from Taipei's Chiang Kai Shek Airport.
Delta is offering its pilots union an eight-year deal that would include a 17.5% pay increase, putting pilots at the top of the industry on the date they sign, but pilots contend United flyers would outstrip their wages after the first raise. Delta's proposal includes a performance-based compensation formula that aligns top pay for top performances. Beyond the initial increases, rate adjustments would occur every two years, based on pilot and company performance, a contingency pilots are not pleased with.
Atraxis last weekend completed the migration of LOT Polish Airlines' reservations and departure control systems to axsRes and axsControl. The migration was completed on schedule, Atraxis reported. Nearly 114,00 passenger name records were transferred from the SITA server in Atlanta to the Atraxis server in Zurich. The axsRes system began its worldwide operations without major problems, followed by axs-Control at Warsaw and Katowice airports. Atraxis also installed the necessary infrastructure at all 67 LOT locations outside Poland.
A program both FAA and industry believed was the next step in aviation safety -- recognizing unsafe practices and trends before they caused an accident -- is on the verge of collapse following an agency proposal that industry and pilot unions say breaks faith with the intent of the effort. Industry and government long expressed the belief that the Flight Operational Quality Assurance Program (FOQA) was a step beyond reliance on the so-called "tombstone" approach to aviation safety -- establishing the cause after an incident or accident.
U.K. low-fare airline Ryanair said last week that growth of after-tax profits for the second quarter will be in the "mid- to high-40% range." For the first half year, Ryanair expects profits to increase in the "mid- to high-30% range." Traffic grew 34% instead of the expected 27%. The airline was able to cut costs with the introduction of Ryanair.com. Meanwhile, it receives 90% of all bookings via the Internet.
Finnair said Monday that "all domestic flights will be canceled and flights to major European routes only" will be operated today if the Union of Finnish Air Transport Workers carries out its threat to launch a strike. The Finnish airline said that all long-distance and leisure flights will operate normally. The airline's ground workers are protesting current restructuring efforts and have made demands related to the company's personnel policy, its development and workers' participation in decision-making.
The U.S. could possibly see one more open-skies agreement in the Western Hemisphere by yearend, as well as additional liberalization in Africa, DOT Assistant Secretary Francisco Sanchez told The DAILY last week. He and other U.S. officials point to Ecuador as the most likely candidate in South America. Both Mexico and Canada could be open to further liberalization, a U.S. official told The DAILY, noting that the U.S. is "watching Mexico" to assess the impact of Cintra privatization of AeroMexico and Mexicana on prospects to revisit open skies. The U.S.
Robert Oliver, an aviation attorney who served as a senior lawyer with the Civil Aeronautics Board, died Oct. 17 in Walnut Creek, Calif. Oliver, 93, was a retired partner in the Washington office of Jones, Day, Reavis&Pogue.
