Qantas plans to offer a total of 19 services a week from Vancouver to Australia, effective Oct. 29 when it begins code sharing on Alaska Airlines between Los Angeles and Vancouver. The twice-daily Alaska service to Los Angeles will connect with Qantas flights to Sydney and Melbourne. Alaska operates Boeing 737-400s and MD-80s on the route, and Qantas offers its own 767 flights, five days a week between Vancouver and Sydney via Honolulu.
Star Alliance partners United and Singapore (SIA) gained blanket DOT authority for reciprocal U.S.-Singapore code sharing. Initially, United will place its code on SIA's Singapore-Madras flights and SIA will display its code on United's Singapore-Tokyo-San Francisco, San Francisco-Denver/Houston/Seattle and Los Angeles-Seattle flights, with services beginning Nov. 6, the carriers told DOT in their request. (Docket OST-00-7626)
India's leading airfreight company, Blue Dart Express, has inked a deal with China Airlines allowing for an interline arrangement that will facilitate the domestic distribution of import loads for the Chinese carrier, Blue Dart officials said this week. Blue Dart, with dedicated bonded warehousing facilities in major Indian cities, expects to offer overnight delivery to these cities for China Airlines imports, comprising essentially Taiwan-made computer parts and peripherals, as well as other machinery spares.
Britannia Airways applied at DOT for a foreign air carrier permit and an exemption for charter passenger service between Sweden, Denmark and Norway and the U.S., and beyond. The Swedish carrier is wholly owned through two Swedish holding companies by a Swedish tour organizer, which is wholly owned by Thomson Travel Group, all of whose shares were acquired in August by Preussag.
Air France is considering halting its frequencies between Paris and Brussels and replacing them with railway services, the French carrier confirmed. Air France and Thalys, the state-owned high-speed train operator, said a new agreement could occur on March 25, 2001. Air France would halt Brussels service while Thalys would add a fifth daily train frequency between Brussels and Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. The French carrier would purchase and resell seat capacity on Thalys trains.
Ecuadorian officials held informal talks with DOT and State Department representatives yesterday to discuss moving forward on U.S.-Ecuador open skies, DOT Assistant Secretary Francisco Sanchez told The DAILY. Ecuador is "prepared to go ahead" with discussions on full liberalization of the aviation bilateral "even before they achieve IASA FAA's International Aviation Safety Assessment] Cat 1" status, according to a senior U.S. official, who called Ecuador's openness an "encouraging sign." Open skies with the U.S.
Congressional Quarterly has called the Washington Senate race between aviation subcommittee chairman Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) and former Washington congresswoman Maria Cantwell (D) as having "no clear favorite." Cantwell has spent $5 million on her race, and outside groups -- Indian tribes, Sierra Club, American Medical Association and the prescription drug industry -- are running ads attacking Gorton.
SAirGroup's French subsidiary AOM will launch a new flight Oct. 29 between Paris' Orly and Geneva using Fokker 100 aircraft from the fleet of Air LibertE, another SAirGroup French subsidiary. The frequencies, seven daily during the week and five on weekends, will replace the services between Paris Charles de Gaulle and Geneva that previously were operated by Swissair.
TNT launched iConnections, which it called the first integrated e-commerce solution giving business the ability to provide worldwide delivery solutions. "For the first time, Web companies are able to offer full access via their own Web sites," TNT said.
Northwest's web site was awarded best airline Internet honors in the Gomez Advisors Fall Airline Scorecard for the second straight quarter thanks to a wide range of improved features and strong customer service. New site developments and technology enhancements are the hot trend, Gomez said, as U.S. airlines compete to attract and retain customers through their own web sites. Many airlines have improved telephone customer service centers for passengers booking through their web sites, but many online inquiries went answered.
Source One has opened a web site -- Sourceonespares.com - where airlines can buy, exchange or lease refurbished flight control, nacelle, actuation and other rotable airframe components. The site will include parts from Source One's inventories in Houston and London as well as from several OEMs' consigned inventories.
Aviation Management Services, consultants for aviation issues in Latin America and the Caribbean, has selected Juror International Systems IDB2000 data management systems for use with its airline clients. This state-of-the-art program will enable AvMan to perform more efficiently in detailed market analysis, determine true O&D revenues and traffic flows, and reveal untapped revenue sources.
Delta's pilots yesterday asked company shareholders to vote in three proxies that would take executive performance more into consideration when determining pay, rein in senior executive packages and more closely tie a portion of executive stock option grants to company performance. Chuck Giambusso, chairman of the Delta Air Line Pilots Association Master Executive Council, said that in the union's view, the proposals would "strengthen the board's ability to ensure effective management performance while preserving hard-earned corporate resources."
America West wants to slide a slot at Washington National airport in order to continue its DCA-Columbus, Ohio, service following loss of a slot it had been using under a slot swap arrangement for Chicago O'Hare slots with American, which did not renew the trade. America West has operated service on the route for eight years, during which time the market has grown by 37.5%, it told DOT.
The 12th Annual International Aviation Womens Association conference will be held Nov. 8-10 at the Omni Colonnade Hotel in Coral Gables, Florida. FAA Administrator Jane Garvey and NTSB's Carol Carmody are featured speakers. Online registration is available at www.IAWA.org.
Galileo International and WorldTravel BTI signed a new multi-year, multi-million travel bookings deal, making WorldTravel BTI one of Galileo's largest global customers. With this contract, WorldTravel BTI, previously known as WorldTravel Partners, will significantly boost its business and open new partnership opportunities. Specifics of the contract were not disclosed.
Charter airline SunExpress will introduce scheduled flights from its Antalya, Turkey, hub to London and Frankfurt in March 2001. The airline is a subsidiary of Lufthansa charter carrier Condor and Turkish Airlines. Both own 50% of the company. SunExpress wants more stable growth and hopes to depend less on leisure traffic. Currently, it primarily flies leisure routes between Germany and Turkey using four Boeing 737-800s and one 737-300. The -300 will be replaced by an -800 soon, but the airline plans to take one additional -800 for its scheduled flights.
Delta signed a letter of intent to enter a new three-year contract with Precision Industries, which oversees Delta's Ground Support Equipment (GSE) parts purchasing and distribution network. Through an expansion of responsibilities, distribution operations will be decentralized through Precision Industries' staffing of locations in Atlanta, Cincinnati, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, New York, Salt Lake City and Orlando. Precision has been providing centralized GSE services through Delta's Atlanta-based warehouse since 1995.
American Eagle has converted the last remaining turboprop flights between Chicago O'Hare and Toledo to regional jet service and completed the conversion at Milwaukee, Wis., Peoria, Ill., and South Bend, Ind. By the end of the week, American will introduce RJ service at Dubuque, Iowa, and will have RJ service to all 31 cities it serves from O'Hare. The transition will be finished on Nov. 2, when the remaining turboprops used on routes from O'Hare to three Midwest cities are replaced by RJs.
Air Jamaica last weekend abruptly terminated its flights to Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, only four months after it launched service to the city. Competing with BWIA on the heavily traveled route, Air Jamaica found it was not feasible to operate in the market due to the dramatic capacity boost over the summer. "Our study showed that the Port-of-Spain route certainly was capable of supporting two Caribbean-based carriers," said CEO Christopher Zacca.
DOT can more easily designate the New York subway's 4 Train to Yankee Stadium a "Millennium Trail" during the World Series -- the 7 Train to the Mets' Shea Stadium is one of 16 already designated -- than it can award U.S.-China rights, an industry official quipped this week. At last week's U.S.-China event in Washington, an American official promised all attendees free upgrades should American be awarded the designation.
Air Canada's financial results, due out today, will mark yet another quarter of profitability, CEO Robert Milton told The DAILY in Montreal. Milton declined to reveal exact figures before the results are unveiled but noted that this will be one of the most profitable years in the company's history despite the hurdles inherent in integrating Canadian this year and problems this summer at Toronto Pearson. "We're right on track for integrated benefits [of] C$650-C$800 million per year," Milton said.
AIRCRAFT TRANSACTIONS FOR AUGUST 11 - 14, 2000 Seller/ New Type / Previous Operator Owner Engine Operator Boeing Balair Flightlease Boeing 767-300ER/ PW4060 Boeing Delta Delta Boeing
LanChile took delivery of its first Airbus A320-200 last weekend for use on regional routes. The aircraft is the first of four that will be delivered before yearend to replace Boeing 737s. Powered by International Aero Engines' V2500, the aircraft will be configured with a two-class design.
