Canadian charter airline Royal Airlines' move into scheduled service on markets dominated by Air Canada adds one more player to an increasingly crowded airspace as smaller airlines try to grab customers from the country's dominant carrier. Royal Air said last week it will add four Boeing 737-200s to its fleet and offer domestic scheduled flights on key Air Canada routes with fares that are as much as 70% cheaper than Air Canada's, comparable Aeroplan points and interline connections.
Air Transport Association Cargo Traffic June 2000 Revenue Ton Miles (000) June June % 2000 1999 Change Domestic Freight 915,017 848,733 7.8 Mail 166,835 155,932 7.0 Total 1,081,852 1,004,665 7.7 International
TWA today plans to launch a redesigned web site that is supposed to "meet the needs of today's on-the-go traveler." The enhanced site will allow the ability to book tickets on other airlines as well as hotel and car rental accommodations. The airline also will offer the option to choose seat assignments and make meal requests. TWA claims to have sold 10% of all tickets through its own web site in 1999.
Australian regionals are betting their futures on the growing demand for fast, convenient air service between major hub cities and smaller communities. Taking into account that Australia has a population of about 19 million, most of it clustered in urban centers, three regionals are charting diverging paths for their businesses.
Pilot hirings continued at record levels in July with 1,561, according to Atlanta-based AIR Inc. Year-to-date, 11,179 pilots were hired, compared with 15,747 for all of 1999.
Spurred by a demand for travel to Australia, China Southern Airlines (CSA) will resume its services Down Under in December with three-times-weekly flights between Guangzhou and Sydney, using Boeing 777s. Two services would operate via Melbourne and the third would be a nonstop flight. CSA suspended its Brisbane service in 1998 due to poor yield and the Asian economic crisis. Over the next 10 years, an estimated 2.8 million Chinese are expected to travel to Australia.
China Airlines' total net revenue for July jumped 20% from the 1999 period to NT$6.4 billion (US$206 million) thanks to the recovering Asian economies, the launch of two new passenger routes and the introduction of new freighters. Passenger revenue climbed 14.7% to NT$4.2 billion ($135 million), helped by an 82.4% load factor, up 4.5 percentage points. The cargo load factor was 87%, up 85.4% from last July. China Airlines plans to start passenger service to Penang and Medan and charter services to New Delhi during September and October.
New York jet fuel spot prices ended last week at $0.94 per gallon, up 5.5% from the beginning of the week and up 55% from a year ago, according to Deutsche Banc Alex. Brown. Crude oil futures for October jumped last week, closing at $31.70, nearing a nine-year high of $34.13 reached in March.
Australia's regional airline market has been growing 8% per year since 1978, even during recessions, indicating there's plenty of business to go around, Impulse Airlines CEO Gerry McGowan told The DAILY. McGowan said Sydney-Melbourne, one of Impulse's routes, is the third-largest market in the world, leaving McGowan confident that even with Virgin Blue arriving in a couple of weeks, Impulse will stay competitive.
TWA plans to cut unprofitable service from New York Kennedy to three Florida cities, beginning in October, and will reallocate the aircraft to some of its new transcontinental service. As part of the cuts, the airline will discontinue all service to West Palm Beach, which includes daily flights to JFK and its St. Louis hub. TWA will also cancel its service between JFK and Tampa and Fort Lauderdale but continue its three daily flights from Fort Lauderdale to St. Louis and its three daily flights to its San Juan focus city.
China Northern Airlines (CNA) has made two proposals to Angel Air in a bid to secure a strategic partnership with the Thai private carrier to pave the way for its return to normal operations. In the first proposal, Shenyang-based CNA proposed to wet-lease two MD90s and two Airbus A300-600Rs for a period to be determined by Angel. The MD90s would be used for domestic services, while the A300s would be deployed on international routes.
With 10 weeks to U.S. election day, two incumbents on the Senate aviation subcommittee and two on the House aviation subcommittee are considered to be in tossup re-election contests. All four seats are held by Republicans. Congressional Quarterly gives the designation of "no clear favorite" to the races of John Ashcroft (R-Mo.) and Spencer Abraham (R-Mich.) and applies the same rating to those of House aviation Reps. Steven Kuykendall (R-Cal.) and Donald Sherwood (R-Pa.).
A Lufthansa Flight Training and LanChile joint venture in Santiago, Chile, is profitable even before the first year of operation is completed. "I think we have surprised some people in Germany," General Manager Ron Teichmann told The DAILY. As it builds its first Latin American presence, LFT is looking at other areas of South America for a new training facility.
Frustrated with what they see as a lack of progress on potentially key issues, the Egyptian delegation left Washington late last week after what sources close to the group say was an unproductive, two-day technical review with U.S. investigators on the crash of EgyptAir Flight 990. The Egyptians left the meeting feeling points of contention brought up several months ago have not been resolved, and more recent developments, including Boeing's findings that a required Boeing 767 elevator inspection was not finding some failed actuators, have not been probed enough.
The scope of aircraft wire hazards took center stage this week at the National Transportation Safety Board's meeting on the TWA 800 crash, as the board challenged a recent industry study's conclusion that in-service fuel system wire safety problems are few and far between. The fuel tank system study, released last week by the Air Transport Association (ATA) and Aerospace Industries Association, reported that some 990 checks of in-service planes over a three-year period found only "isolated incidents" of potential safety-of-flight issues.
Varig signed a contract yesterday with International Lease Finance Corp. for two new Boeing 777-200ERs that are scheduled for delivery in October and November 2001. The lease contracts are for 10 years each. The aircraft will be the first 777s operated by a Latin American airline and will be powered by GE90-90V engines.
Canada 3000 has partnered with Amex Bank of Canada to offer frequent flyer miles. Beginning on Oct. 2, American Express card members enrolled in Canada 3000's Membership Rewards program can redeem points for travel to more than 40 selected destinations worldwide.
American and LanChile will add nine code-share routes, beginning Oct. 18, including American's first domestic Chilean presence.U.S. presence for LanChile -- and new competition for Continental and Delta -- will include Miami to Orlando, Houston and Atlanta and Dallas to Chicago, Atlanta and Houston.
