Continental plans to launch new daily nonstop Boeing 777 service between its Newark hub and Hong Kong, effective March 1, 2001, the first time any airline has flown scheduled nonstop service between the two cities. The airline claims the new service will be the longest nonstop flight operated by a U.S. airline and the longest scheduled nonstop flight ever flown from a New York area airport. The 7,337-nautical-mile trip is also the longest route operated with a 777 aircraft.
United will begin seasonal weekend Chicago-Aruba service Nov. 11. Flights will be operated with Boeing 757 aircraft seating 24 customers in first class and 158 in economy, plus 50 seats in the Economy Plus section. Service will be every Saturday until Dec. 9, and from Dec. 16-April 7 United will offer two weekly nonstops on Saturday and Sunday.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) will have more control of the country's air space soon with the Chinese military's plan to release its grip. The change, which would mean a significant expansion of Chinese air space for commercial aviation, would enable CAAC to restructure new and existing air routes with a free hand. Currently, many of the routes are twisted, resulting in longer flight times to avoid violating the air space, which is tightly controlled by the military.
United pilots are miffed by company assertions that nearly 300 flight cancellations over the weekend stemmed from pilots calling in sick in response to slow labor contract negotiations. United on Saturday canceled about 150 flights at Chicago O'Hare and about 120 on Sunday, blaming pilots who are refusing to work overtime since their contract became amendable in April. United Air Line Pilots Association spokesman Herb Hunter said he flew through O'Hare over the weekend and was delayed and diverted several times because of storms on Chicago's south side.
Boeing's largest 737 flew for the first time on Aug. 3. The 737-900 will be delivered to launch customer Alaska Airlines next April. It can carry up to 177 passengers in two-class configuration.
American's Allied Pilots Association says that under a new tentative agreement being considered by membership, Horizon Airlines aircraft would be subject to more restrictive counting rules than currently in effect to make sure the number of aircraft complies with contractual limits. APA spokesman Gregg Overman, in a recorded message to pilots, said Horizon aircraft eligible to carry American's code would be those with a maximum passenger capacity of 70 seats and a maximum gross takeoff weight of 75,000 pounds. He noted that each Jan.
All business units of the DynAir Group operating in the U.S. have adopted the Swissport identity. The name change comes about a year after the world's largest ground-handler acquired the group. The DynAir Group was acquired in July 1999 by Swissport International, a unit of SAirServices. With this acquisition and subsequent mergers, Swissport claims to be the world's largest ground-handler, both in terms of stations served and revenues generated. The boards of DynAir and Swissport approved the name change recently to pursue a global branding strategy.
Coalition of Airline Pilots Association (CAPA) said yesterday that FAA has extended from Aug. 4 to Sept. 4 its deadline for letting the agency know if pilots do not want their names and home addresses made available to the public. FAA did not advise airmen until July that the information would be released unless they objected in writing, according to CAPA, which obtained the assistance of Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.) ranking member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
KLM Cargo yesterday said it is increasing cargo rates 5% to 10% in most key markets. "These increases follow increased demand," the carrier said. "During the first quarter cargo traffic increased by 4%, while yields rose by 13%. First quarter cargo revenues rose by 17% versus last year." In most markets the increase will come on Oct. 1 but in the The Netherlands it will take effect Sept. 1. Increases will apply to most routes. Cargo rates will rise 10 to 20 euro cents per kilo on routes between Europe and Chicago, New York, Los Angles, Houston and Mexico City.
FAA said yesterday that all major carriers in the U.S. except Northwest that operate DC-9 or derivative aircraft have validated the tools used in jackscrew endplay checks (DAILY, Aug. 7). "Northwest has 16 locally manufactured tools, which are still in the process of verification," the agency said. FAA last week asked all operators of the Douglas aircraft to double-check what tools were used in the checks and to make sure they accurately measured endplay tolerances.
U.S Major Carriers Productivity, In RPMs And ASMs Per Employee First Quarter 2000 Revenue Available Passenger Seat Miles Miles Total (000) (000) Employees Alaska 2,814,005 4,231,293 9,310 America West 4,325,900 6,489,223 12,430
Israel Aircraft Industries said its net profit for the first six months of 2000 rose to $44.4 million from $31 million in the same period last year. Revenues rose to $1.1 billion from $1 billion. The backlog is a record $3.8 billion.
Air France's passenger revenues jumped 16.7% in its fiscal first quarter to 2.17 billion euros (US$2 billion) thanks to strong traffic and higher unit revenue. Traffic increased 10.9%, easily outpacing the 5.7% capacity gain. Load factor rose 3.7 percentage points to 79.4% and yield improved 5.2% for the quarter ended June 30. The airline's North and South American networks both posted strong operating revenue improvements, growing 32% and 25.3%, respectively.
Air France has admitted that it did not modify water deflectors attached to the main landing gear following a 1993 incident in which a British Airways Concorde was involved. BA completed the modifications in 1995. Air France stated that the changes to the piece were not declared mandatory at the time. The airline said that BA's modification was not done to prevent the deflector from separating from the gear but to ensure that if it did separate, it would remain in one piece.
Continental said its July on-time performance was up 12 percentage points over July 1999 despite bad weather and record load factors. The average on-time performance was 80.1%, compared with 67.9% in 1999.
The European Union is contesting the U.S. Article 84 hushkit complaint with ICAO on the basis of technicalities, in a position paper that the EU offered last month. First, the EU argues that ICAO rules impose that the parties concerned negotiate prior to entering into an Article 84 procedure. "The talks with the United States never pertained to the conformity of the EU's hushkit regulation with the Chicago Convention," said a spokesman for EC Transport Commissioner Loyola de Palacio on Friday.
Clarification: Japan Airlines will not operate regular service to Cuba, as reported Aug. 4. JAL has been contracted to operate four charter flights using 370-seat Boeing 747s to Cuba from Osaka Kansai International Airport in August. The charters were arranged through Cuba's government tourism organization Cubanacan. These are the first direct flights from Japan to Cuba, with a total flight time of about 17 hours, and the Cuba-initiated program is not a signal that JAL intends future service to Cuba.
U.S. airlines that helped nudge low-fare carriers into bankruptcy now may regret that those same carriers are not around during consolidation. Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), in offering legislation recently to protect competition, cited aggressive tactics against low-fare airlines as a reason for his bill. "This is not a theoretical problem," he said. If the industry is reduced to three mega-carriers, it will have "greater financial resources and general freedom from competition.
United Parcel Service urged DOT to secure more access for U.S. carriers at Tokyo through a variety of means, including reallocating slots among U.S. carriers. Filing in the docket of American and Japan Airlines for all-cargo code sharing in which Polar Air Cargo claimed that the alliance between Northwest and JAL would further dominate the U.S.-Japan market (DAILY, Aug. 1, July 27), UPS noted that Polar leased four of its 16 Tokyo Narita slots to passenger carriers. Fourteen of Polar's slots were allocated in a proceeding distributing slots among all-cargo carriers.
Transatlantic common aviation areas (TCAAs) would provide widespread gains, and the formation of the first will be especially important as a model for the future, Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus, Lufthansa international relations head, said last week in Montreal. Speaking to the American Bar Association Air and Space Forum, he said shareholders and airports would be first among those benefiting most. Slots would perhaps have to be ceded in exchange for access to other markets, he said. TCAA member-countries and third countries would gain, he said, noting that the U.S.
JetBlue yesterday began nonstop New York-San Francisco service with fares starting at $99 each way. JetBlue also announced new daily service to West Palm Beach scheduled to begin Oct. 18 and increasing to twice daily service Nov. 18, and daily service to Ft. Myers beginning Nov. 18. The two new routes will give JetBlue five destinations in Florida.
