Trans States' Air Line Pilots Association Master Executive Council on Friday evening ratified a new four-year contract. Trans States had canceled its East Coast flights in anticipation of a possible strike, but flight schedules returned to normal on Saturday.
Rockwell Collins completed the acquisition of inflight entertainment systems producer Sony Trans Com yesterday. Sony Trans Com is now a part of Rockwell Collins Passenger Systems, the Pomona, Calif.-based supplier of inflight entertainment systems for domestic and international airlines and aircraft manufacturers. Sony Trans Com's product lines will be integrated with Rockwell's Total Entertainment System product line, and the combined businesses are expected to generate revenues in excess of $500 million annually by 2001.
The White House last week nominated David Plavin, president of Airports Council International-North America, to serve on the Federal Aviation Management Advisory Council. Plavin is the ninth member to be nominated to serve on the MAC but is the first from the airports community. As president of ACI-NA, he represents 150 governing bodies that own and operate more than 400 airports worldwide.
International Lease Finance Corp. selected Pratt&Whitney PW4168A engines for eight firm and 10 option Airbus A330s. Deliveries begin in 2002 for A330-200 and -300 models. Value of the sale to P&W for the firm order aircraft is $200 million. If ILFC exercises all options, the total value will be $450 million. P&W claims the PW4168 has won nearly 50% of all orders for the A330 against its two competitors.
Amtran's second quarter earnings plunged 65% to $5.9 million after it suffered a significant rise in fuel and maintenance expenses. Despite the drop in net income, the parent company of American Trans Air reported a 17.1% jump in total operating revenues last week to a record $333.5 million and revealed plans to attract more business travelers with new service, slated in September. Scheduled service revenues increased 19.7% to $196.4 million, and charter service revenues rose 20.4%.
Priceline.com and Softbank E-Commerce Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of Softbank Corp., unveiled a joint venture yesterday to launch Priceline's services in Japan by yearend. Priceline.com and Softbank E-Commerce will each invest in Priceline.com Japan Corp., which is expected to start its site with offers of leisure airline tickets and hotels. Priceline.com Japan Corp. will license Priceline.com's business method, and Softbank plans to contribute its management expertise to identify, recruit and build Priceline Japan's senior management team.
Air Canada, which had to cancel 33 flights on Sunday and 16 yesterday because of crew shortages, expects to resume normal operations today, said spokesman John Reber. The company and its Air Canada Pilots Association are scheduled to resume contract talks with a federal mediator on Aug. 7, said ACPA Senior Director-Labor Relations Barry Stephens. Reber said the crew shortage was not related to pilot contract negotiations, noting "unfortunately shortages do arise on occasion" at monthend.
Continental suspended flights from Newark and Houston to Santiago, Chile, and Santa Cruz, Bolivia, because civil aviation authorities in Peru have refused to grant it fifth-freedom rights from Lima to both destinations. This development, in turn, has severely curtailed traffic and put on hold plans to build business in this area from a hub in Lima with the use of three Boeing aircraft worth $50 million each. Since starting flights to Santiago and Santa Cruz June 21, Continental has lost $100,000 a day on the services.
FAA will immediately implement 10 safety measures selected by a joint government/industry safety implementation team (JSIT), Runway Safety Program Director John Mayrhofer said yesterday. The team chose the solutions with the "highest near-term potential to reduce runway incursions and accidents," he added, and most of the 10 measures would be in place by yearend, according to DAILY affiliate Airports.
Air Caraibes was formed through the merger of Air Martinique, Air Guadeloupe, Air St. Martin and Air Caraibes. The carriers, which operated from the Caribbean islands whose names they bore, adopted the name of the majority stockholder for the merged company. The merger, strongly supported by island governments highly dependent on income from tourism, is expected to increase both regional traffic, mainly to and from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and international arrivals from Europe and North America.
Northwest and Malaysia Airlines pressed DOT to act on their completed and unopposed application for approval of and immunity for their alliance agreement. Northwest and MAS told DOT that completion of their application requesting antitrust immunity for their alliance agreement preceded that for similar approval by SAS and Icelandair (DAILY, July 26). Northwest/MAS filed Jan. 13, three months before SAS/Icelandair, which applied April 13. No answers were received to DOT's notices of completed applications, due July 12 for SAS/Icelandair and June 16 for Northwest/MAS.
Varig traffic for June jumped 20.7% to 2.2 billion revenue passenger kilometers after rising 15.2% in May. Traffic is up 6.3% so far this year and freight volume 18.5%, including 14.2% in June. The passenger load factor was 79.5% internationally and 65.1% on domestic routes. Varig carried 879,748 passengers last month, a rise of 16.2%.
Flightserve.com received a proposal from a group of private investors for a strategic alliance involving the acquisition of companies in related business, $1.5 million in new capital and changes to management to develop Flightserve's business.
Cathay Pacific today will launch its "progressive" advertising campaign, highlighting several changes made in its products and services over the past two years. The campaign features individual television advertisements focused on the airline's fleet, airport lounges, economy class and role in building Hong Kong into Asia's "super hub." The campaign also will include print and outdoor advertising. The new campaign is centered on the term "progressive," which the airline's research identified as a "highly desirable characteristic" for an airline.
Expedia reported strong revenues for its fiscal fourth quarter and its net loss was less than Wall Street analysts expected. Excluding one-time and non-cash charges, the company lost $13.1 million for the period ending June 30, slightly less than $13.5 million loss in the 1999 quarter. Including the results of the two companies Expedia acquired in March, Travelscape.com and VacationSpot.com, pro forma fourth quarter revenues jumped 164%.
Paul Reutlinger takes over as president and CEO of Airline Management Company France (AMCF) today in an effort to merge three French airlines into a viable competitor for Air France. At the same time, Christoph Mueller is promoted to be Reutlinger's successor as president, and CEO of Sabena as of today. SAirGroup plans to merge the three loss-making airlines Air Liberte, AOM and Air Littoral into a single operation.
The United Air Line Pilots Association Master Executive Council has entered a partnership agreement with United and FAA providing for a Flight Safety Awareness Program to be implemented in the fall. United MEC Chairman Rick Dubinsky said the program will allow collection of safety information that would otherwise be unavailable and let the parties address the issues in a remedial, rather than punitive, fashion.
Pilots have enough motivation to follow prescribed safety procedures without the specter of criminalization of air accidents, Paul McCarthy, Air Line Pilots Association safety chairman, told the House aviation subcommittee.Pilots who do not perform their tasks properly could die, he said, calling it "ridiculous" to think the threat of prosecution would improve cockpit safety.
Among key decisions awaiting Mexico's President-elect Vicente Fox when he takes office later this year is what kind of airport will serve the world's largest city in the future. According to current Transportation Secretary Aaron Dichter, the study, approval and implementation of existing plans to build a new international airport for Mexico City cannot be postponed any longer. "In four or five years, the present international airport will be inadequate and obsolete to handle growing demand, now reaching the point of saturation," said Dichter.
Airinmar signed a four-year agreement last week with KLM to provide a component overhaul and repair service in support of its fleet of Boeing and McDonnell Douglas aircraft. Under the agreement, Airinmar will manage the test, overhaul and repair of components on behalf of KLM. The service will be expanded during the term of the agreement to cover other work supported by KLM Engineering&Maintenance.
South America's airline industry is "shrinking and relinquishing the market to a few major international and domestic carriers," according to Marco Ospina, executive secretary of the Latin American Civil Aviation Commission. At a news conference last week in Buenos Aires, Ospina said that nine of 16 airlines operating internationally from the continent's southern cone have financial problems in a market that comprises only 5% of the world's air transport business. In such an environment, only those having strategic alliances are expected to survive.
The future of commercial supersonic flight will not be thrown off course by last week's crash of the Air France Concorde, according to Boeing CEO Phil Condit, but he noted that the development of new SST will continue moving at a snail's pace for the near future. "We believe that the technology is there to do supersonic flight efficiently and safely," he said at the Farnborough Air Show last week. "The problem is the economics.
The Senate this month approved an amendment to the fiscal 2001 interior appropriations bill that would ban land managers from using federal funds to permanently close an aircraft landing strip. Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, which has led the charge to preserve the nation's backcountry landing strips, said the amendment, introduced by Sen. Michael Crapo (R-Idaho), is considered a temporary measure until he can develop legislation to create a public process for landing strip closures.
