Air China has contracted to lease a 747 freighter from Atlas Air, the third airline this year from China to enter into an aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance (ACMI) lease with the cargo carrier. Michael Chowdry, Atlas chairman, said China is "clearly the new frontier for air freight in the Asia/Pacific region. And when the country joins the World Trade Organization, as expected, it will trigger an even greater surge in east- and west-bound trade." He said a just-released study by Credit Lyonnais Securities (Asia) Ltd.
Air France wants to bid together with partner Delta for a shareholding in Thai Airways, an Air France executive said. Jean-Francois Fauveau, Air France's regional manager for Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar, said yesterday that "if the bidding is the price to pay, we have to pay it." The Thai government plans to privatize the national carrier, which currently is a member of rival Star Alliance. Ten percent of Thai is planned for sale to a strategic partner.
Nine major Asia/Pacific carriers unveiled a plan yesterday to launch a new online travel exchange for the region. The Internet site will have both a business-to-consumer and business-to-business focus, offering an online travel agency catering to specific markets. Like the Orbitz site in the U.S., the Asia/Pacific site will be operated by a new, independent business with its own management team.
Ralph Ditano, senior VP and secretary-treasurer of the National Air Carrier Association, is leaving the group today. He had been with NACA for 34 years.
Southwest signed the largest aircraft order in its history yesterday, inking a deal for up to 290 Boeing 737-700s, including 94 firm orders to continue expanding its network. Southwest currently has 74 737s on order through 2004 for delivery beginning in 2002. Roughly 25% of the new deliveries will be used to start routes to new markets. The remaining 75% will be used to increase service to existing cities, according to CEO Herb Kelleher.
The Alberta Court of Queen's Bench has approved Canadian Airline's debt restructuring plan. Once creditors are paid, the airline will become a subsidiary of Air Canada.
KLM and two of its employees will be taken to court charges of killing 440 live Chinese squirrels, a spokesperson for the public prosecutor of Haarlem/Netherlands said. The animals arrived at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport in April 1999 without valid documentation and were almost immediately ground in an industrial meat-processing machine. The squirrels were en route to a collector in Greece.
Airlines must continue working to improve areas of passenger satisfaction -- with flight delays and how they are handled as the No. 1 complaint -- DOT Inspector General Kenneth Mead said in an interim report on the airline customer service commitment plan released this week.
American chose Apris this week to develop the technology to provide real-time flight notification services to passengers through the airline's web site, AA.com. Louisville-based Apris will design a "delivery notification application" that will allow passengers to request and receive flight information automatically, using both wired and wireless tools. American plans to implement the new features this fall. The airline's flight schedules and real-time information is currently available to users of the Palm VII handheld device only.
The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday denied petitions from American and the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport board of directors appealing an earlier court decision regarding long-haul service from Dallas Love Field. American wanted the court to review a 5th Circuit Appeals Court decision in February on Love Field, which the airline said conflicts with other rulings regarding Denver and New York LaGuardia airports. The Supreme Court did not release comments after denying the petitions. "We accept the Supreme Court's decision," an American spokesman said.
Korean Air placed an order for three more Airbus A330-300s, increasing its A330 firm orders to 19 aircraft. The new aircraft will be delivered in 2001 and 2002.
American filed notices to add code-share points with Sabena and Swissair. American said it will display its code, beginning July 26, on Sabena flights between Brussels and Nice, Oporto, Stockholm, Vienna and Warsaw and on Swissair flights between Zurich and Dusseldorf, Karachi, Oslo and Stockholm. (Dockets OST-99-5943, 5944)
Cathay Pacific plans to add Wellington, New Zealand, to its network through a new code-share agreement with Ansett New Zealand. The pact, starting tomorrow, covers Ansett New Zealand's existing services between Wellington and Auckland. The code-share services will connect with Cathay's daily flights between Auckland and its Hong Kong hub. Ansett New Zealand announced this week it will soon be renamed Qantas New Zealand and adopt the Qantas Airways brand.
House aviation subcommittee Chairman John Duncan (R-Tenn.) yesterday called the Wide Area Augmentation System "not certifiable" and expressed "serious doubts" about the ability of Raytheon to deliver its contract. He noted that Phase One delivery has been postponed twice and life-cycle costs have "ballooned" to almost $3.7 billion. System integrity problems pushed back initial operation of WAAS another two years and forced FAA to lower its expectations for precision approach capability.
FAA has accepted Alaska Airlines' maintenance and operations plan, allowing the carrier to provide passenger service at the current level and grow in the future, the agency said yesterday. But it will continue its "stringent oversight" of the carrier until July 15 to ensure the plan is fully implemented. Nick Lacey, director of FAA's Flight Standards Service, said the problems turned up by the Alaska inspection have led FAA to plan similar inspections at nine other major airlines within 120 days.
Air New Zealand plans to adjust its service to the Pacific Islands, beginning in August. The carrier will add a third weekly flight between its Auckland hub and Papeete, Tahiti, beginning Aug. 18. ANZ will start a new weekly Auckland-Rarotonga-Los Angeles flight, also in August. In October, it will drop Honolulu as a stop on its Auckland-Apia-Los Angeles service but will add two new weekly nonstops between Auckland and Honolulu at the end of October.
Ebookers.com, one of Europe's largest online travel Internet sites, signed a deal with U.K. cable company NTL Inc. yesterday that will enable consumers to buy discount tickets from Ebookers.com through their television. NTL is the U.K.'s largest cable company. Under the two-year partnership, Ebookers.com will provide content for NTL's U.K. digital cable service, and will have a presence on its other interactive service, including TV Internet and PC Internet. The Ebookers.com digital TV service will go live on NTL's interactive Travel Channel this fall.
Higher demand drove up fares for leisure airline travel nearly 16% in June, pushing leisure travel costs up for the third straight month, the American Automobile Association reported this week. The AAA Leisure Travel Index measures national average cost of leisure travels in airfares, car rentals and lodging. Together, those costs totaled $446.46 in June, nearly 9% more than last month and 11% more than last June. The biggest airfare increases came in leisure travel, which rose more than $38 to an average $280.56 in June.
Atlas Air gained rights from DOT for scheduled cargo service between the U.S. and Colombia and beyond, via intermediate points. All frequency and aircraft limitations for all-cargo services in the market are lifted under the U.S.-Colombia memorandum of consultations agreed to in March (DAILY, March 17). (Docket OST-00-7477)
By the end of this year, several U.S. gateways will be linked with new flights to Caribbean resort island Aruba: Delta will fly daily from Atlanta as of tomorrow; Air Aruba will start daily service to Orlando; U.S. Airways plans an additional daily frequency from Philadelphia; Delta will operate daily service from New York, and Continental will fly four times a week from Newark.
LASV Enterprises finalized negotiations yesterday to buy a majority interest in a U.S.-based airline, believed to be charter carrier North American Airlines. The terms reached in the deal allow Houston-based LASV 30 more days to complete final due diligence before takeover. LASV executives said they spent last week in New York negotiating the terms of the purchase of the 75.1% stake believed to be held by the airline's founder, Dan McKinnon (DAILY, June 27).
Worldspan plans to purchase an equity position in Altanta-based flightserv.com and create an alliance to market flightserv.com's private aviation distribution services to Worldspan's customers. The deal will boost Flightserv.com's Private Seats program, which enables business passengers to book seats on private business jets between selected U.S. cities. Currently, the company offers flights between Teterboro, N.J., airport serving the metropolitan New York area and Atlanta Dekalb Peachtree Airport.
By Kevin Mitchell, President, Business Travel Coalition
The Business Travel Coalition (BTC) unequivocally opposes the combination of United (UA) and US Airways (US). The transaction profoundly risks the very consumer benefits that are the legacy of U.S. deregulation and the envy of the world. Moreover, the UA-US public relations strategy has been largely premised on the hollow argument that their customers are demanding this new networked behemoth.
Qantas operated the first flight over the China West Route, according to ARINC. "This is the first flight to fly over the Tibetan Plateau using the sophisticated FANS-a/A navigation," it said. ARINC installed eight communications, navigation and surveillance/air traffic management workstations at China air traffic centers of Qunming, Chengdu, Lanzhou and Urumqi. These workstations provide automatic dependent surveillance and controller-pilot data link communications for FANS-1/A-equipped aircraft.
