House Transportation Chairman Bud Shuster (R-Pa.) reacted cautiously yesterday to the United-US Airways merger announcement, saying his priority was to "nail down" the antitrust issue and the viability of the US Airways hubs in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia in an expanded United system. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) said the committee would "pay particular attention" to the impact of the deal on the traveling public.
AeroMexico broadened its code-sharing agreement with Air France to three new European destinations as well as domestic points in Mexico with 14 daily Air France flights. The new cities are Amsterdam, Frankfurt and Zurich. Air France will code share on AeroMexico flights from Atlanta to Monterrey and from Mexico City to Acapulco, Cancun, Guadalajara, Leon, Merida, Monterrey and Puerto Vallarta. The two carriers have been alliance partners since 1995, when they first code shared on twice-daily flights between Mexico City and Paris.
Peru Minister of Transportation Alberto Pandolfi said his country's Civil Aviation Department (DGAC) will meet soon with its U.S. counterpart to discuss complaints that the open-skies agreement between the two countries is not being properly implemented because the U.S. allows access to aircraft wet-leased by Peruvian carriers and disavows dry-leased arrangements. Pandolfi also denied rumors that FAA was demoting Peru from Category 1 to 2.
The consortium Aeropuertos Argentina 2000 (AA2000), which manages runway and aeronavigational facilities at 32 airports in Argentina, is taking legal action this week to ask the courts to investigate the concession contract held by Edcadassa for warehouses and duty-free shops, being managed by Edcadassa subsidiaries Exxel and Interbaires, respectively.
U.S. airports and airlines must work on four fronts to ensure that aviation can provide the growth demanded by the marketplace, according to speakers at the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE) conference in Baltimore. Former Virginia Gov. Gerald Baliles cautioned airport officials to be mindful of the interdependence of capacity, air traffic control reform, international market issues and environmental concerns. Without diligent attention to progress in each area, "you can't grow," he said, adding that ICAO must set the standards.
AeroMexico traffic for April soared 21.7% on 17.8% more capacity, and its passenger count rose 12.1% to 776,215. In the first four months, traffic grew 21.5% to 4.5 billion revenue passenger kilometers, while capacity was up 17.4% to 6.9 billion RPKs.
Biztravel.com decided to put its money where its mouth is yesterday, launching an unprecedented service promise for customers booking flights through its web site on five airlines. The "Biztravel Guarantee" offers financial compensation to consumers for a number of "inconveniences," including flight delays, flight cancellations, loss of baggage, meal selection and the failure to honor seat assignments. The five airlines in the program include American, Continental, US Airways, British Airways, and Air France.
Pegasus Aviation formally signed the lease of two DC-9-32s to first-time lessee Legend Airlines. Legend began negotiations with Pegasus in November for the startup airline's third and fourth aircraft, which now are in service. The airline launched service from Dallas Love Field April 5 and now serves Washington Dulles, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.
Avianca and Aces will increase their weekly roundtrip frequencies between Colombia and the U.S. under the bilateral agreement signed recently between the two countries, which falls short of providing open skies. Avianca will boost its frequencies to seven and Aces will go up to three, to be augmented by four more in October 2001. In November, Aerorepublica will become the first Colombian carrier to operate nonstop Bogota-Orlando with scheduled charter flights, avoiding stopovers in Miami. Colombian carriers may fly charters to Orlando from any city in Colombia.
US Airways was expected to have called an emergency board meeting last night, several sources tell The DAILY, though the airline issued a "strict no comment" when asked about what was happening.
The Frontiers of Flight Museum at Dallas Love Field will have a new home thanks in part to a $7.2 million grant from the Texas DOT. The museum features artifacts that include a propeller fragment from the Hindenburg air ship, a piece of cloth from the Wright Flyer and the first pilot's license ever issued. The museum will move from its current location in the Love Field terminal to a new 100,000-square-foot, three-story structure at the airport's southeast corner. Construction on the building will begin early next year.
American Eagle President Peter Bowler said 70-seat regional jets are about as big as the airline can expect to fly, noting he is "less optimistic" about the future of 90- to 100-seat RJs in the U.S. regional industry. Speaking to the Aero Club in Washington yesterday, Bowler said he did not expect American Eagle to push for bigger RJs, which might create conflict between pilots and management.
Although the House Appropriations Committee approved FAA's requested $144.3 million for aviation security in the fiscal 2001 budget, the panel described itself as "extremely disappointed" over long-standing management issues that continue to plague the program. The committee cited these examples:
LanChile successfully implemented its new passenger reservations, inventory and passenger management systems last week. The new systems comprise a combination of Amadeus reservations and Resiber inventory and passenger management systems developed by Amadeus International and Iberia, respectively. The systems have been fully installed in LanChile, Ladeco and LanPeru and will "facilitate the company's entrance into the oneworld alliance in the near term," LanChile said.
MarchFirst, Inc., the new Internet company created by the merger of Whittman-Hart and USWeb/CKS, signed one-year, multi-million dollar deal with American for site hosting and management for AA.com. MarchFirst's Integrated Application Services Group will host AA.com in two data centers with one in Sunnyvale, Calif., which opened April 2, and the second in Herndon, Va., to open this month.
Atlantic Coast Airlines will add regional jet service from Columbia Metropolitan Airport to United's hub at Chicago O'Hare on July 1. The three new daily flights will complement ACA's existing schedule of four flights per day to Washington Dulles. Service will be aboard 50-passenger Canadair Regional Jets.
US Airways plans to expand its growing Caribbean route network with additional nonstop flights from its Philadelphia and Charlotte hubs to St. Maarten, beginning Nov. 12. The airline's Philadelphia Saturday and Sunday-only service will become daily service, and US Airways' Saturday-only flight between Charlotte and St. Maarten will operate both Saturday and Sunday. All flights in these markets will be operated with Airbus A320 aircraft. US Airways filed with the DOT to serve four new Caribbean routes Nov.
British Airways yesterday revealed its worst financial result since its privatization 13 years ago. It finished the 1999-2000 year with a loss of 216 million pounds (US$323 million), down from a #15 million profit for the year ended March 31, 1999. However, last year's loss includes one-time gains of #249 million ($372 million) from the sale of BA's share in Galileo International and Equant. In the March quarter of this year, BA lost #306 million ($457 million). Operating profit for the fiscal year was #84 million ($126 million), down 81%.
Airbus has letters of intent for the A3XX from four more customers who "will remain undisclosed for a while," and "at least two more are in the pipe," CEO Noel Forgeard said yesterday in Toulouse. Airbus earlier announced that it had received letters of intent from Emirates and Singapore. John Leahy, senior VP-commercial, said the consortium is studying an A330-100 that would "compete directly against the 767-300."
National Mediation Board has sent ballots to Mesaba's ramp and customer service employees, who will vote on representation by the International Association of Machinists, which seeks to represent 971 employees in 17 states. Ballots will be counted June 21.
Less than a week after British Airways claimed to be the first airline in the world to successfully transmit "live human data" from a transatlantic flight to ground stations, Virgin Atlantic matched the effort yesterday, becoming the launch carrier for a new inflight health monitoring system. The Tempus 2000, developed by Hampshire-based Remote Diagnostic Technologies, can handle almost any inflight passenger medical incident.
Vanguard Airlines and BAX Global's Supply Chain Management division signed a deal this week to jointly implement an integrated supply chain management system for the airline. Under this agreement, BAX Global will take over warehouse operations at Vanguard's Kansas City Airport headquarters and provide Vanguard with management of its supply pipeline, the component repair cycle, warehouse management and calibrated tools management.
KLM and Alitalia quashed hopes of reviving their alliance with a joint announcement yesterday that they will "de-merge their integrated organizations in an orderly fashion." Joint services will stop Aug. 31.
Used Jet Aircraft Deliveries For December 1999 Previous Carrier # Type Engine Operator AAR 1 737-200 Adv JT8D-17A Varig AAR 2 747-100 JT9D-7A British Airways ACG 1 737-200 Adv JT8D-9A America West Aerolineas Argentinas 1 737-200 Adv JT8D-15A Pegasus Capital
