DOT granted United Parcel Service a two-year exemption for Los Angeles-Guadalajara, Mexico, service. UPS plans five flights weekly in the market. (Docket OST-00-7282)
FAA on Friday mandated a Boeing alert service bulletin to check older Boeing 767s for cracked engine pylon bolts. The emergency airworthiness directive gives operators five or 10 days, depending on the jet's age, to check the bolts, which are used on pylon struts. Damaged bolts must be replaced immediately. Boeing's bulletin came after United reported finding several damaged bolts during routine maintenance.
Ebookers.com entered into an agreement this week with the computer systems division of Toshiba Information Systems to boost its use by business travelers. Under the partnership, tailored Ebookers.com booking pages and Ebookers.com branded travel content will be incorporated directly into a new web-based user information site, called InMotion, which can be installed by users of Toshiba laptop computers in the U.K. Roughly 1.3 million Toshiba laptops have been sold in Britain, and the InMotion program will be available free of charge to all current users.
Twelve pilot leaders from Delta and its wholly owned subsidiaries and North American code-share partners met Wednesday in Atlanta to establish the first large-scope North American pilot alliance covering more than 14,000 pilots from Delta, Atlantic Coast Jet, Atlantic Southeast Airlines, Comair, SkyWest and Trans States. Delta pilots are in the midst of contract talks with the company, and concerns such as expanded regional jet operations and other job protection considerations are at the forefront.
The inefficiencies in Europe's aviation infrastructure means that while its airlines are fully liberalized, the aviation industry will fail to meet the expectations of travelers and shippers, according to IATA Director General Pierre Jeanniot.
British Airways Director of Strategy David Spurlock said at the Global Airlines Conference in London that BA still is interested in European consolidation. He declined comment on whether Alitalia or KLM were potential partners for BA. He confirmed BA's commitment to a capacity reduction strategy, saying the airline's yield had improved 3% in the third quarter of 1999.
Lufthansa, SAS and United have proposed to set up a holding company to acquire the 10% stake that will be offered to a strategic partner or consortium by Thai Airways International, Thai President Thamnoon Wanglee confirmed in an interview in Bangkok. The three carriers individually showed interest in acquiring a stake when the privatization exercise was initiated in 1998. No further details were available. The three carriers, together with Thai, are founding members of the Star Alliance.
JetBlue has chosen RLM Software to provide the airline with its FlightView real-time tracking software to manage flight-tracking operations. FlightView integrates weather with up-to-the-minute, radar-based data on both commercial and general aviation instrument flights in the U.S. and Canada. FlightView data include flight number, arrival and departure airport, current position, speed, altitude, departure time and projected arrival time.
DOT granted TWA and Air Malta rights for U.S.-Malta code-share service via intermediate points for specified city-pair markets, dismissing the carriers' request for blanket authority. TWA may display Air Malta's code on Milan-New York and London-St. Louis flights, and on flights from New York and St. Louis to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami and Orlando, and between St. Louis and Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth. Air Malta may display TWA's code on Milan-London flights. (Dockets OST-00-7167, 7061)
Swissair CEO Jeff Katz said the lead carriers in the Association of European Airlines last week "agreed to pursue a voluntary program" on passenger rights based on a similar Air Transport Association initiative. "Let us fix this problem ourselves," Katz said in Washington on Tuesday. "We very much hope that further regulation can be avoided."
A House Resources subcommittee yesterday revised a bill that would assure general aviation aircraft access to federal land and the air space over that land for emergency landings, search and rescue activities and fire-fighting. The panel reported the bill to the full committee. At a markup of the national parks and public lands subcommittee, Chairman James Hansen (R-Utah) revised the bill to meet objections. Subcommittee sources said FAA is removed from the consultative process over landing strips. FAA did not want to be in the consultative process.
About 650 employees of FAA's Office of the Associate Administrator for Research and Acquisition and Configuration Management have voted to join the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
The American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) yesterday praised the Justice Department for launching an investigation into the so-called T2 travel web site being built by 30 carriers. It wants Justice also to investigate "T3," the European airline equivalent. ASTA will testify against T2 before the Senate Commerce Committee on June 22. "The Justice Department investigation and the Senate hearing are two giant steps forward in this all-important battle," said ASTA President and Chief Executive Joe Galloway.
United wants rights to serve New York/Newark-Paris, applying at DOT for U.S.-France designation and frequencies no longer being used by Tower Air, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and ceased scheduled service May 2. United plans daily nonstops to Paris Charles de Gaulle beginning April 1, 2001, using Boeing 767-300 aircraft configured for 206 seats in three classes. The carrier requested seven of the eight frequencies previously issued to Tower, which become dormant around Aug. 1.
Raytheon said its AutoTrac Air Traffic Management System Phase 1 successfully completed four months of operation at the Princess Juliana International Airport in St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles. The Phase 1 system consists of multiple flight data controller positions, a fully redundant flight data processing capability and support positions. In Phase II, the system will be upgraded with dual radar data processors and radar displays plus a solid state, digital primary surveillance radar and a Mode S upgradable, mono-pulse, secondary radar.
GTE Wireless and GetThere.com reached an agreement for GetThere to provide Internet travel services on GTE's digital wireless phones equipped with the recently introduced GTE InfoManager wireless Internet service. By using GetThere's services, InfoManager customers will be able to use their wireless phones to obtain time-sensitive information, such as arrival and departure times, gates and baggage carousels. In the fall, the companies said travelers will be able to check booked itineraries on their GTE wireless phone and make changes, if necessary.
JetBlue Airways today will reveal its first performance statistics since it began Feb. 11, including an on-time rate of 80.8% and no cancellations among its 1,144 flights through April 30. The airline carried 129,408 passengers on its 162-seat Airbus A320s and showed a load factor of 70.9%. JetBlue currently serves Buffalo, Fort Lauderdale and Tampa with three daily flights each from New York Kennedy. "This is a good, solid performance for a startup airline," said George Hamlin, senior VP of Global Aviation Associates.
Alitalia Chairman Fausto Cereti has not given up hope that KLM might be willing to reunite with the Italian carrier. Cereti said at the Global Airlines Conference in London that he wanted to "give KLM time to think about it once more." He still considers KLM to be our best possible partner. But "if the girl does not accept to marry me, than I'm sorry for her." According to Cereti, Alitalia is not negotiating with any other airline at this point. He believes that Alitalia can find another partner only after its long-delayed privatization.
Taiwan's civil aviation authority released the final report yesterday on the February 1998 China Airlines Airbus A300-600 crash, stating the accident was caused primarily by pilot errors. Factors cited include failing to acknowledge an ATC request to descend, and poor coordination between the captain and first officer during an attempted go-around. China Airlines said it would "respect the results of the investigation."
Top 100 FAA Suppliers As of February 14, 2000 No. Supplier Name Obligated Amounts 1. LOCKHEED MARTIN FEDERAL SYSTEMS $4,578,450,002.18 2. RAYTHEON SYSTEMS COMPANY $1,166,123,922.40 3. NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORP $894,049,816.00 4. THE MITRE CORPORATION $678,454,197.20
American AirCarriers Support says that due to uncertainty about fuel prices during the first quarter, many airline customers delayed purchase decisions and overhaul approvals, and this helped cause a net loss for the quarter for the maintenance, repair and overhaul service provider. The company reported that net revenues rose 2.9% to $14 million, but there was a net loss of $769,000 versus net income of $1.2 million for the same quarter last year. "A significant part of the losses was attributable to the startup of operations at AAS Aircraft services," Brown said.
Pilots at Canadian Airlines, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association International are willing to take Air Canada CEO Robert Milton up on his offer to pay for arbitration to resolve the pilot seniority issues arising out of the airline merger. But the Air Canada Pilots Association says it is not sure what process it will accept and is not ready to respond to Milton's offer.
The House Rules Committee yesterday cleared the fiscal 2001 transportation appropriations bill, which includes $12 billion in FAA funding. The bill will be on the House floor today. In a brief hearing without any hostile questioning, the committee gave the go-ahead to funding FAA at $12 billion, up 25%. The boost was largely due to an earlier enactment of AIR-21, the three-year authorization that funded capital accounts through the Airport and Airways Trust Fund.
DOT Office of Inspector General told FAA Administrator Jane Garvey this week that her agency is getting too cozy in its a relationship with RTCA and that it should take a more objective approach toward the federal advisory committee. Of particular concern to the IG are secret meetings on Free Flight and senior FAA officials serving on the RTCA policy board. "Over the past several years, FAA's use of RTCA has changed significantly and is unique in comparison with other federal agencies' interactions with their advisory committees," the IG said.
Some 69% of the members of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and 60% of avionics shop owners believe that GPS moving map displays and other advanced avionics are contributing to the loss of basic navigation skills. AOPA President Phil Boyer, speaking at the Aircraft Electronics Association convention in Reno, said the "new gee-whiz avionics on the exhibit hall floor at this convention are just the tip of the iceberg.
