Singapore Airlines reached an agreement with Brierley Investments yesterday to acquire 16.7% of Air New Zealand for NZ$3 a share, or a total of NZ$285 million (US$141.2 million). The expected investment follows SIA's purchase of an 8.3% stake in ANZ earlier in the month. With 25% maximum holding of ANZ, SIA further strengthens its relationship with both ANZ and Ansett Holdings. SIA eventually would like to acquire more the carrier if the New Zealand government approves.
British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, among disgruntled international carriers faced with a short-notice -- less than two weeks -- increase in fees at Newark Airport, filed a complaint at DOT against the airport and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. The U.S.-U.K. aviation pact includes a U.S. policy statement encouraging U.S. airports served by U.K.
DOT granted Ghana Airways authority, available under the U.S.-Ghana open-skies agreement, for Accra-Baltimore/Washington service, opening the way for the first same-plane service from West Africa to the Washington area. "The vast majority of the ethnic Ghanaians and West African population in the Washington, D.C.-Baltimore region lives in close proximity to BWI," the State of Maryland said.
LanChile's systemwide traffic for three months increased 3.7% as capacity fell 2.0%, raising load factor 4.0 points to 72.3%. International passenger traffic rose 4.9% on 1.5% less capacity, increasing load factor 4.5 points to 74.3%. Domestic traffic was down 0.2% as capacity decreased 3.5%, pushing the load factor up 2.2 points to 66.1%.
Flughafen Wien AG, the company operating Vienna Airport, intends to double its capacity by 2015 in order to face the upcoming traffic increase. The company's board decided in favor of the project of Swiss-Austrian architect group Architektenbietergemeinschaft Itten&Brechbuehl/Baumschlager-Eberle. Until 2007, the costs of the new terminal will be approximately 385.2 million euros; the next expansion wave (2007 until 2015) amounts to 261.6 million euros, the airport said. The company expects traffic to grow by 6% in 2000 to about 12 million passengers.
The flood of well-funded dot.coms in the aviation industry still do not provide carriers the "basic tools" to run a more efficient and profitable operation, according to Capital Cargo International Airlines founder and Chief Executive Peter Fox. The Internet has opened the supply chain to many carriers around the world, but most portals and web sites still are "closed systems" that operate independently and are not solving the basic problems faced by cargo carriers of all sizes.
With Congress unlikely to act on a fiscal 2000 supplemental, FAA is looking into eliminating or reducing contracts to replace the $77 million in operations funding it was hoping to get from the supplemental, Administrator Jane Garvey told The DAILY yesterday. She said during a National Aviation Club luncheon speech in Arlington, Va., that "we're still hopeful." and "we're looking at what our options are." The congressional budget resolution enacted earlier this month all but foreclosed action on a supplemental in fiscal '00, which lasts until Sept.
Atlas Air is taking delivery of a Boeing 747-400 freighter that is slated to go into immediate service with China Southern Airlines, replacing a 747-200 freighter operating on its Shenzhen-Chicago route.
DaimlerChrysler Aerospace (DASA) and Northrop Grumman said Tuesday that they want to cooperate in the field of defense technologies. The companies signed an agreement under which they will investigate possible areas of cooperation. They want to present their results in June, which may hint at the Berlin air show as a target date. The yet-to-be-formed European Aerospace Defence and Space Company (EADS), in which DASA will merge with Aerospatiale Matra and CASA of Spain, is planned to take DASA's place in the deal once it is set up in the summer.
FAA safety chief Chris Hart yesterday told a symposium on transportation safety and the law that he was "not sure" how the agency would respond to a court order to reveal information collected by the aviation industry for safety purposes.
American, noting that available U.S.-Ghana, third-country code-share frequencies exceed the number requested by U.S. carriers, asked DOT to allocate the frequencies without delay or further proceedings. Three carriers filed applications for a total of 12 frequencies; after DOT designated three frequencies for current Northwest code sharing with KLM via Amsterdam, 14 are available under the phased U.S.-Ghana open-skies pact. American applied for five to use for services proposed in its pending request for broad code-share authority with British Airways (DAILY, Nov.
Fairchild Aerospace says its first 44-seater 428JET will be delivered to launch customer Atlantic Coast Airlines about six months later than originally planned. The event is now slated for the end of the first quarter of 2003.
The right main landing gear of a Qantas Boeing 747-300 collapsed on Saturday shortly before takeoff at Rome Fiumicino Airport. None of the 303 passengers and 19 crew was injured in the accident. The gear collapsed when the gear strut broke. The aircraft was just about to make a U-turn to taxi onto the runway. The right outboard engine hit the tarmac and fuel was leaking. Qantas Flight QF16 was bound for Sydney via Bangkok.
Vanguard Airlines' financial situation deteriorated further in the first quarter as the carrier posted a $7.6 million loss due to weak demand and high fuel expenses. The net loss for the quarter compared with a $41,000 profit in 1999. Revenues were up about 14% to 28.4 million, but the results were overshadowed by higher expenses and a load factor that plummeted more than nine percentage points to 59.7%. "We are very disappointed with our first quarter results," said Chief Executive Rocky Spane.
National Air Traffic Controllers Association said that two more FAA groups have selected the union as their bargaining unit. More than 520 FAA workers from the agency's logistics, budget, finance and computer specialist divisions voted by a 78% margin for NATCA, the union said. Another 75 agency engineers in Oklahoma City selected NATCA by a 73% margin. "These engineers will join more than 1,100 agency engineers already represented by NATCA," the union said. Randy Schwitz, executive VP, said NATCA is proving to be the "union of choice" for FAA personnel.
DOT tentatively granted antitrust immunity to the American, Sabena and Swissair alliance. The three would hold 13.2% of the U.S.-Europe nonstop passenger market, according to DOT, compared with 14.8% held by the now-ended Delta/Austrian/Sabena/Swissair immunized alliance. DOT found that open skies and competitive market conditions on routes to Belgium and Switzerland would provide adequate competition, except on the Chicago-Brussels and -Zurich routes, where American now competes with Sabena and Swissair. On-line services are available from Chicago from other U.S.
FAA has expanded the scope of governmental aircraft functions to include familiarization training given in government-owned aircraft under certain conditions. The agency said the issue arose with the increasing use of surplus military aircraft by government entities. Previously, such training was not considered to be a function of government aircraft, which is largely defined as fire fighting, search and rescue, law enforcement, aeronautical research and biological geological resource management.
San Francisco Airport plans to take the unprecedented step of cutting service by 30-seat aircraft, saying they create too much congestion. United officials said the move will hurt service at the airport and damage the Bay Area economy.
FAA recently cleared the Pilatus PC-12 and Beechcraft BE-2000 Starship turboprops for single-pilot Part 135 instrument flight rules operations and is expected shortly to give similar approval to Cessna 501, 525 and 551 business jets. The approval became necessary after FAA's Flight Standards Service in December issued a memorandum highlighting a requirement under Part 135 calling for an alternative static source for aircraft used in single-pilot operations.
Zurich Airport is heading for yet another conflict with neighboring communities after the German ministry of transport decided to support two villages in their struggle against aircraft noise. The towns of Hohentengen and Herdern, situated at the German-Swiss border, are being overflown by aircraft heading for Zurich Airport's Runway 16, the threshold of which is about 10 miles southeast of them. The German federal government demands that the number of approaches to Zurich over German territory be reduced to 80,000 movements per year.
Correction: Frontier's pilots are represented by the Frontier Airline Pilots Association. The April 24 DAILY incorrectly identified the union representing Frontier pilots.
