US Airways named Stephen Usery VP-marketing with responsibility for product planning and delivery, the Dividend Miles frequent flyer program, advertising and promotion and consumer affairs. Usery was with Northwest. Rita Cuddihy was named VP alliances and customer advocacy. Both report to Senior VP-Marketing Ben Baldanza.
Continental and Continental Express have added new service from Houston to Abilene and San Luis Potosi, Mexico, from Cleveland to Hamilton, Ontario, and from Newark to Albuquerque. Continental Express started service from Houston to San Luis Potosi with one daily flight using ERJ145 aircraft. It also begins daily service to Abilene with three daily flights, and RJ service between Houston and Harlingen, Texas. Continental Express will upgrade one of five daily flights on the route to the 50-seat RJ and will add a second RJ flight June 14.
The House Immigration Subcommittee has completed a bill making the Visa Waiver Pilot Program permanent, but the State Department is concerned about certain deadline requirements and provisions, including one under which a country's participation in the program would be rescinded and reinstated. "The process for reinstatement and details of that are the focus of negotiation or discussions between Republicans and Democrats both in the subcommittee and full committee," said a spokesman for Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii). The program runs out April 30.
U.S. and Colombia aviation officials are scheduled to meet March 13-14 in Washington to continue negotiations on open skies, making good on a commitment between the two sides to meet within two months of talks held in January in Cartagena. Those talks, while cordial, ended without agreement (DAILY, Jan. 31).
Austrian Airlines is resuming flights to Yugoslav capital Belgrade on March 26. The service was suspended during the Kosovo war. Flights will operate five times each week.
Frontier's flight attendants have received ballots to vote on whether to elect the Association of Flight Attendants as their bargaining unit. Ballots will be counted March 31.
China Southern Airlines wants an exemption for scheduled cargo -- property and mail -- service in the Shenzhen, China-Chicago market, via Anchorage and a technical stop in Sapporo, Japan. The carrier wants full traffic rights to Anchorage and Chicago, planning three-times-weekly freighter service on the route, using a Boeing 747-200 wet-leased from Atlas Air. China Southern operates passenger service between Guangzhou, China, and Los Angeles. It holds authority for combination service between Guangzhou and 17 U.S. points under code share with Delta.
Northwest unveiled plans to enhance its service from San Diego to Asia by inaugurating one-stop service to Osaka and Tokyo, Japan via Los Angeles on June 1. The flight, to be operated with Airbus A319s from San Diego to Los Angeles, will connect in Los Angeles with Northwest's daily nonstop Boeing 747 flights to Osaka and Tokyo.
The U.S. wants to move forward in bilateral negotiations with the U.K. but cannot offer concessions that would require changes in U.S. law, DOT Secretary Rodney Slater wrote U.K. Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott last week. The two countries should "agree to take those steps that can be practically taken now," Slater said, "rather than dwelling on the past." He was referring to a letter from Prescott detailing U.S. foot-dragging on requests made within the framework of the current bilateral (DAILY, March 1).
TWA requested broad U.S.-Bahamas rights, which the carrier intends to use under its code-share arrangement with Gulfstream International. TWA plans to continue expanding its services to the Caribbean -- and its code share with Gulfstream -- by adding flights between six points in Florida and five points in the Bahamas. TWA proposes starting service May 1 between Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando, Tampa, Key West and West Palm Beach and Freeport, Nassau, Marsh Harbour, Treasure Cove and North Eleuthera.
Singapore Airlines ordered six new Cessna 172R Skyhawks, which will be operated by Singapore Flying College in Perth, Australia. The new aircraft will join five other Skyhawks delivered in 1998.
British Airways and Cathay Pacific Airways completed their expected code-share agreement, which goes into effect March 26. Cathay Pacific's "CX" code will be put on BA's flights linking London Heathrow with the U.K.'s four main regional airports -- Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester -- for Cathay's twice-daily London-Hong Kong service. The code share replaces a similar agreement between Cathay Pacific and British Midland on these routes. BA and Cathay also will "explore other ways in which they might work together" in customer service areas, BA said.
Rockwell Collins Government Systems appointed Ronald Hornish VP-integrated applications and navigation systems; Gregory Churchill VP-business development; Steven Nieuwsma VP-engineering, and Bruce King director KC-135 programs
Swissair parent SAirGroup is expected to report a drop in 1999 earnings today, but the decline will be limited due to diversification. SAir's catering and logistics units helped the bottom line last year as the airline suffered from overcapacity and higher fuel costs.
Atlantic Southeast Airlines, a wholly owned Delta subsidiary, last week inaugurated nonstop service between Huntington, W.Va., and Atlanta with three daily flights, using 30-passenger Embraer Brasilia aircraft. ASA is offering an introductory $188 roundtrip fare.
Approved a two-year exemption renewal for Continental to provide service between points in the U.S. and points in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama and beyond, and service between any points in the six Central American countries on flights originating or terminating in the U.S., and U.S.-Belize City, Belize, service...Approved a two-year exemption renewal for American to provide service under code share with Qantas between New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Honolulu and Nadi, Fiji, and Sydney and Melbourne, Australia...
In Federal Register dated Feb. 25...Issued special conditions on Douglas MD-10 aircraft. In FR dated Feb. 28...Issued an airworthiness directive on Douglas twinjets requiring inspecting the jackscrew assembly...Issued an AD on certain Aerospatiale ATR 72 aircraft requiring inspection of certain fuselage areas.
Top 50 West North Central Airports, Ranked By O&D Passengers % of Annual O&D Region Average Airport Passengers Total Yield 1 Denver 16,611,020 38.8% 16.61 2 Salt Lake City 8,705,310 20.3% 12.42 3 Omaha 3,436,010 8.0% 13.90 4 Colorado Springs 2,416,180 5.6% 14.70
National Airlines unveiled last week the first phase of its travel agent web site through a link on its corporate web site at www.nationalairlines.com. The new site will enable travel agents to access information about National. The site's first phase includes information on commission structures, products and services, agent policies, procedures, incentives and news updates.
DOT granted Sun Country Airlines an exemption for scheduled service in several U.S.-Mexico markets, enabling the carrier to convert its charter services on those routes to scheduled flights, which may be published in computer reservations systems and sold as one-way tickets. Sun Country, which is applying for Mexican approval, plans to offer scheduled seasonal and year-round nonstops beginning May 22 from Detroit, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio and Austin to several Mexican points. It will serve Cancun from all the U.S.
American is expanding the use of DVD players on premium international and domestic service. The airline will add DVDs to first-class service on additional flights between the U.S. and both Europe and South America, and to first class on eight U.S. cross-country routes. All of the DVD players come with new Bose acoustic noise canceling headsets. Last week, American expanded DVDs into the first-class cabins of Boeing 767s that serve international and nonstop U.S. transcontinental flights.
DOT wants to extend for a third time -- to March 31, 2001 -- its proposed revision of computer reservations systems rules while it continues its "re-examination" of the rules and their effectiveness.
Continental finally will see some capacity relief this week at its Houston hub after the planned reopening of runway 8/26 on Saturday. The northern runway was closed for several weeks due to signage and lighting modifications. Continental suffered from minor takeoff and landing delays last month, prompting one pilot to apologize to his passengers last week, saying, "This isn't the way we like to do business at our hometown airport."
