FAA said yesterday it plans to fine LanChile $332,500 for transporting an undeclared shipment of oxygen generators as company material aboard a passenger flight last May 15 from Santiago to Miami. LanChile then offered the shipment to FedEx for air transport to Dallas/Fort Worth, the agency said. FAA alleged the shipment was not properly described on shipping documents and the outer package was not marked nor labeled to indicate the nature of its contents. Chemical oxygen generators require a "Cargo Aircraft Only" label and are prohibited from passenger transports.
There were 20 aircraft accidents with passenger fatalities in scheduled air services worldwide involving large jet transports, ICAO said yesterday. The number of passenger fatalities totaled 492, down from 905 in 20 accidents in 1998. This significantly lowered the rate of fatalities per 100 million passenger kilometers, to 0.02 in 1999 from 0.035 in 1998. For non-scheduled services, there were 24 accidents involving 142 passenger fatalities, compared with 25 accidents in 1998 with 210 passenger fatalities.
AirTran announced a buy-leaseback on two Boeing 717 aircraft with ICX Corp. of Cleveland. Steve Rossum, AirTran VP-treasurer, said the ICX acquisition "reflects the financial community's acceptance of the 717 as a sound investment and AirTran Airways' solid financial condition."
American Airlines Cargo will increase its fuel surcharge May 1 by five cents per kilogram for all U.S. export shipments. Since the rate per kilogram is market-specific, the surcharge to Europe, Latin America and Japan will be 15 cents, to the IATA Caribbean nine cents and to Mexico 10 cents.
FAA's request for fiscal 2000 supplemental funding of $77 million for operations is in trouble in the Senate, congressional sources said yesterday.Senate Appropriations Committee members are questioning the need, sources said, and there is strong opposition among Senate Republican leadership, which already views FAA's $13.2 billion in funding too large. President Clinton's original supplemental request was for $4.4 billion.
Pegasus Aviation yesterday issued a $938 million lease securitization for 28 jets. The deal focuses on the Boeing 757-200ER but also includes 727s, 737s, 747s, 767s, MD-80s, MD-11Fs and Airbus A320s. Average age of the aircraft is 7.5 years and the average initial lease term remaining is six years. Air Canada, AeroMexico, China Southern, Grupo TACA, KLM and TWA are among 22 airlines to become lessees.
Aerospace Industries Association's Research Center reported that the industry's trade surplus fell by 8% in 1999 to $37.6 billion and AIA President John Douglass warned that a clearer role is required by the industry. Douglass said much of the drop was caused by a combination of record imports and lower exports of civil jetliners but that the industry still held the largest trade surplus in the U.S. Douglass called for the creation of a presidential commission to study the future of aerospace.
Malaysia Airlines Chairman Tajudin Ramli, who holds a 29% stake in the carrier through his company Naluri, plans a partial or whole sale under the carrier's proposed debt restructuring scheme, expected to be finalized this month. According to Tajudin, the board has not gone into details of the sale. Analysts said the scheme could go either way -- sale of the shares to another party at a lower price or a rights issue. At press time, the price of the share stood at a low of US$1.03. MAS is listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange.
Lufthansa has increased capacity from Bogota to Frankfurt by more than 30% through the use of Airbus 340-300s on its three weekly frequencies, to be increased to five in the next few months.
The Italian government would not oppose a full merger between national carrier Alitalia and KLM, Transport Minister Pier Luigi Bersani said yesterday. Italian business daily Il Sole 24 Ore reported that the two airlines were in discussions about a full merger. The carriers are integrating management teams following the announcement last fall of a virtual merger. A spokesman for Alitalia said that merging the airlines was one of several possibilities.
Austrian Airlines' traffic was up 3.9% in February, compared with February 1999. For the first two months of the year, available seat miles went up 3% for Austrian, Tyrolean and Lauda Air, but revenue passenger miles increased only by 1%. The load factor was 63.7%, down 1.6 percentage points.
Russian large-cargo carrier Volga-Dnepr, specializing in outsized, heavyweight transportation, has announced 32% growth in freight volume in 1999. The airline operates nine four-engine Antonov An-124-100 heavy-lift cargo transports. Total freight volume for Volga-Dnepr in 1999 was 254 million tonne-kilometers, cargo carried rose to 33,000 metric tons, a 43.7% gain, while revenue increased 25% to $104 million. U.N. support missions dominated among the flights performed by Volga-Dnepr.
Aviation Distributors has an agreement with KLM to purchase 6,400 line items of rotable equipment with a catalog price of $51 million. All the rotables are for newer Stage 3 aircraft, such as Boeing 737s, 747s, MD-11s and DC-10s, and Airbus A300s and A310s.
FAA named Alan Moore director of the Airway Facilities Service, responsible for the maintenance, design and installation of more than 44,000 pieces of equipment and systems at more than 6,000 facilities. He succeeds Stanley Rivers, who retired last year.
American Eagle has initiated nonstop regional jet service between Chicago O'Hare and Chattanooga with three daily roundtrip flights using 50-seat Embraer ERJ145s. The airline has also begun offering nonstop RJ service from Boston Logan to Norfolk/Virginia Beach with three daily roundtrips on new 37-seat ERJ135s. AAdvantage members can earn double bonus miles on both routes until July. 3. American Eagle also is offering nonstop RJ service from Dallas/Fort Worth to Corpus Christi and Lubbock, using ERJ145s.
Pegasus Aviation announced a sale-leaseback agreement for four Boeing 757-200s with China Southern Airlines. The aircraft are to be delivered during the first and second quarters and will operate on daily routes throughout China and Southeast Asia.
Singapore Airlines plans to continue maintaining a fleet of five to six Airbus A340-300s, a change from the original plan of phasing out the entire fleet by 2002. Currently, with 18 Boeing 777s in operation and more on order, the airline plans to replace the entire fleet with 777s. This probably prompted Airbus to reorganize its Southeast Asian regional sales team, which has been based in Singapore for several years. The entire team has returned to Toulouse. Sean Lee, the regional communications director, remains in Singapore.
DOT wasted no time granting US Airways the newly won rights for a U.S. carrier to serve Pittsburgh-London Gatwick. US Airways said it would begin daily nonstops on the route July 17. The carrier applied March 25, 1999, for the then bilaterally unavailable exemption. British Airways announced in August 1999 that it would stop serving the route. The U.S. and the U.K. agreed "through a March 31-April 3, 2000, exchange of letters" to add Pittsburgh for U.S. carrier service, with the U.K. gaining another U.S.
Vanguard Airlines came under increased fire this week after the carrier's auditors questioned its ability to survive as the airline is being strangled by increased costs and competition.
IATA Director General Pierre Jeanniot told the Financial Management Conference yesterday in New York that net profitability on international scheduled services declined from $3.1 billion in 1998 to $1.9 billion last year and that a "slight recovery to $2.2 billion is possible for 2002." Profits for 1999 and 2000 would represent an average of 1.4% of revenue in the two years. "Even if all that profit were devoted to rewarding shareholders, it would not set the world on fire," he said.
Montreal-based regional carrier InterCanadian, which has been struggling with debt since it ceased operations last November, has declared bankruptcy. The company had attempted to come up with a C$15 million bail-out plan. Canadian media reported the airline failed to pay C$5 million in landing and navigation fees. Chief Executive Robert Myhill blamed the airline's problems on industry restructuring.
Belgian airline CityBird has come out of the red three years after its creation: the private carrier reported a net consolidated profit of 153 million Belgian francs ($3.65 million) in 1999, compared with a loss of BEF492 million during 1998. The company's turnover jumped 44% to BEF6.153 billion ($146.5 million). Company Chief Executive and founder Victor Hasson projects revenue of more than BEF8 billion this year.
U.S. Major Carriers Top 10 Airports Ranked By Total Passengers The Year 19990 Carrier/ Average Onboard % of Carrier Rank Airport Stage Length Passengers Total (Miles) Alaska 1 Seattle/Tacoma 881 4,069,631 31.1% 2 Portland 701 1,508,364 11.5%
