Air Canada said that as of July 23 it will begin nonstop daily Toronto-Amsterdam service on a new route operated by Boeing 767-200 aircraft. Tickets are now available for sale, and the airline is offering an introductory $799 roundtrip fare for travel July 3-31. Air Canada will also offer double bonus miles when traveling for the first time on the new route between July 3 and August 31. It will sell seats on the route on a code-share basis in the near future, the airline said.
Content with a U.S. proposal presented last Friday, U.K. Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott yesterday reached an agreement with DOT Secretary Rodney Slater to immediately restore air service between Pittsburgh and London. The "mini-deal" also includes an extension of Virgin Atlantic's service to Chicago for the summer season, U.K. officials said. Both sides also agreed to meet in London the week of June 12, "to re-engage in talks aimed at the liberalization of the bilateral aviation relationship between the two countries," DOT said in a statement.
America West will build a $35 million flight training center and systems operation control facility on a 13-acre site leased from the city of Phoenix. The carrier will break ground on the 150,000 square foot project this summer and expects to occupy the facility by late next summer.
Crystal Airways, which had planned to file for certification in coming months, lost $60 million in funding recently that will delay its launch. The startup hoped to begin transcontinental service later this year with four business-class Boeing 757-200s. While the launch date is unknown, the startup plans nonstop service from Baltimore/Washington to San Diego and San Jose. The 757s would be configured for 92 seats with a 43-inch seat pitch -- a foot more room than most economy classes between seats.
FAA sees "no immediate need" to take action on stringers within the wing center section of about 30 to 40 Boeing 767-300s in service. The 767-400s do not use the affected parts. Boeing was notified by a supplier that stringers had been improperly treated. While some affected stringers are on delivered aircraft, "we have determined that these airplanes are safe," Boeing said. It is developing specific actions that may be required for continued airworthiness and that the "discrepant" parts are being removed from all 767s in the factory.
Iberia, in its drive for efficiency, will push fleet utilization rates 15-20% higher to nine hours per day, said Chief Financial Officer Enrique Dupuy last week in London. The airline, toward the bottom of Europe's major carriers in aircraft utilization efficiency, will accomplish this improvement with network design changes in Madrid, crew efficiencies and better fleet commonality.
American completed the installation of a new gate information display system at its Chicago O'Hare hub yesterday. The new displays feature two 36-inch monitors at each gate, which provide a wide range of information for passengers. "As our customers have told us, they want clear, concise and timely information at the departure gates," said VP Bernie DeSena. "The automated display system answers questions routinely asked of gate agents.
Tighter enforcement of the FAA-prescribed minimum horizontal separation of five miles in en route air traffic control centers and the difficulty in transitioning to the Display System Replacement program led to an increase of 48% in operational errors in the first two quarters of fiscal 2000, an FAA spokesman reported. DOT Inspector General Kenneth Mead told a recent House panel that operational errors jumped 21% for the first five months of fiscal '00.
DOT granted ANA and Air Canada broad indefinite rights for reciprocal code sharing via the U.S. ANA may display Air Canada's code on U.S.-Japan flights and beyond. Air Canada may display ANA's code between the U.S. and points in Canada and beyond. The carriers told DOT they plan initially to code share via Los Angeles on Toronto-Tokyo. (Docket OST-00-7074)
The 45-member airlines of the Board of Representatives (BAR) in Kuala Lumpur have taken the Malaysian government to task for lack of concern toward poor security at the Malaysia Airlines Cargo complex at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA). Security lapses led to the loss of millions of dollars worth of luxury goods since the airport opened on June 28, 1998.
Druk Air (Royal Bhutan Airlines) has ordered two Avro RJS-85s, becoming the first customer for the new regional jet. Deliveries of the 82-seat, two-class aircraft will be in November 2001 and January 2002. Druk Air already operates BAe 146 aircraft. The Avro RJX is a derivative and is powered by new Honeywell AS977 engines.
KLM's short-term earnings will remain under great pressure this quarter as the carrier "is the most exposed of the European Airlines to industry conditions because of its inherently weak strategic position," according to Salomon Smith Barney analyst Andrew Light.He added that KLM miss-timed its fuel hedging last year and that a stronger U.S. dollar versus the euro "has exacerbated matters." As a result, the airline unit costs are expected to rise 7% this year and a further 4% in 2001.
Airbus has firm orders for 109 aircraft from Latin America, to be delivered over the next five years, among them 32 to LanChile, the manufacturer announced at the recent FIDEA Air and Space Fair in Santiago, Chile. At the fair, Airbus is exhibiting its A320-300 and touting the A3XX. For its part, Boeing is promoting smaller aircraft in Latin America, such as its 100-seat 717, and increasing sales efforts for medium-sized 767s and 777s.
Vienna Airport is gaining its first competition in ground-handling, as its monopoly was broken through the selection last week of Flughafen Frankfurt subsidiary BAS to offer Vienna services. But Vienna Chief Executive Kurt Waniek is unfazed, calling the Frankfurt division's costs too high. "We don't have to fear any competition," Waniek said at the Aviation Week/Merrill Lynch Aviation Investors Summit last week in London.
The Preston Group, a unit of Boeing, sold its second Total Airspace&Airport Modeller (TAAM) license to MITRE Group's Center for Advanced Aviation System Development, a research and development facility working with the FAA. TAAM, a tool created to support gate-to-gate simulation, will help aviation authorities evaluate operations, redesign airspace and make airport facilities more efficient overall. CAASD's second license will support efforts under way since 1998 to aid FAA analysis efforts.
Two systems being developed for the Pentagon by Raytheon for air traffic control have won approval to enter low-rate initial production, boosting the Defense Department's ATC modernization program, the company said. The ASR-11 Digital Airport Surveillance (DASR) has completed pre-production activities at the Air Force's Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., resulting in a positive initial production rate. DOD made a similar decision in late January on the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS).
A pilot shortage caused by accelerated hiring by major carriers largely contributed to Great Lakes Aviation's $1.97 million net loss for the quarter ended Dec. 31, reflecting an 8.5% reduction in scheduled flying as it scrambled to hire and train more pilots. The airline said it dramatically increased its hiring and training and first quarter 2000 capacity data reflect a return to near-normal staffing. Revenue declined 1.1% to $31.2 million, while operating expenses climbed 2% to $30.9 million.
Airbus will announce today that it is launching a web site where airlines can order spare parts, a company spokesman confirmed yesterday in Toulouse. James Rutledge, director-material market relations, said that "spares.airbus.com" will be immediately operational, according to an interview in German business daily Handelsblatt. In a first step, Airbus's site will be open only to customer airlines, but the European aircraft manufacturer intends to extend its online business to its component manufacturers.
Aviation Industry Stock Performance March 2000 Closed Closed Monthly Change Majors Symbol 03/31/00 02/28/00 ($) (%) Alaska Air Group ALK 28.813 26.500 2.313 8.7 America West (Class B) AWA 15.438 13.375 2.063 15.4 AMR 1 AMR 31.188 52.875 (21.688) (41.0)
FAA Saturday ordered immediate inspections of altimeters on 14 Boeing 717s in service by TWA and AirTran. The airworthiness directive required immediate inspections for potential electrical problems in the integrated standby instrument (ISIS) altitude display, and modification before further flight. This follows two instances of intermittent loss of altitude data on the primary flight display and the ISIS altitude display.
Ownership structure of the Asia Pacific airline industry will undergo a radical change as 16 carriers seek investors or put up stakes for sale. It will be a testing time for global alliances when these carriers open their doors to investors. Many of these proposed sell-offs will take time to materialize, but the heat generated by the push toward a more shareholder-driven structure of these carriers is extremely significant. It will ultimately change the existing ownership structure.
Continental, which has been streamlining since new management came to town six years ago, may take one step further by eliminating another fleet type. President and Chief Operating Officer Greg Brenneman, speaking at the Aviation Week/Merrill Lynch Aviation Investors Summit last week in London, said the carrier, which had nine fleet types in 1996, plans to be down to four by 2005. "It wouldn't surprise me if we go all the way to three fleet types," he said.
Qantas wants an exemption to carry mail and cargo from points behind Australia, via Australia and intermediate points to the U.S. and beyond. (Docket OST-00-7157)
The Brazilian government has started legal proceedings against the country's Big Four -- Varig, Vasp, Transbrasil and TAM -- for forming a "sort of cartel" to increase fares simultaneously and reduce travel agency commissions unilaterally. If found guilty on fare increases, the carriers are subject to fines of 1% to 30% of their gross revenues. United, Continental, American, Delta, British Airways and Lufthansa also reportedly are being investigated, but The DAILY could not confirm this.
