TWA gained DOT approval for broad rights U.S.-Bahamas service, which the carrier plans to operate under code share with Gulfstream. TWA told DOT it wants to begin Florida-Bahamas 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. (Docket OST-00-6993)
International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers Associations, at a recent conference, expressed anger over being "erroneously fingered as the cause of delays." IFATCA President Samuel Lampkin says the "true causes" of delays are scheduling problems created by hub-and-spoke operations, weather and increased traffic volume. "A controller's only job is to get passengers from point A to point B safely," says Randy Schwitz of NATCA.
DOT Secretary Rodney Slater visits Europe Monday through Wednesday to discuss with European leaders the globalization of aviation agreements "among groups of like-minded countries." He meets separately today in Brussels with Loyola de Palacio, European Union transport commissioner, and Tineke Netelenbos, Dutch transport minister. Slater also meets with FAA staff, U.S. EU Ambassador Richard Morningstar and U.S. business leaders and addresses the European Aviation Club.
Summary of U.S. National Carriers Systemwide Traffic Third Quarter 1999 Revenue Average Revenue Passengers Length of Passenger Enplaned % Travel Miles % (000) Change (miles) (000) Change AirTran Airlines 1,598 11.91 542 865,496 5.76
FedEx appointed Robert Carter executive VP-information technology and chief information officer, succeeding Dennis Jones, who will retire at the end of the year.
DOT granted United broad U.S.-Portugal rights, which the carrier plans to operate under code share with Lufthansa, British Midland and Spanair. United may provide service between points in the U.S. and Portugal, via intermediate points, and beyond Portugal, available under U.S.-Portugal open skies agreed to December and provisionally in force. It plans to display its designator code on flights between European intermediate points -- Germany, the U.K. and Spain -- and Portugal, DOT noted.
The Dallas/Fort Worth Airport board of directors is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a recent 5th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that cleared the way for DFW signatory airlines to fly out of Love Field. Following the Feb. 1 decision, American announced plans for limited service out of Love Field and Continental said it would expand service at the airport.
Austrian Airlines Group partners officially joined the Star Alliance yesterday, which will bring annual benefits of at least 300 million Austrian shillings beginning next year. Austrian Airlines, Lauda Air and Tyrolean Airways will have all become members of Star, which will consist of 15 members by yearend. After being a member of the Swissair-led Qualiflyer group for several years, one of the largest hurdles for Austrian was the switchover in its information technology system.
U.S. and U.K. officials plan to meet in Washington on Thursday in a government-only meeting to discuss a paper presented by U.K. Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott to DOT Secretary Rodney Slater last week, according to a British spokesman, who termed the meeting "talks about talks." The page-and-a-half paper "encapsulates" discussions between Slater and Prescott and lays out "terms and agreements" on the process of resuming formal bilateral talks, he said, expressing optimism "that we can agree to see our way clear" to restart "proper talks," last held Jan. 28.
Turkey's conclusion of an open-skies pact with the U.S. places Turkey among "those forward-looking nations that are striving though open skies to facilitate the highest quality of service at the best possible prices," DOT Secretary Rodney Slater said. The agreement will come into force after signature by both sides of properly authenticated translations of the pact, according to Thomas White, U.S. acting deputy assistant secretary of state. White negotiated the agreement last week with A. Tahir Dengiz, Turkish acting under secretary of transport.
Space Systems Loral won a contract to build MTSAT-1R, an advanced multi-functional satellite for air traffic control and weather observation for Japan's Ministry of Transport. When delivered in 2002, the satellite will provide communications and navigation services for aircraft and will gather weather data for users throughout the entire Asia/Pacific region, including Australia and New Zealand.
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), along with six co-sponsors, has introduced a bill that would suspend the 4.3-cents-per-gallon federal tax on aviation fuel if the price of regular unleaded gasoline rises above $2 per gallon in the coming months. Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), a member of the Republican leadership's Energy Security Task Force and a co-sponsor of the Lott bill, said the legislation would temporarily repeal the 4.3-cents-per-gallon increase in the federal gasoline tax from April 16 through Dec. 31, 2000.
A management shake-up at Venezuela's Avensa/Servivensa last week has upset the airline's labor union. When Wilmar Castro was appointed president and chief executive by the board to succeed Henry Boulton, the union said it was illegal, according to union representative Alejandro Teran. Castro's appointment is illegal because only a general shareholders meeting, and not the board, is empowered to name the top officer.
Talks between US Airways and its Association of Flight Attendants unit were going slowly yesterday, with the expectation that if that an agreement materializes, it likely would come in the 11th hour. "Everything big is still out there," said AFA spokesman Jeff Zack, who described the mood of the talks as "tense." He said, "All the big things remain [on the table] and it's slow going." He said the two sides could extend the 30-day cooling-off deadline past 12:01 a.m. March 25 if they're making significant progress.
Frontier Airlines electronic tickets are now available on Sabre. More than 50% of Frontier customers use e-tickets, and VP-Marketing Jeff Potter said he expects that number to increase. Frontier offers e-tickets on all four global distribution systems.
New Jet Aircraft Deliveries For November 1999 Last 12 Months Carrier # Type Engine Delivery Aer Lingus 1 A321-200 CFM56-5B3/P 3 Air Canada 1 A330-300 TRENT 772 1 Air China 1 737-800 CFM56-7B24 3
Galileo International plans to launch a new, wholly owned telecommunications subsidiary -- Quantitude Inc. -- to boost revenues and widen its network. Quantitude said yesterday it plans to begin construction of the new network immediately, with most endpoints scheduled to be connected in the first two years and the entire project completed within three years.
Pro Air will add a weekday Detroit-New York LaGuardia flight and a Detroit-Orlando flight, bringing its total in each market to two. The carrier is introducing Indianapolis-Orlando flights and connecting service from Seattle to Atlanta, Indianapolis and Orlando. The spring schedule changes take effect Monday. Pro Air is discontinuing service to Philadelphia March 26 but plans to resume flights in the summer.
US Airways will continue to boost its MetroJet service to Florida in the near future, after months of "a lot of experimentation," Chairman Stephen Wolf told The DAILY this week. "We are now putting it into truly low-fare markets like heavy service into Florida." US Airways has added and removed routes almost on a monthly basis, leaving many analysts puzzled.
FAA Administrator Jane Garvey plans to spell out the agency's promise to protect pilots from enforcement to encourage them to come forth and disclose runway incursion incidents, some of which may not be reported. She told the House Appropriations transportation subcommittee in testimony Wednesday that "we need an atmosphere" that will encourage pilots to come forward report incursions. Garvey said "punishing people" creates a disincentive to report runway incursions. "I believe there ought to be an incentive" to disclose these incidents, she added.
DOT Inspector General Kenneth Mead told Congress this week that "agency officials recognize that neither FAA nor Raytheon has the necessary expertise to resolve" problems faced by the Wide Area Augmentation System, which is behind schedule and over budget. Mead did not go along with a plan developed at a invitation-only meeting between FAA and industry last week to bring in an "independent review panel of experts" from Stanford University, the Jet Propulsion Lab, Mitre Corp. and Ohio University to identify solutions to the formidable technical problems in the program.
