A technical review committee, including the FAA, prime contractor Raytheon, the contractor team and Defense Department officials, is meeting for three days this week to work out problems created by too many false alarms in the Wide Area Augmentation System for GPS, an FAA spokeswoman said. The false alarms led to halting the tests, the spokeswoman added.
Virgin Atlantic has invested $3.2 million in its first arrivals lounge at London Heathrow Airport. The lounge is part of Virgin's planned upgraded Upper Class service, including showers and breakfast service. The lounge features free telephone, fax, Internet and e-mail access.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) is considering a massive restructuring of its airline industry. The government organization is exploring the merger of the 27 existing carriers into three giant groups, according to a senior CAAC official. He said the consolidation was necessary to confront foreign competition after China's pending entry into the World Trade Organization. The official said the groups would be built around Air China, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines, known collectively as the Big Three.
European business-class fares remained relatively stable in the fourth quarter of 1999, rising less than 1% on average compared with 1998's last quarter, according to American Express European Corporate Travel Index (ECTI). But long-haul flights in business class become increasingly expensive, and differences between airports remain huge.
Continental Airlines and its flight attendants, represented by the Machinists union, reached a tentative contract agreement yesterday with the help of National Mediation Board mediator Patricia Sims. The deal would run for 54 months and would make improvements in retirement, work rules, vacation and pay. It also offers an industry-leading domestic-partner package and extends companion travel to all flight attendants. The tentative offer will go to the 8,500 rank-and-file for ratification.
HEICO Corp.'s Trilectron Industries subsidiary has acquired selected assets of the former Air-A-Plane Corp. Terms were of the deal were not disclosed, but under the transaction, Trilectron, which is a subsidiary of HEICO's Electronics&Ground Support Group, acquired all rights to Air-A-Plane's trademark and all product designs, data and related information. Trilectron also purchased limited inventory, certain specified customer order contracts and a manufacturing facility in Suffolk, Va.
Bombardier's new Q400 regional airliner made its inaugural revenue flight between Copenhagen and Poznan, Poland, yesterday, operating for SAS Commuter. SAS Commuter has firm orders for 22 Q400 aircraft, including three recently converted options. While the Q400 introduced yesterday has 72 passenger seats in a two-class configuration, SAS Commuter's fleet also will include single-class, 76-seat models. The Q400 will replace SAS Commuter's 50-seat turboprops on routes within Scandinavia and between Scandinavia and other points in Europe.
United plans on taking an unspecified equity interest in On2.com Inc., a New York-based company that provides full-motion, television-quality video over the Internet. United did not disclose terms of the agreement but said it signed a deal with the company in order to develop and market the first travel Web site featuring television-quality travel videos. "Partnering with marquee brands like United is an important step as we expand the broadband On2Network," said Dan Miller, founder and chief executive of On2.com.
While DOT appears ready to name its choice from among four candidates for the career deputy assistant secretary for aviation and international affairs post, its top aviation post -- assistant secretary -- remains vacant. Dorothy Robyn, White House economic policy special assistant and leading candidate, is no longer being considered for the job, sources tell The DAILY.
Mercury Air reported that revenues for its second quarter ended Dec. 31 rose 47% to $83.5 million, but that net income before an extraordinary charge was $1.5 million, down from $1.9 million. For the first six months, revenues grew 45% to $158.2 million, while net income before an extraordinary charge was $3.6 million, up from $3.5 million. Net income, after the extraordinary charge of $979,000, was $2.6 million.
Egypt has asked Indonesia to initial an air services agreement, paving the way for national carrier EgyptAir to start services to Jakarta this year. EgyptAir representative Didien Juanedy said the airline wants to develop the Middle East and Egypt as tourist markets for Indonesia.
Lufthansa will expand its services to the U.S., starting March, 26, with double-daily flights between Frankfurt and Los Angeles, Washington Boston and Chicago, up from daily service. The airline also will add six weekly frequencies to New York Kennedy offering 27 weekly flights. Lufthansa will split up the Bogota and Lima flight and introduce three-times-weekly Airbus A340 services to both cities. The three-times-weekly Munich-San Francisco flight will become daily, operated with a Boeing 747-400. Frequencies from Frankfurt to Manila/Philippines will rise to five.
Great Lakes Aviation will continue United Express service between Salina, Kan., and Denver and increase service between Denver and Hays, Kan. It also will upgrade service to nonstop on two flights to Denver from Liberal, Kan. Beginning March 2, Great Lakes will offer three roundtrip one-stops from Salina to Denver via Hays on weekdays, plus a single roundtrip to Salina and Hays on Saturdays and two on Sundays.
GetThere.com signed a deal with Lucent Technologies to deploy GetThere.com's Internet travel booking system to its 60,000 traveling employees. GetThere.com said the rollout follows a pilot test that resulted in lower average air fares for the staff and improved efficiency for travelers using the online booking system. Located on Lucent's intranet, the booking site enables employees to use a Web browser to see availability of air, hotel and car rental, to book travel instantaneously.
Boeing employees represented by the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace (SPEEA) probably will not return to the bargaining table very soon, said Bill Dugovich, a union spokesman. SPEEA employees walked off the job Wednesday morning after negotiations with a federal mediator failed to yield a contract. Dugovich said the two sides "are not close at all" on a deal. "Boeing in two days of negotiations changed nothing, made no adjustment, did nothing with the nation's top mediator," he said.
By Gen. Charles T. Robertson, USAF, Commander In Chief U. S. Transportation and Commander, Air Mobility Command
Mr. Miller's editorial comments in the Jan. 3 edition of Aviation DAILY ("The Decline of Aviation Leadership in Washington") included some misleading remarks concerning the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) and its importance to our national defense strategy. Some points of clarification are in order:
Continental selected Worldwide Flight Services to provide ramp services at Toronto Pearson Airport. Worldwide will begin servicing seven Continental Boeing 737 daily flights and five Continental Express regional jet daily flights on Feb. 27. The new contract calls for a 40-person work force. Worldwide also provides services to Continental, Continental Express and Continental Micronesia at 13 other airports throughout the U.S. and Canada. Worldwide serves 12 other airline customers at Toronto Pearson.
LOT Polish Airlines selected ARINC Inc. as its preferred VHF data-link service provider. ARINC currently provides VHF data-link service to LOT in North America and Asia and, with this agreement, will provide data-link communications in Europe. LOT already has data link in its Boeing 767s and regional jets. LOT uses ARINC's air traffic services (ATS) applications, such as digital automatic terminal information service (D-ATIS) in North America.
Rolls-Royce and SR Technics, a subsidiary of SAirGroup, are forming a new maintenance and overhaul company to service Trent engines in Europe and Africa. The 50/50 venture is to begin operations in 2001, the companies said yesterday. SR Technics will be responsible for Trent 500 and 700 engines, while Rolls will service Trent 900 engines out of Derby. Swissair has committed to nine firm and 10 option Airbus 340-600s powered by Trent 500s. Rolls said the Trent fam8ily has secured nearly a 50% share of the widebody market.
The Virgin Group named consulting firm iXL Enterprises to be the exclusive "services partner" to develop and build the company's Internet portal, Virgin.com. Virgin plans on investing $247.5 million "to transform the highly trusted offline brand into a successful online business," first in the U.K. and then throughout Europe and finally to the U.S. The new site is intended be a portal for all Virgin-branded goods and services.
Eurowings, Europe's largest independent regional, flew more than 3 million passengers for the first time last year. Traffic rose 4.9% to 3.04 million passengers. Eurowings flew more than one-third of its passengers from 11 German airports to Amsterdam Schiphol. Eurowings is a member of the KLM/Northwest/Alitalia alliance. German domestic traffic fell 10% as the airline stopped its Frankfurt-Berlin service last October. Eurowings redeployed two of its BAe 146s from charter to scheduled flights and put one more Airbus A319 into service.
Boeing Commercial President Alan Mulally said yesterday he is consolidating certain operations for more efficiency and better use of assets and facilities. One of the most significant changes will be consolidation all commercial airplane programs within a single organization led by Jim Jamieson, Mulally said. Boeing will focus on five business strategies. "Organizing our airplane programs in this way will enable us to improve the way common processes and solutions are developed and shared," he said.
The Navy was asked to search for possible parts of an Alaska Airlines MD-83 that separated from the aircraft about four miles from the crash site, NTSB Chairman Jim Hall said yesterday. Radar hits showed what "might be an indication of something coming off Flight 261," Hall told reporters in Washington, D.C. "I have asked the Navy to search an area of ocean about four miles from the main wreckage," Hall said. The Navy Monday night recovered an eight-foot section of what is believed to be the left horizontal stabilizer.
Continental amended its "rights agreement" yesterday to raise the limit of stock an institutional investor can hold in the airline. It previously allowed an investor to hold up to 15% of Continental's shares, but a spokesman said investor Alliance Capital has an interest in buying more. Because the acquisition is not intended in a "hostile nature," the airline's board decided to raise the buy limit to no more than 20%, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
