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.
Gourmet Nova has taken a 25% stake in Anton Airfood, the third largest airport restaurant operator in the U.S. Gourmet Nova is a fully owned subsidiary of SAirRelations, the catering and hotel division of SAirGroup. The company wants to get a foothold in the U.S. airport market.
After seven months of operation, startup LanPeru enjoys a 34% market share on the Lima-Cusco route and 37% on Lima-Miami. In April, the airline plans to fly Lima-Iquitos, gateway to the Peruvian Amazon. This will require adding a third aircraft to its fleet of two Boeing 737-200s, according to affiliate Aviation Latin America&the Caribbean. Peruvian investors hold 51% of LanPeru's shares and LanChile 49%.
Effective immediately, Venezuela's Avensa/Servivensa reduced its schedule to South America and the U.S. It now operates from Caracas Maiquetia to Aruba, Bogota, Lima, Medellin, Mexico, Miami and New York; and from Barquisimeto, Maracaibo, Valencia and San Antonio de Tachira to Aruba, Medellin and Miami. Passengers holding Avensa tickets issued before Feb. 1 to or from Madrid, Rome, Lisbon, Milan and Oporto must use them before Feb. 20 to be able to complete their itineraries on Iberia.
Galileo International unveiled the details of its plan to acquire Trip.com, which it hopes will kickstart its own Internet initiatives. Galileo purchased 20% of Trip.com last year, and now plans to buy the remaining 80% ownership interest for $269 million in a combined stock and cash transaction. The deal is expected to close by the end of the first quarter, when Denver-based Trip.com will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Galileo International.
American parent AMR Corp. set March 15 as the date when it will spin off its remaining 83% interest in Sabre Holdings. AMR shareholders of record at the close of business on March 1 will receive roughly 0.7 shares of Sabre for each share of AMR. The stock dividend will be distributed after close of business on March 15.
Two competing web sites aimed at connecting airlines and suppliers will take off in spring or early summer. Henrik Schroder, chairman and chief executive of aviationX.com, said yesterday that his web-based network will offer a real-time opportunity to carriers seeking goods and services at lower cost. BACK Inc. in two weeks will announce the launch of skyfish.com, a site similar to aviationX. com but serving "total airspace," said Steve Casley, chief marketing officer.
Standard&Poor's downgraded its ratings of US Airways yesterday to reflect a "persistent weak operating performance and a very aggressive financial policy." The current outlook for the carrier is "stable," but the senior unsecured debt was downgraded an additional notch yesterday, to triple-'C'-plus from single-'B.' The downgrade was made because secured debt has "increased materially," relative to the airline's asset base, placing unsecured creditors "in an effectively subordinated position." Despite the losses and substantial aircraft delivery commitments, S&
AeroInfo Systems of Canada announced a partnership with Embraer of Brazil to implement an advanced Collaborative Reliability Management System. Embraer will use AeroInfo's CRMS to create fully digital aircraft maintenance programs by enabling its 15 international partners to participate online in the company's next-generation regional jets. Fully digital maintenance programs will enable Embraer to bring new aircraft designs to market faster by reducing the amount of time needed for regulatory approvals.
Simplified Passenger Travel technology, or smart cards, is rapidly approaching reality, but it may require an industry-wide joint venture subject to antitrust laws, Joanne Young, an attorney at Baker&Hostetler, told an IATA Legal Symposium this week in San Diego.
In Brazil, TAM has invested $1.5 million to start online ticketing, and it expects to complete the investment by yearend. Varig has been selling tickets online since 1998 and will invest $100,000 this year to improve its home page. Varig estimates electronic revenues of $5 million this year. Transbrasil will introduce online booking in February, and VASP will follow in March. Each carrier estimates annual revenues of $2 million.
Ryanair yesterday reported a 33% increase in fiscal third quarter profits, earning a record 12.6 million Irish punts (US$15.7 million) thanks to an increase in average yields and the strength of the U.K.
DOT is on track to fill its long-vacant career deputy assistant secretary for aviation and international affairs position this month, sources tell The DAILY.Four candidates are Paul Gretch, DOT director of international aviation; Susan McDermott, assistant director, DOT office of international aviation; Arnie Levine, managing director at GKMG and former DOT director of international transportation, and Mary Walsh, FAA assistant chief counsel.
Nexttrip.com Travel entered into an "ePartner agreement" with GetThere.com to launch its full service travel site to consumers before the end of the month. GetThere.com's ePartner booking engine powers several top-ranked travel sites, including Trip.com and Uniglobe Online. GetThere.com will provide a complete booking engine to Vancouver-based Nexttrip.com. Nexttrip.com also said Robert Gregory has joined the company's board.
U.K. aviation negotiators, under pressure following a U.S. congressional proposal of possible sanctions against the U.K. late last week, offered the U.S. a "monumental proposal" that the U.S. side rejected, according to a U.S. aviation source. Reports in the U.K.
