Top 50 Northeast Airports, Ranked By O&D Passengers % of Annual O&D Region Average Airport Passengers Total Yield 1 New York, LaGuardia 19,780,470 12.8% 18.88 2 New York, Newark 19,777,940 12.8% 14.72 3 Boston 19,051,120 12.3% 14.72 4 Baltimore 13,098,390 8.5% 11.66
President Clinton began his remarks to the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Washington last week by saying that he is committed to "improving commercial airline traffic this year because in a year I'll be on it." Clinton said he asks "every person who comes to see me" about delays and cancellations.
Air France plans to launch Paris-Dallas/Fort Worth service in spring 2001 to take advantage of Delta's feed at the airport. Senior VP Pascal de Izaguirre told The DAILY it is also looking at starting service to Detroit, Orlando and Salt Lake City in 2001 or 2002.
Airborne Express reported that fourth quarter net earnings were $17.3 million, down from $38.3 million the same quarter in 1998. Revenues rose slightly to $709 million from $698.8 million. For the year, net earnings totaled $91.2 million, compared with $137.3 million, while revenues were $3.1 billion, up from $3 billion. The company attributed lack of growth in domestic shipments and the high cost of jet fuel as primary factors in the weaker results.
Correction: Air China's safety record shows only two minor aircraft incidents and no fatal accidents or fatalities in the past 10 years, according to AvData, Inc. A story in The DAILY Jan. 28 erroneously attributed another carrier's imperfect record to Air China.
US Airways confirmed that it will begin receiving the 170-seat Airbus A321 next year, to be used on its transcontinental, Florida and long-haul service. Officials said the order is part of its long-term plan to operate an all-Airbus fleet as it continues to retire Boeing long- and short-haul aircraft. The carrier ordered 34 A321s, part of the 154 firm orders for A320-family airplanes currently on the books with Airbus. Forty-one A319s and A320s already are in the US Airways fleet, with deliveries of new planes occurring at the rate of one per week this year.
After failing to secure landing rights to India, Virgin Atlantic settled for the next option, a code-share service with Air-India. Starting July 2, the two carriers will operate three flights a week between London Heathrow and New Delhi. The new entry also is expected to ignite a fare war with British Airways, the only other carrier operating the route.
BA revealed yesterday that it, like many major world airlines, is suffering from higher fuel prices, and said it has raised all premium and most economy fares on transatlantic routes by 3%, effective Feb. 1. The carrier said it is following "many of its U.S. competitors."
GetThere.com finalized a deal to link its ITN.net booking web site with the American Express Travel&Entertainment Web site to boost to standing in the industry. "The convergence of the two consumer sites is the first phase of a multi-faceted relationship between the two companies," the companies said. The combined travel web site, powered by GetThere.com, is accessible through www.itn.net as well as the American Express travel site. ITN.net originally was launched in 1995, and in September, American Express made a minority investment in GetThere.com.
Renunciation of the U.S.-U.K. bilateral might speed resolution of the "intolerable present situation," key congressional leaders said yesterday. The "breakdown" in U.S.-U.K. talks in London last month elicited a bipartisan call for legal and legislative action, including sanctions against the U.K. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bud Shuster (R-Pa.) and ranking minority member Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) also suggested less drastic remedies: Revocation of exemptions and slots at slot-controlled U.S. airports held by U.K.
British Airways has begun using an e-commerce platform designed by IBM as the "underpinning" of its #20 million e-commerce initiative. The carrier said the new platform will form the backbone of all BA's future digital channels, such as kiosks, interactive television and web-enabled portable devices. The first phase of BA's initiative features a redesigned web infrastructure that will be designed to accommodate larger volumes of Internet visitors and online bookings than its present system, and adds real-time flight arrivals and departures information.
Swissair and El Al will operate 25 weekly code-sharing flights between Tel Aviv and Switzerland, starting March 26. Swissair will operate 14 Airbus A330 flights from Zurich and El Al will fly six times weekly to Zurich and five times to Geneva with Boeing 757s and 737s. The two airlines previously offered 19 weekly roundtrips.
Eva Air is capitalizing on Ansett Australia's suspension of its three-times-weekly Taipei-Sydney service, effective Feb. 12. Eva, Ansett's code-share partner on the route, will use its own aircraft to operate the service, using Boeing 767-300s, starting the same day.
LTU International Airways plans to launch one weekly nonstop flight between Toronto and Dusseldorf, Germany, on May 3 and add a second frequency May 22. The service will be operated on Mondays and Wednesday with Airbus A330-300 equipment.
Austrian Airlines Group for the first time in its history carried more than 8 million passengers. The three airlines, Austrian, Lauda and Tyrolean, transported 8.04 million passengers last month, a 5% gain from December 1998. Load factor was 69.3%. The group offered 12.2% more capacity and 10.4% more revenue passenger miles.
COPA Airlines finalized plans to acquire four Boeing 737-700s as part of its international and regional expansion plans from its Panama City hub. The aircraft deal was backed by the U.S. Export-Import Bank, which is providing $113 million in long-term guarantees for the aircraft and two spare CFM engines. "This is the largest transaction ever authorized by Ex-Im Bank for a company in Panama," said Bank Chairman James Harmon. The latest transaction is more than double the previous record, a $60 million financing of a gas turbine export in 1994.
Continental posted a 67.9% January load factor, the second highest January load factor in its history, and 0.1 point below the record set last year. Revenue passenger miles climbed 7.3% from the same 1999 month and available seat miles rose 7.3%, which pushed load factor down 0.1 percentage points. Domestic traffic gained 2.1% and capacity 1.2%, raising load factor 0.6 points to 68.3%. International traffic grew 16.5% on 18.5% more capacity, dropping load factor 1.1 points to 67.3%.
