DOT granted Fine Air comprehensive U.S.-Argentina authority. The two-year exemption allows the carrier to operate cargo service between points in the U.S. and Argentina and beyond, via intermediate points. (Docket OST-99-6637)
Aegean Aviation is merging with Air Greece to create the largest private Greek airline, Aegean said last week in Athens. Olympic Airways, the troubled state-owned airline that British Airways is attempting to turn around, now faces strong competition on its domestic market. The company resulting from the merger will have capital of 55.6 million euros (US$56 million) and will be dominated by Aegean, which will hold 72% of the shares. The rest will be in the hands of Minoan Lines, the shipping company from Crete that owned Air Greece.
Delta requested comprehensive U.S.-Portugal rights, available under the open-skies pact concluded in December. The carrier plans third-country code sharing to Porto and Lisbon via Paris with Air France, beginning Feb. 1. Delta has authority to serve Lisbon and wants to offer the first U.S. flag online service to Porto. Delta told DOT it wants intermediate and beyond rights to serve points in Portugal to have the flexibility to add service to other Portuguese points. (Docket OST-99-6721)
Delta and United yesterday separately lined up behind DOT's request for additional information from American and British Airways on their proposed reciprocal code share. American and BA last week told DOT that the request was burdensome. American noted that DOT did not make such a request in the American-BA immunity application. (Docket OST-99-6507)
Night flying into Brussels' national airport will be cut radically by the summer of 2003, Belgian green party Transport Minister Isabelle Durant announced yesterday. After that date, "no commercial flights will be authorized" between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., according to a decree, signed by Durant Dec. 31. The document also states that noise emission levels by commercial aircraft will be limited at night on the basis of ground measurements. Starting in summer 2003, "the quota of noise emitted between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.
Aserca Airlines wants authority to operate U.S.-Venezuela charters between points in Venezuela and Miami. The Venezuelan carrier plans to offer the proposed services under wet-lease with a carrier from a Category 1 country; Venezuela is a Cat 2 country under FAA's international safety assessment program. Aserca seeks to add competition in the market, where six U.S.
The United Nations commission on compensation for damage during the 1991 Gulf War ordered Iraq to pay El Al nearly $7 million to compensate for the cost of moving the airline's fleet out of Israel during the war. According to the Associated Press, El Al sued Iraq for damages from the war, when Iraq fired Scud missiles at Israel. The airline's total claim was for $70 million, but the commission did not compensate the airline for the drop in traffic because of the conflict.
Varig will take a series of steps to help the company reach its long-term goals and unify its policies. "In the past, the market had to adapt itself to the company. Now, Varig is going where the market is," said Miguel Dau, director of Varig Cargo. Varig Cargo will 1) take over the air freight business now handled by Varig's subsidiaries Nordeste and Rio-Sul; 2) triple investments in 2000, including four new cargo terminals in Brazil, and totally restructure services, and 3) tap new markets, such as the booming Brazilian electronic shopping sector.
Expedia edged out Travelocity as the most visited travel Internet site during the 1999 holiday shopping season, according to Media Metrix. The company reported that Microsoft's Expedia had 1.02 million average daily unique visitors between Nov. 22 and Dec. 26, topping Travelocity's 934,000 daily average.
Implementing its goal to expand services to South America, Grupo TACA offers three weekly flights from one of its major hubs, San Jose, Costa Rica, to Ezeiza Airport in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with Airbus A319 equipment. The southbound flight departs San Jose on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays at 11:35 a.m. and arrives in Buenos Aires at 11 p.m. Northbound, the flight leaves Buenos Aires on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 9:55 a.m. and arrives in San Jose at 3:30 p.m. with connections on TACA's route network to Central America and the Caribbean.
As Asian economies regain momentum and turn around, more startup carriers are expected to take to the skies, prompting an increase in travel within and outside the region. Safety continues to be a concern, however, with Asian carriers being responsible for almost one-third of the approximately 9,000 deaths in jet aircraft accidents around the world this decade. Another issue is the blatant lack of concern for safety at certain airports in Asia.
Aviation Industry Stock Performance, December 1999 Closed Closed Monthly Change Symbol 12/31/1999 11/30/1999 ($) (%) Majors Alaska Air Group ALK 35.250 37.125 (1.875) (5.1) America West (Class B) AWA 21.000 20.125 0.875 4.3 AMR AMR 67.000 60.125 6.875 11.4 Continental (Class B) CAL 44.063 36.375 7.688 21.1
With its flight attendants threatening to launch a Create Havoc Around Our System (CHAOS) campaign, US Airways yesterday said it was forming a special working group to come up with a contingency plan in the event cabin crew walk off the job. The company told employees it was taking the step "regretfully and reluctantly" but decided it was a "prudent measure" to protect customers. Threats of a flight attendant job action already are affecting bookings, the company said.
U.S. and U.K. negotiators begin two days of meetings in Washington today.The U.S. "will make it clear that final resolution of the Pittsburgh issue" -- where London service was ended by British Airways -- is a prerequisite to negotiations on "the other important issues that must be addressed," an aviation insider told The DAILY.
Europe's two largest aerospace groups are competing for an alliance with Italy's Alenia Aerospazio. Newly formed aerospace group European Aeronautic Defense and Space company (EADS) is in talks with the Italian company over a close cooperation, a spokesman for DaimlerChrysler Aerospace (DASA) confirmed yesterday. EADS and Alenia are understood not to be talking about asking the Italian company to become as a shareholder but rather about forming joint ventures.
American yesterday posted a 0.7% drop in systemwide traffic on 4.1% more capacity for December, compared with the same 1998 month, as the load factor fell 3.1 percentage points to 64.9%. Domestic operations saw a 1.3% drop in traffic on 5.8% greater capacity, leaving load factor down 4.6 percentage points to 64.7%. The largest gain came in Pacific operations, where traffic rose 14.6% and capacity 17.9%, pushing down load factor 1.9 points to 64.1%. Latin American traffic and capacity were down 5.0% and 4.1%, respectively, lowering load factor 0.6 points to 63.2%.
World Airways signed a deal to operate additional flights for the U.S. Air Force. The charter carrier has been requested by the Air Mobility Command to operate passenger charter flights from Jan. 28 through April to replace another unnamed carrier that had previously been awarded a contract for the flying. The value of the additional flying, which will be long-range flights across the Pacific, is anticipated to be about $13.5 million, the airline said. The carrier has been flying for the U.S. Air Force, principally on an international basis, since 1956.
Air Transport Association yesterday called "money well spent" the $2 billion laid out worldwide by airlines to ensure that flight safety was not compromised by Y2K computer glitches. U.S. and Canadian carriers spent about $750 million to meet possible Y2K problems while IATA airlines worldwide spent $2 billion. FAA said it went through the date rollover with only a minor glitch, and Air Force officials reported that the GPS system performed flawlessly. ATA said that, depending on the U.S.
Contradicting previous news items that the Brazilian air force opposed the recent sale of 20% of Embraer's shares to a French group for "reasons of national security," recent press reports from Sao Paulo said the government will not cancel or challenge the sale because "it's important to Embraer in terms of technology, and to Brazil in terms of the economy." The French group comprises Aerospatiale-Matra, Dassault, Snecma and Thomson-CSF.
Crystal Airways claims to have topped JetBlue as the most capitalized new-entrant carrier in history. President and Chief Executive Tim Rivers told The DAILY yesterday the airline secured an additional $100 million in funding through Seattle-based Capital Consulting Group. The Tampa, Fla.-based airline expects to receive the proceeds by the end of the month, when it will file for DOT certification.
Amadeus received authorization to list the publicly traded Class A shares on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, beginning Dec. 30. The listing on the Frankfurt exchange follows an Amadeus initial public offering on the Madrid and Barcelona Stock Exchanges and in the Spanish continuous market on Oct. 19. The shares, which in the IPO were priced at 5.75 euros, closed up 145% at 14.10 euros on the Madrid Stock Exchange Dec. 17.
Ebookers.com, Europe's top online travel agent, signed an agreement to acquire 100% share capital of Geotours, an independent Norwegian discount travel agency. The purchase price is under $1 million and will be predominantly in cash with a minority element of shares. Geotours already generates 10% of total sales online, with the balance previously coming from traditional sales.
Turkish Airlines posted a 3.8% rise in revenue passenger kilometers in November, and its year-to-date traffic increased 1.9%. Freight volume soared 36% for the month and was up 15.5% for the first 11 months. The airline's passenger count rose 2.4% in November to 774,000 and reached 9.8 million for the year-to-date.
