National Transportation Safety Board yesterday urged FAA to require airlines to demonstrate all emergency evacuation systems, including door opening assist mechanisms and slide or slide/raft deployment, on 10% of each type of aircraft they operate, over a 12-month period. The demonstrations should test "the entire evacuation system," the board said. It cited an emergency landing of an American Airbus A300 on July 9, 1998, in Puerto Rico, in which two of four exit systems did not operate as intended.
National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Jim Hall yesterday accused the U.S. Office of Management and Budget of "zeroing out" his repeated requests for additional investigative resources, placing in jeopardy the "safety of the American people." Hall made the charge in remarks describing what actions the board has taken concerning recommendations in a Rand study on ways to improve accident investigations. One of the Rand findings was that the board's staff and facilities are "stretched to the limit."
Mexicana has developed a program called "Y2K MX" to face potential problems in electronic equipment and computer hard and software in conjunction with transition from 1999 to 2000 and has been checking and updating it constantly over the past few weeks. Mexicana also participated in simulated Y2K crisis over Puerto Vallarta coordinated by Mexico's Navigational and Aerospace Services, an exercise that the airline said was both useful and highly successful.
DOT followed its approval of broad U.S.-Italy rights for Alitalia with similar authority for Delta, Northwest, American and United. The four U.S. carriers received exemptions for U.S-Italy and beyond service, via intermediate points. Still pending at DOT are applications by Continental and UPS for U.S.-Italy certificates under Dockets OST-99-6279 and 6538 (DAILY, Oct. 4; Nov. 29), on which DOT promised quick action. Delta, American and United filed separate applications for certificate authority, pending in Dockets OST-99-6246, 6085 and 6208, respectively.
Authorities in Santo Domingo have named the road linking Las Americas International Airport with Las Americas Highway as "Route 66," in honor of Dominican baseball star Sammy Sosa's 66 homeruns hit in 1998 for the Chicago Cubs.
BMW Rolls Royce has been renamed Rolls Royce Deutschland, as it becomes a fully owned subsidiary of Rolls Royce plc Jan. 1. Rolls Royce's Chief Executive John Rose told The DAILY that the new German division may take over responsibility for all two-shaft engines in the future. Currently, the Dahlewitz, Germany, based unit only is responsible for engines in the 13,000-23,000 lbs thrust range. It produces the BR700 for the Gulfstream V and Global Express business jets, and the BR715 used on the Boeing 717.
Singapore Airlines is moving cautiously in its program to retrofit the full Audio-Video-on-Demand (AVOD) Wismen system into its long-haul fleet. One Boeing 747-400 already has been fitted with the system, while two more 747-400s would be installed with Wiseman before yearend. An SIA official said there are near-term plans to enhance Wiseman programming like increasing the variety of the programs and Dolby sound selections.
Air Tahiti Nui will exercise its newly granted right to operate service between Osaka Kansai Airport and Papeete, French Polynesia, beginning April 4. The service is allowed under an agreement between Japan and France and will answer strong demand from Japanese consumers for flights to Tahiti and its islands. Air Tahiti Nui has had success with its once per week flight between Papeete and Tokyo, said Chairman Nelson Levy. Service will be aboard Airbus 340-200 equipment and flights to Japan will include Japanese flight attendants in addition to the Tahitian crew.
FAA named Leanna Rierson national resource specialist for leading-edge aircraft computerization and certification issues. She joined the agency from Cessna in 1995 as an avionics software engineering specialist.
LanChile's November traffic jumped 10.7% year-over-year on 5.4% more capacity, raising load factor 3.1 percentage points to 63.8%. The airline experienced 14.3% growth in international traffic, while domestic traffic grew 0.6%. Cargo volume soared 43.1% to 166 million freight ton kilometers.
Air Jamaica will begin daily direct service to Trinidad and Tobago from Kingston, Jamaica, beginning June 24. President Chris Zacca said the service introduction is "a central part of Air Jamaica's efforts to aggressively pursue growth in the region." Air Jamaica will operate an Airbus A320 on the flight to Trinidad. To give passengers more flexibility, the airline plans also to operate the flight in reverse of the competition, departing Jamaica in the morning and departing Trinidad in the afternoon.
DOT Acting Assistant Secretary Brad Mims told The DAILY this week the department expects to have an announcement "in a couple of weeks" to name a new deputy assistant secretary for aviation and international affairs, which was vacated by Patrick Murphy in September.DOT also is looking to fill the assistant secretary position formerly held by Charles Hunnicutt, who left March 22.
Alaska Airlines entered into an agreement with ARINC for its GLOBALink/VHF data link service. Alaska will begin this month equipping its fleet with Rockwell Collins ACARS avionics that will enable it to use the VHF data link for delivering essential flight operational information between the aircraft and operations systems at the hub in Seattle. Separately, the airline said it will initiate daily seasonal Chicago-Anchorage/Fairbanks service June 4 using Boeing 737-700s.
American Eagle's system-wide traffic gained 22.2% and capacity 29.2% in November compared to the same 1998 month, which depressed load factor 3.4 percentage points to 59.8%. Passengers boarded surged 10.7%. American Eagle Airlines' traffic rose 13.1% on 14.6% more capacity, pushing load factor down 0.8 points to 62.6%. Executive Airlines posted an 18.1% jump in traffic and 35.7% more capacity, depressing load factor 7.9 points to 53.3%. Business Express Airlines' load factor reached 44.2%; no comparative figures were given for the recently acquired carrier.
Trans States Airlines shocked several major airlines this week by making plans to terminate service throughout California Dec. 28. The regional airline serves eight cities within the state for US Airways, Northwest and Alaska Airlines using 19-seat Jetstream 32s. Trans States spokesman Bill Mishk told The DAILY the airline was "unprofitable" in California due to "depressed traffic and lower yields." The airline now will "reallocate its assets" to focus on routes out of St. Louis and New York Kennedy.
Gulfstream International signed a codeshare agreement with Copa Airlines of Panama yesterday. The agreement covers Florida and the Bahamas through connections in Miami and the Eastern Caribbean region through Gulfstream's hub in San Juan. The agreement requires government approval and is expected to begin within 60 days. With direct flights into Miami, San Juan, and its planned expansion into Orlando, "Copa provides an excellent growth opportunity for Gulfstream," said Pierre Galoppi, Chief Operating Officer.
Amtran, Inc., parent company of American Trans Air, has reached $1 billion in operating revenue for the first time, making it the newest U.S. major airline, once the level is verified by DOT. Chief Financial Officer Ken Wolff said the milestone "puts us in the company of only 10 other U.S. airlines that generate this level of business." ATA's systemwide traffic rose 17.8% on 11.6% more capacity in November. Scheduled traffic climbed 13.3% on 3.4% more capacity, pushing load factor up 6.7 percentage points to 76.4%.
St. Kitts and Nevis requested that ICAO register Tropical International Airways as an authorized international carrier, using the three-letter designation TKX.
America West wants an exemption for service between Newark and Amsterdam, Belgium and Zurich, which the carrier would operate under code share with Continental. America West implemented transatlantic code sharing with Continental on Oct. 31 between Newark and Birmingham, Manchester, Glasgow, Dusseldorf and Frankfurt. (Docket OST-99-6594)
China Airlines (CAL) has revised its 1999 financial forecast, projecting a pretax profit of NT$2.8 billion (US$73.7 million) against the previous forecast of a $45.4 million profit. The projected improvement is the result of effective cost controls, organizational and personnel economy measures introduced, and improved productivity. The massive earthquake Sept. 21 in Taiwan and the suspension of Taiwan-Philippines flights affected passenger traffic. Improved cargo business has cushioned the drop in passenger traffic revenue.
LanChile Chief Executive Enrique Cueto, commenting on the reaffirmation of the airline's BBB debt rating by Duff&Phelps, said the carrier's investment-grade rating "has and will continue to allow LanChile to maintain low financing costs for future investment, particularly related to aircraft acquisitions."
Startup Santa Barbara Airlines, headquartered in Venezuela's petroleum capital of Maracaibo, has received its fourth ATR42-300. Its route structure was expanded to include four daily frequencies from Merida in western Venezuela to Caracas, two to Maracaibo, one to Barquisimeto and one to new destination Valencia. Flights to Merida will connect at Maracaibo with Santa Barbara's international routes serving Aruba, Barranquilla and Curacao. A fifth ATR42-300, delivered early in 2000, will be used to increase frequencies between Caracas and Merida.
Tower Air's traffic climbed 12.8% and capacity 5.2% in November, which boosted load factor 5.1 percentage points to 75.5%. Total block hours flown grew 6.7% to 3,440 and passengers flown gained 5.2% to 114,000.
