British Airways traffic grew 2.1% in November, the first growth in months, as business passengers started a slow return to the airline. Capacity rose only 0.3% and premium traffic jumped 6.5%. "Although trading conditions are still highly competitive, there are encouraging figures," BA said. The airline, however, offered a warning about a drop in traffic for December and January as the millennium period is still "unpredictable." Economy traffic rose 1.3% and load factor increased 1.2 points to 66.6%.
IATA, whose member airlines have been monitoring over 1,600 airports representing 97% of international traffic, yesterday reported a "high level of Y2K readiness in all regions." Pierre Jeanniot, director general, told the IATA board of governments that a review of critical systems and equipment shows that air traffic service compliance is "good." He said, "Regional and global air traffic contingency plans are complete and ready for deployment."
U.S.-Italy open skies pact was signed yesterday in Chicago by DOT Secretary Rodney Slater and Italy's Minister of Transport and Navigation Tiziano Treu. Open skies, agreed to in November 1998, became effective with immunity approval for Alitalia and Northwest, made final last Friday (DAILY, Dec. 6). Also yesterday, U.S. and Argentine representatives signed the U.S.-Argentina open-skies accord in Buenos Aires. This formalized the phased liberalization agreed to by both countries in August (DAILY, Aug. 13).
The first charter flight in four decades Saturday from New York Kennedy to Havana is being called historic, despite rising political unrest between the two nations. The aircraft carried 138 passengers eligible by U.S. law to travel to Cuba o mostly Cubans residents of the U.S. The flight was a Grupo TACA Airbus chartered by Marazul Tours, which will operate a regular roundtrip service every Saturday.
Data gleaned in part from the probe of the Swissair MD-11 crash near Halifax, Nova Scotia, in September 1998 has kick-started a Boeing-led effort to prepare for pending insulation replacement mandates on Douglas-made planes by doing upgrades during scheduled heavy checks, DAILY affiliate Aero Safety&Maintenance has learned. The effort, launched with a swap of insulation material in the cockpit and certain cabin sections of a Swissair MD-11, will be duplicated with other types of Douglas aircraft, a Boeing spokesperson in Long Beach confirmed.
Alaska Air's traffic rose 4.0% in November to 957 million revenue passenger miles. Capacity rose 1.8% to 1.39 billion available seat miles, boosting load factor 1.5 percentage points to 68.8%. Passengers carried rose slightly. Subsidiary Horizon Air's traffic swelled 13.6% and capacity 16.1%, depressing load factor 1.4 points to 61.6%. Passengers carried surged to 403,000 from 381,000.
Atlantic Coast Airlines' traffic grew 18.7% and capacity 17% for November, boosting load factor 0.8 percentage points to 56.6%. Passengers flown grew 21.4%. Year-to-date traffic rose 31.9% and capacity 27.5%, boosting load factor 1.9 points 58.5%. Passengers flown rose 28.6%. ACA soon will launch a new subsidiary, Atlantic Coast Jet, as a Delta Connection carrier.
Mesa Air Group has appointed Greg Stephens president of Air Midwest, replacing Dick Paquette who is retiring after 22 years. Air Midwest is headquartered in Wichita and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mesa. Michael Suckow will join Air Midwest as VP-flight operations. Ronald Mallard has joined Mesa as director of systems control and will assume Suckow's former duties at Mesa, where he was senior director of systems control.
InterCanadian said yesterday it is continuing to work with shareholders to sort out its financial problems and hopes to have a resolution soon. Chief Executive Rob Myhill said he was "pleased with the progress we are making and feel it is extremely important for us to approach these discussions very cautiously to ensure all issues are dealt with properly and that we are able to re-commence operations.
Although Congress failed to enact an FAA reauthorization bill in the last session, language in both House and Senate bills permitting noisier Stage 2 aircraft to fly within Hawaii was lifted and included in the final omnibus appropriations bill that Congress enacted last month before adjourning for the year, congressional sources said yesterday. Sources referred to the section as the "Aloha Airlines exemption," noting that the backers of preserving the language in the failed authorization bills were members of the Hawaii congressional delegation.
Next year Mexico will conclude its airport privatization program in full by selling a last package involving these facilities. In 2000, it will sell to private bidders 49% of Aseguradora Hidalgo, an insurance company providing coverage for airport installations and related equipment, for an undisclosed amount. While 85% of the shares of airports already privatized will be offered through the Mexican Stock Exchange, it has not been decided whether Aseguradora Hidalgo's shares will be sold through public auction or on the stock exchange.
Fuel prices have soared 111% in the first 11 months of 1999, according to Merrill Lynch. "What a difference a year makes. A year ago at this time, the airlines were enjoying a 25% decline in fuel prices," the company said in a report to investors. Despite the huge jump, "some of the more prescient carriers" like Delta and Lufthansa have hedged between 70-80% of their fuel requirements.
Mesaba former VP-Operations and Chief Operating Officer Darrell Richardson is joining Piedmont Hawthorne Aviation as executive VP. He will concentrate initially on the company's aircraft maintenance and overhaul group and later have marketing and operations responsibilities.
DOT Friday granted final approval of antitrust immunity for the Northwest/Alitalia/KLM alliance, setting the stage for final signing of the U.S.-Italy open-skies accord at the world aviation conference in Chicago this week. The fully liberalized bilateral, agreed to last year, becomes effective with immunity approval for Alitalia and Northwest (DAILY, Nov. 13, 1998). DOT received no responses to its tentative decision, announced last Tuesday, with comments and answers due by Friday.
ATR and Air Austral have signed a sales contract for one ATR 72-500. The aircraft is scheduled for a July 2000 delivery. Air Austral, which is based in Saint-Denis de la Reunion, plans to operate the aircraft primarily on routes to Mauritius and Madagascar. Air Austral has three Boeing 737s.
Delta Express has maintained its profitability in the three years since its launch, a testament to its ability to stay focused on its business plan in a fiercely competitive market, executives said. Existing mainly on leisure traffic from the Northeast and Midwest to Florida, the low-cost carrier believes its growing traffic base is due to its flight reliability and "solid" consumer product, Managing Director Paulette Corbin told The DAILY.
United is expected to announce several new Asia routes and service changes this week.New launches include San Francisco-Beijing, San Francisco-Seoul and, in addition, San Francisco-Frankfurt. The new and upgauged routes are slated to begin in June.
Continental seeks U.S.-South Africa code sharing with Alitalia, operating between Newark and Johannesburg, via Milan. Continental said it would bring a new gateway to the market to compete with service from New York Kennedy and offer behind-gateway connections to 86 points in North, South and Central America. Alitalia will apply for authority to display Continental's designator code on its Milan-Johannesburg flights. Continental's application, for a fourth U.S.-South Africa, third-country code-share designation that became available to U.S. carriers Nov.
In Federal Register dated Nov. 24...Proposed an airworthiness directive on certain Pratt&Whitney series turbofan engines to require installation of an improved No. 4 bearing internal oil pressure tube and inspections of the tube for turbine exhaust case strut clearance and alignment... Proposed an AD on certain Boeing 767 series airplanes to require inspections for the side load underwing fitting bushings for broken sealant or sealant migration...
New York City-based low-fare startup JetBlue Airways took delivery of its first aircraft Friday, an Airbus A320. JetBlue plans to have a fleet of 75 A320 family aircraft, with firm orders so far for 25. It will lease seven new A320s, including two from Singapore Aircraft Leasing Enterprise (SALE). The first delivery was from SALE. The remaining five will come from International Lease Finance Corporation. All aircraft will use IAE V2500 engines. The airline plans a February launch.
A third Tokyo airport is advancing in government circles, though there is no firm commitment about where it will be built. One concept is another off-shore landfill project, similar to Osaka Kansai. But there's not much time to study it, according to one All Nippon Airways executive. "In 2007, the airspace above Tokyo will be completely full." There are still 45 airlines awaiting slots at Tokyo Narita.
