While most European airlines admittedly are behind their U.S. counterparts in their use of electronic commerce, European no-frills carriers are the exception. Ryanair, preparing to launch an updated on-line site at the next few weeks, is typical of how low-cost airlines have embraced the Internet with U.S.-style fervor. "The [electronic] market that is really doing well is discount flights, which are taking off in Europe in much the same way as in the states," said William Reeve, research director at Fletcher Research, an independent London new media research firm.
Peru's long-troubled airline market finally is coming back to life. While creditors met to grant Aeroperu a 60-day extension to submit proposals to restart, startup LanPeru, 49% owned by LanChile, began service July 5 on two major domestic routes, and Transam, backed by Grupo TACA, was certified late last week, according to DAILY sources in Lima. Transam was approved to offer domestic operations with two Boeing 737-200s within 45 days. Its international application is pending. At the same time, Fine Air was authorized to reinstate U.S.-Peru cargo service.
Aerolineas Argentinas announced in Buenos Aires that Austral, which now operates as its domestic subsidiary, will be merged into the parent company by yearend. Austral's fleet of DC-9s and Aerolineas Argentinas's Boeing 737-200s will be replaced by 737-700s and Airbus A320s. Aerolineas also signed a three-year contract with Comsat Corp. to provide satellite communications for fax, data and voice facilities on the carrier's 12 long-haul A340 aircraft.
Korean Air unveiled a 10-point safety plan last week in an effort to win back the confidence of passengers and flying partners shaken by accidents on South Korea's flag carrier. Korean Air President Y.T. Shim said the plan focuses on pilot training, safety management and improving employee morale. The measures call for tripling the number of non-Korean pilots and hiring FlightSafetyBoeing to conduct regular safety checks on its pilots under a five-year, $30 million contract. "Failure is not an option," Shim said.
Access Air canceled about 1,000 nonstop segments over the last month because two Boeing 737-200s scheduled for delivery from Pegasus did not arrive in time to accommodate the company's expanded schedule. Access had planned to grow its fleet from two to four aircraft, but one airplane delivered June 18 was returned to Pegasus July 2 for modification on its digital flight recorder, said Access Chairman and Chief Executive Roger Ferguson. Delivery of a second aircraft also was held up because of modifications. The aircraft had been in the British Airways fleet.
TriStar Aerospace Co. of Dallas won a five-year contract from KLM to provide a comprehensive hardware program and will act as the sole source for all KLM hardware needs. The agreement uses "integrated service partnership" concepts designed to lower KLM's maintenance costs. TriStar will provide procurement, warehousing and delivery of hardware items to maintain KLM's 115-aircraft fleet. The contract, scheduled to begin this month, is expected to produce revenues of $5.3 million over the initial five years.
Avensa/Servivensa of Venezuela has inaugurated direct flights on Wednesdays and Fridays between Bogota and Lisbon, Portugal, with a stop in Caracas. Westbound flights operate on Thursdays and Saturdays with DC-10-30 aircraft.
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association asked FAA to provide a regular summary of the most common violations under the new Streamlined Administrative Action Process (SAAP). President Phil Boyer pledged that AOPA's Air Safety Foundation then would address these areas in the 300 or so free safety seminars it conducts annually.
Northwest Airlines Cargo said it is reducing general freight rates by 10% to Manila from all U.S. origin markets. The carrier is increasing by 4% rates to all other Asian destinations from the West Coast.
DOT told Federal Express and United that it will not call for applications for 10 U.S.-China frequencies and an additional carrier designation that become available April 1, 2001, before concluding allocations of 1999 and 2000 frequencies. FedEx and United asked DOT to suspend the July 20 due date for answers to American's application for the 2001 opportunities (DAILY, June 24).
U.S. Major Carriers Advertising Expense First Quarter 1999 % Of Total Advertising Passenger Revenues Alaska 4,603,000 1.41 Domestic 4,150,000 1.42 Latin 453,000 1.38 America West 6,589,937 1.38 Domestic 6,398,656 1.39
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) yesterday charged members of the National Transportation Safety Board with "simply excessive" travel with the vast majority of the problem being non-accident related trips. At a hearing on the NTSB budget, McCain said agency travel documents revealed that only 15% of safety board member travel has been accident-related in the past five years and the percentage this year through the first week in June was even worse - only 12% accident related.
Royal Brunei Airlines (RBA) postponed plans indefinitely to launch flights to San Francisco and Los Angeles. Plans to acquire two Airbus A319s for Southeast Asian routes also are on hold until a restructuring of management and operations is completed. Last year, RBA went through a similar exercise, which led to the appointment of a new managing director, Brahim Haji Ismail, with the hope of making the carrier competitive. The exercise failed, however, and Brahim, and other managers were terminated.
U.S. Carriers Advertising Expense First Quarter 1999 National Carriers % Of Total Advertising Operating Expenses AirTran Airlines 5,616,584 5.07 Aloha 1,976,463 3.60 American Trans Air 4,410,309 2.00 Frontier 1,747,171 3.06
Japan Airlines, All Nippon and Japan Air System completed most of their year 2000 computer repairs and developed a backup plan in case of problems. The carriers will wait several months, however, until they decide which routes, if any, may be canceled. The airlines said they want to wait for advice from the International Civil Aviation Organization and IATA, which expect to complete their review of each region's air traffic control systems and airports at the end of August.
June systemwide traffic in the U.S. increased 3.7%, in line with forecasts, on a 4.6% boost in capacity, according to the Air Transport Association.Domestic traffic grew 3.5% with capacity rising 5.7%. International traffic surged 4.1% on 1.9% more capacity and was bolstered by strong growth in Atlantic traffic, according to PaineWebber. Latin American traffic rose 3%, but capacity fell 7%.
Flight delays in European airspace reached record levels in May and are getting worse, as governments fail to take adequate steps to improve the regions air traffic control system. The Association of European Airlines said delays of more than 15 minutes affected 34.3% of flights, compared with 33.4% in March, the previous all-time high, and June's figures appear worse than May's, said David Henderson, AEA spokesman.
America West said yesterday FAA determined the carrier has complied with the terms of a July 14, 1998, agreement and has forgiven compromise civil penalties that could have been imposed. The carrier was referring to a $5 million civil penalty FAA imposed following inspections that uncovered alleged maintenance violations. FAA said yesterday it is forgiving the second half of the $5 million penalty.
The Association of Flight Attendants says United has failed to obey U.K. maternity laws requiring the carrier to find alternative work for pregnant flight attendants. United spokeswoman Christina Price said the issue is under pending litigation and she would not comment. AFA claims United places pregnant flight attendants on unpaid leave instead of finding other jobs for them, a violation of U.K. law, which requires employers to offer pregnant employees alternative work at equivalent pay or place them on full paid leave.
Two class-action suits alleging price fixing were filed last month against Delta, US Airways Group, Northwest and the Airlines Reporting Corp. In the first lawsuit, the plaintiffs claimed the defendant airlines and other airlines conspired with Delta in keeping anticompetitive prices for flights to and from its Atlanta and Cincinnati hubs.
The Hungarian government said it will buy back shares in Malev from two local banks before trying for a second time to find a foreign partner for its national airline. APV, the government's asset holding agency and majority owner of the airline, will buy a 35% stake in the airline from Air Invest, a joint venture between OTP Bank and Magyar Kulkereskedelmi Bank, Hungary's largest and fourth-largest banks. Air Invest bought the stake from Italian national airline Alitalia in December 1997 for about $65 million.
Garuda Indonesia will turn its ground-handling and maintenance divisions into separate profit centers. Foreign firms will be invited to bid for a stake in the new companies, which would be set up later this year, provided plans fall into place. Garuda President Abdul Gani said spinning off these divisions would not only reduce the operating costs of the airline but also infuse the much-needed foreign capital into the proposed new companies to give them a good head start. Other divisions also may be spun off if the proposed plan is successful.
