Donald Engen, director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum in Washington and former FAA administrator, was killed Tuesday in the crash of a self-launching sailplane at Minden-Tahoe, Nev. Engen, 75, also was a former president of the AOPA Air Safety Foundation. Also killed was William Ivans, 79, a highly regarded sailplane pilot and former president of the Soaring Society of America. Ivans owned the two-seat Schempp-Hirth Nimbus 4DM that crashed.
China Airlines is preparing to announce new air cargo services in the U.S., Europe and Australia. CAL's Taiwan-Sydney route will be operational by monthend, and full air cargo flights to the U.S. West Coast and Luxembourg will begin this year. The company also will inaugurate a European cargo service via Delhi in September. Growing cargo operations are expected to propel CAL to a pre-tax profit of NT$1.7 billion (US$52.8 million) for the year.
China is seen as the most significant air traffic control system market in the Asia/Pacific region over the next 18 months, primarily because the country plans to rebuild 40 airports by December 2000. Thirty already are under construction, reconstruction or going through an expansion phase. According to Xu Yang, a senior director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), the ATC market alone for the 40 facilities is worth more than US$2 billion.
Sabena traffic for May rose 12.4% to 1.5 billion revenue passenger kilometers. The airline's passenger total increased 9.6% for the month, to 856,000, and is up 18.3% year to date.
FAA is asking the Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee for a recommendation disposition of comments received in response to its proposal on harmonizing bird ingestion requirements with Europe and Canada. Contrary to the usual practice, however, FAA is not asking ARAC to develop a final draft, only to provide it with recommendations by Nov. 30.
Air China may merge with China's largest domestic carrier China Southern Airlines, sparking long-awaited consolidation of the fragmented Chinese aviation market. China Southern's parent company held "preliminary" talks with Air China and negotiations eventually may lead to a partnership or merger, China Southern said in a statement. A merger would be another step in the consolidation of China's aviation market, which has 34 carriers of various sizes.
U.S. Carriers Maintenance Expense First Quarter 1999 Major Carriers % Of Total Maintenance Operating Expenses Alaska 37,356,000 10.66 America West 64,735,796 14.02 American 487,020,000 13.57 Continental 201,640,000 11.40 Delta 310,464,000 9.66
A website with information on the role of aviation has premiered on the Internet at www.wingsoverkansas.com. Wings Over Kansas contains information on aviation in Kansas, the Midwest and North America and features contributions from aviation authors and historians.
The full large-scale test of Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast carried out over the weekend were described as successful yesterday by Steve Alterman, president of the Cargo Airlines Association. The tests were co-sponsored by CAA and FAA and included other aviation industry, academia, government and military participants, along with 12 cargo aircraft provided by Airborne Express, FedEx and UPS.
DOT approved a one-year initial exemption for Aeromar, Dominican Republic, to engage in scheduled foreign combination service between Santo Domingo and San Juan, Puerto Rico. The carrier may conduct the service only under wet-lease with carrier certificated by the U.S. The Dominican Republic currently is a Category 3 country under FAA's International Aviation Assessment Program.
American yesterday told a U.S. district court that it did not break any antitrust laws and that its decisions to match prices of other airlines "in the competitive marketplace were well within the law." The carrier filed its a response to a May 11 Justice Ddepartment lawsuit with Judge J. Thomas Marten of the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas. American asked the court to set an initial pretrial conference in August, and in preparation for that conference, its attorneys plan to meet with DOJ attorneys this month.
Midwest Express saw a 27.9% surge in traffic on 28.4% more capacity for June compared with the same 1998 month, which lowered the load factor 0.3 percentage points to 72.1%. Passengers flown gained 23.9%. Midwest Express Connection carrier Skyway Airlines reported a 7.8% increase in traffic on 0.7% greater capacity, which pushed the load factor up 3.6 points to 54.8%. Passengers flown grew 8.4%. Year-to-date, Midex reported 23.5% more traffic and a 22.8% gain in capacity, causing a 0.4-point rise in load factor. Skyway's RPMs climbed 9.2% and ASMs rose 0.1%.
Singapore Airlines will offer complimentary cellular phone rental service to economy-class passengers. The carrier began the service last year for first-and business-class passengers, but it will become the first airline to extend the offer to all passengers. For passengers traveling roundtrip to Singapore, the complimentary rental period is two consecutive days, after which the airline charges $2.92 a day, far less than the $17.50 a day fee in Singapore. Customers are still required to pay air time charges.
B/E Aerospace received a launch order from British Airways for its new flight crew rest compartment for Boeing 777s. BA will retrofit 16 777s with new compartments housing eight sleeping bunks and two seats in an otherwise unused overhead space in the mid-section of the aircraft. B/E said the overhead location frees up cargo space by replacing an existing smaller crew rest area in the cargo section. B/E's product weighs about half as much as the existing compartment, which results in lower fuel consumption.
Taiwan has approved the use of the international airports in Taipei and Kaohsiung for trans-shipment of air cargo bound for China, a business decision that should help China-Taiwan relations. Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council which, formulates China policy, said the move should generate an increase in cargo movement between the two countries. Since the civil war between the two ended in 1949, there has been no movement of air cargo.
LanChile's June traffic jumped 15.9% year-over-year on 1.0% more capacity, raising the load factor 7.9 percentage points to 53.8%. The airline experienced 28.1% growth in international traffic, while domestic traffic plunged 16.4%. Cargo volume rose 45.8% to 130.5 million freight ton kilometers. LanChile Chief Operating Officer Luis Ernesto Videla attributed the domestic decline to difficult economic conditions in Chile. However, he expects Chilean recovery measures will begin to take effect in the second half of the year.
Lufthansa Cargo plans a worldwide rate increase of about 10% beginning Sept. 1, although some markets will see the hike this month and other markets beginning Oct. 1. "These measures are an attempt to combat the fall in average yields that has been persisting for years and was particularly prevalent in the last few months," said Marketing Executive Stefan Lauer.
WestJet Airlines reported a 44.1% jump in traffic on 35.3% more capacity for June, raising load factor 4.3 percentage points to 70.8%. Year-to-date, the Calgary, Alberta-based airline saw a 47% growth in revenue passenger miles and 42.2% more available seat miles, which pushed the load factor up 2.3 points.
An FAA rewrite of its repair station rules came under criticism from the National Air Transportation Association, which said some parts of the agency's proposal it outside its authority. Andrew Cebula, NATA VP, said the evaluation of heating, ventilation and light of repair stations falls under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. He said the testing of calibration equipment is handled by the National Institute of Standards.
Carlyle Group signed an agreement to acquire Gemini Air Cargo in partnership with Gemini management and employees. Gemini is the largest aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance (ACMI) operator of DC-10-30 freighters. Customers include Swisscargo, Air France, Emery, FedEx, Asiana and China Eastern.
ASG Scan-Cargo, a subsidiary of Sweden's second-largest freight company ASG AB, may stop using SAS Cargo following frequent delays at the new SAS Cargo Terminal at Copenhagen Airport, officials told The DAILY. "If the problems continue, we will consider recommending that our customers use other airlines and terminals," said Helge Hansen, head of exports at ASG Scan-Cargo. Last year, SAS Cargo handled 31,934 tons of cargo, while its main rival, Novia, partly owned by Maersk Air, Denmark's second-largest carrier, handled 33,571 tons.
Swissair, fighting a rear-guard battle in its home country to defend a legal monopoly on European routes, last week asked the Swiss civil aviation authority to block plans by EasyJet's Swiss subsidiary, which intends operate low-cost flights between Geneva and Barcelona, starting July 29 (DAILY, July 9). According to a 1998 law, no Swiss company is allowed to compete with Swissair on the routes the flag carrier serves until 2008.
