National Airlines is introducing a frequent flyer program, National Comps, but is first promoting membership via the Internet. Those registering online before the program is launched nationwide will receive bonus mileage. The week-old Las Vegas-based airline soon will introduce an online booking capability.
On-time arrivals in April at 29 airports reporting ranged from 83.1% at Minneapolis/St. Paul to 64.6% at Chicago O'Hare, according to DOT's Air Travel Consumer Report. Second-best was Salt Lake City, at 81.9%, while Newark was next to last at 69.9%.
Delta plans to complete installation of automatic external defibrillators and enhanced emergency medical kits on its entire fleet of 584 aircraft by June 30, six months ahead of schedule.
Tower Air flew 12.1% more revenue passenger miles in May, compared with the year-ago month. Capacity increased 4.1% and passenger boardings jumped 26.3%. The load grew 5.2 percentage points to 73.3%, driven mainly by stronger traffic to Tel Aviv and in domestic markets. Block hours flown in May declined 9.6%, attributable to the discontinuation of a Middle East charter and reduced cargo operations. Five-month RPMs were up 11.1%. capacity 7.1% and boardings 26.7%. The load factor was up 2.7 points to 75.5%.
Washington Democrat Deborah Senn, the state insurance commissioner, is considered a threat to unseat Senate aviation subcommittee Chairman Slade Gorton (R-Wash.), who is up for re-election next year.
Air Canada will start nonstop service between Washington Reagan and Ottawa Aug. 3, using 50-seat Canadair Regional Jet aircraft. The service, Air Canada's 50th new route since the U.S.-Canada transborder agreement, will be available on business days. United will offer code-share services on the route.
Mesaba Airlines flew 116.9 million revenue passenger miles in May, up 37.8%. Available seat miles rose 31.3% to 206.5 million, and the load factor gained 2.7 percentage points to 56.6%. The number of passengers jumped 38% to 459,500. For the quarter to date, passenger traffic rose 30.3%, capacity 35.1%, load factor 2.1 points and passengers boarded 35.9%.
Denmark Friday cast a lone veto on extending the current intra-European Union duty- and tax-free regime, blocking the "will of 14 other" EU members, according to Philippe Hamon, director general of Airports Council International-Europe. Failure to reverse the EU directive, which required a unanimous vote, means the end of duty-free shopping for passengers traveling between European Union countries as of July 1.
Senate Appropriations Committee clearly had misgivings about the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) and the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), even though the two were funded at requested levels. Some of the "continuing problems" with FAA's two largest procurements, STARS and WAAS, "fuel concern that the agency hasn't turned the corner yet in the administration of major procurements," the committee said in its transportation appropriations report.
FAA Administrator Jane Garvey named Louise Maillett acting associate administrator for the Office of Airports. Maillett, deputy assistant administrator for the Office of Policy, Planning and International Aviation, succeeds Susan Kurland, who joined US Airways.
US Airways will close its aircraft doors five minutes before the departure time beginning June 15 to boost its on-time departure rates. The carrier is asking passengers to be on board and seated 10 minutes prior to departure. For the past six months, 95% of US Airways on-time departures arrived on time - within 14 minutes of scheduled arrival time.
AirTran enplaned 15.6% more passengers in May than in the same 1998 month and flew 0.9% more revenue passenger miles. Capacity declined 6.5%, driving the load factor up 4.7 percentage points to 64.7%. For five months, the carrier reported 7.5% more RPMs and 2.9% more capacity. The load factor gained 2.7 points to 63% and enplanements jumped 24.6%.
British World Airlines has extended its wet-lease contracts with Jersey European Airways on two British Aerospace ATPs. The leases were originally agreed to earlier this year and now are extended to October for one and September for the second. One of the 66-seat aircraft is operating on JEA's Southampton-Guernsey route five times a day, and the other is based in Glasgow, serving Birmingham and the Channel Islands. British World Airlines is a subsidiary of the publicly listed BWA Group, specializing in European wet-leasing and charter flights.
National Air Transportation Association, notified Friday, along with other industry groups, by FAA that the agency intends to strictly enforce flight and duty time rules for pilots on reserve, says this an "indication that pressure is building for the FAA to act on a new rulemaking proposal." NATA says FAA is being pressured by both the National Transportation Safety Board and by pilot unions to implement stricter rules.
Consumers who depend on the Global Positioning System for locations in the air, at sea or on land may experience problems during an end-of-week (EOW) rollover Aug. 22 and by Year 2000 problems if consumer GPS receivers and applications are not Y2K-ready. The problems include the inability of receivers to locate satellites, resulting in receivers not working, receivers will take more time than usual to locate the satellites, receivers will appear to be working but will display inaccurate positions, times or dates.
Travelocity.com reported gross sales of more than $128 million for the first quarter, up 156% from the comparable period last year. The Sabre Group's travel web site also registered 1.2 million new members in the quarter and 3.8 million unique visitors - those who visit the site once - in March.
American yesterday still had not identified all passengers that were aboard Flight 1420, which crashed Tuesday night at the Little Rock, Ark., Airport (DAILY, June 3). The carrier said it "will not release any additional passenger names until the medical examiner has completed the identification of the remains and announced the identities of the fatalities." Bob Baker, executive VP, said Wednesday that American had not been able to talk to 21 passengers or their relatives or verify whether they were in medical facilities.
U.S. and French transportation representatives will meet June 29-30 in Washington to discuss intermodal code sharing, under which airlines would code share - and offer frequent flyer miles - on the French railroad system.Air France is offering its passengers such an option, and "U.S. carriers are interested," according to a State Department official.
KLM's operating income for fiscal 1998-99 fell to 425 million Netherlands guilders (US$200 million) from NLG811 million ($381 million) the previous year. Earnings per share were down 10%. The airline agreed to pay a dividend of NLG1.50 (70 cents), representing a payout ratio of about 40% of net income, excluding the net results from the sale of holdings.
SITA won a major contract with Lufthansa to provide the airline with a global communications network. The five-year contract, valued at $215 million, aims to cut the airline's infrastructure costs, standardize its information technology worldwide and ensure Year 2000 compliance. In addition, SITA received a two-year, $32 million contract to link Lufthansa staff throughout the world to its central host system in Frankfurt. The project gives Lufthansa the Internet Protocol standards it needs for the future.
KLM's corporate services unit, Traxxer, has signed a marketing agreement with Palo Alto, Calif.-based Internet Travel Network. ITN and Hooffdorpp, Netherlands-based Traxxer jointly will market and support ITN's flagship Global Manager online booking technology.
FAA scheduled two job recruitment fairs June 9 and 10 in the Chicago area at which it plans to hire 250 to 300 electronic technicians for its Airways Facilities Division, which installs and maintains air traffic control equipment. FAA said electronic specialists are needed to support a number of areas, including radar, navigational aids, telecommunications, automation and environmental systems and equipment.
British Airways franchise partner CityFlyer Express will begin service from London Gatwick to Shannon in October with one flight each weekday and one on Sunday. Flights will use British Aerospace Avro RJ100s and Shannon is CityFlyer's third city in Ireland after Dublin and Cork. CityFlyer will accept two more RJ100s in July and August, taking its RJ fleet to seven among a total of 18 aircraft.
The Communications Workers of America yesterday asked the National Mediation Board for an immediate rerun of an employee vote on representation. Last week, a federal appeals court invalidated the first CWA election, which occurred in September 1997. CWA wants NMB to act in time to send out new ballots for an election by July 1. The union said passenger service agents at the airline have not had a raise in nearly seven years. US Airways has pledged to give agents wage and benefits improvements that were agreed to in bargaining.
