An expected agreement between U.S. airlines and Congress on voluntary upgrades in passenger service collapsed yesterday. The Air Transport Association abandoned release of its "voluntary passenger rights plan" yesterday because not all players in Congress had seen the final version and were reluctant to agree without seeing it. Congressional sources expected to have clearance from Capitol Hill next week.
Thailand's Civil Aviation Board has approved Thai Airways International's application to raise business-class and child fares to the Middle East and the U.S. 5-30%.
UAL Services will provide routine engine maintenance to TAESA, a private airline based in Mexico City. Work on the CMF56 engines that power TAESA's Boeing 737s will be performed at United's maintenance center in San Francisco.
Express Airlines I, flying as Northwest Airlink, posted a 16.8% drop in revenue passenger miles on 15.9% fewer available seat miles for May, lowering the load factor 0.6 percentage points to 64.4%. Passenger enplanements declined 15.2%. Year-to-date RPMs dropped 5.5% and ASMs 8.5%, which pushed the load factor up 1.8 points. Passengers flown declined 8.8%.
The Australian government has come under fire from the Board of Airline Representatives of Australia (BARA) for its plans to charge airlines US$1 for every departing passenger in addition to the current US$20 "passenger movement charge," an airport tax. The government claims the additional charge is needed for tougher airport security measures introduced before the Sydney Olympic Games. Australian airports currently are installing new baggage screening and security-related equipment.
Air Transport Association Cargo Traffic, April 1999 Revenue Ton Miles (000) April April % 1999 1998 Change Domestic Freight 831,486 838,725 (0.9) Mail 169,144 180,501 (6.3) Total 1,000,630 1,019,226 (1.8) International Freight 829,384 787,467 5.3
John Koskinen, chairman of the President's Council on Y2K Conversion, discusses national Y2K readiness, local information sharing as part of an airport's Y2K plan and the need for airport Y2K contingency plans on Aviation News Today, to air Sunday on Washington's NewsChannel 8 at 12:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
Two Asian carriers - Air China and Japan Air System - could be the core Asian carriers in the global KLM/Northwest/Alitalia alliance that is being formed, a representative from the partnership told The DAILY in Singapore. JAS already is part of Northwest's World Perks frequent flyer program and this week signed a broader alliance with Northwest. JAS also partners with KLM. Air China, with its broad international network, is an obvious choice and the carrier already allies with Northwest.
Singapore Airlines suffered a setback in its expansion plans when Ruport Murdoch's News Corp. called off talks yesterday on selling the carrier its 50% stake in Ansett Airlines, Australia's second-largest airline. The sale plan, worth A$500 million (US$300 million), has been on hold for several months after Ansett's other shareholder, Air New Zealand (ANZ), failed to concur. News Corp. said it was "disappointed that Air New Zealand could not come to terms with SIA and had not yet resolved issues between them." SIA said it was disappointed with the decision.
DHL Airways named Jeff Lucchesi senior VP-information services and chief information officer, responsible for telecommunications, technical infrastructure, business applications and electronic information.
Top 25 Domestic City-Pair Markets, O&D Passengers, Fourth Quarter 1998 1998 1997 Average Mkt. Mkt Passengers Top Carrier Rank Rank City-Pair Per Day (% Share) 1 1 Los Angeles - New York 8,486 American (33.3) 2 2 Chicago - New York 7,868 United (35.1) 3 3 Boston - New York 6,979 Delta (43.0) 4 5 New York - Washington 6,679 Delta (44.9)
American Eagle, regional affiliate of American, reported a 2.4% systemwide increase in may passenger boardings to 1.42 million, an 11.3% jump in revenue passenger miles and an 11.9% rise in available seat miles, setting records on boardings and capacity. As ad result, the systemwide load factor dipped 0.3 percentage points to 63.2%. American Eagle Airlines traffic grew 9.9% on 10.1% more capacity, depressing the load factor 0.1 point. Passengers flown rose 1.1%.
TWA's last, best offer to its International Association of Machinists union "will push the company to the limit of its financial resources," according to a study by Darryl Jenkins, Director of the Aviation Institute at George Washington University. Jenkins concludes that the financially stretched airline cannot offer any more than the $350 million it now has on the table. "With few if any available credit lines and only $200 million in the bank, a strike could bankrupt the airline.
SITA enhanced its aircraft data-link service to provide VHF radio coverage to every country by extending its VHF Aircom ground station network to cover the U.S., Canada and Jamaica. With the change, SITA becomes the only air ground service provider offering a single interface to worldwide VHF data link services, the organization said. SITA also will launch the next generation of global aeronautical data-
Top 25 Domestic City-Pair Markets Under 750 Miles O&D Passengers Fourth Quarter 1998 1998 1998 Nonstop Average Sht Hl Mkt Mileage Pax Top Carrier Rank Rank City-Pair Per Day (% Share) 1 2 Chicago - New York 723 7,868 United (35.1) 2 3 Boston - New York 183 6,979 Delta (43.0)
A six-man management team from Emirates headed by Peter Hill will attempt to reshape Air Lanka into a more competitive carrier. Work on a total image change and product revamp has started and will be unveiled in the third week of July. Hill, recently appointed chief executive of Air Lanka, said a new corporate identity program is in progress. "After 20 years in operation, Air Lanka needs a fresh look.
Service to two airports is included in the Federal Transit Administration's bus rapid transit (BRT) demonstration program, DOT said. Among the 10 communities selected are Boston, with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's 3.8-mile "Silver Line" running to and through downtown to the South Boston Piers and Logan Airport and the Washington Dulles Airport corridor in Northern Virginia.
Northwest and its flight attendants are continuing contract talks today with the National Mediation Board in Washington. Flight attendants, represented by the Teamsters, will decide whether to ask for release from mediation once the talks are concluded. The union voted last weekend to strike if there is no resolution in this round of negotiations. Northwest made some movement on the compensation issue, Danny Campbell, secretary/treasurer of Teamsters Local 2000, told The DAILY.
An arbitrator has ruled that American Eagle flight attendants who were denied the full amount of annual raises were entitled to back pay, effective the date of their hiring anniversary. Flight attendants, members of the Association of Flight Attendants, were employed by Simmons Airlines between Aug. 1, 1994, and April 14, 1995, now part of American Eagle.
Croatia chose Lockheed Martin Ocean, Radar&Sensor Systems to provide an integrated surveillance system to meet its civil and military needs, the company said. The $94 million contract includes construction Syracuse of five long-range, dual-use FPS-117E(1)T radars with associated display consoles and five Monopulse Secondary Surveillance Radars. The equipment will provide air traffic control radar coverage of all Croatian air space as well as that of neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina. Work is to be completed in two years.
CCAIR, which flies as US Airways Express in the southeastern U.S., adopted the merger agreement with Mesa Air Group at a special shareholders meeting. CCAIR will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Mesa Air Group after closing conditions and procedures. CCAIR shareholders will receive 0.6214 shares of Mesa common stock for each share of CCAIR common stock.
Air Jamaica leased an Airbus A340-300 from International Lease Finance Corp. for use on scheduled flights between London Heathrow and Montego Bay/Kingston, replacing an A310-300 leased from Airbus. Air Jamaica leases two A320s and two A321s from ILFC.
