Summary of U.S. Major Carriers Domestic Traffic Fourth Quarter 1998 Revenue Average Revenue Passengers Length of Passenger Enplaned % Travel Miles % (000) Change (Miles) (000) Change Alaska 2,965 7.23 832 2,466,822 8.59 America West 4,244 (0.71) 928 3,939,522 4.77
Atlantic Coast Airlines reported May traffic jumped 33.6% to 91.6 million revenue passenger miles. Capacity was up 37% to 155 million available seat miles. Load factor was 59.1%, compared to 60.6% the same month last year. Passengers carried rose by 31.7% to 287.4 million. For the year to date, RPMs were up by 41.3% to 388.3 million, ASMs rose by 37% to 694 million, load factor rose by 1.7 points to 56% and passengers carried rose by 35.2% to 1.2 million. The United Express carrier operates a fleet of 80 aircraft serving Washington Dulles and Chicago O'Hare.
A six-month deadline to develop a new protocol for testing the fire resistance of aircraft insulation has come and gone, and FAA said yesterday it is "not going to speculate on when this whole effort might be done." The study was ordered following the crashes of TWA 800 and Swissair 111 (DAILY, Nov. 30). FAA now says the new protocol is likely to prove costly to industry and that it needs more time to study the impact.
Pakistan International Airlines asked DOT to amend its foreign air carrier permit and in the interim grant it an exemption to operate all services permitted under U.S.-Pakistan open skies (DAILY, May 6). (Dockets OST-99-5757, 5758)
US Airways applied to DOT to register the trade name US Airways Shuttle as an additional US Airways' trade name. The carrier plans to use the US Airways Shuttle name "for marketing purposes" for U.S. Northeast corridor services. The only carrier identified with the 'same or similar name' is Shuttle, Inc., which previously registered the trade name US Airways Shuttle.
Air France expects to unveil the name of its future U.S. partner in the coming weeks, the carrier said yesterday in Paris, when it announced financial results. Final deliberations are under way. Management has lined up a series of meetings with its counterparts from Continental, Delta and Northwest. No clear front runner has emerged, but in-house rumors point to Delta. Air France also said it "is confident it will be able to post a significant increase in operating income for the current financial year," the French airline said yesterday.
Mexicana, responding to seasonal market fluctuations, will suspend service from Mexico City to Denver between July 1 and Dec. 19. Flights will resume Dec. 20 to accommodate peak holiday and ski season traffic. Passengers currently booked on Mexicana flights to Denver will be rerouted through Los Angeles and San Antonio for connecting flights on other airlines.
Continental Express will start regional jet service from Baton Rouge, La., to Houston Bush Intercontinental Sept. 9, replacing one of nine turboprop flights in the market. Continental's regional subsidiary will operate the service with 50-passenger Embraer ERJ-145 aircraft.
TIE Aviation d/b/a Trans International Express applied for a certificate to conduct scheduled combination service between points in the U.S. and Israel, as well as "worldwide charter authority." TIE wants to start New York Kennedy-Tel Aviv service about Sept. 1, operating twice-weekly nonstops using a 462-seat Boeing 747-300 leased from Singapore Airlines, plus "charters to various destinations," including Berlin, Rome, Munich, Seattle and Las Vegas.
Frontier's advertisements published Nov. 11 in the Dallas Morning News and other newspapers failed to state clearly that advertised fares were one way and required a roundtrip purchase, DOT said in a consent order. DOT assessed Frontier $18,000 in compromise civil penalties for not stating "prominently and in close proximity" to the advertised fares that they were one-way tariffs available only on a roundtrip basis.
JAL Express (JEX) and Japan TransOcean Air (JTA) asked DOT for an exemption to wet-lease aircraft to Japan Airlines (JAL), their parent company, for JAL's code-share service with American. Approval would enable JAL to display American's designator code on intra-Japan flights operated by JAL using aircraft it wet-leases from JEX and JTA. Neither wet-lessor's code would be displayed on the flights.
Delta and Air Jamaica applied jointly at DOT for authority to expand their reciprocal code-share service between the U.S. and Caribbean points. They requested an exemption for Delta to provide scheduled combination service between Atlanta, New York, and Miami and Grenada, and between Los Angeles and Antigua and St. Lucia. They also asked for an exemption for Air Jamaica to conduct scheduled combination service between Montego Bay/Kingston and Phoenix/Salt Lake City.
MetroJet yesterday announced it is beginning daily nonstop flights between Boston Logan to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando and adding a third daily flight between Boston and Tampa. Michael Scheeringa, VP-US Airways Shuttle and MetroJet, said that as part of a special introductory offer, advance purchase one-way fare in each market is $75. The new service quadruples flights between Boston and Florida for the carrier, he said.
Summary of U.S. Major Carriers International Traffic Fourth Quarter 1998 Revenue Average Revenue Passengers Length of Passenger Enplaned % Travel Miles % (000) Change (miles) (000) Change Alaska 247 27.32 1,144 282,204 28.75
American posted a 0.5% decline in May traffic, compared with the same 1998 period, and 0.1% gain in capacity, which eased the load factor 0.5 percentage points to 69.5%. Passenger boardings were off 2.8%. Traffic on Latin America and domestic segments contributed most heavily to the decline with drops of 5.0% and 2.4%, respectively. Capacity was down 10% on Latin America routes and 1.1% internationally. Traffic on Pacific routes, American's smallest division, was up sharply at 59% and capacity gained 34.8%. The resulting load factor was 72.8%, up 11 points.
Midwest Express will begin service Sept. 1 from its Milwaukee hub to Washington Dulles. The airline will offer two flights in each direction on weekdays. Three of the flights will provide one-stop, direct service between Kansas City and Washington Dulles. The carrier currently provides nonstop service between Washington Reagan Airport to Milwaukee and Omaha. Timothy Hoeksema, chairman, said the decision to expand service was based on growth potential.
National Transportation Safety Board this week recommended that FAA establish within two years "scientifically based hours-of-service regulations that set limits on hours of service, provide predictable work and rest schedules and consider circadian rhythms and human sleep and rest requirements" for flight crew.
Cathay Pacific yesterday canceled 25% of its flights due to a pilot sick- out. Flights from San Francisco and Vancouver to Hong Kong were among those flights affected. The carrier, in negotiations with pilots to cut costs and lower wages (DAILY, June 2), has signed wet-lease agreements with five international airlines and is exploring additional charter contracts. In the latest development, Cathay's oneworld partner Canadian Airlines will add flights between Vancouver and Hong Kong this week and next.
Aviation Capital Group acquired an A320 that is leased to America West. ACG also acquired a 727-200 that will be hushkitted, converted for cargo transport, and leased to a U.S. cargo airline for eight years.
FAA efforts in the Grand Canyon and in Hawaii have shown that air tour accidents can be reduced through increased oversight of the industry, according to the DOT Inspector General. Since special regulations went into effect for those two locations, the Grand Canyon has had no air tour accidents and Hawaii's air tour accidents dropped from 24 to three, the IG said. "Although recommended by the safety board in 1995 and promised by FAA to be implemented by December 1997, FAA has yet to complete actions to improve air tour safety nationwide," the IG said.
New Air's certificate application "is predicated upon two assumptions [that are] fundamentally flawed," International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) told DOT. The startup, which applied for New York Kennedy slots in advance of its certificate application (DAILY, Feb. 9, March 1), "improperly assumes" that DOT will grant its request for 75 high-
American Airlines late yesterday still was trying to contact relatives of 21 passengers who were on board an MD-80 that crashed late Tuesday while landing during a severe storm at Little Rock, Ark. Timely notification of relatives is required by a new law passed by Congress following the crash of TWA 800. The American aircraft went off the runway after landing and split into pieces. Nine persons were confirmed dead, including the captain. There were 139 passengers and six crew on board.
Frontier Airlines yesterday posted net income of $30.6 million for the fiscal year ended March 31, the first time the five-year-old carrier has seen a full-year profit. During the previous fiscal year, Frontier lost $17.7 million. The airline had net earnings of $17.8 million in the March quarter. Fiscal 1999 revenue reached $220.6 million, up 50%, while operating expenses rose 18.2% to $195.9 million. Frontier added three Boeing 737s to its fleet - which now numbers 17 - and began service to four new markets during the past year.
Ranking House Transportation Committee Democrat Rep. James Oberstar (Minn.) plans to introduce legislation when Congress returns next week that would require U.S. carriers to conduct safety audits of foreign airline partners as a condition of any code-sharing arrangement. Oberstar will introduce the bill in the House on Monday, a spokesman said. With the growth of code sharing, "we need to take a hard look at whether safety has kept pace," Oberstar said. Since 1994, code-sharing alliances have increased from 61 to 163. "A passenger who buys a ticket from a U.S.
