Berlin Tegel Airport was shut down for nearly half a day last week after an unexploded 1,000-pound World War II bomb was discovered off the end of the main runway. Markings showed it was a German munition, and several other unexploded bombs were found. More than 10,000 passengers were inconvenienced during the shutdown.
Ten aviation groups signed a letter authored by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association supporting legislation to curb what they described as "FAA's abuse of its emergency authority to revoke pilot certificates." While AOPA is concerned with pilot certificates, the legislation, introduced by Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), also applies to other types of certificates, including airline operating certificates. It provides the right to appeal to the National Transportation Safety Board within seven days of an emergency revocation.
American Society of Travel Agents President Joe Gallaway feels vindicated by the recent J.D. Power&Associates study showing half of frequent flyers are dissatisfied with airline service. Airlines "repeatedly deny there is a customer service problem" while "evidence to the contrary continues to mount," he said.
United and Gulfstream International have expanded their code-sharing agreement to include five daily flights Gulfstream offers between Florida and Paradise Island in the Bahamas - two flights from Miami and three from Fort Lauderdale. United expects the Paradise Island expansion, which was effective Saturday, to generate another 4,000-5,000 customers a year.
DOT approved America West's code-share arrangement with Air China, subject to the removal of exclusivity provisions. The authority enables either carrier to code share with U.S. or Chinese carriers not designated for U.S.-China combination service. The carriers plan to code share from Air China's two U.S. gateways, with America West displaying Air China's designator code between Los Angeles and San Francisco and 12 U.S. points served by America West (DAILY, March 10).
LanChile's net profits for the first quarter jumped 46% to $31.8 million from $21.8 in the first quarter of 1998. After a lackluster last half of 1998, LanChile's net margin rose to 10.4% from 7.8%. Part of the profit came from the airline's sale of 30% of its holding in data network provider Equant NV, bringing in $13.1 million. LanChile also experienced a one-time $2 million loss from the devaluation of the Brazilian currency. Total revenue increased 9.6% to $305.7 million.
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) has warned local carriers that it will shut them down if they continue to violate safety regulations. CAAC Director Liu Jianfeng said that although no major accidents occurred in 1998, there were several incidents. Citing the findings of an investigation of a China Eastern Airlines incident, in which an A320 lost its nose wheel after takeoff from Shanghai for Osaka last November, Liu said the pilots were not aware of the event. "This is a clear case of a relaxed attitude," Liu said.
A "strong majority" of North Texas residents want the fight between the City of Dallas, Love Field and the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport Authority to stop, according to a survey of Dallas and Tarrant County residents conducted by the Association for Sensible Aviation Policies, which supports Love Field interests. The survey found that nearly 73% of Dallas and Tarrant County residents polled agree with DOT that restricting operations at another airport is not a legitimate aim for DFW and want the airport to stop using public dollars to sue the City of Dallas.
America West applied for exemption to provide service to Birmingham, Glasgow and Manchester, U.K., and Dusseldorf and Frankfurt, Germany, from Newark. The carrier wants to link its service to Newark from Phoenix and the West Coast with the U.S.-U.K. and U.S.-Germany service, to be operated by Continental under code share. (Docket OST-99-5613)
ARINC and the Dutch National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR) recently demonstrated technologies crucial to the future air navigation environment - VHF Digital Link Mode 2 (VDLM2) and satellite communications in an CNS/ATM (Communications, Navigation, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management) environment. This first step toward the future environment was accomplished under the European Commission fourth European Framework Program's Airborne Air Traffic Management System.
Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee plans to hold hearings on predatory pricing practices by established carriers in the airline industry. While no date has been set, an aide to Sen. Herbert Kohl (Wis.), ranking Democrat on the subcommittee, said the antitrust staff wants to hold the hearings next month. The panel unveiled its plans late Thursday, the same day the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against American charging it with monopolizing service at Dallas/Fort Worth. Subcommittee Chairman Sen.
Flight Safety Foundation's offer of an aviation safety audit for on-demand air charter providers was not a hit with the National Air Transportation Association. "This is an industry already heavily regulated by the FAA and subject to numerous audits," said NATA President Jim Coyne. Fatal accidents in this group over the past 10 years has been "statistically insignificant."
St. George, Utah-based SkyWest boarded 431,363 passengers last month, 56.3% more than in April 1998. Traffic was up 46.9% to nearly 91 million revenue passenger miles as capacity rose 42.1% to 170.7 million available seat miles. As a result, the load factor edged up 1.8 percentage points to 53.3%. SkyWest has code-sharing agreements with Delta at Los Angeles and Salt Lake City and United on the West Coast. For the first four months, SkyWest's passenger boarding improvement was even more dramatic - 61.2% to 1,670,277.
GE Engine Services obtained a $35 million contract to maintain and overhaul the JT9-7 engines powering PeaceAir's five 747-200s. The work will be done at GE's facility in Wales.
Completion of a new taxiway and support facilities has increased the flight-handling capacity of Taichung's Shuinan Airport by one-third, to 200 takeoffs and landings per day from 150. According to an airport spokesman, the increase in flight-handling capacity means a gain 2,500 passengers the airport can serve each day.
British Airways and its International Association of Machinists (IAM) unit have ratified a labor agreement covering customer service, reservation sales, telecommunications and engineering employees, IAM said yesterday. The two sides agreed to send a tentative agreement to IAM employees in an 11th-hour attempt to avert a strike. BA saw the proposal that passed ratification yesterday as a tentative deal, but IAM called it a final offer.
Veritas has received a contract from Airbus Industrie to provide backup and recovery of data generated by a variety of applications. Veritas Software France will perform data archival, disaster recovery and tape media management in support of new aircraft development projects.
British Civil Aviation Authority will carry out a higher number of inspections of long-haul aircraft arriving in the U.K. in the coming weeks, under a program of checks on foreign aircraft at U.K. airports. U.K. Aviation Minister Glenda Jackson ordered the checks following reports that a Malaysian Airlines aircraft landed at London Heathrow with "unusually low fuel levels" (DAILY, May 11). In a meeting between officials from the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions and MAS, the airline offered to provide the U.K.
FAA's estimate for funds expected from the proposed performance-based organization for air traffic control is "highly optimistic," DOT Inspector General Kenneth Mead said in testimony before the House Appropriations transportation subcommittee. Mead said the estimate - $1.5 billion from user fees in fiscal 2000, is optimistic because the user fee system will require FAA's cost accounting system to be in place and operating -- FAA agreed with the DOT IG's assessment but insisted the agency basically has the right approach.
Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) maintains that the National Transportation Safety Board has the authority to investigate air accidents like the 1996 TWA Flight 800 disaster, but "if clarifying language is helpful, he will consider supporting it to ensure the FBI would not commandeer a public safety investigation again," a Grassley spokeswoman said. Grassley charged at a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing he chaired this week that the investigation "was commandeered" by the FBI, which pushed the now-discredited bomb or missile theory.
Federal Express Corp. received a one-year exemption from DOT to provide cargo service between Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, and Santo Domingo and Santiago, Dominican Republic. The carrier plans to operate the flights with aircraft chartered from Mountain Air Cargo. (Docket OST-99-5575)
American gave $250,000 to the University of Oklahoma School of Meteorology to establish a professorship dedicated to storm warnings and weather safety.
