AB Airlines Chairman Brian Deal said the carrier is in "detailed discussion with Boeing regarding the brand-new 717-200." Deal said the Stansted-based carrier "next year could become one of the first operators in Europe of the 717." The 717 is a "perfect replacement" for the carrier's BAC-111s and has no equivalent competition for ACMI (aircraft, crew, maintenance, insurance) operations. The carrier last week took delivery of a third 737-300 leased from Boullioun Aviation.
KLM, stinging from criticism after it slaughtered 440 ground squirrels it deemed unsafe, is vowing not to transport any more rodents, reptiles and amphibians. Passengers may not have known that riding in the airplane with them were everything from snakes and salamanders to rats and rabbits.
Northwest posted a 1.7% gain in April traffic on 2.3% more capacity, which lowered the load factor 0.4 percentage points to 74.2%. Passenger boardings climbed 3%. International revenue passenger miles declined 0.3% and available seat miles 3.3%, boosting the load factor 2.3 points to 75.2%. Domestic traffic jumped 3.2% and capacity climbed 6.2%, pushing the load factor down 2.1 points. Year-to-date systemwide RPMs dropped 1.7% and ASMs declined 1.8%, growing the load factor 0.1 point.
PPG Industries named Wayne Fisher manager-global sales and marketing for military transparencies and Prist products and Anthony Stone manager-global sales and marketing for airline aftermarket sales of windshields and windows.
Virgin Atlantic lost its chance to operate daily Chicago-London Heathrow nonstops when DOT turned down its exemption request for two slots at O'Hare Airport. Separately, DOT granted Virgin a one-year initial exemption to conduct scheduled combination service between London Heathrow and Chicago (DAILY, April 15). The carrier filed for the slots after receiving U.K. designation for nonstop service on the route (DAILY, March 17).
Bleeding domestic carriers in Taiwan have succumbed to pressure from the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) to merge. EVA Air last week merged its three subsidiaries - Great China Airlines, Taiwan Airways and Uni Air to form Uni Airways. China Airlines (CAL) told the CAA that Formosa Airlines will merge with Mandarin Airlines. CAL owns Mandarin and has a 41% stake in Formosa. CAL will pass all domestic routes on to the new carrier, to be known as Mandarin Airlines. According to CAL President Sandy Liu, the merger will be completed by the end of June.
Venezuela's Aeropostal will add four aircraft shortly, two A320s and two DC-9-50s, and will begin wet-lease operations on the new Caracas-Orlando route. The four weekly flights will begin in mid-July. Because of Venezuela's lower safety ranking, the airline cannot launch the service on its own.
Flight Safety Foundation named Frank Daly, president and chief executive of AlliedSignal Aerospace Avionics and Lighting, and Carl Sigel, executive VP-operations of Lufthansa, to the board of governors and gave the FSF Business Aviation Meritorious Award to Mark Rosekind, technical adviser to the FSF Fatigue Countermeasures Task Force.
Approved a National Baseball Team of the Republic of Cuba charter using an Air Transat L-1011-150 for one roundtrip carrying 360 passengers on a Havana-Baltimore/Washington-Havana routing May 1-4...Approved GWV charter using an Allegro MD-83 or 727 for four roundtrips carrying 165 passengers on Boston-Cancun/Cozumel-Boston routings May 7-28...Approved an Apple Vacations East charter using an Allegro MD-83 or 727 for 222 roundtrips carrying 173 passengers between Cleveland, New York/Newark, Baltimore and Philadelphia and Nassau, Aruba and Punta Cana, Dominican Republic,
Air Line Pilots Association on Friday filed a suit against Atlas Air, Inc. in Federal District Court of Miami after the company allegedly cut pay of some crew by 20% on April 26, the same day pilots voted in ALPA representation. ALPA said during the organizing drive management threatened to cut crew pay. The suit attempts to block what the union claims is a retaliatory pay cut that violates rights of crew and the union under the Railway Labor Act.
FlightSafety International appointed Brian Elyanoff manager-corporate customer support and named Brooke Miller, Dowling College, the recipient of its 1999 Women In Aviation Scholarship.
Southwest in the fourth quarter surpassed all but American, Delta and United in domestic passengers, according to Morten Beyer&Agnew.MBA predicts that at current growth rates, Southwest will surpass American this year, United in 2001 and Delta in 2004 to "become the largest airline in the world in terms of domestic passenger boardings."
Washington Airports Task Force, the U.S. Air Force Mobility Command and other groups are holding a ceremony May 12 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Berlin Airlift, when allied forces delivered more than 2 million tons of supplies to defeat the blockade. The event at Washington Dulles will include aircraft from the U.S. Air Force, U.K. Royal Air Force and German Luftwaffe.
America West saw a 3.5% gain in traffic on 8.3% more capacity for April, which lowered the load factor 3.1 percentage points to 67%. Year-to-date, revenue passenger miles climbed 8.8% and available seat miles 7.9%, raising the load factor 0.5 points.
Four U.S. airlines are now in the FOQA (flight operations quality assurance) demonstration study, two are in the process of starting and five more plan to get under way, according to FAA Administrator Jane Garvey. To date, 230 aircraft are collecting FOQA data and another 350 aircraft are being equipped for FOQA this year, she says.
H.R.1678 introduced May 4 by Rep. John Sweeney (R-N.Y.) - to amend Title 49, U.S. Code, to require the DOT secretary to initiate investigations of unfair methods of competition by major air carriers against new entrants. transportation and Infrastructure.
Southwest posted a 72% passenger load factor last month, 3.7 percentage points higher than in April 1998, as its traffic rose 16.4% to 3.1 billion revenue passenger miles and capacity climbed 10.4% to 4.3 billion available seat miles. Passenger boardings increased 9.2% to 4,838,143.
Northwest Airlink Mesaba posted a 32.5% increase in traffic last month to 112.9 million revenue passenger miles as capacity gained 29.3% to 198.9 million available seat miles, compared with the same month last year. The load factor climbed 1.3 percentage points to 56.7%. Enplanements increased 33.7% to 441,200. For the year to date, RPMs climbed 28.5% to 405.8 million, compared with the first four months of 1998; capacity swelled 26.2% to slightly under 744 million ASMs, and the load factor rose one point to 54.5%. Boardings were up 27.3% to 1,568,500.
Sabena is expanding nonstop service between Montreal and Brussels from four to six times weekly on June 1. The flights will operate every day except Thursdays.
FAA needs to strengthen its safety inspection system, according to a DOT Inspector General audit report made available yesterday. FAA's National Aviation Safety Inspection Program (NASIP) falls short in "team expertise, independence, identifying and correcting systemic weaknesses at inspected entities, and report quality and impact," the report said. Safety review team members are selected from a pool of volunteers, the IG noted; eight of 18 members making up the Continental Express NASIP review team were "first-
