WestJet and Conair have signed a five-year agreement under which Conair will provide the Calgary-based airline with heavy maintenance and engineering support for its Boeing 737 fleet. Conair, based at Abbotsford Airport in Western Canada, has been providing maintenance services to WestJet for more than a year.
Northwest Airlines Cargo will reduce pricing on its guaranteed international express product, Specific Air International, starting tomorrow. The new pricing will be 170% of the applicable contract or tariff rate, a decrease from the existing standard flat rate. Northwest also will increase the space available for the product. Chris Millich, director of product marketing, said yesterday the moves are a "first step toward an integrate product line that will be launched later this summer." Northwest Airlines Cargo operates eight 747 freighters between the U.S.
British Midland and Air Canada will begin code share service between Canada and Amsterdam via London on May 24. Amsterdam is a new addition to Air Canada's route network. British Midland flies London-Amsterdam five times a day.
BAA's group of seven U.K. airports reported overall growth of 6.7% for March and April. Figures for the two months were combined to remove the distortion caused by the timing of Easter. A total of 9.2 million passengers passed through the airports during the two months, 3.6% more than in the same period last year. North Atlantic routes, boosted by competitive fares, grew 12.7%, while other long-haul routes rose 6.6%.
Avidyne unveiled Avidyne Traffic for use as a primary traffic display for TCAS I (traffic alert and collision avoidance system), providing industry-standard symbology and traffic alerts. The product is an option for the Avidyne Flight Situation Display. The Avidyne FSD provides traffic alerts as distance and bearing text messages when displaying Avidyne Radar, Navigator, Lightning or Charts, with one-button access to the full traffic display. Until now, a remote graphics computer was required to display TCAS on a radar indicator.
FAA is proposing an airworthiness directive on Boeing 737 and 727 aircraft. The proposal would require inspection of the breather plug in fuel tank boost pumps and replacement, if necessary. FAA said the proposal was prompted by a report that breather plugs were missing from some pumps. The AD is intended to prevent possible ignition of fuel vapor on the fuel boost pump, which could result in a fuel tank explosion, FAA said.
Lufthansa Engineering and Operational Services said it is the only company in Europe offering InfraTek as a deicing system to airlines, airports and ground-handling firms. Developed by Radiant Energy Corp., InfraTek uses infrared radiation to melt ice and snow from aircraft without the use of expensive, environment-polluting chemicals, Lufthansa said.
American and Japan Airlines, which began code sharing on Pacific flights this week (DAILY, May 11), have received DOT permission to place American's code on JAL flights operated with aircraft JAL wet-leases from its subsidiary, Japan Air Charter, as well as its own aircraft. (Docket-99-4994)
A time limit of four years proposed by FAA to equip aircraft seating six or more passengers with ground proximity warning systems should be reduced to three years for any turbine aircraft and the rule should be broadened to include turboprops, the National Transportation Safety Board said. The safety board also said that the enhanced version of GPWS or Terrain Awareness and Warning System (TAWS) should be required for either turbofans or turboprops.
Cathay Pacific is offering a free companion ticket with each full-fare business- or first-class booking to one of five points - Hong Kong, Bali, Bangkok, Manila and Singapore. The offer is for either one-way or roundtrip purchases to or from New York, Los Angeles or San Francisco. Stopovers in any of the other four destinations are free as well. Travel must be purchased by Aug. 31 and completed by Sept. 15.
U.S. Justice Department took the strongest action to date against alleged predatory activity by U.S. major airlines, charging American with monopolizing service at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport. The lawsuit focuses on American's actions when low-cost carriers Vanguard Airlines, SunJet International and Western Pacific entered the DFW market. American said DOJ is trying to change the law and protect new entrants. American contends that it has done nothing wrong under the existing laws.
Air France launched a summer fare sale through May 19 from New York and Newark to 47 European cities. Fares range from $648 to $698 roundtrip. The sale is for travel through Aug. 11.
Boeing 767 Systemwide Aircraft Utilization Per Day, Fourth Quarter 1998, B767-200, B767-300 Boeing 767 Systemwide Aircraft Utilization Per Day Fourth Quarter 1998 B767-200 American Delta TWA Number of Aircraft Operated 30 15 11 Total Fleet Operations
Emirates plans to start nonstop flights to Munich from Dubai Nov. 1, initially operating six flights a week. The Munich service, the airline's 48th destination and its second point in Germany, will increase to daily operation Jan. 1, 2000. All flights will be operated with Emirates' Airbus A310-300 in a two-class configuration of 18 business- and 177 economy-class eats. The airline currently operates 25 aircraft, comprising two Airbus A330-200s, nine Boeing 777s, five A300-600Rs and nine A310-300s.
Air Lanka will begin service from Colombo to Stockholm on Nov. 12. The carrier will operate the weekly service via Dubai, headquarters of its minority owner Emirates Airlines.
Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) will no longer tolerate domestic airlines' practice of arbitrarily canceling or merging flights that are not fully booked and will begin issuing hefty fines to carriers that continue to do so. Passengers complain that carriers commonly cancel partly empty flights or merge them with later flights. The reason most airlines give for the cancellations is that the aircraft incurred a problem requiring maintenance.
House and Senate leaders negotiating the fiscal 1999 supplemental funding package have settled on a short-term FAA authorization extension until Aug. 6, the start of the month-long summer recess, congressional sources said yesterday. The decision is linked to assurances that the House leadership will permit a floor vote the week of June 14 on Transportation Committee Chairman Bud Shuster's AIR-21, the five-year reauthorization that would take aviation trust funds off budget or provide firewalls protecting aviation appropriations.
Turkish Airlines applied to amend its foreign air carrier permit to include authority to provide scheduled combination service between points in Turkey and the coterminal point Miami, nonstop or via intermediate points Amsterdam and Brussels. It plans to begin three weekly Istanbul-Miami nonstops about June 1, using A340-300 aircraft. The carrier holds similar authority to serve New York and Chicago. The U.S.-Turkey aviation agreement allows Turkish carriers to operate to three U.S. points via a limited number of intermediate points.
FAA yesterday awarded three contracts worth $213 million to three companies to provide technical support for the hundreds of security devices at the nation's 80 busiest airports. Raytheon Technical Services, Battelle and TRW were on the receiving end of the awards, which DOT Secretary Rodney Slater said fulfill recommendations of the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security.
Cargo operator DHL has told DOT it supports Northwest's application for 11 weekly roundtrip passenger and cargo U.S.-China flights. DHL wants DOT to award the frequencies to Northwest, rather than FedEx, because Northwest would offer DHL useful lift for its shipments, and FedEx already has a substantial presence in the market. Northwest wants to offer daily roundtrip Detroit-Beijing and Shanghai service and four weekly roundtrip all cargo Chicago-Shanghai flights through Seattle, Anchorage and Tokyo.
Pilot hirings continued strongly in April, with 1,276 finding jobs, according to Atlanta-based AIR, Inc.So far this year, 4,904 pilots have been hired, with major airlines accounting for 1,686 and nationals 1,538. AIR, Inc. estimates that the rate of hiring will produce about 12,500 new pilot jobs overall in 1999.
Air Canada's board yesterday named former president and chief executive Lamar Durrett to the post of vice chairman and CEO, handing the president's title to Robert Milton, who will retain his title of chief operating officer. Air Canada spokeswoman Nicole Couture-Simard said the change in titles was made to reflect Durrett and Milton's executive responsibilities more accurately.
Thousands of aviation technical jobs are "going unfilled, which represents a critical supply and demand problem for aviation businesses," said Jim Coyne, president of the National Air Transportation Association. Coyne spoke at a recent Leadership Round Table in Cleveland by DOT Rodney Slater as part of National Transportation Week. "The growing shortage of candidates for skilled work in maintenance, avionics, charter and flight training is stifling the resurgent expansion of general aviation across the country," he said.
Beginning this month, the joint venture between UPS and Family Mart will expand service to customers in Taiwan to include express shipment of five- and 10-kilogram packages. UPS and Family Mart have been cooperating in the delivery of express letters since July last year. A spokesman for Family Mart said the service will cost about the same as that provided by the partnership of DHL and 7-Eleven.
