LanChile posted a net profit of $31.8 million during the first quarter despite difficult traffic trends in South America. The profits were up 45.9% and included a $13.1 million gain from the airline's sale of a portion of its stock in industry telecommunications firm Equant Corp. Details of LanChile's results will be unveiled this week. The initial figures were made public at the airline's annual meeting in Santiago.
TWA has created a distribution planning group within its marketing department that will focus on Internet and electronic sales. Keith Bounds has been named VP-distribution to lead the department. The division will plan and implement the airline's electronic systems development support for yield management, airport operations and reservations sales.
Frontier Airlines will begin service June 14 to Portland, Ore., with two daily nonstop flights. The carrier will offer connections via its Denver hub to Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Minneapolis, New York and Omaha. Frontier will launch service with its 19th 737, leased from CIT Leasing Corp.
American said Friday it is "very encouraged" by progress in contract talks with the Association of Professional Flight Attendants. The airline said it has tentative agreement on all non-economic issues, and both sides agreed to move the talks to Washington and asked the National Mediation Board to provide guidance on pay and retirement issues.
A scholarship fund in the name of Arnold Lewis, former editor of The Weekly of Business Aviation and a contributing editor of The DAILY's Regional Aviation supplement, who died April 21, has been established at Embry- Riddle Aeronautical University with initial pledges of $500 each from John Zimmerman, president of Aviation Data Service, and Edward Stimpson, vice chairman of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. The McGraw-
United Technologies Corp. named Karl Krapek the company's new president and chief operating officer. He succeeds George David, who will remain chairman and chief executive. Krapek, 50, had been head of the Pratt&Whitney unit. Louis Chenevert, 41, will take Krapek's place at P&W. He was the unit's executive VP.
America West flight attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants, Friday ratified a five-year contract that will increase wages by 35% over the life of the contract and provide per diem expenses for the first time. The pact ends more than four years of talks and sets up a grievance procedure. Airline President William Franke said the settlement "addresses the key concerns of the work group and the company.
The House Science Committee yesterday gave voice-vote approval to the FAA research&development requests of $648 million for fiscal year 2000 and $675 million in fiscal 2001. Before passage, the panel approved amendments that would permit research on structural aircraft systems and earmark at least $1.5 million in '00 and $2 million in '01 for innovative methods of using concrete in the design, construction, rehabilitation and repair of rigid airport pavements.
Delta will provide more than $1 million for American Red Cross disaster relief under a three-year "Signature Partnership" agreement with the charity. The carrier supports Signature Partnership organizations through corporate sponsorship, the Delta Foundation and employee contributions.
United Express affiliate Atlantic Coast Airlines is offering a range of special fares to promote the expansion of its own and senior partner United's Washington Dulles service. The off-peak one-way fares, available to 40 destinations from Dulles and pegged as low as $39 with none higher than $69, are part of a campaign called "Pick a City. Any City." The promotional fares are available for roundtrip travel only and include a Saturday night stayover.
American, talking to members and staffers of the Senate and House aviation subcommittees about passenger rights bills, is "raising the real-life impact that these proposals will have on industry," a company spokesman said.The airline denied reports that it and two other airlines are leading an effort to kill the bills (DAILY, April 27).
Rep. James Duncan (R-Tenn.), chairman of the House Transportation aviation subcommittee, will be honorary chairman of the 11th annual Greater Washington Aviation Open, scheduled May 24 at Indian Spring Country Club, Silver Spring, Md. The tournament, close to being sold out for the fifth consecutive year, has raised more than $350,000 for charity during the past decade.
Both U.S. and European Union officials came under fire yesterday from industry groups who oppose - for very different reasons - the compromise reached this week on hushkitted airplanes (DAILY, April 29). The deal, confirmed yesterday by industry ministers in Luxembourg, delays for one year the EU deadline for phasing out hushkitted aircraft, and U.S.
Canadian Airlines reported a 9.7% gain in system-wide traffic on 5.5% more capacity for March 1999 compared with the same 1998 month, boosting the load factor 2.7 percentage points to 70.3%. Canadian flew 1.5 billion revenue passenger miles and 2.1 billion available seat miles. Domestic RPMs remained flat at 412 million and ASMs rose 2.5% to 617 million, reducing the load factor 1.6 points to 66.8%. International RPMs climbed 14.8% to 975 million on 7.6% more ASMs, 1.3 billion, increasing the load factor 4.6 points to 73.3%.
Merrill Lynch called Mesa Air Group's 7.5% first quarter operating margin "quite an accomplishment" after last year's quarterly margin of -9.6%. It was the best first quarter margin for Mesa since 1994. Merrill Lynch expects the Mesa-CCAIR merger to close this quarter. Mesa also is close to a 35- to 40-jet aircraft order.
The Allied Pilots Association said yesterday that as part of a negotiated settlement of litigation between the union and American, the union will not contest the court's characterization of the job action as a "minor" dispute under the Railway Labor Act. The single word "minor" may be at the crux of the dispute over whether the union had the right to stage a sickout and disrupt operations in protest of American's acquisition of Reno Air. "This is no small detail," said American spokeswoman Andrea Rader.
Minnesota attorney general has asked DOT to investigate possible unfair competitive practices by Northwest against Sun Country Airlines, which plans to start scheduled services from Minneapolis/St. Paul June 1. Northwest is using a "three-front attack [that] creates a climate of expanded seating, reduced prices, and scheduling conflicts designed to push an emerging competitor out of this marketplace," according to an April 23 letter by Attorney General Mike Hatch to Steven Okun, DOT special counsel for airline competition.
United, AlliedSignal Aerospace and Coherent Technologies Inc. (CTI) are joining forces to develop a sensor for airliners that will detect "virtually all types of air turbulence." United said it signed a memorandum of understanding with CTI for joint development of sensor and alerting requirements and crew procedures. AlliedSignal Aerospace agreed in an MOU with CTI to explore combining its enhanced microwave weather radar with CTI's infrared radar. Microwave radar uses radio waves to detect turbulence in moist air found in or near storms.
Angel Airlines, two months after starting operations, has secured landing rights to serve China. Starting today, Angel will offer four weekly Bangkok-Chiangrai-Kunming flights and three weekly Bangkok-Chengdu services, using Chiangrai as its northern hub in Thailand. Also today, it will start a daily Bangkok-Chiangrai service, using rights enjoyed by no other local domestic carrier. Chiangrai-Sipong flights in China will start July 1. All services will use 737-400 aircraft.
The Aviant plant in Kiev suspended assembly of a second Tu-334 airliner slated for certification testing because a Russian partner in the project is $3 million in debt. Four of the airplanes have been built by the Ukraine plant, three for ground testing and one for flight testing in Russia. With two flight-rated planes, the developers hoped substantially to cut the time required for certification of the medium-range, twin-jet airliner, designed to fly 102 passengers up to 2,500 kilometers. Work on the second flight certification Tu-334 was halted April 23.
Kendell Airlines, Australia's largest regional, is taking a 50-seat Canadair CRJ200 regional jet on a demonstration tour throughout the country this week in preparation for launching RJ service - its first jet flights - this fall. With help from Lauda Air Italy and Bombardier, Kendell will fly an aircraft to Sydney, Canberra, Hobart, Launceston, Melbourne, Brisbane, Mackay and Rockhampton this week. The Ansett Australia partner has ordered 12 CRJ200ERs with options for more.
