The fruitless attempt to create a European Aerospace and Defense Company was pronounced dead last week in Stuttgart, when DaimlerChrysler Chairman Juergen Schrempp said it "won't happen." Presenting annual results for the German-American industrial giant, Schrempp said the recent alliance between British Aerospace and GEC Marconi "shattered the dreams of creating" an EADC.
Dragonair, taking delivery of its first of seven A321s under a three-year fleet renewal program, said it will operate the aircraft on several mainline routes out of its Hong Kong base, including Kunming, Hangzhou and Shanghai. Chief Executive Stanley Hui said the stretched A320 "is a perfect fit within our fleet. It ensures all our aircraft are from the same family, offering commonality with our A320s and A330s while giving us another capacity option." The carrier will take delivery of its next A321 in May and expects to have all seven next year.
US Airways' MetroJet unit will launch two routes from Milwaukee, to Fort Myers and West Palm Beach, in its latest expansion. When daily service under the MetroJet flag reaches Milwaukee in July, US Airways and its regional partners will offer 17 flights per day there. MetroJet is adding nine daily flights at Boston, four at Columbus, five at Hartford, six at Raleigh-Durham and eight at Baltimore/Washington.
The Congressional Budget Office has cut more than $42 billion from the projected long-term surplus in the airport and airway trust fund from the year-ago estimate, a development that threatens to undercut House Transportation Committee Chairman Bud Shuster's (R-Pa.) campaign to spend more of the trust funds with a greater federal contribution to aviation costs, congressional sources said yesterday. In January, CBO reduced the estimated uncommitted trust fund balance for the end of fiscal 2008 to $37.2 billion, down from $79.3 billion projected a year earlier.
U.S. and Chinese negotiators, meeting yesterday in Beijing, made progress toward an agreement on additional service opportunities between the two countries, a DOT official said. The duration of the current round had not been determined yesterday, and discussions were to continue today.
Boeing delivered 148 commercial transports in the first quarter, the company said yesterday. The deliveries comprised 14 737 classics, 61 next-generation 737s, 14 747s, 17 757s, 11 767s, 23 777s, two MD-80s, five MD-90s and one MD-11. Military and space deliveries were two C-17s, nine F-15s, six F/A-18C/Ds, two F/A-18E/Fs, three T-45TSs, two 767 AWACS aircraft and two Delta II space launch vehicles.
Castle Harlan Inc., a New York bank, completed the acquisition of AMR Services yesterday and renamed the company Worldwide Flight Services Inc. Terms were not disclosed. The airport ground services company has a staff of 8,000 and works for more than 200 airlines at 65 major airports. Last year, AMR Services had revenue of $230 million. Peter Pappas will remain as president and chief executive. Castle Harlan previously invested in aircraft sanitation firm MAG Aerospace Industries and baggage cart company Smarte Carte. It sold the latter in 1996.
Hollis Harris, former chairman, president and chief executive officer of Air Canada, has been named chairman, president and CEO of Herndon, Va.-based World Airways effective May 1. He succeeds Russell Ray Jr., who will retire and continue as a director.
Lufthansa is threatening to test the legality of an agreement, reached in months of difficult negotiations, on financing Berlin's future large airport. Last week, Germany's federal government, Land Brandenburg's regional authority, the city of Berlin and a consortium led by Hochtief of Germany signed a 1,000-page contract to launch construction of Berlin Brandenburg International Airport (BBI) in Schoenefeld, where the airport that served the former East Berlin is located.
Delta and Delta Express are offering reduced fares this week on domestic travel from four New York area airports - Kennedy, LaGuardia, Newark and Islip. Sale fares, nonrefundable and requiring a Saturday night stay, are available through Friday for travel through May 27. Sample roundtrip fares cited by the company range from $158 for Islip-Fort Lauderdale to $298 for JFK-Los Angeles, JFK-San Francisco, JFK-Seattle and Newark-Salt Lake City.
US Airways traffic for March showed a 1.8% improvement, while capacity increased 3.6%, forcing the load factor down 1.3 percentage points to 73.9%. Domestic traffic declined 1% on 1.1% more capacity. International traffic rose 26.5% year-over-year on 28.6% more capacity. US Airways carried 4,984,086 passengers last month, off from 5,070,777 in March 1998. The load factor for the first quarter was 67.7%, down 1.3 points.
Delta posted record traffic for each of the first three months of the year and set a load factor record for March. Systemwide traffic for March rose 2.3% on 0.7% more capacity, boosting the load factor 1.1 percentage points to 75.7%. Domestic traffic showed all the gains, up 2.9% on 0.8% more capacity, resulting in a load factor of 75.3%, up 1.5 points. International traffic was flat while capacity increased 0.3%, lowering the load factor 0.3 points to 77.1%. Delta boarded 9.4 million passengers last month, up 0.9%.
United began nonstop hourly Washington Dulles-Boston jet service Sunday, increasing the number of daily direct trips from four to 14. The carrier is serving the market with three types of aircraft - A320s, A319s and 737s.
Worldspan yesterday released an enhanced, fully intuitive version of its World File client profile management system. The New Interactive World Files store client data, such as travel preferences, and billing information. The system retrieves and enters the data automatically when needed to complete an air, car or hotel reservation. This eliminates repetitive keystrokes, reduces travel agent error and helps direct bookings to preferred vendors.
ICAO members are scheduled to report their Year 2000 readiness by July 1, and little will be known until then about how some nations are progressing, Joe Morgan, head of FAA's international Y2K effort, said yesterday in Washington. In the U.S., FAA will check the top 50 airports by then and visit the top 150 by Aug. 1, said Dave Bennett, director, Office of Airport Safety and Standards. As for the U.S., Ray Long, director of FAA's Y2K program office, said all 641 FAA systems requiring Y2K repairs were successfully renovated and tested as of March 31.
Continental posted another double-digit traffic increase last month and the load factor set a March record, 75.7%. Traffic increased 12.8% on 9.8% more capacity, which raised the load factor 2.1 percentage points. Continental's international traffic gained 20.1% on 15.7% more capacity, boosting the load factor 2.8 points to 76.9%. Domestic traffic grew 9.1% on 6.8% more capacity, lifting the load factor 1.6 points to 75%. For the first quarter, the airline's traffic rose 13.8% and capacity 9.7%.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. John Warner (R-Va.) did not resolve their differences on added flights at Washington Reagan Airport before Congress started its current recess, and developments in Kosovo have prevented further talks since then.McCain's committee-approved FAA reauthorization bill would add 48 daily slots. Warner favors the 24 approved last year by the Senate and has introduced a similar bill this year.
United urged DOT to make final its tentative allocation to United of 67 Chicago-London summer-season roundtrip frequencies (DAILY, March 26), arguing that DOT's conclusion that competition on the route is centered at London Heathrow makes the decision in favor of United "appropriate." United said American's objection to the award "again extols the advantages" of service to London Gatwick (DAILY, March 31), which would not increase competition in the market.
New Air, the well-funded New York City startup, will announce more details of its operation within a month. The carrier has been evaluating new aircraft and still has not chosen a name for itself. Company staff moved into new Manhattan offices yesterday.
An eight-day staggered pilot strike that ended yesterday cost Iberia "more than 1 billion pesetas," the Spanish airline said in Madrid. Sindicato Espanol de Pilotos de Lineas Aereas, the pilot union, disputed the amount, saying the airline lost only 400 million pesetas (US$2.6 million). The dispute was triggered by talks on a new labor contract. The pilots accuse management of delaying the new agreement and demand that the company hire new pilots.
Arthur Raymond, 99, an aircraft engineer for Douglas Aircraft Co. whose achievements included designing the DC-3 in the mid-1930s, died March 29 in Santa Monica, Calif. At Douglas, Raymond also contributed to the design of the DC-1, DC-2, DC-4, DC-6, DC-7 and DC-8. He later was a consultant to NASA.
U.S. Major Carriers Latin Share of Service Fourth Quarter 1998 Total Revenue Departures Alaska 2,533 America West 1,107 American 23,666 Continental 11,214 Delta 3,600 United 4,353 US Airways 1,668 Total 48,141 Average Number of
U.S. and Portuguese aviation negotiators will meet in Lisbon April 14-16 to continue open-skies talks. Initial open-skies talks with Kenya have been delayed, perhaps until May or June, for Kenya to complete a review of DOT materials, according to DOT. Renewed talks with Tanzania and Ghana are expected soon. The U.S. presented its open-skies program to representatives of the three African countries during informal meetings with Kenya and Ghana and a first round of formal negotiations with Tanzania in January (DAILY, Jan 27).
FAA plans to require damage tolerance testing of older transport aircraft under the principle that the start and growth of structural fatigue damage can be anticipated in time to avoid airworthiness problems. The new rule would apply to domestic airlines and to foreign carriers that operate U.S.-registered aircraft, regardless of whether the aircraft are flown into the U.S. Some aircraft manufactured by companies that have gone out of business would not be allowed to continue to fly.
