Northwest, which last month named three new VPs, yesterday revamped its finance department with four new appointments. Jeff McClelland was named senior VP-controller and Neal Cohen was appointed senior VP-treasurer. Both will report to Chief Financial Officer Mickey Foret. Doug Podolak was named VP-fuel and corporate service, and Dan Mathews was chosen VP-assistant treasurer. Both report in Cohen. Tim Rainey was named VP-systems operations control, replacing McClelland and reporting to Richard Anderson, chief operating officer.
FAA Year 2000 Program Director Ray Long said yesterday that the agency will issue its Business Contingency Plan tomorrow. Administrator Jane Garvey cautioned that the plan is not set in concrete and will evolve as progress is made toward meeting year 2000 objectives. The contingency plan will be used only if there are Y2K failures. But both Garvey and Long said again that last weekend's test of air traffic control communications systems in Denver proved the agency has been successful in removing Y2K computer bugs.
United, with strongly positioned East-West Coast markets from Washington Dulles Airport, said yesterday it is filling in the holes in its route system by concentrating on north-south expansion with the help of regional partner Atlantic Coast Airlines. United will grow just under 3% systemwide but about 60% at Dulles, said VP-North America East Region Daniel Walsh. United in January announced it would increase its total departures from Dulles to 117 by May.
American's Allied Pilots Association is headed back to court tomorrow after the union on Monday failed to convince U.S. District Court Judge Joe Kendall to lower the fine he imposed when pilots failed to obey a temporary restraining order to end a 10-day sickout in February. Kendall will continue the hearing tomorrow to assess damages from the sickout, which American estimates at more than $50 million.
U.K.-based low-fare airline Debonair has purchased its first aircraft - a British Aerospace 146-200 - with financing from Finova Capital Ltd. The airline's current fleet comprises 12 BAe 146s and one Boeing 737-300, wet-leased from AB Airlines. The BAe 146 originally was delivered to Debonair in 1996 under an operating lease from US Airways and since then has been operated on Debonair's scheduled services.
Air Transport Association Cargo Traffic February 1999 Revenue Ton Miles (000) February February % 1999 1998 Change Domestic Freight 751,881 752,365 (0.1) Mail 158,028 168,222 (6.1) Total 909,909 920,587 (1.2) International
SkyWest Airlines reported a 42.4% jump in traffic on 38.8% more capacity for March 1999 compared with the same 1998 month, which grew the load factor 1.4 percentage points to 56%. SkyWest flew 95.6 million revenue passenger miles and 170.6 million available seat miles. Passengers flown leapt 58.8% to 459,331. Year-to-date RPMs jumped 43.7% and ASMs 37.6%, boosting the load factor 2.2 points. Passengers flown climbed 62.9%.
The chairmen of the congressional budget committees and the House and Senate Republican leadership have agreed to scrap a provision in the Senate budget resolution that could have restricted federal funding in AIR-21, House Transportation Chairman Bud Shuster's massive aviation funding bill, congressional sources told The DAILY yesterday in advance of the formal budget conference last evening.
Air France began its second daily Chicago-Paris nonstop yesterday, with connections to 65 cities in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The second daily flight is operated with Boeing 767s configured for 26 business and 185 economy seats. The original flight uses a 777.
The 747 United is removing from its Los Angeles-Osaka route in June will be rotated among its major hub markets, such as Washington Dulles-Los Angeles or Chicago-Denver, said Senior VP-Governmental, Regulatory and International Affairs Shelley Longmuir.United's flight attendants are miffed that the company did not tell them it would terminate the route or where it planned to use the aircraft, and they remain concerned about the impact the change will have on Japan-based cabin crew.
KLM will begin service between Amsterdam and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on June 16 with two weekly flights via Jeddah. The capacity will come from KLM's Amsterdam-Sana, Yemen, route, which KLM will cancel, effective June 15. The Sana route experienced a "sharp decline" in traffic and revenue and "high costs beyond KLM's control," the carrier said.
Thornton Arnold "T" Wilson, former Boeing chairman and chief executive, died in his sleep April 10 at his home in Palm Springs, Calif. He was 78. Wilson, who retired in 1987 after 42 years with Boeing, was part of the team that developed the B-47 swept-wing jet bomber.
The Air Force, Raytheon and FAA this week began the third and final increment of system acceptance testing for the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS), including the full service and emergency service elements (DAILY, April 7). Previous SAT increments were tested successfully last September and January at Raytheon's Marlborough, Mass., facility. STARS is a joint FAA/Defense Department program to replace aging terminal area air traffic control automation systems at 331 FAA and DOD terminal radar approach control and tower facilities.
General Electric said its new CT7-8 turboshaft engine is undergoing testing for certification by FAA at the National Research Council in Ottawa, Canada. The Canadian Transport Authority was delegated by FAA to oversee foreign object, ice and water ingestion tests.
FAA yesterday ordered airlines to improve their inspections of the turbofan engines in use on almost all today's jet transports. The agency told airlines to do "enhanced" inspections of critical life-limited parts. The airlines also must include the enhanced inspections in their continuous airworthiness maintenance programs. FAA said the airworthiness directives were prompted by its study of "in-service events involving uncontained failures of critical rotating engine parts that indicated the need for improved inspections."
Association of European Airlines Traffic February 1999 February 1999 Passenger Data % % Pts. RPKs Change ASKs Change Load Change (Mil) 99/98 (Mil) 99/98 Factor 99/98 EUROPE 8,122.6 6.0 14,020.3 4.0 57.9 1.1
US Airways' service between Boston Logan and Washington Reagan will be operated by US Airways Shuttle. The DAILY April 13 incorrectly said the operator would be US Airways' low-fare carrier, MetroJet.
Travelocity.ca, recently introduced in Canada, offers features tailored to the Canadian market including Canadian news and information, such as fare sales, rail schedules and traveler advice; popular vacation spots for Canadian travelers; pricing in Canadian dollars and local ticket fulfillment, and bilingual customer support 24 hours a day.
Southwest gave out 927,000 free travel awards last year, up nearly 19% from the 782,000 given in 1997 and up 88% from the 494,000 in 1996. During the same period - 1996-98 - Southwest's revenue increased 22%.
Boeing Commercial said it will digitize all principal maintenance manuals so they can be accessed on compact disks. Maintenance documents traditionally are published on paper and microfilm. Tom Schick, executive VP, said, "We will offer this new digital tool for all Boeing and Douglas-built airplane models to help our customers streamline their maintenance processes." Compact disks will hold what are now multi-volume, loose-leaf binders that take up many feet of shelf space.
DOT granted Delta an initial two-year exemption to provide scheduled combination service between any points in the U.S. and any points in the U.K. except London Heathrow and Gatwick airports. Delta told DOT it is expanding its U.S.-U.K. third-country, code-share service with Air France and plans initially to display its designator code on Air France flights between Paris and Birmingham. (Docket OST-99-5391)
China Airlines' board voted officially to confirm Sandy K.Y. Liu as the company's president. Liu has been acting president for five months, and Chairman H.I. Chiang said he has "worked hard and performed admirably in the difficult environment brought on by the Asian financial turmoil and the devaluation of the local currency." As acting president, Liu was instrumental in implementing CAL's fleet renewal and simplification project, which seeks to increase efficiency and operating profits by reducing the number of aircraft types in CAL's fleet from seven to five.
