Delta's summer schedule will include more long-haul flights between Atlanta and the western U.S. and new Canadair Regional Jet service by Atlantic Southeast to the Southeast and Islip, N.Y. Delta will increase Atlanta flights by one per day to Denver and San Antonio beginning June 1, San Francisco July 1 and San Diego July 15, bringing Denver and San Francisco service to seven roundtrips per day apiece, San Antonio to six departures and seven returns to Atlanta, and San Diego to four departures and five returns.
American Trans Air is forecasting that its military revenues for fiscal 2000 will increase 60% over the current fiscal year, to $200 million. The increase in military business is part of a strategy to "improve our presence in the military market and in turn to take full advantage of our new long-range capabilities resulting from the acquisition of L-1011-500s," said Chief Executive John Tague. He also intends to shift the company's revenue to sources "less sensitive to economic cycles and fuel prices."
Comair will expand nonstop jet service from its Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky hub to 11 cities with the start of its summer schedule. The Delta Connection carrier will add one roundtrip jet flight on June 1 to Bangor, Maine, for a total of four daily flights, and to Columbia, S.C., for a total of six. Houston Hobby will have daily service and Sarasota/Brandon, Fla., will have daily seasonal flights.
MetroJet will expand service between Boston Logan Airport and Washington Reagan on July 9, offering hourly flights each weekday between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. The current hourly service between Dulles and both Boston and New York LaGuardia will become part of the US Airways Shuttle in the next few months. MetroJet also will add four daily nonstop roundtrip Atlanta-Raleigh/Durham flights beginning Oct. 2. MetroJet has seven other flights between Atlanta and Dulles.
Midway converted three Canadair Regional Jet options to firm orders valued at $65 million. Its firm orders total 26 CRJs, 12 of which have been delivered.
The U.K.'s Swanwick air traffic control center passed its technical transfer milestone at the end of March, slightly ahead of schedules published last year, National Air Traffic Services reported. The facility has been turned over to engineers for integration into NATS's operational systems, including radar, flight data processing and communications. This will take more than a year.
Frontier reported March increases of 36% in traffic, to 164.3 million revenue passenger miles, and 29.3% in capacity, to 259.6 million available seat miles, boosting the load factor 3.1 percentage points to 63.3%. Passengers flown grew 37% to 187,520. Year-to-date RPMs climbed 34.9% and ASMs 30.6%, pushing the load factor up 1.8 points to 58.9%. Enplanements were up 36%.
Singapore Airlines will join the Star Alliance, "it's just a matter of when," according to a source at one of the current member airlines. Star Alliance carriers will meet May 2 in Sydney, and at recent meetings, they have chosen new members.
AirTran will add a fifth nonstop flight between Jacksonville, Fla., and Atlanta and a fourth nonstop between the Piedmont Triad, Greensboro/High Point/Winston-Salem, and Atlanta on May 16. Fares in both markets start at $49 one way.
British aviation safety researchers will build a facility simulating current and future widebody aircraft cabins for passenger evacuation testing, the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority said yesterday. The #390,000 (US$625,000) facility, 20 meters long and 15 meters wide, will replicate sections of current two-aisle aircraft and, with further development, double-deck configurations like that of the prospective Airbus A3XX.
U.S. Major Carriers Pacific Share of Service Fourth Quarter 1998 Total Revenue Departures American 743 Delta 1,022 Northwest 5,714 United 5,483 Total 12,962 Average Number of Seats Per Departure American 231
British Midland is adding service to Germany and Hungary and will begin a second daily flight to Warsaw April 25 under its expanded summer schedule. The carrier recently began three daily flights from London Heathrow to Stuttgart and Hannover. Service to four of British Midland's five German destinations is in cooperation with Lufthansa. The carriers also introduced twice-daily Frankfurt-Edinburgh flights. On May 28, British Midland will begin daily roundtrips to Budapest.
LanChile posted healthy traffic and cash increases last month. March traffic rose 14.9% on 9.1% more capacity, which raised the load factor 3.5 percentage points to 68.4%. International traffic increased 24% on 19% more capacity, resulting in a 69.8% load factor, while domestic traffic fell 7.9% on 13.4% less capacity, lifting the load factor 3.8 points to 64%. LanChile's international passenger count has risen 24.3% during the first quarter, to 531,000, while domestic totals fell 8.8% to 626,000.
Vanguard reported a 1% decline in traffic on 5% more capacity for March, reducing the load factor 5 percentage points to 69.3%. The Kansas City-based carrier flew 63.8 million revenue passenger miles and 92.1 million available seat miles. The carrier flew 136,214 passengers, essentially the same as in March 1998. Year-to-date RPMs climbed 4% on 2% fewer ASMs, raising the load factor 4 points. Enplanements rose 7%.
Flight attendants at Reno Air are unhappy about the way American's Association of Professional Flight Attendants plan to merge Reno's 460 cabin crew into APFA's rank and file. Reno flight attendants, represented by the Teamsters, say the integration plan, which was approved by American last week (DAILY, April 12), short-changes them on seniority bidding and they plan to launch a campaign to pepper APFA leadership with e-mail messages, telephone calls and petitions to convince them to change it.
United and American decided over the weekend not to go along with last week's Continental-initiated 1% business, 3% leisure fare hike, which thwarted the action.Other airlines backed away from the increase, which would have been the second in less than 30 days.
The U.K. government authorized National Air Traffic Services and the Civil Aviation Authority to sign a "major multi-million-pound contract" for initial design and development of the new Scottish air traffic control center at Prestwick. The contract will be with Sky Solutions, the Lockheed Martin-Bovis joint venture named preferred bidder for the project after an open tender. Work will cover the first phase of developing the facility, including detailed design of the building and its computer systems, under the U.K.'s public private partnership concept.
Michael Miller, 34, has been promoted to editor-in-chief of Aviation Daily, effective May 3, publisher Stephen Munro announced yesterday. Miller, The DAILY's financial editor since 1996, succeeds David Bond, who is leaving after a six-year tenure as editor-in-chief and editorial director to develop an aviation consulting business. Miller is a licensed private pilot.
Sense of the Senate language aimed at House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bud Shuster's (R-Pa.) five-year FAA authorization, which would expand aviation financing from trust funds and provide for general government revenue that could not be shifted to other uses, remained an open issue as the House-Senate budget conference resumed yesterday following a two-week congressional recess, sources said.
In what is being viewed by many as a sign that Taiwan's airlines believe the government may be moving closer to relaxing its decades-old ban against direct flights between Taiwan and mainland China, Taipei-based Far Eastern Air Transport Corp (FAT) has acknowledged that it has been sending pilots to China for advanced training since last year. Starting in 1998, China Southern Airlines (CSA) has been providing FAT pilots with training in CSA's flight network, terminology and flight routes in preparation for FAT's entering the Chinese market once restrictions are eased.
Boeing said yesterday it has moved up by one week the release date of its quarterly financial results. Debby Hopkins, chief financial officer, said the change reflects increased emphasis on efficiency and urgency. The release date is being moved forward from April 22, the third week of the quarter, to April 15. "Obviously, the sooner we can get the books closed each quarter, the faster we can act on the results," Hopkins said.
America West Holdings Corp. said yesterday that its board has approved a major reorganization of senior management at America West Airlines. William Franke, chairman and chief executive of America West Holdings, will reassume the duties of president and CEO at the airline, now held by Richard Goodmanson. Douglas Parker, formerly the airline's senior VP and chief financial officer, was elected executive VP. Gilbert Mook, formerly a senior operations officer with Federal Express Corp., was elected VP and chief operating officer.
Allied Pilots Association President Rich LaVoy has written Iberia, urging it to settle differences with disgruntled pilots out of court. Iberia is suing its pilots for refusing to fly eight days, including Easter weekend (DAILY, April 8). Pilots were protesting management's failure to sign a contract, agreed to in November, while they work under an imposed contract that allows Iberia to contract out flying, which is prohibited under the new agreement. LaVoy wrote Iberia as chairman of the oneworld Cockpit Crew Coalition.
Indigo Aviation of Sweden said it bought two MD-82 aircraft subject to lease through 2001 with Reno Air from EDS Capital Markets. Indigo also said it re-leased to Frontier Airlines a 737-300 that had been leased to Maersk Air and subleased to Deutsche BA.
American and its Transport Workers Union (TWU) have reached an agreement on Reno Air employee integration. American said it is finalizing plans for integrating agents into its airport and reservations facilitates. TWU represents American's aviation maintenance technicians, fleet service clerks, stores clerks, automotive and facilities mechanics, dispatchers and technical specialists. These employee groups at Reno are not unionized.
