US Airways has told its pilots it cannot lease an aircraft to fly the first year's service on its new Charlotte-London Gatwick route, so it will suspend one of its existing international routes to free up an aircraft. The company has not determined which route to suspend, according to its Air Line Pilots Association unit.
Emery Worldwide said it added two 747s to its North American fleet to serve companies in Southern California through Los Angeles and in the southeastern U.S. and Puerto Rico through Raleigh, N.C., and San Juan. The company said air cargo space for Puerto Rico has been greatly restricted recently because of reductions in the use of widebody aircraft serving the island. Emery said delivery of the first of five DC-10s is expected by mid-April, and of the other four over the next two years.
Bonds backed by international credit card sales of airline tickets can receive higher ratings than the airline's host-country currency on its own, according to Moody's Investors Service. The agency said that "properly structured" transactions can exceed the ratings ceiling of the carrier's host country if the credit card receivables are generated electronically outside the airline's base of operations.
SAS traffic in March increased 1% year-over-year to 1.79 billion revenue passenger kilometers. The load factor was 63.9%, compared with 58% in February and 54.4% in January. Freight volume dropped 11% in March and 5% during the first quarter. SAS carried 1.9 million passengers last month, up 2%.
FAA Year 2000 Program Manager Ray Long said yesterday the results of the agency's Year 2000 test at Denver International Airport during the weekend look good initially and will be made public today. "We are still awaiting preliminary results of the Y2K tests," Long said yesterday, "but an onsite viewing showed that the systems made the transition from Dec. 31, 1999, to Jan.
International Brotherhood of Teamsters is committing resources to help Northwest flight attendants achieve a contract, union leaders said yesterday. General President James Hoffa called the flight attendants' contract campaign a fight against "corporate greed" that is important to all Teamsters.
CCAIR posted a 57.4% increase in traffic last month to 17.8 million revenue passenger miles as capacity climbed 52.9% to 30.5 million available seat miles, compared with March 1998. As a result, the load factor rose 1.7 percentage points to 58.2%. The traffic increase reflects longer flights - passenger boardings were up 25% to 78,067.
The U.S. Export-Import Bank said it is guaranteeing the financing of two Boeing 737-300 aircraft going to China's Zhongyuan Airlines. The aircraft, powered by CFM International engines, are the fourth and fifth Boeings for Zhongyuan. The financing, by Chase Securities, is being structured as a full payout finance lease. The Bank of China is guarantor.
House Transportation Committee sources say no basic decisions have been made yet on content of the passenger bill of rights package that will go from the aviation subcommittee to the full committee, or on whether the consumer bill will go to the House floor before the AIR-21 five-year FAA reauthorization. Absence of bill-of-rights decisions and the fact that reauthorization has to clear Congress by the end of May mean AIR-21 probably will move first.
IATA, owed $32 million by Philippine Airlines, has rejected the carrier's restructuring plan and vowed not to re-admit PAL into the organization if the plan is adopted. IATA kicked PAL out of its clearinghouse last year, meaning that money paid by passengers could not be gathered and disbursed by IATA. PAL will need membership in the international body if it succeeds in its attempts to develop code-share agreements with several international airlines.
Current and retired employees of American, American Eagle, Reno and Business Express will be able to fly on the four carriers' aircraft at reduced rates on a space available basis, effective April 15.
Air Canada and code-share partner Eva Air will launch nonstop Vancouver-Taipei service June 2. Eva will operate three flights a week initially using 747 aircraft, and on July 5, Air Canada will begin three-times-weekly nonstops using A340s. The flights are scheduled for early morning arrival in Taipei to coincide with Eva's 205 weekly flights between Taipei and other Asian destinations. The service is subject to government approval.
US Airways and its Communications Workers of America unit reached a work force integration agreement Friday to bring passenger service agents at Shuttle operations into the mainline. CWA, which has been negotiating a contract on behalf of all service agents for 14 months, said it expects to reach an agreement with management soon. CWA represents about 120 ticket-counter agents and supervisors at Washington Reagan, New York LaGuardia and Boston Logan, said CWA spokesman Rick Braswell. The union also represents about 10,000 mainline passenger service employees.
American and the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents the carrier's nearly 20,000 flight attendants, reached agreement last week on merging flight attendants from Reno Air, who are represented by the Teamsters. APFA President Denise Hedges said, "We look forward to welcoming the flight attendants of Reno Air into the Association of Professional Flight Attendants. They are a dedicated, skilled group and a positive addition to our union and our company." Teamsters representing Reno's cabin crew were not available for comment Friday.
DOT approved a joint request by Northwest and Air China to carry mail between the U.S. and China. The department gave Northwest an initial two-year exemption for scheduled mail service between New York Kennedy and Beijing and Shanghai, which the U.S. carrier will operate under code share with Air China. It granted Air China indefinite-duration authority to display Northwest's code for carrying mail on flights between Beijing and Shanghai and New York and Chicago O'Hare.
Mesaba reported increases in March of 32.3% in traffic, to 116 million revenue passenger miles, and 29.1% in capacity, to 197.7 million available seat miles, which boosted the load factor 1.4 percentage points to 58.7%. Passenger boardings jumped 30.5% to 446,200. First quarter RPMs were up 27.1% and ASMs 25.1%, growing the load factor 0.8 points. Enplanements climbed 30.6%.
Although testing still is underway at the Tech Center, FAA plans to issue by mid-May a notice of proposed rulemaking on a new burn-through test for commercial aircraft.The agency will use the NPRM process to get comments on updating its rules concerning flammability related to aircraft insulation and wiring.
Raytheon and FAA signed a government/industry partnership agreement Friday to develop the Local Area Augmentation System. Competing against a Honeywell team that received a similar contract (DAILY, April 1), Raytheon will develop the LAAS ground facility in cooperation with airport and airline team members. During Stage One, a certified, public-use Category I capability will be provided for selected airports and operators participating in the program by late 2000. Stage Two will extend this capability to Category III in the following two years.
Jersey European Airways will launch daily nonstop, year-round service April 26 between Birmingham and Toulouse as part of its summer schedule. The new route reflects continued development of the airline's operations at Birmingham, where its passenger volume has increased 91% since 1997. The summer schedule provides an increase from five to six in Jersey European's daily service from Birmingham to Paris Charles de Gaulle, part of its Air France franchise, and adds a third Saturday service to Belfast City.
US Airways' Air Line Pilots Association unit Master Executive Council is meeting today and tomorrow in Washington to consider the joint negotiating committee's opener for the final merged contract for mainline and Shuttle pilots. The MEC also is considering management's request to authorize declaring 14 positions critical in April, for the fifth time in the past 12 months.
Average U.S. business fares are up 6% since last year at this time, according to BT Alex. Brown analyst Susan Donofrio. "The recent 1% business fare increase is holding," she said. "We are also starting to see some upward price movement on routes out of Los Angeles."
