Taiwan's Ministry of Transportation ordered domestic carrier Asia Pacific Airlines to suspend operations after more than 80% of the carrier's employees walked off the job to protest the company's failure to pay wages owed them. Employees said they have not been paid since February and the company has failed to present a viable plan for payment. Earlier this month, the Taiwan Civil Aeronautics Administration threatened to shut down the carrier because of its growing load of debt.
Fedex Pilots Association leadership wants to raise the union's dues. "Obviously, the past FPA was a beer-quality service provider financed at beer prices," FPA President Mike Weiland told pilots in a recorded message. "We intend...to provide champagne-quality services to our members." Weiland said the union still can deliver "an industry-leading contract at a dues structure significantly less than that paid by other pilots at any of the other majors."
Garvey said FAA will give the Shelby panel "in about a week" an implementation schedule for the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS), which was to have been deployed by the end of March at Washington Reagan Airport. "We're not going to make it," she said.
DOT - Approved a statement of authorization for South African Airways to operate, on behalf of Chapman Freeborne Air Marketing, 13 one-way all-cargo flights between Vitoria, Spain, and New York April 2-June 25...Approved a two-year exemption renewal for US Airways to operate scheduled Charlotte-London Gatwick foreign combination service...Approved a statement of authorization for ALM 1997 Airline N.V. d/b/a Air ALM to display Air Aruba's designator code on Aruba-Curacao-Atlanta-Aruba-Curacao flights through Oct.
Standard&Poor's revised its credit outlook for AMR Corp. and American Airlines to stable from positive, citing lost revenue and added cost resulting from the carrier's pilot sickout, as well as AMR's recent share repurchases. "Little risk is seen of a downgrade, based on AMR's solid competitive position and financial profile," S&P said. About $8.7 billion in debt was affected.
European Union transport ministers may decide to postpone the phasing out of hushkitted Stage 3 aircraft in the EU when they meet today, the spokeswoman for EU Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock said Friday in Brussels. The EU member nations "are a bit wobbly on the issue," she said. DOT Secretary Rodney Slater toured Europe last week in an attempt to persuade individual transport ministers to curb the ban.
FAA Administrator Jane Garvey ran into contrasting receptions in Capitol Hill appearances last week.Senate Appropriations transportation subcommittee chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said FAA's budget request is "generous," and the question isn't whether the agency is spending enough, but whether it is spending wisely. Two days later, the Senate Commerce aviation subcommittee's ranking Democrat, Jay Rockefeller (W.Va.), suggested repeatedly that FAA should ask for more money. "Why don't you put us on the spot and go for what you need?" he asked Garvey at one point.
Columbia Air Services, Groton, Conn., received FAA approval to operate Part 135 charter service under the name Columbia Air, LLC. Columbia will operate at Groton-New London Airport, initially using a Piper Cheyenne II twin-engine turboprop aircraft.
Air Canada will launch daily nonstop service between Calgary and Chicago on May 17 and Toronto and San Diego on June 21. It is offering introductory fares until April 5 for travel through July 18 from Calgary and Edmonton to Chicago and beyond to 30 U.S. destinations, including New Orleans and Charlotte. The introductory fares start at $379 roundtrip. The carrier will offer double bonus miles in its frequent flyer program and Star Alliance partner United's between May 17 and July 17.
Varig totally revamped its administrative board last week as one of several steps to improve its long-term health. But reports of Varig's demise have been greatly exaggerated, according to Carlos Muzzio, director of North America and Caribbean. Difficulties in the U.S.-Brazil market had limited effect because the U.S. accounted for only 7.9% of Varig's total revenue in 1998. International traffic dropped 45% since the start of 1999, but the bulk of Varig's business - the Mercosur region of South America - is booming.
National Air Transportation Association named the Farmingdale, N.Y., Flight Standards District Office the first recipient of NATA's FAA Customer Service Excellence Award and Brent Shiner, manager of Hayward Executive Airport, Calif., recipient of the NATA Airport Executive Partnership Award.
Universal Avionics promoted Ken Wise to director-quality and reliability and named Frank Hummel general manager-research, development and engineering division.
Raytheon Aircraft Co., in a realignment of its sales and marketing departments, named Ted Farid VP-worldwide jet sales, Bradley Hatt VP-worldwide Beech sales, Mike Scheidt VP-airline program, Jim Link VP-global sales, Tom Bertels VP-marketing, John Thomas director-flight management and Kent Barnes director-commercial contracts.
Flight attendants at America West will see a jump in their hourly pay if the rank and file ratify the newly negotiated tentative agreement between management and the Association of Flight Attendants (DAILY, March 23). Under a wage scale that would take effect May 1, a first-year flight attendant would receive $16.13 per hour, up from the current $14.18. A 15-year flight attendant would earn $35.80 per hour, up from $24.14 after 12 years.
AMR Services' Miami cargo subsidiary, CFS, was selected by Delta to provide cargo handling at Miami International Airport. CFS also will provide cargo handling at Miami for three European carriers, Swissair, CityBird and Aeroflot, that currently are handled by Delta. Delta already depends on AMR services for into-plane fueling services at Jackson, Miss., and Raleigh/Durham, N.C., and interline baggage handling at Los Angeles.
FAA said it plans to fine Atlas Air $66,000, alleging that the carrier operated a 747-400 on four occasions last September without first performing required maintenance tasks. Atlas Air has responded to FAA's civil penalty letter and the agency said it is reviewing the response.
Trying to keep up with airport infrastructure demands while air travel grows is "like doing open heart surgery on a marathon runner while the race is going on," David Plavin, president of Airports Council International-North America, said last week at the FAA aviation conference. Plavin said the top five airports are handling almost one-quarter of passenger activity in the U.S., and he disagreed with other speakers that using secondary airports and more, smaller aircraft will solve problems.
American and Finnair will begin their code share on March 28 on Finnair's New York Kennedy-Helsinki nonstops and American flights from JFK to Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Finnair's code also will appear on American's Chicago-Stockholm service for connections between Stockholm and Finland. American expects to put its code on Finnair's Helsinki-San Francisco nonstop, effective June 3, and on other flights from Finland to the rest of Europe later this year. Finnair moved to American's terminal at JFK during the weekend.
