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.
Washington's inclination to "fix" poor passenger service is another example of misplaced priorities, according to George Washington University Professor Darryl Jenkins. "From 1990-92, CRSs were the major contributor to airline failure," he said. Then came terrorism, after TWA 800, and predatory pricing, an issue affecting "not even 1/100th of a percent" of the market. "Three presidential commissions have focused on infrastructure," the issue Jenkins believes deserves the most attention.
National Business Aviation Association named Louis Weber, Minneapolis Community and Technical College, and Rachel Scannell, Lewis University, Ill., recipients of the first William M. Fanning Maintenance Scholarships.
Emery Worldwide said it has expanded its "Gold Priority Express" guaranteed heavyweight cargo service to 30 additional cities in 13 countries in Europe. The expansion follows nine months of trials in Belgium and the U.K. in which the company found "strong demand for a premium express service with a guaranteed delivery time to North America."
India will rename Sahar International Airport at Mumbai this week after an 18th century Hindu warrior king, Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, whose guerilla warfare tactics are legendary in western India where he ruled. Mumbai is the capital of Maharashtra state, which is run by a Hindu fundamentalist-dominated coalition of which the dominant partner, Shiv Sena, is named after the king and purports to propagate his ideals.
Britannia Airways applied for a foreign carrier permit and, separately, for an exemption to engage in charter combination service between points in Sweden, Denmark and Norway and points in the U.S., and between points in the U.S. and points in a third country as part of a continuous operation carrying traffic between Sweden, Denmark and Norway and the U.S. The Swedish carrier is wholly owned, through two Swedish holding companies, by Swedish tour organizer Fritidsresor, which acquired the airline in 1997.
Frontier launched an Internet booking engine that gives full access to its inventory. Customers can view inventory and availability of schedules and prices. The upgrade is the result of advancements made by EDS, which provides Frontier's reservations system.
Air Carrier Association of America Executive Director Ed Faberman called on DOT Friday to step up its campaign to end predatory practices by major carriers against new and niche airlines. Faberman and executives from some of the ACAA carriers met Thursday and Friday with DOT and Congressional leadership. Faberman said they were "asking Congress to turn the pressure up on DOT" to act on its predatory practices guidelines, which may not happen until the summer. He suggested the department take the same interest in ensuring competition in the U.S.
Taiwan's cabinet-level Aviation Safety Council (ASC) plans to establish a laboratory to analyze information contained on flight voice and data recorders. The so-called "black boxes" record data essential to determining the cause of accidents. An ASC spokesman said the analysis center should greatly reduce the problems resulting from language differences. Until now, Taiwan has sent its black boxes abroad for decoding. In many cases, the spokesman said, transcription has been delayed by translation problems.
FAA - In Federal Register dated March 22...Issued an airworthiness directive on CFM International CMF56-5 engines to reduce the low-cycle fatigue retirement lives for certain high-pressure turbine rotor front air seals...Issued an AD on certain Boeing 747-400 aircraft requiring modification of certain panels of the cabin pressure control system.
Piedmont Airlines has ordered nine 37-seat Dash 8/Q Series 200 aircraft from Bombardier. The order will increase to 93 the number of Piedmont Dash 8 aircraft carrying US Airways Express livery and to 115 the number of Dash 8s operating US Airways Express services. Dash 8/Q Series aircraft delivered and on order total 581, including 87 of the Q200 model.
America West said it will pay eligible employees $22.1 million in cash incentive compensation and annual merit increases this week following its record 1998 financial performance. About 4,800 employees who participate in the A Ward Pay Plan will receive bonuses equal to 12.65% of their 1998 earnings, and about 400 employees of The Leisure Company will receive 10.43% under a different compensation plan. An additional merit increase averaging 4% of qualifying payroll will go out to eligible America West Holdings employees over the coming year.
AEI said it has expanded operations in Laredo, Tex., in response to "explosive" growth in cross-border trading between the U.S. and Mexico. AEI Laredo moved into a new facility that nearly quadruples its capacity and is equipped to offer a full range of logistics services. AEI will provide electronic transfers of information and customs duties to Mexican Customs.
Aviation negotiators from the U.S. and Poland held open-skies talks last week in Warsaw. A DOT spokesman reported "substantial progress" toward a transition to open skies. The spokesman said the two sides hope to meet "within three to five months" in Washington.
Dutch carrier Transavia Airlines said last week it carried three million passengers in one year for the first time. The milestone was reached five years after the airline reported two million passengers carried in 1994. Transavia, part of the KLM group, operates four 757-200 aircraft, 14 737-300s and three 737-800s with an average age of less than five years. In 1995, Transavia ordered eight 737-800 aircraft, of which the first arrived June 17, 1998, followed by two more during the summer.
Lufthansa Cargo and Singapore Airlines will launch a joint program Thursday to increase the number of destinations in their route networks that receive their express products. The initiative will expand Lufthansa's "td.flash" express service to 16 stations in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand. SIA will extend its "Swiftrider" express service to 16 points in Europe. Lufthansa Cargo said it will expand its time-definite services to 63 more stations, beginning next month, for a total of 163 worldwide.
Virgin Express posted a net loss of 53 million Belgian francs (US$1.4 million) for the fourth quarter of 1998, improving on the BEF 74 million loss in the year-earlier period. For 1998, the airline earned BEF 47 million ($1.3 million), far lower than the BEF 497 million in 1997. Revenue increased 15% to BEF 2.36 billion ($63.6 million) for the quarter and 14% to BEF 10.5 billion ($282 million) for the year. The load factor for the December quarter rose 4.4 percentage points to 72.1%, indicating that breakeven is still higher.
Boeing Co. named several officials to new financial positions to increase focus on business planning, said Debby Hopkins, chief financial officer. Robert Stone, formerly assistant treasurer, was named to the new position of VP-financial planning and analysis. Laurette Koellner, formerly VP-general auditor, was designed VP and corporate controller. Gale Andrews, director of internal audit at Boeing Commercial, will succeed Koellner.
