FAA must recognize that aviation businesses are affected by a proposed amendment to the Airport Security Plan and should have an "equal opportunity to review and comment" on the amendment, according to National Air Transportation Association VP Andrew Cebula. The amendment would require an airport tenant to perform a limited five-year employment verification for persons seeking unescorted access privileges to areas of the Airport Operations Area controlled for security purposes. FAA has proposed making a 14-year-old "emergency" ASP employment verification a mandate.
A recent poll shows that Senate Commerce aviation subcommittee member John Ashcroft (R-Mo.) holds a close, early lead in his campaign for re-election next year against Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan (D). According to a poll taken late last month for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and TV station KMOV, Ashcroft held a 45%-37% lead.
American Eagle, the regional affiliate of American Airlines, posted a system-wide 14.7% increase in traffic on 11.1% more capacity for March compared with the same 1998 month, which pushed the load factor up 2 percentage points to 63.8%. The carrier flew 263.3 million revenue passenger miles and 413 million available seat miles, and it enplaned 1,196,054 passengers, up 9.1%.
China Southern is extending through May 31 its 25% commission to all Airlines Reporting Corporation travel agents in the U.S. for its Los Angeles-Guangzhou and beyond service. From June 1 to Dec. 31 the ARC travel agent commission will be 20%. China Southern said it plans no travel agent commission caps on its transpacific nonstop service. To qualify for the 25% commission, the entire passenger itinerary must be on China Southern.
Former DOT Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs Charles Hunnicutt will be the keynote speaker at the Seventh Annual International Airline Chief Executive Officers Conference. The conference, organized by Aviation-Latin America&Caribbean, will feature representatives from 26 airlines throughout Latin America, the Caribbean and the U.S., including 17 CEOs. The conference is scheduled May 2-4 at the Sonesta Beach Hotel, Key Biscayne, Fla.
Delta introduced hourly Atlanta-Philadelphia service yesterday and added frequencies between Atlanta and Austin, Greensboro/High Point/Winston-Salem and Norfolk. The carrier is operating 15 flights per day from Atlanta to Philadelphia and 16 from Philadelphia to Atlanta. It added one flight to Austin for a total of six daily, one to Greensboro/High Point/Winston-Salem for a total of nine and one to Norfolk for a total of seven.
InVision Technologies said Tim Black, chief operating officer, will be acting chief financial officer in place of Curtis DiSibio, who has left the company. Jim Robbins, controller, also will assume some CFO responsibilities temporarily.
The American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) said it is launching an aggressive grass-roots campaign with Congress in favor of an airline passenger rights bill. ASTA said it is asking travel agents to support a bill actively and encourage their clients to speak out about airline mistreatment.
Air New Zealand and Lufthansa applied jointly at DOT for blanket authority for code-share operations, consistent with U.S. open-skies agreements with New Zealand and Germany. Asking that the authority be made effective for at least two years, the carriers said they want to be able to add third-country beyond points quickly, in response to "service demands and changes in the marketplace," without having to seek DOT approval each time. They said they "anticipate further extension of their code-share network in upcoming seasons."
DHL Airways asked DOT for an exemption to provide all-cargo service between the U.S. and Bahrain, via Brussels, and to integrate the authority with its certificate authority. The carrier said it would operate five-times-weekly Cincinnati/New York-Brussels-Bahrain service in each direction by code sharing on existing services of other carriers - New York-Brussels with Gemini Air Cargo using DC-10 aircraft, and Brussels-Bahrain with DHL International E.C. on flights operated under wet-lease by Nordstress Australia Pty. with 757 aircraft.
Charlotte, N.C.-based US Airways affiliate CCAIR posted a net loss of $370,040, or four cents per share, for the quarter ended Dec. 31 but a $3,379,673 profit, or 36 cents per share, for 1998, the company announced this week. Phoenix-based Mesa Air Group in February announced it would acquire the carrier for $53 million but has not yet closed the transaction.
Airlines and airports in Western Siberia have reported dramatic decreases in passenger volumes in 1998. Total passenger enplanements fell by 25% and international travel was down by 32%. Cargo data were even worse - volume was down by 50% overall and nearly 70% internationally, reflecting economic crisis and changes in import duties introduced in the middle of the year. Air transport became chaotic in some quarters during the year.
Flight attendants at United are nervous about plans to drop the Osaka-Los Angeles route this summer and its job impact on Osaka-based cabin crew.United announced the plan in March but has yet to tell the Association of Flight Attendants about it. L.A. will be the third U.S.-Osaka route United has suspended in the past 10 months, according to United AFA President Kevin Lum, and only San Francisco-Osaka is left. The union is concerned that L.A. service eventually be resumed by Star Alliance partner ANA rather than United.
Kiwi International Air Lines will continue its appeal of FAA's withdrawal of its right to fly and has consented to court appointment of a trustee to oversee the company. The carrier said yesterday it believes its operating certificate was taken "without due process" and quoted DOT as saying FAA found that the airline could continue to operate safely despite problems. Kiwi said the next day, with no intervening incident, FAA suspended its operating certificate without prior notification. "Despite the claims of the FAA we believe we have a safe operation," Kiwi said.
Embraer likely will officially launch its new 70-seat ERJ-170 at the Paris Air Show in June. It hosted its first Airline Advisory Board in recent days with representatives from six airlines, showing off a mockup of the four-abreast "double-bubble" passenger cabin. The company declined to identify the six airlines; it is known, however, that one of them was Crossair, which, along with Lufthansa CityLine, was considered a prime launch customer for the Fairchild Aerospace 728JET family.
InVision Technologies received an $18.9 million FAA contract for 21 CTX 5500 DS explosives detection systems, the company said. "This order represents the first purchase of EDS made by the FAA using funds allocated to improve aviation security as part of the...fiscal 1999 budget," it said. InVision said it expects to complete shipments by Sept. 30. The order brings FAA's CT 5000 series purchases to 90 during the past four years.
Delta Air Lines is being sued by 12 minority skycaps in Los Angeles who claim they are being paid less than other Delta employees because of their race. Delta said the skycaps have chosen to remain in their jobs rather than accept standing offers of higher-paid jobs in the company.
U.S. Major Carriers Systemwide Share of Service Fourth Quarter 1998 Total Revenue Departures Alaska 41,918 America West 51,485 American 197,881 Continental 116,114 Delta 240,908 Northwest 144,493 Southwest 204,586 TWA 69,783
The jet-versus-turboprop debate has taken a new twist. Wayfarer Aviation, a White Plains, N.Y., aircraft management firm, advised companies considering fractional ownership in a Wall Street Journal ad Tuesday, "Don't waste your money on a jet." It said that for travel within 1,000 miles of Midtown Manhattan, the Wayfarer StarShares fractional ownership program, using Beech King Air turboprops, "wins hands down." The cost is far less and it provides direct access to a lot more airports.
United yesterday said it will initiate nonstop daily service Oct. 31 between Chicago O'Hare and Delhi, India. The route will be among the longest operated by United or other airlines, the company said. Stuart Oran, senior VP-international, said India "is a dynamic and fast-growing country which has been underserved from the U.S. These new flights will provide tremendous opportunities for both local and connecting customers." United will use a 747-400 with enhanced Phase Three Pratt&Whitney engines and expects the 7,484-mile trip to take about 15 hours.
FAA, alarmed by a series of NTSB decisions, yesterday issued an "interpretive rule" saying pilots are required "by regulation to comply with the clearances and instructions of air traffic controllers except in very narrow circumstances." In a Federal Register notice signed by Administrator Jane Garvey, the agency expressed concern that "a series of recent NTSB enforcement decisions has raised a question regarding the regulatory responsibility of pilots to hear and to comply with air traffic control clearances and instructions."
