U.S. airline chief executives with alliances to defend wrote DOT Secretary Rodney Slater March 16 asking for his aid. Delta's Leo Mullin, Northwest's John Dasburg and United's Gerald Greenwald told Slater, on the eve of his trip to Europe, that each airline's alliances are threatened by regulatory action by the European Commission, which among other things has long proposed trimming alliance frequencies on mainline routes.
Varig confirmed Friday that it will suspend several routes and modify its schedule to reduce costs and cope with lower passenger demand in Brazil (DAILY, March 19). Service to Orlando, Washington, and Atlanta will shut down April 15, and Varig will lean on Star Alliance partner United for these cities. Flights to Los Angeles will increase from five weekly to daily frequency on June 29. Zurich and Porto, Portugal, service will be suspended as well. There is a current imbalance in traffic between the U.S. and Brazil, with nearly 80% originating in Brazil.
Lufthansa, reacting to competition by British Airways, KLM, Air France and Swissair, will expand Asia/Pacific service as part of a 13% worldwide capacity increase, starting March 28. From Asia, one flight each will be added on Tokyo-Frankfurt and Nagoya-Frankfurt routes, for a total of nine and six weekly frequencies, respectively.
New-aircraft prices and resale value do not appear to be affected by technology improvements in major systems, according to a Simat, Helliesen&Eichner study, but introduction of new technology nearly always means increased market share.
The regional economic crisis forced Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Malaysia Airlines and Thai Airways International to drop fares after outbound traffic to Europe dipped 60% last year. The airlines are trying to attract passengers to Europe, traditionally viewed as a stable market. Two other carriers, Qantas and China Airlines (CAL), view the situation from a different perspective and will not reduce fares on the Asia-Europe routes. They said the undercutting of fares would lead only to reducing services and eventually dropping them altogether.
H.R.1151 - introduced March 17 by Rep. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) - to amend Title 49, U.S. Code to require air carrier baggage liability to be not less than $2,500 per passenger. Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
With a whiff of Freddy Laker's transatlantic Sky Train pricing, United is offering $99 introductory one-way fares from Boston to London, raising eyebrows throughout the industry. Several under-$200 one-way transatlantic fares have been available in recent years, but United's is by far the cheapest in seven years, according to Bob Harrell of Harrell Associates, an airfare consultant to American Express. United's $198 roundtrip begins April 4, when it launches daily nonstop Boston-London service using a Boeing 767-300.
Nonstop Traffic Analysis U.S. - Europe Roundtrip Operations 12 Months Ended June 1998 Top Ten Nonstop Carriers U.S. - Europe Onboard Percent Code Departures Passengers Of Total 1 British Airways BA 25,418 5,818,739 13.8% 2 Delta DL 23,761 4,135,868 9.8%
Two engine manufacturers reported milestones last week. Rolls-Royce claimed a "new world reliability record" - an RB211-535E4 on an Icelandair 757 reached 35,000 hours without a removal, completing more than 9,600 cycles. And Pratt&Whitney said its PW4000 engine has logged its first million hours of service on Boeing 777s, more flight time than Rolls's and General Electric's 777 engines combined.
The U.S. and the U.K. are "both paying the price" for the inability to reach a "market-oriented solution" to the restrictive U.S.-U.K. aviation bilateral, Charles Hunnicutt told The DAILY on Friday - his last day as DOT assistant secretary for aviation and international affairs. He said that while British Airways remains the "clear winner" under the current terms of the U.S.-U.K. Bermuda 2 agreement, Bermuda 2 is a "drag on the economies" of both countries, which otherwise conduct reciprocal business using marketplace practices and enjoy close and cordial relations.
British Aerospace Regional Managing Director Allan MacDonald will leave the company to join the Glasgow Celtic FC soccer club as board member and chief executive designate.
FAA said Friday that more than 95% of domestic 737s have installed or are installing upgraded digital flight data recorders. The deadline for installing the new units is July 2001. The agency said 1,300 aircraft were completely outfitted and work on another 676 was in progress as of March 1. Rudder position measurements are available on more than 35% or 363 of the 1,025 737s covered by the July 1997 rule, FAA said.
Sabena is in a dispute with the Belgian government, which wants the airline to pay for deporting illegal refugees in private jets. Last January, the Belgian Ministry of the Interior decided to charter business jets for such deportations because using scheduled flights caused "incidents" in which refugees resisted, other passengers sided with the refugees and pilots refused to take off because of havoc in the cabin. Belgian public opinion was shattered last Sept.
Boeing is trying to expand modification and engineering services for its commercial aircraft with a new unit, Boeing Airplane Services. BAS will offer engineering retrofit packages, avionics upgrades, freighter conversions, interior reconfigurations, recovery and repair services and performance improvements for all Boeing commercial aircraft, plus technical consulting and general contracting support for passenger and cargo airlines.
Thai startup carrier Angel Airlines, launched last week, will offer daily nonstop flights from Bangkok to Chiangrai and Singapore, four weekly direct flights to Kunming with a stop in Phuket and three weekly frequencies to Chengdu, using one 737-400 and one 737-500 initially. By mid-summer, it expects to exchange the aircraft for two 737-400s leased from Malaysian Airlines.
American will cancel its Miami-London Gatwick nonstop as of May 1, relying instead on its Heathrow nonstop. In another Atlantic development, United will bring 747-400s back to its European service for the first time in several years, flying from Washington Dulles to Frankfurt and Heathrow.
FAA said nearly 50% of 737s subject to an earlier order now have new rudder power control units (PCUs). Newer 737s are manufactured with a redesigned unit, so nearly 60% of the 737 fleet has new PCUs, the agency said. The redesigned PCU eliminates the possibility of a "rudder reversal," which the National Transportation Safety Board is studying in its investigation of the crash of a USAir 737 Sept. 8, 1994, near Pittsburgh that killed all aboard. All affected 737s must have the new PCU by Aug. 4.
