Skynet Holdings Inc. acquired a regional courier company, Nevada Fleet Management Inc., in what Skynet Chief Executive Vic Nizic said is the first of a planned series of "platform" deals to open up "new geographic service areas...around the world" for its time-sensitive delivery business. Skynet did not disclose terms of the deal.
Airports Council International-NA Executive VP Rob Wigington has left ACI to become senior associate for Booz-Allen&Hamilton's Airports Management Consulting Group. Wigington was with ACI since 1985, and was executive VP since 1996.
TAP Air Portugal flew 9.36 billion revenue passenger kilometers in 1998, up 6.6%, although freight volume fell 2.1% to 230 million ton kilometers. The airline transported 4,537,756 passengers, an 8.9% jump from 1997.
TWA's Air Line Pilots Association Master Executive Council on Tuesday unseated MEC Chairman Joe Chronic, who served during contentious contract negotiations last year. Chronic was up for re-election but was replaced by Tom Brown, a New York-based MD80 captain who has worked in the grievance arena and served four terms as the New York local council flight engineer representative. Brown has been with TWA since 1969 and experienced two furloughs, the union said.
Montenegro Airlines applied at DOT for exemption authority to operate combination service between Tivat, Montenegro, and points in the U.S. - "specifically, New York." The carrier was organized in 1996 under the laws of Yugoslavia - designated Category 3 by FAA - which has regulatory jurisdiction over it, and it is 99.2% owned and controlled by the government of Montenegro.
Detroit-based Spirit Airlines said it will move its corporate headquarters next month to Miramar, Fla., in the Fort Lauderdale area, to accommodate growth and expansion plans. Spirit said several entities, including the Broward County Commission and Office of Economic Development, the governor's office, the City of Miramar and the Fort Lauderdale Hollywood Airport contributed to Spirit's decision to relocate there. Its reservations center and maintenance facility will remain in Detroit and expand.
Evergreen International Aviation faces cash flow pressures as it maintains its older aircraft, replaces some of them, upgrades others for Stage 3 noise rule compliance, and funds the growth of its aircraft maintenance business, Moody's Investors Service reported. Evergreen generates 70% of its revenues from cargo, operating 11 747 and 10 DC-9 aircraft with an average age of 28 years, Moody's said as it assigned ratings to $420 million in senior debt.
The House Transportation Committee is not sure that Chairman Bud Shuster's (R-Pa.) five-year, $89 billion FAA reauthorization bill can command a majority in the House and is holding up reporting the bill until it is more confident about a floor vote, committee sources said yesterday. "We need to get enough support" for a majority, one source said.
America West flight attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants, held a lottery yesterday at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport to give the flying public an idea of when and where CHAOS (Create Havoc Around Our System) will strike first. The union claims America West, in the face of CHAOS actions, is threatening a total shutdown, and it estimates such a move would cost the company $5.5 million a day.
International division results from major U.S. airlines during the third quarter of 1998 reveal that most carriers made a profit operating to most areas of the world. Northwest's Pacific division had a third quarter operating loss of $105.1 million but United's Pacific unit showed a $31.2 million operating profit. In data filed with DOT, TWA's Atlantic division showed the second-worst result, with an operating loss of $13.1 million in the July-September period. It was the only negative Atlantic result.
American's quarterly Latin American inflight magazine, Nexos, debuted on flights to 33 cities south of the border. Nexos, written in Spanish and Portuguese, is distributed in addition to the carrier's American Way magazine.
Salomon Smith Barney has upgraded first quarter earnings estimates for five airlines - Continental, Delta, Southwest, Alaska and America West - and lowered numbers for three - American, Northwest and United. Despite low fuel prices, analyst Brian Harris expects first quarter pre-tax earnings to fall 38% year-over-year.
Pakistan International Airlines began this week flying all its North America service via Shannon, Ireland, a move that reduces travel times to Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore by more than an hour. The new routings, which took effect Monday, cover service from New York Kennedy, Washington and Toronto. They are the result of an analysis by Sabre Technology Solutions of how to improve operating efficiency and customer service. PIA said it is shedding "longer routings through more crowded gateways" in Europe.
Cathay Pacific, which recently posted its first annual loss in 35 years, is proposing a new and lower pay structure for its pilots. The airline sent letters to its pilots March 15 "proposing changes in salary scales," said spokesman Gus Whitcomb. He would not confirm reports in Hong Kong's daily newspaper, South China Morning Post, that the airline was asking for salary concessions of up to 27%. The story said pilots based in the U.K., Canada and Australia could be affected the most, and local Hong Kong pilots were asked for cuts of 7.3%-18.3%.
China Airlines has carried out its 100th MD-11 B check for Federal Express, and a CAL spokesman said FedEx is considering contracting CAL to carry out C and D checks and conduct engine maintenance. CAL, which opened a US$100 million three-bay maintenance hangar last July, is the primary maintenance agent in Asia for cargo airlines UPS, Atlas and World Airways.
Emirates is investing another $110 million in Rolls-Royce engines, spare parts and fleet support for new Airbus A340-500s that will arrive between 2002 and 2003. The airline, which ordered six of the long-range jets and took 10 options, will have Rolls-Royce engines on all its aircraft by 2002 and has spent more than $1.5 billion to date with its engine partner. "We are the first airline to be using three classes of the Rolls-Royce Trent family - the Trent 500, 700 and 800," said Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum.
Boeing will begin supplying customized replacement floor panels for the commercial airplane aftermarket, with Delta signed to the first contract, Boeing reported this week. Boeing will supply panels through June 2003 for all aircraft in the Delta fleet. That is expected to generate a requirement for up to 10,000 replacement panels per year, Boeing said.
Delta garnered 14.3% of the seats out of New York Kennedy last year, climbing into second place behind American's 20.4%.TWA fell to third at 12.6%, down from 25.4% in 1992, according to Salomon Smith Barney.American's share was down from 21.4% in 1997 and 22.8% in 1995.
Senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) yesterday introduced a bipartisan whistleblower bill to protect airline employees who report safety violations. Kerry and Grassley said that because of a loophole, the Occupational Safety and Health Act does not ensure protection for aviation employees although it does protect private and federal government employees who report safety and health violations. An additonal bipartisan bill was introduced in the House by Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-N.Y.) and Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.).
Air-India has decided to discontinue service to unprofitable European destinations, including Rome, Frankfurt and Manchester, and redeploy its aircraft to more profitable Gulf and Hong Kong sectors as part of the cash-crunched airline's route rationalization program, senior AI officials said yesterday. Paris will survive as the carrier's lone stop in Europe. Aircraft currently operating AI's six weekly flights to Chicago via Frankfurt will be used to increase frequencies to Jeddah, Bahrain, Kuwait and Doha.
DOT "is establishing an experimental allocation of Chicago O'Hare Airport slot exemptions to be deployed by selected communities for the purpose of assisting those communities in acquiring nonstop air service to O'Hare," the department said in an order issued late Tuesday making two such awards. DOT said it is "reserving a total of three Chicago O'Hare slot exemptions each" for Greenville/Spartanburg, S.C., and Savannah, Ga./Hilton Head, S.C., limited to 179 days from April 4. Service would operate at least twice weekly with Stage 3 jet aircraft.
The Senate yesterday passed 100-0 a two-month extension of the fiscal 1999 FAA authorization, currently set to expire March 31. The extension would permit funding of Airport Improvement Program projects through May 31, and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) said yesterday he expects a multi-year authorization to be enacted by then. Lott told The DAILY in a brief interview that a multi-year FAA reauthorization probably will be on the Senate floor during the first week in May.
U.S. National and Regional Carriers Traffic February, 2 Months 1999 (000) February February % 1999 1998 Change Air Wisconsin Revenue Passenger Miles (000) 76,821 43,089 78.3 Available Seat Miles (000) 124,566 77,313 61.1
American said yesterday its pilots union's objections to the company's acquisition of Business Express are "without merit," and allegations that the company is violating the pilots contract scope clause (DAILY, March 17) are "unadulturated nonsense." Spokesman Chris Chiames said scope language enables American to have commuter carrier relationships. He said the Business Express deal enhances American's market presence in New England, which was the company's stated objective in November when the deal was announced.
AlliedSignal, which makes cockpit voice recorders (CVRs) and flight data recorder (FDRs), said it has the technology to meet new CVR and FDR recommendations of the National Transportation Safety Board. NTSB last week called for FAA to require retrofit after Jan. 1, 2005, of all CVRs on airplanes required to carry both a CVR and an FDR with a CVR that can record the last two hours of audio.
