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.
The European Commission will examine whether Air France has discriminated against the U.S. Sabre computer reservations system in favor of Amadeus, a CRS partly owned by the French airline, the European Union's competition watchdog said Monday in Brussels.
Air Transport Association Cargo Traffic December 1998 Revenue Ton Miles (000) December December % 1998 1997 Change Domestic Freight 813,982 771,388 5.5 Mail 187,266 199,056 (5.9) Total 1,001,248 970,444 3.2 International
American's Allied Pilots Association says the carrier's acquisition of Business Express violates the pilot scope clause. APA President Rich LaVoy told VP-Employee Relations Sue Oliver the union and management must bargain to remedy this violation.
TWA's International Association of Machinists, which represents mechanics and related workers, and passenger service employees, on Monday rejected the company's latest contract offer (DAILY, March 16). The two sides will meet again next Monday with a federal mediator. TWA and its IAM unit representing flight attendants will meet in supermediation March 24-25, according to a recorded message to members from IAM President Sherry Cooper.
Northwest's flight attendants spent yesterday morning talking to customers at Minneapolis Metro Airport about their contract negotiations. They distributed flyers that warned passengers about problems, such as alleged corporate greed, that have led to service cuts. They claim the company gave its executives, including Chief Executive John Dasburg, "huge raises, bonuses and stock options" and recently approved Dasburg's new contract and raise "in record time." Flight attendants, represented by the Teamsters, are in contract talks with management.
Airbus has delivered the first of 17 A330-200s ordered by Emirates. The carrier is the first to fly the version of the A330 in the Middle East and the first to order it with Rolls-Royce Trent 700 engines. The aircraft will serve Dubai-Manchester, with 34 seats in business class and 251 in economy.
Indonesia's weekly airline seat capacity last year fell 40.4% to 162,762 on 540 flights, down from 273,294 seats on 711 flights in 1997, according to the Pacific Asia Travel Association. Tourism was down 11% to 4.6 million visitors. Thailand reached its target of 7.7 million visitors. Visitors to the Philippines dropped 2.8% through November.
As United begins using SITA's WorldTracer baggage tracking system, 47 of the top 50 world airlines have climbed on board. The system, launched in 1991, traces baggage that may be snaking its way through the multitude of global code-share and interline flights. United, which finds 90% of baggage lost in its system within 24 hours, said that after baggage leaves its care, it becomes more difficult to track it on other airlines.
Karel Van Miert and Neil Kinnock, the European Union commissioners in charge of competition and transport, respectively, are expected to stay in office until Dec. 31 despite Monday's en masse resignation of the European Commission, because they have strong support in their home countries, Belgium and the U.K. Van Miert and Kinnock both are directly involved in air transport talks with the U.S., but in theory, the ongoing dispute between the EU and the U.S. over restrictions on hushkitted aircraft may not be affected by the European political crisis.
Belgium, The Netherlands, Denmark, Italy, Finland and Portugal rejected a German proposal to postpone the ban of duty-free sales to passengers traveling inside the European Union, at the EU's finance ministers' meeting in Brussels. The ban is scheduled to go into force July 1. Under EU rules, all decisions on fiscal matters require the unanimity of the 15 member states. German Minister of the Economy Werner Muller said he "personally" had "little hope" to see the ban postponed. The duty-free industry claims the ban jeopardizes 140,000 jobs.
IATA has created a classroom course for airlines on quality management. The course includes elements on risk management, improving safety and streamlining operations. The first session was oversubscribed, and IATA is planning another.
Memphis-based Express Airlines I reported a 5.7% decline in February traffic to 24.4 million revenue passenger miles and an 8.7% drop in capacity to 41.9 million available seat miles, compared with year-ago levels. As a result, the load factor rose 1.8 points to 58.2%. Passengers carried decreased 4.6% to 87,761. Year-to-date RPMS were down 2.6% and ASMs 7.1%, which boosted the load factor 2.6 points. Passengers carried declined 6.6%.
Star Alliance affiliates Lufthansa Cargo and SAS Cargo, which moved their cargo-handling facilities in Germany into a single facility in January, said yesterday they will integrate their sales and cargo-handling organizations in Europe. Beginning in the Scandinavian and Baltic countries and acting gradually throughout the year, the companies said they expect integration to be "largely" complete by January 2000. They will remain separate entities.
The National Business Travel Association (NBTA) says record-level business fares are leading U.S. corporations to continue scaling back business travel and find lower-cost alternatives, such as booking on low-fare carriers, buying advance-purchase leisure fares and conducting more meetings with video and telecommunications technology. An NBTA survey conducted in February shows an historically high concern by corporations about the escalating costs of business air fares.
China Southern Airlines said all computer systems, including maintenance, reservations and internal communications, will be Year 2000-compliant on or before July 1. China Southern's fleet of 97 Airbus and Boeing jets will be ready as well. The airline will complete all software compliance testing by the end of this month.
American this week began Boeing 737-800 service from Chicago O'Hare to San Jose and Boston Logan. The new aircraft has an expanded first-class cabin and ergonomically designed seats in first and coach classes.
Savannah Airport Commission, which operates Savannah Airport, said yesterday it has received word from its congressional delegation that DOT had awarded it three slots at Chicago O'Hare for nonstop Savannah-Chicago service. Atlantic Coast, operating as United Express, will begin twice-daily nonstop roundtrips May 17, using Canadair regional jets. The carrier operates Savannah-Washington Dulles nonstops. Patrick Graham, the commission's executive director, told The DAILY that Sen.
Japan Airlines will convert its Japan Air Charter subsidiary into a scheduled carrier, add 767s to the fleet of its JAL Express (JEX) unit and deepen previously announced layoffs, the airline said yesterday in an update of its 1999-2002 corporate plan. As a scheduled airline, Japan Air Charter will be renamed and operate routes between Japan and Southeast Asia, Hawaii, other Pacific resort areas and Oceania, taking advantage of personnel costs lower than JAL's. JEX, which started flying domestic routes last July and has been slated for growth (DAILY, Jan.
A Rolls-Royce Trent engine joint venture, launched this week at a signing ceremony in Singapore, is scheduled to open in 2002 at Singapore Changi Airport. The new facility, Singapore Aero Engine Services Ltd. (SAESL), is 50% owned by SIA Engineering Co., 30% by Rolls-Royce and 20% by Hong Kong Aero Engine Services Ltd. The Trent engine powers 48% of Airbus A330 and Boeing 777s ordered by Asia/Pacific carriers.
AD OPT Technologies, Montreal, has sold personnel management software to Swissair and the Icelandic Civil Aviation Administration. The Swiss carrier will use two of the company's products, the Altitude Preferential Bidding System and the Altitude Pairing system, to schedule work by about 1,200 cockpit crew members and 4,600 cabin crew members. Both systems are expected to be fully implemented by the end of the year.
