Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) said yesterday he is discussing with Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.) a range of options for the FAA authorization, including another short-term FAA extension or a one-year authorization if he cannot get Senate action on his multi-year FAA reauthorization. The negotiations, which McCain's spokeswoman said are ongoing, "could go either way," McCain told The DAILY.
Mesa Air Group and CCAIR will hold separate special shareholders meetings June 8 in Phoenix. At CCAIR's meeting, shareholders will be asked to approve the merger agreement of Jan. 28 between Mesa Air Group, Mesa Merger Corp. and CCAIR. Mesa shareholders will be asked for a vote approving the issuance of Mesa Air common stock in connection with the transaction and to elect nine directors to the Mesa Air Group board.
Boeing 747 Systemwide Aircraft Utilization Per Day, Fourth Quarter 1998, B747-100, B747-200, B747-400 Boeing 747 Systemwide Aircraft Utilization Per Day Fourth Quarter 1998 B747-100 United Total Number of Aircraft Operated 5 5 Total Fleet Operations
British Midland filed with DOT for special permission to launch service from London Heathrow to New York. The airline would require a special exemption because the existing U.S.-U.K. air services agreement does not include the carrier. British Midland wants to start the route in spring 2000, after already receiving a license for the service from the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). The CAA has approved the carrier to operate to New York, Washington, Miami and Boston.
The Aeronautical Studies Division of the Colegio de Estudios en Administracion Superior in Mexico City has entered a agreement with FlightSafety International to offer a Maintenance Resource Management (MRM) program. In response to concerns about safety in the Latin American aviation industry, the course will be in Spanish. Dean Victor Manuel del Castillo said the ultimate mission of the MRM program is to minimize aircraft incidents/accidents and hangar mishaps by addressing one of the major components - human error.
KLM plans to launch roundtrip service to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from Amsterdam, operating the return leg via Jeddah. The circular flight, designated KL0431, will operate on Wednesdays and Sundays with 226-seat Boeing 767-300E equipment and offer cargo capacity of 10 tons. Tony Camacho, marketing director-U.K. and Ireland, KLM said, "This is a unique route to the Middle East. Unlike other carriers, we are offering a dual-destination flight serving two of Saudi Arabia's major trading centers. The U.K.
DOT should rule out additional China frequencies for FedEx and divide the eight in its current proceeding between United and Northwest, the AFL-CIO Transportation Trades Department (TTD) said. Fed-Ex seeks all eight frequencies available immediately under last month's U.S.-China aviation agreement (DAILY, April 9), and TTD wrote DOT Secretary Rodney Slater that the company's apparent position - that it is "the only U.S. carrier that should benefit from the U.S.-China accord" - is "absurd."
British Aerospace Asset Management, the jet sales and leasing arm of British Aerospace, completed the sale to ANZ Investment Bank of three BAe 146-300s for more than $40 million. The aircraft will operate with Aer Lingus through 2006. The company said that with its own jet portfolio of BAe 146s and Avro RJs substantially on long-term leases, it seeks additional revenue opportunities by targeting third-party sales.
KLM traffic for April increased 2% on 1% more capacity, which raised the load factor 0.8 percentage points to 76.1%. Passenger traffic growth occurred on routes to Africa, 11%, Asia/Pacific, 8%, Europe, 5% and the North Atlantic, 2%. Cargo traffic rose 10% and capacity 7%, producing a cargo load factor of 66.2%. Cargo traffic to Asia/Pacific jumped 23% and was up 13% to the Middle East and South Asia. The cargo load factor to Asia increased to 74% from 67%.
Virgin Atlantic has opened a one-stop travel shop in London under one roof under a deal with its sister company, Virgin Holidays. Virgin Travel Zone is staffed by travel experts and has two standup Internet kiosks, where customers can research flights and information.
Mesaba will take delivery of its 25th Avro RJ85 this month from British Aerospace. The Northwest Airlink affiliate will get three more this year and eight next year, completing its commitment to 36 of the regional jets. Mesaba last month launched RJ service for Northwest from a new base in Memphis, linking Atlanta, Wichita, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Fayetteville, Huntsville and Dallas/Fort Worth.
Japan's Ministry of Transport decreed yesterday that it will abandon its intention to complete a second runway at busy Tokyo Narita Airport and left open the question whether the runway ever would be completed. Reports from Tokyo suggest that the Japanese government is willing to reconfigure the runway away from land the owners refuse to sell and settle for a shortened 2,000-meter (6,560-foot) landing surface. Originally, plans called for at least a 2,500-meter (8,200-foot) second runway, likely growing to 3,000 meters (9,840 feet).
Royal Jordanian Airlines has added a third North African destination with one weekly flight to Tripoli, Libya, from Amman, Jordan. Frequency additions are planned.
Aviation Sales Co. reported that revenues for the first quarter rose 74.2% to a record $178 million, while net income jumped 113.5% to $7.9 million. The company last September acquired Triad International Maintenance Co., increasing businesses associated with its maintenance, repair and overhaul operations.
Midwest Aviation Coalition and the chief executives of 20 U.S. airlines have asked Illinois Gov. George Ryan (R) to ditch plans for a new Chicago-area airport, including $75 million in startup funds earmarked for the facility in his proposed state budget. The greenfield project would be in Peotone, Ill., about 35 miles from Chicago. Development of existing facilities, including a new runway at Chicago O'Hare, is a better option, according to a letter sent to the governor last month and made public yesterday.
The Taiwan government has given the green light to the proposed merger between Mandarin Airlines and Formosa Airlines. Following the merger, China Airlines, which owns 100% of Mandarin and 40% of Formosa, will take over Mandarin's international routes, while the newly formed company will concentrate on domestic routes now served by Formosa. Mandarin operates three aircraft on routes between Taiwan and Canada and between Taiwan and Australia and New Zealand. Formosa has a fleet of 16 aircraft flying on 18 domestic routes.
The 10 largest U.S. carriers posted an on-time arrival record of 78.1% in March, lower than February's 78.9% but an improvement from 75.9% a year ago, according to DOT's Air Travel Consumer Report. TWA was first, 84.6%, higher than its February first-place record of 83.2%. Southwest was second, 81.1%, followed by Northwest, 81.0%, and Continental 80.3% - the three carriers were among the top four in February. Three carriers repeated their low-end February rankings - US Airways was eighth, 73.0%, American ninth, 72.9%, and Alaska 10th, 71.5%.
TWA said the airline and its International Association of Machinists union, which represents about 16,000 employees, have agreed on a substantial number of issues but economics and job security and disagreements over property closings have led the two sides to loggerheads. TWA and its flight attendants have agreed on pay and credit for deadheading, on increases in trip expenses, a probationary period reduction and improvements in furlough pay and passes.
DOT affirmed an earlier staff decision removing exclusivity provisions as a condition to approve the Northwest/Air China and United/All Nippon Airways code-share agreements. The provision would have prohibited each airline from code sharing with another carrier in the partner's country. DOT said it wanted to maximize competition in limited-entry markets and will consider separately whether to impose similar conditions on other code shares, including American/China Eastern, which recently applied for renewal.
The TWA Flight 800 disaster investigation, which by statute was to be run by the National Transportation Safety Board, "was commandeered" by the FBI and was "a model of failure, not success," Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) charged yesterday. Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary subcommittee, made the assertion at the panel's hearing into the FBI's direction of the investigation, including charges that the bureau pushed the now-discredited missile or bomb theory and suppressed evidence.
Moody's Investors Service assigned an "a3" rating to British Airways' 300 million Euro perpetual preferred securities, the first Moody rating of this class of security for BA.
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is crediting a foam arrestor bed with halting the runway overrun of an American Eagle Saab 340 over the weekend at New York Kennedy.The incident, a real-world test of the arrestor bed concept, caused little damage to the aircraft and one minor passenger injury. Without the foam, the aircraft could have ended up in Jamaica Bay.
International travel and tourism is the U.S.'s leading services export, creating a trade surplus of nearly $19 billion and injecting $91 billion into the economy in 1998, according to the Commerce Department. Western European visitors spent a record $30.2 billion in the U.S. last year, with the U.K., France and Italy each setting records for arrivals. Despite economic turmoil in Asia, particularly in Japan, the No. 1 source of tourists to the U.S., expenditures remained relatively stable, dropping 3% between 1997 and 1998, for a total of $91.1 billion.
Malaysia Airlines pilots for more than two years have been under orders to carry minimal fuel when weather conditions are favorable to save on costs, a senior MAS flight operations official told The DAILY in Kuala Lumpur. An MAS 747-400 on a flight from Kuala Lumpur landed in London Heathrow Airport Terminal 2 two weeks ago with fuel reserves below the safety minimum of 4.5 tons, as required by U.K. regulations, an event the official called "nothing new. It is just too bad that someone decided to report the matter to the Confidential Human Factors Program (CHFP).
