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.
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.
