House Transportation Committee Chairman Bud Shuster (R-Pa.) and senior committee members introduced their FAA reauthorization bill yesterday, saying it would improve air safety, increase airline competition and unlock the aviation trust funds to finance a safer, more efficient system. In some respects, Shuster's bill is similar to the Senate Commerce Committee's reauthorization, approved under the direction of Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.).
A class action suit filed at the U.S. District Court for Arizona charges America West, certain executives, directors and shareholders with illegally inflating the airline's stock price last year while insiders sold 97% of the shares they owned over a 90-day period. The suit, filed by Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes&Lerach on behalf of America West share purchasers, alleges that false statements about the carrier pushed shares to an all-time high, 31 5/16, last April 21.
AirTran has introduced Net Escapes, promotional fares offered exclusively on its web site that provide deep discounts to different destinations each week. Tickets must be booked on the AirTran web site at www.airtran.com. Sample one-way fares currently offered include Atlanta-Knoxville, $39; Washington Dulles-Chicago Midway, $59, and New York LaGuardia-Savannah, $89, valid March 6-25 for travel on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
World Airways has reached an agreement with Premier Cruises to provide roundtrip passenger flight service once a week on Sunday evenings between New York Kennedy and El Pratt Airport in Barcelona. The contract calls for World to provide and operate MD-11 aircraft to transport passengers to and from cruises on the Mediterranean on Premier Cruises' Rembrandt ship. The agreement runs May 23-Oct. 18.
Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) yesterday renewed its call for FAA to require cargo airlines to equip their aircraft with Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance Systems (TCAS). ALPA repeated its proposal "in the wake of yesterday's [Tuesday's] near-midair collision between two large cargo aircraft over Kansas." The incident, involving a FedEx DC-10 and an American International Airways L-1011 flying at 33,000 feet about 30 miles west of Salina, Kan., is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Dragonair today will expand service from Hong Kong to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to three flights per week because of increasing demand on the route. Also this month, the airline will increase to four times daily the flights it offers on the Hong Kong-Shanghai route.
National Transportation Safety Board said yesterday it will hold a public meeting March 23 on a draft final report of its investigation into the USAir 737 crash near Pittsburgh. The hearing will be at the Springfield Hilton Hotel, Springfield, Va. USAir Flight 427 crashed Sept. 8, 1994, while on approach to Pittsburgh. All 132 aboard were killed.
U.S. major airlines' fleets continue to be older than fleets in Europe and Asia, but they are becoming younger as more airlines retire older jets. In a worldwide fleet study, Salomon Smith Barney found that the 10 U.S. majors had an average fleet age of 12.1 year, higher than Europe's 8.8 years and Asia/Pacific's 6.6 years. But the U.S. fleet average dropped 0.4 years from 1997. The U.S. majors had a total of 3,616 aircraft as of Dec. 31, averaging 362 aircraft per carrier, versus Europe's 199 and Asia's 70.
Polskie Porty Lotnicze (PPL), the Polish airport company, will launch a tender this year for construction of a new terminal at Warsaw's Okecie Airport. The new terminal will have an annual capacity between 6 and 7 million passengers. The existing terminal, which can handle 3.8 million passengers per year, was built by German construction group Hochtief.
Summary of U.S. National Carriers Systemwide Traffic July 1998 Revenue Average Revenue Passengers Length of Passenger Enplaned % Travel Miles % (000) Change (Miles) (000) Change AirTran Airlines 499 416.91 594 296,211 257.10
DOT should not delay making final its tentative decision selecting Delta, Northwest and United for three U.S.-Romania third-country code-share opportunities available April 1, United and Delta said in a filing, Continental's objections notwithstanding (DAILY, Feb. 24). Continental was selected in the order for authority available Nov. 1 (DAILY, Feb.
Jonathan Etherton was named to the newly created post of assistant VP-legislative affairs at the Aerospace Industries Association. He was a staff member of the Senate Armed Services committee for 14 years, said AIA President John Douglass.
Vanguard Airlines reported a 14% jump in traffic on no change in capacity for February 1999 compared with the same 1998 month, boosting the load factor 9 percentage points to 70.6%, the highest in the company's history. Vanguard flew 56.4 million revenue passenger miles and 80 million available seat miles. Passengers flown increased 18% to 121,679. Year-to-date RPMs grew 7% on 6% fewer ASMs, growing the load factor 8 points. Passengers flown climbed 12%.
The House yesterday approved by voice vote a bill that would ban the Concorde supersonic transport from operating in the U. S. if the European Parliament enacts regulations to ban most U.S.-based Stage 3 hushkitted and re-engineered aircraft. The vote is basically a political statement putting the House on record that if the European Union Council of Ministers approves draft regulations banning the addition of hushkitted aircraft, then there will be a price to pay. A companion measure has been introduced in the Senate.
SkyMall's inflight catalog will be available for three months on some British Airways transatlantic flights originating in Boston and at New York Kennedy.
Summary of U.S. Major Carriers International Traffic July 1998 Revenue Average Revenue Passengers Length of Passenger Enplaned % Travel Miles % (000) Change (Miles) (000) Change Alaska 53 22.24 1,109 59,302 27.38
National Air Traffic Controllers Association, which says it has the "singular distinction" of being the federal-sector union with the highest percentage of eligible employees as members, has declared an "open season" through March 30. Non-members can join the union without paying the initiation fee.
Virgin Atlantic has hired Internet Travel Network (ITN) to create the airline industry's first booking-capable website created specifically for a short-term promotion. The limited-time project is for U.S.-based passengers booking for any flight on Virgin to London. The airline tasked ITN to create quickly a fully functioning site that can handle real-time reservations, issue tickets, mail them to passengers and perform quality checks to ensure that the bookings are processed correctly.
Delta's acquisition of ASA Holdings has received clearance from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Delta intends to operate Atlantic Southeast Airlines as a wholly owned subsidiary.
Alaska Airlines' traffic rose 9.1% in February on 8.2% more capacity, which boosted the load factor 0.6 percentage points to 65.5%. The airline carried 950,000 passengers last month, up from 891,000 in the same 1998 period. Subsidiary Horizon Air's traffic jumped 26.6% on 25.2% more capacity, forcing the load factor to rise 0.7 points to 60.7%. Horizon carried 359,000 passengers in February, up from 289,000 in the year-earlier period.
New Air defended the absence of specific service proposals in its request for 75 New York Kennedy slots on grounds that it needs flexibility to compete as a low-fare new entrant against JFK incumbents TWA and Delta. Rebutting a rash of concerns raised by the two majors, the International Association of Machinists and the Queens Borough President, the prospective startup said it has analyzed the more than 40 potential markets it wants to serve from JFK in terms of conservative passenger forecasts, fares and frequencies.
Malaysia Airlines (MAS) is going ahead with its sale of equity stakes in three units within the airline, two of them to U.S. companies. A high-level MAS official told The DAILY that Boeing will be taking over the carrier's technical training and flight simulator departments with a 90% stake in each, and the Memphis Group is finalizing negotiations for similar equity in the materials management department, which manages spares and components worth several million dollars. The official said the selloff will strengthen the airline's cash flow.
After record traffic in January, Delta yesterday posted another record month for February, as it added more capacity throughout its system. Traffic grew 6.6% and capacity rose 4.4%, leading to a load factor of 68.3%, up 1.4 percentage points. Domestic traffic increased 6.6% on 3.2% more capacity, resulting in a load factor of 69.1%, up 2.2 points. International traffic rose 6.6% on 9.5% more capacity, lowering the load factor 1.8 points to 65.0%. Delta boarded 7.8 million passengers last month, up 4.4%.
AirTran saw a 20.1% gain in traffic on 13% more capacity for February 1999, compared with the same 1998 month, which raised the load factor 3.6 percentage points to 59.8%. AirTran reported 255.1 million revenue passenger miles and 426.7 million available seat miles. Passengers flown jumped 41% to 470,880. Year-to-date RPMs climbed 17.7% and ASMs 11.6%, boosting the load factor 2.9 points. Passengers flown surged 37.1%.
British Airways traffic for February increased 8.5% on 9.7% more capacity, reducing the passenger load factor 0.7 percentage points to 64.8%. The load factor also fell slightly in January. Premium traffic grew 1.2%, while non-premium traffic was up 10%. BA's intercontinental premium traffic was up, but Club Europe business-class traffic fell. BA noted that it was helped internationally by American's 10-day pilot sickout.
