Air France began its second daily Chicago-Paris nonstop yesterday, with connections to 65 cities in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The second daily flight is operated with Boeing 767s configured for 26 business and 185 economy seats. The original flight uses a 777.
The 747 United is removing from its Los Angeles-Osaka route in June will be rotated among its major hub markets, such as Washington Dulles-Los Angeles or Chicago-Denver, said Senior VP-Governmental, Regulatory and International Affairs Shelley Longmuir.United's flight attendants are miffed that the company did not tell them it would terminate the route or where it planned to use the aircraft, and they remain concerned about the impact the change will have on Japan-based cabin crew.
KLM will begin service between Amsterdam and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on June 16 with two weekly flights via Jeddah. The capacity will come from KLM's Amsterdam-Sana, Yemen, route, which KLM will cancel, effective June 15. The Sana route experienced a "sharp decline" in traffic and revenue and "high costs beyond KLM's control," the carrier said.
Thornton Arnold "T" Wilson, former Boeing chairman and chief executive, died in his sleep April 10 at his home in Palm Springs, Calif. He was 78. Wilson, who retired in 1987 after 42 years with Boeing, was part of the team that developed the B-47 swept-wing jet bomber.
The Air Force, Raytheon and FAA this week began the third and final increment of system acceptance testing for the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS), including the full service and emergency service elements (DAILY, April 7). Previous SAT increments were tested successfully last September and January at Raytheon's Marlborough, Mass., facility. STARS is a joint FAA/Defense Department program to replace aging terminal area air traffic control automation systems at 331 FAA and DOD terminal radar approach control and tower facilities.
General Electric said its new CT7-8 turboshaft engine is undergoing testing for certification by FAA at the National Research Council in Ottawa, Canada. The Canadian Transport Authority was delegated by FAA to oversee foreign object, ice and water ingestion tests.
FAA yesterday ordered airlines to improve their inspections of the turbofan engines in use on almost all today's jet transports. The agency told airlines to do "enhanced" inspections of critical life-limited parts. The airlines also must include the enhanced inspections in their continuous airworthiness maintenance programs. FAA said the airworthiness directives were prompted by its study of "in-service events involving uncontained failures of critical rotating engine parts that indicated the need for improved inspections."
Association of European Airlines Traffic February 1999 February 1999 Passenger Data % % Pts. RPKs Change ASKs Change Load Change (Mil) 99/98 (Mil) 99/98 Factor 99/98 EUROPE 8,122.6 6.0 14,020.3 4.0 57.9 1.1
US Airways' service between Boston Logan and Washington Reagan will be operated by US Airways Shuttle. The DAILY April 13 incorrectly said the operator would be US Airways' low-fare carrier, MetroJet.
Travelocity.ca, recently introduced in Canada, offers features tailored to the Canadian market including Canadian news and information, such as fare sales, rail schedules and traveler advice; popular vacation spots for Canadian travelers; pricing in Canadian dollars and local ticket fulfillment, and bilingual customer support 24 hours a day.
Southwest gave out 927,000 free travel awards last year, up nearly 19% from the 782,000 given in 1997 and up 88% from the 494,000 in 1996. During the same period - 1996-98 - Southwest's revenue increased 22%.
Boeing Commercial said it will digitize all principal maintenance manuals so they can be accessed on compact disks. Maintenance documents traditionally are published on paper and microfilm. Tom Schick, executive VP, said, "We will offer this new digital tool for all Boeing and Douglas-built airplane models to help our customers streamline their maintenance processes." Compact disks will hold what are now multi-volume, loose-leaf binders that take up many feet of shelf space.
DOT granted Delta an initial two-year exemption to provide scheduled combination service between any points in the U.S. and any points in the U.K. except London Heathrow and Gatwick airports. Delta told DOT it is expanding its U.S.-U.K. third-country, code-share service with Air France and plans initially to display its designator code on Air France flights between Paris and Birmingham. (Docket OST-99-5391)
China Airlines' board voted officially to confirm Sandy K.Y. Liu as the company's president. Liu has been acting president for five months, and Chairman H.I. Chiang said he has "worked hard and performed admirably in the difficult environment brought on by the Asian financial turmoil and the devaluation of the local currency." As acting president, Liu was instrumental in implementing CAL's fleet renewal and simplification project, which seeks to increase efficiency and operating profits by reducing the number of aircraft types in CAL's fleet from seven to five.
Delta's summer schedule will include more long-haul flights between Atlanta and the western U.S. and new Canadair Regional Jet service by Atlantic Southeast to the Southeast and Islip, N.Y. Delta will increase Atlanta flights by one per day to Denver and San Antonio beginning June 1, San Francisco July 1 and San Diego July 15, bringing Denver and San Francisco service to seven roundtrips per day apiece, San Antonio to six departures and seven returns to Atlanta, and San Diego to four departures and five returns.
American Trans Air is forecasting that its military revenues for fiscal 2000 will increase 60% over the current fiscal year, to $200 million. The increase in military business is part of a strategy to "improve our presence in the military market and in turn to take full advantage of our new long-range capabilities resulting from the acquisition of L-1011-500s," said Chief Executive John Tague. He also intends to shift the company's revenue to sources "less sensitive to economic cycles and fuel prices."
Comair will expand nonstop jet service from its Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky hub to 11 cities with the start of its summer schedule. The Delta Connection carrier will add one roundtrip jet flight on June 1 to Bangor, Maine, for a total of four daily flights, and to Columbia, S.C., for a total of six. Houston Hobby will have daily service and Sarasota/Brandon, Fla., will have daily seasonal flights.
MetroJet will expand service between Boston Logan Airport and Washington Reagan on July 9, offering hourly flights each weekday between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. The current hourly service between Dulles and both Boston and New York LaGuardia will become part of the US Airways Shuttle in the next few months. MetroJet also will add four daily nonstop roundtrip Atlanta-Raleigh/Durham flights beginning Oct. 2. MetroJet has seven other flights between Atlanta and Dulles.
Midway converted three Canadair Regional Jet options to firm orders valued at $65 million. Its firm orders total 26 CRJs, 12 of which have been delivered.
The U.K.'s Swanwick air traffic control center passed its technical transfer milestone at the end of March, slightly ahead of schedules published last year, National Air Traffic Services reported. The facility has been turned over to engineers for integration into NATS's operational systems, including radar, flight data processing and communications. This will take more than a year.
Frontier reported March increases of 36% in traffic, to 164.3 million revenue passenger miles, and 29.3% in capacity, to 259.6 million available seat miles, boosting the load factor 3.1 percentage points to 63.3%. Passengers flown grew 37% to 187,520. Year-to-date RPMs climbed 34.9% and ASMs 30.6%, pushing the load factor up 1.8 points to 58.9%. Enplanements were up 36%.
Singapore Airlines will join the Star Alliance, "it's just a matter of when," according to a source at one of the current member airlines. Star Alliance carriers will meet May 2 in Sydney, and at recent meetings, they have chosen new members.
AirTran will add a fifth nonstop flight between Jacksonville, Fla., and Atlanta and a fourth nonstop between the Piedmont Triad, Greensboro/High Point/Winston-Salem, and Atlanta on May 16. Fares in both markets start at $49 one way.
