Qantas received a strong ratings endorsement from Standard&Poor's for the airline's upcoming A$700 million debt securities program. Even though 30% of its capacity goes to Asia, Qantas posted record profits for the second half of 1998. "Qantas has minimized the adverse financial impacts through its rapid response, including significant capacity redistribution, ongoing cost savings and efficiency initiatives," S&P said.
Air France has reaffirmed its intention to operate its regular daily Concorde service between Paris and New York after the U.S. House vote to ban the noisy aircraft if the European Union enacts its new noise rules. Air France said it is confident a "diplomatic solution" will be reached.
Summary of U.S. Major Carriers International Traffic September 1998 Revenue Average Revenue Passengers Length of Passenger Enplaned % Travel Miles % (000) Change (Miles) (000) Change Alaska 42 23.92 1,121 46,703 28.01
United and Northwest, anticipating a flight attendant job action at America West, are making some walkup fares non-refundable. United is taking the action in about 50 major markets, mainly in Phoenix, Las Vegas and Columbus, Ohio, where it competes with America West. United spokesman Joe Hopkins said the company is trying to prevent speculative booking by America West customers who are worried about a possible flight attendant strike. The fares are non-refundable March 18 through April 11. A Northwest spokeswoman confirmed that her carrier followed United's lead.
Jet fuel prices increased 4.8% since late February to 34 cents per gallon last week, according to BT Alex Brown. The price is down 25% from a year earlier.
Summary of U.S. Major Carriers Domestic Traffic September 1998 Revenue Average Revenue Passengers Length of Passenger Enplaned % Travel Miles % (000) Change (Miles) (000) Change Alaska 1,026 10.33 848 870,338 13.20
Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) expressed support yesterday for attempts by industry to permit the Boeing 777 to fly as much as 207 minutes from a suitable landing site, up 15% from the current extended-range twin-engine operations (ETOPS) limit of 180 minutes. ALPA officials said they are "concerned by a last-minute effort by one or two unaffiliated pilot groups to derail the carefully crafted agreement." ALPA said that, like the Independent Association of Continental Pilots, it too has placed conditions on the extension.
Summary of U.S. National Carriers Systemwide Traffic August 1998 Revenue Average Revenue Passengers Length of Passenger Enplaned % Travel Miles % (000) Change (Miles) (000) Change AirTran Airlines 520 474.16 577 300,306 279.31
-- H.R.780 - introduced Feb. 23 by Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) - a bill to establish consumer protections for airline passengers and for other purposes. Referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. -- .R.790 - introduced Feb. 23 by Rep. Vito Fosella (R-N.Y.) - a bill to require FAA to address the aircraft noise problems of Staten Island, N.Y. Transportation and Infrastructure.
General Accounting Office's new report on airfares and service quality says rising prices in key markets result from major hub domination and lack of access for competition. The report, Airline Deregulation - Changes in Airfares, Service Quality and Barriers To Entry, was requested by Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.), Senate Commerce aviation subcommittee chairman Slade Gorton (R-Wash.), ranking House Transportation aviation subcommittee member William Lipinski (D-Ill.) and subcommittee member Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.).
Frank Lautenberg (N.J.) , ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations transportation subcommittee, says airline delays reached the highest level for any month within the last four years last June - almost 40,000 flight delays of 15 minutes or more. In the New York/New Jersey region, congestion and traffic growth have caused Newark to be ranked "once again as the most delayed airport" in the U.S., he told DOT Secretary Rodney Slater at a hearing last week.
Colography Group forecasts an 11.5% increase in air freight this year but cautions that higher demand will not translate automatically into profit for carriers. "Overcapacity will compress carrier margins, but it will be good news for buyers of air freight services," it says.
Detroit-based ProAir, which made headlines last year by signing multi-million-dollar deals with GM and Chrysler (DAILY, June 12, 1998), is getting ready to announce more corporate agreements and hopes to go public this year, Chairman and Chief Executive Kevin Stamper told The DAILY. He said some of the agreements are with "major" companies that are slightly smaller than GM or Chrysler, and not all of them want their names made public. He said the five-year deals are structured like the GM and Chrysler agreements, with unlimited travel for a fixed monthly fee.
Boeing lost about $1 million per airplane during 1998, Paul Nisbet of JSA Research, Newport, R.I., estimated after analyzing data published by Boeing following a recent reorganization of its commercial aircraft business. Boeing divided its commercial operations into narrowbody aircraft, widebody aircraft and customer services units, and customer services was said to bring in $4 billion per year in revenue. With that much removed from total commercial revenue, the segment had $31.5 billion in sales for 559 airplanes delivered in 1998.
United traffic for February increased 7.5% on 2.9% more capacity, forcing the load factor up 2.9 percentage points to 68%. Domestic traffic increased 9.8% on 5.9% more capacity, which raised the load factor 2.3 points to 67.9%. The airline reduced Pacific capacity 10.5% year-over-year but traffic dropped only 3%, resulting in a load factor increase of 5.6 points to 71.4%. February was the eighth consecutive month of year-over-year load factor increases in the Pacific.
FAA - In Federal Register dated Jan. 26...Revised a proposed airworthiness directive on Dornier 328 aircraft concerning inspections of various control cables.
FAA, which planned to issue a proposal this month for certifying airport screening companies, has postponed the milestone until the end of the year in order to field-test and validate the Threat Image Project, intended to be the basis for monitoring the companies, according to the General Accounting Office. This will delay a final rule until March 2000, about a year later than previously estimated, GAO says.
Alaska Airlines has the highest percentage of local traffic among U.S. major airlines, 93.2%, followed by Continental, 81.6%, and United, 77.8%, according to Salomon Smith Barney.Only 6.8% of Alaska's passengers connect through hubs in Seattle, Portland and Anchorage, versus the 33.1% industry hub average. Alaska has one-third less connectivity than the average of Southwest's five largest markets.
Cathay Pacific, in a competition with Singapore Airlines, won a leasing contract that will place five of Cathay's Boeing 747-300s with Pakistan International Airways for two years. The carriers signed a letter on intent last week. The five widebodies are leaving Cathay's fleet as it gets new aircraft, ensuring that the Hong Kong carrier will not add massive amounts of capacity to a shaky regional market. After the transaction is completed, Cathay will have secured homes for nine of 13 surplus 747s in its fleet at a time when little demand exists for used 747s.
DOT told U.S. carriers to notify it of U.S.-Russia charter services they plan to operate during the 1999 charter year so that the department may issue a notice of consistency, needed for applications to Russia, to each carrier with firm charter flight or program arrangements. DOT reminded carriers that applications to Russia are required and are subject to country-of-origin rules, and it recommended that carriers wishing to operate Russia-originating flights contact Russia's Federal Aviation Authority directly.
Dobbs International Services promoted Gordon Anderson to executive VP, operations; Robert Suttie to executive VP and chief financial officer, and Robert Teutsch to executive VP, administration and legal.
