House Transportation Committee sources say no basic decisions have been made yet on content of the passenger bill of rights package that will go from the aviation subcommittee to the full committee, or on whether the consumer bill will go to the House floor before the AIR-21 five-year FAA reauthorization. Absence of bill-of-rights decisions and the fact that reauthorization has to clear Congress by the end of May mean AIR-21 probably will move first.
IATA, owed $32 million by Philippine Airlines, has rejected the carrier's restructuring plan and vowed not to re-admit PAL into the organization if the plan is adopted. IATA kicked PAL out of its clearinghouse last year, meaning that money paid by passengers could not be gathered and disbursed by IATA. PAL will need membership in the international body if it succeeds in its attempts to develop code-share agreements with several international airlines.
Current and retired employees of American, American Eagle, Reno and Business Express will be able to fly on the four carriers' aircraft at reduced rates on a space available basis, effective April 15.
Air Canada and code-share partner Eva Air will launch nonstop Vancouver-Taipei service June 2. Eva will operate three flights a week initially using 747 aircraft, and on July 5, Air Canada will begin three-times-weekly nonstops using A340s. The flights are scheduled for early morning arrival in Taipei to coincide with Eva's 205 weekly flights between Taipei and other Asian destinations. The service is subject to government approval.
US Airways and its Communications Workers of America unit reached a work force integration agreement Friday to bring passenger service agents at Shuttle operations into the mainline. CWA, which has been negotiating a contract on behalf of all service agents for 14 months, said it expects to reach an agreement with management soon. CWA represents about 120 ticket-counter agents and supervisors at Washington Reagan, New York LaGuardia and Boston Logan, said CWA spokesman Rick Braswell. The union also represents about 10,000 mainline passenger service employees.
American and the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents the carrier's nearly 20,000 flight attendants, reached agreement last week on merging flight attendants from Reno Air, who are represented by the Teamsters. APFA President Denise Hedges said, "We look forward to welcoming the flight attendants of Reno Air into the Association of Professional Flight Attendants. They are a dedicated, skilled group and a positive addition to our union and our company." Teamsters representing Reno's cabin crew were not available for comment Friday.
DOT approved a joint request by Northwest and Air China to carry mail between the U.S. and China. The department gave Northwest an initial two-year exemption for scheduled mail service between New York Kennedy and Beijing and Shanghai, which the U.S. carrier will operate under code share with Air China. It granted Air China indefinite-duration authority to display Northwest's code for carrying mail on flights between Beijing and Shanghai and New York and Chicago O'Hare.
Mesaba reported increases in March of 32.3% in traffic, to 116 million revenue passenger miles, and 29.1% in capacity, to 197.7 million available seat miles, which boosted the load factor 1.4 percentage points to 58.7%. Passenger boardings jumped 30.5% to 446,200. First quarter RPMs were up 27.1% and ASMs 25.1%, growing the load factor 0.8 points. Enplanements climbed 30.6%.
Although testing still is underway at the Tech Center, FAA plans to issue by mid-May a notice of proposed rulemaking on a new burn-through test for commercial aircraft.The agency will use the NPRM process to get comments on updating its rules concerning flammability related to aircraft insulation and wiring.
Raytheon and FAA signed a government/industry partnership agreement Friday to develop the Local Area Augmentation System. Competing against a Honeywell team that received a similar contract (DAILY, April 1), Raytheon will develop the LAAS ground facility in cooperation with airport and airline team members. During Stage One, a certified, public-use Category I capability will be provided for selected airports and operators participating in the program by late 2000. Stage Two will extend this capability to Category III in the following two years.
Jersey European Airways will launch daily nonstop, year-round service April 26 between Birmingham and Toulouse as part of its summer schedule. The new route reflects continued development of the airline's operations at Birmingham, where its passenger volume has increased 91% since 1997. The summer schedule provides an increase from five to six in Jersey European's daily service from Birmingham to Paris Charles de Gaulle, part of its Air France franchise, and adds a third Saturday service to Belfast City.
US Airways' Air Line Pilots Association unit Master Executive Council is meeting today and tomorrow in Washington to consider the joint negotiating committee's opener for the final merged contract for mainline and Shuttle pilots. The MEC also is considering management's request to authorize declaring 14 positions critical in April, for the fifth time in the past 12 months.
Average U.S. business fares are up 6% since last year at this time, according to BT Alex. Brown analyst Susan Donofrio. "The recent 1% business fare increase is holding," she said. "We are also starting to see some upward price movement on routes out of Los Angeles."
National Airlines, which asked DOT to allow it to market and sell its services before it receives FAA operating authority (DAILY, April 8), applied to the department for exemption from slot restrictions at Chicago O'Hare Airport for five daily operations during slot-restricted hours.
Crossair will place Swissair's code on services from 18 points in Switzerland, Germany, France and Spain that offer connections at EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg with daily flights between Basel and Newark operated jointly by Swissair and Crossair.
Women In Aviation International named Jennifer Thomas manager of communications; elected Robert Francis, National Transportation Safety Board, Renee Martin-Nagle, Airbus Industrie of North America, and Debra McFarland, Aircraft Electronics Association, to the board; re-elected Cassandra Bosco, National Business Aviation Association, Mary Ann Elff, Purdue University, and Bobbi Roe, Woman Pilot Magazine, to the board; and inducted Arlene Elliott, Gloria Heath, Anne Morrow Lindbergh and June Maule into the Pioneer Hall of Fame.
Midwest Express Holdings reported continued increases in traffic and capacity for Midwest Express and Skyway Airlines in March. Midwest Express traffic jumped 21.5% to 168.7 million revenue passenger miles, but capacity grew 23% to 257.6 million available seat miles, which pushed the load factor down 0.8 percentage points to 65.5%. Passenger boardings were up 18.4% to 185,948. Skyway flew 9.9% more RPMs, 7 million, and 2.2% more ASMs, 14.5 million, growing the load factor 3.3 points to 48.1%.
Air Lanka traffic increased 29% in March to 446.6 million revenue passenger kilometers. The airline carried 118,829 passengers, up 20.7%. Traffic increased 25.8% during the first quarter.
Central American leader Grupo TACA, which is coordinating the schedules of six regional airlines with its own (DAILY, April 9), will finalize a fleet plan this summer that improves the efficiency and safety of the six carriers. The regionals have operated with a variety of aircraft types, and TACA is consolidating to two - the workhorse 19-seat Cessna Caravan, which can fly to unimproved fields, and the larger ATR 42. TACA has created the new position of VP regional airlines, naming Mark Kuhns to the role.
Southwest has increased jet fuel hedging since prices bottomed out early this year. The airline is hedging 77% and 74% of fuel needs in the first and second quarters, compared with 30% normally. Recently, for the first time in several months, U.S. jet fuel spot prices were higher than year-earlier levels - $0.46 per gallon, up 3%.
AirLiance Materials, the venture formed last year combining the spares inventories of Star Alliance partners Air Canada, Lufthansa and United, will become the exclusive surplus parts supplier to those carriers effective May 1, AirLiance reported during Aviation Week's MRO '99 conference in Atlanta. Since September, AirLiance has held an exclusive consignment agreement for surplus parts with its partner carriers while it built infrastructue needed to become their exclusive supplier.
