Approved five one-year exemption renewals for AeroMexico to conduct scheduled combination service between Tijuana and Las Vegas; Merida and Orlando; Hermosillo and San Diego; Mexico City and Phoenix, and Mexico City and the co-terminal points Austin and Washington...Approved a two-year exemption renewal for Polar Air Cargo to provide scheduled foreign cargo service between the co-terminal points New York, Chicago, Anchorage, Los Angeles, Seattle and Honolulu and Manila, Philippines, via intermediate points Khabarovsk, Russia, Auckland, New Zealand, Sydney and Melbourne, Au
All Nippon Airways and China Eastern Airlines will begin the first Japan-China code share March 8 on the Osaka-Shanghai and Osaka-Qingdao-Beijing routes. The carriers signed a comprehensive alliance Nov. 13 and expect the code share to facilitate cultural and economic exchanges between Japan and China.
America West flight attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), said they will notify Arizona Valley businesses and travel agents in advance of the latest developments of CHAOS (Create Havoc Around Our System) activities against the carrier. The union, poised for CHAOS when the 30-day cooling-off period in its negotiations with America West expires, will write businesses and travel agents warning of disruptions that could begin at midnight March 19 in the absence of a tentative agreement.
Crossair, responding to growing demand at London City, has introduced a fifth daily flight to Zurich departing at 7:15 a.m. local time and arriving in the Swiss city at 9:45 a.m. The return flight, timed to depart Zurich at 8:40 p.m. and arriving at London City at 9:15 p.m., enables U.K.-based business travelers to have a full working day in Switzerland.
European Commission, pushing its members to develop the Galileo satellite navigation system, notes that U.S. Global Positioning System Block IIF satellites with a second civil frequency will be deployed over the next decade."If Europe waits, the new Block IIF will reinforce the present GPS dominance and the market will have adopted GPS as the standard. Realistically, Europe could then play only a supporting role," the commission said.
Although the U.S. market has the most mature hubs in the world, the country is "overhubbed" and would be more efficient with fewer and larger hubs, according to a Salomon Smith Barney analysis of 29 airports worldwide. Continental's hubs have the best growth potential, Northwest's are the most dominant and TWA has the industry's best gate utilization. "Continental, US Airways and United, in that order, have the greatest topline revenue potential" from their hubs, said analyst Brian Harris.
Restrictive U.S. zoning and noise laws that limit aviation operations are being outdone by "environmental zealots" of the species "homo sapiens Europa environmentalis," IATA Director General Pierre Jeanniot told the International Aviation Club last week.
"There may be a possibility that the [European Union] Council will provide more time" before adopting a ban on hushkitted aircraft, U.S. Under Secretary of State Stuart Eizenstat said Friday in Brussels after meeting with EU officials. The EU Council of Ministers is scheduled to rubberstamp a regulation on March 9 that would prevent EU carriers from adding hushkitted aircraft to their fleets after April 1.
DOT will hold a transportation safety conference tomorrow and Wednesday at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Washington. The conference, aimed at developing a national Transportation Safety Action Plan to identify strategies and technologies to reduce injuries and deaths from transportation-related accidents, features a national town hall meeting satellite teleconference.
BFGoodrich elected Laurence Chapman senior VP-finance, succeeding Chief Financial Officer Les Vinney, who elected not to move to new corporate headquarters in Charlotte, N.C., under the company's merger with Coltec Industries.
Air France canceled 6% of its flights departing Paris Charles de Gaulle and Orly airports last Thursday to facilitate planned changes in the European air space. The European air traffic control organization Eurocontrol implementing a "major reorganization of 85 upper air routes in France and Switzerland." The changes "enable a significant increase in the potential capacity of the airspace concerned," said Eurocontrol, which warned that certain parts of the French and Swiss airspace would be limited (DAILY, Feb. 25).
Pratt&Whitney has acquired a Boeing 720 that will be converted into a flying test bed for its new PW6000 engine, which would power the proposed Airbus A318 100-passenger airplane. The engine, rated at 16,000-24,000 pounds thrust, will replace one of the aircraft's four original P&W JT3D engines.
Airlines waiting for Japan to fuel Asia's economic recovery will have to wait longer. The Japan Center for Economic Research forecasts a 0.5% gross domestic product decline for January-March, the sixth straight quarterly drop. Preliminary data for 1998 show a 2.5% decrease.
Turkish Airlines received an initial one-year exemption to conduct scheduled foreign combination service between Turkey and Miami via intermediate points Amsterdam and Brussels. The carrier may co-terminalize its service to Miami with its existing authority to serve New York and Chicago. Turkish Airlines told DOT it plans to apply to amend its foreign air carrier permit to include Miami (DAILY, Jan. 28). (Docket OST-99-5039)
National Air Transportation Association petitioned FAA for an exemption from certain weather-reporting requirements to give on-demand air charter access to more than 1,000 U.S. airports. NATA seeks the ability for its Part 135 on-demand air charter members to conduct flights in turbine- powered aircraft without meeting certain provisions of the rule governing weather-reporting requirements. NATA wants pilots to be able to conduct instrument flights under Part 135 without an approved weather source at the intended airport.
Ryanair, Ireland's low-fare carrier, should grow its earnings 20%-25% over the next few years as it acquires 25 new 189-seat 737-800s, according to Robinson-Humphrey Managing Director James Parker. The aircraft will come in at five per year through 2003. Earnings growth will be enhanced further as ownership costs drop to zero on Ryanair's 21 used 737-200s, which will be fully depreciated between 2000 and 2003. The aircraft probably will remain in service at least through 2005, Parker predicts.
Four major alliances - Star, oneworld, KLM/Northwest and Delta/Swissair - have 52% of worldwide airline revenues but 73% of the profits, says Austrian's alliance chief, Paul Paflik. Within Europe, Star, British Airways/Iberia and Qualiflyer each has a 20% share of traffic. KLM/Alitalia has 13% and uncommitted Air France 7%.
Nav Canada will propose its modern oceanic automation technology to help FAA update aging equipment at New York, Oakland and Anchorage. Nav Canada says that over the years, the Gander automated air traffic system has been "continually modernized to detect long-range conflicts and to reduce controller workload."
