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."
Sabena Group reported a surge in revenue last year and a pre-tax profit that jumped to 2.7 billion Belgian francs (US$73.2 million), four times the 1997 earnings. The group showed net earnings of BEF703 million ($20 million), versus a loss of BEF2.5 billion ($70 million) a year earlier. The airline operations of Sabena Group had a better net profit of BEF1.26 billion ($34.5 million). Revenue swelled 21% to BEF86.8 billion ($2.4 billion).
...ASA reliability has improved over recent months, a company spokesman tells The DAILY, which reported a cancellation rate at Chattanooga of as much as 20% (DAILY, Feb. 19). Since August the dispatch rate has averaged 98% with a high of 100% in October and a low of 96.4% in January, he said, noting that earlier in the year for perhaps one month it could have been that high. The attrition rate for mechanics in early 1998 was quite high, the spokesman added. Delta agreed to acquire the 72% of ASA it does not own for $34 per share.
Airline stocks will "remain turbulent" this year unless carriers reduce capacity growth in the second half of 1999, said BT Alex Brown analyst Susan Donofrio.While some stocks, including regionals, have their own success stories, Donofrio's expected 8.2% third quarter and 5.5% fourth quarter capacity increases cloud this year's outlook.
DHL Taiwan projects a 5% increase in express parcel revenues this year. The company reported air express revenues of NT$466 million for 1998, down 19.2% from 1997. Air cargo volume also fell last year, by 0.5%.
DOT Special Counsel Steven Okun will leave the department to handle international affairs for United Parcel Service in Washington, D.C. He will remain at DOT for the next few months at Secretary Rodney Slater's request as deputy general counsel to continue work on aviation competition and consumer matters.
American Eagle launched jet service between Long Island MacArthur Airport and Chicago O'Hare. American Eagle is augmenting American Airlines' two existing roundtrip flights by operating the two new flights with 50-passenger ERJ-145 jets, for a total of four Long Island-Chicago roundtrips.
All Nippon Airways yesterday made several difficult decisions to strengthen the airline long-term and improve its challenging 1999 outlook. Japan's largest airline will retire some aircraft early, reduce frequencies on eight international routes, end service to three international destinations, restructure five domestic routes and abandon three others. ANA will start service to several destinations, including Tokyo-Chicago in April and Tokyo-Shanghai this summer, and will put smaller aircraft on some routes because of lower traffic.
European Commission official Hugo Paemen said David Aaron, under secretary of Commerce, misled the Senate when he told a Finance Committee hearing that when the hushkit rule goes into effect, "literally hundreds of U.S. aircraft could no longer be used" (DAILY, Feb. 19). Paemen, in a Feb. 24 letter to Aaron, said the response "clearly left the committee with the incorrect impression that the regulation would interrupt current operations into the territory of the EU."
Regional air carriers posted an average load factor of 50.1% during January, based on a sampling of 16 of the nation's largest regional airlines. That was an improvement of 1.8 percentage points over the year-ago period's 48.4%. United Express Air Wisconsin was the only carrier to top the 60% level - barely at 60.6%. Six of the carriers had load factors in the 50% to 59% range and nine were in the 40s. The largest increase was again posted by Air Wisconsin at nearly 7.9 points. Continental Express was closely behind with a 7.3-point jump to 54.8%.
