Helicopter Association International named winners of 1998 Aviation Maintenance Technician Scholarships: William Stearns, Shasta College, first place; Kyle Shelley, Purdue University, second; Jeremy Prengaman, Lane Community College, third, and Ramandeep Singh, University of New York at Farmingdale, fourth.
Austrian Airlines wanted to celebrate 10 years of transatlantic service by rolling prices back to 1988 levels on its long-haul routes. "But we found it was much more expensive then," said Paul Paflik, Austrian's director of airline alliances.
The Regional Airline Association says it plans to tell Congress the Airline Passenger Bill of Rights Act of 1999 (H.R.700), introduced recently in the House and Senate, "is an unwarranted and unjustified overreaction to isolated events which would introduce increased costs and administrative burdens." RAA said its staff will provide Congress with statements, arguments and other positions on why it does not want the bill to go forward. "We would not attribute anything we use to individual carriers unless that is desired," RAA pledged.
Northwest appointed Fay Beauchine VP-passenger sales and customer relations, Lizabeth Shultis VP-reservations sales and services, John Temple VP and general manager of subsidiary MLT and Susan Edberg managing director-international advertising and WorldPerks marketing.
Charles Hunnicutt, DOT assistant secretary for aviation and international affairs, continued last week to advocate a single, beyond-open-skies world aviation market. Speaking in Washington at a commercial aviation conference on defining global networks, Hunnicutt said multilateral structures are superior to bilateral agreements as long as competition is not restricted. Bilaterals are "grounded in public policy concerns" but limit growth and free-market development and penalize carriers and their customers.
Approved an Air Fax charter using a Skyservice Airlines A320 for one roundtrip carrying 180 passengers on a Toronto-Andrews Air Force Base, Md.-Merida, Mexico-Andrews AFB-Toronto routing, carrying the White House press corps on a presidential trip to Mexico, Feb. 14-15...Approved a Saudi Arabian Airlines charter using an MD-11 for a one-way flight carrying electronic broadcast material in a Los Angeles-Brussels-Jeddah routing Feb.
Airbus and Fokker Systemwide Aircraft Utilization Per Day Third Quarter 1998 A320-100/200 America West Northwest United Total Number of Aircraft Operated 29 59 49 137 Total Fleet Operations Departures 141 185 205 531
When the Clinton administration sent its $10.1 billion fiscal 2000 FAA budget to Congress this month it included a little-noticed request that Congress commit to $1.9 billion in advance appropriations, largely for air traffic control modernization in fiscal years 2001-2007. The advance appropriations request, spelling out administration intentions for the six fiscal years, in effect asked Congress to fence off funds in the requested amounts, a step House and Senate Appropriations committees have been reluctant to take in the past.
The massive military exercise being conducted this week along the eastern seaboard will involve the jamming of Global Positioning System (GPS) signals but "will not compromise safety," the Navy said Friday (DAILY, Feb. 19). The joint U.S.-NATO exercise, called a "navigation warfare demonstration," is being conducted by the U.S. Atlantic Command, said Navy Capt. Dave Barron. It is scheduled to start today and run through Feb. 27 and will cover the area from Jacksonville, Fla., to Atlantic City, N.J.
America West said last week it will continue seeking a contract agreement with its flight attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), although the two sides have been released into a 30-day cooling-off period that ends at midnight March 19.
After more than two weeks of disrupted flights and growing discontent among passengers and airline crews, India's federal government began a crackdown against a work-to-rule strike by more than 800 air traffic controllers. Civil aviation officials announced the firing of six controllers Friday, including senior officers of the Air Traffic Controllers Guild against whom the government also initiated criminal proceedings for disrupting airport services and endangering passengers and aircraft.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Roger Koch, former owner of Aircraft Modular Products, established the Edward W. Stimpson Endowed Scholarship Fund.
Delta's customer service levels "are now back to pre-Leadership 7.5 levels," Chief Executive Leo Mullin told The DAILY, referring to the mid-1990s cost-cutting program that wound up degrading the airline's image with travelers.
Kiwi Chairman Charles Edwards scotched rumors Friday that two aircraft returned to lessor UniBank/Fly Finance were repossessed. Edwards issued a statement saying "Kiwi returned the two aircraft...several days ago by mutual consent." He called news reports of repossession "incorrect and potentially damaging to the 550 employees of Kiwi. Of the two aircraft, only one was in operation by Kiwi.
Despite strong demand, there has been little increase in the number of new aviation mechanics over the past 10 years, according to the National Air Transportation Association. The Labor Department forecasts a need for 12,000 new mechanics a year, but the number of new certificates falls short - FAA issued fewer than 7,500 in 1997.
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The European Union Council of Ministers will formally adopt the EU legislation banning hushkitted aircraft March 9. The draft regulation will be rubberstamped, "without debate," by the EU labor ministers, who are scheduled to meet in Brussels that day, said an EU Council spokesman. Starting April 1, the rule will prevent EU airlines from adding hushkitted aircraft to their fleets.
Air-India has decided to wet-lease six Boeing aircraft from Mido Aviation of Greece for service to and from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, as part of the annual Hadj pilgrimage. Wet-lease flights using 777 and 747-200 aircraft are scheduled to begin this month and continue until sometime in April in an attempt to ensure that none of AI's normal schedule is disrupted. "In the past, we've taken flak from tour operators and passengers when aircraft on regular schedule were deployed to service the Hadj flights," a senior AI official said.
Rep. Jim Gibbons (R-Nev.), former Delta pilot, is considering running for the Nevada Senate seat that will open up next year with the retirement of Democrat Richard Bryan, a Gibbons spokesman said Friday. Former Rep. John Ensign (R), who lost a very close race last November to Nevada's other senator, Harry Reid (D), will seek the Republican nomination for the Bryan seat.
Iberia's January traffic grew 8.9% to 2.46 billion revenue passenger kilometers, and freight volume gained 1.8% to 55.9 million ton kilometers. The airline carried 1.54 million passengers, up 7.4%.
Revenue passenger miles jumped an average of nearly 28% during January for a sampling of 16 of the nation's largest regional air carriers. Average capacity, in terms of available seat miles, was up only 22.4%. Eleven of the carriers saw traffic increase by double-digit percentages, led by two United Express franchises. Air Wisconsin RPMs jumped 68.7% while capacity increased 46.8% - a 21.9-point spread. Atlantic Coast posted a 21.7-point spread with traffic up 60.9% versus a 39.2% increase in capacity.
McDonnell Douglas DC-10 Systemwide Aircraft Utilization Per Day Third Quarter 1998 DC-10-10 American United Total Number of Aircraft Operated 13 21 34 Total Fleet Operations Departures 27 67 94
