Airlines Reporting Corp. has won its legal battle with Omega World Travel. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled that Omega failed to present evidence of a violation by ARC of the Sherman Act's prohibition against contracts in restraint of trade. Omega brought the suit in 1996 in connection with TWA.
American and United told DOT they each want all 67 roundtrip Chicago-London frequencies available for the 1999 summer season, above the minimum roundtrip frequency entitlements - 886 for American and 488 for United. United wants the frequencies to operate twice-daily Chicago-London Heathrow nonstop roundtrips throughout the summer season, and add flights during June, July, August and September. It told DOT it used mostly 292-seat 777s, as well as 206-seat 767-300s, for its 1998 summer season service, achieving an overall load factor of 82%.
Swissair regional subsidiary Crossair will expand its route network this summer with the launch of new routes from EuroAirport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg to Nice, Gothenburg and Leipzig.
Minneapolis/St. Paul-based Mesaba Airlines reported a 20.5% jump in traffic on 20.1% more capacity for January 1999 compared with the same 1998 month, boosting the load factor 0.2 percentage points to 48.5%. Mesaba flew 84.1 million revenue passenger miles and 173.5 million available seat miles. The number of passengers flown increased 18.1% to 323,600.
Cincinnati-based Comair, a Delta Connection carrier, flew 162.8 million revenue passenger miles last month, up 19.3% from January 1998. Capacity climbed 16.6% to 292.3 million available seat miles, boosting the load factor 1.2 percentage points to 55.7%. The number of passengers enplaned rose 14.4% to 478,869.
Only one of the several foreigner carriers bidding for a stake in Thai Airways International's privatization exercise this year will be successful. The government has decided that the successful carrier will be offered a maximum of 12.5%, valued at 15 billion baht (US$349 million), while another 31.5% will be put up for public offering. The government, which through the finance ministry holds a 93% stake in Thai, will have its share reduced to 49% to comply with International Monetary Fund regulations.
United asked DOT for a two-year exemption to serve Windhoek, Namibia, from points in the U.S., via points in Germany, under its code-share arrangement with Lufthansa, which operates Frankfurt-Windhoek service. The service would be the first by a U.S. carrier to Namibia, which has approved the service, United told DOT. Lufthansa holds the necessary authority, and the carriers plan to begin the code-share service as soon as DOT grants the exemption request.
Helsinki's Vantaa Airport will be shut down tomorrow because of an air traffic control engineer's strike that started Feb. 1, Finnair warned yesterday. ATC engineers demand a pay increase and recently rejected a compromise proposal providing a 10%-12% raise over three years. The airport's shutdown is intended to let non-striking ATC engineers rest for a day.
The U.K. is offering all its bilateral partners what it has limited until now to the U.S., European Union members and 14 other countries - unlimited access for foreign airlines to all U.K. airports except London Heathrow and Gatwick, provided that U.K. airlines are allowed to serve each new route that results. The Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) acted in response to a July 1998 House of Commons committee recommendation on liberalization, but it stopped short of one of the panel's key points.
Phoenix-based Mesa Air Group reported a 27.7% drop in traffic last month to 75.8 million revenue passenger miles, compared with January 1998. Available seat miles dropped 21.4% to 168.4 million, depressing the load factor four percentage points to 45%. Passenger boardings declined 49.9% to 232,617.
Atlanta-based Atlantic Southeast Airlines flew 301,095 passengers in January, a 13.2% surge compared with January 1998. The carrier reported a 16.9% gain in traffic to 78.8 million revenue passenger miles as capacity grew 18.2% to 170 million available seat miles. The load factor dipped 0.6 percentage points to 46.3%.
Eastwind Airlines said its reservations system is now hosted by Sabre. The change coincides with the establish-ment of an additional reservations center at Eastwind's new corporate headquarters in Greensboro, N.C.
FAA Administrator Jane Garvey assessed air traffic control modernization cautiously yesterday before the House Transportation aviation subcommittee, but she singled out as "a problem" the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS), saying next week will be critical for the program. An FAA spokesman said current STARS testing will determine the status of the program, and this will be "critical to deciding on timing of deployment." The target, he noted, is deployment of STARS by the end of March at Washington Reagan Airport.
The Johns Hopkins study giving a green light to a Global Positioning System-based sole-source navigation system (DAILY, Feb. 1) is coming under criticism from outside experts who question some of the logic and dismissal of risks in the report. One writes:
FAA will host an international airport technology conference April 11-14 in Atlantic City, N.J. The FAA Worldwide Airport Technology Transfer Conference and Exposition at the Tropicana Hotel, expected to attract more than 700 participants, is designed to bring together the aviation and research communities to interact and exchange information for safer and more efficient airport operation. Participants will be able to tour the Technical Center, including the new National Airport Pavement Test Facility and the Full-Scale Fire Test Facility.
AeroVIP, a new carrier operating as Aerolineas Argentinas Express, will begin service with three Jetstream 32s March 15 from its Cordoba hub, British Aerospace announced. BAe Asset Management and AeroVIP signed a lease agreement for four aircraft for delivery this spring. The carrier has options on two more J32s. AeroVIP will grow its Cordoba hub to 134 weekly roundtrips with an average distance of 267 miles, BAe said. The service pattern will include flights to Rosaria, Resistencia, La Rioja, Catamarca, Santiago del Estero, San Luis and Santa Fe.
Atlanta-based Atlantic Southeast Airlines will introduce jet service in two new markets and increase jet service in four other markets from Atlanta in April and May.
Boeing is exhibiting a cross-section mockup of the 717 at AeroExpo Acapulco '99. Rolf Sellge, director of 717 product marketing, said the aircraft is "ideally suited for Latin America's regional markets." He said the 717 is the "only new 100-seat passenger jet now in production and has a head-start of at least four years on any potential competitor."
DOT issued an order tentatively selecting Delta, Northwest and United for three U.S.-Romania third-country code-share opportunities available April 1, and tapped Continental, the unsuccessful applicant for the April designations, for a fourth code share that becomes available Nov. 1. The department said earlier it would solicit applications for the November opportunity separately (DAILY, Sept. 17, 1998), and is notifying U.S. carriers operating large aircraft of its decision to provide them the opportunity to file competing applications for the fourth designation.
FAA yesterday issued its final policy statement on airport revenue diversion, reaffirming permission to spend revenue on certain ground-access projects and adding a new section clarifying policy on the need to maintain a fee structure "that makes the airport as self-sustaining as possible." Airports receiving Airport Improvement Program grants must agree to use revenues generated by the airport on capital, operating and system costs directly related to air transportation.
Continental said a General Accounting Office report to Congress that the Northwest-Continental alliance may decrease competition in some markets and could harm customers does not consider changes made in the alliance and the structure of Northwest's investments, "which were made to ensure the competitive independence of the carriers" (DAILY, Feb. 9).
Raleigh/Durham-based Midway posted a 4.6% gain in traffic on 0.2% less capacity for January 1999, compared with the same 1998 month, which boosted the load factor 2.6 percentage points to 58%. The airline flew 69.8 million revenue passenger miles and 120.3 million available seat miles. Boardings grew 8.9% to 139,600.
A U.S. District Court judge yesterday ordered American's pilots back to work after five days of a sick-out that forced the airline to cancel more than 1,500 flights and stranded about 200,000 passengers. Pilots have been calling in sick to protest the pace of negotiations for integrating Reno Air operations into American's.
The European Parliament gave the go-ahead yesterday in Strasbourg to a European Union plan to phase out hushkitted aircraft. The approval was "a mere formality," said a Parliament spokeswoman. The EU's new legislation on hushkitted aircraft is scheduled for formal adoption during the EU's transport ministers meeting March 29 at the latest. The regulation provides that starting April 1, the EU's hushkitted fleet will be frozen, meaning no hushkitted aircraft can be added to EU aircraft registers after that date.
