Senate Commerce Committee yesterday postponed until tomorrow its planned markup of Chairman John McCain's multi-year FAA reauthorization. McCain's illness and the Senate impeachment trial of President Clinton led to three earlier postponements. The latest announcement said the change was requested by ranking Democrat Ernest Hollings (S.C.).
American's pilot job action already has cost the carrier $40-50 million in lost revenue - the same amount it would have had to pay pilots retroactively to make the December Reno Air deal conform with union contracts, according to Wall Street analysts.But the effect may be larger. "The analysis that hasn't been done is analyzing the different integration proposals," notes Sam Buttrick of PaineWeber.
FAA plans a public meeting Feb. 24 at its headquarters in Washington concerning a proposed rule on security programs of foreign carriers. The agency is acting on recommendations from the Gore Commission on Aviation Safety and Security.
FedEx will increase list rates an average 2.8% for shipments within the U.S., beginning March 15. Rates for most shipments from the U.S. to most of the 210 countries FedEx serves will remain the same, and rates for 10kg and 25kg boxes to several countries will be lowered, except to Mexico, where they will increase. The $1 residential delivery surcharge will be removed from Express Saver service. FedEx this week also unveiled the latest upgrade to its online tracking application at www.fedex.com.
Two of the three most traveled routes in the U.S. involve Hawaiian destinations and 14 routes average more than 1 million passengers a year. An analysis of DOT data for 13 months ending October 1998 shows, however, that beyond the high-passenger leisure routes, a significant number of the most heavily traveled city-pairs in the U.S. comprise airline hubs or international gateways and the hubs that feed them. The largest route remains Honolulu-Maui, which averages 150,000 passengers per month and 55 departures per day.
All Nippon Airways and Ansett Australia this week signed a code-share agreement that is a precursor to both airlines becoming Star Alliance members later this year. As of March 28, ANA and Ansett intend to code share on the daily Osaka-Brisbane-Sydney route, pending government approval. The flight is currently operated by ANA but will be replaced by Ansett-flown service with an ANA code.
The U.S. and the European Union should form a joint committee to develop a common competition policy and guidelines for alliances between U.S. and European airlines and, "if necessary, impose certain mutually agreed restrictions on existing alliances which seek to maintain antitrust immunity," Joanne Young, a partner in the law firm of Baker&Hostetler, said at this week's IATA Legal Symposium 99 in Madrid. The U.S. and the European Commission "have taken somewhat divergent paths" on international alliances, Young said. The U.S.
Orlando-based AirTran posted a 15.2% gain in traffic on 10.3% more capacity for January, compared with the same 1998 month, which boosted the load factor 2.4 percentage points to 55.7%. AirTran flew 242.4 million revenue passenger miles and 434.9 million available seat miles. Boardings grew 33.2% to 447,388.
A major trade dispute may flare up today with the expected approval by the European Parliament of an April ban on hushkitted transport jets, which U.S. officials said yesterday could cause cancellation of $1 billion in U.S. exports. The secretaries of Commerce and Transportation and the U.S. Trade Representative yesterday warned the European Union's administrative body, the European Commission, of the "profound impact that implementation of the regulation would have on U.S.-EU relations."
DOT's proposal to kill slot restrictions at three high-density airports (DAILY, Feb. 9) "makes sense in general," a City of Chicago aviation spokesman told The DAILY. It could improve access to O'Hare from smaller cities, reduce fares and enable international carriers to add service without regulatory hurdles. But "we do not foresee a big increase in takeoffs" regardless of the slots' fate, he said, pointing to a recent forecast showing annual growth of 4.4% in passengers but only 0.7% in aircraft movements through 2012.
Mexicana has implemented a new travel agent commission structure for the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico. Computer-generated tickets earn an 8% commission, while hand-written tickets receive 7%. The airline said it will channel money saved by the cheaper structure into passenger service improvements.
Finnair took delivery of its first Airbus A321, the start of its single-aisle fleet renewal program. Finnair has 12 A320 family aircraft on order - five A319s, three A320s and four A321s, all powered by CFM56 engines.
Vanguard is introducing seasonal nonstop Pittsburgh-Myrtle Beach service with one weekly roundtrip on Saturdays April 3-Sept. 11. It also will add one-stop service to Myrtle Beach from Chicago Midway and Saturday flights from Minneapolis. Fares will start at $59 one way, based on roundtrip purchase.
FAA's fiscal 2000 budget request for facilities and equipment programs, totaling $2.3 billion, is detailed below. The proposal is 11% more than Congress appropriated for the current fiscal year, but the change varies considerably by budget category. For example, the engineering, development, test and evaluation total is down nearly 15%, from $525 million to $447 million.
Don O'Hare, who recently retired as senior VP-field services at American, has been named president of Reno Air. He replaces Joseph O'Gorman, who asked to step down when American purchased Reno.
FAA said yesterday it has reached an understanding with airlines and pilots to revise and continue land-and-hold-short operations (LAHSO) at airports while conducting a risk assessment (DAILY, Feb. 8). The agreement was achieved by FAA Director of Air Traffic Ron Morgan, Air Line Pilots Association President Duane Woerth and Air Transport Association President Carol Hallett. The revised procedures will be implemented not later than March 12 and involve runway surface and weather minima, training, visual aids, landing distance and rejected landings.
American and its pilots union, the Allied Pilots Association, resumed talks on the Reno Air acquisition yesterday afternoon, even as pilots continued a sick-out that led American to cancel 730 flights yesterday. American spokesman Tim Smith said APA initiated the talks Monday evening.
Canadian Airlines last week successfully began booking travel for Jan. 1, 2000, the carrier said, and it encountered no computer problems booking on its oneworld partners. Its web address is www.cdnair.com.
Delta is launching weekly web fares at deep discounts on tickets purchased at www.delta-air.com for weekend travel. Delta will post special fares for roundtrip travel on Wednesday, beginning today, for travel the following weekend. Delta customers soon will be able to register on Delta's web site to receive automatic electronic mail notification of special deals available from their area. Customers can specify they would like to receive e-mail notifications only when specific destinations are featured.
British Airways yesterday hit a speedbump in its ongoing efforts to cut costs and improve profitability, losing #68 million ($113 million) in the December quarter, its fiscal third. The airline achieved a higher operating margin, 4.3%, but took a charge against earnings of #117 million ($194.5 million) due to Japanese yen debt used to fund aircraft purchases. BA arranges many aircraft leases in Japan, but an 18% rise of the yen against the pound in the final three months of 1998 forced a negative re-evaluation of the airline's yen exposure.
Gemini said it is acquiring three former British Airways DC-10-30s that will be converted to freighters at Alenia's Aeronavali facility in Naples. The purchase will expand Gemini's fleet to 11 DC-10-30 freighters for lease to its customers, including Swisscargo, DHL, Air France, FedEx, Asiana and Challenge Air.
Tower Air reported a 7% increase in traffic on 7.6% more capacity for January 1999 compared with the same 1998 month, depressing the load factor 0.4 percentage points to 77%. Tower flew 396 million available seat miles and 305 million revenue passenger miles. Passengers flown gained 21.7% to 140,000, and total block hours flown declined 21.2% to 2,672.
Philippine Airlines (PAL) will increase its Cebu-Tokyo Narita flights by two to daily frequency, effective March 24. Last week, PAL boosted the flights from three to five and doubled its flights to Seoul from two weekly to four. It will increase Manila-Singapore flights from 10 to 14 on April 2 and to 17 on June 1. PAL has a strong hold on the 25,000 Filipino domestic maids traveling from Singapore.
American Chairman and Chief Executive Don Carty said yesterday he would not rule out obtaining a court order forcing pilots back to work by the Presidents Day weekend if they do not stop a job action that grounded 240 flights on Sunday and about 500 yesterday. Pilots have been calling in sick in what the Allied Pilots Association (APA) terms a "grassroots action" in response to stalled talks over the Reno Air acquisition. Pilots claim that since Dec. 23 the company has been violating APA's contract scope clause and flying a low-fare airline within the airline.
