Saying his bill "is not a vendetta against the airlines," Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) joined aviation subcommittee member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) Friday in announcing plans to introduce the Airline Passenger Fairness Act, a bill they said would establish basic rights for airline passengers. Another subcommittee member, Richard Bryan (R-Nev.), became a cosponsor.
The National Mediation Board on Friday threw out a challenge by Midway Airlines that attempted to overturn a representation election at the airline by the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA). Joyce Sothoron, a flight attendant, said, "We won fair and square. Now it's time for the airline to sit down with flight attendants and bargain seriously." NMB's ruling certified AFA as the official bargaining representative for Midway cabin crew. Of 107 eligible voters, 82 cast votes for AFA.
Regional airline executives believe the next round of pilot contract talks will raise caps on regional jet growth at the majors. Atlantic Southeast Chairman George Pickett Jr. said last week he is confident that Delta will not put restrictions on the number of RJs a regional affiliate can acquire. Atlantic Coast Senior VP-Finance Paul Tate said United's pilot scope clause probably will "evolve over time" to ease the current RJ cap, and SkyWest is banking on it to increase its United Express flying.
American wants to use its seven weekly U.S.-Russia frequencies, granted for own-aircraft Chicago-Moscow service, for code-share flights with Finnair to Moscow and St. Petersburg. DOT granted American an exemption for service between points in the U.S. and Riga, Latvia, and Tallinn, Estonia, via Helsinki, and approved various reciprocal code sharing by American and Finnair, but deferred action on St. Petersburg service.
Rolls-Royce expanded repair and overhaul support for its AE3007 engines by opening a test and rework center at Rolls-Royce, East Kilbride, Scotland. The new facility is the third - and the first in Europe, after existing bases in Montreal, Canada and Sao Paulo, Brazil - certified to handle the engine, which powers Embraer RJ145, RJ135 and Citation X aircraft. East Kilbride already has test and rework capability for the Rolls-Royce AE2100 powerplant for Saab 2000 and Lockheed Martin C-130J aircraft.
Sun Country flight attendants have reached a tentative agreement on their first contract. Under the deal, the airline's nearly 400 Teamster-represented cabin crew will gain "long overdue" wage increases and defined duty time limits, said Glenn Wisser, Sun Country flight attendant. Sun Country spokeswoman Lori Barghini said ballots will be mailed Feb. 10 and are due back Feb. 26. She said the ratification vote results should be announced by March 1.
Daystar Airways d/b/a Nevis Express applied for a DOT certificate to operate scheduled interstate combination service. The airline, based in Charlestown, Nevis, West Indies, is a U.S. carrier organized under the laws of Alaska and holds an FAA operating certificate. It wants to arrange interline agreements with carriers serving St. Kitts, which requires DOT economic authority. Daystar was formed by owner Allen Haddadi to provide scheduled service between Nevis and St. Kitts, which comprise the Federation of Nevis and St. Kitts.
Travel agent commission cuts, smart regional jet financing and attractive interest rates helped Atlantic Coast Airlines - one of the nation's fastest growing and most successful regional carriers - lower its unit costs 18% year over year, ACA Senior VP-Finance and Chief Financial Officer Paul Tate said. Tate, addressing airline financial analysts and executives at the Robinson-Humphrey Regional Airline Conference this week in New York, said ACA financed its first 15 RJs using low-cost lease and debt structure.
AirTran yesterday posted another quarterly loss, this time $30.5 million in the fourth quarter, including a $27.5 million charge to write off its Boeing 737 fleet. The net loss for 1998 was $40.7 million. Both quarterly and annual deficits were improvements over earlier losses. Fourth quarter revenue jumped 50.3% to $105.7 million, and revenue more than doubled last year, to $439 million from $211 million in 1997. AirTran currently operates 10 Boeing 737s, and five of them will leave the fleet during the third and fourth quarters.
FAA ordered U.S. operators to provide shielding and separation of fuel system wiring from adjacent wiring and installation of flame arrestors and pressure relief valves in the fuel vent systems of 1,140 737s at an estimated cost of $24 million, or $21,180 per airplane. Some 2,780 737s are in the worldwide fleet. The agency said its order includes all electrical circuits associated with the control or indication of the fuel quantity on the airplane. It turned down requests to withdraw or delay the rule pending further testing.
Northwest and Malaysia Airlines agreed yesterday to a code-share and marketing alliance covering a variety of destinations. Northwest will become the only U.S. airline to fly to Kuala Lumpur Feb. 25, when it begins three weekly DC-10 flights from Detroit via Osaka. MAS operates Los Angeles-Kuala Lumpur via both Tokyo and Taipei, and it serves the unique Kuala Lumpur-Dubai-Newark routing. The two carriers will merge frequent flyer programs and airport lounges and initiate joint marketing and sales programs.
Atlanta-based Atlantic Southeast Airlines last year earned a record net income of $66.1 million, or $2.22 per share - up 21.3% and 22.7%, respectively, from the comparable 1997 figures of $54.5 million and $1.81 per share. Total revenues for the year rose 6.4% to $409.9 million as traffic improved 12.6% to 1.04 billion revenue passenger miles and yield dropped 5.9% to 38.5 cents per revenue passenger mile. Quarter Quarter 12 Mths 12 Mths
Price of jet fuel in the U.S. has averaged 33 cents per gallon during the past two weeks, according to BT Alex Brown. Although prices rose 5.5% from the beginning of this week, the rates during the past two weeks are down 33% year-over-year.
Stock prices for eight publicly held regional airlines jumped 9.2% to $21.34 per share on Jan. 29 - up from an average of $19.54 per share at the December close. The average hit a high for the month of $22.14 per share on Jan 19 and a low of $19.70 on Jan. 4. The big gainer was United Express Atlantic Coast Airlines with a $6.38 increase, or 25.5%, from $25 to $31.38 per share. The next big gainer was United Express/Delta Connection SkyWest, up 10.3% to $36.06 after a high for the month of $38 Jan. 19. Delta Connection Comair climbed 33.8% to $36.69 per share.
American Eagle Airlines posted a 7.6% increase in systemwide traffic on 0.3% more capacity for January 1999, compared with the same month in 1998, boosting the load factor 3.9 percentage points to 57.7%. American Eagle systemwide flew 211.4 million revenue passenger miles and 366.6 million available seat miles. Passengers boarded grew 3.1% to 968,279.
The Associations of Star Alliance Pilots (ASAP) leadership will meet in Copenhagen in June to vote on establishing a working group that will meet frequently to address pilot and industry concerns in a timely fashion. ASAP, meeting last month in Toronto, agreed to consider creating the group, which would prepare meeting agendas and report on issues important to pilots at the nine ASAP member airlines - United, Lufthansa, SAS, Varig, Thai Airways, Ansett Australia, Air New Zealand, All Nippon and Air Canada.
ALPA is attempting to bridge the gap between pilots at mainline carriers and those of regional affiliates. The union's scope-clause committee concluded that "ALPA pilot groups should approach issues related to scope and affiliation from new perspectives that don't focus narrowly on the major-carrier pilots building a wall around themselves, but instead address ways to maintain flying within an airline system," the February issue of Airline Pilot states.
FAA says Indianapolis-based Chautauqua Airlines failed to follow federal drug testing regulations and proposed to fine the carrier $52,000. The proposed fine stems from FAA's Nov.
Used Regional Aircraft Transactions November 1998 Previous Carrier No. Type Engines Operator AI Cargo Carriers 1 Shorts 330 PT6A-45R Tikal Jets Air Baltic 1 Fokker 50 PW125B Maersk Air Air Europa Express 1 BAe ATP PW126 BAe AMT
KLM passenger traffic for January rose 1% on no capacity increase, which raised the load factor 0.6 percentage points to 73.5%. Cargo traffic rose 2% on 3% more capacity. Traffic to Asia grew 2% on 1% less capacity, pushing up the load factor to 75.3%. North Atlantic traffic fell 3% on 2% less capacity, and Africa's 21% traffic rise nearly matched KLM's 22% capacity increase.
Pilots at American, frustrated by the lack of progress in talks with the company concerning its acquisition of Reno Air, plan to discuss today what action to take next. Greg Overman, spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association (APA), which represents American's cockpit crew, said the union board will mull its options today in a conference call.
Phoenix, Ariz.-based Mesa Air Group this week announced several key appointments in top management, a few days after posting a $2.3 million net profit for its first fiscal quarter ended Dec. 31 - the airline's first profit in more than two years owing in part to a 45.8% plunge in unit costs. The carrier named William Kostel VP-planning; Robert Moye VP-maintenance; Kristen Brookshire director-inflight services; Rodena Turner VP-human resources; Ron Brady director-scheduling; Nancy Brockman director-communications, and Peter Hayes senior director-training.
Mercury Air Group reported that net income for its second quarter ended Dec. 31 totaled $1.8 million, down from $2 million in the same 1997 quarter. Revenues were $66.6 million, down from $68.7 million. Mercury also announced it had been comprising by a company concerning the possible acquisition of Mercury and that discussions are continuing.
New Regional Aircraft Orders And Options November 1998 Firm Orders Options Carrier No. Type No. Type Engines Air Georgian 1 Beech 1900 - - PT6A-67D Amakusa Airlines 1 DHC-8Q-100 - - PW123 American Eagle 8 EMB ERJ-145 - - AE2100A
