Pilots have found 13,353 jobs so far this year, a record number that surpasses the full-year 1997 total of 11,936, according to AIR, Inc. Majors hired 3,411 pilots, nationals 4,495, jet operators 2,418 and non-jet operators 2,096. In November, 1,098 pilots found jobs. A total of 690 pilots remain on furlough, none from the major carriers.
City of Chicago, backing United for more nonstop Italy service, pointed out to DOT that its large Roman Catholic population "is immediately relevant to [the planned Vatican 2000] Jubilee traffic." City of Philadelphia noted on behalf of US Airways that nearly 46% of Italian-Americans live in Pennsylvania and contiguous states.
Continental asked DOT for an indefinite-duration exemption to provide scheduled combination service between points in the U.S. and Budapest, and to designate it for U.S.-Hungary service. The carrier needs the exemption and designation under terms of the U.S.-Hungary aviation agreement in order to sell interline services - which themselves do not require DOT approval - in Hungary and to convert and remit revenues collected in Hungary.
United's replacement of Hong Kong-Singapore with Hong Kong-Bangkok last week resulted in the displacement of 18 employees in Singapore. All were given the chance to enroll in job-placement programs, but United said the plan had limited success because of the soft economy.
American disputed Air France's assertion that the French flag carrier is not involved in slot allocation at Paris airports. "The slot allocation process in France is in fact controlled by Air France, which is wholly owned by the Government of France," American charged. The slot coordinator at Orly, where American seeks slots for 1999 summer-season Los Angeles-Paris service (DAILY, Dec. 14), is a former Air France employee who "is expected to return to Air France when he completes his assignment as coordinator," American said.
Singapore Airlines seems to be interested in acquiring a stake in new alliance partner Ansett Australia.In a seminar at the Melbourne Business School, SIA Chief Executive Cheong Choong Kong said "you can consider the enthusiasm I've been displaying over Ansett and draw your own conclusions," according to the Australian Financial Review. Financially strong SIA is investing in China Airlines and pondering a Thai Airways stake.
Air France believes its expansion capabilities are unmatched throughout Europe. With one new runway opening in 1999 at Paris Charles de Gaulle and a second in 2000, the airline "is in a unique position to have a 50% capacity increase in the next few years," said spokesman Dean Breest.
United denies that commission caps on international travel are short-changing travel agents. In a DOT filing, the carrier said the cap affects only round-trip tickets that exceed $1,250, "which are often sold for last-minute business travel and which generally do not require the level of travel agent time required to book international leisure travel."
Delta and Vail Resorts are offering ski-season deals for customers who purchase travel through Delta's www.delta-air.com web site by Dec. 31. Packages include nonstop Atlanta-Vail Eagle County flights; a day of skiing or snowboarding at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge or Keystone, and up to 1,000 bonus miles - 500 for each roundtrip booked and flown through SkyLinks and 500 more per roundtrip for using an e-ticket. Sample roundtrip fares are $274 from Atlanta, $329 from New York or Washington and $355 from Miami.
Used Jet Aircraft Deliveries September 1998 Previous Carrier # Type Engines Operator Aero Continente 1 737-200 JT8D-7B Magnicharters Aero Continente 1 737-200 JT8D-9A Pan Am AeroMexico 2 MD-82 JT8D-217C/219 Far Eastern Air Transport
Midway will initiate nonstop jet service to New Orleans and Columbia, S.C. Feb. 8 from its Raleigh-Durham hub and add one daily roundtrip to each of four current destinations - Charleston, S.C.; Hartford, Conn.; Newark, N.J., and Newburgh, N.Y. - using its 11th new Canadair Regional Jet.
Continental signed a code share and marketing agreement with Chile's Avant Airlines of Chile that builds on Continental's daily Newark-Santiago nonstop. Avant, which recently acquired National Airlines of Chile, offers 120 weekly flights from Santiago to 12 cities in Chile. It is the country's second largest airline and operates eight 737-200s. The carriers expect to begin cooperation early next year.
Like their U.S. counterparts, British travel agents put commission caps and Internet bookings high on their threat lists, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers travel agents' benchmarking survey. The survey, which queried 237 travel agents, found that only tour operators' direct sales to travelers ranked ahead of commission caps and Internet bookings as major threats facing travel agents. Commission caps, the No. 7 threat in a 1996 survey, was No. 2 this year. Internet bookings rose from No. 4 two years ago to No. 3.
American wants an exemption to operate scheduled combination service between Los Angeles and Nadi, Fiji, under code share with Air Pacific. (Docket OST-98-4915)
FAA - In Federal Register dated Dec. 14...Issued an airworthiness directive on certain Boeing 757 aircraft requiring inspection of the acoustic panels in the engine inlet...Issued an AD on Douglas MD-11 aircraft requiring inspection of the attachments on the No. 4 banjo cap...Issued an AD on Rolls-Royce Viper engines requiring inspection of the barometric flow control unit augmenter...Proposed an AD on AlliedSignal 502R engines to require an improved fan core inlet anti-ice system.
DOT - Approved an initial one-year exemption and indefinite-duration code-share authority for Northwest to conduct scheduled mail service between Honolulu/Los Angeles/Chicago/Seattle/New York/Washington, D.C./Baltimore/Dallas/Fort Worth/Miami and Sydney/Melbourne via Japan under code share with Ansett Australia, and for Ansett to display Northwest's designator code to transport mail on Ansett's scheduled flights between Japan and Sydney/Melbourne...Approved, subject to FAA-approved routings, an American Red Cross charter using a HeavyLift Volga-Dnepr An-124-100 aircraft fo
House Appropriations transportation subcommittee chairman Frank Wolf (R-Va.) scolded Air Transport Association President Carol Hallett Friday for announcing "before the debate has even begun" that one of the three core elements in ATA's 1999 legislative agenda would be to push for taking the aviation trust fund off budget. In a letter sent Friday to Hallett, Wolf noted her comment to that effect quoted Dec.
Malaysia Airlines posted a pre-tax loss of 432 million ringgit (US$114 million) for the six months ended Sept. 30, compared with a profit of RM47.3 million ($12.5 million) for the same period last year. Group revenue rose 1% to RM3.4 billion ($900 million). MAS attributed the loss to a decline in traffic on domestic and regional routes and the weak ringgit, which led to higher costs and foreign currency exchange losses. The carrier said demand in the second half of the year remains soft and price competition continues to pressure yields. On Jan.
Asia/Pacific airlines got rid of at least 96 jet aircraft with more than 100 seats during the first 10 months of 1998, according to data from carriers in the region analyzed by The DAILY. Thirteen DC-10s have been divested and more are up for sale, and 12 767s and 12 737s have left fleets in the region as well. The data do not include Boeing and Airbus orders that have been deferred or canceled. Garuda Indonesia and Philippine Airlines, which shrank their international service and returned aircraft to lessors, accounted for many of the widebody aircraft reductions.
Fedex Pilots Association leaders said Friday they believe the union's rank and file will approve the contract agreement negotiated late last week without the need for a sales campaign. Two previous tentative agreements on a first-ever FedEx contract were defeated in ratification votes, and FPA members will get a look at the new one next week. Pilots will begin receiving copies of the proposed contract Dec. 29, FPA said Friday, and a ratification vote should take place about Feb. 4. FPA's board will meet tomorrow to draw up majority and minority opinions.
