DOT's insistence that Brad Mims, assistant secretary for aviation and international affairs, give an uninvited political speech at a recent Flight Safety Foundation meeting in Capetown, South Africa, is causing worldwide concern. Mims, in effect, ordered attendees to support DOT Secretary Rodney Slater's Safe Skies Africa campaign. Ordinarily, FSF speakers are approved by a panel. Mims's wife Ava, head of aircraft maintenance for Flight Standards Division at FAA, had been invited to the meeting.
ICAO, acting swiftly following endorsement last October of a universal safety oversight audit, has reported positively on an assessment of the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority's (CAA) safety oversight system. The ICAO assessment focused on personnel licensing, flight operations and airworthiness of aircraft. The objective was to assess the implementation of the safety-related Standards an Recommended Practices (SARPS) and associated procedures in those three areas as described in the Chicago Convention.
Bombardier said Robert Brown has been named president and chief executive, effective Feb. 1, succeeding Laurent Baudoin. Baudoin, 60, who has headed Bombardier since 1966, will continue to oversee long-term operations of the corporation as executive chairman and president of the executive committee. Brown, 53, joined the company in 1987 as VP corporate development; he became president of Canadair in 1989, and later was named president and chief operating officer of Bombardier Aerospace.
TWA, which has cut capacity and seen traffic fall 2.4% so far this year, has shrunk since deregulation, while competitors have blossomed. TWA flew 28.3 billion revenue passenger miles in 1978 and only 25.1 billion in 1997. Its market share plunged from 12.1% to 4.1% last year. Since deregulation, United has grown from 41.4 billion RPMs to 121.3 billion; American from 29.4 billion to 107 billion, and Delta, taking advantage of the demise of Pan Am and Eastern, grew from 23.5 billion to 99.7 billion last year.
ATR hopes to launch a family of regional jets of between 60 and 95 seats and is talking with possible partners in the program, including Fairchild Dornier, Casa of Spain and Embraer of Brazil, The DAILY has learned. Under the plan, which could be announced by the end of this year or early next year, ATR - itself a partnership consisting of Aerospatiale of France and Alenia of Italy - would hold 50% of any RJ partnership and the other half would consist of one, or possibly two of the other prospective partners.
United Express affiliate Atlantic Coast Airlines will use Miami Airport-based Pan Am International Flight Academy to train pilots on simulators for the carrier's Canadair RJ 200s under a recently signed contract. The 10-year exclusive contract also calls for PAIFA to develop a 30,000-square-foot training complex near ACA headquarters in Loudoun County, Va., that would be completed during the fourth quarter of next year.
Embraer Chief Executive Mauricio Botelho, commenting this week on the Canada-Brazil dispute before the World Trade Organization over subsidies, said the Canadian case against Embraer was an attempt to restrain access of a developing country with high-technology products into the world marketplace. Canada's subsidies for the Bombardier CRJ range from $5.5 million to $6.5 million per unit, he said, compared with the Brazil ProEx program subsidy of $2.5 million per aircraft. He said the ERJ-145 weighs two tons less than the CRJ and costs less to buy and operate.
Airlines Reporting Corp. said total travel agent sales increased 1% to $5.5 billion in November 1998 from November last year. Domestic fares rose 1% to $3.5 billion, and international fares remained even at $1.5 billion. Domestic commissions declined 3% to $231.8 million, while international commissions rose 12% to $235.1 million. Credit card billings gained 1% to $4.5 billion. Electronic tickets accounted for 30.96% of total ticket sales.
United continues to show a profit on its Taiwan operations despite economic woes besetting much of the Asian region and a sharp downturn in passengers volume on transpacific routes. Although passenger volume between Taiwan and the U.S. has fallen nearly 15% from year-earlier levels, United continues to enjoy a load factor of more than 50% thanks to its 55% market share on the Taipei-San Francisco route. The company's bottom line also is helped by its highly profitable Taipei-Okinawa cargo service.
Cathay Pacific is introducing new branded inflight amenity kits for first- and business-class passengers on long-haul flights. The kits, created exclusively for Cathay by Crabtree&Evelyn, will contain a different line of products on inbound and outbound Hong Kong flights. The men's kit, in a navy blue bag, contains lip balm, shaving cream, moisturizing lotion, socks, eye shade, toothbrush, toothpaste, razor and ear plugs.
Atlantic Coast Airlines this week announced a new flight schedule beginning Jan. 31 that will mean more regional jet service to four markets and increased frequencies in five cities. ACA will upgrade its hourly scheduled Dulles-Raleigh/Durham, N.C., by offering five of its current 15 daily departures on 50-seat Canadair Regional Jets and adding one frequency. ACA currently offers three jet flights on that route. The new service will bring to 16 its total daily Dulles-Raleigh/Durham flights.
Rep. John Ensign (R-Nev.) has conceded defeat to Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in their close Senate race last month because an ongoing recount in Washoe County, the most populous Nevada county, shows him cutting only marginally into Reid's lead. Reid is a member of the Senate Appropriations transportation subcommittee. Ensign told The Las Vegas Review-Journal that he "didn't win enough [votes] in Washoe County to turn this over." He trimmed Reid's 401-vote lead to 379 votes, based on completed recounts in all other counties.
Vanguard Airlines is offering a special fare for the holidays, starting at $29 for nonstop flights, $49 for one-stops and $69 for two-stops. Travlers must make reservations by today for travel through Jan. 5.
Indianapolis-based Chautauqua Airlines, a US Airways Express carrier, flew 14.7% more traffic on 11.5% more capacity in November 1998 than in November last year, causing the load factor to climb 1.1 percentage points to 51.1%. Chautauqua reported 13.8 million revenue passenger miles and 27.1 million available seat miles. Passengers flown grew 14.7% to 62,786. Nov. 1998 Nov. 1997 11 Mths 1998 11 Mths 1997 RPMs 13,837,600 12,067,600 154,979,000 141,811,100
Frank Lanza, chairman and chief executive of L-3 Communications Holding, and Joe Paresi, president of L-3 Communications Security Systems, discuss aviation security issues, and new explosives detection system technology on Aviation News Today, to air Sunday on Washington's NewsChannel 8 at 12:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
US Airways has begun installing defibrillators and electrocardiogram monitors on board its fleet. The airline selected the LIFEPAK 500 defibrillator made by Medtronic Physio-Control, which supplies defibrillator equipment to hospitals and emergency medical services providers. US Airways will equip its fleet with a separate ECG monitor, the Biolog 3000 hand-held made by Micromedical Industries Ltd.
U.S. Major Carriers Systemwide Share of Service Third Quarter 1998 Total Revenue Departures Alaska 45,008 America West 51,476 American 201,191 Continental 117,590 Delta 243,463 Northwest 114,770 Southwest 196,770 TWA 71,385 United 209,062
This week's TWA aircraft orders (DAILY, Dec. 10) will add three engine types from three manufacturers to the carrier's fleet.The 717-200 uses the BMW Rolls-Royce BR715 engine, the A318 launches the Pratt&Whitney PW6000 and the A320 offers the CFM International CFM56 or the International Aero Engines V2500.
Qantas will code share on British Airways' three-times-weekly roundtrip service between Sydney and London via Kuala Lumpur, beginning Dec. 10. The deal, reflecting a new aviation agreement between Australia and Malaysia, involves London departures on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, and Sydney returns on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. BA and Qantas opened a joint lounge at Kuala Lumpur's new international airport in September.
Minneapolis-based Mesaba Airlines, which operates as Northwest Airlink, reported a 46.1% jump in traffic to 99.2 million revenue passenger miles last month as capacity climbed 34.8% to 176.3 million available seat miles, pushing up the load factor up 4.4 percentage points to 56.9%. Boardings were up 44.5% to 400,300. Nov. 1998 Nov. 1997 11 Mths 1998 11 Mths 1997 RPMs 99,179,000 67,867,000 947,785,000 608,481,000 ASMs 174,325,000 129,286,000 1,698,383,000 1,118,544,000
Worldspan told DOT this week it should continue its comprehensive analysis of computer reservations system-related issues despite a petition filed Nov. 18 by the Association of Retail Travel Agents (ARTA) asking the agency to take an expedited approach. ARTA said the latest round of commission cuts spurred by United Nov. 12 imperils the existence of travel agents and asked DOT to expedite the decision-making process on its CRS rulemaking.
Europe could decide early in 1999 on its future direction and role in satellite-based radionavigation, and the U.S. appears "cautiously optimistic" that the European Union will continue to rely on the Global Positioning System or a system based on GPS. But Europe is insisting on development of an international Global Navigation Satellite System Convention on Liability, a concept the U.S. rejects.
Air France traffic for November rose 4.7% on 6.5% more capacity, which forced the load factor down 1.2 percentage points to 72.5%. Cargo traffic rose 0.2% to 442 million freight ton kilometers.
