Minneapolis-based Sun Country Airlines announced Friday that it will shift gears and become a scheduled carrier effective June 1, a move that will hit crosstown rival Northwest when it is at its weakest. The 16-year-old airline operates four DC-10-15s and 11 727s in charter service, mostly to beach destinations. The Minneapolis area suffered last year as Northwest went on strike and there were few alternatives for many local passengers. Sun Country Chief Executive Bill La Macchia Jr.
With its strike behind it and a contract in place, Northwest's Air Line Pilots Association unit is getting ready to elect a new negotiating committee at the February Master Executive Council meeting. The committee needs a new chairman and two members. The union also is looking for members for its newly created alliance committee, which will focus on scope and compliance issues.
Aerospace Industries Association elected James Wilson, chairman and chief executive of Cordant Technologies, chairman of the board of governors; Daniel Burnham, president and chief executive of Raytheon Co., vice-chairman and William Ballhaus, VP-science and engineering of Lockheed Martin Corp., chairman of the AIA Technical Operations Council.
United's Air Line Pilots Association Master Executive Council, meeting this week in Honolulu, is writing to its rank and file on hot-button issues of 1998 - including industry consolidation, globalization, the midterm wage adjustment and ESOP perpetuation - and on what's coming in 1999. The meeting is expected to last all week.
Delta appointed Mauricio Cespedes Morales sales manager and Miguel Lopez Abarca sales representative in San Jose, Costa Rica, and named Maria Villagran, Lissette Cifuentes, Wendy Vindas and Christopher Haase to the sales force in Guatemala City.
Pacific LifeGroup has acquired a significant minority interest in Aviation Capital Group, a private company that has the rights to 26 aircraft at 15 airlines. Pacific LifeCorp has assets of $34 billion.
Delta applauded an announcement by President Clinton and Argentine President Carlos Menem, on an official visit to the U.S. last week, that they have instructed their respective aviation negotiators to conclude a U.S.-Argentina open-skies agreement by the end of March, according to Delta Senior VP-government affairs Scott Yohe.
All Nippon Airways announced plans to serve Tokyo-Chicago beginning April 13, pending Japanese government approval. ANA will open a sales and marketing office in Chicago to handle service by the daily nonstop 747-400, which will be equipped with 319 seats.
Alaska Airlines' decision to charge $10 for overnight delivery of paper tickets purchased directly from the carrier is one more step in the trend of moving passengers into the age of electronic tickets, airline industry analysts say. Alaska's $10 fee applies only to a small segment of tickets booked and is levied per purchase, not per ticket, said spokesman Jack Evans. The airline did not charge a delivery fee in the past. The fee does not apply to tickets purchased through travel agents, Alaska ticket offices, or other distribution channels.
Air Canada posted a 4.1% traffic gain in December, to 1.7 billion revenue passenger miles, and a 0.4% capacity increase to 2.6 billion available seat miles, boosting the load factor 2.4 percentage points to 65.7%. Domestic RPMs grew 8% to 647 million and ASMs 0.9% to 908 million, boosting the load factor 5.9 points to 71.3%. International RPMs climbed 1.9% to 1.1 billion and ASMs rose 1.1% to 1.7 billion, pushing the load factor 0.5 points to 62.7%. For the full year, systemwide RPMs increased 1.9% on 2.1% more ASMs, depressing the load factor 0.2 points.
Air Express International said fourth quarter net income will be as much as 25% lower than in the same quarter last year. Revenues are expected to drop about 6%. For the full year, AEI estimated net income will be about 5% lower and revenues about 3% lower.
-- H.R.13 - introduced by Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.) - a bill to direct the FAA administrator to implement reforms to the Liaison and Familiarization Training Program. Referred to the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. -- H.R. 99 - introduced by Rep. Bud Shuster (R-Ill.) - to extend FAA programs through Sept. 30, 1999. Approved by Transportation and Infrastructure and ordered reported.
Sabena expanded extensively last year, carrying a record 8.75 million passengers, up 27.3% and nearly triple the number in 1992. Europe's airlines average a 7.7% annual passenger increase. Despite the swelling flight count, Sabena's load factor rose 2.5 percentage points to 68.1%, while intercontinental load factors reached 71.4%. Long-haul flights carried 44.4% more passengers, compared with a 24.4% increase for European flights.
Sabreliner Corp. said its Dimension Aviation operation at Phoenix Goodyear Airport has begun a heavy maintenance check on the first of up to four FedEx DC-10s. Dimension will perform maintenance and modifications before the aircraft are converted to cargo use. Dimension has been working on DC-10 and MD-11 aircraft for FedEx at the facility under a repair station certificate held by the Douglas Products Division of Boeing.
American's frequent flyer members can now earn 10 miles for every dollar they spend with 1-800-FLOWERS. Top-tier AAdvantage members earn bonus miles with each order. Members also receive miles with purchases from 1-800-FLOWERS catalogs such as Fresh Home&Garden, Plow and Hearth and American Country Home.
Northwest filed a complaint Friday with DOT against the European Union's new rules to ban hushkitted aircraft operations in Europe, action Northwest called a violation of bilateral rights. As a first step, Northwest wants DOT to order French, U.K., and German airlines to file their current operating schedules with detailed data on aircraft type and registration number, within 15 days of its order. Northwest then wants DOT to require the carriers to file amended schedules 15 days before using any equipment other than what is identified in the schedules.
DaimlerChrysler plans to begin operating its own air shuttle next month between its dual headquarters in the U.S. and Germany, according to McGraw-Hill's Business Week magazine. There are no direct commercial flights between the headquarters in Stuttgart and Detroit, and the company's private jets cannot carry dozens of ocean-hopping executives without refueling, the magazine says. A rented Airbus A320, fitted with 60 business-class seats, will fly between Stuttgart and an airport near U.S. headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich., at least three times a week.
Czech Airlines (CSA) asked DOT for exemption from slot restrictions at Chicago O'Hare to reintroduce twice-weekly Chicago-Prague nonstops, which it operated from May 1992 to January 1996, when it terminated the service because of equipment shortages. CSA applied Jan. 5 for two slots, for Monday and Friday service beginning June 14 using A310-300 aircraft, but FAA said the request was not timely and it has no slots to allocate. CSA's foreign carrier permit specifically authorizes service on the route, which has no nonstop service.
