International Civil Aviation Organization Council President Assad Kotaite in a yearend review pointed to the organization's 1998 accomplishments, including the endorsement by the assembly of a Universal Safety Oversight Audit Program. "I would describe 1998 as a milestone in ICAO achievements," Kotaite said. Highlights include: -- Endorsement of the Universal Safety Oversight Audit Program, comprising regular, mandatory, systematic and harmonized safety audits, to be carried out by ICAO in all 185 member states, beginning Jan. 1, 1999.
America West will challenge results of a representation election of the Transport Workers Union by its baggage and cargo handlers because TWU interfered with the secrecy of the election process, the carrier said last week. Of 1,999 eligible voters, 1,054 cast ballots for TWU representation, according to the National Mediation Board. But America West said union organizers collected election ballots at public meetings, which constitutes election coercion.
SimuFlite promoted William Campbell to director-standards and Robert Munro director-training for Challenger, Citation, Falcon, King Air and Westwind programs and Don Roney to director-training services for Gulfstream, Hawker, Learjet and C-21A programs.
U.S. business fares have risen 25.5% since 1996 while leisure fares have declined 13.5%, according to Salomon Smith Barney analyst Brian Harris. A leisure fare increase would close the gap but is unlikely due to Northwest's weakness.
Air Lanka's traffic fell again in 1998, but not as much as expected given the economic downturn in Asia and continued teetering between peace and violence situations in Sri Lanka. The airline's available seat kilometers increased 5.8% to 5.9 billion, but revenue passenger kilometers dropped 2.6% to 4.2 billion, resulting in a load factor of 71%, down 6.19 percentage points. The number of passengers carried fell 1.84% to 1,217,000.
An augmented Global Positioning System can provide sole-means navigation and landing services, FAA and industry officials were told last Thursday in a briefing on a draft risk assessment study by The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.The study, due Jan. 29, says the augmented system can provide the same level of safety as the existing ground-based system.
Four Cathay Pacific Airways executives resigned Friday to accept positions with troubled Philippine Airlines. Two of the officials - Peter Foster, Cathay general manager for Taiwan and the Philippines, and Ike Scantlebury, finance director at Cathay parent Swire Pacific Trading Division - reportedly were involved in Cathay-PAL investment discussions. Cathay, which ended discussions last month to acquire a significant stake in PAL, said the moves were unrelated to Cathay's negotiations.
NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin last week terminated a year-old charter service between Texas and Russia for International Space Station employees after the U.S. space agency's inspector general determined the service has flown with so few passengers that the average cost of a seat has ranged as high as $19,883. Originally set up as a cost-saving measure, the charter has been operating substantially below breakeven passenger goals set by NASA's Johnson Space Center, driving up costs, the NASA IG reported.
US Airways' Air Line Pilots Association unit negotiating committee is working with representatives of the company's wholly owned regional carriers to develop a flow-through agreement. An initial proposal from the parties, including flow-up job opportunities and flow-down furlough protection, is in the hands of US Airways management.
U.K. Civil Aviation Authority will establish its seventh and eighth foreign offices under contracts issued by Mauritius and Cyprus to CAA's Safety Regulation Group.
Cathay Pacific will begin offering American Airlines' AAdvantage frequent flyer miles to economy-class passengers Feb. 1. Cathay already offers AAdvantage miles to first- and business-class passengers, who earn credits at 150% and 125% of actual miles, respectively. "Our goal is to ensure we don't put any obstacles - real or perceived - in front of consumers when they are evaluating whether to make Cathay Pacific their airline of choice," said Ian Callender, VP-Americas.
Without waiting for a formal markup session, the House Transportation Committee underscored the need for prompt congressional action on an FAA reauthorization Thursday and approved by voice vote a $10.1 billion reauthorization for the balance of fiscal 1999. The bill would extend the Airport Improvement Program for the remaining six months at a funding level of $2.347 billion, higher than the $1.95 billion level contained in the six-month reauthorization enacted last year. The six-month authorization expires April 1.
Allied Pilots Association board of directors, representing American's pilots, has passed a resolution advising pilots to refuse assignments that may violate its contract with the carrier. Pilots are reacting to American's Dec. 23 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission stating that AMR has placed four officers on the seven-member Reno Air board of directors, including American President and Chief Executive Don Carty.
Troubled Greek airline Olympic Airways has reached an impasse - it faces a work-to-rule action by its cockpit staff, and its management and the government said they would not yield to union demands. Flights have been disrupted since the beginning of the year, and talks between management and union representatives of the 100% state-owned airline failed to unlock the situation last week.
American wants indefinite-duration authority to display Canadian's code on its flights between Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles and Miami and points in Mexico, carrying passengers traveling between Canada and Mexico on a blind-sector basis. Canadian holds blind-sector authority to operate beyond the U.S. American wants to begin the code-share service Jan. 17. The carrier said it would not object to United's request for similar authority provided that American's application is granted at the same time.
DOT -- Approved an initial one-year exemption for Bahamasair to conduct scheduled foreign combination service between Miami and Grand Turk, Turks and Caicos Islands...Approved, for an indefinite duration, renewal of an allocation of seven weekly combination frequencies to Continental for scheduled foreign combination service between Newark and Santiago, Chile...Approved a Prodexpo Internacional charter using a Taesa 757-200 for nine roundtrips carrying 227 passengers on a Cancun-Miami-Cancun routing Jan.
National Transportation Safety Board is expected to issue an urgent recommendation to FAA this week concerning cockpit wiring in the MD-11. The recommendation is said to be a direct result of investigating the Swissair Flight 111 crash last September off Nova Scotia.
U.S. Airports Operating and Financial Summary Medium Hub Airports* Fiscal Year 1997 (Dollar Amounts in Thousands) Non- Operating Operating Total Operating Revenue Revenue Revenue Expenses Albuquerque 41,471 46,893 88,364 32,022
Air France took advantage of the introduction of the single European currency to launch a fare sale in France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, The Netherlands and Portugal. For a limited time this month, the French airline is advertising "nice prices" in euros in all six countries. For instance, in Brussels, Air France offers roundtrips to 15 European cities for less than 195 euros. In The Netherlands, it sells a roundtrip to Paris for 99 euros, a 30% discount on its lowest previous fares. The euro was introduced as bank money Jan. 1.
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In the switch to aeronautical data link communications, "there will never be an urgent ATC message sent over data link," FAA assured industry officials last week. Air traffic controllers still will deliver climb and descent messages in the initial stages of controller-pilot data link communications, the agency says.
Southwest became the world's fifth-largest airline last year in terms of passengers carried, with 52,586,400 customers. Northwest fell to sixth, with 50.5 million. Only Delta, United, American and US Airways carried more passengers than Southwest.
Delta's Air Line Pilots Association unit is asking pilots to continue to reject land-and-hold-short (LAHS) instructions as the national ALPA organization's Feb. 19 deadline for FAA to change LAHS operation procedures approaches. Delta ALPA Master Executive Council Chairman Chuck Giambusso will receive updates on the situation this week from FAA. Delta ALPA recommended last May that pilots no longer accept LAHSO clearances until safety concerns are resolved, and ALPA National imposed the deadline in October.
United wants DOT to reopen the record in two dockets under which DOT awarded a total of seven Chicago O'Hare slots to Reno Air for Chicago-Reno service (DAILY, Oct. 27, 1997). United said that since American has acquired a controlling interest in Reno, the carrier "no longer qualifies" as a new-entrant carrier eligible for exemption from slot restrictions, and DOT should reclaim the slots for reallocation to a new entrant.
