America West and its flight attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants (AFA), are continuing talks in Phoenix, the National Mediation Board confirmed this week. Further meetings are scheduled for the weeks of Nov. 16 and Dec. 1. AFA has said it will ask NMB to release it from mediation and launch a CHAOS (Create Havoc Around Our System) campaign after the 30-day cooling-off period if talks do not improve.
...Ontario government has forgiven the $49 million obligation of Bombardier resulting from its option to acquire the remaining 49% of de Havilland, owned by the provincial government from January 1992 through January 1997, the Brazilian filing states. Bombardier had issued the government a 15-year promissory note bearing 7% interest and calling for annual principal repayments of $4.9 million in years six through 15.
Brazil this week asked the World Trade Organization in Geneva to find that some six export subsidy schemes employed by Canada and its provinces violate Article 3 of the international Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures.
October was a volatile month for regional airline stocks, but the average price per share for the eight publicly traded issues managed an 11.3% increase at the close to $18.55. Market value of the stocks grew $154.2 million to $616.6 billion. The only decliner was US Airways Express CCAIR, down 44 cents to $3.38 per share. Gainers were led by Delta Connection/United Express SkyWest, which saw a $6.38 hike, or 33.3%, to close at $25.50. Delta affiliate Comair was up $4.13, or 14.4%, to $32.88.
US Airways' traffic for October rose 2.7% on 0.2% more capacity, resulting in a record load factor for the month of 73.1%, up 1.8 percentage points from the October 1997 level. For the first 10 months of 1998, the load factor was 73.9%, up 2.1 points. The airline has boarded 48.8 million passengers so far this year, down 1.3%.
House Transportation Committee Chairman Bud Shuster (R-Penn.) yesterday denied there were any partisan attempts to kill DOT's proposed competition guidelines by requiring two studies and imposing a waiting period so Congress could look at the matter. In a recent memo to airline chief executives, Air Transport Association President Carol Hallett called Shuster the "driving force" behind the legislation and praised Shuster and House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) for throwing their support behind ATA's efforts to quash the guidelines (DAILY, Oct. 27).
Dutch carrier Transavia is the first non-Greek carrier to operate scheduled domestic service in Greece. The flights, between the islands of Rhodes and Crete, began Nov. 2 and will continue until March 27, 1999. The carrier extended its year-round service from Amsterdam to Heraklion beyond to Rhodes, a development that provided an opportunity to carry local passengers between the islands once Greek authorities changed the rules to allow it.
Takeoff and landing slots at London Stansted Airport will be fully coordinated in time for the 1999 summer season, according to U.K. Aviation Minister Glenda Jackson. The move will make it possible to schedule departing and incoming aircraft more efficiently within the airport's existing capacity and current limits on passenger and aircraft movements. Jackson said Stansted's coordinated status will enable better management of demand.
The U.K.'s new en route station, Swanwick Center, is unlikely to open before 2002, six years behind schedule, according to Transport Minister John Reid. The delay adds to a string of setbacks for the Swanwick Center, on which the U.K. has placed great hopes for reducing traffic congestion and delays. Reporting to the House of Commons transport subcommittee, Reid said, "I can give no guarantees, but on the evidence and advice available to me, the best estimate is that the Swanwick Center will probably open in the first quarter of 2002."
France's Aerospatiale-Matra, British Aerospace and Germany's ChryslerDaimler Aerospace (DASA) will agree on "a three-way merger...in the next two quarters" to set up a European Aerospace and Defence Company (EADC), French Defense Minister Alain Richard said in an interview with Europe 1 French radio yesterday in Paris. "The first half of 1999 is a period during which we can meet all the conditions to have a large European Aerospace and Defence Company...which would balance out the largest American businesses," he said.
Mesaba Airlines posted a 32.8% increase in revenue passenger miles last month to 102.1 million, but available seat miles rose 34.1% to 183.2 million, pushing the load factor down 0.5 percentage points to 55.8%, compared with the same year-ago month.
IATA has voiced support for the anti-air-rage campaign following recent publicity about violently disruptive passengers. It appears likely that the International Civil Aviation Organization, in conjunction with IATA, soon will issue an advisory document on disruptive passengers. IATA's Working Group on Disruptive and Unruly Passengers was formed earlier this year, including security, safety, legal and inflight service representatives.
National Transportation Safety Board has recommended FAA require repetitive inspections for cracks of all Piper part number 47529-32 main landing gear (MLG) inboard door hinge assemblies until they are replaced with improved door hinge assemblies. The action was prompted by a March 15, 1997, incident, involving no injuries, in which a Cape Smythe Air Service Piper PA-31 landed with the left MLG partially retracted at Kotzebue, Alaska, Airport. NTSB subsequently found fatigue cracks on the MLG hinges.
American has taken delivery of three Stage 3 increased gross weight (IGW) hushkits for 727s, the first of 52 kits on order, according to Raisbeck Commercial Air Group. BAX Global purchased a standard gross weight kit for a 727-100 with JT8D-7B engines, and Kalitta Leasing took an IGW kit for a 727-200 with -15 engines, said James Raisbeck, chief executive. "Customers are seeking an economical Stage 3 product that does not compromise the Boeing-certificated structural or operational capabilities of the aircraft," he said.
FAA yesterday ordered airlines to take further precautions to prevent possible electrical arcing and oxygen leakage in the cockpits of Boeing 767s, which "if not corrected could result in a fire in the flight compartment." The action covers 185 aircraft in the U.S. registry. Some 568 are in service worldwide. Although the National Transportation Safety Board supports the added measures, it expressed concern that current design and manufacturing of wire bundle routing may not provide necessary protection for other models of aircraft.
Comair said this week that it would welcome the added traffic that Southwest Airlines would attract to Long Island's Islip-MacArthur Airport. Southwest has declined to confirm press reports that it was indeed planning Islip service, but a Comair spokeswoman said Southwest brought attention to air services at Manchester, N.H., in June and that passenger loads increased as a result, which it (Comair) would expect at Islip as well. Comair serves its Cincinnati hub from both Islip and Manchester. Southwest, according to press reports, would serve Baltimore from Islip.
Terminal maneuvering around and between nearby major hub airports is a "great waste of time and fuel," former FAA Administrator Langhorne Bond said this week at the Air Traffic Control Association meeting in Atlantic City, N.J. Current charted airways are nine miles wide, he noted. "This incredible, wasteful width is entirely the consequence of the least accurate of the navigation systems - VOR. Get rid of the VOR navigation system and the en route airways and the terminal tracks shrink by at least two thirds."
United Chief Executive Gerald Greenwald yesterday called on airlines, manufacturers and suppliers to limit the number of custom design choices offered - and demanded by airlines - in aircraft production. In a Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Aerospace forum in Washington tackling the issue of customization versus standardization, Greenwald said aircraft could cost 10%-20% less if they were produced in true assembly-line fashion with little customization. "We need to take the bold step into a new way of thinking, and we need to do it together," he said.
Federal Express said it will not argue against the right of its pilots to engage in self-help. In a motion filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, FedEx asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit initiated by the Fedex Pilots Association to decide whether pilots remain released into self-help by the National Mediation Board. NMB released the pilots Nov. 25, 1995, when they were represented by the Air Line Pilots Association. "FedEx made enhanced contract proposals to the FPA in talks last week," said President and Chief Executive Theodore Weise.
Alaska Air Group subsidiary Horizon Air posted a 34.4% traffic increase in October to 101 million revenue passenger miles from 75 million in October 1997. Oct. 1998 Oct. 1997 10 Mths 1998 10 Mths 1997 RPMs 101,000,000 75,000,000 933,000,000 733,000,000 ASMs 159,000,000 126,000,000 1,488,000,000 1,196,000,000 LF(%) 63.3 59.9 62.7 61.3
Air Wisconsin's passenger load factor climbed 7.8 percentage points last month - compared with October 1997 - to 70% as revenue passenger miles rose 69% to 83.2 million while capacity increased 50.3% to 118.9 million available seat miles.
Continental traffic last month rose 10.9% on 8.6% more capacity, compared with the comparable 1997 month, pushing the load factor up 1.4 percentage points to a record 71.1%. Domestic traffic increased 9.5% on 8.4% more capacity, resulting in a 71.9% load factor, up 0.7 points. International traffic grew 13.9% on 8.9% more capacity, resulting in a 69.7% load factor, up 3.1 points.
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 and MD-80 Systemwide Aircraft Utilization Per Day Second Quarter 1998 DC-9-30 Continental Northwest TWA Number of Aircraft Operated 26 115 34 Total Fleet Operations Departures 130 509 171
