Textron said Lawrence Fish, chairman and chief executive of Citizens Financial Group, and Joe Ford, chairman and chief executive of Alltel Corp., were elected to its board of directors.
MetroJet will launch Washington Dulles-Columbus and Dulles-St. Louis service April 7 with three daily roundtrips. MetroJet also will add three daily roundtrips between Dulles and Miami. Parent US Airways will increase to hourly its service between Dulles and New York LaGuardia on March 3. The mainline carrier will operate seven jet flights daily and US Airways Express will double the frequency of 37-seat Dash 8 turboprop flights from four to eight per day.
The Philippines Ministry of Finance has drawn up a rehabilitation plan for Philippine Airlines that calls for an infusion of at least US$150 million. Finance Secretary Eduardo Espiritu said a committee he heads is evaluating an aid plan in which the funds would come from an interest-free loan offered by a Japanese consortium. Espiritu declined to identify the consortium or give details of the plan, however. "We are looking at all possible offers to avert another shutdown of PAL," Espiritu told The DAILY in Manila.
FAA Small Airplane Directorate has issued the first U.S. type certificate for a Russian design, clearing it for import. The type certificate was issued at the Ilyushin plant for the Il-103, an all-metal, two-seat aircraft powered by a 210 HP Teledyne Continental Motors IO-360ES engine with a Hartzell propeller.
DOT issued an order ending, as of Dec. 1, the collection of data on domestic air service for its study of service to small and rural communities. It relieved airlines and computer reservations systems from data submission requirements associated with the study. Data collection became fully operational late in 1997 with the intention of obtaining data for one year. (Docket OST-97-2767)
Texas District Court Judge Bob McCoy entered a final judgment in City of Fort Worth v. City of Dallas last week, confirming his earlier summary judgment in the Dallas Love Field restrictions case (DAILY, Oct. 19).
FDX Global Logistics named Debra Gray VP and chief financial officer; Ami Kelley VP and general counsel and Charles Malone VP-sales, marketing and communications.
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.
