A German/Spanish ground-handling consortium will compete with airport company Flughafen Frankfurt Main AG (FAG) as of Jan. 1, 1999, said Lothar Klemm, regional transport minister of German state Hessen, last week in Frankfurt. The consortium was set up by Spain's Acciona construction group and Bremen-based LUG Verwaltung. LUG already is operating Frankfurt airport's Perishable Centre as well as Tradeport Frankfurt, a freight-handling joint venture with FAG. LUG also operates a freight-handling business at Stuttgart Airport.
The conference report on fiscal 1999 FAA appropriations provides $41.7 million for explosives and weapons detection. The total is slightly below the Senate's $42.2 million request but substantially more than the House's $34.2 million.
FAA Regional Administrator Arlene Feldman will become chairman of the Air Traffic Control Association at its annual conference this week in Atlantic City. Feldman currently heads FAA's Eastern Region.
AlliedSignal said wheels and brakes for Russia's Ilyushin 96T aircraft made by its Rubix joint venture exceeded all performance requirements during a test last month in Russia. In the Rejected Take Off test at Russia's Gromov Flight Research Institute, the pilot of the Il-96T accelerated to full speed, then applied brakes just before the point of takeoff, AlliedSignal said. It said that with the brake discs fully worn, the Rubix brakes halted the 270-ton airliner 300 meters short of the required limit. Thrust reversal was not used.
National Mediation Board has ruled that Midway Airlines illegally interfered with union elections for flight attendants and has ordered a rerun representation election. NMB ruled that Midway interfered with a bid by the Association of Flight Attendants to represent Midway's flight attendants. Secret ballots will be mailed to flight attendants Nov. 9, and the count date is set for Dec. 18. NMB ruled Midway illegally improved wages and benefits and favorably revised flight attendant staffing during AFA's organizing campaign.
American's traffic increased 3.4% in October on 2% more capacity, which raised the load factor 1.0 percentage points to 69.1%. In the first post-Northwest-strike traffic report, American said its domestic network experienced traffic growth of 2.9% on 0.7% less capacity. The load factor was up 2.4 points to 69%. Similar to September figures, American's international traffic rose 4.6% in October, but capacity grew more quickly, at 8.5%, which lowered the load factors in its Atlantic and Pacific divisions.
Taking advice from employees and passengers, United is lengthening the connection time between flights in some of its key markets, a move expected to ease burdens on travelers, improve operations and boost the airline's on-time performance. Last weekend, United increased connection times from 30 to 35 minutes for widebody departures at Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington Dulles, and from 25 to 30 minutes for all other aircraft at Denver.
U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aldrich has denied a motion by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) to force FAA to take back operation of air traffic control towers currently in its contract tower program, which called for privatizing 129 Level 1 towers between 1994 and 1998. Judge Aldrich ruled March 2 in a suit brought by NATCA that FAA did not comply with Office of Management and Budget regulations requiring federal agencies first to determine whether services should be performed by federal employees before they are contracted to private parties.
Bruce Bishins, president of United States Travel Agent Registry (USTAR), responding to plans by the Sabre Group to change airlines to implement e-ticketing in foreign countries, predicted that travel agents will bear the brunt of what he called "this latest plan by a CRS to fatten its coffers at the industry's expense" because carriers will now expand their e-ticketing plans for direct sales (DAILY, Nov. 2).
SAS Cargo and Lufthansa Cargo over the weekend began loading cargo and express shipments on each other's flights. The capacity sharing will apply initially to European, Scandinavian and Nordic destinations, but it will spread eventually to cover the carriers' global networks. United Cargo also is making plans to join the service of its Star Alliance partners.
Vice President Al Gore said he is "deeply disappointed to learn that Newt Gingrich and the House Republican leadership have chosen to side with the airline industry rather than help the people of Iowa and other states obtain access to the competition in airways that produces low fares and higher levels of service." Gore was responding to media reports of a memorandum sent to airline chief executives by Air Transport Association President and Chief Executive Carol Hallett outlining ATA's strategy for defeating DOT's proposed competition guidelines (DAILY, Oct. 26).
Boeing Business Jets President Borge Boeskov said the 737-700 platform that will be the basis of the BBJ has received FAA and Joint Aviation Authorities approval. Boeing Business Jets' current order book totals 46. Nine are committed to the Boeing NetJets fractional ownership program, a joint venture between Boeing Business Jets and Executive Jet. The BBJ program was launched in 1996 by Boeing and General Electric, which provides the engines. Deliveries are scheduled to begin by the end of this year.
BAA plc yesterday reported an operating profit increase of 6.4% for the six months ended Sept. 30, based on passenger growth at its airports, reasonable retail performance despite "tough" trading conditions, the U.K.-based company said. BAA's pretax profit for the period was #307 million ($506.6 million), and operating profit was #351 million ($579.2) million, up 6.4% from the year-earlier period.
TWA and Delta had the best on-time arrival rates for August and Delta has improved the most since its near-last ranking in the third quarter of 1997.At the bottom, only 63.9% of Northwest's flights arrived on time and America West's rate was 65.5%, far below the industry average of 77%. (See chart on Page 212.)
Regional Airline Association's board elected George Bagley, president of Horizon Air, chairman, succeeding Bryan Bedford, president of Mesaba, who held the post for 1998. Newly elected members include Jerry Atkin, president of SkyWest, Andy Price, president of Commutair, and David Reed, president of Astral Aviation.
Royal Air Maroc has obtained from DOT an initial one-year exemption to conduct scheduled foreign combination service between Morocco and Boston/Chicago/Los Angeles/Miami/Orlando/St. Louis/San Francisco/Washington under code share with TWA. (Docket OST-98-4294)
Flight attendants at America West, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants, voted by 99% to strike if the union and management cannot reach a contract agreement. More than 87% of eligible flight attendants cast ballots which were counted in Washington, D.C. yesterday. Contract talks continue through Nov. 5 and again Nov. 16-20 under the auspices of the National Mediation Board. Flight attendants have not yet asked the NMB for release from mediation but have vowed to do so if talks to not improve.
Honeywell said its "WorldNav" avionics were selected by a consortium of Latin American carriers for up to 195 Airbus A319 and A320 aircraft. The equipment includes the Pegasus Flight Management System, integrated Air Data/Inertial Reference System, and TCAS 2000 collision avoidance system.
Aviation Industry Stock Performance October 1998 Closed Closed Monthly Change Symbol 10/30/98 9/30/98 ($) (%) Majors Alaska Air Group ALK 35.938 34.063 1.875 5.5 America West (Class B) AWA 15.438 12.500 2.938 23.5 AMR . AMR 67.016 55.438 11.578 20.9
Hawaiian Airlines yesterday posted a net third quarter profit of $6.1 million, the best quarter ever for the 69-year old carrier. The profit level was more than four times that of last year's quarter, $1.4 million. Revenue climbed 9.7% to $115.5 million. Chief Executive Paul Casey cited the carrier's aggressive marketing, an improved cost structure and its service approach. "We are on a path to achieve a record year of financial performance," he said, which will "position the company for a new era of operational growth."
The HK$1.6 billion (US$207 million) Cathay Pacific Catering Services (CPCS) facility, one of the largest catering sites in the world, has opened for business at Hong Kong Airport at Chek Lap Kok. The division, wholly owned by Cathay Pacific, has a 15-year franchise at the airport. The 50,400-square-meter facility produces 35,000 meals per day and has the capacity to make 80,000 meals. During its first days of operation, the facility produced more than 1.3 million meals for its 35 customer airlines.
DOT granted Tower Air an initial two-year exemption to operate scheduled combination service between New York, Boston, Miami and San Juan and Santo Domingo, Puerto Plata and Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Tower earlier held authority to serve the Dominican Republic; it wants to begin the service Dec. 13, using owned or leased 747 aircraft. (Docket OST-98-4569)
