Mesa, as America West Express, will assign four 50-seat Canadair Regional jets to the Columbus America West operation, making possible a boost of America West's service at the Ohio hub city by eight daily departures. Mesa will operate service from Columbus to Philadelphia with CRJs while service from Columbus to Baltimore, New York/LaGuardia and Chicago/Midway will be operated by the senior and junior partners with a mix of larger America West jets and CRJs.
KLM this week implemented comprehensive rules to discourage violence by the flying public, covering everything from verbal warnings to on-board physical restraint by handcuffs. The carrier is reviewing how to identify passengers with a history of violence prior to boarding but admits there could be privacy issues raised by using its reservations system to track such individuals. KLM's policy follows special training last year of its 11,000 employees worldwide in dealing with disruptive passengers.
DOT has awarded Detroit-based ProAir two slot exemptions at New York LaGuardia Airport. The carrier plans to offer nonstop service from Detroit City Airport, bringing low-fare competition to the Detroit-LaGuardia market, according to DOT. Chairman and Chief Executive Kevin Stamper said ProAir plans to start service to LaGuardia within six months, with the expectation that it will "significantly enhance our traffic base and fuel our growth." Stamper said it also will complement existing Newark service, giving consumers more low-fare choices for travel to New York.
Leo Mullin, chief executive of Delta Air Lines, discusses competition issues and the carrier's future service plans on Aviation News Today, to air Sunday on Washington's NewsChannel 8 at 12:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
SPS Technologies, Jenkintown, Pa.-based maker of high-strength fasteners, has acquired Chevron Aerospace Group Ltd. of Nottingham, England, for $54 million. SPS said yesterday that the acquisition expands its product offering to the European aerospace market, which is growing because of Airbus orders.
Swissair said yesterday that based on technical investigations conducted by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada and SR Technics, it will turn off individual inflight entertainment systems on MD-11 and Boeing 747 aircraft. The systems, certified by FAA, have not been identified as the cause of the crash of Swissair Flight 111 Sept. 2 near Halifax, Nova Scotia, in which all 229 persons aboard died. However, some of the IFE wiring is routed through the cockpit, which is the focus of TSB's investigation, said Swissair spokeswoman Jackie Pash.
Bombardier is charging that Embraer's "abusive" use of the Brazilian ProEx export program has cost it "hundreds of regional aircraft sales and with them more than 1,500 person-years of work." It says that with the new ERJ-135 37-seater, Embraer is targeting its own established customer base and that, "ultimately, Embraer's use of ProEx threatens more than 10,000 Canadian jobs at Bombardier and its domestic supplier network." The charges are based on a study by accounting firm Ernst&Young that included a survey of SEC 10K filings by customer airlines (story below).
Mesa Air Group, operating as US Airways Express, has lowered fares in West Virginia by as much as 25% as the result of talks between carrier and local officials and West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D). Affected are flights to the US Airways Pittsburgh hub from Clarksburg, Lewisburg, Morgantown and Parkersburg. The meeting, with Mesa Chief Executive Jonathan Ornstein, other top Mesa executives and West Virginia airport executives, was arranged by Rockefeller's office to open communications between the carrier, airport officials and the traveling public.
British Midland will inject fresh competition into the Budapest route from London next March when it introduces a daily direct flight to the Hungarian capital. The route, used in 1997 by more than 320,000 travelers, is currently served by British Airways and Malev. In a further bid to expand its growing network in central and eastern Europe, British Midland has won the right from the U.K. Civil Aviation authority (CAA) to rehear its application to serve Moscow from London Heathrow Airport.
Tanzania's Precisionair has purchased three 19-passenger LET L410 commuter aircraft, LET parent Ayres Corp. announced. Ayres President Fred Ayres said Precisionair is the first customer to purchase the turboprop directly from the Kunovice, Czech Republic, factory since Ayres, based in Albany, Ga., acquired LET in September.
Austrian Airlines will start twice-weekly flights to Uzbekistan, Tashkent, on May 5, subject to government approval. Austrian is trying to position itself as the Western European airline for connections to Eastern Europe and Central Asia, and Tashkent will become its 33rd destination in the two regions.
United, in what it called a first for a U.S. combination carrier, will launch a time-definite freight service in February, Jim Hartigan, VP-cargo, said yesterday in Chicago. The new business, modeled along the lines of a service offered by its Star Alliance partners Lufthansa and SAS, at first will operate only on international routes, Hartigan said. While more details are to be announced early next year, Hartigan said the domestic time-definite service will be introduced late in 1999.
Finnair, exploiting its links to British Airways via the Nordic Alliance, this week began improved services from Helsinki to Britain and continental Europe. Code-share arrangements with BA will cover three new routes to Edinburgh and Glasgow via London Heathrow and to Birmingham via Dusseldorf, Brussels and Copenhagen. Finnair also has started an evening departure from Tallinn to Helsinki and will serve Riga twice daily throughout the work week.
Moody's Investors Service ratings on the debt BE Aerospace intends to use in its acquisition of SMR Aerospace are held down by uncertainty about whether and how the company will end or reduce its involvement in inflight entertainment systems, Moody's said. IFE "is one of the few businesses in which the company is not a technological leader," the ratings company said.
AirTran has been furloughing employees, including pilots and flight attendants, "to match the level of activity" created by restructuring its fall schedule, a spokeswoman confirmed.She declined to say how many employees were furloughed, but the Association of Flight Attendants estimated that 69 cabin crew have been laid off. No data were available on the number of pilots furloughed.
United and All Nippon Airways implemented their alliance, the first between a U.S. and a Japanese carrier following the U.S.-Japan aviation agreement, which makes code sharing possible (DAILY, Feb. 2). United gains access to Sapporo, Okinawa, Nagoya and Fukuoka and ANA will reach United markets throughout the U.S.
Continental Express will introduce ERJ-145 service between Cleveland and Indianapolis Nov. 1, the Continental subsidiary announced. Currently, Continental and Continental Express have seven departures from Cleveland to Indianapolis, using EMB-120 Brasilia turboprops, Boeing 737s and DC-9s. On Nov. 1, Continental Express will upgrade three of the turboprop flights with the RJs.
...Embraer CEO Mauricio Botelho said that the whole problem is not ProEx. He said the Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet was designed as a business jet and is thus much heavier than the ERJ-145 - by 4,500 pounds - and more expensive to operate. Bombardier held a monopoly position in the market for years and "cannot accept the competition," he added. Mauricio said the ProEx program is in full compliance with World Trade Organization rules on the use of government support for export financing and that he welcomed the WTO investigation of the dispute.
Dublin Airport passenger traffic shot up 12% to 9 million in the first nine months this year, compared with 1997. While U.K. traffic accounted for nearly 60% of the total, the strongest growth occurred in transatlantic traffic, which was up 22% to 520,399 passengers.
Charlotte N.C.-based CCAIR said it has settled a Canadian government insurance program's claims against it totaling several million dollars in connection with previous lease agreements - by reaching a new lease agreement for a Bombardier de Havilland Dash 8-100 covered by the same insurance program. CCAIR said as a result of entering into the new lease agreement, it has resolved all claims by the Canadian agency against it, as long as it fulfills its obligations under the lease for the new aircraft. The lease term is seven years.
Air Transport Association Cargo Traffic August 1998 Revenue Ton Miles (000) August August % 1998 1997 Change Domestic Freight 753,113 714,377 5.4 Mail 124,976 187,050 (33.2) Total 878,089 901,427 (2.6) International
DOT Secretary Rodney Slater today will announce the eight African countries to be asked to participate in the President's Safe Skies for Africa initiative. Also slated to be present at the announcement are FAA Administrator Jane Garvey, Ambassador Johnny Carson, principal deputy secretary of state for African affairs, and members of the African diplomatic corps. The initiative, which aims to promote sustainable improvements in aviation safety and airport security, was announced by Slater and President Clinton during their April visit to Africa.
TWA asked DOT for a two-year exemption to serve Nassau and Freeport, Bahamas, from New York Kennedy. The carrier plans to inaugurate daily nonstop service, using MD-80s, to Nassau on Feb. 11, 1999, and to Freeport on May 1, 1999. TWA is expanding its service to Caribbean points; it serves San Juan and Santo Domingo nonstop from New York and plans to add daily service to Puerto Plata and five-times-weekly service to St. Maarten in December. It told DOT it will be the only carrier providing nonstops from Kennedy to Nassau and Freeport. (Docket OST-98-4646)
Atlantic Coast Airlines will be flying 96 GPS routes out of its Washington Dulles hub by the end of first quarter 1999 with its Jetstream 32/41 turboprop fleet. The United Express carrier, working with FAA, has been operating eight such routes since earlier this year on a test basis and will add 10 in December and 25 per month thereafter. The routes are not pure great-circle GPS and still require some use of VORs and waypoints due to East Coast traffic complexities. "It is still a zig-zag, but certain portions have been straightened out," said VP/COO Tom Moore.
