Vanguard is holding its final fare sale for the fall. Tickets must be purchased by Friday and travel completed by Dec. 17. Fares require roundtrip purchase and may be combined with all tariff classes except promotional fares. An overnight stay and seven-day advance purchase are required, and some blackout dates may apply. Sample one-way fares include $29 Atlanta-Myrtle Beach; $49 Chicago Midway-Pittsburgh and $69 Denver-Minneapolis/St. Paul.
Frontier has reintroduced positive-space reduced fares for travel agents and their families. The special enables travel agents to purchase up to 16 roundtrip confirmed, positive-space tickets for use by ARC/IATAN-accredited agents and members of their immediate families.
U.S Carriers Systemwide Market Share At Leading U.S. Airports U.S. Major, National and Commuter* Carriers Six Months 1998 Atlanta Enplaned Percent Passengers Marketshare Delta 13,726,857 80.07 Atlantic Southeast 773,465 4.51 AirTran Airways 595,095 3.47
FAA is about to get a taste of its own medicine. The agency has asked the International Civil Aviation Organization to perform a safety assessment on it, said David Traynham, assistant administrator for policy, plans and international aviation. The FAA safety assessment program has brought protests from several national civil aviation authorities that failed it. Airlines from those CAAs can be penalized if they serve U.S. points. "We have requested an ICAO safety assessment and I think it is going to happen soon," Traynham said.
United, learning from Southwest, is refocusing its hiring to "attract people who enjoy serving people, not those who are technically competent," according to Jim Goodwin, the airline's new president.United is training first-tier supervisors as part of a strategy to improve customer service.
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit ruled that FAA must pay almost $100,000 in legal costs incurred by the Air Transport Association of Canada (ATAC) when it overturned the agency's system for imposing overflight fees on non-U.S. carriers. The Equal Access to Justice Act allows qualifying applicants, including associations like ATAC with relatively limited resources, to be reimbursed for such costs unless the court finds that the position of the U.S. was "substantially justified" despite the losing decision.
Form 41 line item data are "no longer comparable across carriers" because airlines use alternative internal accounting practices since deregulation, American said in comments on DOT's review of data reporting requirements. TWA agreed with American, saying the current system of accounts is "archaic and obsolete," but it told DOT the form should be modernized rather than eliminated.
Gulf Air asked DOT to amend its exemption for scheduled combination service between the U.S. and the Arabian Gulf to enable it to code share with American. The Bahrain-based carrier wants to operate service between Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar and Boston, Miami, Chicago and Los Angeles. It holds an exemption to provide service between New York and Houston and Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar via Cyprus and Geneva. That exemption expires March 27, 1999, and Gulf Air requested that the amended exemption be issued through March 27, 2000.
Detroit-based Spirit Airlines flew its one millionth passenger on Sept. 30. The passenger received champagne, flowers and a gift certificate for a vacation trip to one of more than a dozen destinations.
Great Lakes Aviation is expanding its United Express schedule in Wyoming beginning Oct. 25, with the inauguration of service from Cheyenne, Gillette and Sheridan, Wyo., to Denver. The flights, to be operated with Beech 1900Ds, will replace service currently operated by Air Wisconsin. Initial service will offer six nonstop roundtrip flights at Cheyenne, four at Gillette and three roundtrip flights at Sheridan, two of them nonstop and the other a one-stop via Gillette.
Eight current and pending Star Alliance airlines wrote the Hong Kong government asking regulators to remove restrictions on code sharing now that hometown carrier Cathay Pacific has entered the multinational oneworld alliance. "Hong Kong historically has been opposed to code sharing and has prohibited it with regard to any flights originating, connecting or departing from its airport," said Mike Whitaker, United's director-international affairs.
LTU has leased a used A330-300, formerly operated by Malaysia Airlines, from International Lease Finance Corp. LTU currently leases two A330-300s and a 757-200ER from ILFC.
Delta will offer a fourth daily nonstop flight between Atlanta and Mexico City on Aeromexico's daily 757 service. Aeromexico's existing code-share service connecting Atlanta and Cancun will increase from four flights a week to daily nonstops, beginning Oct. 25. Flights connecting Atlanta and Cancun have been retimed to allow for earlier arrivals in each city.
The proposed American-British Airways alliance does not promise efficiencies that outweigh its anticompetitive effects, the Justice Department said in an outline of the presentation it intended to make at DOT's American-BA hearings this month. The deal will not create "significant new service options" between U.S. and U.K. city-pairs, DOJ told DOT Friday, the day DOT postponed the hearings indefinitely in reaction to continued stalemate in U.S.-U.K. open-skies talks (DAILY, Oct. 12).
Struggling Taiwan carrier U-Land Airlines said it hopes to sell and lease back at least three of the six MD-82 aircraft in its fleet. A company official said the transaction, if successful, would enable the company to increase its paid-in capital by about $15 million. U-Land also announced plans to scale back gradually the number of domestic flights it operates in order to concentrate more on its international operations.
Hawaiian Airlines reported an 18% increase in traffic on 13.1% more capacity for September, compared with September last year, achieving a load factor gain of 3.2 percentage points to 75.6%. Hawaiian flew 349.2 million revenue passenger miles on 462.2 million available seat miles, and carried 5% more passengers, 401,709. Year-to-date, Hawaiian's RPMs rose 1.6% on 2.9% more capacity than the first nine months last year, depressing the load factor 1 point. Passenger enplanements declined 0.3%.
Delta is adding a fourth daily Atlanta-Mexico City nonstop via its code share with AeroMexico, operated with the Mexican carrier's Boeing 757s. AeroMexico's four weekly nonstop code-share flights on Atlanta-Cancun will increase to daily Oct. 25. Three daily Atlanta-Monterrey nonstop code-share flights began last month. The two airlines now code share on 56 flights between five Mexican cities and seven U.S. points.
The Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast system being developed by cargo airlines has received a supplemental type certificate from FAA, Cargo Airline Association President Steve Alterman said yesterday. Although the cargo carriers have financed ADS-B development without federal funding, FAA has described the system as a key feature of its Free Flight program.
Southwest is offering $99 one-way fares on nonstop Albuquerque-Oakland service. Customers must purchase tickets by Oct. 24, and travel is valid Oct. 25-April 2. As of Oct. 25, Southwest will operate 51 daily nonstops from Albuquerque and 109 from Oakland.
WAEA's AVION Award Finalists (Winners chosen Oct. 16, 1998) Best Inflight Magazine British Airways Cathay Pacific Delta United Virgin Atlantic Best IFE Guide-In Magazine Air Canada British Airways Royal Brunei Swissair United Best IFE Guide-Separate Air Canada Air New Zealand Ansett Australia Qantas United
SkyWest Airlines experienced a 44.8% jump in traffic on 27.2% more capacity for September, which pushed the load factor up 6.7 percentage points to 54.9%. SkyWest reported 86.1 million revenue passenger miles and 157 million available seat miles. Passenger enplanements grew 79% to 402,180. Year-to-date RPMs rose 19.6% on 9.7% more ASMs, boosting the load factor 4.5 points. Passenger enplanements surged 46.3%.
Passenger facility charges (PFCs) will continue to have only minor impact on airport financing in the U.S., where general revenue bonds are the main resource, but heftier PFCs will play a larger role in Canada, experts said last week at Airport Council International-North America's seventh annual regional conference in Orlando, Fla.
Grupo Taca is introducing two tour programs to promote Latin American leisure travel from Europe and Asia. Latino Airpass and Latin Back Pack are designed for travelers who want to visit multiple destinations in the region. Airpass allows up to 90 days to visit an unlimited number of cities with no restrictions, offering flights on airlines other than the five Grupo Taca carriers for an extra $500. The Back Pack program is similar to Airpass but designed for travelers aged 20-28 who like to travel at the lowest cost.
Boullioun Aviation Services, currently the property of Sumitumo Trust&Banking, said yesterday it will be acquired by Deutsche Bank. Boullioun, which leases aircraft for itself and Singapore Aircraft Leasing Enterprise, has a portfolio totaling 46 aircraft with a book value of $1.6 billion. The two companies have almost 100 aircraft on order and option. Boullioun President Robert Genise said the deal with Deutsche Bank "creates greater opportunities for us to help our customers operate modern and efficient jet aircraft."
During the 14- to 16-hour trips across the Pacific to Asia or to Australia and New Zealand, airlines have begun using inflight amenity kits as another competitive weapon to improve the travel experience for premium passengers, reinforce the airline brand and even promote the host country. While each carrier flying Pacific routes has its own approach to what it believes is the best inflight giveaway, the clear trend has been that the number of products offered by all carriers is increasing.
