Northwest is expanding its electronic ticketing service to Asia, Mexico and the Caribbean. VP-Distribution Planning Al Lenza said e-tickets are among Northwest's most popular products and are used by more than 40% of its domestic passengers. New e-ticket destinations are Mexico City, Cancun, Montego Bay, Grand Cayman, St. Maarten, Singapore, Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai. E-ticket sales for Mexico and the Caribbean begin immediately for travel starting Nov. 16; service to St. Maarten begins Dec. 19. E-tickets to Asia go on sale Nov. 16 for travel beginning Dec.
Virgin Atlantic has slashed prices on its international service, sparking a fare war with arch-competitor British Airways. After BA began a fare sale that runs through Oct. 28, Virgin undercut those prices, offering, for example, London-New York and London-Boston for #140 (US$241) roundtrip. BA's sale fare is #143 ($246). On London-Hong Kong, Virgin's #285 ($491) fare is slightly higher than BA's #279 ($480). Virgin is offering a roundtrip of #167 ($287) to Los Angeles, a bit lower than BA's #168 ($289).
Atlanta-based Atlantic Southeast Airlines will operate new nonstop service to Wilmington, N.C., beginning Dec. 1, to Albany, Ga., and Tallahassee, Fla., on Jan. 31, and to Wichita, Kan., March 2, all with Canadair Regional Jets. ASA will fly one daily roundtrip to Wilmington and Tallahassee, two to Albany and three to Wichita. In December and January, it will increase CRJ service between Atlanta and Fayetteville, N.C., Roanoke, Va., Evansville, Ind., Louisville, Ky., and Tri-Cities, Tenn./Va.
FedEx Pilots Association, a union board member and a member of its negotiating committee have been named in a lawsuit filed by a member of pilot management.The suit stems from statements allegedly made at a Sept. 27 domicile meeting in Memphis, according to a union recorded message. FPA, which has vowed to defend the pilots, refuses to discuss the case but is continuing to negotiate a new contract. More than 93% of FedEx pilots have joined the union.
Schreiner Airways asked DOT for an exemption to operate service between points in Europe on flights carrying the codes of both Delta and Sabena. It also requested a statement of authorization to operate a long-term wet-lease with Sabena. The Dutch carrier, which currently operates de Havilland Dash 8-300 aircraft for Sabena under wet-lease, said it filed the exemption application "out of abundance of caution." It said it seeks to provide efficient service and flight availability beyond Brussels by wet-lease to Sabena under the U.S.-Belgium open-skies agreement.
American Trans Air posted a systemwide 2.6% increase in traffic on 8.4% more capacity in September, compared with the same month last year. The carrier flew 688.5 million revenue passenger miles on 1.08 billion available seat miles, and its block hours grew 14.5% to 12,587. Charter service RPMs declined 16.8% to 283.7 million and ASMs 7.5% to 454.1 million, while block hours dropped 4.5% to 3,822. Scheduled service RPMs rose 24% and ASMs 25.9%, depressing the load factor 1 percentage point to 63.9%, but passenger boardings jumped 30.7% to 293,204.
Memphis-based Express Airlines I, a wholly owned subsidiary of Northwest that flies as Northwest Airlink, saw traffic and capacity plunge in September from September last year because of its shutdown during the Northwest pilots strike and Hurricane Georges. Express reported a 69.8% drop in traffic on 54.7% less capacity, which pushed the load factor down 19.8 percentage points to 39.7%. It flew 8.9 million revenue passenger miles on 22.4 million available seat miles. Passengers carried dropped 68.3% to 36,421.
Philippine Airlines has resumed service with 38 daily flights to 13 domestic cities. Although the airline professes the need to cut staff as much as 30%, it is retaining all 9,000 workers until new investors give it assistance in the decision. PAL will add flights and destinations during its first week.
Delta is expanding flights from its Atlanta, Cincinnati and Salt Lake City hubs to fall and winter destinations. Delta will introduce hourly Atlanta-Newark flights Jan. 15 with 16 daily roundtrips. Beginning in December, it will add flights from Atlanta to Dayton, Fort Lauderdale, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Orlando, Milwaukee, Mobile and Tampa. The additions will boost the carrier's system to 643 daily departures, including nonstop service to 124 points in the U.S., Canada, Bermuda, the Caribbean, Mexico, Latin America and Asia.
KLM's passenger traffic inched up 3% in September but capacity increased 4%, causing its passenger load factor to remain flat. Cargo traffic was virtually unchanged at 337.3 million revenue ton kilometers and the cargo load factor dropped to 70.8% from 74.8% a year earlier.
National Air Transportation Association (NATA) remains "wary" about whether Europe's Joint Aviation Authorities will relax restrictions on pilot training for European students in the U.S. now that FAA has decided to drop a certificate flight in the U.S. as a licensing requirement for pilots trained outside the U.S. The FAA move was meant to be the U.S. concession matching removal of JAA rules that recognize training provided by organizations of which JAA governments or nationals are majority owners, NATA said.
The Sabre Group is launching two new products that will help airlines target marketing efforts to specific passengers and facilitate providing up-front information on loyalty and code-share programs. "There's a shift going on in commerce and marketing," said Sabre VP-Airline Sales and Marketing Scott Alvis. Airlines are looking to differentiate their products to secure and retain their premium frequent flyer customers, and to use their alliances as marketing leverage.
Northwest asked DOT for three additional weekly U.S.-Philippines roundtrip frequencies so it can begin service between Detroit and Manila via Nagoya. U.S. carriers are entitled to a total of 34 weekly U.S.-Philippines frequencies and 26 are allocated to Northwest, Continental and United. Seven others allocated to United expired due to dormancy, Northwest said. (Docket OST-98-4557)
Airshow named Patrick Flynn VP-business development, Skip Feher general manager of a new communications service unit and Robert Hopkins corporate aviation regional sales manager, southeastern U.S.
EurAir Pass, the $90 flat-rate program for flights among 55 European cities, is being forced to change its name to Europe Flight Pass. The move came after EurRail executives threatened legal action that European airlines believed would be too costly.
Civil aviation unions in North, South and Central America are calling for a "Fair Skies for the Americas" regime to protect workers as the North America-Latin America market is liberalized under open-skies agreements and other measures, according to the International Transport Workers' Federation. Unions recognize that the U.S.-Latin America aviation market is one of the fastest-growing in the world but fear that workers have been victims more often than beneficiaries of regional integration.
Communications Workers of America, which represents 10,000 passenger service workers at US Airways, has petitioned the National Mediation Board for a representation election among about 15,000 passenger service employees at American. Gate, ticket, reservations and other agents are the only major employee group at American that is not represented by a union, according to CWA.
Under FAA's new pay system for air traffic controllers, which took effect Oct. 1, FAA has reclassified each ATC facility into new grades with corresponding pay bands ranging from $33,320 per year to $118,069.The DOT Office of Inspector General says this should enable FAA to attract and retain personnel at key locations - the top ATC salary approaches the FAA administrator's, $136,700 - but "determining the means for funding the NATCA agreement without affecting other critical missions will be a significant challenge."
FAA and NASA will establish an agency partnership to pursue aviation safety improvements, airspace system efficiency and aircraft environmental concerns under an agreement signed Friday by their administrators, Jane Garvey and Dan Goldin. The pact creates an executive board of senior managers from both agencies to monitor progress and ensure that complementary aviation and commercial space transportation goals are achieved through coordinated planning.
Alaska Airlines is the latest carrier to transform its internal workings in search of better on-time performance. Admitting in an employee newspaper that it is "below the average" of major U.S. airlines, Alaska has involved several divisions in the effort and set an 82% on-time-arrivals goal. In August, the airline's 74% ranked eighth among majors. It was last in mishandled baggage.
