Dan Garton, senior VP customer service at American and former president of American Eagle, will discuss airline-airport relationships, passenger facility charges and airline economics on this week's Aviation News Today, to air on Washington's NewsChannel 8 Sunday at 12:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
National Transportation Safety Board recommended this week that FAA require all Part 135 scheduled passenger night flights to be operated under instrument flight rules except when such operations are found to be unfeasible. FAA, responding to an earlier recommendation following the crash of a Dash 6-300 into a mountain in Hawaii, required that multi-engine airplane operations be conducted under IFR in darkness or poor visibility. FAA further responded when it changed the regulatory basis of 10 or more passenger seats to Part 121. The safety board, pointing to the Feb.
Great Lakes Aviation, Spencer, Iowa, carried 91,648 passengers last month, 72.2% more than it carried in September 1997. Revenue passenger miles jumped almost as much - 63.2% to 26.7 million - as capacity gained 36.5% to 45.7 million available seat miles. The load factor was up 9.6 percentage points to 58.5%.
Eindhoven, The Netherlands-based BASE Airlines achieved a number of significant milestones in its operation last year, according to its director general, Hans Noorlander, and is planning to expand its scheduled services.
Air Ontario, Air Canada's regional carrier, is celebrating its one-year anniversary of service to Providence, R.I., with free cake to passengers who fly today. Air Ontario began nonstop service from Toronto's Pearson Airport to Rhode Island's T.F. Green Airport on Oct. 5, 1997. Passenger enplanements have exceeded expectations and continued to increase, the company said. Service is aboard Dash 8-100 aircraft.
The new four-year contract approved by Atlantic Coast Airlines flight attendants calls for pay increases totaling 14.7% over the life of the contract, the Association of Flight Attendants said and the airline confirmed. The union announced approval by the rank-and-file Wednesday (DAILY, Oct. 8).
Embraer has stormed the regional-jet market with 352 firm orders for its ERJ-135/145 family in just four years. That compares with 350 firm EMB-120 Brasilia total orders in 14 years. Add to that 414 regional-jet options against 30 existing options for the Brasilia. Bombardier has likewise scored major firm orders, now at 490 over eight years plus 285 options - 141 firm orders since Jan. 1. The CRJ has not surpassed the Dash 8 turboprop firm orderbook of 562 over 18 years but is rapidly catching up. Regional jets have sold in far larger blocks than turboprops.
Jersey European Airways, Devon, England, racked up gains in revenue and profitability for the financial year 1997/98, continuing a pattern of growth that has now reached five years. The company's revenue jumped 44% during the year to #135 million - US$230.2 million - contributing to record profitability - profit before tax was up 56% to more than #5.2 million - US$8.9 million.
American "continues to remain hopeful" that its prospective alliance with British Airways will move forward and that a U.S.-U.K. open-skies agreement can be reached, a Fort Worth-based spokesman said yesterday in reaction to the lack of progress at this week's talks in London (DAILY, Oct. 8). But the "belief in some quarters" that the two carriers will "pay any price" to achieve their alliance "is a huge assumption that is incorrect," the spokesman said. He said it is possible for each country's prerequisites - open skies for the U.S.
Austrian Airlines promises premium-class passengers a free hotel stay in Vienna throughout 1999 if they travel beyond Austria. The airline provides connections to 25 cities in Eastern Europe, Russia, Ukraine, the Slavic republics, the Middle East and Asia.
Tatas Industries, calling the civil aviation ministry of India a "stumbling block," withdrew its proposal to set up a domestic airline because of the "absence of a credible timeframe for a decision." The company said the Foreign Investment Promotion board deferred its proposal, filed three years ago, four times this year alone because the ministry "had refused to send in its comments" on whether the plan met new policy guidelines.
FAA said it plans a $60,000 fine against American Check Transport for violating the carrier's anti-drug and alcohol misuse prevention programs. The alleged violations occurred while the Salt Lake City-based airline was doing business as Flight Line Inc. FAA alleged that American Check did not submit an alcohol misuse certification statement or implement the program in the required time frame.
Investment house Merrill Lynch is lowering its earnings estimates and long-term outlook for LanChile, citing stepped-up pressure on revenues stemming from lower air fares and weaker passenger traffic. While Merrill Lynch lowered the 1998 revenue estimate just 2% to US$680.7 million, next year's revenue is expected to be $695.4 million, a 17.4% lower forecast. The firm is increasing its cargo revenue forecast. "The seasonally strongest months for LanChile are January, February, July and December," said analyst Marco Antonio Vargas in the report.
United traffic, buoyed by the Northwest and Air Canada strikes, grew 7.6% on 2.9% more capacity, which forced the load factor up 3.3 percentage points to 75.4%. North American traffic jumped 11.9% on 4.3% more capacity, boosting the load factor 5.1 percentage points to 73.6%. United carried 7.6 million passengers last month, 9.5% more than in September 1997. Pacific traffic fell 3.1% on 6.6% less capacity, which generated a load factor of 79.1%, up 2.9 points. Atlantic traffic increased 8.3% on 8.7% more capacity, keeping the load factor high at 87.2%.
Regional stocks were battered in the wild ride on Wall Street Thursday. Five of the eight issues were off by more than a dollar and three by more than $3. Atlantic Southeast led losers, down $5.125 to $23.25. Comair was down $3.125 to $21; Atlantic Coast lost $3 to $13.24; SkyWest was off $1.69 to $16.06; Mesaba Holdings lost $1.375 to $10.375; Great Lakes Aviation was down a quarter to $3, and CCAIR fell 6.25 cents to $3.24 per share. Only Mesa Air Group gained in value, up a quarter to $4.375 per share. Major airlines also were down sharply.
Indianpolis-based Chautauqua Airlines, Inc., a US Airways Express carrier, posted a 23.6% gain in traffic to 16.5 million revenue passenger miles as capacity rose 5% to 28.2 million available seat miles, driving up the load factor 8.8 percentage points to 58.5%. Enplanements rose 21.5% to 74,012.
European engineering group ABB has established a new subsidiary in Germany, ABB Airport Technologies GmbH, centralizing the group's airport construction work. The Mannheim-based unit employs 150 people and has a turnover of 250 million Deutschmarks (US$153 million) a year.
FAA plans to order nearly $100 million in inspections and modifications of 737s for fatigue cracks on the forward pressure bulkheads, which could result in "rapid decompression of the aircraft," the agency said yesterday. Fatigue cracks have been found in three bulkhead areas - the side chord, the vertical chord and the bulkhead web - located just forward of the flight deck. The inspections, which do not apply to next-generation 737s, are to be carried out within 1,500 flight cycles on aircraft with 60,000 or more flight cycles.
Consolidators International, based in Los Angeles, Calif., said it is open for business seven days a week, "the first international air freight wholesaler in the U.S. to conduct Sunday operations." President Julian Keeling said the company gets business "from points as far away as the Southwest, Midwest and Northern California. This cargo often arrives at our Los Angeles docks late on Saturday. Much of this freight is destined for Australia, demanding delivery immediately after the weekend.
EVA Airways will launch cargo service from Taipei to Dallas/Fort Worth Nov. 23 with two new MD-11s. DFW will be EVA's 17th cargo destination. By next summer, EVA will have nine MD-11s in its fleet, in addition to 10 747-400 Combis. The MD-11s have an 80-ton cargo capacity and the combis 40 tons.
Tower Air reported a 3.7% increase in traffic on 8.8% more capacity for September, which depressed the load factor 3.5 percentage points to 71.5%. Tower flew 364 million revenue passenger miles on 509 million available seat miles. Passenger enplanements grew 16.3% to 143,000 and block hours flown were up 0.1% to 3,483. For the first nine months, RPMs jumped 20.8% and ASMs 22.6%, causing the load factor to decline 1 point. Passenger volume increased 29.6% and block hours 4.8%.
SAirGroup has nominated Eric Honegger to become its board chairman in spring 2000, when the current chairman, Hannes Goetz, retires. Honegger, 52, has been a member of the board since 1993 and was Switzerland's finance minister in 1991.
Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) introduced legislation yesterday that would give consumers better access to information about the airline industry. DeFazio, a senior member of the House Transportation aviation subcommittee, would require airlines and travel agents to identify the carrier providing service if it is not the carrier issuing the ticket, travel agents to disclose special incentives they receive for booking on a particular carrier, and airlines to disclose all available fares and keep records on frequent flyer benefits for specific city-pairs.
