Mesaba and Northwest will launch twice-daily nonstop service Oct. 25 between Flint Bishop Airport and Northwest's Minneapolis/St. Paul hub using RJ85 jets operated by the Northwest Airlink affiliate. The new service will complement Northwest and Mesaba's 10 daily Flint-Detroit flights, Northwest said.'
Express Airlines I, the Northwest subsidiary that operates as a Northwest Airlink, will reinstate service on all its routes today and intends to restore by Friday the capacity it offered before the Northwest pilots strike. It will continue its program to phase out 19-seat Jetstream 3100 aircraft by Oct. 1 and operate a fleet comprising 33-seat Saab 340s.
CityBird, Belgium's low-fare, long-haul carrier, transported a record 34,759 passengers in August, producing an average load factor of 86%. Compared with August 1997, CityBird's passengers flying to Florida and California jumped by 44% and 70%, respectively.
Belgium's main environmental party, Ecolo, says Amsterdam Schiphol Airport may try to shift noisy aircraft traffic to Belgium by investing in the newly reorganized company that will manage Brussels Airport International. Schiphol seeks a 13.5% stake in the new entity, Brussels International Airport Company (BIAC), of which the Belgian state will retain just over 50%. The Belgian press reported in May that Schiphol was exploring a pan-Benelux approach to distributing air traffic to alleviate pressure on its runways.
Moody's Investors Service yesterday placed Boeing Co.'s senior debt ratings under review for possible downgrade, citing the company's continuing poor operating performance and uncertainty about how soon and how well it will resolve its commercial aircraft production problems. "Another factor prompting this review was the company's recently announced $5 billion stock buyback program," it said. Moody's also placed the ratings of Boeing Capital Corp.
Cimber Air has placed orders for two ATR-72-500s and options for another two, with first delivery scheduled next February. The carrier previously ordered three ATR 42-500s. Cimber Air said it has experienced a steady increase in traffic on its Copenhagen-Berlin route, which it began last spring in cooperation with Lufthansa and SAS.
American's argument that European Commission conditions on an American-British Airways alliance might violate a not-yet-negotiated U.S.-U.K. bilateral is "devoid of substance" and has "potentially adverse consequences" for Northwest and alliance partner KLM, Northwest told DOT.
Moody's Investor Service yesterday confirmed Northwest's debt ratings, affecting $3.2 billion in debt. But the agency noted that the pilots strike "has been very costly to the airline and has significantly weakened its credit quality." Since Northwest still must negotiate labor agreements with five different unions, Moody's said the airline's ratings outlook is negative. Moody's added that Northwest faces weak Asian traffic, a deterioration of premium traffic and a need to improve customer service, "which has declined to the lowest level of any of the U.S.
Fuel Cost and Consumption U.S. Majors, Nationals and Large Regionals August 1997 - July 1998 Total Total Cost Cents Per Gallons (Dollars) Gallon 1997 August Domestic 1,188,236,367 741,721,203 62.422 International 458,116,090 294,425,167 64.269
Continental, responding yesterday to DOT's request for comments on modernizing its aviation data requirements (DAILY, July 15), said DOT "should require additional airlines to supply data and require all airlines to use the Internet to transmit data to the department." Comments were filed by United and the City of Chicago. (Docket OST-98-4043)
IBM is developing a voice-activated interface to computer reservations systems that understands natural speech, including accents and several foreign languages. The company is looking for a vendor to pilot the project, called Advanced Communication Systems Access.
Jet Service Enterprises, Bethany, Okla., has received a supplemental type certificate to modify nacelle inlets for the Westwind 1124, the Hawker 700 and 800 and earlier models with TFE731 engines.
Northwest, fresh from settling a strike with its pilots, is heading into more labor problems - from its machinists, represented by the International Association of Machinists (IAM). The two sides are awaiting word from the National Mediation Board on when or if contract negotiations, halted in August, will resume. IAM's 27,300 vote-eligible members soundly rejected a tentative contract last month (DAILY, Aug. 6), and the union has asked the NMB to release it from mediation.
Singapore Airlines is carrying out feasibility flights on the Seoul-San Francisco route using the A340. Three flights have been completed, and a fourth will be carried out on Sept. 21. According to a senior SIA A340 pilot, the findings of the three flights are encouraging, and on their basis, SIA will replace its current daily 747-400 service on the route with the A340, starting Nov. 2. The pilot said the fourth flight will be for academic interest. He said based on a payload of 265 passengers, the seating capacity of the A340, SIA will save US$5 million a year.
FAA plans to fine AirNet Systems, Columbus, Ohio, for failing to comply with its drug-testing regulations, the agency said yesterday. It proposed a fine of $200,000 after an investigation "revealed that 27 AirNet employees performed pilot or aircraft maintenance duties [even though] verified negative pre-employment drug test results had not been received by the company for any of these employees." FAA said the company acknowledged that pre-employment drug test results were not available until the FAA had completed the March 27, 1997, investigation.
United didn't buy the A320 with transcontinental expansion in mind and Airbus didn't pitch the concept during the selling process, but the efficiency and range of the A320 family is enabling the carrier to launch and develop transcontinental routes that would not be possible with other airplanes. The A320, designed with smaller galleys for its medium- and short-haul mission, is quickly becoming United's major weapon in the battle for lucrative transcon traffic.
Prestige International, Tokyo, said yesterday it has launched a multilingual emergency response service for the airline industry. Its president, Shinichi Tamagami, said Prestige will maintain a register of multilingual operators trained in handling emergency calls, keeping them on standby for use in an airline disaster to field calls from family members, friends and the media.
Hapag-Lloyd, German tour carrier, has exercised an option to purchase five more next-generation 737-800s. The company was the launch customer for the aircraft in 1994 with an initial order for 16 and options for eight more.
Raytheon Systems Co. announced contracts valued at $125 million for design, engineering and installation of VIP interiors on 11 Boeing Business Jets and one Boeing 777, the first such modification of the widebody twin. The work will be performed for domestic and international customers. The work is being done at its Waco, Texas, facility.
Airlines and travel vendors must create backup plans now to protect themselves from Year 2000-related chaos, airline industry experts warned attendees at the New Frontiers In Travel Distribution seminar last week in Phoenix, Ariz. Airlines and travel vendors are spending millions of dollars to become Y2K-compliant, but there is no guarantee that the vendors with which their systems interface will be compliant, or that all their changes and upgrades will work.
Delta's decision to switch to two-class international service comes soon after US Airways made plans for three-class A330s."They can't both be correct," said Craig Jenks, president of Airline/Aircraft Projects. Delta's choice raises questions about how it will transfer code-share passengers who come from a foreign carrier's first class, he added.
Chengdu, China-based China Southwest Airlines will take delivery next month of its first Airbus A340s, according to Zhou Zhengquan, director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China's southwestern branch. The three-aircraft, $360 million deal, signed previously under CAAC guidance, will provide the first widebody aircraft for the state-supervised airline, enabling it to launch long-haul service like China's larger carriers - Air China, China Southern and China Eastern. Yunnan Airlines and Guizhou Airlines also will take aircraft from Boeing and Airbus.
