Midwest Express will double its daily Milwaukee-Phoenix roundtrips Dec. 1 and expand its seasonal flights in the market to year-round service. Service on the route will be provided by one of the carrier's eight recently acquired MD-80s, configured for 116 passengers. Flights will be timed to connect with its on-line service and with wholly owned subsidiary Astral Aviation's Skyway Express operations as The Midwest Connection to the upper Midwest. Two other MD-80s will replace DC-9s to provide additional capacity for service to New York LaGuardia and Washington.
Quiet Technology Venture, Miami, in partnership with Fine Air Services, said it was awarded the first FAA supplemental type certificate to install Stage 3 hush kits on the DC-8-50/60 series aircraft. Fine Air plans to begin installing the kits on its fleet of 14 aircraft this month.
IATA 1997 Regional Traffic Flows Passenger Psgrs Chg Kilometers Chg (000) % (millions) % Scheduled Services -- International Within North America -- International 12,414 5.1 19,530 6.8 North America -- Central America 16,816 4.2 31,912 8.5
Delta and AeroMexico asked DOT to take immediate action on their current request for authority to code share between Monterrey and 11 U.S. points to enable AeroMexico to offer the service Oct. 1. Mexico designated AeroMexico to provide service to the U.S. destinations in diplomatic notes dated Nov. 23, 1993, and Sept. 8, 1998. The carriers want DOT to act on "discrete portions" of their Dec. 29, 1997, joint application in order to implement service on the bilaterally agreed routes.
FAA plans to announce within two or three weeks its plans for examining aging aircraft systems. The agency said yesterday it wants to look at electrical, pneumatic and hydraulic systems in much the same way it now inspects aging structural systems. There is no link to the Swissair accident, FAA said. "This has been in the making for quite some time in response to a Gore Commission recommendation that FAA, in cooperation with the airlines and manufacturers, expand inspections to cover non-structural systems," a spokesman said.
U.S. Air Force Air Mobility Command is testing its new Mobile Microwave Landing System through Sept. 24 at Hurlburt Field, Fla. MMLS augments existing Air Force air traffic control and landing systems and enables aircraft to operate in adverse weather at airfields with limited or no navigation aids. The transportable system can be set up by three people in less than two hours, according to Maj. Don Dressel, project officer.
Continental will make history Sept. 21 when it uses the first FAA-certified Global Positioning System landing system (GLS), designed by Honeywell and Pelorus Navigation. The carrier will fly two approaches, at Newark and Minneapolis/St. Paul, using an MD-83 originating at Washington Reagan Airport. Briefings and ceremonies are planned at all three cities, including the "world's first end-to-end Differential GPS operation" and the first DGPS-certified approach into Minneapolis/St. Paul.
Airbus won the orders war at the Farnborough Air Show. The consortium announced $12 billion in orders, options and commitments versus Boeing's $6.93 billion.
Air Canada's pilots yesterday ratified by 83% a new two-year contract that gives them a 4% raise in the first year retroactive to April 1, and 5% in the second year. The carrier began phasing in about one quarter of its operations yesterday afternoon, with plans to be fully operational by Thursday. Air Canada Pilots Association (ACPA) Master Executive Council Chairman Jean-Marc Belanger said 94% of the rank and file cast ballots.
Austrian carrier Lauda Air will be the only airline serving a direct scheduled route between Vienna and Morocco, starting Oct. 27, with the launch of a weekly 737-400 service to Moroccan seaside resort Agadir.
Cathay Pacific will increase service to North America, Europe and Australia as part of winter schedule additions that begin Oct. 25, the carrier said Friday. Cathay will increase available seat kilometers 5.2% over last winter. Previously announced Hong Kong-San Francisco nonstop service begins Dec. 1, bringing to 49 the number of weekly flights to North America. Hong Kong-Istanbul service began Aug. 8, and the carrier will continue operating frequency additions to Los Angeles, Sydney and London. Hong Kong-Sapporo service will end Oct.
Electronic ticket interline agreements among United, TWA and Northwest may not be far off. United and TWA have been accepting Northwest e-tickets during the pilot strike and are retrieving the e-ticket information directly from Northwest's database, according to Northwest VP-Distribution Planning Al Lenza. Northwest hopes to formalize a reciprocal interline process with TWA and United, he said. Six carriers are accepting the return portions of Northwest customers' e-ticket itineraries. Northwest has issued paper tickets for the front portions.
Alaska Airlines said it will suspend its once-weekly service to the Russian Far East Oct. 8 due to the collapse of the Russian economy. The carrier, which has operated one departure a week to the region over the past four winters, currently flies to Magadan, Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, Petropavlovsk and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Alaska said passengers holding bookings beyond Oct. 8 will be accommodated on other carriers, and it plans to provide connecting service to the region soon with marketing partner Reeve Aleutian Airways.
Sabena said it will resume service to Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, after receiving "confirmation that all security conditions had been met." Passengers will have to pay a surcharge of $300, however, to cover Sabena's high insurance costs for the route. Sabena halted its four weekly flights to Kinshasa Aug. 14 as the Congolese government faced a rebellion.
Air Transport Association's reply to comments on DOT's proposed competition policy faults four "anecdotal" examples in the department's white paper on the subject. According to ATA, in two cases the new entrant remained in the market; in a third another new entrant has since entered the route, and in the fourth "it was DOT - not a major carrier - that forced new entrant [ValuJet] to cease operations after a tragic crash."
KLM has increased its load factor since fiscal 1994 even as it has grown, a measure of its improved profitability. The carrier offers 32.4% more available seat kilometers than in 1994, and its passenger load factor has risen steadily during the period to 78.2% from 71.2%. Passenger and cargo yields and unit costs have remained flat.
Hangar Talk by Irv Broughton. The history of flying is told through interviews with the men and women who created it, from the days of biplanes to ventures into space. Eastern Washington University Press; $35. To order, call 800-441-4115.
Dornier said it is the first German manufacturer of commercial aircraft to receive permission to build and certify aircraft and aircraft components under Joint Aviation Requirement 21. Dornier is a subsidiary of Fairchild Aerospace, which announced appointment of Barry Eccleston as senior VP-business development. Eccleston was president of International Aero Engines.
