About 100 flights were canceled Wednesday at Stockholm's Arlanda Airport and many frequencies were delayed Thursday as 60% of its air traffic controllers called in sick, saying they were suffering from overwork. Controllers and ATC authorities are negotiating wages, and union representative Tord Gustavsson refused to say whether the illnesses were a disguised form of protest. Union sources claim facilities are understaffed because Swedish controllers are among the worst-paid in the European Union.
Association of Flight Attendants filed a petition accusing the Mexican government of illegally intervening in a strike by unionized flight attendants at AeroMexico. AFA filed the complaint under provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement, in support of flight attendants represented by Asociacion Sindical de Sobrecargo de Aviacion de Mexico (ASSA).
GE Engine Services will establish a joint company, GE Varig Engine Services, in Rio de Janeiro, the U.S. company announced at the Farnborough Air Show. GE will own 95% of the new company. In other Farnborough announcements, Rolls-Royce reported business worth up to $500 million for AE3007 engines to power Embraer RJ-135 regional jets bought by American Eagle.
Singapore Airlines announced Friday its biggest-ever product enhancement, as Chief Executive Cheong Choong Kong said he will spend S$500 million (US$300 million) on a complete renewal of all seats, interiors, cuisine and service on its fleet. Boeing 777s and Airbus A340s also will receive new features.
The U.K. is not in a position to apply the ban on commercial flights from Yugoslavia imposed by the European Union after Yugoslavia's military intervention in the province of Kosovo. The U.K. argues that its bilateral air agreement with Yugoslavia specifies that a party wishing to break it unilaterally must notify the other 12 months in advance. Yugoslav airline JAT has halted services to most EU nations. The U.K. and Greece are the only EU member states that have not moved to implement the ban fully.
Airlines should invest heavily in their own web sites to build brand loyalty, but they also should throw their support behind third-party web distributors, according to a panel of airline, Internet travel and computer reservations experts at last week's New Frontiers In Travel Distribution seminar in Phoenix.
DOT - Approved a renewal allocation of 11 weekly U.S.- Brazil combination frequencies of indefinite duration for American to provide scheduled foreign service between Dallas/Fort Worth and Miami and Sao Paulo...Approved an initial exemption for Far Eastern Air Transport Corp. to conduct scheduled foreign combination service from behind Taiwan, via Taiwan and intermediate points to points in the U.S.
Lufthansa Cargo nominated Jean-Peter Jansen, currently head of corporate purchasing and properties management, to become a deputy member of the executive board.
Air Canada settled with its pilots late Thursday in Montreal, after an 11-day work stoppage. The new agreement was sent to all pilots over the weekend for ratification and the union is expected to announce the results at noon Monday. Air Canada should return some aircraft to service 24 hours after ratification.
Appleton, Wis.-based United Express affiliate Air Wisconsin's load factor last month passed 75% and kept right on going, closing out the month at 76.6% - a 5.7-percentage-point jump from August 1997. Aug 98 Aug 97 8 Mths 98 8 Mths 97 RPMs 93,195,000 59,389,000 540,875,000 414,891,000 ASMs 121,636,000 83,775,000 812,614,000 638,647,000 LoadFtr% 76.6 70.9 66.6 65.0
Lucas Aerospace has received several contracts to supply a major portion of the primary and secondary flight controls and thrust reverser actuation on the Airbus A340-500/600. It valued the new business at about $520 million. Lucas will supply the trimmable horizontal stabilizer actuator and rudder servo control actuator on the primary flight controls and the slat system on the secondary controls. It also will supply the nacelle thrust reverser actuators. Deliveries are expected to begin in 2001.
Twelve months after the value of the Thai baht plummeted, pushing all other Asian currencies lower, Asia/Pacific airlines continue to experience softness in passenger traffic, according to data published by the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines. In the 12 months through June, the aggregate passenger total for the 19 AAPA members fell 3.29% and passenger kilometers dropped 1.42%. "This indicates that the fall has been sharper on the short-haul routes than on long-haul over the period in question," said AAPA Director General Richard Stirland.
Iberia, turned down again by FAA, asked DOT for an exemption from high- density slot restrictions at Chicago O'Hare to continue operating its recently inaugurated Chicago-Madrid daily nonstops during the summer 1999 season. The Spanish carrier received a two-slot O'Hare exemption for 1998 winter season service (DAILY, June 10), which it began operating Sept. 1 using A340-300s, and it wants to continue that service year-round. (Docket OST-98-4429)
Airbus's prospective A318 hundred-seater will cost more than the Boeing 717 and reach the market later, but the European consortium believes lower operating costs and other advantages will earn it half of a 20-year, 1,000-
Macomb, Mich.-based ACR Industries has received FAA approval to offer overhaul and repair services of turbine engine gearboxes and helicopter drive systems, including all detail gearing. The certification, announced by ACR on Monday, enables the company to operate as well an approved repair station for main transmission, tail rotor and intermediate gearboxes. ACR, which manufactures turbine engine gearboxes, helicopter transmission systems and fixed-wing actuator assemblies, said demand from its customers for such services prompted its certification request.
Hand-held computing devices and a web page package that enables users to book travel from multiple distributors soon will be commonplace, according to experts at the New Frontiers In Travel Distribution seminar yesterday in Phoenix. They said travel distributors who want to survive in a global marketplace, will take advantage of the new technology to reach a wider customer base and speed travel planning.
CCAIR traffic rose 20.7% last month to 15.9 million revenue passenger miles, compared with 13.1 million in August 1997. Capacity climbed 13.1% to 27.3 million, allowing the load factor to gain 3.6 percentage points to 58.1%. Boardings were up 14.8% to 81,428.
Negotiators for United Express regional Atlantic Coast Airlines and the Association of Flight Attendants reached agreement yesterday on a four-year contract, an AFA spokesman said. The second contract negotiated by AFA for the unit, it includes a 14% pay increase over the four-year period, an overtime rate and a new per diem that would be the highest for regional airline flight attendants by the end of the term. The contract is subject to ratification by rank and file, and the union hopes for approval by early October. AFA represents 200 people at the airline.
InVision Technologies said two QScan QR 500 systems, hold baggage scanners developed by subsidiary Quantum Magnetics, have passed factory acceptance testing at the FAA Technical Center. The units, based on Quantum's quadropole resonance (QR) technology, are the first such baggage systems to receive FAA approval, InVision said. FAA bought the two systems last year and plans to install them at two U.S. airports later this year.
Top 25 U.S. Gateways For Nonstop Travel To/From Far East/Australia The Year 1997 % Change % Change Departures 97 vs. 96 Passengers 97 vs. 96 1 Los Angeles 25,315 3.2% 6,694,750 1.3% 2 Honolulu 21,915 -1.9% 5,555,803 -2.7% 3 San Francisco 12,982 -1.9% 3,190,322 -0.5%
