American and AMR Corp. announced new responsibilities for several executives. Robert Baker, executive VP-operations, will add purchasing, corporate real estate, cargo, safety and security to his current duties, which include flight operations, maintenance and engineering, the system operations control center and operations planning. Dan Garton, president of American Eagle since 1995, will become senior VP-customer services, reporting directly to Chairman Donald Carty. Peter Bowler, VP-passenger sales for American, will succeed Garton.
GE Capital said its GE Capital Aviation Services, AAR Corp. and GE Engine Services have created a joint venture, Aviation Inventory Management Co. (AIMCO), which will finance airframe rotables to commercial customers worldwide. The venture combines the inventory management and technical skills of AAR and GE Engine Services inventory with the financial strength and lease structuring experience of GECAS.
UPS said yesterday it will buy as many as 60 new Airbus A300-600 freighters, making a firm commitment to 30 over the next 10 years. The firm order and options are valued at up to $5 billion. GE Capital Aviation Services announced orders for 30 A320-family aircraft and took 10 options, all to be powered by CFM56 engines. GECAS also ordered nine Boeing 767-300ER and three Boeing 767-400ER aircraft with General Electric CF6-80 series engines. The Boeing deal was valued at $1.3 billion.
Swiss World Airways will operate its first service today, from Geneva to Newark. The new Swiss airline company, operating from Geneva, was created with financial help from French-speaking Swiss regional authorities after Swissair decided to concentrate its international operations in Zurich. SWA said it plans to serve Washington and Montreal, beginning in 1999. It is starting out as a 767 operator but intends eventually to become the first carrier to operate 737-700s on transatlantic service. SWA will offer first, business and economy classes.
Canadian Airlines reported load factors from 94% to 98% last Friday and added flights at Toronto to accommodate the high passenger volume. The carrier added 11 flights on Friday to Vancouver, Ottawa, Thunder Bay, Windsor and Montreal, and 15 on Saturday to Halifax, Montreal, Vancouver and Winnipeg.
AirTran Holdings Inc. reported a 21% increase in traffic and a 16.2% capacity rise last month compared with August last year, which pushed the load factor up 2.5 percentage points to 63%. The company's airline subsidiaries flew 300.8 million revenue passenger miles and 477.8 million available seat miles during the month, and passenger enplanements rose 16.5% to 509,043. Year-to-date RPMs jumped 37.6% and ASMs 34.7%, boosting the load factor 1.3 percentage points. Passenger enplanements were up 27.9% from the same period in 1997.
Air Ontario responded to the Northwest pilots strike by increasing Baltimore-Toronto service to seven flights per day and Providence-Toronto to four, Monday through Friday. The Air Canada regional carrier will continue the extra flights through tomorrow, when it will reassess the situation.
European government ministers expressed aggravation this week about continuing delays in the corporatization of Airbus, aimed at turning the loose European consortium into a full-fledged, efficient, private company. The initial target for the transformation was Jan. 1, 1999.
Tower Air reported a 13.8% traffic increase on 22% more capacity for August 1998 over August last year, which decreased the load factor 6.1 percentage points to 84.2%. New York-based Tower flew 636 million revenue passenger miles on 755 million available seat miles. Enplaned passengers increased 28% to 247,000, and total block hours flown dropped 3.7% to 4,642. Year-to-date, Tower reported 23.5% more RPMs and 24.7% more ASMs, pushing the load factor down 0.8 points. Passenger volume increased 31.6%.
Delta is launching a winter fare sale to U.S. and Canadian destinations. Reduced fares are available for travel between Sept. 22 and Jan. 13, and some blackout dates apply. Sample roundtrip fares include $201 Cincinnati-Washington; $482 Boston-Sacramento and $460 Portland-Savannah.
United parent UAL Corp. yesterday authorized the repurchase of up to $500 million of the company's common stock on the open market or in privately negotiated transactions.
Delta said yesterday it will shift its international marketing strategy and offer only two classes of service worldwide. The carrier will couple the removal of first class with a substantial upgrade of business class, which will be superior to current premium service. It will spend $100-125 million on seats and redesign alone, and pour additional funds into a new inflight entertainment system, branding and promotions.
Reporting the "sixth consecutive year that the aircraft fleet has been ahead of the requirement to transition to quieter aircraft," Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater said yesterday about 80% of aircraft operating in the U.S. meet Stage 3 noise rules. The Aircraft Noise and Capacity Act of 1990 set aircraft noise standards for 2000, and Slater is required to report annually to Congress on compliance goals. This year's report shows that operators surpassed the Dec.
Continental Express pilot negotiators yesterday asked to be released from mediation after reaching an impasse in contract negotiations. The Independent Association of Continental Pilots (IACP) has 6,200 members, 1,200 of whom fly for Continental Express operations. Wages are the main dispute, according to IACP. The union said a strike by Express pilots could shut down operations by the major as well because the new contract for Continental pilots permits them to honor Continental Express picket lines.
The German air transport industry is visibly nervous about the outcome of the nation's Sept. 27 general elections, in which the environment-conscious Social Democrats lead the polls. Some of the air transport sector's most prominent representatives - including the heads of Lufthansa, Frankfurt and Munich airports and the German air traffic control authority - issued a position paper recently aimed at attracting the attention of the country's next government.
America West introduced FlightFund Merit Miles, an incentive program that enables companies to buy frequent flyer miles to build customer loyalty or reward performance. Merit Miles certificates are available in 100-, 500-, 1,000-, 5,000- or 20,000-mile denominations, with a $1,000 minimum purchase. Certificates, redeemed through America West, are credited directly to the recipient's FlightFund account.
Frankfurt Airport has told the European Commission it will no longer "tie its customers to long-term contracts," the European Union's competition watchdog said this week in Brussels. EU Competition Commissioner Karel Van Miert has taken repeated action for two years against the ground-handling monopoly of Flughafen Frankfurt/Main AG, which manages Germany's largest airport. The first phase of ground-handling liberalization in the EU is scheduled to start Jan.
Japan Airlines President Isao Kaneko, seeking to dispel "erroneous" reports that the carrier is inefficient, said extensive cost cutting has put its structure on a par with United's. JAL's costs are $0.43 per available ton kilometer flown, while United's are $0.44.
Rank-and-file ground service workers represented by the International Association of Machinists rejected by more than 80% a contract negotiated by union leadership and US Airways management. Negotiators and a mediator may return to the bargaining table to try to draw up another agreement.
GE Engine Services said it signed a multi-year engine maintenance and overhaul agreement with Varig worth up to $1 billion. It will maintain most of the engines under a Maintenance Cost Per Hour agreement.
United will offer its electronic ticketing service to 11 cities in seven countries over the next three months. E-tickets will be available for travel to the gateway cities of Amsterdam, Beijing, Brussels, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Milan, Munich, Paris, Shanghai and Singapore. E-tickets to Beijing and Shanghai will go on sale Sept. 14 for travel beginning Oct. 6; to Hong Kong and Singapore on Sept. 30 for travel starting Nov. 1; to Germany Oct. 12 for travel beginning Oct. 26; to Italy and France Nov. 2 for travel beginning Nov.
British Aerospace has chosen Sydney, Australia, as the location for a support office for its regional aircraft customers throughout the Asia/Pacific area. BAe Australia will establish and operate the Sydney office, to be headed by Bruce Jones, senior VP-Australian support. The office opened Monday with a team of 10 people and will become fully operational in October. Its main role will be to provide a coordinated point of contact for customers operating BAe 146/RJ, J21/J32, HS748 and ATP aircraft.
Air Transport Association Cargo Traffic, June 1998 Air Transport Association Cargo Traffic June 1998 Revenue Ton Miles (000) June June % 1998 1997 Change Domestic Freight 777,214 744,320 4.4 Mail 135,857 141,292 (3.8) Total 913,071 885,612 3.1 International
Top 25 U.S. Gateways for Nonstop Travel To/From Europe The Year 1997 % Change % Change Departures 97 vs. 96 Passengers 97 vs. 96 1 New York, Kennedy 56,436 -4.4% 9,898,538 -1.2% 2 Chicago, O'Hare 22,584 9.9% 3,795,249 14.3% 3 New York, Newark 19,771 33.1% 3,632,783 34.5%
New Airbus Chief Executive Noel Forgeard used this year's Farnborough Air Show as the launch platform for marketing the consortium's 100-seat A318 transport - and for raising prices 3% across the board. The Airbus board is scheduled to vote in December on launching the A318, formerly the A319M5, Forgeard said. In the meantime, the board has given the sales staff "authorization to offer" a number of aircraft in a customary pre-launch phase, to support a launch decision.
