New Regional Aircraft Orders And Options June 1998 Firm Orders Options Carrier No. Type No. Type Engines Air Wisconsin 4 Canadair RJ200 - - CF34-3B1 Orders - Last 12 Months - Options Carrier Delivery Dates No. Type No. Type Air Wisconsin 1998-1999 - - - -
SAS is threatening to let its partner airlines operate some of its long- haul service unless cockpit and cabin crews accept cost-cutting measures. SAS VP Vagn Soerensen, interviewed by Danish daily Jyllands-Posten, emphasized that the carrier is renewing its long-haul fleet with 14 Boeing 767-800s. "Such a large investment is a great risk," said Soerensen. "We must have maximum certainty that these [long-haul] routes be profitable."
American and its Association of Professional Flight Attendants opened negotiations on a new labor contract yesterday in Washington. The current contract becomes amendable in November.
Negotiations between Air Canada and its Air Canada Pilots Association remained at a standstill yesterday, the first day of the pilots' strike, and no further talks were scheduled. Negotiations broke off late Tuesday, the pilots walked off the job, the airline canceled all flights scheduled yesterday and today, and the company will continue canceling flights daily as the strike continues.
FAA headquarters yesterday experienced a bomb scare. A threatening letter was examined by law enforcement and intelligence officials, who determined that the threat was not from a terrorist organization and was "not credible." The agency heightened security, and the threat remains under investigation.
AMR Services received contracts from FMC-Jetway Systems for maintenance services at the new passenger terminal at Ontario (Calif.) Airport, and from Air France for cargo warehousing services and freight loading and unloading at New York Kennedy Airport. The Air France contract, for three years, is AMR Services' first with the carrier.
Boeing 717 made its first flight yesterday, taking off from Long Beach Municipal Airport, Calif., and landing in Yuma, Ariz. BMW Rolls-Royce announced yesterday that the engine for the 717, its BR715 turbofan, has received FAA certification, following acceptance by the European Joint Aviation Authorities Aug. 28. Boeing said the flight speed to Yuma would be limited to 250 knots or below. On hand for lift-off was Joseph Corr, president of AirTran, which has ordered 50 of the twinjets, with the first expected to be delivered in mid-1999.
Northwest and its striking Air Line Pilots Association unit will meet Saturday in Chicago in informal talks with National Mediation Board Chairwoman Maggie Jacobsen. Jacobsen scheduled the "exploratory" session with union and management yesterday after both sides indicated flexibility in negotiations following a meeting Tuesday with DOT Secretary Rodney Slater.
Dallas/Fort Worth Airport asked DOT to revise the issues it would rule on in its Dallas Love Field proceeding and, like American, asked to extend the initial comment period beyond the Sept. 8 deadline. DFW recommended an Oct. 8 deadline and American Nov. 8, with replies due Dec. 7. The City of Fort Worth asked for an extension if its petition to dismiss the proceeding is rejected (DAILY, Sept. 2).
Flight attendants at Atlantic Coast Airlines, a United Express carrier, on Friday will count a membership vote on whether to authorize a strike. Flight attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants, in March rejected a contract proposal they said did not adequately address wages, per diem and other issues. AFA and ACA have been in negotiations since August 1997, and since March with the National Mediation Board. The union claims low starting wages are responsible for high turnover and cause more than 100 flight cancellations each month.
Parties interested in purchasing a share of Hamburg's Fuhlsbuettel Airport will have one month, from the end of September until the end of October, to sign up. Flughafen Hamburg GmbH (FHG) manager Werner Hauschild believes the partial privatization of the airport will be completed by mid-1999. The City of Hamburg will keep a long-term stake of 50.1%, down from the current 64%, said Hauschild. The other shareholders are the German Federation, with 26%, and the Land of Schleswig-Holstein, with 10%. Both intend to sell their stakes to the private sector.
Air Traffic Control Association will conduct a one-day symposium, "FAA Acquisition: Process and Problems," on Tuesday at the Crystal City Hyatt Regency, Arlington, Va. Speakers will include Kenneth Mead, DOT inspector general, and Charles Barclay, president of the American Association of Airport Executives. For information, call 703-522-5717.
FAA Administrator Jane Garvey is scheduled to meet today with Wide Area Augmentation System officials to review the program, which is undergoing a risk assessment by John Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.Congress is threatening to cut funding for it, but the airlines have issued a position paper saying WAAS funding is critical to FAA airspace modernization efforts, including free flight, and for critical safety programs, such as prevention of controlled flight into terrain.
The American-British Airways alliance will face a unique amount of competition that will not be hobbled by lack of access at London Heathrow Airport, partly due to the alliance's unique offer to guarantee slots to new entrants, according to testimony the carriers submitted to DOT this week in preparation for its hearing on their request for antitrust immunity.
Air Transport Association Cargo Traffic May 1998 Revenue Ton Miles (000) May May % 1998 1997 Change Domestic Freight 757,679 761,963 (0.6) Mail 146,178 154,945 (5.7) Total 903,857 916,908 (1.4) International
Summary of U.S. National Carriers Revenues and Expenses First Quarter 1998 (In Dollars) Total Operating % Passenger Freight Revenues Change Revenues Revenues AirTran Airlines 70,032,026 89.64 63,598,067 -- Aloha 59,052,902 2.72 162,729,059 5,521,563
The Pacific's newest airline, Air Tahiti Nui, will launch service Nov. 20 with decades of experience in the board room, plus technical and marketing support from Air France. The French islands, which rely heavily on tourism, are starting an airline in the same fashion as Virgin Atlantic: one airplane, lots of planning and the use of expertise from inside the industry. The airline will serve Los Angeles and Tokyo from Papeete, Tahiti, using a single A340-200 on a seven-year lease from Airbus.
Standard&Poor's yesterday affirmed its rating on Boeing Co. and related units after the company said it will repurchase up to 15% of its outstanding shares of common stock. It said the outlook for Boeing "remains negative." S&P said that while stock buybacks represent a "shift in the company's historically conservative financial policy, they are expected to be funded primarily from internally generated cash flow and excess cash balance.
DOT issued concurrent orders concerning Air Transport International - it found ATI Limited Liability Co. fit "following substantial changes in ownership and management," and it assessed compromise civil penalties against ATI-LLC's predecessor Air Transport International Inc. for submitting reports late. ATI filed 78% of its reports an average of 40 days late between January 1997 and May 1998, DOT said. ATI told DOT its personnel responsible for filing the reports changed twice during 1997 and 1998.
Standard&Poor's placed Northwest Airlines Corp. on CreditWatch with negative implications, affecting $3.2 billion in debt and equipment trust certificates. S&P said Northwest is losing $27 million each day in revenue and is experiencing a daily cash loss of more than $10 million during its pilots strike. S&P removed Fine Air Services from CreditWatch after the airline said it was terminating talks with Southern Air Transport. The current S&P outlook on Fine Air credit is positive.
Turkish Airlines' traffic for July increased 0.4% to 1.49 billion revenue passenger kilometers. Traffic so far in 1998 has risen 3.8%. The carrier's passenger count was up 4.9% for both July and the year to date. The airline carried 5.9 million passengers over the seven-month period.
Two key Democrats who served with Norman Mineta when he authored the Civil Aeronautics Board Sunset Act of 1984 are disputing his claim, based partly on that act, that DOT does not have the authority to adopt its proposed competition policy. House Transportation aviation subcommittee members James Oberstar (D-Minn.) and William Lipinski (D-Ill.), who worked with Mineta when he was chairman of the subcommittee in the mid-1980s, filed their comments yesterday in response to Mineta's observations in the competition policy docket.
DOT Secretary Rodney Slater late yesterday faxed letters to the chief executive officers of commuters Mesaba and Express Airlines 1 that they must reinstate service to 17 small communities in the Midwest and South to comply with the federal Essential Air Services program.
Crossair will accommodate vegetarian passengers by offering vegetarian meals during September. The Vegi Hilti of Zurich, described by Crossair as the oldest vegetarian restaurant in Europe, will supply the meals.
Alitalia has leased one new and two used 767-300ERs from International Lease Finance Corp. The aircraft, to be delivered between this month and next April, have General Electric engines.
