America West will begin expanding service at its Columbus, Ohio, hub Oct. 25 by increasing daily flights from 29 to 37. The additional service will be facilitated by the introduction of Mesa Airlines' America West Express jet service, which will initially assign four 50-seat Canadair Regional Jets to the Columbus operation. America West will add frequencies between Columbus and Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston, New York LaGuardia, and Chicago Midway. Columbus-
Mesa Air Group has agreed to an $8 million settlement in class-action suits brought against the company and certain former and current officers and directors alleging publicly misleading financial statements and statements in a June 1993 public offering. The company said it believes it has "meritorious defenses against the plaintiffs' allegations," but agreed to the settlement to avoid protracted litigation.
FAA called a ban on scheduled service at Centennial Airport near Denver, Colo., discriminatory and ordered the Arapahoe County Public Airport Authority to present an acceptable plan within 20 days to provide for scheduled service or lose eligibility for future airport grants. The airport authority, notified of FAA's decision Monday, scheduled a meeting Sept. 3 to discuss the action, but an airport official said the authority has not indicated publicly what its next step will be.
Sabena Group posted a net profit of 59 million Belgian francs (US$1.6 million) in the first six months of 1998, its first first-half net profit in 40 years, according to Chief Executive Paul Reutlinger, who attributed the results to strong passenger growth and relentless cost controls during the past two years. In the same period last year, the company had a loss of BEF1.01 billion ($27 million). Reutlinger predicted Sabena will turn in a profit for all of 1998, possibly doubling the first-half figure.
Northwest's Machinists union unit has until Sept. 8 to challenge names on a list of supporters presented to the National Mediation Board (NMB) by the Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA). Based on the number of supporters, NMB has ruled that AMFA can call for a representation election by Northwest's roughly 11,000 mechanics, represented by International Association of Machinists (IAM). AMFA filed its representation petition in July, shortly before mechanics rejected by 84% a tentative contract agreement reached between IAM and management (DAILY, Aug. 26).
Contract talks between Air Canada and its Air Canada Pilots Association will continue round-the-clock until the midnight Sept. 1 strike deadline, said ACPA Master Executive Council Chairman Jean-Marc Belanger. Talks began yesterday in Toronto, and pilots have scheduled informational picketing for today at Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg and Vancouver airports.
PSAZZ Air, a unit of Los Angeles-based PSA Inc., an expanding multi-modal transportation services and airport facilities company, plans to launch a regional airline next spring operating Embraer ERJ-145 or Fairchild Dornier 328JET aircraft. The carrier, seeking $70 million in capitalization for service to 16 points from Long Beach and Las Vegas, also is negotiating to acquire a four-year-old "charter airline." PSA Inc. went public in March in a reverse merger and was trading at 12 cents per share Thursday on the Nasdaq OTC Bulletin Board.
InVision Technologies said it received a $6.3 million FAA contract for seven more of its CTX 55000 DS explosives detection systems (EDS). The units are scheduled to be shipped to major airports in the U.S. this year, said Chief Executive Sergio Magistri. "The risk of terrorism against U.S. targets, including airlines, is a reality for which we must find solutions, both now and in the future," he said. FAA has purchased 69 of InVision's systems to date, he said.
Taipei-based TransAsia Airways has ordered 67 ATR pilots who resigned Monday evening to return to work by today or lose their jobs permanently. If the pilots - legally barred from striking by Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration - do not return to work by the deadline, a TransAsia official said, the company will begin hiring replacements from foreign airlines. The pilots resigned to protest sharp salary cuts announced by TransAsia.
St. George, Utah-based SkyWest will sell the Las Vegas-based assets of air-tour specialist Scenic Airlines to Las Vegas-based Eagle Canyon Airlines, SkyWest announced. SkyWest said the sale will enable SkyWest "to concentrate on its core business of providing regional airline service as the sole United Express carrier up and down the West Coast and as a Delta Connection carrier serving the hub cities of Los Angeles and Salt Lake City." Eagle Canyon and Scenic operate air tours in the Las Vegas area, particularly to the Grand Canyon.
Lufthansa CityLine had the best operating margin, 11.1%, of any company division in the first half.The $48 million pre-tax profit was nearly triple the year-earlier figure. Lufthansa's margin was 7.1%, LSG SkyChefs' 3.2% and Lufthansa Cargo's 2%.
Embraer posted $40.8 million in earnings on $563.1 million in revenues for the first six months of 1998, the carrier reported. Those figures compare with an $80.3 million loss on $248.2 million in revenues for the first half of 1997.
European Union ambassadors gather in Brussels today in hopes of reaching agreement to ban all commercial flights by Yugoslav carrier JAT from landing at EU airports. The ban would be imposed to punish Slobodan Milosevic, Yugloslavia's president, for his brutal military tactics against Kosovo rebels, who are fighting Serb forces to gain political autonomy or outright independence for their southern province.
Four major U.S. airports are protesting slot and frequency transfers recommended by the European Commission as remedies to alleged anticompetitive features of the United-Lufthansa and American-British Airways alliances, saying the move would hurt communities and confuse consumers. U.S. members of the alliances have major gateways or a large presence at the airports: Washington Metropolitan Airports Authority, whose charter includes Dulles; Miami Airport; Dallas/Fort Worth, and Chicago O'Hare.
Summary of U.S. Major Carriers International Traffic March 1998 Revenue Average Revenue Passengers Length of Passenger Enplaned % Travel Miles % (000) Change (Miles) (000) Change Alaska 83 (5.03) 1,113 91,849 (3.87)
David Traynham, FAA assistant administrator for policy, planning and international aviation, will discuss funding, competition and other aviation-related issues on Aviation News Today, to air Sunday on Washington's NewsChannel 8 at 12:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
Regardless of whether its pilots strike, Northwest is likely to feel at least six weeks' worth of downturn, possibly longer if the strike occurs, according to Wall Street airline analysts. Northwest expects a $27 million revenue shortfall for each day of a strike, and in some corners of the industry estimates have come in that the carrier already has lost upwards of $100 million in business to other airlines as passengers planning trips in September and October booked elsewhere.
China Southern Airlines and its subsidiaries reported a net loss of 72.3 million renminbi (US$8.7 million) for the first six months of 1998 as stiff domestic competition developed during a regional traffic downturn. The company, which operates the most extensive route network in China, showed an operating profit of RMB183.5 million ($22.2 million), down 85% from year-earlier figures. Revenue fell 7.8% to RMB 5.7 billion ($694 million). "Our results reflect the extremely difficult operating environment that we are facing," said Chairman Yu Yan En.
FAA issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) requiring turbine-powered aircraft seating six or more passengers to be equipped with enhanced ground proximity warning systems. The NPRM appears in the Aug. 26 Federal Register.
Probable cause of the January 1997 Comair EMB-120 fatal icing accident was FAA's "failure to establish adequate aircraft certification standards for flight in icing conditions," the National Transportation Safety Board concluded yesterday. The board also said the accident, near Monroe, Mich., was probably caused by the failure of regulatory authorities in the U.S. and Brazil to ensure that an approved procedure for the accident airplane's deicing system operation was implemented by U.S.-based air carriers.
Negotiations between Northwest and its Air Line Pilots Association unit continued yesterday at an undisclosed location in Minneapolis, and a Northwest ALPA spokeswoman said the media blackout continues. "They are talking, and as long as they are talking, that's good news," she said. Even so, Northwest ALPA's Master Executive Council also continued its strike preparedness meeting yesterday. Northwest pilot leadership wrote management yesterday criticizing its decision to cancel Northwest AirLink service if there is a strike.
Delta and Korean Air will expand their code-share and marketing alliance to include cities in Japan, South Korea and the U.S. starting Sept. 15, the carriers said yesterday. Korean Air will add its "KE" code to Delta's flights from Honolulu to San Francisco, San Francisco to Los Angeles, Boston to New York Kennedy, Los Angeles to Denver and Los Angeles to Dallas.
Plenty of regional carriers are willing to assist passengers stranded by a Northwest pilots strike, but none have the equipment to add frequencies or capacity to handle all of the expected demand.
