Gulfstream Aerospace said this week it has completed its previously announced acquisition of K-C Aviation for $250 million in cash from Kimberly-Clark. The newly acquired company will assume the Gulfstream Aerospace name immediately.
Transaero founder Alexander Pleshakov was removed by the airline's board last week.The carrier's new leader is the outspoken Russian aviation leader Boris Berezovsky, the majority shareholder of Aeroflot.
Sabena put fares between its U.S. gateways and Nairobi, Kenya, on sale for travel between Sept. 8 and March 31, 1999. Nonrefundable roundtrips start at $999 from New York, Chicago, Newark and Boston, and at $1,149 from Atlanta and Cincinnati. Fares cost $200 more for travel between Dec. 12 and Jan. 11. All service is through Brussels, from which Sabena serves Nairobi four times per week. A Saturday-night stay is required, and the maximum stay is one month. The U.S. State Department lifted a Kenya travel warning on Aug. 13.
Mexicana and Lufthansa have affiliated their frequent flyer programs and are on their way toward a full code-share alliance. The first code share flights, between Mexico City and Frankfurt, are expected to begin Oct. 25. Later code-share points are Guadalajara, Merida, Monterrey, Acapulco and Cancun. Mexicana's Frecuenta frequent flyer plan also is linked to Lufthansa partner United. Mexicana posted a July traffic surge of 25.5% on 10.4% more capacity, which pushed the load factor up 8.6 percentage points to 71.7%.
CCAIR, effective Oct. 4, will begin service between Tallahassee, Fla., and US Airways hub Charlotte, N.C., and between Tallahassee and Miami. The carrier will use 37-seat de Havilland Dash 8 aircraft to operate four weekly roundtrips in each market, with reduced service over the weekends.
based Cape Air will begin San Juan, Puerto Rico-St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, service Nov. 5, the company announced. Cape Air, which operates Cessna 402s, said it would offer up to 26 daily flights in the market. Flight time is approximately 35 minutes.
Northwest Airlink Mesaba, in electing to shut down if Northwest pilots strike Aug. 29, abandoned contingency plans that included redeploying some or all of its aircraft to high-density markets that would be largely without service from its Minneapolis/St. Paul and Detroit hubs (DAILY, Aug. 19). Wholly owned Northwest subsidiary Express Airlines I of Memphis also has decided to suspend service. Under Mesaba's agreements with Northwest, the regional would not receive payments or other services from the senior partner and would suffer substantially reduced revenues.
City of San Francisco and Air Transport Association (ATA) members failed to reach agreement on the city's benefits policy, which requires companies doing business with it to provide benefits to married and gay domestic partners alike. United is a key figure in the dispute because of its presence at San Francisco Airport.
American Trans Air will resume winter-season service between Indianapolis and Montego Bay, operating a 727 nonstop in the market on Sundays between Feb. 7 and April 25, 1999. Fares begin at $194 one way, and eight-day vacation packages are priced from $755 per person double occupancy.
American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) said yesterday it remains on guard to protect its members against attempts by airlines to use innovative technologies to harm them, including changes in travel payment and reporting plans that critics say will shift ever-increasing financial and business risks to travel agents. ASTA's statement was in response to a letter from Bruce Bishins, who as president of the United States Travel Agent Registry (USTAR) is trying to launch an independent computer reservations system, Project Genesis.
FAA said it will award a sole-source contract to Delta for site preparation and installation of security equipment at U.S. airports. The work will support deployment of several types of advanced civil aviation security systems, the agency said. "This is a pilot effort to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of assigning responsibility for future installations of bulk explosive detection systems directly to air carriers," it said. "The goals of this initiative are to reduce equipment deployment cost and to expedite the installation of security equipment."
Southwest will discontinue use of its "Quicket Machine" automated ticket vending machines after Sept. 30, and credit cards that expire after Dec. 31, 1999, no longer may be used in them. The carrier will keep the system in Dallas, Houston, Austin and San Antonio through Nov. 30.
Air Transport Association (ATA) told DOT it has gained the support of Airports Council International-North America for ATA's request to extend the deadline for comments on the effect of airports on competition in the domestic airline industry. ATA said its proposal for an additional 120 days beyond the Sept. 1 deadline "will assist, not delay," DOT's study. ACI-NA earlier requested a 60-day extension.
Hokkaido International Airlines is postponing its first flight until Dec. 20, according to Japanese daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun. The Sapporo-based carrier planned to start service Oct. 30 but applied this week to Japan's Ministry of Transport to delay the date due to troubles gaining certification. The airline, known as Air Do, has not completed its operating manuals. Although the airline is close to completing the job, the government may take as long as two months to approve them.
Rep. Bob Livingston (R-La.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, has been asked by other House members to support in conference the FAA contract tower cost-sharing pilot program provision in the Senate's DOT appropriations bill for Fiscal 1999. Rep.
United, Delta and Northwest told DOT they share United's alarm with the European Commission's proposed alliance conditions, and Delta contended that the EC is failing to distinguish between pro-competitive and anti-
U.S. and Latin American carriers have rushed into new markets during the past year, adding 17.2% more seats to the U.S.-Latin America aviation marketplace and squeezing yields and profits of several carriers. An analysis by The DAILY and Miami-based Aviation Management Services reveals that U.S. carriers are leading the charge south, in some cases hurting the profitability of Latin American carriers.
United's Oakland Maintenance Center just finished performing its first Boeing 727 heavy maintenance in three years. The work is part of a project to install hushkits on 75 of the carrier's 727s, a job it says requires 4,000 work hours per aircraft. Heavy maintenance associated with the hushkitting requires 211 employees.
Delta Shuttle has introduced electronic ticketing on its hourly service between New York, Washington and Boston. Passengers buying tickets are issued a combined receipt/itinerary, containing flight information and documentation for business-trip reimbursement.
DOT granted Voyageur Airways' request to amend its recently issued exemption authority (DAILY, Aug. 6), allowing it to use aircraft with more than 30 seats for U.S.-Canada charter services. The amended exemption is for two years, co-extensive with the Canadian carrier's authority for U.S.-Canada scheduled and charter combination services. (Docket OST-98-4149)
DOT has "already considered and rejected" American's and San Jose's principal arguments in selecting Continental's Cleveland-London Gatwick service over American's San Jose-Gatwick proposal (DAILY, Aug. 3), Continental told DOT.
International Airline Support Group said yesterday its fourth quarter revenues rose 53.8% to $9.9 million and net earnings grew 133% to $2.1 million. For the year that ended May 31, revenues gained 31.7% to $28 million and net earnings soared to a record $5.6 million, compared with year-earlier net earnings, prior to an extraordinary loss on restructuring, of $2.3 million. Alexius Dyer, president, said the company continues to "explore suitable acquisitions, sizable leasing transactions and other means to increase shareholder value."
Averitt Aviation said it has purchased air charter companies B&C and Aero Charter. Both serve on-demand customers. The purchase includes eight Learjets and two turbine-powered aircraft. Both operations are located at Nashville Airport, headquarters for Averitt. Gary Sasser, president of Averitt Express, the parent of Averitt Aviation, said "air charter travel is a growth industry.
