Boeing will open a next-generation 737 assembly line in Long Beach and will consolidate operations in California, Missouri and Washington, Chairman Phil Condit announced yesterday. He said fighter plane production will be consolidated in St. Louis and the headquarters of the Information&Communications Systems unit will be relocated from Kent, Wash., to Anaheim, Calif. All government-owned space in Downey, Calif., will be vacated, Condit said.
Durham, N.C.-based Midway Airlines reported a 24.3% gain in traffic and a 21.2% increase in capacity for July 1998 from the same month last year, which pushed the load factor up 1.7 percentage points. Growth was driven by delivery of new Canadair Regional Jets. Midway reported 91.9 million revenue passenger miles, 135.8 million available seat miles and a 67.7% load factor. Year-to-date, Midway flew 13.8% more RPMs on 9% more ASMs than in the seven months last year, sending the load factor up 2.8 points.
Lufthansa and British Midland will expand their code-share agreement Sept. 1 with joint service on the Manchester-Dusseldorf route. British Midland, which operates the current three daily flights in the market, will increase frequencies because of the code-share service.
British Airways, through franchise partner CityFlyer Express, will boost London Gatwick-Luxembourg service to four flights each weekday, starting Aug. 20. CityFlyer launched the service in May last year, carrying about 50,000 passengers during the first 12 months, and now commands a 25% share of the route. Roundtrip fares on the route start at #116 (US$184), including tax.
Air Canada has quietly postponed its planned Sept. 20 startup of Air Connexion service between Toronto and Syracuse (DAILY Aug. 7). The apparent reason is that it could not secure slots or gates at Pearson International to support four daily roundtrips, primarily because of terminal and runway construction. Voyageur Airways, which will operate the service, put off delivery of the first of 10 new Beech 1900Ds for at least a month.
Advanced Aerodynamics&Structures, Long Beach, said this week it has received 23 more orders valued at $27 million for its Jetcruzer 500 corporate aircraft. Orders for the single-engine propjet now total 150 valued at $180 million. The aircraft, which can accommodate six first-class seats, is powered by a Pratt&Whitney engine and can fly at 360 miles per hour at altitudes up to 30,000 feet. Construction is under way for a manufacturing facility once the aircraft receives FAA certification, anticipated in the fourth quarter, company officials said.
Philippine Airlines (PAL) this week said it intends to operate with 21 newer aircraft and 8,578 employees, a level that will lead to cutbacks in both areas. Under a plan the airline will submit to the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission by Sept. 21, PAL will reduce its already shrunken fleet from the current 25 to 21, with age of the operational fleet averaging three years. The airline currently employs roughly 9,000, down from 14,000, and there has been no comment about how the carrier will reduce the count to 8,578.
Air Canada on Oct. 5 will offer twice-daily nonstops between Montreal Dorval Airport and Washington Dulles, using Canadair Regional Jets. The new service complements its daily three nonstops from Montreal to Washington Reagan.
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 and MD-80 Systemwide Aircraft Utilization Per Day First Quarter 1998 DC-9-30 Continental Northwest TWA Number of Aircraft Operated 28 113 34 Total Fleet Operations Departures 135 533 182 Block Hours 230 912 300
FAA Administrator Jane Garvey, who met this week with Burbank area officials, has appointed Marie Dominquez, her deputy chief of staff, to monitor airport expansion at Burbank and Los Angeles airports. The move was prompted by disagreement among Burbank area officials over plans for a new terminal and a call for mandatory curfews.
Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration has ordered the grounding of six Dornier 228 aircraft belonging to domestic carriers UNI Airlines and Formosa Airlines until complete safety inspections can be carried out on the airplanes. An official at Formosa said that the grounding of the aircraft, three at each company, will result in the cancellation of at least 53 daily flights on routes connecting Taipei and Matsu, Taitung and Lutao, Taitung and Lanyu, Chimei and Makung, and Kaohsiung and Taitung.
Delta Express will expand its Florida operation by adding several flights from Fort Lauderdale, making the South Florida city a mini-hub for the carrier. Express will offer service from Fort Lauderdale to Washington Dulles, Newark and Hartford by the end of the year. The airline will offer two daily roundtrips to Washington starting Oct. 1 and two each to Newark and Hartford, starting Dec. 2 and 3, respectively.
Arinc and the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) have agreed to provide jointly the Arinc European VHF Airborne Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) data link system throughout Ireland. Arinc will use the Irish ground data network along with IAA services for siting, maintaining and operating its ground stations in the nation. IAA will use the Arinc air/ground network to provide initial data link services in the framework of Eurocontrol's European ATC Harmonization and Integration Program.
FedEx said yesterday it will introduce in September International Next Flight, a new service enabling U.S.-based customers to ship packages to more than 150 countries with pickup as fast as 60 minutes after the call. David Shoenfeld, senior VP-marketing, said the service will provide money-
U.K. Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott wants British Airways to give up slots without compensation, a view that creates an internal division given the Office of Fair Trading's recent confirmation that it supports slot sales (DAILY, Aug. 11, 10). Prescott said in a BBC radio interview this week that the slots belong to the public, not BA, which will be forced to give up slots in exchange for approval of U.S. antitrust immunity in its alliance with American.
Airborne Freight Corp.'s board authorized repurchase of up to two million shares of common stock. There are currently 50.3 million shares outstanding. All repurchased shares will be acquired on the open market and held as treasury stock, the company said.
G-Air Holdings Corp., parent of Continental Connection carrier Gulfstream International Airlines, has purchased Paradise Island Airlines. As of Sept. 10, flights from southern Florida to Paradise Island in the Bahamas will drop the Paradise "BK" code and operate as a Continental Connection carrier. Paradise Island, near Nassau, is a resort destination. The move adds four 50-seat turboprops to Gulfstream's 25-aircraft operation. Together, the carriers will transport more than one million passengers annually.
Northwest this week added more European destinations to its route network via a code-share agreement with Dutch regional Air Exel Netherlands. The carrier, recently rebranded KLM exel, is an independent airline with strong ties to Northwest partner KLM. KLM exel's 10 turboprops operate to seven cities and will link Northwest's Amsterdam service to Maastricht, Groningen and Enschede in The Netherlands. Northwest's code also will appear on KLM exel's service from Paris to Eindhoven, Netherlands, subject to government approval.
American told DOT its tentative decision to restore London Gatwick gateway designation to Cleveland and renew Continental's authority to operate scheduled combination service in the market is "procedurally deficient...[and] contrary to longstanding precedent in carrier-selection proceedings." American, whose San Jose-Gatwick proposal was selected as a backup, told DOT it should vacate its show cause order (DAILY, Aug. 3) and "provide for the submission of evidentiary exhibits," which American will use to show why its proposal should be favored over Continental's.
FAA has issued a screening information request (DTFA01-98-R-01550) seeking proposals until 10 a.m. Aug. 24 for three contracts to perform regulatory and policy review work involving safety regulation, planning, international aviation, analysis of aviation environmental impacts, risk evaluation and economic and financial analyses. One contract will be set aside for a small business or a small socially and economically disadvantaged business, and two will be awarded in full and open competition. Each contract is slated for award by Sept.
DOT issued a consent order yesterday assessing compromise civil penalties of $1,000 against Magadan Airlines for listing three of its own flights as Aeroflot flights in computer reservations systems, and taking reservations and selling tickets for those flights as Aeroflot's. Magadan said it operated the flights, which Aeroflot already had advertised, before FAA issued operations specs to Magadan, and "Magadan could not retract" the tickets and ads at that point.
Aviation Sales Co. said this week it has reached an agreement with Primark Corp. to acquire Triad International Maintenance Co. ASC will pay $70 million cash for the company, which had revenues of $113.3 million for the fiscal year that ended June 30. Triad, Greensboro, N.C., specializes in overhaul of widebody aircraft. Dale Baker, ASC chairman, said the acquisition is a "perfect complement to our Aero Corp. operations," which have focused on narrowbody maintenance services. Together, Triad and Aero Corp.
Delta extended its SkyMiles promotions from July 1 to Sept. 1 for members who are permanent residents of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama and Venezuela. Qualified passengers who buy a business-class roundtrip ticket by Sept. 1 from one of Delta's new Latin American cities will receive a bonus of 80,000 SkyMiles. Economy-class passengers will receive 35,000 SkyMiles. Each bonus gives the SkyMiles member enough miles for a free return ticket back to the U.S. in the class of the original purchase.
KLM and the Dutch government agreed this week on the share price the airline will pay to privatize itself. In a transaction that closes Friday, KLM will spend 984.4 million Dutch guilders (US$490 million) for 13.32 million shares of stock held by the government, and NLG 42.4 million ($21 million) more for a block of preferred shares. The Dutch government will retain just over 14% of voting control of KLM, comprising 11.75 million Class-A preferred shares and a small amount of priority shares.
Royal Air Maroc and TWA have filed requests at DOT to begin code-share service Oct. 25 between the U.S. and Morocco and between Morocco and the Ivory Coast. RAM wants to engage in scheduled combination service between points in Morocco and Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Orlando, St. Louis, San Francisco and Washington, and place its designator code on TWA's flights between the U.S. markets and New York Kennedy under the carriers' code-share arrangement (DAILY, July 7).
