FAA said a U.S. District Court jury in Trenton, N.J., found three men guilty of racketeering and extortion in connection with work on the Newark Airport monorail. U.S. Attorney Faith Hochberg said two of the men, Rosario Gangi and John Albert, have ties to the Genovese crime family and the third, Vincent DiModica, is linked to the Gambino crime organization. All three were charged with extorting money from contractors and subcontractors.
Chief executives of major Latin American carriers are worried about capacity flooding their countries as Delta, United, American and Continental increase service in the region, an industry source told The DAILY. LanChile profits already are slipping, partly because of capacity increases. A fight for market share among U.S. carriers could bring on fare wars and lower yields without creating new demand, possibly running some Latin airlines out of business. Delta, Continental and United have added routes, and American is applying for more.
DOT and FAA have made progress on safeguarding their computers' Internet "front doors," the normal entry points, DOT Deputy Inspector General John Meche told a House panel last week. But unauthorized access continues through insecure "back doors" - network connections with contractors, other agencies, dial-up users and even industry associations. Hackers have accessed FAA National Airspace System computers and administrative systems at DOT and FAA, Meche found.
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Qantas will increase its European service Oct. 26 by introducing three 747-400 flights a week from Paris to Sydney via Singapore. Paris will be Qantas's fourth major European destination, after London, Rome and Frankfurt, and the carrier last served it via Frankfurt in March 1995. It currently operates code-share service with British Airways between London and Paris twice a day, connecting with its service between London and Australia.
Iowa-based Great Lakes Aviation reported a 24.6% increase in operating revenue to $27.4 million in the second quarter, partially due to the threat of a pilot strike at Northwest, said President and Chief Executive Douglas Voss. Operating expenses totaled $27.8 million, up 0.5% over the same quarter last year. Using certain inventoried parts helped cut maintenance expenses for the quarter by $320,000.
Associated Global Systems appointed Liz Blass-Smith account manager and promoted Joseph Kulakowski to district manager. Avjet Corp. named Paul Cecala director-management and charter sales for its East Coast office, based at Teterboro Airport. Aydin Telemetry appointed David Sniffin director-sales. C-S Aviation Services named Evan Wallach VP-finance. International Aero named Ian Rollo VP-sales and marketing. Signature Flight Support promoted Suzanne Eamigh to communications manager.
Major carriers hired 216 pilots in July and 2,230 in the first seven months of 1998, according to Atlanta-based AIR Inc. National carriers hired 426 pilots and jet operators 242. All told, 1,170 pilots found jobs in July and 8,791 year to date, continuing a record-breaking annual pace. But Pan Am's furloughs of 200 pilots, added to US Airways' 224, increased the total on furlough to 453. US Airways recalled 50 pilots in July.
DOT approved for an indefinite period a joint request filed in October 1997 by American and Iberia to code share in seven Miami-Central America markets. American and American Eagle may display Iberia's code on flights between Miami and Guatemala City; Panama City; San Salvador; Managua, Nicaragua; San Jose, Costa Rica; San Pedro Sula, Honduras, and Cancun, Mexico.
American Trans Air reported an 8.4% systemwide boost in traffic on 2.1% more capacity for July 1998, compared with the same month last year. It flew 1.03 million revenue passenger miles and 1.35 million available seat miles. Charter service RPMs dropped 9.2% on 10.5% fewer ASMs. Scheduled service RPMs leapt 26.2% on 14.6% more ASMs, boosting the load factor 7.2 percentage points. Year-to-date, systemwide RPMs increased 10.2% on 10.7% more ASMs than in the same period last year. Charter service RPMs dropped 13.7% on 9.2% fewer ASMs, and block hours were down 13%.
British Airways and Malev Hungarian Airlines have announced plans to forge links between Budapest and London to provide what they describe as "a comprehensive and customer-driven network for travelers in Europe." The airlines will kick off their partnership by code sharing on Malev's services between London Gatwick and Budapest, starting today. The flights will be operated by Malev from Budapest's Ferihegy Terminal 2A to Gatwick's North Terminal.
DOT Inspector General, advising FAA last week to restructure its familiarization trips program, cited one instance in which seven couples took 21 flights for extended weekends and vacations. Another employee took 10 weekend trips in a nine-month period to a city where he subsequently retired. The IG noted that acceptance of free travel for personal gain violates the law.
U.K. Office of Fair Trading's recommendations on the American-British Airways alliance are broadly in harmony with those of the EC Competition Commission except for one crucial provision - backing American and BA's intention to sell slots rather than give them away. The thrust of OFT's recommendations was outlined recently by Helen Beckett, who was U.K. Secretary of State for Trading and Industry when they were drafted.
DOT concurrently approved blanket authority for Continental/Air France, Delta/Air France, Delta/Korean Air and United/All Nippon Airways code shares for an indefinite period, while stating that United's concerns were insufficient to delay assigning rights guaranteed by U.S.-France and U.S.- Korea bilaterals. The department said Continental's concerns about its outstanding request for a U.S.-India third-country code share "are more properly addressed" within the framework of DOT's notice on India code-
Lufthansa Cargo, in a "unique" marketing move, will send small, skilled teams anywhere in the world "within hours" for emergency engine repairs. Using borescope inspections, the teams diagnose problems and make repairs on the spot. A team can grind damaged compressor blades overnight without opening the engine casing.
American Eagle, the world's largest regional carrier, this week started nonstop regional jet service between Dayton, Ohio, and Chicago O'Hare, using 50-passenger Embraer ERJ-145s. The RJ flights replace turboprop service on two of five daily roundtrips, and the route will become all-jet Aug. 27. The airline plans to take delivery of 20 ERJ-145s this year and will base them at O'Hare.
Eight regional airline stocks in July fell an average $1.12, or 5%, to $20.91 per share from $22.02 at the June close. The drop was led by Delta Connection Atlantic Southeast, down $7.13 to $42.50. United Express Atlantic Coast, a recent high flyer, was off $3.63 to $26.38. Other decliners were Delta Connection/United Express SkyWest, down $1 to $27, and Mesa Air Group, off 25 cents to $7.88. Only United Express Great Lakes Aviation showed a gain of more than $1, rising $1.25 to $3.75 per share.
Fairchild Aerospace chose GE Aircraft Engines' CF34-8D turbofan to power the new 728JET family of regional jets, potentially handing GE a near lock on future regional turbofan business. The -8C version, a 14,000- pounds' thrust-class powerplant, is the baseline engine for Bombardier's new Canadair RJ-700, and earlier CF34 models power Canadair RJs in service with Comair and Lufthansa CityLine.
Delta said yesterday it will offer "unparalleled" service this fall and winter from its Atlanta hub, including new hourly service to Boston and Newark. The carrier plans to add more peak-time flights to its New York LaGuardia service, already hourly, new service to Chicago Midway and more service to Baltimore and Washington Dulles. President and Chief Executive Leo Mullin said demand in these key business markets "has been so tremendous that we have experienced load factors in excess of 80%."
Norman Mineta, chairman of the National Civil Aviation Review Commission and former House aviation leader, told DOT it was wrong to claim that history and law give it authority to enforce its proposed competition policy. Filing comments at DOT, Mineta noted he wrote the legislation at issue, was chairman of the House Transportation aviation subcommittee that approved it, presented it in full committee, was floor manager for it in the House and chaired the House-Senate conference committee that reconciled the differences between the bill's two versions.
Eastwind Airlines has taken delivery of its second 737-700 and will increase service Sept. 9 from two to three daily flights from Rochester, N.Y., and Greensboro, N.C., to Boston and Washington Dulles.
TWA reported a 6.5% traffic decline in July on 10.1% less capacity, resulting in a 3-percentage-point load factor boost to 77.5%, its best for July since 1978. Passenger enplanements declined 1.5%. Year-to-date revenue passenger miles rose 1.7% on 3.7% fewer available seat miles, increasing the load factor 3.8 points to 73%. Passenger enplanements increased 5.2%. July 1998 July 1997 7 Months 1998 7 Months 1997 RPMs 2,353,014,000 2,516,781,000 4,820,517,000 14,573,386,000
Sabreliner subsidiary Dimension Aviation, rebounding from a contract termination by Boeing on converting DC-10s to MD-10 cargo aircraft, said yesterday it has received its FAA repair station certificate to provide maintenance service on DC-10 series aircraft. Sabreliner invested $15 million in its Goodyear, Ariz., facility in anticipation of the Boeing contract, but Boeing canceled it, saying deliveries were "unacceptably late" (DAILY, July 29).
Northwest flight attendants, represented by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, are holding airport rallies today to focus attention on what the union calls "corporate greed that is causing delays for airline passengers and workers." Flight attendants and management have been in contract negotiations for nearly two years. Rallies are scheduled at Boston Logan, Chicago O'Hare, Detroit Metro, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Memphis, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York Kennedy, San Francisco and Seattle.
