Delta Air Lines is offering a simplified excess baggage plan from any Delta U.S. city for passengers connecting through Atlanta on all new Delta nonstop flights to six cities in Central America. Delta will allow passengers to check two extra bags with no charge when traveling Aug. 1- Oct. 31 to Guatemala City, San Salvador, San Jose, Panama City, Caracas and Lima. Delta usually allows passengers to check two bags without charge on each flight.
House Transportation aviation subcommittee will hold a hearing Thursday at 9:30 a.m. in Rayburn 2167 on DOT Secretary Rodney Slater's African aviation initiative, the European Commission's preliminary position on the American- British Airways and United-Lufthansa-SAS alliances, and H.R. 3741, a bill to subject civil aviation agreements between the U.S. and other countries to congressional approval.
American applied for an exemption to provide combination service between points in the U.S. and Aberdeen, Scotland. The carrier wants to code share with British Midland, which applied separately for authority. (Docket OST- 98-4147)
SAS has ordered 13 more 737-600s worth an estimated $400 million to expand its regional route network. The order brings to 55 the number of 737-600s on order. The aircraft, Boeing's smallest of the 737 line, carries 95-120 passengers. SAS still contemplates a widebody aircraft purchase, with Airbus and Boeing competing for a 15-aircraft order.
AirTran Holdings is moving into a more stable earnings period and will settle down growth-wise now that post-merger restructuring is completed, according to a Salomon Smith Barney research report by analyst Brian Harris. AirTran, which combined Atlanta-based AirTran Airlines, the former ValuJet, and Orlando-based AirTran Airways, finished its merger activities in March and is operating as a single carrier.
US Airways, "concern[ed] that scarce and valuable U.S.-France frequencies may go unused despite the fact that there are more concrete service proposals...than there are frequencies available to meet existing consumer demand," seconded American's appeal to DOT for reconsideration of frequencies allocated to TWA and Tower Air (DAILY, July 27). American proposed halving TWA's base-level allocation from 14 to seven and Tower's from eight to four - the numbers being used by the two carriers - and US Airways concurred with that recommendation.
TWA's senior pilots may receive extra compensation in the form of company stock because they will not be able to take full advantage of the compensation package contained in the tentative contract agreement now under consideration by the pilots union rank and file. TWA Air Line Pilots Association unit Master Executive Council Chairman Joe Chronic said the pilot leadership believes stock allocations granted by the company under the tentative pact should be weighted in favor of the senior pilots, who will retire in a few years.
Southwest and The Sabre Group have signed a five-year, $64 million agreement for Sabre to provide Southwest with passenger reservations and inventory control systems. Sabre will provide Southwest with data processing services including computer reservations, inventory control, flight availability information, schedules, fares and pricing. The agreement also covers system development work, including Year 2000-related upgrades, and system upgrades to accommodate Southwest's projected growth.
Southwest's frequent flyer customers traveling to or from Baltimore, Providence, Manchester, N.H., or Cleveland can earn bonus credits toward free trips under a special promotion. Southwest Director of Marketing Programs Susan Kirkelie said the promotion is not a response to the presence of US Airways' low-fare competitor MetroJet but to the rapid growth of Southwest's hubs. "We wanted to make it easier for customers to become Freedom Reward members."
Delta is moving its annual shareholders meeting from its crop-dusting roots in Monroe, La., to New York, another significant shift by Chief Executive Leo Mullin. The annual meeting has been held in Monroe every year since 1957 except 1995, when Delta convened in Atlanta to promote the 1996 Olympics. This year's meeting, on Oct. 22, will be held at the Waldorf- Astoria.
Qantas and British Airways, longtime partners, have formed a joint venture to operate a business lounge at Hong Kong International Airport. The 965- square-meter lounge can accommodate 280 premium passengers. The two carriers signed a 10-year cooperative agreement in 1993 and share 82 weekly flights.
DOT Inspector General's office audit of five airports found FAA needs to improve industry compliance with dangerous goods and cargo security requirements. FAA agreed with the IG's main findings. The audit was spurred by an Oct. 1 incident in which passengers had to be evacuated from an American aircraft after a courier's shipment leaked pesticides.
American has gained recognition for its new flights from Dallas Love Field to Austin, but the emphasis might have been on the wrong airport. The airline, which has 26 daily flights from Austin, will increase to 37 on Aug. 31 and 40 on Sept. 9.
Clarification: Fairchild Dornier executives were in Brazil recently talking to Embraer counterparts, but not about a possible joint venture as reported in The DAILY's Regional Aviation supplement (DAILY, July 24). They were joined by German and Brazilian government officials to express concern about Brazil's ProEx interest-rate equalization program to aid Brazilian exports, specifically Embraer's regional jets.
FAA will propose eight airworthiness directives today and develop more ADs during the coming year in an attempt to improve airline inspections of high-energy rotating engine components. Implementing an initiative announced last fall, the agency seeks to reduce high-energy component failures 40% over the next 10 years (DAILY, Oct. 30, 1997).
Pilots at Delta Connection carrier Atlantic Southeast this week will learn the details of a tentative contract agreement that, if ratified, will give them a more-than-30% pay increase in the first year of the four-year pact. ASA's Air Line Pilots Association unit Master Executive Council last week formally approved a tentative agreement reached by management and the union negotiating committee (DAILY, July 24). In March, the union membership rejected the first tentative agreement by a 91% vote.
New Aircraft Orders And Options, April 1998 Last 12 Months Firm Orders Options Orders Options Carrier # Type # Type Engines Del. Dates # Type # Type Air Canada 2 A340-500 - Trent 500 Jun05 5 A330-300 - Air Canada 3 A340-600 - Trent 500 Jun05 4 A340-300X - Air Europa* 2 777- - PW4090 Jul-Oct99 1 737-300 - 200IGW
Reno Airlines is introducing its fall schedule with four new daily nonstops between San Jose and Burbank, Calif., effective Oct. 1. Reno also will begin two daily nonstops between Orange County and Seattle on Sept. 15, and will add a daily nonstop flight between Los Angeles and Colorado Springs to complement its existing four one-stops. The carrier will drop its daily Las Vegas-Tucson flights from four to two daily on Sept. 15.
Lufthansa Group traffic in June increased 6.1% over June 1997 on 1.9% more capacity, raising the load factors in all three passenger operations. The company carried 19.4 million passengers in the first half of 1998, up 10.5% and putting it on a pace to exceed last year's 35.3 million passengers by several million. Lufthansa German Airlines flew 17.3 million passengers, up 9.6%. Its traffic rose 5.4% in June on 1.3% more capacity, which pushed up the load factor 3.1 percentage points to 77%.
Twenty-five state attorneys general filed in support of DOT's competition policy Friday (see related story to follow). States with top aviation markets whose AGs filed include Florida and New York, and there were several with dominant hub majors, including Michigan and Minnesota (Northwest at Detroit and Minneapolis); Missouri (TWA at St. Louis); and North Carolina (US Airways at Charlotte). Others were from states where small communities have complained of poor service and high fares, including Iowa, Kansas, North Dakota, South Dakota and West Virginia.
British Airways is launching daily London Gatwick-Denver service with low $99 one-way fares that are valid for a longer-than-usual introductory period. BA is offering the fare from Sept. 1 through Nov. 28. The carrier will operate a 267-seat Boeing 777, with 14 seats in first class, 56 in business and 197 in economy.
Moody's assigned the lower Caa1 rating to Tower Air's $150 million of long- term debt, saying the airline has had an "erratic" earnings history. Although the carrier has a diversified base and 16-year operational history, these positives are offset by Tower's "volatile pattern of earnings, its high level of leverage, the challenges the company faces in growing its revenue base, the vulnerability of its flagship [New York-Tel Aviv] to international incidents and its relatively low level of management depth," Moody's said.
APA International Air and Canada 3000 Airlines Ltd. have joined the Airlines Reporting Corporation as participating carriers, effective Aug. 10. APA is based in Miami and will start scheduled passenger service Aug. 6. Canada 3000 is headquartered in Toronto.
The Japanese Transport Council, advisory to the transport minister, last week authorized startup carrier Skymark Airlines to begin commercial air transport operations, and the Ministry of Transport was expected to award the carrier a business license by today. Skymark is the first carrier to receive a license since 1963, when independent regional carrier Nagasaki Airlines began operations in the Kyushu Island area. Since then, several new carriers were formed, but all are subsidiaries of Japan's major three airlines.
