Ponder Harrison, AirTran's senior VP-sales and marketing, has resigned his position, the carrier announced last week. Harrison told President and Chief Executive Joseph Corr last year he would stay on to help with rebranding the old ValuJet and merge AirTran Airlines and AirTran Airways. "I knew it would take more than one year to create and solidify," Harrison told The DAILY. He called AirTran "a walking miracle" and noted that a year ago most people thought the carrier would not make it to this point.
US Airways expects to have a new crew scheduling system operational by March. The company and its Air Line Pilots Association unit disagreed over how quickly the system could be in place, but after pilot protests and scheduling problems in June, the carrier said it will phase in the program over several months.
Air Canada and its pilots union will re-enter contract talks with management Aug. 10 with the help of two Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services (FMCS) conciliators appointed by Canada's Minister of Labor. Although the pilots voted last week by a 97% margin to give the union bargaining committee a mandate to strike, a disruption of services is a long way off, airline officials said (DAILY, July 24).
DOT chose to issue its proposed guidelines on unfair competition this spring as a concession to airlines even though the department had clear authority and evidence to launch enforcement proceedings, DOT Assistant Secretary Patrick Murphy said last week. DOT heeded complaints in the airline industry that formal action was not appropriate since there was no articulated guidelines, he said in a speech to an Airports Council International-North America/American Association of Airport Executives meeting in Washington (DAILY, July 24).
Boeing has developed a series of financial goals to measure its progress toward "increasing shareholder value," Chairman Phil Condit said as the company announced higher sales and lower profits for its second quarter (DAILY, July 24). Boeing will "measure total shareholder return - stock price appreciation and dividends - in comparison to premier manufacturing companies," he said. A long-term goal is to achieve an annual net return of 7% on sales, a level of profitability the company has never attained.
Henri Ziegler, founder of Airbus Industrie, died July 23 at age 92, the company reported Friday. He was the principal inspiration behind the A300B program, launched in 1969, and the driver of the consortium's integrated management and sales structure, the GIE, created in 1970. Ziegler subsequently became Airbus's managing director until his retirement in 1975.
- In Federal Register dated July 17...Issued an airworthiness directive on certain Dornier 328 aircraft requiring replacement of the existing roll spoiler control rods...Superseded an AD on certain Douglas MD-11 aircraft concerning the flight management computers...Reopened the comment period for 45 days until Aug. 31 concerning the installation of components to suppress electrical transients on Boeing 737-100 through 500 series aircraft.
Johns Hopkins University Applied Physicals Laboratory, Laurel, Md., was selected last week to perform an independent risk assessment study of using the Global Positioning System (GPS) as the sole means of navigation for aircraft. Although recent FAA statements indicate the agency is downplaying the ability of GPS to provide a sole-means system, the study was endorsed last April by the Free Flight Steering Committee.
New Jet Aircraft Deliveries, April 1998 Last 12 Months Carrier # Type Engines Delivery Air Canada 2 A319 CFM56-5A5 24 Air Dolomiti 1 ATR-42-500 PW127E 2 Air France 1 77-200IGW GE90-90B 1 Air Macau 1 A320-200 V2527-A5 -
United is telling passengers when flights are on time or late. DOT data show the airline ranked ninth out of 10 majors in on-time departures for the first five months of 1998. United told employees, however, that things are not as bad as they seem. Customer perception for the same period placed United seventh.
Newark-based Kiwi International Airlines reported a 4% rise in traffic on 13% less capacity for June 1998 compared with June last year, which caused the load factor to rise 10 percentage points. The airline flew 145.2 million revenue passenger miles and 244.3 million available seat miles, creating a 59.5% load factor. Passenger enplanements declined 12% to 154,400.
Hong Kong International Airport is processing passengers at an improved rate and cargo handling is rising sharply, but airport authorities continue to ask sightseers to stay away or visit only on weekdays to reduce congestion. The airport authority said 99.5% of passengers clear immigration within 15 minutes, compared with 95.7% for the first six months last year at Kai Tak.
DOT told TWA to notify the department by Wednesday whether it intends to use U.S.-India code-share authority granted for proposed service with Royal Jordanian to Delhi and Calcutta (DAILY, Feb. 23). DOT said it can find "no indication" that TWA is serving India and told the carrier to outline the status of its service plans. Absent firm plans, DOT said it "intend[s] to withdraw" the rights. Under the 1995 U.S.-India agreement, four U.S.
Detroit-based ProAir has reduced first class one-way fares on flights to Baltimore-Washington, Indianapolis, Newark/New York and Philadelphia by $40-$60. One-way, unrestricted first-class fares from Detroit to Indianapolis are now $119, $129 to BWI or Newark and $139 to Philadelphia. President and Chief Operating Officer Craig Belmondo said, "We really felt the differential between first and coach class needed to be more appropriately priced for the service." He said the market difference between the two fares is $400 to $800 one way.
American asked DOT to reconsider its allocation of 14 weekly base-level U.S.-France combination frequencies to TWA and eight to Tower, based on the carriers' statements that they would not make full use of their frequencies. TWA told DOT it plans to use seven frequencies for year-round New York-Paris flights and seven for seasonal St. Louis-Paris service. Tower said it will operate 15 roundtrips per month September-March. "Given the scarcity" of frequencies available, American said DOT should reduce TWA's base-level frequencies to seven and Tower's to four.
Executive Jet Chairman Richard Santulli, who will sell his fractional aircraft ownership company to Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, said, "We have only scratched the surface," of the worldwide market, and his company, founded 12 years ago, "has introduced more people to business aviation than the top five business aircraft manufacturers combined."
American is allowing frequent flyers to claim awards for as little as 10,000 miles plus a $300 co-payment. The reduced-mileage award program has been in place since last year, said spokesman Bill Dreslin, but the latest plan drops the minimum mileage from 15,000 to 10,000. Plan AAhead awards for coach travel on American or American Eagle in the U.S. or Canada normally require 25,000 miles, but the reduced miles awards let customers travel to Hawaii for 20,000 miles plus a $400 or to the Caribbean for 20,000 miles plus $225.
United, which stayed profitable in the second quarter by drawing down capacity across the Pacific (DAILY, July 23), will end daily nonstops between Honolulu and Osaka Oct. 5 due to the Asian economic downturn and "very heavy losses" on the route, Chris Bowers, senior VP-International, said last week.
