Northwest, negotiating with its Air Line Pilots Association unit, is offering a 10% pay increase over four years, but the union wants 15% plus profit sharing.Northwest proposes a 2% raise on the day of signing and 2% raises in 15-month increments over four years, with the last increment kicking in on the last day of the contract, the union says. The union wants 7% on the day of signing and 4% per year for two years, plus a maximum 5% profit-sharing plan.
TWA's Air Line Pilots Association unit will begin mailing ballots for ratification of a tentative contract agreement reached early Sunday morning by management and union leadership. TWA's ALPA unit will begin a series of educational meetings this week in Los Angeles, San Francisco, St. Louis and New York to explain the contract to its membership. TWA ALPA spokeswoman Gina Butikofer said the contract, which is subject to ratification by TWA's 2,500 pilots, will bring flight crew salaries to about 90% of industry standard during its four-year term.
U.S. Carriers Rental Expense First Quarter 1998 Major Carriers % Of Total Rental Operating Expenses Alaska $ 44,744,000 13.80 America West 81,114,398 19.03 American 256,975,000 7.19 Continental 191,468,000 12.35 Delta 235,736,000 7.61
Internet ticket sales are increasing steadily but account for only 1-2% of total tickets sold, carriers say. "Each week, the number is increasing with double-digit growth," said Delta Director-Distribution Planning Patrice Miles, but it still represents only 1% of Delta's total bookings. Al Lenza, VP-distribution planning for Northwest, said web site bookings are up to about 800 per day from 30 18 months ago. For the past two months, frequent flyers also have been able to cash in their miles online.
AB Airlines has doubled the capacity it offers from London Gatwick to Berlin Schonefeld, service that began last December. The airline recently began a second daily flight. The new service coincides with the opening of Berlin's Airport Express rail link to downtown. On July 9, AB Airlines began service from Gatwick to Nice.
Vanguard reported 19% less traffic and 25% less capacity last month from June 1997, which pushed the load factor up 5 percentage points. Vanguard reported 56.5 million revenue passenger miles and 81.5 million available seat miles, creating a 69.3% load factor. Year-to-date RPMs dropped 34% and ASMs 41% from the first quarter last year, forcing the load factor up 6 points.
Merpati Airlines, Indonesia's number two carrier behind Garuda, ceased flying during the weekend, stranding passengers at several airports. The action, if permanent, would be a serious blow to the country, because Merpati has served 256 destinations and provided the only links to many islands in the Indonesian archipelago. The airline has suffered from a falloff in passenger traffic due to Indonesia's economic difficulties. It gave no notice before stopping and did not say whether it would try to resume operations.
Embraer said it welcomed the Brazilian government's decision to return to the World Trade Organization a dispute with Canada over aircraft subsidies. The governments turned to the WTO previously on their long-standing disagreement but were asked by WTO to try to resolve the dispute. Negotiations between the two nations had gone well but reached an impasse recently. Embraer and Bombardier currently have a virtual lock on the multi-billion-dollar market for supplying regional jets to U.S. airlines. Each accuses the another of getting unfair government subsidies.
Ivor Thomas, Boeing's chief propulsion engineer, has been named national resource specialist focusing on fuel system design at FAA. As the chief scientist and technical adviser, Thomas will define and advance new technologies in fuel system design for FAA's Aircraft Certification Service, said Administrator Jane Garvey.
KLM traffic for June increased 6% as capacity grew at the same rate, keeping the load factor at 80.9%. The load factor on service to the Asia/Pacific region rose 0.9 percentage points to 80.3%. The systemwide load factor shows the strength of KLM's Atlantic operation, offsetting load factor declines in two other regions - the Middle East/South Asia, where traffic rose 14% but capacity grew 20%, and Africa, where traffic rose 12% on 20% more capacity. European traffic increased 10% on 11% more capacity.
Amadeus launched a web site at www.global.amadeus.net that offers a press center, a careers section and corporate, product and services information. As the site evolves, the emphasis will be on news and information for the world press and business community, Amadeus said.
Air Lanka posted a 0.7% year-over-year reduction in June traffic, its smallest decline this year. In the first half of 1998, traffic dropped 7.6% to 1.9 billion revenue passenger kilometers. Air Lanka carried 570,000 passengers in the first six months, 6.7% lower than the year-earlier period.
DOT and FAA, in today's Federal Register, are requesting public comments by Sept. 1 on domestic airline competitive issues for a study of market conditions at airports, particularly concerning new entrants. (Docket OST- 98-4025)
Cyril Murphy, United VP-international and regulatory activities, spends 60% of his time dealing with domestic regulatory issues, up from 10% two years, Murphy said in a talk before the Competitive Enterprise Institute. He said DOT's increased regulatory actions ultimately will result in "a price we will all pay, in some form or another."
Recollections of the World War II Air War by the men of the Middle Tennessee WWII Fighter Pilots Association. Recalls the experiences of flying during World War II. McGraw-Hill; $22.95. To order, call 800-722-4726.
Tower Air's traffic increased 30.5% in June over the same month in 1997, reaching 385 million revenue passenger miles, as its capacity grew 19.6% to 483 million available seat miles, boosting the load factor 6.7 percentage points to 79.7%. Block hours flown rose 35.2% to 3,911. During the first six months of 1998, Tower flew 30.8% more RPMs and 27.3% more ASMs and 9.6% more block hours. The load factor rose 2 points.
Spirit Airlines said it is adding three more MD-80s to its fleet. "We are adding this equipment in anticipation of increased service to the Florida market in the coming months," said Mark Kahan, executive VP. The aircraft will replace DC-9s slated for other markets and will bring Spirit's fleet to 16 airplanes.
U.S.-Italy open-skies negotiations scheduled this week in Washington have been postponed until September. The change came at the request of the Italian government, citing internal issues.
A B-24 Navigator Remembers by John Stewart. Recounts the danger and excitement of aerial combat in the last great air war. McGraw-Hill; $24.95. To order, call 800-722-4726.
AirTran Holdings Inc. reported a 42.7% increase in traffic and a 31.8% jump in capacity in June 1998 over June last year, which pushed the load factor up 4.9 percentage points to 62.9%. AirTran President and Chief Executive Joseph Corr said the load factor at Atlanta increased more than nine points. The company flew 304.9 million revenue passenger miles and 485 million available seat miles during the month, and passenger enplanements rose 29.9% to 480,447. Year-to-date RPMs rose 48.1% and ASMs 38.7%, boosting the load factor 4 points.
Antoine Bouvier has been named president and chief executive of ATR by the presidents of ATR parent companies Aerospatiale and Alenia. Bouvier was head of the newly created ATR business unit.
Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.) last week stepped up pressure on DOT Secretary Rodney Slater to grant British Airways the right to serve Denver. "I will take every opportunity to encourage you to grant [Denver-London Gatwick] rights to British Airways," he said in a letter.
Continental appointed Eric Papadelis manager-marketing and communications for Brazil. Reno Air appointed John Ryan director-maintenance. Spirit named John Ruzich VP and chief marketing officer. UAL Services promoted Gene House to managing director.
AlliedSignal said it has successfully tested its first 331-400 auxiliary power unit for the Boeing 767-400. The company has begun production deliveries of its 131-9(A) APU to Airbus for the A320 family.
Alaska Airlines traffic increased 8.6% in June on 8.5% more capacity, leaving the load factor unchanged at 70.8%. For the first half of 1998, traffic rose 7.5% on 7.4% more capacity, and the load factor remained at 67%. June 98 June 97 6 Mths 98 6 Mths 97 RPMs 1,038,000,000 956,000,000 5,335,000,000 4,963,000,000 ASMs 1,466,000,000 1,351,000,000 7,961,000,000 7,410,000,000 LoadFtr% 70.8 70.8 67.0 67.0
