Omni Air International is buying two DC-10-30s from Condor Flugdienst, bringing its DC-10 fleet to four. The charter carrier said the aircraft, to be delivered in November and June, will seat 370 in charter configuration.
DOT will issue its long-awaited predatory practices guidelines in about two weeks, Deputy Assistant Secretary Patrick Murphy told the Senate Appropriations transportation subcommittee yesterday, giving carriers the information they say they need to avoid running afoul of DOT antitrust policy. Murphy said "jawboning" majors away from questionable activity has increasingly failed to work during the past two years, and control of gates by major airlines merits more attention from DOT and FAA.
Business Express Airlines d/b/a Delta Connection may terminate its service at Lebanon, N.H., effective April 16, DOT has decided. The carrier was required to notify DOT 90 days in advance of its planned cessation of service because its operations constitute more than one-third of the community's present service to FAA-designated hubs. Lebanon's essential air service determination requires at least two weekday and four weekend roundtrips to both Boston, nonstop, and New York, with one stop, providing at least 62 seats in each direction.
Spencer, Iowa-based United Express affiliate Great Lakes Aviation enjoyed a 4.2-percentage-point increase in its load factor to 45% last month, as revenue passenger miles declined 33.3% to 13.4 million but available seat miles plummeted 39.5% to 29.7 million. Boardings were off 31.8% to 45,536. Drastically reduced traffic and capacity levels reflect the elimination of flying in the Southeast, Arizona and Sonora, Mexico. As announced earlier, Great Lakes will add United Express service at 14 points from Denver beginning April 23, replacing Mesa.
LanChile increased service this week to Lima, Peru, from Santiago, Chile, Los Angeles and New York. After hearing that the Peruvian government allowed more air transport access for Chilean carriers, LanChile increased weekly Santiago-Lima frequencies from seven to 21. The airline now provides daily nonstop service from both New York and Los Angeles to Lima and expects to offer additional flights from Miami to Lima.
American Eagle, in a recent backgrounder, said it opted for the Embraer RJ145 over the Canadair CRJ-200 because of ownership costs. Although the operating costs "are nearly identical," the profit potential "is significantly higher with the Embraer due to its much lower cost of ownership.
Rep. Martin Sabo (D-Minn.), ranking member of the House Appropriations transportation subcommittee, will appear on this week's Aviation News Today, to be broadcast Sunday on Washington's NewsChannel 8 at 12:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
Mexicana asked DOT for an initial one-year exemption to provide scheduled combination service between Zacatecas, Mexico, and Oakland, Calif. The carrier, designated by Mexico to serve the route, said it plans to launch service soon after DOT approval with 727 or A320 aircraft configured for 156 passengers. (Docket OST-98-3571)
Avfuel Corp. said it acquired the Aviation Fuel Sales Division of PS Trading for more than $10 million. PST, the fuel trading and supply department for the former Pacific Southwest Airlines, currently supplies fuel to airlines nationwide. It is a subsidiary of PS Group, which deals primarily in aircraft leasing and wants to refocus on its core business.
FAA's air traffic control computer software will be modified successfully well before the year 2000, Administrator Jane Garvey told skeptical members of the House Transportation aviation subcommittee yesterday. Officials from the General Accounting Office and the DOT Inspector General, also testifying, said that despite cost overruns and schedule delays on a few major programs, FAA appears to have resolved many of the problems that led to such disasters as the Advanced Automation System program.
Star Alliance members have begun flying the liveries of all six members on their aircraft.SAS debuted a "Star" 767-300 recently, complete with all liveries and a black tail with the silver five-pointed star logo of the alliance. The 767 can be viewed at http://home.kamp.net/home.michaelbogensperger/index.html.
DOT Inspector General-FAA report on the status of recommendations by the 90-day safety review task force is published today available at http://www.dot.gov/oig.
Continental will begin daily nonstop service from Houston Bush Airport to Chicago Midway on June 12, using 104-seat 737-500s. Fares will start at $149 each way based on roundtrip purchase. The carrier also will add a third daily flight from Midway to its Newark hub. A spokeswoman said the carrier used to fly the Houston-Midway route but gave it up "a long time ago." The Midway expansion will give the carrier access to its Latin American network from Chicago, she said. Continental operates five daily flights from Cleveland to Midway.
United Parcel Service said this week it selected Louisville, Ky., as the site for "Hub 2000," an automated sorting facility expected to cost $860 million. The facility will be built at Louisville Airport to replace UPS's main express hub, also located there. It will nearly double current capacity and create as many as 6,000 new full- and part-time jobs, said Tom Weidemeyer, president. He said high-speed conveyers and "smart labels" read by overhead scanners will enable the facility to process 300,000 packages and documents per hour when it is completed in 2001.
French aerospace companies set a sales record in 1997 - 130.2 billion French francs (US$21.4 billion), 19.4% more than in 1996 - according to their industry association, Groupement Industriel Francais Aeronautique et Spatial (GIFAS). Orders jumped 33.5% to FF157.9 billion ($26 billion), so GIFAS expects another strong sales increase in 1998. Last year's surge was largely due to growth in the air transport market. French commercial aircraft industry sales increased 18.5% to FF78.3 billion ($12.9 billion).
Bombardier's Belfast unit Shorts said it "warmly welcomed" a Maersk Air announcement that it will operate the Canadair Regional Jet from Northern Ireland, on a Belfast-Birmingham, U.K., route. Shorts designs and manufactures the center fuselage, engine nacelles and wing-mounted control surfaces for the 50-seat jet. The Canadair RJ is now in service or on order with 18 airlines. Bombardier had received 577 orders and options for the aircraft as of March 2.
Fairlines, the French business-class-only regional carrier, launched two daily services this week from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport to Milan Malpensa, as well as daily service between Nice and Milan. The company started Paris-Nice operations in January, using MD-81 aircraft in a 72-seat configuration.
Delta Connection Comair will increase its Canadair Regional Jet Service from Boston to Toronto and Montreal, Canada, April 6, adding two morning jet flights from Boston to Toronto and one afternoon jet flight from Boston to Montreal - giving it a total of six daily roundtrips in each market. Separately, Delta announced that June 1 it will discontinue service from Newburgh, N.Y., to Atlanta and Cincinnati, but Comair said it will launch three daily RJ flights to Newburgh from Cincinnati.
The Sabre Group announced it has reached $4 million in sales for two consecutive weeks, beginning Feb. 2, through its consumer direct online travel products, including Travelocity.
A U.S. district court judge in Cleveland ordered FAA to cancel its contract tower program in a suit brought by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. Judge Ann Aldrich agreed with the union's claim that FAA failed to comply with Office of Management and Budget requirements that federal agencies determine whether services are inherently governmental functions before contracting out. FAA said it is "still studying" the decision. "We do believe the program saves taxpayers a significant amount of money without adverse effect on safety," a spokesman said.
Cathay Pacific will double its daily service from Hong Kong to Sydney but will cut other routes and change some nonstops to direct service. The carrier will serve Jakarta from Hong Kong via Singapore and serve Penang, Malaysia, through Kuala Lumpur. The carrier will begin twice-weekly service to Istanbul on Aug. 8. It will increase Hong Kong-Los Angeles service, build up Amsterdam-Manchester service to five flights per week and add daily frequencies from Hong Kong to Taipei on Oct. 1 and Hong Kong to Singapore Aug. 6.
Summary of U.S. Major Carriers Domestic Traffic, Third Quarter 1997 Summary of U.S. Major Carriers Domestic Traffic Third Quarter 1997 Total Operating % Passenger Freight Revenues Change Revenues Revenues American Trans Air 201,489,716 4.51 101,407,481 -- Carnival 63,298,630 (2.40) 49,949,689 245,075
DeCrane Aircraft Holdings posted revenues of $28 million in the fourth quarter 1997, up from $22 million in the same 1996 period. Operating profit was $3.4 million, up $2.2 million. For the year, revenues rose to $108.9 million from $65.1 million, while operating profit grew to $12 million from $4.2 million.
Politicians and State Department officials agree that the visa waiver pilot program should be made permanent, but some believe current criteria for deciding who gets a visa are not objective and affect which countries are allowed to participate. John Caulfield, State Department director of policy and public affairs, said State is "serious about keeping the bad guys out" and letting the "right guys in." But Thomas Wanley, legislative director for Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), said criteria used to decide who participates are too subjective.
United has placed firm orders for 30 narrowbody aircraft from Airbus as part of a strategic plan that eventually will add 68 aircraft to its fleet, Chairman Gerald Greenwald said yesterday. The order, 20 A320s and 10 A319s for delivery in 2000 and 2001, will bring United's Airbus narrowbody fleet to 111 aircraft. The total fleet will grow from 571 aircraft at yearend to 639. Greenwald said United has made "great progress" in the first of four phases in its strategic plan, "which is to strengthen our balance sheet.
