The Continental Express RJ145 training-flight accident Feb. 11 at Beaumont, Texas, was the result of a failed-engine drill. There were two minor injuries among the four people on board and there is debate as to whether the airplane was totaled. Sources say the training captain told the pilot that he would simulate the failure of a certain engine for a single-engine go-around but selected the other engine instead - and the pilot failed to respond properly.
Angered about a 50-cent charge on electronic ticket transactions that Galileo International Computer Reservation Systems will enact Sunday, Continental and US Airways have decided they will no longer conduct e- ticket transactions on the CRS. Both carriers are telling travel agents who use Galileo to contact them directly if they want to book e-tickets.
Pan Am yesterday filed for bankruptcy under Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy code and expects to stop all flight operations today, temporarily. Just as with the original Pan Am, the death knell was lack of cash to run the airline. Pan American World Airways Inc. and Pan American Airways Corp. filed for Chapter 11. The parent, Pan Am Corp., did not file and is seeking debtor-in-possession financing "or a merger, to attempt to resuscitate the airline in the near future," Pan Am said.
Trans States Airlines, which plans to add its first regional jets to its mix of some 70 turboprops, increased its order for the 50-passenger Embraer RJ145 to nine firm with options for 18, Embraer said Tuesday in Singapore. Trans States signed a letter of intent in December for seven of the RJ-145s with options for 18 more, securing the initial agreement with a "substantial" non-refundable deposit (DAILY, Dec. 23). Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Crossair and Lufthansa CityLine are the potential lead customers for the proposed 70-seat Fairchild Dornier 728JET. The U.S./German company also expects a major U.S. carrier to sign up soon. The European orders could be substantial - 50 for Crossair, launch customer for the Saab 340 and Saab 2000, and up to 90 for Lufthansa, launch customer for the Canadair Regional jet. Both carriers are looking for a family of aircraft in their next- generation fleets.
Matt Wald, transportation reporter for The New York Times, will discuss FAA Year 2000 computer challenges 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.
Aeromexico asked DOT for authority for one year to display Austrian Airlines' code on flights between New York and Mexico City in order to transport Austrian's traffic between Austria and Mexico City. The carriers plan to begin the code-share/blocked-space arrangement March 29.
Southwest yesterday agreed in principle to acquire three 737-300s formerly operated by defunct Western Pacific. Southwest wants to buy two of the aircraft from one leasing firm and lease the third from a different lessor. Terms were not disclosed. The airline said the acquisitions are contingent on inspections of the equipment and negotiation of final documents. Westpac's average aircraft was about nine years old.
Split-up of the Aero International (Regional) consortium - which the venture is calling a "restructuring" - appears inevitable. Only the final details need to be worked out. The Avro RJ85/100 quadjet program will revert to British Aerospace Regional Aircraft Ltd. and the ATR turboprop program will become Aerospatiale-ATR as a company rather than as an Aerospatiale/Alenia partnership. The parties want to maintain an AI(R) umbrella as an "alliance."
The government of Mexico has launched its airport privatization initiative by publishing general guidelines for the privatization of 35 airports. As expected, the government will establish four holding companies that will hold 50-year renewable concessions on each of four regional groups of airports - Southeast, Pacific, North Central and Mexico City, which includes the existing airport and planned second facility.
Virgin Express booked 6,967 passenger segments Feb. 25, 39% more than its previous record. Flights from Brussels to Rome and Barcelona have been well received and service from Rotterdam has been successful, said Rohan Alce, director of sales and promotions.
Ryanair is expanding its network across Europe with the launch this summer of scheduled services to six new points. The decision pitches the low-cost Irish carrier into head-to-head competition with British Airways, Alitalia, Air France and SAS. The new services originate from Ryanair's U.K. operating base at London Stansted Airport to Venice, Pisa, Toulouse, Lyon, Rimini (Rome) and Malmo. Ryanair will offer twice-daily frequencies to all but Rimini and Malmo, which will receive one daily flight.
GE Engine Services and Rolls-Royce plan to form separate overhaul and maintenance companies in conjunction with Asian businesses. GE and EVA Airways of Taiwan intend to set up an EVA-controlled joint venture, Evergreen Aviation Technologies Corp., to provide engine overhaul and aircraft maintenance services for EVA and other Asia/Pacific airlines. Rolls-Royce, Singapore Airlines Engineering Co. and Hong Kong Aero Engine Services Ltd.
Northwest asked DOT to award it immediately all 21 beyond-Japan and 28 U.S.-Japan same-country weekly code-share frequencies. No other partners have filed for the beyond code shares, and with US Airways' withdrawal from the Japan case only the TWA-Delta partnership is competing for same-country gateway-to-gateway code shares. Northwest wants DOT to deny that application because it was filed one day late.
Airbus Industrie will be in a position to launch both the 100-seat AE31X and the 555-seat A3XX at the end of the year after working out the "business case" for the former and technical questions involving the latter, according to Airbus Managing Director Jean Pierson. Airbus and its AE31X design, development and production partners in China and Singapore "know the where and the need of" the 100-seat market, Pierson said, but the difference between cost and selling price estimates "still gives us some headaches," he said.
Pan Am told the Airline Reporting Corp. it will remain an ARC member and has established a ticketing and refund procedure for travel agencies in lieu of posting $3.3 million in additional security, as required. ARC said, effective with transactions on or after March 2, it will restrict processing of cash refunds validated on Pan Am as reported by ARC- accredited travel agents.
Boeing is working with several Asian customers to defer deliveries, notably to Philippine Airlines and Malaysia Airlines, but the company believes the regional recession that is generating the slowdowns will be short-lived, according to Boeing Commercial VP Larry Dickenson. Boeing believes the governments of South Korea and Thailand are moving strongly to right their economies and will be back in as little as a year. Korea is "resilient," and top Thai officials have surrounded themselves "with good people," Dickenson said.
Boeing will double its output of next-generation 737s this spring as its recovery from production problems continues to outpace the schedule it announced last fall, Boeing executives said yesterday. Also yesterday, Boeing and Bell Helicopter Textron announced the sale, as expected, of Boeing's single-engine commercial helicopter business to Bell.
Sabena ended three months of speculation with the announcement yesterday that it has chosen the CFM56 engine to power 34 new Airbus aircraft. The order, worth up to 15 billion Belgian francs (US$420 million), took few industry observers by surprise because Swissair, Sabena's partner and major shareholder, uses the same powerplant. Swissair has applied increasing pressure on the Belgian carrier to harmonize their two fleets despite misgivings by the unions representing Sabena's technical maintenance and repair staff.
Summary of U.S. National Carriers Systemwide Traffic September 1997 Revenue Average Revenue Passengers Length of Passenger Enplaned % Travel Miles % Carriers (000) Change (miles) (000) Change American Trans Air 338 (3.81) 1,980 668,850 3.25 Carnival 86 (24.08) 1,109 95,225 (33.73)
Rolls-Royce Chairman Ralph Robins ridiculed Pratt&Whitney's PW8000 geared turbofan launch as "the best of many good things that has happened" recently to the U.K. engine manufacturer. P&W President Karl Krapek announced the PW8000 "as the technology for the 21st century," Robins said, but "he's about 35 years late; we had a geared fan in the sixties. It was called the M45H, and there are many geared fans flying today. The ALF 502 is a geared turbofan.
Delta will become the first U.S. airline to transit North Korean airspace March 1, on its Portland-Seoul flight. Using airspace closed to U.S. aircraft for more than 50 years will save Delta fuel costs and between 15 and 40 minutes per flight, depending on winds.
The directors general of civil aviation of several Central European states will meet in Dubrovnik March 2-3 in an attempt to revive stalled talks on the placement of a Central European Air Traffic Services (CEATS) center. The CEATS concept calls for the creation of a single air traffic control center for the upper airspace in Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia and the northern part of Italy.
Japan Airlines and American yesterday announced a wide-ranging code-share agreement that will give both carriers needed access to cities beyond traditional nonstop gateways in Asia and North America. The agreement was first revealed earlier this week (DAILY, Feb. 24). American Chairman Robert Crandall, in Tokyo yesterday, is expected to follow this announcement with a second Asian code share - with China Eastern Airlines.
