FAA this week directed the Monroe County, N.Y., Airport Authority and Greater Rochester Airport to respond by early May to the Part 16 complaint filed by nine regional airlines over an airport facility use fee the airlines claim is unreasonable and discriminatory. In a recent filing, the Regional Airline Association and the nine carriers contended that the new fee, which took effect Jan. 1, violates the Anti-Head Tax Act, the county's grant assurances and the DOT/FAA policy on airport rates and charges.
Atlantic Coast Airlines, on the threshold of Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1994, has seen its stock soar in recent days to a 52-week high at midday Thursday of $61.13. That is up 399% from its 52-week low of only $12.25 per share on April 30 a year ago, or in absolute terms, from a market value of nearly $103.9 million to $466.7 million. The stock has nearly doubled from a yearend mark of $31.75 per share and is up from $21 and change when it began operating its expanding fleet of Canadair Regional Jets in November.
DOT renewed for one year Air Comet's exemption to conduct charter combination service between the U.S. and Spain, and other charters. DOT noted that the request is granted under comity and reciprocity, as the U.S.-Spain bilateral does not provide for operation of charter services between the two countries.
RTCA's Free Flight Steering Committee recommended yesterday that FAA adopt the Free Flight Phase One program to implement six technologies at selected FAA en route air traffic control centers through 2002 under a core capability limited deployment process. The technologies are Traffic Management Advisor, Passive Final Approach Spacing Tool, User Request Evaluation Tool, Collaborative Decision Making, Controller-Pilot Datalink Communications (Build-One) and Surface Movement Advisor.
Continental reported record first quarter pre-tax income of $137 million, an 11% improvement over first quarter 1997 and the 12th consecutive quarter the airline has reported record earnings. Income after taxes was $81 million, up from $74 million. Continental's performance represented the payoff from a successful expansion effort, both in aircraft and hub development, although the carrier reported declines as great as 2% in passenger revenue and total revenue per available seat mile, and average yield per revenue passenger mile.
Comair is heating up the regional-jet wars. The Delta Connection carrier said yesterday it will start the first service July 1 between its Cincinnati hub and Houston's Bush International Airport, the home of Continental Express and its rapidly growing fleet of ERJ-145 ExpressJets. Delta operates three jet trips to Houston Hobby. Comair's CRJs already do battle with ExpressJets between Cincinnati and Continental's Newark hub and serve Continental's Cleveland hub as well, although Continental Express operates Beech 1900Ds on the latter route.
Wideroe of Norway has ordered two Dash 8Q Series 300 aircraft and placed a conditional order for a third, Bombardier announced. Value of the transaction - firm orders only - was placed at US$27 million. The two aircraft are scheduled to enter service in September.
Hawaiian Airlines flew 369 million revenue passenger miles last month, up 0.4% from the same 1997 period, on 0.5% less capacity, resulting in a load factor gain of 0.7 percentage points to 76.2%. Passenger boardings were down 3.6%. For the first quarter, the carrier's RPMs fell 0.1%, while available seat miles grew 1.3%, producing a 1-point decrease in the average systemwide load factor. Passenger boardings fell 3.5%. March 1998 March 1997 3 Months 1998 3 Months 1997
US Airways Express affiliate CCAIR May 5 will inaugurate weekday service linking Roanoke, Richmond and Norfolk, Va., using 19-seat Jetstream 32EP aircraft. CCAIR VP-Marketing Mickey Bowman said, "We are pleased to be expanding our service within the state of Virginia. The new flight makes same-day business travel between these cities a reality."
Embraer has established a "strategic alliance" with AeroCentury Corp. under which Aero Century will help Embraer financially in leasing and selling used EMB-120 (Brasilia) aircraft, AeroCentury announced. AeroCentury President Neal Crispin said, "This strategic alliance with Embraer is an excellent opportunity." Crispin said the aircraft "is a leading aircraft of choice in our key markets - regional airlines and government/military - and we believe this alliance should significantly enhance our deal flow."
United Express Atlantic Coast Airlines and Northwest Airlink Mesaba Holdings saw triple-digit traffic gains in March, leading The DAILY's sampling of 14 regional airlines to an average increase on the month of 17.9%. That compares with an average capacity growth of 9.7%. ACA and Mesaba are in the midst of significant regional-jet deliveries - ACA the Canadair Regional Jet and Mesaba the Avro RJ85. ACA traffic was up 111.5% versus an increase in capacity of 59.7% while Mesaba's numbers were up 102.8% to 88.0%.
One early comment on DOT's predatory activity guidelines suggests alternatives to the department's attempt to gauge whether majors are taking irrational losses to defend their hubs against new entrants. Protecting competition is the proper goal, but DOT is preparing to use the wrong tools, according to Allan Rossmore, a professor of aviation at Miami-Dade Community College, textbook author and aviation attorney.
Austrian Airlines' revenues shot up more than 13% last year compared with 1996, while its operating profit more than doubled. The AUA Group also turned in a strong performance last year. The group's supervisory board plans to declare a 5% dividend on existing share capital and raise new capital this year. Austrian's revenues rose 13.1% to approximately ATS14.7 billion ($116 million) last year from 12.9 billion Austrian schillings (US$101.7 million) in 1996. Its operating expenses in 1997 increased more slowly by 11.2% to ATS14.5 billion ($114 million).
Barco N.V., Belgian electronics and visual technologies firm, last week signed an agreement with Belairbus, the office linking the Belgian aviation sector with Airbus Industrie, to participate in production of the future Airbus A3XX superjumbo jet. Barco is developing a range of products that incorporate avionics with video, data, imaging and graphics visual display systems, which it hopes to sell to the Airbus consortium.
FAA relinquished control yesterday of its last airport in the U.S., Atlantic City International, to the South Jersey Transportation Authority. FAA Technical Center Director Anne Harlan and SJTA Executive Director James Crawford signed a 50-year lease and cooperative agreement during the turnover ceremony, and as a result hundreds of acres of prime airport land will not be open for development. The transfer involves 2,000 acres of land, including airport runway and taxiway systems and land acquired for future commercial airport development.
Polar and Fine Air Services filed separately to renew Latin American authorities this week. Polar wants a two-year renewal of its two weekly narrowbody U.S.-Argentina frequencies so it can retain authority linking New York, Miami and Los Angeles to Buenos Aires, Argentina; Barranquilla, Colombia, and Santiago, Chile. Polar acquired the authority in 1995. The cargo carrier is using its authority for all-cargo service in the markets to Chile and Argentina but is not currently serving Colombia due to limits in the number of U.S.
Association of European Airlines Traffic January 1998 January 1998 Passenger Data % % Pts. RPKs Change ASKs Change Load Change (Mil) 98/97 (Mil) 98/97 Factor 98/97 EUROPE 7,741.5 10.9 14,733.0 8.1 52.5 1.4
Pan Am continues to stay afloat via "charter demand greater than our ability to serve it," a spokesman said. After a spate of contracts for U.S. carriers and companies, Pan Am has been flying for Air Jamaica and Air Aruba. Its next bankruptcy hearing is scheduled May 6.
Cathay Pacific is expected to save roughly HK$2 billion (US$258 million) per year in 1998 and 1999 due to the lower cost of jet fuel, according to a report from Salomon Smith Barney. One reason for the large fuel savings is that Cathay paid 20% more for fuel in 1997 than it should have, the report said, because the airline locked prices higher than the spot market for jet fuel. The savings will partially offset revenue declines the Hong Kong- based airline has experienced.
Air Canada flew 2.4% more traffic and 8.4% more capacity in March than in the same month last year, largely the result of gains in domestic traffic and capacity, which depressed the load factor 4.1 pecentage points. Systemwide, the carrier reported 1.84 million revenue passenger miles and 2.63 million available seat miles for a 69.8% load factor. Domestically, it saw a 10.2% rise in RPMs and a 9.5% increase in ASMs, which pushed the load factor up 0.4 points. International RPMs declined 1.4% and ASMs went up 7.8%, causing the load factor to drop 6.5 points.
American parent AMR Corp. yesterday posted first quarter net profits of $290 million, improving on the 1997 quarter by 91% and setting a record by a wide margin. Even factoring out the disruptions and lost bookings from last year's pilot strike, which cost the company $70 million, net income would have risen more than 30%. The improvement in earnings this year also came despite unfavorable year-over-year comparisons due to the federal excise tax on tickets, which was absent during January and February last year but present this year.
DOT's Bureau of Transportation Statistics, criticized by the DOT inspector general for lack of consistency in its monthly analysis of on-time performance by the 10 largest U.S. airlines (DAILY, April 3), asked for public comment by June 12 on whether it is necessary or useful to keep collecting data on timely arrivals and mishandled baggage.
DOT granted Uzbekistan Airways' request to implement rights available to it under the U.S.-Uzbekistan open-skies agreement, signed in February. The carrier received a two-year initial exemption to operate scheduled combination service between any points behind Uzbekistan, via any points in Uzbekistan and any intermediate points, and any points in the U.S. and any beyond points, as well as all-cargo service between the U.S. and any points. It must obtain DOT approval before operating charter services.
