Robert Coggin, executive VP-marketing at Delta, and Robert Adams, Delta senior VP-personnel, have announced they will retire from the company. Coggin, 61, has been with Delta 42 years, and Adams, 70, joined Delta in 1991 after a career of 26 years at Pan Am.
Savannah and Hilton Head have altered the basis of their request for Chicago O'Hare slot exemptions but the request remains unsupportable, United told DOT. Savannah/Hilton Head said in a recent filing that despite United's objections, including evidence of new Savannah/Hilton Head service to other points, DOT has broad authority to grant slots (DAILY, April 6).
UPS Chief Executive Jim Kelly yesterday launched a campaign to eliminate unfair, government-granted advantages he said are enjoyed by the U.S. Postal Service in the competitive expedited delivery market. Kelly said he supports postal reform legislation being written by House Government Reform postal subcommittee Chairman Rep. John McHugh (R-N.Y.), and said UPS would try to educate the public and Congress on the need for that and other measures.
Ansett Australia is replacing its Apollo computer reservations system with Sabre, sources say. Apollo said it does not comment on decisions made by its clients. The switch would affect Ansett internally as well as its travel agency chain, Traveland.
America West's dispatchers, represented by the Transport Workers Union, yesterday ratified a five-year contract guaranteeing pay increases, productivity improvements and flexible work rules. The contract is expected to be signed May 1. Gregory Garger, VP-labor relations, said the carrier is "pleased to have reached agreement in a short period of time." He said the pact provides stability for the company and addresses key concerns of the dispatchers.
FAA yesterday launched Safer Skies, a series of safety initiatives designed to bring about a five-fold reduction in fatal accidents. Some of the initiatives were recommended last year by the National Civil Aviation Review Commission and already have been implemented voluntarily by industry, which, along with pilots, praised the announcement. Commercial transport initiatives will focus on controlled flight into terrain (CFIT), loss of control, uncontained engine failures, runway incursions, approach and landing and weather, which data show cause the most accidents.
U.S. Major Carriers Atlantic Share of Service Fourth Quarter 1997 Total Revenue Departures American 5,488 Continental 2,935 Delta 6,694 Northwest 1,759 TWA 1,840 United 4,178 US Airways 1,293 Total 24,187
Kiwi will launch service May 15 between Niagara and Newark with fares beginning at $78 one way. Flights will operate weekdays until June 1, when a systemwide change will enable expansion to daily service
United Chairman Gerald Greenwald yesterday announced orders for 23 new widebody aircraft from Boeing as part of a plan to grow the fleet by 68 aircraft, from 571 at yearend 1997 to 639 at yearend 2001. The expansion will add up to capacity growth of about 3% a year, Greenwald said. United announced orders last month for 30 Airbus narrowbody aircraft (DAILY, March 5). The Boeing order comprises one 747-400, 16 777-200s and six 767-300s, to be delivered between 1999 and 2002.
Federal Express is building its fifth national hub at Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, N.C. The $300 million Mid-Atlantic hub is expected to bring hundreds of jobs to the state. FedEx selected Greensboro because it met the cargo carrier's expansion needs.
Alaska Airlines will resume service to Vladivostok in the Russian Far East April 28, adding a second weekly flight to Yuzhno-Sakalinsk that continues to Vladivostok. The airline's specially equipped 140-seat MD-80 departs Seattle, stops in Anchorage and arrives in Yuzhno-Sakalinsk after an enroute stop in Petropavlovsk. Alaska has served the oil-rich region north of Japan since 1991.
The government of Australia will receive A$730 million (US$478.6 million) from the sale of long-term leases on 14 airports in the second phase of airport privatization. Preferred bidders on the last of the leases - Darwin, Alice Springs and Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory and Archerfield Airport in Brisbane - were announced last week. Last year, the government received A$3.34 billion for leases on Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth airports in the first round of privatization (DAILY, May 8, 1997). Each lease is for 50 years with an option for another 49 years.
U.S. and Korea will hold open-skies talks April 22-23 in Seoul at the request of Korea, U.S. officials said yesterday. This round will be the third in the talks, which began in May and July last year and have been dormant since then. A State Department source said the U.S. is reasonably optimistic of making good progress this time.
Northwest World Vacations is offering luxury packages to Beijing, Bangkok and Hong Kong, starting at $991. Prices include accommodations at Sheraton or Shangri-La hotels, breakfast and refreshments, and air fares on Northwest. Sample prices from the West Coast, coach class, are $1,244 to Beijing, $991 to Bangkok and $1,228 to Hong Kong.
Atlantic Coast yesterday declared a two-for-one stock split, payable May 15 to shareholders of record at the close of business April 24. The move will make the stock more affordable to investors and improve the amount of liquidity in the trading of common stock.
DOT's fifth quarterly Domestic Airline Fares Consumer Report (DAILY, April 14) can be downloaded at http://www.dms.dot.gov/ost/aviation. The report is available in Adobe and Microsoft Word formats. Past reports also are available.
Japan's three major carriers - Japan Airlines, All Nippon Airways and Japan Air System - have been embarrassed by hard-nosed negotiations with their flight crew unions. Japanese airline managers, knee-deep in red ink, see this strike period as a critical chance to roll back what they consider unwieldy pilot pay that does not allow Japanese carriers to compete with lower-cost international carriers.
Japan's Transport Ministry, the Defense Agency and the local Ibaragi government agreed April 7 to construct a 2,700-meter second runway at Hyakuri air force base that eventually will relieve congestion at Tokyo Narita. Hyakuri is 70 kilometers northeast of Tokyo and 45 km north of Narita. The new runway, built on the west side of the field, will not be operational until 2005. After its completion, a portion of Narita's traffic will be shifted to Hyakuri, the fourth military/civil airfield in Japan.
U.S. Major Carriers Domestic Share of Service Fourth Quarter 1997 Total Revenue Departures Alaska 37,502 America West 50,658 American 168,555 Continental 99,839 Delta 233,530 Northwest 137,364 Southwest 199,385 TWA 69,021
Aspen Mountain Air's application for slot exemptions linking Chicago O'Hare to Branson, Mo., and Sioux City, Iowa, meets none of the requirements for approval and would duplicate other proposals under consideration, according to United. Exec Express II d/b/a Aspen Mountain Air asked for eight O'Hare slots for Dornier 328 turboprop service.
Swissport International, the ground-handling subsidiary of the SAirGroup, has purchased Fernley Airport Services Ltd. from Aer Lingus. Fernley has a staff of 425 employees and provides aircraft cabin cleaning services to more than 70 airlines at the London-area airports of Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted. Swissport said it will look for ways to establish administrative synergies between Fernley and Swissport U.K. Ltd., its subsidiary at London Heathrow. No price was given for the transaction.
U.K. Transport Secretary John Prescott has given the green light to plans by London City Airport to double its annual aircraft movements to 73,000 per year. The airport's request was positively received by the London borough of Newham and the London Docklands Development Corporation last month. Prescott's office said it supports the authorities' decision. Richard Gooding, London City Airport's managing director, said he hopes to finalize the plan this month. The airport's passenger traffic in March shot up 41% to 116,138, compared with March 1997.
Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration has ordered the island's domestic airlines to implement identification checks on all passengers. Passengers will be required to present identity cards or passports when purchasing tickets, reporting to check-in counters and before boarding. Before 1993, ID checks were strictly enforced but in recent years, most of Taiwan's domestic airlines dropped the practice because the checks were seen as an inconvenience to passengers.
Denver-based Frontier Airlines reported a 34.2% rise in traffic and a 40.3% jump in capacity in March, which depressed the load factor to 60.2%, 2.7 percentage points lower than in March 1997. Frontier reported 120.8 million revenue passenger miles and 200.7 million available seat miles, and passenger enplanements rose 10.6% to 136,846. Year-to-date, the carrier reported a 39.6% increase in RPMs and a 48% rise in ASMs, which pushed the load factor down 3.3 points. Passenger enplanements rose 12.2% to 369,692.
Eurocontrol conducted a successful flight trial March 12 of the new aeronautical telecommunication network (ATN), which it is developing as part of the pan-European harmonized air traffic management project (EATCHIP). The main goal was to interrogate the ATN's full seven-layer protocol stack during the flight, which was carried out in cooperation with France's national air navigation agency, Service Technique de la Navigation Aerienne (STNA), and Britain's Defense Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA).
