Atlantic Southeast recorded last month a 5.6% decline in capacity to 148.8 million available seat miles as traffic rose 8.9% to 85.3 million revenue passenger miles - resulting in a 7.7-percentage-point increase in the load factor to 57.4%, compared with March 1997. Boardings were up 4.5% to 333,316.
Demand for pilots continues to intensify, driven by the healthy economy and industry. Kit Darby, president of pilot job tracker Air, Inc., says only 25 of the 250 carriers it follows still require new pilot hires to pay for their own training. Some carriers are offering scholarships for qualified pilots, while others are looking at stopping the pay-to-train practice altogether. "We can't know for sure what's going to happen.
American will offer London Heathrow-Manchester service via its code share with British Midland. Manchester, the sixth U.K. point American will serve under the code share, replaces Zurich, which British Midland canceled recently. American serves Manchester nonstop from Chicago and will add Dallas-Manchester on July 5.
Airshow corporate jet and airline customers will be able to receive regularly updated selected content inflight from the Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition, starting this spring. The Interactive Journal will offer global business news, information and content from various editions of the newspaper as part of programming offered by Airshow Network in agreement with Dow Jones Interactive Publishing. The Airshow Network is the first airborne communications service to supply corporate jet passengers with news, weather, sports and financial information.
Spirit Airlines is considering moving its headquarters from Detroit to one of six Florida sites or Atlantic City, said Vice Chairman Mark Kahan. Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, St. Petersburg, Orlando and Melbourne, Fla., and Atlantic City have bid for the leisure carrier's headquarters, and Miami- Dade County presented an offer this week. Spirit would build a second maintenance facility, hangar and reservations center at the new site.
American Eagle has named Michele Valdez VP-employee relations. Valdez currently is a senior attorney for American, responsible for employment counseling for Miami, the Caribbean and Latin America.
Passengers like larger inflight meals, and the amount of food carriers serve can make a difference when consumers choose an airline, according to a survey by United and LSG/Sky Chefs. The test, which measured the impact of food and beverage service during a nine-month period, showed that increasing the amount of food can influence customer behavior and revenue, United said.
With the growth of regional airlines and the demand for good pilots, the practice of having pilots pay for their own training is coming under scrutiny, according to pilot instructors and aviation professionals who follow trends in the pilot hiring market. Although many regional operations still require new hires to pay for their own training - called "pay to train," it can cost up to $10,000 - a few have opted to pick up the training tab for all new hires or those pilots who are especially well qualified.
Charles Hunnicutt, DOT assistant secretary for aviation and international affairs, discusses the administration's proposed policy on competition in the airline industry on Aviation News Today, to air Sunday on Washington's Newschannel 8 at 12:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
Northwest's pilots can expect to find strike ballots in their mailboxes next week. Northwest Air Line Pilots Association leadership, complaining about stalled negotiations and the company's decision to outsource regional jet flying to Mesaba, plans to send out ballots April 15. The ballots are a first step toward asking the National Mediation Board to release the parties into a 30-day cooling-off period.
Star Alliance partners United and Air Canada have teamed to put U.S.- Canada flights on sale, with a joint promotion in transborder markets. Sale fares can be purchased through April 16 for travel from April 21 through June 30. Sample roundtrip fares for Monday through Thursday travel include US$144 for Los Angeles-Vancouver, $311 for Denver-Toronto and $371 for Chicago-Vancouver. Tickets are non-refundable and require a 14-day advance purchase and Saturday night stay.
Atlantic Coast Airlines, which operates in the eastern U.S. as United Express, will begin 50-passenger Canadair Regional Jet service June 10 between Greenville/Spartanburg, S.C., and Washington Dulles Airport.
Mesaba Airlines' traffic soared 102.3% and capacity jumped 88% in March, bumping the load factor up to 57.3%, 4.2 percentage points over that of March 1997. The Northwest Airlink affiliate reported 87.6 million revenue passenger miles and 153.1 million available seat miles for the month. Passengers boarded rose 83.9% to 342,000. RPMs were up 108.5% for the first three months of 1998 and ASMs rose 92%, boosting the load factor 4.2 points. The number of passengers boarded increased 88.7% to 902,000.
Canadian Airlines added nine international destinations - Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Auckland, Sydney, Buenos Aires, Monterrey, Kuala Lumpur, Beijing and Bangkok - to its spring fare sale. Fares are nearly 50% off the full economy fare for more than 175 domestic, transborder and international destinations. Sale fares are available until April 16 for travel in North America by June 30 and for international travel by June 23. Sample roundtrip fares include $379 Vancouver-Toronto, $729 Toronto-Honolulu and $1,131 Montreal-Buenos Aires.
Comair, which operates as a Delta Connection carrier, will begin 50- passenger Canadair Regional Jet service June 1 between Dayton and New York LaGuardia Airport. The service will be the only jet nonstops in the market, according to Charles Curran, Comair seniorVP-marketing.
France and the U.S. yesterday initialed a bilateral aviation agreement that largely liberalizes air service between the two countries after a five-year phase-in period of comparable, equitable rights for U.S. and French carriers. Negotiators extended the last round of talks through the weekend to achieve the agreement. The accord falls short of open skies, as fifth-freedom passenger service is not included. French Transport Minister Jean-Claude de Gayssot, speaking at a joint news conference in Paris with U.S.
The Greek government, faced with fierce opposition from unions, has decided to soften the drastic restructuring plan it put forward to rescue state-owned carrier Olympic Airways. The plan was to have been voted on today in Parliament, and after the vote, Olympic employees would have had five days to accept it or be forced to leave the company with minimal compensation. Greek Transport Minister Tassos Mandelis lifted that threat yesterday in Athens and said a $225 "food grant," which was to have been abolished to cut costs, would be maintained for ground staff.
Korean Air has begun a marketing tie-in with American Express and Hyatt. The deal gives a business-class upgrade to passengers who buy an unrestricted coach ticket with an American Express card. The upgraded boarding pass gets a passenger a better Hyatt hotel room in Asia.
United's traffic in March declined 3.5% on 1.2% more capacity, which pushed the load factor down 3.4 percentage points to 70.6%. The airline's Pacific division posted a sharp 18.6% drop in traffic on 9.4% less capacity, which caused the load factor to plunge 7.6 points to 67.2%. United President John Edwardson said he was "pleased with traffic growth" in the Atlantic and Latin American division, even though the Latin America load factor dropped even more than the Pacific.
Observing its 75th anniversary, Sabena is offering June weekend packages for two traveling together from Atlanta or Newark to Brussels for $750 roundtrip, including airfare, hotel, breakfast and taxes.
Delta traffic increased 1.8% in March on 2% more capacity, which pushed the load factor down 0.1 percentage points to 74.6%. International traffic rose 8.4% on 7.7% more capacity, boosting the load factor 0.5 points to 77.4%. Domestic traffic increased 0.1% on 0.5% more capacity, lowering the load factor 0.3 points. Delta, which carried 104 million passengers last year, carried 24.6 million in the first quarter, up just 486 over the 1997 quarter. March 1998 March 1997 3 Months 1998 3 Months 1997 Rev. Psngr
Congress approved FAA's request to transfer $24.9 million in fiscal 1998 funds from other programs into the Year 2000 Program, recognizing the priority of the effort. The House Appropriations Committee approved the request March 24 and the Senate Appropriations Committee followed suit last Friday.
Canadian airlines are asking FAA to return $10 million, plus interest, in overflight charges that they paid the agency before a court struck down its authority to charge the fees on Jan. 30. The Air Transport Association of Canada (ATAC) said that "because the rule has been declared unlawful and completely vacated, ATAC members are entitled to a full refund of those monies." ATAC said the U.S.
U.K. National Air Traffic Services has reduced its charges to airlines at BAA Plc's London airports for the sixth consecutive year and has cut or held its charges at BAA's Scottish airports. NATS reduced air traffic control charges 4.7% at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, 10% at Aberdeen and 1% at Glasgow. The cost at Edinburgh is the same as last year's.
