Aerospatiale, British Aerospace and Daimler-Benz Aerospace (Dasa) put some of their disagreements about European aerospace industry reorganization on display last week in Paris at a symposium organized by Ernst&Young and French financial daily Les Echos. As ever, conflict centered on British and German demands that Aerospatiale be privatized.
Northwest Air Line Pilots Association unit's Master Executive Council and contract negotiating committee are "outraged" that management has decided to outsource regional jet flying to Mesaba Airlines while the union and management are negotiating RJ and scope issues. Mesaba signed an agreement Monday to fly six RJs for Northwest (DAILY, April 7).
CCAIR, which operates as US Airways Express in the southeastern U.S., reported a 5.3% drop in traffic and a 20% decline in capacity during March, which increased the load factor 18.4% percentage points, a record, over the same month last year. CCAIR flew 11.3 million revenue passenger miles and 19.9 million available seat miles, creating a 56.7% load factor. Passenger enplanements declined 2.5% to 62,783. For the first three months, RPMs dropped 7.6% and ASMs 23%, increasing the load factor 20.2 points. Enplaned passengers declined 5.2% to 163,121.
Southwest posted a 10.9% increase in March traffic on 7.45% more capacity, which pushed the load factor up 2.2 percentage points to 68%. The average length of haul in March was 595 miles, up from 552 miles a year earlier. For the first quarter, Southwest's traffic rose 5.65% on 7.2% more capacity, which resulted in a load factor of 61.2%, down 0.9 points. March 1998 March 1997 3 Months 1998 3 Months 1997 RPMs 2,662,000,000 2,399,000,000 6,899,000,000 6,533,000,000
Vanguard Airlines reported a 28% reduction in traffic and a 34% decline in capacity in March 1998 compared with March 1997, which pushed the load factor up 5.5 percentage points to 78.8%. Vanguard reported 64.6 million revenue passenger miles and 87.4 million available seat miles for the month. Year-to-date RPMs were down 26.5% and ASMs 32%, causing the load factor to rise 5.6 points.
Honeywell Inc. has challenged the European Commission's decision to allow France to help two European companies finance development of avionics equipment for Airbus aircraft. The U.S. company said the decision, made public last December, would distort competition. The EC authorized the French government in December to provide 140 million French francs ($23.6 million) to Airbus Industrie to back development of a new flight management system by Sextant Avionique of France and Smiths Industries of the U.K. (DAILY, Dec. 5, 1997).
Canadian Airlines will issue US$175 million in senior secured debt in a public offering in the U.S. The company intends to conduct the offering late this month, subject to regulatory approval, and use the funds to repay debt and for general corporate purposes. Separately, Canadian Regional Airlines announced it will begin two daily Fokker 28 flights from Canadian's Vancouver hub to San Jose, Calif., on June 1.
The General Services Administration proposed yesterday various changes to its regulations under the Fly America Act governing travel by representatives of federal agencies, including a provision to make it easier to fly a foreign flag airline when connecting at an overseas airport. Under current regulations, one of the exceptions to the Fly America Act when traveling between the U.S. and another country is when flying a U.S. airline would require a connecting time of six hours or more at an overseas interchange point.
United said yesterday it will limit passengers on flights in North America to two pieces of carry-on luggage with combined dimensions that do not exceed 45 inches, beginning May 15. The policy exempts assistive devices for disabled passengers, outer garments and wearing apparel, and child safety seats. United called on FAA to develop a consistent and clear carry-on baggage standard that can be adopted by all U.S. carriers.
Lufthansa, United, Air Canada, SAS, Thai International and Varig, the six members of the Star Alliance, have combined operations in a single terminal for the first time - Frankfurt Terminal B, where the carriers have hung Star Alliance ceiling banners and country flags at the entrance. "Frankfurt is the first station in the world where all six Star Alliance carriers are operating out of the same terminal space," said Marcel Fuchs, United's country manager-Germany.
Sumitomo Bank Leasing and Finance has signed a secured 18-year U.S. Leveraged Lease agreement with Alaska Airlines for two Boeing 737-400s. The deal, arranged by lessor Babcock&Brown, was valued at $64 million. Germany's Commerzbank AG provided debt for one aircraft and the Dutch bank Rabobank International debt for the second.
National Transportation Safety Board yesterday asked FAA to issue an airworthiness directive "as soon as possible" requiring detailed inspection of fuel quantity indication system wiring in Boeing 747-100/200/300 aircraft and to issue another AD requiring the "earliest possible replacement" of Honeywell terminal blocks on 747 fuel probes with blocks that do not have sharp edges. The board's recommendations grew out of its investigation of the crash of TWA 800.
Boeing named Richard James president-Boeing Europe, a new position in which James will represent the company's three principal aerospace activities - commercial, military and space. James, who was VP-commercial business development, will be based in Brussels. Boeing has more than 400 major suppliers in 19 European countries.
Emirates has signed a $56 million contract with Matsushita Avionics Systems and will be the first airline to equip its fleet with the advanced Matsushita 2000E inflight entertainment and telecommunications system. The contract covers the equipment, installation and maintenance for two Boeing 777s due to arrive this year and for 16 Airbus A330-200s scheduled for delivery between 1999 and 2002.
Air New Zealand will sell some assets within its Mount Cook Group subsidiary to Tourism Holdings Limited, a major tourism operator in New Zealand, Australia and Fiji. Assets in the transaction include fixed-wing aircraft used for ski plane and scenic flights, a fleet of helicopters and Mount Cook Line surface coaches. The airline will continue to own and operate Mount Cook Airlines, which recently added 66-seat ATR 72 turboprops. The regional aircraft took over the Christchurch-Invercargill route, which Air New Zealand has operated with 737-200s.
US Airways will add Miami and Jacksonville to its MetroJet routes, effective July 6, when the low-cost subsidiary will begin two daily nonstop roundtrips to each point from Baltimore. On the same date, MetroJet will add two daily flights between Baltimore and Manchester, N.H., bringing to five the total number of daily nonstops it operates in the market.
It's a rare airline that does not know the value by now of selling via the Internet, and many are adding new products to put them ahead of the competition or improving their online booking services.
Several small carriers said yesterday they are happy with DOT's proposal to crack down on alleged anticompetitive behavior by the major carriers. Paul Dempsey, vice chairman at Frontier, which claims it was hurt by such behavior by United, said his carrier is "very optimistic.
Boeing delivered 108 jet transports in the first quarter - 34 737 series, 12 next-generation 737s, 12 747s, 11 757s, 10 767s, 20 777s, two MD-80s, four MD-90s and three MD-11s. The company expects to deliver 550 aircraft this year.
Reno Air will discontinue its Gulfport-Biloxi and Tampa-St. Petersburg service on June 1. Chief Executive Joe O'Gorman said eliminating the service is part of the company's efforts to rationalize its schedule, reduce costs and focus on its core markets.
British Midland has taken delivery of its first Airbus A321. The carrier will receive 12 A321s and 10 A320s over the next five years and will take three A321s in the first half of this year.
Standard&Poor's assigned a double-C rating to TWA's $150 million 11.375% senior unsecured notes due 2006. S&P also affirmed its triple-C corporate credit rating and revised the outlook to positive from stable.
An unnamed investment fund is investing $15 million in Denver-based Frontier Airlines, receiving 33.3% of the carrier's outstanding stock and the right to designate two directors. Frontier said yesterday that it accepted a commitment from the investor to buy 4,615,385 newly issued shares of Frontier common stock at $3.25 per share. The investment fund also will receive warrants to purchase 758,000 additional shares at an exercise price of $3.75 per share.
America West will report first quarter profits at the upper end of analysts' estimates, Chairman William Franke said yesterday. The company, which will report earnings April 21, said most estimates put first quarter per-share earnings between 40 cents and 47 cents. In addition, America West expects strong second quarter results if fuel prices remain stable during the period. In last year's first quarter, when fuel prices were increasing, the airline posted a record net profit of $14 million and earnings per share of 31 cents.
