FAA plans to fine Rich International Airways $450,000 for shipping chemical oxygen generators aboard a Delta airplane. These generators have been prohibited as cargo since May 24, 1996, after FAA found that generators were involved in the crash 13 days earlier of ValuJet Flight 592. FAA said Rich offered a box with four chemical oxygen generators to Delta on July 9, 1996, and Delta carried the shipment the next day from Miami to Atlanta. FAA grounded Rich in September 1996 and withdrew its certificate.
AMR Combs named Mike Curto VP and general manager, based in Hartford. Associated Global Systems promoted Larry Bledsoe to service manager-Atlanta and Susan Davies to district manager-San Diego. Avatar Alliance named Dennis Hall sales director-western region. BFGoodrich Aerospace Maintenance Repair&Overhaul named Ross Panos director-quality and engineering in the BFG Component Services Division and Russ Schall manager-modification programs in BFG Airframe Services Division.
Disputing points raised by United in an objection, Savannah/Hilton Head told DOT there is ample legal basis to award slots to communities and Chicago Midway is no substitute for the O'Hare Airport service the cities seek. Citing DOT's "masterful job in opening up Canadian markets," the parties said, "Those and other international destinations are essential for the expansion of leisure and business traffic to the two-state area. O'Hare, not Midway, provides this service." Nor does Midway provide the connecting domestic service the cities prefer.
FAA plans to issue an information package to vendors this month to launch full-scale development of the Stage 1 Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS). The agency will use an acquisition strategy pioneered by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) - Other Transaction Authority (OTA), a concept in its new-since-1996 acquisition management system although never applied. In a briefing Friday for industry, LAAS Program Manager Ray Swider said FAA plans to acquire 143 LAAS systems - 31 will be Category 1 and 112 for Cat 3.
DOT is easing filing requirements for Mexican charter operators in accordance with bilateral negotiations held last December. Under DOT's order, certificated Mexican charter companies that want to conduct single third- and fourth-freedom operations no longer must seek prior approval. Instead, they merely may notify DOT of the flights, starting May 8. Mexico in turn will simplify filing procedures for U.S. transborder operators. DOT said Mexican carriers still will be required to seek approval for serial or program charters. (Docket OST-98-3702)
American posted a 3.9% decline in March traffic on 0.3% less capacity, which pushed the load factor down 2.6 percentage points to 70.6%. Domestic traffic fell 5% on 1.6% less capacity while international traffic declined 1.2% on 3% more capacity. Latin American traffic rose 1.4% on 9.5% more capacity, forcing the load factor down 5.1 points to 62.8%. During the first quarter of 1997, domestic traffic was flat while Pacific traffic jumped 11.5% on 1.7% more capacity. The Pacific load factor improved 6.7 points in the January-March period, reaching 77.3%.
FAA Administrator Jane Garvey and Year 2000 Program Director Ray Long tried to book seats on one of the first flights in 2000, but airline systems "could not make the reservations yet," according to Long. Garvey and Long still plan to get on a westbound flight through four time zones as the new millennium begins, "with a roundtrip ticket because we intend to come back."
American Eagle, the regional affiliate of American Airlines, reported with a 1.1% decrease in systemwide traffic and a 1.6% increase in capacity for March compared with the same month in 1997. The load factor lost 1.6 percentage points.
Alaska Airlines posted a 4.1% increase in March traffic on 8.6% more capacity, which lowered the load factor 3 percentage points to 67.8%. For the first quarter of 1997, traffic rose 5% on 6.1% more capacity. Subsidiary Horizon Air posted an 18.9% traffic increase on 20.3% more capacity, resulting in a load factor of 60.15, down 0.8 points. March 1998 March 1997 3 Months 1998 3 Months 1997 RPMs 929,000,000 893,000,000 2,459,000,000 2,342,000,000
Delta will launch nonstop routes June 1 from its hubs in Atlanta, Salt Lake City and Portland, Ore. From Atlanta it will add three nonstop destinations - Portland, Maine, and as previously announced, Tokyo on June 3 and Lima on July 1. Delta also will increase the frequency of nonstops from Atlanta to Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton, Austin, Charlotte, Cincinnati, New York Kennedy and Seattle. Delta's summer schedule provides 625 flights per day at Atlanta, with nonstop service to 123 destinations.
U.S.-French aviation negotiations were to continue into the weekend in Paris, a State Department spokesman said Friday, with the possibility of an agreement "if all goes well." Sources said positions on cargo beyond rights remained at odds, while code-sharing questions had essentially been settled.
Raytheon said its advanced air traffic control tower simulator has been accepted by The Netherlands and installed in a new training center at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. The company said its ATC system, including a solid state, digital ASR10SS primary radar, has been accepted by the Civil Aviation Administration of China at Zhengzhou Airport.
FAA apparently has decided not to notify civilian pilots when GPS satellites are on the blink. The Air Force issues notices on GPS availability to its pilots, but FAA does not intend to, sources say. Instead, FAA has decided to place the AF information in an aeronautical information system that is not given to pilots automatically. Pilots will have to request the information.
Air France created a new management structure Friday that Chief Executive Jean-Cyril Spinetta believes will simplify the airline's organization, boost yields and help it be more flexible and efficient. The restructuring touches every part of the airline, including North American operations.
Rolls-Royce confirmed that its Trent 800 engine will power eight new 777- 200ERs ordered by American, bringing the carrier's total 777 orders to 19, and two option aircraft ordered by Delta, increasing its firm 777 orders to 12. Rolls valued the new business at $250 million.
The Los Angeles-Phoenix route was the 15th largest short-haul market in the third quarter 1997. A chart showing the top 25 short-haul markets assigned the ranking to an incorrect city-pair (DAILY, April 3). See corrected chart on Page 34.
FAA Office of Regulation and Certification this week is scheduled to submit its plans for complying with year 2000 (Y2K) standards, Ray Long, Y2K program director, said Friday. Long said FAA has a right to expect that avionics and aircraft manufacturers also are in compliance with the standards.
Evergreen International Aviation named Gerald Koenig assistant general counsel and Thomas Lydon director-government affairs. Midway appointed Dan Ryan VP-customer service. Northwest Airlines Cargo re-elected Gregg Pittelkow, business analyst-Cargo Business Results Team, to IATA's Live Animals and Perishables Board. Omni Air International named Charles Pollard managing director. Polar Air Cargo appointed Michael Hartley VP-flight operations.
Wingspan, the Air and Space Channel, began 24-hours-per-day, seven-days- per-week cable TV operations Thursday, providing programming on all facets of aviation and aerospace. Within its first week of operation, the channel will be available in the U.S., Austria, The Netherlands, Norway and parts of Belgium and England. Media General, Fairfax, Va., was the first cable system to sign up to carry Wingspan.
DOT granted Continental an initial two-year exemption to serve several points in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, and points beyond them, provided that the U.S. has open-skies agreements with the beyond countries or the carrier holds authority to serve them. Continental also may operate service between points in the U.S. and Belize City, Belize, and integrate that authority with existing authority.
China Southern, maintaining its dominance in the increasingly competitive domestic Chinese airline business, increased its operating profits 14.1% to RMB2.35 billion US($282 million) in 1997. Revenue increased 12.6% to RMB12.8 billion ($1.54 billion), and net profit rose 57% to RMB1.14 billion ($137 million). The carrier, which operates 273 routes within China, ranked first among Chinese airlines with a 27.1% share of the market. Traffic rose 6.4% to 17.8 billion revenue passenger kilometers, and the airline carried 15.24 million passengers.
Airports Council International-North America named Jeffrey Goodell VP- government affairs. Professional Aviation Maintenance Association named Edward Hendricks, director-maintenance for Marc Fruchter Aviation Inc., recipient of its 1998 Award of Excellence. Women In Aviation International inducted Peggy Baty, president and founder, into the Crown Circle for Aerospace Education Leadership.
Southwest chief Herb Kelleher is keeping his own salary steady. As pay soars at other carriers - Delta's new chief financial officer won a multi- million-dollar pay and benefit package, for example - Kelleher's compensation remained the same for the third straight year: $395,000, with a $172,000 bonus in 1997. US Airways' number four officer, John Long, received $680,000 last year.
