DOT Secretary Rodney Slater is accompanying President Clinton and others on a trip to Africa promoting economic and political ties. The group was scheduled to leave yesterday for Uganda, Ghana, Senegal, Botswana, Rwanda and South Africa, returning April 2.
FAA said last week it has revoked the air carrier certificate of Erie Airways, based in Erie, Pa. The order charges that the on-demand Part 135 carrier, which operated two Cessna Citations and one King Air, used "unqualified pilots on passenger-carrying revenue flights." FAA also accused Erie of "falsification of load manifests of four such revenue flights to indicate that they were being operated under Part 91" when "in fact, they were required to be operated under Part 135."
British Airways appointed Robert Jones account manager, Atlanta; Jason Werther account manager, Baltimore; Joe Hoelle account manager, the Carolinas, and Jeff Melang sales manager, based in Atlanta.
Although the procedural stall in DOT's review of the American-British Airways alliance stems from airline reluctance to hand over more documents (DAILY, March 20), their hesitation is linked to Europe, according to the General Accounting Office.
Hong Kong-based Dragonair is one of the world's most profitable airlines, with earnings almost 25% of revenue. In 1996, the privately held company's operating profit was US$108 million, up 10.3%, against revenues of US$396 million, up 8.8%. Traffic that year increased 9.6% to 2516 million revenue passenger kilometers. In the first half of 1997, turnover was US$212 million and the operating profit was US$54 million.
Business travelers who say airlines are getting fat off business fares may be misreading the American Express Airfare Index, analysts say.The index shows business fares have risen as much as 50% since 1992, but the average domestic yield of the 10 U.S. majors increased only about 7.8%. The index reflects fares paid by AMEX travel service customers - Fortune 500 companies that often pay the highest walkup fare.
Mountain Air Express filed notices of registration with DOT of two trade names it plans to use following its purchase out of bankruptcy by Air Wisconsin. During a transition period, it will operate as Air Wisconsin or United Express and requested registration of the trade names "Mountain Air Express, Inc. d/b/a Air Wisconsin Airlines Corporation" and "Mountain Air Express, Inc. d/b/a Air Wisconsin Airlines Corporation d/b/a United Express." (Docket OST-98-3649)
Vanguard Airlines told DOT that TWA's attack on Vanguard's financial condition is "intemperate" given TWA's own "long-term precarious financial condition." Vanguard is seeking New York Kennedy slot exemptions to expand service into peak hours with two daily roundtrips, one to Kansas City and another to Pittsburgh.
DOT granted Air-India initial one-year authority to conduct scheduled combination service between India and Los Angeles, via Singapore and Taipei, under a code share with Singapore Airlines, which will display Air- India's code on its Los Angeles-Taipei-Singapore flights. Air-India will operate its own aircraft between India and Singapore, without Singapore's code, and it will not sell Los Angeles-Taipei/Singapore service. DOT authorized Singapore Airlines separately to operate the code share. (Docket OST-98-3549)
Birmingham Airport, U.K., handled a record 395,581 passengers in February, up 12.5% from the same month last year. Transatlantic services shot up 62%, due mainly to the introduction last July of new services to New York.
TACA Group announced orders for 30 firm and 30 option A320 aircraft Friday. The contract - from TACA in El Salvador, Aviateca in Guatemala, Lacsa in Costa Rica, Nica in Nicaragua and TACA in Honduras - is part of a joint negotiation with Tam of Brazil and LanChile for the purchase of 175 singe- aisle Airbus aircraft, comprising 88 firm orders and 87 options. Deliveries will begin late next year. The TACA group already has acquired 14 A320s.
At Thursday's Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee hearing, Chairman Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), apologized - sort of - for jam-packed seating that placed British Airways' Robert Ayling, Continental's Gordon Bethune, Virgin Atlantic's Richard Branson, American's Robert Crandall, United's Gerald Greenwald, Delta's Leo Mullin and US Airways' Stephen Wolf seven abreast at the witness table. "Sorry about the crowding," DeWine told the group, "but welcome to coach class."
Air Nostrom and Aviaco applied jointly at DOT for exemptions to code share with American on flights they operate within Spain and beyond to European points. The carriers, regional affiliates of Iberia, want to link their flights with American service between the U.S. and Madrid. Air Nostrom operates 13 leased Fokker 50 aircraft "exclusively on Iberia's behalf as an 'Iberia Regional' carrier." Aviaco owns 19 DC-9-30s and 13 MD-88s and operates "under the overall control of Iberia," which is owned by the Spanish government.
LanChile, now the 10th largest company in Chile based on sales, posted a 67.3% increase in net profits last year to $64.1 million. The sharply higher results came as airline executives Friday confirmed purchase of 20 A319/A320 twinjets, with options for 20 more, as part of an 88-aircraft joint order with TACA and TAM leaked in December (DAILY, Dec. 11). Chief Financial Officer Alejandro De La Fuente said deliveries will run from the last quarter of 2000 through 2005 (See story on Page 474).
Boeing released Friday the results of deliberations on how to digest its December 1996 acquisition of Rockwell's aerospace and defense units and its merger last summer with McDonnell Douglas. Efforts to downsize and rationalize operations will have the most effect on transport aircraft and space and missile programs and employment, especially those based in California. By 2000, Boeing plans to cut facilities space 15% and lay off 8,200 workers - 6,200 of them in California, mostly MD-80 and MD-90 workers in Long Beach.
Inadequate crew resource management practices were seen as circumstantial factors in nearly half of the fatal approach and landing accidents by large commercial jetliners - 15 per year - between 1980-1996, according to a Flight Safety Foundation task force on accident reduction. The most common causal factor was lack of or inappropriate action by a flightcrew member, followed by lack of positional awareness in the air.
-- In Federal Register dated March 13...Issued an airworthiness directive on certain Airbus A300, A310 and A300-600 aircraft requiring inspection for defects of the bleed air ducts of the auxiliary power unit...Issued a AD on IAI 1121 through 1125 series aircraft requiring tests for proper operation of hydraulic fuses in the brake system...Is-sued an AD on British Aerospace HS 748 aircraft requiring inspection for fatigue cracking of the aileron operating arm brackets...Issued an AD on certain de Havilland Dash 8-100 aircraft requiring inspection for block seals on the u
Polynesian Limited asked DOT for an emergency exemption to operate three- times-weekly Twin Otter service between Maota, Samoa, and Pago Pago, American Samoa, beginning last Friday. The Samoan carrier apologized for the short notice and said it thought it had the authority it needed. Based on that "misunderstanding," the carrier operated flights on the route March 13 and March 14 "carrying VIP passengers." It canceled a March 15 flight and scheduled the next one for Friday.
