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.
AAR Cooper Aviation promoted Ed Laakso to VP-materials and operations; named Ken Mercier VP-sales and marketing; Ken Cooper manager-marketing services, Pete Whitaker branch manager-Dallas, and Patrick Nall branch manager-Kansas City.
Orally approved a two-year exemption for Nicaraguense de Aviacion (NICA) to conduct scheduled foreign combination service, using only wet-leased aircraft, from points behind Nicaragua, via Nicaragua and intermediate points, to a point or points in the U.S. and beyond, as well as charters...Orally approved an initial two-year exemption for Compania Panamena de Aviacion (COPA) to conduct scheduled foreign combination service from points beyond Panama via Panama and intermediate points to a point or points in the U.S.
Northwest will inaugurate nonstop service June 2 between Detroit and Nagoya, Japan, linking the world's two largest automobile manufacturing centers. The carrier will operate the new service three times weekly using 747-400 aircraft with cargo capacity for shipping automobile supplies and parts.
World Airways named Daniel Altobello, chairman of Onex Food Services, and Gen. Ronald Fogleman, former chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, to the board.
When Chek Lap Kok Airport opens in July it will take the formal name of the current airport at Kai Tak, Hong Kong International Airport, and will not, as rumored, be named in honor of the late Chinese leader, Deng Xiaoping. One Asia-based consultancy, Travel Business Analyst, thinks it has spotted the facility's biggest flaw - all departing travelers will have to scramble down a single bank of escalators.
