World Airways has signed an agreement to lease cargo aircraft to Florida Jet Support to provide service from the U.S. to points in South America, World said yesterday. The carrier also will supply crews, maintenance and insurance for a 14-month term. World will provide a DC-10-30 freighter for two months and an MD-11 for the balance of the agreement. Russell Ray, World president, said the deal is a "significant step toward achieving World's 1998 goals by building a base of new cargo customers."
CMF International said yesterday that Ryanair ordered CFM56-7B engines valued at $300 million to power 25 737-800s on firm order from Boeing. (See related story on Page 399.) CFMI said China Eastern placed an order valued at $140 million for CFM56-5B/P engines to power 10 new Airbus A320 aircraft.
Delta's traffic decreased 1.2% to 6.98 billion revenue passenger miles in February on capacity of 10.43 billion available seat miles, down 0.4%. The load factor fell 0.5 percentage points to 66.9%. Domestic operations accounted for the downturn - traffic was off 2.3% and capacity 1.3%, and the load factor lost 0.7 points. International traffic increased 3.6% on 3.2% more capacity, adding 0.3 points to the load factor. For the first two months of 1998, traffic rose 0.1% and capacity 0.6%, pushing the load factor down 0.3 points to 65.5%.
America West posted an 8.2% drop in February traffic on 1.1% more capacity, which forced the load factor down 6.1 percentage points to 61.1%. The load factor for the first two months of 1998 was 60.2%, down 4.8 points. The airline said revenue performance for February was in line with expectations. America West carried 131,000 fewer passengers last month than in February 1997. February 1998 February 1997 2 Months 1998 2 Months 1997 RPMs 1,114,397,000 1,213,280,000 2,293,623,000 2,458,016,000
Ryanair, one of Europe's leading low-fare airlines, ordered 25 737-800s and placed options on another 20, Boeing said yesterday. The manufacturer said Ryanair, which already operates 20 737-200s, said its experience with these aircraft led to the decision.
Lufthansa's 1997 profits shot up almost 100% compared with the previous year, the airline plans to announce next month, according to this week's issue of German news magazine Der Spiegel. The German airline declined comment on the report. Lufthansa posted a profit of 686 million Deutschmarks (US$412 million) in 1996. Last year's profit of almost DM1.3 billion ($780 million) was buoyed by the strength of the dollar and the pound sterling, as well as a cost-cutting plan launched in 1996, the magazine reported.
Tower Air reported 33.1% growth in traffic and 20.3% in capacity in February, which pushed the load factor up 7.2 percentage points over February 1997. Tower reported a 30.5% increase in block hours, to 2,511. The carrier flew 229 million revenue passenger miles and 308 million available seat miles for a load factor of 74.4%. Year-to-date RPMs rose 32.5% and ASMs 17.6%, increasing the load factor 8.5 points. Total block hours flown went up 36.0%.
London City Airport has launched its own World Wide Web site to inform travelers about flight schedules as well as access conditions to the airport by road and rail. The address is www.londoncityairport.com.
Midwest Express promoted Robert Bahlman to senior VP, chief financial officer and treasurer and Carol Skornicka to senior VP-corporate development, secretary and general counsel, and named Mary Blundell director-human resources.
Unions at America West are upset over comments made by management that indicate non-union employees are responsible for the carrier's financial success in 1997. The company is awarding non-union employees $7.2 million in incentive bonuses and $5.1 million in merit pay increases.
US Airways spent $43,653 to divert, land and evacuate an aircraft last December when a passenger joked he had pipe bombs in his suitcase. Eight passengers were injured during the evacuation. A U.S. District Court judge ordered the passenger to reimburse the airline and sentenced him to six months in prison.
DOT Inspector General Kenneth Mead joined those urging FAA to keep a backup navigation system, given the "uncertainties relating to interference [with GPS signals] from unintentional and intentional" sources. Mead told Congress it "would be prudent to assume a need for some type of backup system for the foreseeable future." DOT plans to phase out ground-based navaids by 2000.
The special master assigned to the FAA National Airspace System Implementation Support Contract (NISC II) protest believes the agency did not consider adequately the risks posed by organizational conflicts of interest (OCI) at Lockheed Martin Services Inc. when it evaluated proposals last year. The special master, Judge Stephen Daniels of the General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals, called FAA's error "especially egregious" in a Feb.
Japanese travelers make up the largest tourist group to the U.S. - 5,367,578 visited in 1997 - followed by the British, with 3,720,979, according to the Commerce Department Tourism Industries Office. Although only 68,254 Turks came to the U.S. last year, they represent the largest gain in visitors from a single country, 29.6% compared with 1996.
Air Transport Association Cargo Traffic December 1997 Revenue Ton Miles (000) December December % 1997 1996 Change Domestic Freight 770,449 710,421 8.4 Mail 198,968 200,945 (1.0) Total 969,417 911,366 6.4 International Freight 766,808 658,750 16.4
US Airways reported a 4% decrease in traffic and a 5.3% drop in capacity, which pushed the load factor up 1 percentage point for February 1998 over February 1997. February 1997 February 1998 2 Months 1997 2 Months 1998 RPMs 3,032,244,000 2,912,298,000 6,122,573,000 5,837,444,000 ASMs 4,514,896,000 4,273,790,000 9,456,684,000 8,892,642,000 LF (%) 67.2 68.1 64.7 65.6 PASS 4,293,864 4,157,895 8,588,415 8,237,531
The Coalition of Airline Pilots Association, concluding a quarterly meeting in Arlington, Texas, last week, vowed to fight what it described as airline industry attempts to lengthen the range of extended-range twin-engine operations (ETOPS) from the current 180-minute maximum time from the nearest alternate airport to 240 minutes. The coalition also criticized what it described as FAA's "slow pace" in issuing a final rule on hours of service for pilots and called for requiring traffic alert and collision avoidance systems (TCAS) on cargo transports.
APCO Associates named Mark Gerchick, former deputy assistant DOT secretary for aviation and international affairs, senior VP and Michael Korens, former majority counsel to the Senate aviation subcommittee, VP, launching its Aviation Services Practice Group.
Wall Street analyst Steve Lewins, with Gruntal&Co., lowering his estimates of US Airways' financial performance for this year and next, offered a scenario for the airline's future. "We...suspect one day US Airways will be purchased and divided up by United Airlines and American Airlines," he wrote in a report.
International Air Cargo Association awarded Niranjan Krishnan, MIT; Don Warsing, University of North Carolina, and Arif Zaman, Henley Management College, $1,000 each for research papers on the logistics industry.
Negotiators from the U.S. and Peru concluded three days of talks Thursday in Washington and made progress toward open skies, a DOT spokesman said. They will reconvene in Lima in the first half of May.
Major efforts to improve FAA's safety inspections of startup air carriers - recommended by a special task force following the ValuJet accident in 1996 - have run into delays, according to DOT Inspector General Kenneth Mead and FAA Administrator Jane Garvey. They told DOT Secretary Rodney Slater last week that the task force leaders thought most of the recommendations would be implemented within three to six months of their September 1996 report. Twelve of the 31 "most significant" recommendations are delayed, according to the report to Slater.
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), citing possible metallurgical flaws in some General Electric CF6-50/80 engines, asked FAA Friday to require the company to develop improved inspection techniques, review titanium alloy suppliers' records and conduct a critical design review of the high-pressure compressor Stage 3-9 spools "to assess the overall safety and soundness of the part." NTSB's recommendations result partly from its involvement in the investigation of a Canadian Airlines International 767- 300ER that experienced an uncontained compressor failure duri
