B/E Aerospace said it was selected by US Airways to supply first-class and cabin seats for the carrier's new Airbus A320 series aircraft. The initial program is valued at $27 million for the first 124 aircraft.
Paul Johnstone, 72, who died Dec. 17, will receive NASA's highest civilian award posthumously, according to the Society of Senior Aerospace Executives. During a 30-year career in aviation, Johnstone was director- engineering at Hawaiian Airlines and senior VP-operations services at Eastern. After retirement, he served on NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel as a member and then chairman.
The Airports Council International-North America last week kicked off a celebration of its 50th anniversary with the launch of a campaign to increase public awareness of the importance of airports in the U.S. Among the efforts are brief television spots to air on CNN Airport Network as well as CNN Headline News and a recently completed economic impact survey of U.S. airports. The survey, highlighted a news conference Friday, found U.S.
SAS selected Flight Dynamics to provide head-up guidance systems for its new fleet of 737-600s. The order - initially for 41 systems and options for 35 more - makes SAS the 737 launch customer for the system in Europe.
Fairchild Chairman Jeffrey Steiner believes the fastener industry will experience the same kind of consolidations that have hit other segments of the aerospace and aviation industries. There are two big fastener companies, of which Fairchild is the larger, and several smaller players, Steiner told aviation reporters in Washington. "We are already the leader in our market, and we intend to be even larger in the months and years to come," he said.
FlightSafety International's Simulation Systems Div. received a contract from Boeing's Douglas Products Div. to design and construct a full-flight simulator for the in-development 717 aircraft, formerly the Douglas MD-95. The simulator, a Level D device equipped with an advanced visual system, will be installed initially at Boeing's facility at Long Beach, Calif.
Air Canada traffic for December and 1997 was up 6.5% and 10.6%, respectively, on capacity gains of 11% and 8.9%. The load factor for December fell 2.7 percentage points to 63.3%, while the annual load factor rose 1.1 points to 71.1%. Domestic traffic revived last year after a previous downturn. The 1997 Canada traffic grew 6% on 4.4% more capacity, resulting in a 71.9% load factor. International traffic last year jumped 13.2% on a 11.4% gain in capacity, which boosted the load factor 1.1 points to 70.6%. Cargo traffic gained 11.4% in December and 14.3% for 1997.
Filing late, Continental rejected American's arguments that the proposed American-Air Liberte code share is so limited it can be approved in the absence of a bilateral agreement on the basis of comity and reciprocity. A number of U.S. carriers are objecting to the application, partly by linking it to the proposed American-British Airways alliance since Air Liberte is owned by BA, partly because the U.S. carriers' code shares through France, including Continental's with Air France, have been deferred a bilateral.
British Airways and Polish flag carrier LOT are linking up via a new partnership to take on the Lufthansa-led Star Alliance, which has designs on both carriers' home markets. BA and LOT signed a memorandum of understanding last week in Warsaw, with plans for a formal agreement in April. The first fruits of their collaboration will be code sharing on Warsaw-Manchester and Krakow-London Gatwick routes.
Atlantic Coast Airlines which operates in the Eastern U.S. as United Express, has announced nonstop, roundtrip service between Washington Dulles and Wilmington, N.C. beginning on March 2. Tickets for the new route went on sale yesterday.
B/E Aerospace said it has agreed to plead guilty to violating a U.S. embargo by exporting aircraft seats for Iran Air. The deal got the company in trouble with both the Justice Department and the Commerce Department's Bureau of Export Enforcement. BEA Chief Executive Robert Khoury said the long-running dispute with the government centered on shipments of seats and related spare parts for five civil aircraft Iran Air purchased in 1992. Iran Air arranged for the seats to be installed by a contractor in France.
Although Continental and Northwest say they are not actively discussing a long-term code-share-and-stock agreement, Continental met last week with its pilots union to update it on the potential deal. The Independent Association of Continental Pilots said management met with IACP's master executive council last Thursday evening. Continental declined to comment.
Aviation Ground Services, a subsidiary of Global Ground Services, Cleveland, said it has acquired Aviation West, based in Seattle, increasing its operational cities to 15. AGS said it will begin operations Feb. 8 at the Fort Myers Regional Southwest Florida Airport, where it has been awarded ramp service contracts by American Trans Air and Air Transat- Canada.
Startup candidate Planet Airways' supplemental submissions to DOT show the carrier has an available credit line of $426,809 with Barnett Bank, N.A., in Centra, Fla. Tatonka Capital Corp. of Colorado holds a $500,000 promissory note from Planet that was placed last November. The carrier plans to lease a single 727 for passenger charters to vacation and casino destinations in the U.S. and the Caribbean (DAILY, Sept. 30, 1997).
A joint surveillance conducted by FAA and the DOT Inspector General shows an "unacceptably low compliance with standards designed to keep hazardous materials off commercial airlines." DOT Secretary Rodney Slater said, "Shippers and couriers must comply with the law and airlines must get tougher." The Air Transport Association said the purpose of such testing is to find "holes in the system. They found problems and we corrected them. They are doing more testing now and we will hope it will show that we have."
Mesa Air Group, stung by United's move to end alliance agreements in several markets, expects to name a new leader "in a couple of weeks," according to a spokeswoman, but sources say a speedy choice may not be greeted warmly by all investors. Barlow Management, which upped its holdings in Mesa to 5.3% last week, is expected to increase its position as early as today.
Virgin Express named Dick Vrebos director-flight operations; Jean Delaet chief pilot/training manager; Gus Carbonell director-marketing; Casey Hanrahan director-system operations; Constance Vanderheyden deputy director flight operations-planning and scheduling; Jean Pierre Ghosez deputy director of flight operations-training administration; Eliane Van Espen safety and security officer, and Bill Lee system control coordinator.
Northwest and KLM wrote DOT last week declaring their intention to continue their antitrust-immunized alliance, responding to the original 1992 order requiring re-examination of the deal five years after approval. A DOT spokesman said the department is evaluating what further steps and procedures are required to continue immunity.
Airclaims is skeptical of the conventional wisdom that jet transport hull losses will increase in the future as traffic grows and more aircraft fill the sky. Boeing, the National Transportation Safety Board, FAA, FlightSafety International and others have been predicting that transport aircraft crashes will increase as traffic increases unless safety is improved and the rate of accidents can be reduced.
National Transportation Safety Board said Friday it is aware of uncontained low pressure turbine failures involving four General Electric CF6-6 and two CF6-50 turbofans, including five in revenue service, and it has recommended that FAA take corrective action. NTSB said the failures, dating back to 1972, occurred on an Air France 747, DC-10s flown by United, Continental, American and Air Florida, and a test stand.
