Alpine Air and Scenic Airlines applied at DOT to provide Essential Air Service to Ely, Nev., and Redtail Aviation and Alpine proposed EAS for Moab, Utah. Alpine is the incumbent carrier. For Ely, Scenic proposed three options, each totaling three daily roundtrips operated six days a week: two Ely-Reno and one Ely-Las Vegas, $1,280,708 per year; two Ely-Las Vegas and one Ely-Reno, $1,231,341, and one Ely-Reno and one Ely-Las Vegas, $987,674.
Florida-based Gulfstream International Airlines posted a load factor of 53.8% last month, three and one-half percentage points higher than January 1997's 50.3%, despite the fact that capacity fell 7.2% to 18.3 million available seat miles from nearly 19.7 million. Revenue passenger miles held most of their ground at 9.8 million compared with the prior January's 9.9 million. January 1998 January 1997 Rev. Passenger Miles 9,839,488 9,903,000
Great Lakes calculates it costs $300 in airport charges just to launch a 19-passenger Beech 1900 at Denver International Airport. At an average 50% load factor, those costs equate to $31.59 per passenger for each departure. At that rate, it is not surprising that Mesa failed to turn a profit in a number of Denver markets and served notice it was dropping those points. United continued to deny Mesa a higher pro-rate, and the regional posted its first four consecutive losing quarters - its December quarter has not been reported - since going public in 1986.
Load factors for 15 of the nation's largest regional airlines increased 2.01 percentage points in January, compared with the same month a year ago. Their average was 48.67%, compared with 46.65% in January 1997. Overall, the load factors reflected the normal January downturn after averaging 54.3% in December. Horizon Air topped the stack at 56.92%, up 0.62 points from a year ago but down from December's 65.9%. Only Horizon and five others - Comair, Gulfstream International, AMR Eagle, Air Wisconsin and CCAIR - exceeded 50%.
Veteran Saab Aircraft of America public relations executive Ron Sherman has established his own marketing and public relations firm, Sherman Communications. Sherman retired from Saab in December after 12 years with the firm, during which the Saab 340 became a successful regional aircraft in the North American market.
Aerospatiale of France will split into nine subsidiaries during the second half of 1998 to prepare for the integration of Europe's aerospace sector, the company said yesterday in Paris. Last December, the French, German and U.K. governments asked Aerospatiale, Daimler-Benz Aerospace and British Aerospace to reorganize their operations, aiming at "balanced partnership" integration. With its new structure, Aerospatiale intends to "fully play its role as the French architect of the construction of the European...industry," the company said.
Flagship Airlines posted a 9.6% increase in revenue passenger miles to 45.2 million last month, the fastest traffic growth among the four Eagle carriers by a considerable margin (DAILY, Feb. 6). Executive Air, Eagle's Caribbean unit, enjoyed an 8.6% traffic increase to nearly 26 million RPMs, but the other two units - Simmons and Wings West - lost traffic compared with January 1997. Simmons, by far the largest of the Eagle units, flew 94.6 million RPMs, down 2.6%; Wings West recorded 30.6 million RPMs, down 2%.
FAA said yesterday it is adding 13 routes to the Caribbean and South America based on Global Positioning System navigation. "This is the first 100% use of GPS as primary means of navigation using domestic route separation standards," said Dennis Koehler, FAA Southern Region air traffic division manager. The FAA's Miami Air Route Traffic Control Center is in charge of what FAA described as an "innovative route structure that promises to markedly improve air access" to the regions.
Association of Flight Attendants filed a motion Wednesday charging Midway Airlines with unlawful interference in the Feb. 13 flight attendants election. AFA wants the National Mediation Board to overturn the election and certify AFA as the bargaining representative for Midway cabin crew.
French Air Transport Director Michel Guyard has informed Continental Micronesia that he will not examine the U.S. carrier's proposal for Guam- Noumea, New Caledonia service until a new U.S.-French bilateral is negotiated, Continental Micronesia told DOT. As a result, Continental Micronesia opposes Airbus Transport International's application for French- U.S. charter authority (DAILY, Feb. 11) instead of questioning it and asking that DOT at least evaluate each charter flight individually. Guyard's stance, described in a Feb.
IATA asked the U.K. High Court for permission to seek judicial review of the consultation process conducted by the U.K. Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions on noise limits for aircraft departing from London Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports. The High Court last April voided noise limits imposed by the government at the three airports and ordered reconsultation on the limits and on the locations of noise monitors around the airports.
TWA, US Airways and Hawaiian faulted each other's bids for fourth and fifth U.S-Japan designations in comments filed at DOT, with the first two promoting the benefits of their respective hubs and TWA cautioning DOT not to "waste" a designation on Hawaiian.
Union problems grounded some Virgin Express flights for the second time this month when cabin crew and pilots staged a half-day strike Tuesday at Virgin's operating base at Brussels Airport. According to the unions, the issue again was work schedules and a refusal by management to negotiate or set up a formal structure for talks. Similar to the cabin crew members' first demonstration Feb.
FAA should not carry out its scheduled decommissioning of ground-based navigation aids until it has assessed whether the satellite-based Global Positioning System can be the sole means of navigation, Air Transport Association President Carol Hallett said. Such an assessment was recommended earlier by the President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection, which warned that exclusive reliance on GPS and its augmentations would create the potential for single-point failure, she noted.
Pratt&Whitney expects its geared-fan engine development partners of the past decade to take part in its planned new commercial geared-fan launch, the PW8000 (DAILY, Feb. 18), but top executives do not rule out a role for its partners in the International Aero Engines medium turbofan consortium as well.
Delta Chief Executive Leo Mullin, six months into his tenure atop the world's largest passenger airline, called yesterday for a softer, more cooperative approach when airlines deal with the U.S. government in the future. In a Wings Club speech in New York City, Mullin said he has been "underwhelmed" by the airline industry's approach to fundamental issues when government is involved. "Too often our rhetoric seems to be self- serving," he said.
DHL Airways said yesterday it has selected the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport to build a $170 million hub and sort facility. Ground-breaking for the 150-acre project is contingent on final contract execution by the Kenton County Airport Board and the airport securing infrastructure improvement funds, including a proposed state grant from Kentucky, DHL Airways Chairman Patrick Foley said. The decision is the result of a 24- month review of candidate locations in the Midwest.
House Transportation aviation subcommittee has scheduled hearings during March on reauthorization of FAA and the Airport Improvement Program in light of recommendations of the National Civil Aviation Review Commission. Hearing topics are passenger facility charge increases, March 12 at 9:30 a.m.; FAA and the civil aviation commission, March 18 at 10 a.m.; airports, March 19 at 9:30 a.m., and airport users, March 25 at 10 a.m. All hearings will be conducted in 2167 Rayburn.
SAS Group reported pre-tax income of SEK2.23 billion (US$274.4 million), up 22.8% from a year earlier. Revenues increased 10.6% to SEK38.9 billion ($4.8 billion), but without currency exchange differences in the three- nation carrier, revenue grew 7.6%. Passenger traffic rose 4.2% in 1997 and was strongest late in the year. Traffic within Europe grew 9%, slightly less than the Association of European Airlines group average of 10%.
Taiwan's Ministry of Transportation and Communications has ordered the grounding of all nine Airbus A300-600R jetliners belonging to China Air Lines pending the completion of full safety checks. The grounding, in response to Monday night's crash of Flight CI676 at Taiwan's Chiang Kai- shek Airport, has failed to satisfy a growing number of critics, some of whom are calling for the grounding of CAL's entire fleet.
US Airways cannot afford to let low-fare carriers like Southwest continue to invade its routes, President and Chief Operating Officer Rakesh Gangwal told employees yesterday at Baltimore/Washington International Airport. US Airways held a special employee meeting to talk about MetroJet, its new low-fare carrier, which will be based at BWI (DAILY, Feb. 5). "Like it or not, low fares are coming....We decided we couldn't let the Southwests and Delta Expresses of the world take over our route network."
FAA said it is interested in developing a Government Industry Partnership with interested commercial and government entities on the Local Area Augmentation System and will hold a briefing on the issue April 4. The agency said it will try at the briefing to explain its LAAS development method and the subsequent acquisition program. The first stage will involve the development and certification of the system and meeting all requirements through Category 1 operations. Second stage is development and certification including Cat 3.
U.S. Regional Carriers Traffic January 1998 January January % 1998 1997 Change Air Wisconsin Revenue Passenger Miles (000) 45,096 44,879 0.5 Available Seat Miles (000) 85,505 83,260 2.7 Load Factor (%) 52.7 53.9
U.S. National Carriers Traffic January 1998 January January % 1998 1997 Change AirTran Holding Corp.* Revenue Passenger Miles (000) 210,327 N/A N/A Available Seat Miles (000) 394,277 N/A N/A Load Factor (%) 53.3 -- Passengers 325,628 N/A N/A
