Although Laker Airways said British Airways was unwilling to enter into an interline agreement (DAILY, Jan. 5), the two carriers signed passenger and cargo interline deals last year, with full implementation Aug. 1, according to a BA spokesman.
Reacting to all the talk about a Continental-Northwest merger, Continental's pilots say they intend to negotiate a clause in their contract giving them veto power over any consolidation or merger. Northwest's pilots already have such a clause. The Independent Association of Continental Pilots is in Washington this week to continue contract negotiations.
DOT Secretary Rodney Slater met for 45 minutes Friday with US Airways chief Stephen Wolf to discuss a variety of issues, including the carrier's concerns over the status of open skies to The Netherlands, a DOT source said. The grant of Northwest-KLM antitrust immunity, conditioned upon open skies, is up for renewal, and US Airways is telling DOT that noise constraints at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport are blocking its launch of Philadelphia-Amsterdam service, eliminating a business opportunity that is supposed to be available under open skies.
America West traffic was up 5.7% in 1997 on 9% more capacity, which lowered the load factor 2.2 percentage points to 68.7%. December traffic was down sharply, however. Last month, traffic fell 7.7% on 0.9% more capacity, which caused the load factor to plummet 5.9 points to 63.9%. The airline carried 18.3 million passengers and set a traffic record, but it flew nearly 2 billion more available seat miles. Chairman William Franke said he is satisfied with the December and fourth quarter revenue performance.
Fairchild Aerospace President Jim Robinson predicts that as many as 125 firm orders and 125 options for all small regional jets will be logged before the Singapore Air Show next month. A story published Jan. 9 implied that those numbers referred to only the 328JET model.
U. S. Major Carriers Productivity, In RPMs And ASMs Per Employee Third Quarter 1997 Revenue Available Passenger Seat Miles Miles Total (000) (000) Employees Alaska 2,932,972 4,178,744 7,647 America West 4,212,824 5,979,845 10,691
Northwest posted a 5.4% increase in December traffic on 4.1% more capacity, which lifted the load factor 0.8 percentage points to 71.3%. For the year, traffic increased 4.9% on 3.2% more capacity, resulting in an industry- leading 74.3% load factor. Annual traffic, capacity and load factor all were records. Northwest carried 54,649,701 passengers last year, also a record. International traffic rose 4.9% in 1997 on 4.8% more capacity, keeping the load factor flat at 79.4%.
United's controversial experiment requiring some flight attendants to talk to a nurse when they call in sick could be short-lived. United and its Association of Flight Attendants unit are in talks over the experiment, which AFA says has created confusion and resentment among cabin crew. AFA withheld details.
Down-sized Great Lakes Aviation flew 15.5 million revenue passenger miles in December, down 36.2% from Deecember 1996. But because capacity dropped 40.7% to 32.6 million available seat miles, the carrier's load factor jumped 3.4 percentage points to 47.6%. Dec. 1997 Dec. 1996 12 Mths 1997 12 Mths 1996 RPMs 15,531,000 24,334,000 202,350,000 299,418,000 ASMs 32,614,000 55,016,000 438,274,000 678,284,000
FAA yesterday ordered inspections of horizontal stabilizers on 211 737- 300/400/500 aircraft delivered after Sept. 20, 1995, to make sure that all the fasteners and elevator attachment fitting bolts are in place. FAA said inspectors have examined all 737s under production or ready for delivery and found no problems. The order was prompted by 26 fasteners and a bolt that may have been missing from a SilkAir 737-300 that crashed Dec. 19.
California State Board of Equalization, ending what it called a "months- long impasse" on how jet fuel tax revenues will be distributed, yesterday unanimously approved a motion to "equitably distribute the revenues to owners and operators of California's airports." Controller Kathleen Connell said revenues "will be shared by the parties that own the airport and the municipalities that are strapped with the infrastructure burden of operating the airport." The "point of sale" of jet fuel will be redefined from the current definition as where the sale took place to the "
TWA will retire its last 747 Feb. 19, about 29 years after being one of the first customers to take delivery of a jumbo jet. The airline has received 32 new aircraft since July 1996 and will get two more 767-300s in the next three months.
French air traffic controllers handled 2,056,734 flights in 1997, up 5.6% from the previous year, according to the Direction Generale de l'Aviation Civile (DGAC). International flights made up 37% of the total and domestic services 27%. The remaining 36% were aircraft on overflights.
Crossair financial results for 1997 are expected to be "exceptional and will exceed all expectations," said Moritz Suter, the Swiss regional's president and chief executive. He told employees in late December that their profit-sharing would be doubled from $4.13 million to $8.26 million for the year. Revenues were up 23% by the end of September.
DOT Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Mark Gerchick will resign from his position to join APCO Associates, an international public affairs firm based in Washington. DOT Secretary Rodney Slater credited him with helping to make open skies the "worldwide standard" in air agreements. He was DOT negotiator for the U.S.-Germany open-skies pact and spearheaded the Asian open-skies initiative.
