Swissair will order six additional Airbus A330-200s in the last quarter of 1999 and nine A340-600s in 2002, SAirGroup, the Swiss airline's parent company, said Friday in Zurich. The group also took 23 options on aircraft from the A330/340 family. Swissair is investing 2.1 billion Swiss francs (US$1.5 billion) in a fleet renewal program starting in the fall of 1998. Beginning next September , the Swiss airline will replace eight A310s with nine A330-200s. It also will purchase four McDonnell Douglas MD-11s from German airline LTU in November next year.
Sabena has selected SITA's community intranet for secure and fast access to Boeing's online aircraft maintenance database. SITA's AeroNet will replace Sabena paper, microfilm and CD-ROM systems destroyed in a fire Oct. 2.
Comair is marketing deals on holiday travel through its web site at www.fly-comair.com from Dec. 25 through Jan. 3. Fares range from $39 to $59 one way on several routes, including Cincinnati-Toronto, Boston-Toronto and Boston-Montreal.
American completed Friday its deal to acquire an 8.5% stake in Argentinean carriers Aerolineas Argentinas and regional airline Austral Lineas Aereas. The purchase involved agreements with SEPI, the Spanish state holding firm, and Andes Holdings. The move is American's first investment in a foreign carrier since it bought a stake in Canadian Airlines in 1994. The transaction is subject to government approval.
Although welcoming progress in U.S.-Japan talks, the Japanese Ministry of Transport (MOT) has not let down its guard against open skies. Norifumi Ide, director for the MOT's International Air Transport Division, told The DAILY last week in Tokyo that some countries publicly welcoming open-skies agreements with the U.S. have complained privately of having little choice but to sign them. Ide declined comment on specifics of the talks with the U.S., which concluded last Thursday.
Western Pacific is offering sale fares for travel on Christmas Day or New Year's Day, starting at $39 one way. No roundtrip or advance purchase is required, but tickets are non-refundable. Sample one-way fares include $39 between Denver and Dallas/Fort Worth, $99 between Denver and Orlando and $89 between Denver and Washington Dulles.
Turkish government officials announced plans to buy 49 737s from Boeing, confirming statements earlier this year. Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz told a U.S. Chamber of Commerce audience in Washington his nation is upset that its membership in the European Union was rejected. He said the U.S. will be a beneficiary.
Intensive exchanges will continue during the next few weeks as the U.S. and Japan keep working to negotiate a revised bilateral, the State Department said Friday. State said "approaches are converging" in spite of remaining differences. It offered little comment on the specifics of the talks and nothing on efforts to divert unused Federal Express slots at Narita Airport temporarily to other U.S. carriers, but it said "private-sector representatives of both sides are playing a crucial role." A State Department source said the U.S.
British Airways received U.K. Civil Aviation Authority approval to operate daily nonstop service between London Gatwick and Denver. The carrier intends to start flights in early June but still needs final approval from DOT. The U.K. CAA decision drew an immediate protest from Virgin Atlantic, which may appeal the ruling. Under the restrictive U.S.-U.K. bilateral, only one additional U.S. city may be added to the agreement, and Virgin had applied to serve Las Vegas.
Some of TWA's pilots were angry and concerned about the walkout two weeks ago by Machinists union members, but the carrier's Air Line Pilots Association unit cautioned members that the machinists must have had compelling reasons for their actions. "We could be in the same situation soon," admonished ALPA Master Executive Council Chairman Joe Chronic. ALPA and TWA, in contract negotiations, met twice last week and have scheduled six meetings in January. ALPA negotiators say the talks are going well.
Major U.S. airlines' share of passengers at hubs continues to rise, averaging 79% in the first half of 1997 versus 77% in 1996 and 55% in 1985, according to Northwest data.Since 1996, Continental's and American's shares at Houston and Dallas/Fort Worth rose 3 percentage points to 84% and 66%, respectively. From 1985 to 1997, the share of the second-largest carrier at Minneapolis plummeted from 37% to 4%.
Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airways, which serves only New York and Los Angeles in the U.S., has built up its North American marketing program via the Internet as some other carriers only began to discover the network's popularity. Cathay, which became in 1994 the first airline to offer special Internet deals, has built an online database of more than 200,000 interested travelers.
DOT approved an initial two-year exemption for US Airways to operate scheduled combination service between Philadelphia and Amsterdam. The carrier plans to begin daily nonstop roundtrips April 29. Amsterdam is US Airways' seventh nonstop European destination. The carrier has applied at DOT to serve Philadelphia-Milan and Pittsburgh-Paris and wants to serve London Heathrow from Charlotte, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and Boston. (Docket OST-97-3179)
Orally approved an exemption for Antonov Design Bureau to operate two one- way emergency cabotage cargo charter flights on Wilmington-Windsor Locks- Seattle and Wilmington-Seattle routings Dec.
Flight attendants at America West, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants, yesterday rejected their first tentative contract agreement with the airline by an 88.5% vote. Of the company's 2,000 flight attendants, 1,179 were eligible to vote and 94% cast ballots. "America West flight attendants have waited too long to settle for management's last offer," said the airline's AFA Master Executive Council President Deborah Volpe. She warned that management "had better fasten their seatbelts for a very bumpy ride."
Regional-airline load factors moved upward by an average of 4.8 percentage points, based on a sampling of 14 of the nation's largest regional carriers. The group averaged a load factor of 53.3% during the month, versus 49.2% in November 1996. Individually, Delta Connection Comair led the group with 60.3%, the only carrier to top 60% during the month. AMR Eagle was close behind with 59.5% and Horizon Air came in at 58.3%. Continental Express, in fourth place, posted the biggest overall gain over the previous November, up nearly nine percentage points.
Bombardier Aerospace will acquire AMR Combs' interest in the FlexJet program. Michael Graff, Bombardier Business Aircraft president, said shared aircraft ownership "has proven to be an extremely successful concept and continues to attract new owners into corporate aviation." Bombardier and AMR Combs had cooperated on FlexJet.
Federal Express and its pilots union leaders said yesterday they have reached a first tentative contract agreement. Under the contract, pilots at Subic Bay, the Philippines, will be able to use Memphis as their home station, placing them under the protection of the Railway Labor Act. Protection for the Subic Bay pilots had been one of the major sticking points in the negotiations. The union will vote on ratification of the agreement for Subic Bay pilots this month.
The Dutch cabinet's recent decision to allow more growth at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport "in principle" sends "an important signal to the international business world that the door to The Netherlands is not locked," said Hans Smits, president of the airport. The airport operator agrees with the Dutch cabinet that growth must be regulated according to strict environmental conditions, which the Dutch government will monitor.
San Antonio-based Fairchild Dornier this week reported net earnings of $70 million on sales of $507.3 million for its fiscal year ended Sept. 30. It was the first financial report for the company, formed in 1996 when Fairchild of San Antonio purchased Dornier Luftfahrt GmbH of Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany, from Daimler-Benz Aerospace. The company called the results a "significant improvement" from the previous year, which included large losses at Dornier before the acquisition.
Barry Valentine leaves FAA today, stepping down as acting deputy administrator and returning to his home in Annapolis, Md. A replacement has not yet been selected, FAA said.
Northwest and its pilots union have been unable to agree on whether a proposal to purchase a 14% stake in Continental and form a code-share alliance is dead or alive. The union is continuing to look at details of the proposal despite management's contention that the deal is off. A source close to the talks said the pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, still consider the deal viable provided the company gives them time to look at how it would affect them as shareholders and whether it would violate the scope clause of their contract (DAILY, Dec. 17).
Atlantic Coast's request for 36 Chicago O'Hare regional-jet exemption slots would bring to five the number of United Express carriers feeding the hub if that and all other slot requests are approved. The incumbent carriers are Air Wisconsin, Great Lakes and United Feeder Service, which is owned by Trans States' Hulas Kanodia. The fourth is Trans States, which separately asked for 18 slots for as-yet-unordered Canadair Regional Jets, and ACA is the fifth.
