British Airways has created an internal working group to examine the amount of information it gives each passenger, from buying a ticket to stepping on board the aircraft. Customers who complain will be sent leaflets on what BA is doing to improve things. The carrier is testing a new route guide to help passengers checking in at Victoria Station in downtown London.
Continental reported its highest November systemwide load factor ever - 68.3%, 4.5 percentage points higher than November 1996. The airline posted 20.5% traffic growth on 12.6% more capacity. Domestic traffic increased 14.7% on 3.3% more capacity, improving the load factor 6.9 points to 69.4%. International traffic grew 34.6% on 37.2% more capacity. Continental Express reported 43.7% higher traffic on 20.8% more capacity, which raised the load factor 9 points to 56.5%. Nov 97 Nov 96 11 Mths 97 11 Mths 96
French all-business startup Fairlines postponed its launch from Dec. 8 to Dec. 22 due to late delivery of the personal video and computer systems to be installed in aircraft seats, chairman and founder Francois Arpels said.
Dragonair has experienced a 33% surge in cargo volume during October to a record 4,000 tons. The airline, which established an in-house cargo sales department in July, has watched cargo grow 43.3% this year.
British Airways' November traffic showed a 3.6% rise on 8% more capacity, which forced the load factor down 2.8 percentage points to 66.1%. BA's U.K.-Europe load factor fell 3.1 points and intercontinental load factors dropped 2.6 points. In Asia, BA said passenger figures remained "stable" despite softness in Hong Kong and Korea. Passenger yield has improved during the first half of BA's fiscal year, with premium traffic rising 4.3% and economy traffic 3.5%.
Star Alliance partners have agreed to form a broad cargo alliance to create a global air cargo system. Meeting Dec. 3-4 in Neu Isenburg, Germany, Lufthansa Cargo, United, Varig, SAS, Thai Airways International and Air Canada agreed to: -- Develop a global air cargo network strategy based on the networks of the individual partners, including cooperation in road feeder services; -- Improve sharing of information technology systems; -- Provide joint use of partners' handling facilities, and
KLM Cargo and two other freight Dutch transport companies - Jan de Rijk and Trailstar - will begin trial runs for the rail transportation of air freight between Milan and Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Scheduled intermodal rail-based freight services will begin between the two cities in January 1998. The project is supported by the Dutch transport ministry, which is eager to promote rail freight to reduce cargo pressure on the country's heavily used roadways.
Midway Airlines pilots have voted for representation by the Air Line Pilots Association, ALPA said yesterday. In ballots counted at the National Mediation Board, 96 of Midway's 150 pilots voted for union representation, with 93 choosing ALPA and three the Midway Pilots Association. ALPA will conduct a membership drive, and members will elect representatives and begin collective bargaining. Midway operates A320s and Fokker 100s from Raleigh/Durham, N.C.
Air Canada yesterday launched a 200 million Deutschmark Eurobond via an international syndicate of banks under the lead management of Bayerische Landesbank, Munich. The carrier's issue has a seven-year maturity and carries a coupon of 6 5/8% per annum. Payment date is Jan. 14, 1998. The issue price is 102.10% at a re-offer price of 99.85%. There is a spread of 139 basis points over the 7.5% German Government Nov. 11, 2004, benchmark. Listing with official quotation will be applied for at Munich and/or Frankfurt stock exchanges.
Virgin Express is stimulating traffic in Europe the same way Southwest does in the U.S. As it ushered in low-fare service between Brussels and Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, Nice and Milan in 1996, passenger traffic for all carriers rose 21% on those routes. Virgin Express captured 80% of the new traffic.
Flight attendants at American are sending President Don Carty "bAah humbug" messages in their holiday cards. The verbal lumps of coal stem from American's decision to increase the cost of coach travel by employees 5% and nearly double the cost of buddy passes to most destinations, effective Jan. 1. Flight attendants will ask ground crew, pilots and other personnel to join the card campaign.
EasyJet Managing Director Stelios Haji-Ioannou intends to take British Airways to court if BA starts its planned "Blue Sky" operation out of London Stansted. In remarks yesterday at the IIR Aviation Finance Conference in New York City, Haji-Ioannou said BA is copying EasyJet's business plan and is trying "to prevent competition." He will seek "to invoke the same procedure against BA when they start" as EasyJet did with KLM at Amsterdam.
Flight tests show that increasing the temperature of Jet A fuel used in transport aircraft multiplies the risk of explosion dramatically, the National Transportation Safety Board was told yesterday in Baltimore at its public hearing into the crash of TWA Flight 800. This finding has "very significant implications for this investigation," said Cal Tech engineer Joseph Shepherd, a consultant in the investigation.
Air France is discussing the sale of its Jet Tours travel subsidiary to a consortium that includes the subsidiary's management and French travel group Tecker SA. Jet Tours has been up for sale for several months. In the autumn of 1996, Air France injected 320 million French francs ($54 million at the current exchange rate) into Jet Tours, which managed to get back into the black in the commercial year that ended March 31. Jet Tours is nearing the end of a three-year restructuring plan that cut 148 jobs from a total of 490.
DOT granted FedEx's request to extend the startup deadline for one of its five weekly widebody frequencies granted in February for the carrier to expand its U.S.-Brazil all-cargo operations to Feb. 28, 1998, when the 90- day dormancy period will begin. The carrier earlier requested a startup delay (DAILY, June 2) and began operations using four of the five frequencies the week of Sept. 28. FedEx told DOT it needs to "increase its capacity beyond Sao Paulo" before making use of the fifth frequency. (Docket OST-97-3115)
Trans States Airlines rejected American and American Eagle/Simmons arguments that the latter's 60-slot Chicago O'Hare exemption bid should be considered alongside Trans States' application. Trans States submitted a petition for reconsideration, asking for 18 slots instead of 32 and with an emphasis on regional jets, after most of its proposed services were rejected by DOT.
Varig will equip its fleet with automated external defibrillators. The systems, made by Physio-Control Corp. of Redmond, Wash., will be installed in 45 aircraft immediately, and the rest of its 82-jet fleet will receive them in 1998.
Charges against the government of Sudan that include international terrorism and human rights violations have prompted DOT to issue a show cause order outlining sanctions, including suspension of air cargo operations between the U.S. and Sudan. The DOT order proposes to add conditions to U.S. carrier certificates and foreign carrier permits, and to all exemptions, prohibiting the sale of cargo services that include a stop in Sudan, as well as any cargo transportation to the U.S. by Sudanese- registered aircraft. U.S.
Fuel Cost and Consumption U.S. Majors, Nationals and Large Regionals September 1996 - August 1997 Total Total Cost Gallons (Dollars) 1996 September Domestic 1,068,178,267 729,839,815 International 389,850,411 291,529,745 System Total 1,458,028,678 1,021,369,560
The Netherlands and Austria suggested that the distance traveled by an aircraft could be used to calculate airport charges in the European Union. Several other EU governments are against the idea, saying it would introduce systematic discrimination against U.S. and other non-EU carriers. EU transport ministers are expected to debate this point as they discuss new EU guidelines on airport charges at their meeting this week in Brussels. Airlines are pressing their governments to modify EU legislation on airport charges, which they regard as excessive.
The council of European Union transport ministers plans to reject a European Commission proposal to open multilateral air traffic talks with the U.S., at its meeting Wednesday and Thursday in Brussels. In October, EU Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock suggested launching multilateral talks with Washington on "hard issues," such as traffic rights, in parallel with bilateral negotiations being held by several EU nations. The EC submitted the details of its proposal to the representatives of EU member states in November.
FAA should improve pilot and crew training, applying the greater oversight of a new Advanced Qualification Program to traditional Part 121 training, the General Accounting Office said yesterday. The agency studied the issue in response to a request from Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Slade Gorton (R-Wash.), chairman of the committee's aviation subcommittee, and McCain said it is "absolutely essential" that FAA review and act on the report's findings.
KLM passenger traffic rose 10% in November on 7% more capacity, which boosted the load factor 1.9 percentage points to 74.3%. Traffic grew on routes to North America (12%), Europe (19%), Mid/South Atlantic (22%) and Asia (5%). Cargo traffic was up 2% on 2% less capacity.
U.S.-French talks set to start tomorrow in Washington are not expected to produce a breakthrough, a U.S. government official said, "but we are optimistic we can make additional progress" toward an agreement. Both sides are more hopeful because of the Paris round in October, when negotiators narrowed the gap between the U.S. goal of open skies and France's controlled liberalization.
