The European Commission will give the first indication of its position on the proposed American-British Airways alliance and current transatlantic alliance around February 1998, European Union Competition Commissioner Karel Van Miert said yesterday in Brussels. "The commission's final decision will come later," an EC spokesman said. Earlier, British Airways expected the commission to reveal its stance last month.
Delta is expected to announce tomorrow that it will add service to six destinations in Latin America, backing a pledge by new Chief Executive Leo Mullin to play a larger role in the region. The airline intends to unveil how it will expand from its Atlanta hub to increasingly lucrative Latin America. In a related move, Delta began daily service from Atlanta to Grand Cayman on Dec. 7, using a two-class, 180-seat Boeing 757. In the second quarter of 1997, Delta's Latin American division had one of the top operating margins of any U.S.
Lufthansa is selling its 33.2% stake of travel agent Deutsches Reiseburo (DER), as requested by the Bundes-kartellamt, the German antitrust authority, which is reviewing the merger of Lufthansa's charter subsidiary Condor with travel group NUR. The sale of DER addresses "only one of the problems identified by Bundes-kartellamt," said a spokesman of the authority. In parallel with the Condor/NUR merger, two other German travel giants, Hapag Lloyd and TUI, are forging an alliance.
Delta applied to broaden its service between the U.S. and Panama under the terms of the open-skies pact signed earlier this year. The carrier wants a new or amended certificate so it can operate to any points in the two countries, as permitted under the agreement. Its current certificate permits scheduled service from points in Panama to five U.S. gateways - Miami, New Orleans, Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth and Los Angeles.
Alaska Airlines has received a financial boost from the marketing agreement it signed last year with Disneyland. Sales of Disney packages are 10% higher than they were before the pact.
DOT issued an interstate certificate to Tradewinds Airlines in an order making final the department's determination finding the carrier fit to conduct interstate and foreign combination charter service. Tradewinds must notify DOT if it wants to operate more than five aircraft. (Dockets OST-97-2794, 2795)
Atlanta-based AirTran Holdings, Inc. has named Andrew Morgan VP-engineering and quality assurance and Klaus Goersch VP-flight operations for AirTran Airlines and AirTran Airways. Morgan, formerly VP-contracts, has been with AirTran Airlines since June 1993. He managed the company's FAA Certification Program. Goersch, formerly VP-operations, previously worked for Mesaba Aviation as and director-corporate training.
DOT renewed for one year Tarom's exemption to conduct one weekly combination roundtrip between Bucharest and Chicago via Timisoara. DOT earlier renewed and extended the exemption for 60-day periods, deferring the remainder of the Romanian carrier's request (DAILY, Nov. 4). United and Delta told DOT the Romanian government "refused to permit them to conduct services to Romania with their third-country code-share partners," but the carriers did not object to a 60-day renewal prior to U.S.-Romania talks held last week in Washington.
Airbus Industrie yesterday announced the industrial launch of the A340-500 and -600 airliner program, having received commitments for orders and options for some 100 of the airplanes. The announcement, by the Airbus Supervisory Board, follows commercial launch at the Paris Air Show last June. Since then, seven airlines have chosen the aircraft, Airbus said. Five - Air Canada, Egyptair, EVA Airways, Lufthansa and Virgin Atlantic - have announced their decisions. Deliveries of the A340-600 are slated to begin early in 2002.
Top executives from GE Aircraft Engines and Pratt&Whitney have decided to keep their engine alliance in place following recent meetings to review the collaboration, and in 1998 managers plan to step up marketing efforts for their proposed new 75,000 pounds-thrust-class turbofan and firm up contractual arrangements with Airbus Industrie. "We're already getting more active with airlines," says GE's Bruce Hughes, who was named president of the alliance last week.
United has begun selling tickets for its first scheduled service between Chicago and Guatemala City. Daily nonstop flights will begin April 1. "Our research shows there is a large Guatemalan community in Chicago and more than 24,000 travelers flew between Chicago and Guatemala in the first nine months of 1997," said Maria Sastre, VP-Latin America. United will operate a 757 that previously would have remained unused overnight. Sastre said United's daily Los Angeles-Guatemala City flight has been performing "exceptionally well."
DOT issued an order for more information on delivery positions for regional jets to be acquired by Trans States Airlines and American Eagle/Simmons, both of which seek slots for Chicago O'Hare operations. Simmons' application for 60 slots is pending. Trans States applied earlier in the year for 32 slots, received 8, and filed a petition for reconsideration for 18 slots predicated on regional jet orders. (See related story o follow.)
National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Jim Hall opened public hearings on TWA Flight 800 yesterday by emphasizing a point made many times over - the crash was not caused by a missile or a bomb. The FBI reached and announced the same conclusion earlier, but Hall launched a week of hearings in Baltimore with witness after witness who testified that none of the evidence pointed to a criminal act. The TWA 747 crashed into the Atlantic Ocean July 17, 1996, shortly after takeoff from New York Kennedy Airport.
British Airways stiffened its resolve to bar drunken passengers from its aircraft. The airline took steps yesterday to empower ground staff and flight attendants to keep passengers who appear drunk off aircraft and stop serving alcohol to those who appear drunk during a flight. BA has told its flight attendants to take away duty-free alcohol from drunk passengers. The measures were enacted following two recent court cases in the U.K. where drunken passengers who assaulted flight attendants were sentenced to up to two years in prison.
British Airways will raise capacity on its London-Tel Aviv route in March, when it switches to 777-200IGWs from 767s and 757s. At that point, BA's 15 weekly flights will feature three classes of service, with 14 in first class, 56 in Club World and 197 in economy. BA has shifted arrivals to Heathrow's Terminal 4, improving connections from Tel Aviv to its flights to North America.
DOT denied startup Northern Airlines' request for confidential treatment of all documents with the exception of the stock distribution list of individuals holding at least 10% of Northern's stock. Northern must submit third-party verification of its proposed financing sources and explanations of the amounts shown in pre-operating expense estimates and first-year forecast financial documents already submitted in order for DOT to continue its review.
Air Transport Association is organizing for early-1998 launch an Aviation Safety Alliance of airlines and manufacturers, aimed at putting industry in the forefront of safety-related research - and at conducting education/public relations campaigns. Already signed as airline representatives on a 15-member board are CEOs Gordon Bethune of Continental, Bob Crandall of American, Bill Franke of America West, Gerald Greenwald of United, Herb Kelleher of Southwest and Fred Smith of FedEx. Another member is former NTSB Chairman Carl Vogt.
The European Union's competition authorities will examine the privatization of Dusseldorf Airport and a joint bid by German and Irish companies to buy a majority stake in the airport. The European Commission will decide later whether to launch a deeper investigation into the deal. The examination centers on a bid last month by a consortium led by German construction company Hochtief in conjunction with Air Rianta for a controlling stake in Dusseldorf.
European Regional Airlines Growth in Operations Turboprop vs. Jet The Year 1996 Turboprop 1995 1996 % Change January 171 175 2.3% February 160 170 6.3% March 180 175 -2.8% April 168 178 6.0% May 191 189 -1.0% June 193 193 0.0%
U.S. Air Force Research Lab, Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., has confirmed that it will buy eight copies of the Global Positioning System/Glonass jammer, first displayed publicly at the Moscow Air Show last summer. The Air Force plans to study the jammers to learn how to defeat them if a situation demands it.
Northwest and key government figures, at a meeting last week called by FAA Assistant Administrator Bradley Mims, urged carriers to join efforts to collect and distribute excess food to charities that feed the needy. Northwest has had such a program since 1991. Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman is leading the initiative, and the FAA meeting is part of DOT Secretary Rodney Slater's response.
Delta is opening enrollment to new Atlanta and Cincinnati SkyMiles members for its annual weekend travel program, Escape Plan '98. Membership provides up to 50% off the lowest 14- or seven-day advance purchase, non- sale, coach-class fares for roundtrip travel. Every Sunday after 12:01 a.m. Delta offers members at least six destinations for the coming weekend based on seat availability, and up to four international travel weekends during the membership year.
Orally approved an initial two-year exemption for Balair/CTA Leisure to conduct charter combination operations between points in Switzerland, via intermediate points and points in the U.S. and beyond, and other charters pursuant to 14 CFR Part 212...Approved three roundtrip charter passenger flights by American Trans Air between points in the U.S. and Brazil Dec. 21-23, Jan. 13 and Feb. 9...Approved eight roundtrip charter cargo flights by Atlas Air between points in the U.S. and Brazil Dec.
US Airways' traffic in November fell 1.1% on 4.9% less capacity, improving the load factor 2.7 percentage points to 68.9%. The systemwide load factor was the best for any November in the airline's history. Domestic traffic, which represents 91% of its total, fell 2.1%, while domestic capacity dropped 6.3%. International traffic rose 11.3% on 11.1% more capacity. Despite its international expansion, the carrier's average passenger journey fell 0.9% to 682.1 miles. Nov 97 Nov 96 11 Mths 97 11 Mths 96
