Air France and Air Afrique began joint weekly service yesterday between Paris and Pointe-Noire, Congo. The service uses a 120-seat A320 and makes a technical stop in both directions in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
American and LanChile told DOT that antitrust immunity for their code-share and marketing alliance is a necessity given the innumerable objections that competing U.S. carriers would throw in their way without it. "Given the rhetoric that other U.S. carriers have generated in response to LanChile and American's code-share-related applications and elsewhere, it is safe to say that those carriers would be quick to attack any extensive cooperative operations by LanChile and American on antitrust grounds," the alliance carriers said in an application for immunity.
French aircraft parts company Latecoere S.A. is joining with Taiwan's Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC) to produce a new generation of Airbus jets. A memorandum of cooperation, signed last month in Taipei, is the first such agreement in the aerospace field between the Republic of China and a European partner. According to its terms, a group of Taiwanese companies under AIDC's aegis will provide the capital and perform certain aircraft development and production activities.
Citing low positive test results over the past two years, FAA said it is reducing the amount of random alcohol testing for aviation industry employees. The agency has been testing at least 25% of personnel in safety and security related positions annually, including pilots, controllers and security screeners. The alcohol violation rate was 0.06% for 1995 and 0.08% for 1996. The regulation requiring the tests allows FAA to cut alcohol tests to 10% of the target population if the violation rate is less than 0.5% for two consecutive years.
Aviation Industry Stock Performance December 1997 Closed Closed Majors Symbol 12/31/97 11/28/97 Alaska Air Group ALK 38.750 37.375 America West (Class B) AWA 18.625 15.938 AMR AMR 128.500 121.188 Continental (Class B) CAI.B 48.125 45.563
Sabena posted a 30.7% rise in November traffic and a 24.5% gain for the first 11 months of 1997. Cargo traffic jumped 31.1% but only 2.9% year-to- date. Sabena is offering U.S.-Europe roundtrip winter packages, including hotel, starting at $439. Discount deals from five U.S. gateways are available through March 31.
Virgin Express reported a 73.2% increased in December traffic on 48.9% more capacity, pushing the load factor up 9.4 percentage points to 67.3%. The Brussels-based airline carried 174,558 passengers, up 52.4%.
Business Travel Contractors Corp. (BTCC) is suspending operations after three and a half years in business, said its president, Kevin Mitchell. He told The DAILY yesterday that he decided to fold BTCC after unsuccessful attempts to gain financial and political support from the five mega-travel agencies. Only two agencies signed on. Mitchell said he hopes to find enough support to keep the company's lobbying arm, Business Travel Coalition (BTC), alive, and did not rule out the possibility of rejuvenating BTCC in the future.
Robert Dynan has been named to replace Clark Stevens as president of Mesa Airlines, Inc., a subsidiary of Mesa Air Group. Stevens had been serving as interim president of the airline and will return to his full-time duties as president and chief operating officer of Mesa Air Group. Mesa Air Group continues its search for a replacement for Chairman Larry Risley, who is leaving in March.
United will explore whether there is enough staff support for an extension of the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) with which it restructured itself in 1994. In a message to employees, Chairman Gerald Greenwald and President John Edwardson said that although they do not know yet what will happen after the ESOP stock allocation period ends in 2000, "we intend to begin examining the possibility of an ESOP extension." During the next two years, the "will" of employee groups should become evident and "employees' feelings on ESOP II will become clearer," they said.
With 20 years of U.S. deregulation experience at their fingertips, European low-fare carriers have patterned themselves after - and sometimes borrowed executives from - U.S. success stories. But what examples do they have to work with? U.S. start-ups this decade have been poor role models. There have been so many visits to bankruptcy court, Ryanair may do better to visit a psychic. Few have come close to copying Southwest or Herb Kelleher, and many have tried and failed. But one U.S. carrier has set a new standard for low-fare airlines: Reno Air.
City of Decatur, Ill., filed in support of Great Lakes Aviation's proposal for Essential Air Service slots out of Chicago O'Hare, one of which could restore service to Decatur. Great Lakes flew to Decatur among numerous other points before being shut down under FAA pressure last year; it has since relaunched a reduced schedule. City of Decatur said while it qualifies for EAS-subsidized service, it has been able to support revenue operations in the past.
Dutch Ministry of Transport has formally accepted a usage plan for 1998 for Maastricht-Aachen regional airport. The facility was forced to modify its original plan in November to accommodate ministry demands for stricter noise controls around the airport. Maastricht-Aachen airport authorities will be required to submit quarterly reports as the usage plan is implemented.
Laker Airways may cease operating scheduled daily service between Florida and the U.K. and focus instead on its charter operations, a Laker official said last week. The carrier recently suspended its winter vacation package between London and Orlando and is considering eliminating its scheduled service. It also is entertaining new investors.
The Netherlands government has given the green light to the country's national railway authority, Dutch Rail, to construct a short rail link between Amsterdam Schiphol and the City of Utrecht, reducing travel time by some 15 minutes. The new spur will be completed in 2003, with the government providing 427 million guilders (US$218 million) to help finance the project.
Underserved, overpriced markets are Reno Air's specialty, a formula that has made it one of the more successful startup carriers in recent airline history. Reno Air is the only startup since 1993 that has broken into the profit curve consistently, said Mike Boyd of The Boyd Group in Denver. In the third quarter of 1997, Reno posted $4 million in operating profit on $100 million in revenue, a little better than last year's third quarter results (DAILY, Dec. 22).
Middle East Regional Office of the International Civil Aviation Organization will hold its fifth Aircraft Accident Prevention/Investigation and Safety Seminar May 24-28 in Cairo. Experts from around the world are expected to participate. Papers will be in English with simultaneous interpretations in Arabic and English.
Swissair and Air One, a privately owned startup airline based in Italy, have agreed to deepen their year-old cooperation by allowing Swissair to take a "substantial" minority stake in the regional carrier. The two airlines said last week they have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that focuses on their networks, sales and joint marketing efforts in the Italian market. The MOU also allows Swissair to buy into One Air. A primary motive for Swissair is to gain greater access to Italy's rich and densely crowded northern region.
Mexicana and Aeromexico have joined the Air Transport Association as associate members. ATA now has 27 members, five of which are associate non-domestic.
