A Spanish transport ministry official says his government will not allow British Airways and American to buy a controlling stake in Iberia. Pedro Ferreras, who also is chairman of SEPI, the state-owned holding company that controls Iberia, said last month that Madrid will not let the two foreign airlines acquire more than a 5% stake each in the Spanish flag carrier. The three airlines have been talking about the privatization of Iberia since the fall.
Handicapped passenger Franz Soni filed a complaint against Continental Airlines charging violations of the Air Carrier Access Act of 1986, aimed at ensuring that mobility-impaired travelers can use the air transportation system. Soni told DOT the carrier violated the act on four flights from August through early November, 1997. In one case, Soni, who uses a wheelchair, was denied boarding a flight to Newark even though he arrived at Milan Airport two hours and forty minutes before departure.
United, which recently announced a second daily Mexico City-Chicago O'Hare flight starting April 5, will relaunch San Francisco-Hartford on the same date, boosting the service to year-round flights.
US Airways has named John Hedblom, former director of labor arbitration and administration, VP-labor relations. He replaces Dwain Andrews, who is retiring after a 45-year career in airline labor relations.
The European Commission's competition authority says it has no objection to a German-Irish consortium taking a major equity and managerial stake in Dusseldorf Airport. The facility is Germany's third-busiest airport and the 14th largest in Europe. They ruled last month that the consortium of Aer Rianta, the Irish airport operator, and Hochtief Projektentwicklung GmbH, the German construction group, can proceed with plans to buy 50% of the airport's shares, held by the German state of North Rhine Westphalia.
Atlas Air said it has reached an agreement for early termination of leases on two 747-200s with Philippine Airlines and it will get the aircraft back early this year. They then will undergo conversion to freighter configuration at Boeing's Wichita modification facility and enter revenue service for Atlas in the second quarter. "The delivery of these two aircraft into our fleet in early 1998 will go a long way toward filling any aircraft gap created by the 747-400 delivery delays expected from Boeing," said Atlas President Michael Chowdry.
Northwest Airlines has completed a tender offer for NWA Trust No. 2 13-7/8% Class D Subordinated Aircraft Notes due Dec. 21, 2006. More than sixty- five million principal amount of the notes, or about 99%, has been tendered by the holders. Lehman Brothers acted as exclusive dealer-manager for the tender offer.
DOT revoked Vision Air's certificate to conduct foreign scheduled combination service because the startup did not begin operations during the year after it received the certificate, which authorized it to operate between New York Kennedy and London Stansted (DAILY, Sept. 24, 1996). The carrier has not responded to written communications from DOT. (Docket OST- 96-1185)
Some Air Line Pilots Association members have been receiving advisories from their traffic alert and collision avoidance systems since FAA reduced vertical separation between aircraft last March, ALPA told the agency. The change was intended to increase airspace capacity, but ALPA says it is concerned that TCASs could issue commands that would disrupt operations seriously, and also that some pilots are reporting wake vortex encounters.
When FAA's latest air traffic control system architecture plan appears, it will be scrutinized to see whether it contains the advice of an architecture review team assembled by System Research Corp. under sponsorship of FAA and the Volpe Transportation System Center. The plan, known as Version 3.0, is circulating at the agency now, prior to public release early this year. The team comprised aviation veterans, including Frank Frisbie, Siegbert Poritzky, Frank Tung, Paul Abramson, Steven Decker, Edmund Koenke and its chairman, Martin Pozesky.
The City of Zurich has sold its shares in Swissair back to the carrier for a net profit of 31.7 million Swiss francs (US$21.9 million). The municipality held 2.1% of Swissair's outstanding shares. A Swissair spokeswoman said last month the transaction was carried out at the request of Zurich, which is suffering budgetary problems.
DOT issued an amended foreign air carrier permit to Singapore Airlines to conduct services between Singapore and the United States under the U.S.- Singapore open-skies accord, concluded last year. SIA now may engage in scheduled foreign combination service from points behind Singapore via Singapore and intermediate points to a point or points in the U.S. and beyond, scheduled cargo service between the U.S. and any point or points, and charter service. Its existing permit allowed the carrier to conduct scheduled foreign combination service to points in the U.S.
A group of Local Differential Global Positioning system (LADGPS) manufacturers, after six months of cooperation, have developed a specification which they said will "ensure interoperability of ground and airborne systems and provide a migration path from Special Category (SCAT- 1) to Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS) precision landing systems." The SCAT-1 Manufacturers Interoperability Group is composed of leading suppliers of airborne and ground-based navigation equipment, including Airport Systems International, Wilcox, Arinc, DASA NFS, Navia, Interstate Electroni
DOT issued Tradewinds Airlines a companion certificate to the carrier's interstate charter certificate (DAILY, Dec. 9), authorizing foreign charter service. As stated in its fitness order, Tradewinds must notify DOT if it wants to operate more than five aircraft. (Docket OST-97-2795)
TWA has completed a $100 million private placement of asset-backed notes, the latest in a series of liquidity moves that led Standard&Poor's to revise its outlook on the carrier Dec. 23 from negative to stable. TWA said it will use proceeds from the newly placed 9.80% Airline Receivable Asset Backed Notes due 2001 to repay its remaining debt to Karabu Corp., an affiliate of former owner Carl Icahn, and for general corporate purposes.
