Canadian Airlines is adjusting its fare structure to reflect air traffic control charges that take effect Jan. 1, but it does not expect passengers to see an effect. Responsibility for Canada's ATC system is being transferred from Transport Canada to private entity Nav Canada, and fares will have to cover ATC charges to the airline previously paid by passengers via ticket tax. The tax will drop 50% on tickets purchased on or after Jan. 1 for travel after March 1, and it will be eliminated on Nov.
A judge in the New York District Court, Southern District of New York, has given the green light to a class action suit filed by former Pan Am employees against Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. The employees want to force PBGC to issue decisions on pension benefits in a timely manner, said Havey Katz, an attorney with New York-based Berlack, Israels&Liberman, which represents about 20,000 former Pan Am workers. The suit also asks to remove PBGC as trustee of the pension plans and appoint an independent party to calculate payments.
Reno Air reported a 9.7% decrease in traffic to 227.3 million revenue passenger miles and a 0.8% drop in capacity to 372.9 available seat miles, reducing its load factor 5.9 percentage points to 61%.
FAA expanded its year-old 747 Teflon wire coating inspection program Friday, requiring operators to check the insulation of stainless steel as well as aluminum conduits in pumps that boost the flow of fuel out of the aircraft's wingtip tanks. The agency superseded its Dec. 23, 1996, airworthiness directive involving the aluminum conduit, which has a lower burn temperature and was thought then to be the only material susceptible to chafing and burning that could result in electrical arcing between wires.
FAA has asked the Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee for advice on icing issues, and ARAC is starting up a working group to handle them. All but one of FAA's seven requests envision rulemaking in 2000 and 2001. The exception: an advance notice of proposed rulemaking in March 1999, if needed, on requiring ice detectors, aerodynamic performance monitors or other ways to warn flightcrews that ice is accumulating on critical surfaces.
After threatening to increase its $18 departure taxes fivefold, Brazil has backed down, settling on a destination-specific three-tier system. New rates, effective Jan. 11, will be $24, $30 or $36, depending on which airport is used.
Delta Connection affiliate Atlantic Southeast posted an 11.6% traffic increase last month to 75.6 million revenue passenger miles. Capacity inched up 0.8% to 146.3 million available seat miles, boosting the load factor 5 percentage points to 51.7%.
Air France is staying out of the fracas surrounding Italy's attempt to move airlines from Milan Linate Airport to faraway Malpensa. Airlines fighting the move include Lufthansa, British Airways, Iberia, KLM, SAS, Sabena, Air Portugal and Olympic. One of their concerns is that ground links to Malpensa won't be totally finished until 2000.
Thirteen million dollars is lost every day in the absence of a new U.S.- Japan bilateral, according to a Midwest-Asia Aviation Coalition study. The coalition used the U.S.-Canada agreement as a model, noting that when restrictions were relaxed the number of flights increased 16% in the first year. Similar growth with Japan would amount to 3,200 new roundtrips a year by U.S. and Japanese airlines, almost nine flights a day, and the coalition believes the projection is conservative.
Dragonair is increasing domestic package offerings as China's appetite for one-price vacation deals grows. The airline is charging as little as $340 for four-day, three-night excursions from Hong Kong to places like Guilin, Kunming and Xian. The price includes airfare, hotel, meals, tours and insurance.
Frontier appointed Arthur Amron, senior VP and general counsel of Wexford Management LLC, to its board and appointed Sheila Shafran assistant controller and Keith Schmitt city manager of Bloomington-Normal.
The latest round of U.S.-France bilateral negotiations, concluded late last Thursday in Washington, made less progress than the U.S. had hoped or expected, according to government agency officials, but "the process is moving forward" and the U.S. "hopes to schedule another round of talks as early as possible." While there was a "narrowing" of the distance between the two sides on some issues, no substantive resolution resulted from the talks, which concluded a day earlier than scheduled.
Two weeks on the job, new Pan Am Chief Executive David Banmiller eliminated the positions of 10 VPs this week and demoted several other managers in an effort to make the merged airline more efficient. Seventy workers were furloughed as part of a 465-person downsizing announced in October. But Banmiller took that a step further, eliminating the positions of VP- passenger services, VP-treasurer and VP-finance. Now, six VPs report to the CEO. "In some cases, the jobs were abolished, in others, the jobs were downgraded to managers," said spokesman Jeff Kriendler.
The National Civil Aviation Review Commission (NCARC) formally handed its final findings and recommendations to DOT yesterday, completing an effort that spanned much of this year. The report, Avoiding Aviation Gridlock&Reducing the Accident Rate, recommends nine basic changes, five in FAA funding and management and four in aviation safety. The funding and management recommendations are the same as those in the preliminary report of the commission's aviation financing task force, completed in September.
FAA plans to issue recommendations by June incorporating various aircraft systems into its aircraft inspection program, a National Transportation Safety Board hearing into the crash of TWA Flight 800 was told yesterday in Baltimore. Gregory Dunn, of FAA's Transport Directorate, said the agency is reacting to recommendations from the President's Commission on Aviation Safety and Security, chaired by Vice President Al Gore.
U.S. Carriers Commission Expense First Quarter 1997 % Of Total Commission Operating Expenses Alaska $ 30,049,000 8.49 America West 36,642,779 8.56 American 311,801,000 8.57 Continental 123,182,000 8.31
Western Pacific Chief Executive Robert Peiser, taking the first $10 million this week of up to $50 million in financial support from Smith Management, characterized his new partner as "smart, but tough to work with."
European Union transport ministers ordered the European Commission yesterday to "consider sanctions against Russia" in the dispute about Siberia overflight charges imposed on EU airlines. The EU is protesting "compensation payments" to Aeroflot that Russia imposes as a preliminary obligation to obtain the right to fly over Siberia. Russian authorities have not replied so far to European proposals to negotiate. "They keep on changing who's in charge of the issue," a commission official said.
Fairchild Dornier says that 30% or more of the production run of the new 34-passenger 328JET could be swept by corporate customers. Two firm U.S. customers for the corporate version already are on the books and the German/American company is pushing hard for more. The aircraft is billed as having an interior as large as a Gulfstream IV at the price of a Learjet 60 - about $11 million. The prototype 328JET was unofficially rolled out for the aviation press last week near Munich and is scheduled to fly Jan. 20 (see story below).
SAS will launch two daily flights between Stockholm and London Stansted Airport March 29 using 105-seat DC-9-41 aircraft. The service will be timed for connections beyond Stockholm to Moscow, Finland and the Baltic states. SAS will offer automated check-in at Stansted and separate check- in facilities for business and economy travelers. The Stansted service will boost SAS's London-Stockholm operations from five to seven flights per day.
The European Commission will launch legal proceedings against the nine European Union countries that have bilateral aviation agreements with the U.S., a spokeswoman for EU Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock said Wednesday in Brussels. "This is the point where we take our gloves off," she said.
Federal Express reported a 3% increase in net profit, to $107 million, for the quarter ended Nov. 30, but total revenues surged 16% to $3.3 billion. Operating income rose to $213.8 million from $184.9 million on the strength of 5% growth in international operating income. International Priority service jumped 18%. Domestic operating income rose to $167.5 million from $140.8 million. In the U.S., package volume was up 10% and revenue per package rose 4.7%.
