The German government priced its 143 million remaining shares in Lufthansa over the weekend and offered them for sale, the final step in the flag carrier's privatization. The bank consortium handling the sale said the issue was oversubscribed more than twice. The issue price was slightly below the shares' closing value quoted on stock markets last week. The government's 37.5% stake in Lufthansa was priced Sunday at 33.30 Deutschmarks per share, or approximately DM4.7 billion (US$2.6 billion), with all proceeds going to the government.
DOT approved a one-year initial exemption for Delta/Transbrasil code-share, blocked-space service between the U.S. and Brazil. Transbrasil will display Delta's code on flights between Brasilia and Recife; Sao Paulo and Manaus, Salvador, Iguassu Falls and Porto Alegre; and Rio de Janeiro and Salvador. Delta will carry online connecting Delta traffic to and from intermediate points but no Brazil-originating traffic. It will display Transbrasil's code on flights between Orlando and Los Angeles on a blind- sector basis.
American Airlines Vacations is adding a tour to Central and South America, featuring city stay extensions to eight destinations - Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Venezuela, Belize and Guatemala. The package comes at a variety of prices; for example, a Belize stay with breakfast and round-trip transfers starts at $132, but with extensions could range from $312 to $639 per person, double occupancy.
Private Danish carrier Maersk Air signed a code-share accord with Alitalia on routes between Italy and Scandinavia, effective Oct. 26. The routes are Copenhagen-Milan, Stockholm-Copenhagen-Rome, and Billund-Frankfurt-Milan. Maersk signed a similar deal with Air France last month (DAILY, Sept. 25).
American and Asiana asked DOT for immediate approval of their proposed code share now that opposing carriers have had the opportunity to make objections. Asiana's existing code share with Northwest will expire on Oct. 29. Opposing carriers said approval should be deferred until outstanding U.S.-Korea issues are resolved, including World Airways' inability to fly bilaterally authorized service beyond Seoul. American/Asiana said that even though an open-skies agreement with Korea has yet to be signed, DOT should allow Asiana to go ahead with the switch in its U.S.
Edzard Reuter will give up the presidency of Airbus Industrie's supervisory board "at the beginning of 1998 at the latest," the four members of the European consortium said yesterday. The mandate of Jean Pierson, chief executive, expires on March 31, 1998, which means a pair of new leaders during the last, delicate phase of its planned corporatization.
Used Jet Aircraft Deliveries July 1997 Carrier # Type Engines Previous Operator Air Europa 1 767-200ER CF6-80A2 Air New Zealand Air One 2 737-400 CFM56-3C1 Lufthansa Air Zimbabwe 1 BAe 146-100 ALF502R-5 Air Botswana Airbus Industrie 1 A310-200 JT9D-7R4E1 Sudan Airways
The trade unions of Sabena threatened their company yesterday with labor unrest if the Belgian airline chooses Airbus aircraft to replace its 13 aging Boeing 737-200s. The unions fear that the choice of Airbus will reduce the workload of maintenance subsidiary Sabena Technics to the benefit of Shannon Aerospace, the Irish maintenance joint venture managed by Swissair and Lufthansa.
Eurowings will increase service to Amsterdam Oct. 26 to feed the long-haul network of code-share partner KLM. The German regional carrier is doubling its daily Stuttgart-Amsterdam frequencies to six and will operate a fifth daily Hannover-Amsterdam flight. It also will operate five instead of three daily frequencies from Nuremberg to Amsterdam and add a fourth daily flight from Cologne and Paderborn/Lippstadt to KLM's home base.
Third quarter profits for U.S. airlines will be flat year over year, and despite expected healthy operating profits across the board, yields have been less than impressive and may have dropped slightly at most carriers, according to securities analysts. With a continued strong economy, major carriers will post roughly $2.6 billion in operating profits in the September quarter. American, the first to report, will reveal its results today and set the tone for the rest of the industry.
An agreement between the United States Travel Agency Registry and Societe Internationale de Telecommunications Aeronautiques (SITA) will enable USTAR to move the launch date of its computer reservations system to the third quarter 1998 from the fourth. USTAR's board said yesterday it has reached an agreement with SITA to provide extensive services for its Project Genesis CRS, designed to free travel agents from airline-dominated systems. SITA is a not-for-profit airline telecommunication cooperative that operates the world's largest international data network.
Haiti Aviation filed with DOT for a foreign air carrier permit and exemption authority to fly combination service from points in the U.S. to Port-au-Prince and beyond. FAA rates Haiti as a Category 3 nation, which bars any air carrier service to the U.S. by Haitian aircraft and crew. Haiti Aviation, d/b/a Air D'Ayiti, therefore plans to use authorized third- party services.
Reno Air, taking a giant step toward becoming a player in the global alliance competition, said Monday it has entered an international code- sharing agreement with Qantas. The airlines have been in negotiations for about a year. Reno will enable passengers traveling from San Francisco to Los Angeles to connect with a Qantas flight.
Standard&Poor's removed ValuJet Inc.'s ratings from CreditWatch, where they were placed Dec. 19. The company, parent of AirTran Airlines, received the ratings change after eliminating certain covenants on bank debt and paying the affected debt.
National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Jim Hall will convene a fact- finding hearing into the crash of TWA Flight 800 on Dec. 8 in Baltimore. The hearing is expected to last up to five days as NTSB investigators report on progress in their work. Technical witnesses will testify under oath on safety issues developed during the investigation. TWA 800, a 747, crashed into the Atlantic on July 17, 1996, shortly after takeoff from New York Kennedy Airport, killing all 230 aboard. The hearing will be held in Exhibition Hall A of the Baltimore Convention Center.
American Trans Air reduced travel agent commissions to 8% on all tickets, saying it cannot operate at a cost disadvantage to competitors. Major carriers, led by United, began cutting commissions three weeks ago.
Swissair parent SAir Group opened a complex of retail shops at Zurich Airport last week. The shops are managed by Nuance Trading, the travel retail company of SAir Relations, one of the group's four divisions. The new "shopping lane" can be transformed into a French, German, English or Italian "street" depending on passenger traffic forecasts.
Timing is everything for Gregory Buhler. After extensive experience through bankruptcies at the old Pan Am and Kiwi, Buhler was hired last week as general counsel for Western Pacific. He began work there a day after Westpac filed for Chapter 11.
Las Vegas will receive its first nonstop charter flight from Japan today, when a Japan Travel Bureau-chartered Japan Airlines 747 arrives at McCarran Airport. The city expects the flight to have "significant impact on future air service between Pacific Rim countries and Las Vegas," said Randall Walker, director of aviation. The flight, from Kyushu, will carry elected officials and owners, presidents and managers of Japanese hotels and businesses.
Frontier Airlines, which broke off a proposed merger with Western Pacific last week, will launch service Nov. 16 in its 13th market, Denver- Baltimore/Washington. Frontier started a Denver-Boston route Sept. 16 and plans to expand to New York LaGuardia if it can obtain slots. It will increase service by one flight per day in three markets, Denver-Los Angeles, -Salt Lake City and -Phoenix, and will reduce service to Chicago from five daily roundtrips to four. It will discontinue its redeye flight to Boston.
Air France's Concorde was seen wending a subsonic path across the U.S. last week, picking up passengers in New York, Dallas and Las Vegas for a round- the-world adventure for 100 people. The 24-day voyage, stopping in places like Sydney, Beijing, Delhi and Nairobi, costs $52,800.
Baltia Air Lines Inc. has filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer one million shares of common stock that would bring in net proceeds of $5.85 million. The company, incorporated in 1989, expects to begin service from the U.S. to Russia within 90 days after the IPO closes. Baltia expects to operate from New York Kennedy to St. Petersburg and said the U.S. Postal Service has indicated the airline may be called on to carry half of all U.S.-Russia mail. Baltia is in discussions with United to acquire used Boeing 747s.
