Indonesian Air Carrier Association Secretary General Benny Rungkat wants Indonesia to follow Singapore and Malaysia and sign an open-skies agreement with the U.S., Indonesian government news agency Antara reported. Cities in the eastern provinces are closer to the U.S. than Singapore and Malaysia and "even more strategic" for tourists flying to Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Korea and China, he said.
Southwest traffic declined 2.6% in October on 11.5% more capacity, resulting in a 63.1% load factor, down 9.1 percentage points. The year- over-year comparison reflects heavy traffic last year, when the carrier offered seats nationwide for $25 in celebration of 25 years of operation. Southwest said this year's revenue per passenger mile was up sharply. Oct 97 Oct 96 10 Mths 97 10 Mths 96 RPMs 2,491,870,000 2,557,378,000 23,605,250,000 22,537,329,000
Taiwan and Palau have reached consensus on details of a bilateral air agreement, clearing the way for the formal signing. Under terms of the pact, Palau will grant fifth-freedom rights to Taiwan carriers enabling them to continue onward to two designated destinations - most likely Guam and Saipan. In return, Taiwan agreed to limit the number of flights to Palau by Taiwan-based airlines to at most four per week. Far Eastern Air Transport operates two Kaohsiung-Palau flights per week and plans to begin twice-weekly service between Taipei and Palau at yearend.
U.S. Carrier Systemwide Market Share At Leading U.S. Airports U.S. Major, National and Commuter* Carriers Six Months 1997 (Part 2 of 2) New Orleans Enplaned Percent Passengers Marketsharee Southwest 569,801 26.43 Delta 425,525 19.74 Continental 278,924 12.94
British Airways intends to launch nonstop London Gatwick-Denver service early next summer, subject to government approval. The daily flight, using Boeing 777s, would establish BA's 22nd U.S. gateway. The carrier acknowledged the "support and tenacity" of Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, the City Council and the Denver Chamber of Commerce. BA needs approval from the U.K. Civil Aviation Authority, and a hearing is scheduled Dec. 1.
Siemens said sales of its wholly owned U.S. businesses jumped 12% to $9.5 billion, including exports of more than $1.3 billion, in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30. Orders increased 6% to $9.9 billion. The company said its U.S. operations, including Siemens Transportation Systems, Stromberg- Carlson (now Siemens Telecom Networks) and Siemens Energy&Automation, employed 49,000 people at yearend.
Air Ontario has boosted its Baltimore-Toronto Pearson service to six flights from four, and this week dedicated one of its Dash 8-100 aircraft to the City of Baltimore. Air Ontario, a wholly owned Air Canada subsidiary, is upholding a tradition of naming aircraft after the cities it serves - which, in the U.S., include Baltimore, Cleveland, Hartford, Columbus, Allentown, Harrisburg, Richmond and Providence. In Canada, Air Ontario serves Toronto Pearson, Toronto City Centre Airport, London, Ottawa, Montreal, Sarnia, Windsor, North Bay, Sudbury, Sault Ste.
Eight regional-airline stocks posted an average increase of nearly 10% during October. The average price per share was up from $15.98 at the September close of trading to $17.54 at the October close, an increase of 9.8%. Delta Connection carriers, usually the pack leaders, were mixed on the month. Comair soared by nearly 35% from $27.25 to $36.75 per share while SkyWest jumped 22.8% from $19.75 to $24.25 per share. Atlantic Southeast slumped by nearly a percentage point, however, from $28.13 to $27.88 per share.
These are jets please! Embraer changed the marketing designation of the 50-passenger EMB-145 to the RJ145 because the EMB-145 does not show up on computer reservations systems as a jet. Competitive regional jets do. The Canadair RJ shows up on the CRS screens as the CRJ and the British Aerospace Avro RJ85/100 shows up as the ARJ. Continental Express found itself at a competitive disadvantage in that the EMB-145 designation did not indicate that the aircraft is a jet. The new EMB-135 37-seater will be the RJ135. (For what Embraer says, see below.)
United Express affiliate Atlantic Coast Airlines last month posted a 3.2-percentage-point increase in load factor to 53.4% as traffic rose 18.8% to 41.3 million revenue passenger miles and capacity gained 11.7% to 77.3 million available seat miles. Passenger boardings jumped 18.5% to 166,110. ACA's current fleet consists of 60 aircraft - 31 29-passenger Jetstream 41s and 29 19-passenger Jetstream 32s. It is acquiring 12 50- seat Canadair Regional Jets, with which it hopes to begin service later this year.
Fairchild Dornier continues to strengthen its sales and marketing team, tapping former Embraer executive Salo Roth for its South American operations. The company also has hired Bob Hawk to be VP-corporate communications. Hawk previously was director-public relations and advertising at Fokker Aircraft USA and until Friday a public affairs specialist at FAA. Rich Spaulding will leave AI(R) to join Fairchild Dornier in its new asset management organization handling used aircraft and VP-Marketing Mike Cardellichio moves from Sterling, Va., to San Antonio...
O'Connor Airlines, based in Mt. Gambier, South Australia, will be the first customer in the Australasia region for the Jetstream 32EP Enhanced Performance program. The program, created by British Aerospace Asset Management, is designed to increase the pay-load and range of the Jetstream 32 aircraft in extreme climatic conditions. O'Connor introduced two leased J32s last year to handle rapid growth in the Mt. Gambier-Melbourne and Mt. Gambier-Adelaide markets. The first J32EP upgrade was expected to be completed early this month.
Defunct Eastern Airlines yesterday made its fourth distribution to unsecured creditors who are owed more than $100,000. More than half of the $5.6 million total was sent to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., the federal entity in charge of pensions for former Eastern employees. The latest distribution represents 50 cents per dollar, versus earlier claims that were paid 8 cents per dollar. Total distributions to date to large creditors amount to 8.5 cents per dollar. Claims under $100,000 were paid 11 cents per dollar in February 1995.
Singapore Airlines has launched Timerider, a cargo product offering guaranteed uplift and expedited handling. An airport-to-airport express service targeted mostly at heavier freight, Timerider provides for cargo log-in four hours before departure, or later at some airports. The cargo will be available as early as four hours after arrival. Timerider offers a 50% refund of charges if a shipment is not carried as booked after it has been confirmed and accepted for a flight, SIA said.
DOT issued a final rule on CRS system parity clauses, adopting its proposal of Aug. 14 following an Alaska Airlines petition to limit their use. Effective Dec. 5, an airline not affiliated with one of the major CRS systems will not have to purchase at least as high a level of participation in one CRS as it has in another. The ruling will affect practices by Sabre, Abacus/Worldspan and System One/Amadeus. Galileo/Apollo does not enforce a parity clause. Other CRS issues remain under examination by DOT.
Continental's new pilot contract will increase pilot salaries at least 20% and cost the company more than $100 million in the first year, a source close to the negotiations said yesterday. The cost could increase depending on how negotiations on scope and other significant contract issues are worked out. The airline and the union will resume talks Monday.
A $42 million tax break helped lure AirTran Airlines, formerly ValuJet, to the home town of its partner, AirTran Airways. AirTran Airlines said yesterday it will move its headquarters to Orlando from Atlanta in mid- January. About 100 employees affected by the move will be offered a severance package or the chance to move to Orlando, a spokeswoman said.
Longtime regional-airline executive Don Martin is on the move again. Martin resigned unexpectedly last Friday as president of Aspen Mountain Air/Lone Star Airlines. Pat Imeson and Ron Stone, who founded AMA three and one-half years ago while at Peak International, will serve as co- presidents. Martin will continue to consult for AMA on some ongoing projects but is "looking for other options in the industry," Imeson said. Martin, a veteran at Eastern and Continental, subsequently headed Continental Express at Denver, Aspen Airways and TriStar Airlines.
Internet booking, not yet a bread-and-butter element of airline distribution, is a marketing tool of growing value and content. Deep fare discounts, maps and travel-planning functions, and hotel and rental car services that increase frequent flyer miles are becoming regular features on airline web sites.
United has flipped the switch to start its newest yield management and seat inventory control system, Orion, which it believes will add between $50 million and $100 million to its annual revenue and is "the most sophisticated yield management application in the airline industry." The carrier is using the speed of IBM's "Deep Blue," the parallel processing system that recently became the first machine to defeat world chess champion Gary Kasparov.
B/E Aerospace said it has received about $50 million in aircraft seating and galley product orders from United, Cathay Pacific, America West, American Eagle and KLM.
