Triumph Group reported that third quarter sales gained 18% to $75.1 million. Operating income was $5.7 million, up from $2.6 million, and net income was $6.3 million, up from $1.2 million. Aviation Group operating income was $9.2 million, up from $6.7 million, as sales increased 31% to $53.9 million.
Revised* - U.S. Major Carriers Unit Revenues and Expenses, By Region Second Quarter 1997 Operating Operating Operating Revenues Expenses Profit/Loss Yield per ASM per ASM per ASM per RPM Carrier (cents) (cents) (cents) (cents) Alaska 9.61 8.51 1.10 12.05 Domestic 9.71 8.60 1.11 12.21
Western Pacific has been ordered by a Denver bankruptcy court judge to pay Denver Airport $250,000 in passenger facilities charges as part of its pre- petition debt. Westpac owes the airport $7 million in landing fees and gate leases from June 29 through Oct. 26, when it filed for bankruptcy protection. Airport spokesman Chuck Cannon said Westpac's debt to the airport is $50,000 per day, more than $1 million post-petition. "We have asked the court to force them to pay because we don't think it's fair to the other airlines," he said.
Air France operated an Airbus A300 for the last time this week on the Paris-Tel Aviv route, saying the aircraft's operating costs are no longer competitive. The A300, the first aircraft developed by Airbus Industrie, began operating Oct. 28, 1972. Air France, Lufthansa and Korean Air were Airbus's only airline customers until 1977. By the end of 1979, the aircraft won 256 orders, when the consortium launched the A310. Air France's fleet comprised up to 20 A300s and Air Inter's up to 19. The leased A300 operated 38,000 flight hours in 17 years.
AIRPortland Inc., which wants to serve Portland, Ore., as a low-cost carrier with a "'hometown' competitive advantage," applied at DOT for a certificate to operate scheduled combination service. It hopes to develop "a small scheduled airline to provide service between Portland...and major cities on the East Coast, initially New York City." AIRPortland has completed the first of three planned common stock offerings and plans to begin operations with two leased A320 aircraft, each providing three daily departures from Portland and New York.
United yesterday posted record third quarter net profits of $499 million fully distributed, up 5%, as international and domestic passenger traffic continued strong and cargo revenue rose nearly 18%. The results did not include a $235 million net gain on the sale of part of Apollo Travel Services to Galileo International. With the Apollo sale, net income was $734 million.
Fares from Atlanta to New York LaGuardia will drop significantly once Atlanta-based AirTran Airlines, formerly ValuJet, begins its six daily roundtrip flights on a route dominated by Delta, industry analysts say. AirTran, which will be the only low-cost carrier offering nonstops in the market, has not set a launch date for the new flights, spokeswoman Lori LeRoy said yesterday. Philadelphia currently is the point closest to New York served by AirTran. "We think this will make a significant difference in fare structure," said Senior VP-Marketing Ponder Harrison.
DOT Deputy Assistant Secretary Patrick Murphy told the Senate Commerce Committee yesterday that until recently, the department rarely granted slot exemptions to comply with the meaning of "extraordinary" in the law giving it exemption power. With last Friday's decision, "we took up Congress's call for more action," granting 31 slots for operations to O'Hare and LaGuardia, with more applications pending, Murphy told Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.), who held the hearing for his Aviation Competition Enhancement Act of 1997.
FAA will send DOT a notice of proposed rulemaking soon on Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA) programs intended to develop safety information that "cannot be used by the FAA for punitive enforcement purposes," Administrator Jane Garvey said yesterday. A second proposal, to protect FOQA participants from discovery under the Freedom of Information Act, will follow, Garvey told a record audience at the Aero Club of Washington.
PLM International said revenues for the September quarter dropped to $12.9 million from $14.1 million and net income declined to $1.3 million from $1.4 million. For the nine months, revenues dipped to $37.3 million from $38 million, while net income rose to $3.2 million from $2.4 million. The company cited lower lease revenues following the sale of older equipment.
Kitty Hawk reported record net income of $3 million for the third quarter, up from $1.4 million a year earlier, and revenues rose 35% to $41.2 million. For the first nine months, net income increased to $7 million from $252,000 while revenues rose to $101.7 million from $82.8 million. Tom Christopher, chairman, attributed most of the results to the company's air freight business, saying, "We are getting good utilization of our fleet, and even as we add new aircraft and contracts, we have consistently been able to exceed target margins."
AEI has introduced Border Express service for "fast, trouble-free customs clearance" for shipments of high-risk or sensitive goods from Canada into the U.S. Customers fax paperwork to AEI on a toll-free line for processing before the truck arrives, sometimes saving hours of delay at the border, the company said.
Aeromexico is adding a fourth daily flight between Mexico City and New York Kennedy, effective Nov. 2. The carrier offers service to LaGuardia and Newark under a code share with Delta.
SkyWest Airlines parent SkyWest Inc. posted a third quarter net income of $7.5 million, up 50.5%. Operating revenue reached a record level of $80.3 million versus $75.8 million. The Delta Connection carrier posted a 3% rise in yield to 34.2 cents. Revenue per available seat mile was up 1.7% to 18.1 cents and cost per ASM dropped 2.5% to 15.8 cents.
Delta will begin code sharing with Swissair's daily flights connecting Zurich with Cairo, beginning Dec. 1. DOT approved the code-share agreement in September (DAILY, Sept. 18).
KLM and Air UK, celebrating the launch of cooperative flights from London City Airport to Manchester, have announced fares starting at #55 (US$87) roundtrip. The new route opened this week, with flights operating four times a day with 50-seat Fokker 50s. The carriers are counting on travelers based in London to use the close-in airport. Other fares being marketed include an #89 ($141) one-way tariff for departure at 8:45 a.m. and arriving in Man-chester at 10 a.m., with a flexible return, either on the same day or subsequent days.
Boeing Wichita said it was contracted by Japan Airlines to convert four 747-300s from domestic to international passenger configurations. The modifications will give JAL the flexibility to configure the seating in four different arrangements, depending on its needs and routes flown, Boeing said. Changes will include new lavatories and galleys, rearranged seats and passenger service units, a video entertainment system and smoking corners with special venting. Modifications will enable crews to change seating within a few hours, Boeing said.
Italy this week formally joined the Schengen zone, the group of European Union member states that have abolished identity checks at their common borders. In practice, the decision forces Italian airports to reorganize the flow of passengers traveling to and from other Schengen members - Germany, France, Spain, Luxembourg and Portugal. Checks will remain in place temporarily for air travelers to two other Schengen countries, The Netherlands and Belgium, because of "technical problems" in moving passengers at Brussels and Amsterdam airports.
AlliedSignal said its enhanced ground proximity warning system has been approved for Airbus A319, A320 and A321 aircraft, its first certification under the aircraft type certificate of an air transport category aircraft. Airbus Industrie "has made a big contribution to air safety" by making it easier for airlines to acquire EGPWS on new aircraft and through retrofits, said AlliedSignal VP Frank Daly. The type certificate, the first of EGPWS by the European Joint Aviation Authorities, clears the way for Airbus to offer it as an installed option on A320 family aircraft.
TWA yesterday reported operating profits of $63.8 million, the its best results since 1989, and pre-tax income of $47.2 million was the highest since 1990. Net income was $9.4 million, versus a loss of $10.8 million last year. TWA was able to keep unit costs flat "even with reductions of capacity and retirement of L-1011s and 747s," said Chief Executive Gerald Gitner. Cost per available seat mile was 8.29 cents versus 8.27 a year ago. Operating costs fell $132.2 million, or 13.5%, as TWA replaced older, larger aircraft with smaller, more efficient 767s and 757s.
Swissair has completed the harmonization of its short-haul fleet with the delivery of a 34th Airbus aircraft. Beginning Oct. 26 with its winter schedule, Swissair's European fleet will consist entirely of models from the Airbus A320 family of aircraft - A319, A320 and A321 - replacing its A310-200 and MD-81 airplanes. Swissair's last MD-81 will be removed from the fleet early next month. All of Swissair's A320 models are equipped with the same flight management systems and flightdecks, providing commonality for the cockpit crew.
Air France's new international advertising campaign on television will feature the voice of French actress Jeanne Moreau, who starred in European masterworks such as Luis Bunuel's "Diary of a Chambermaid" and Francois Truffaut's "Jules and Jim." Ammirati Puris Lunitas, a member of the U.S. advertising network Interpublic, will manage the campaign, whose purpose is to erase the French public's "amorous disappointment" with their flag carrier, the ad agency said.
The Allied Pilots Association, American's 9,000-member pilots union, is backing unanimously the development of four-dimensional cockpit instrumentation to counter controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) accidents. The 4D cockpit displays depict a three-dimensional view of terrain with graphics of the aircraft's future flight path, generated from databases and aircraft sensor inputs. They enable the pilot to navigate along a synthetic flight path using real-time images of the surrounding landscape, APA said.
