Turkish Airlines reported a 3.5% traffic gain in July and 14% growth in the first seven months of 1997. Freight volume rose 30.7% in July and 23.5% in the January-July period. The airline, which carried 1.1 million passengers in July and 5.7 million in seven months, is on a pace to carry 10 million during 1997.
Ron Ricks, Southwest VP-government affairs, discusses airline competition, aviation excise taxes and "the war within the airline industry" in a speech before the AAAE National Airports Conference, to be broadcast on Aviation News Today Sunday at 12:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on Washington's NewsChannel 8.
European Investment Bank is granting a 60 million Ecus loan for the airport in Sofia, Bulgaria. The funds, lent by the European Union's financial institution, will be used to build a new passenger terminal and extend the main runway.
Air Transat A.T. applied to DOT for exemption authority to operate scheduled combination service from points in Canada to points in the U.S. The Canadian carrier intends initially to fly between Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary and Las Vegas, Honolulu and points in Florida. It has flown passenger charters between the U.S. and Canada for almost 10 years, and it holds authority for scheduled combination service between Montreal Mirabel and Fort Lauderdale.
New regional jets in the fleets of two carriers sparked a double-digit jump in regional-airline traffic during August. Revenue passenger miles for The DAILY's sampling of 14 airlines increased by 10.1%. That compared with a capacity increase of only 3.6% for available seat miles. Again at the top of the heap was Northwest Airlink Mesaba with its growing fleet of 69- passenger Avro RJ85s that are replacing aging DC-9s on mainline Northwest routes. Mesaba reported that RPMs increased 81.5% while ASMs were up 78.6%.
AAR Corp. net income increased 51% to $7.3 million for its first quarter, ended Aug. 31. Sales grew 26% to $170.9 million, and operating income jumped 40% to $12.9 million.
Continental and China Airlines of Taiwan will start code sharing tomorrow on flights between Houston and Taipei via San Francisco. Although the carriers became partners in June 1996, their joint marketing agreement was limited to frequent flyer reciprocity, shared airport lounges and one-stop check-in. They will consider ways to expand cooperation once the code share is in operation, said Sandy Liu, China Airlines' VP-commercial. American also is expected to implement a code share with China Airlines (DAILY, Aug. 27) in a deal signed initially in September 1996.
Memphis, Tenn.-based Northwest Airlines subsidiary Express Airlines I flew nearly 32 million revenue passenger miles in August, a 23.1% decline from August 1996. Capacity dropped 31.6% to 49.5 million available seat miles, as the passenger load factor jumped 7.1 percentage points points to 64.6%. The number of passengers dropped 26.2% to 121,867.
Frontier has launched service from its Denver hub to Boston, its first destination east of Chicago. Two daily nonstop flights are scheduled in each direction at one-way fares starting at $179.
Varig will add two U.S. cities to its route map during the next few months, serving Washington Dulles and Boston for the first time. The Brazilian carrier, which joins the Star Alliance next month, has contracted with Star partner United for ground-handling at both new locations. Varig will extend its daily Atlanta service to Washington, starting Oct. 27, resulting in a Rio de Janeiro-Sao Paulo-Atlanta-Washington routing. A similar route extension will occur Jan. 15, when Varig begins Porto Alegre-Rio-New York- Boston service.
Midwest Express will begin using United Airlines' Rapid Check-in software beginning Sept. 20. The software provides user-friendly screens that require a minimum of data entry.
US Airways and its pilots will continue negotiations today following Wednesday's letter from negotiating committee Chairman Chris Beebe to President Rakesh Gangwal stating the union's willingness to compromise and reach an agreement that would allow the carrier to go ahead with its planned $14 billion purchase of 400 aircraft from Airbus Industrie (DAILY, Sept. 19). After a morning road show presentation yesterday to employees in Pittsburgh, Gangwal met with union negotiators in Philadelphia for the rest of the day.
Lufthansa's supervisory board formally approved the decision to sell the carrier's 24.5% stake in Cargolux to SAirGroup during a Sept. 17 meeting in Frankfurt. Lufthansa said that an "increasingly divergent strategic approach" between it and Cargolux "no longer permits" close cooperation in sales and handling. But cargo cooperation, consisting of two daily flights to the U.S. West Coast with Cargolux freighters, will continue for the near term.
Continental has chosen Certified Vacations to market and operate its new Continental Airlines Vacations program. Certified Vacations will oversee the program, which includes packages in Mexico, Europe, Ski USA, the Caribbean and Latin America.
Royal Jordanian posted a 12.7% jump in June traffic and an 8.6% rise in cargo volume. Traffic grew 10.8% for the first six months of 1997. The airline carried 103,227 passengers in June, up 10.1%.
FedEx, replying to requests by Northwest and United that DOT act concurrently on all pending U.S.-Vietnam applications, urged the department to consider all-cargo service between U.S. points and Ho Chi Minh City separately from scheduled passenger and combination service. The different service categories "are addressed to very different markets," FedEx said, "and it is highly probable that they will be viewed as raising different issues by Vietnam." Most pending applications are for cargo authority. FedEx also asked DOT to support U.S.
Carlyle Group, this week announced the acquisition of UNC Aviation Services and UNC/Lear Siegler subsidiaries from UNC Inc. The combined operations will be renamed Lear Siegler Services, Annapolis, Md.
British Airways has selected EDS and AT Kearney to create a global accounting center in the U.K. that it expects to reduce costs by 30% per transaction. The $56 million contract covers business process re- engineering and the development and maintenance of global accounting systems. BA will use document imaging, electronic data interface and self- billing to reduce its use of paper.
DOT approved two-year exemption authority renewal requests by KLM to permit Northwest to continue code sharing on KLM flights beyond Amsterdam to Almaty, Kazakhstan, Bristol and Southampton, England, and Cardiff, Wales. KLM noted that it no longer operates flights between Amsterdam and Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Birmingham, England.
Lufthansa has ordered two more A340-300s, to be delivered in 1998 and 1999. The order brings to 20 the number of A340s ordered by Lufthansa, the largest customer for the type. The aircraft will be powered by CFM56-5C4 engines.
Air Canada posted an 11.3% increase in August traffic on 11.6% more capacity, pushing the load factor down 0.3 percentage points to 78.9%. In the first eight months, traffic rose 10.1% on 7.5% more capacity, improving the load factor 1.7 points to 72.7%. International traffic gained 15.4% on 17.2% more capacity, and domestic traffic rose 3.1% on 1.1% more capacity.
Fairchild Dornier has named Jim Burk VP-aircraft sales; C. Lynn Plumb director of exhibitions and events, and Nita Scrivner director of publications and materials. The three executives are based in San Antonio, Texas.
El Al, expanding benefits for first- and business-class passengers traveling to Israel, will establish airport lounge check-in for premium passengers without checked baggage. The carrier recently enlarged its transatlantic business class to 62 seats on 747-400s and 61 seats on 747- 200s. It offers first-class travelers complimentary transportation between Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport and major cities in Israel.
American has selected Quantum Leap Communications to direct the redesign of its World Wide Web site. American receives more than 3 million page views per week from customers looking up flight, pricing and AAdvantage information. The redesign will facilitate information access and increase browser capabilities.
International Lease Finance Corp. has leased two 737-800s to Sabre Airways Ltd., based in Crawley, England. The two airplanes, both on seven-year leases, are scheduled for delivery in May and November 1998 and will be operated from the U.K. to the Mediterranean. The aircraft will have CFM56- 7 engines.
