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.
Tower Air logged a 33.5% jump in traffic, a 16.1% increase in capacity, and a load factor gain of 9.7 percentage points in September, compared with September 1996. It flew 351 million revenue passenger miles with a 75% load factor, compared with 263 million RPMs and 65.3% a year earlier. Capacity rose from 403 million available seat miles to 468 million. Total block hours were up 8.8%, to 3,479 from 3,197. Year-to-date traffic was down 3.5% to 264 million RPMs, and capacity fell by the same percentage, to 342 million ASMs.
- In Federal Register dated Oct. 6...Proposed an airworthiness directive on Shorts 360 aircraft to require inspections for corrosion or wear of the top and bottom decks of the left and right stub wings...Proposed an AD on certain Pilatus PC-12 aircraft to require inspection of the aileron tie-rod jam nuts. - In FR Oct. 8...Issued an AD on Boeing 737 aircraft to prevent use of pressure washing within the wheel well...Superseded an AD on Hiller UH-12 series helicopters concerning the main rotor outboard tension-torsion bar pin. - In FR dated Oct.
Atlantic Southeast Airlines' Air Line Pilots Association unit voted overwhelmingly Friday to authorize a strike if their contract talks with management fail. A strike could begin as early as Thanksgiving if the National Mediation Board determines the negotiations have reached an impasse and releases both sides for a 30-day cooling-off period.
Pacific Island Aviation gave DOT 90-day notice that it will suspend service to Rota in the Northern Mariana Islands on Jan. 1 because of passenger facility charges there. The commuter airline, which provides scheduled service to Guam, Tinian, Rota and Saipan and code shares with Northwest, said it is not a certified carrier under the Federal Aviation Act and does not receive compensation for its Rota service.
Airbus Industrie signed a preliminary agreement to keep Miami as the home of its North American training center. Jim Duncan, VP for technical training at the center, said the company scouted other locations, but the city and county "put together a competitive package that helps us meet our needs well into the future." Miami has been the site of the center for 10 years. A new training center will be built near Miami Airport, with completion scheduled in about a year.
Mercury Air Group plans to build a fixed-base operation at Burbank Glendale Pasadena Airport designed in a 1930s Hollywood-style art deco. Mercury's FBO division, Mercury Air Centers, has won approval to begin construction of the $5 million, 16-acre flagship facility "with extraordinary amenities" at the airport, where it has operated for 18 years.
