Fine Air said it reached a consent agreement with FAA that will enable it to resume operations within about three weeks. The carrier suspended operations Sept. 4 following an FAA inspection and after one of its DC-8 cargo aircraft experienced a fatal crash on takeoff Aug. 7 at Miami Airport.
Air London International Plc, the U.K.-based corporate air charter broker, has opened a subsidiary office, Air Partner, in Florida. It also has subsidiary offices in France and Germany. Air Partner, a wholly owned subsidiary of Air London, has appointed Greg McClasky, formerly senior director at Renaissance Cruises, president of the U.S. company. Air London Chairman Tony Mack said, "We have been looking at entering the U.S.
The French government is considering recruiting Marc Rochet, head of British Airways subsidiaries, as the next chairman of Air France, according to French business daily Les Echos (DAILY, Sept. 12). Rochet declined comment. Rochet's selection would break with the French tradition of appointing high-ranking state officials or managers closely linked to political parties to head the carrier.
Federal Express reported net income for the Aug. 31 quarter more than doubled to $143.3 million while revenues were up 22% to $3.3 billion. Operating income rose to $264.2 million form $129.9 million.
Deutsche BA, the German subsidiary of British Airways, will terminate its twice-daily services between Berlin Tegel Airport and London Gatwick on Oct. 7. The route, launched in January 1996, underperformed, explained Deutsche BA. The airline indicated that the extra capacity will be used on the German domestic market and to improve services to Munich Franz Josef Strauss Airport.
Airport and civic officials from five key cities wrote to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright yesterday to express their support for a bilateral with Japan that falls short of open skies. The leaders forwarded to Albright a "platform" describing what a liberalized agreement should contain. Atlanta Mayor William Campbell; Dallas/Fort Worth Executive Director Jeffrey Fegan; Port of Portland, Ore., Aviation Director John Brockley; St.
Two American foes attacked the carrier on separate fronts, with Delta calling for an oral evidentiary hearing on the proposed American-TACA code share and United seeking an outright denial, plus documentation on how it may be related to the recently proposed American-LanChile agreement.
AAR Aircraft and Engine Group, Wood Dale, Ill., signed an agreement to buy the British Airways' 14 Boeing 747-136s as they are retired from service, AAR said yesterday. Deliveries will take place between 1998-2000. Under the pact, AAR also will buy spare engines associated with the aircraft and will enter into a consignment agreement to sell all the airlines' airframe spares inventory used to support the fleet. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
German and French transport ministers, meeting last week in Bonn, said their respective countries are against the liberalization of slot trading at European airports. German Transport Minister Matthias Wissmann and French counterpart Jean-Claude Gayssot agreed that current European Union slot allocation rules should be maintained, according to a statement issued by the German transport ministry. France and Germany are "in favor of the maintenance of coordinating the allocation of takeoff and landing slots at crowded airports," the statement said.
DOT has granted Baltia's request to delay until Feb. 7, 1998, startup of scheduled combination service between New York and St. Petersburg, Russia. The order also grants Baltia's request for confidential treatment of certain documents. The department granted the extension "in view of the progress the company had made toward becoming operational."
Southwest has appointed Gatwick-based Aviareps Ltd. its general sales agent in the U.K. The company will sell and distribute Freedom USA Passes in the U.K. and progressively through selected countries in Europe and the Far East. The passes, developed for visitors to the U.S. who want to plan and pay for their intra-U.S. flights before leaving home, fall under three types. Eastern and Central U.S. passes cost #63 (US$100.17), Western U.S., #49 ($77.91), and any journey that crosses the boundary, #83 ($131.92).
Boeing said yesterday that parts and labor shortages will force it to delay until next month its September deliveries of seven 737s, one 757 and four 747s to 10 customers. It is "too early to tell" whether only September deliveries will be affected, Boeing said. The situation could last at least six weeks, but it could go longer, it said.
Finnair and Air France plan to cooperate on the Helsinki-Paris route on a code-share basis beginning Oct. 26. The service is offered three times daily. The cooperation also calls for Finnair to use Terminal 2 at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport, improving connections for the carrier's passengers. Finnair has marketing agreements with 16 other airlines.
Some 56% of 951 people questioned by French polling agency Ipsos are in favor of the privatizing Air France, according to a study published last week by French weekly magazine Le Point. A total of 22% opposed privatization and 22% had no opinion. The poll was conducted Sept. 5-6, simultaneously with the resignation of Air France Chairman Christian Blanc. He stepped down after the new French government confirmed its opposition to privatization.
U.S.-Romania talks open as scheduled today in Washington, requested by Romania and focusing on code sharing and liberalization. Talks with Japan resume Sept. 22-25 in Tokyo. Other dates include open skies talks with France Oct. 15-17 in Paris, Chile Oct. 27-28 in Washington, Italy on unspecified dates this fall in Washington and now Peru in Lima, also this fall. Liberalization talks with Russia are set for Nov. 12-14 in Moscow and with Brazil in Washington this fall.
Increasing numbers of open skies agreements among partners throughout Asia are a likely course of growth, Mark Gerchick, DOT deputy assistant secretary, told the Asia Open Skies Conference in Singapore yesterday. "Over the last several months, we understand that there have been discussions between or among several of our U.S. open-skies partners here regarding the potential negotiation of their own open-skies bilateral agreements," he said.
Northwest is taking steps to discourage travel agents from writing back-to-back tickets. The practice enables passengers to circumvent rules for low-fare tickets that require a Saturday night stay. Northwest already has told a small number of agents they will be invoiced for writing back- to-back tickets, which cost the airline hundreds of thousands of dollars. A traveler buys two low-fare, roundtrip tickets for different dates, then uses them in sequence to give the appearance of having complied with the weekend stay requirement.
Federal Express told DOT it will pursue Colombia authority being applied for by Atlas Air if its own, separate application to buy authority from Florida West International Airways is not approved. The Atlas application asks DOT to transfer authority from Millon Air, which held the rights before being shut down after a 707 crash in Ecuador. Millon continues to work for recertification by DOT. FedEx received an exemption for U.S.-Colombia cargo service in 1996, but Colombia blocked approval of additional U.S. carriers on the route.
DOT is asking for comment on a petition for rulemaking that would establish a "Truth in Airfares" regulation requiring commercial passenger airlines to disclose directly to consumers the most recently available average fare and lowest fare for the route and class of service quoted to an inquiring party. The rulemaking, called for by the Consumers Union, appears in today's Federal Register.
Several Southern Asian nations met in Dhaka, Bangladesh, last month to explore new air links among Bangladesh, India, Bhutan, Pakistan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. The seven-country South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation has little direct air service between members, even though combined SAARC accounts for 1.2 billion people and $300 billion in gross domestic product.
DOT blames high costs at Denver International for the 52% jump in subsidy required for Mesa's western Kansas essential air service compared with three years ago. It will cost $2.5 million a year to operate EAS from five points, up from $1.2 million paid in 1994 for Denver Stapleton service from seven.
National Civil Aviation Review Commission, in its preliminary report submitted to DOT Secretary Rodney Slater last week, repeated many of the themes raised by past commissions but said that while the problems facing the aviation community are "not new, there is now a realization and a consensus as to their seriousness and implications." It warned that "traffic data and trends indicate that adding just a few minutes of delay to each airline flight in the United States will bring the aviation system to gridlock with dramatic negative impacts on the economy." The commiss
