Delta's frequent flyer participants flew 1.7 million free roundtrips in fiscal 1997, the same as in 1996.But with Delta's traffic growth, the free travel as a percentage of total revenue passenger miles dropped to 6% from 8%. In fiscal 1995, Delta flew two million free trips.
Buoyed by recent unexpected progress, U.S. and Romanian negotiators will meet Dec. 4-5 in Bucharest to discuss an open-skies agreement. Other open- skies talks include Peru, Nov. 5-7 in Lima; Italy, Nov. 4-5 in Washington, and Chile, in Washington, perhaps later this month. Talks with France, billed as open skies by the U.S. even though the parties seem to be far apart, are planned Oct. 15-17 in Paris. Talks on more modest expansion are on tap with Brazil, Nov. 17-19 in Washington, and Russia, Nov. 12-14 in Moscow.
Although FAA says it is not alarmed by the prospect of a Russian company selling a Global Positioning System jammer (DAILY, Sept. 22), the developer has acknowledged receiving expressions of interest from Libya and Iraq.A poster distributed by the company features a map of a Persian Gulf nation depicting how many jammers would be needed to cover an international boundary.
Lufthansa asked DOT for exemption authority, explicitly provided for in the U.S.-Germany open-skies agreement, for its proposed code-share pacts with SAS and Atlantic Coast Airlines. Service with both carriers is scheduled to begin Oct. 26. Lufthansa requested fifth-freedom rights for scheduled and charter combination service. SAS and Lufthansa will submit a joint application for U.S.-Scandinavia/Germany code-share operations, and ACA will apply for authority to use Lufthansa's code on "certain ACA flights operating between Lufthansa gateways and U.S.
American's September traffic rose 6.3% on 3% more capacity, which pushed the load factor up 2 percentage points to 67%. Domestic traffic grew 6.1% on 2.7% more capacity, resulting in a 64.2% load factor, up 2.1 points. Atlantic and Pacific divisions continued to have surging load factors. Atlantic traffic improved 1.7% on 6.7% less capacity and the load factor soared 7.1 points to 86%. Pacific traffic rose 6.5% on 0.4% more capacity, and the load factor grew 5.3 points to 92.3%.
Future development of the MD-80/MD-90 line of airplanes seems very unlikely, a Boeing executive said last week at the Cargo Facts '97 conference in Seattle. But the MD-11 has a future as a cargo aircraft, and the MD-95 looks strong in the smaller jet market. The MD-80 and MD-90 have not competed well in the 140- to 150-seat market due to a narrow range of airplane size and range capabilities, said Bruce Dennis, VP-marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplane Group. "The MD-80 and MD-90 don't have a sufficient market base from which to develop a broad family," he said.
Cargolux Airlines ordered five 747-400 freighters for delivery between October 1998 and October 2001 and took options on two more. The Luxembourg-based company will become an all-747-400 operator by mid-1999. Two of the new aircraft will replace 747-200s. Next month, Cargolux will take delivery of a previously unannounced 747-400 freighter, Boeing said.
Approved one roundtrip passenger charter flight between the U.S. and Brazil by Miami Air International Oct. 4...Approved eight roundtrip cargo charter flights between the U.S. and Brazil by Atlas Air Oct. 3-23...Approved in part an Export Air Del Peru charter using a Transportes Aereos Ejecutivos DC-10-30F for twice-weekly cargo round-trips on a Lima-Miami-Lima routing Sept. 26-Oct.
Success of "Eurofix," the European initiative to use Loran C to carry differential GPS signals, is expected to attract attention at this week's International Loran Association Convention in Ottawa. The U.S. was encouraged by this technology early on but gave up on it after the political decision to terminate Loran C at the end of 2000 despite protests from user groups.
-- In Federal Register dated Sept. 26...Issued special conditions on Boeing 737-600/700/800 aircraft. -- In FR dated Sept. 29...Issued an airworthiness directive on certain de Havilland Dash 8-100/200/300 aircraft requiring modification of the attitude and heading reference systems...Issued an AD on General Electric CT58 engines requiring removal from service of certain compressor rear shafts.
U.S. Federal District Court in Phoenix has dismissed a suit brought by the Teamsters union against America West. The Teamsters sued the airline in 1995 for outsourcing 500 machinist jobs. America West claimed outsourcing its heavy maintenance saved $35 million over five years by cutting mechanics jobs. The suit charged employees were fired to keep them from joining the union.
Arinc said last week that the next-generation very high frequency (VHF) digital ground-to-air radio service has moved a "significant step forward" with purchase of VHF digital radios from Park Air Electronics, a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman. Arinc chose the Park Air equipment for its ground-to- air data link network, giving Arinc software-programmable radios that can be remotely configured to provide data communications in analog minimum shift key form or in high-speed Mode 2, differential, eight-phase shift key VHF data link standard.
Independent operations to Mexico by U.S. carriers will have an advantage over code-share arrangements by U.S.-Mexican and U.S.-U.S. carrier alliances under a new order made final by DOT. Code-share authority "may be withdrawn" in favor of proposed U.S.
FAA Administrator Jane Garvey will address the Regional Airline Association's annual fall membership meeting Nov. 18 in Washington, D.C. For additional information, contact RAA's Karen Purdy at 202-857-1170, e- mail [email protected] or web site http://www.raa.org.
Canadian Airlines will begin two daily Vancouver-San Diego flights Dec. 17 as one of several winter-schedule moves. Canadian will expand its Eastern and Western Shuttles beginning Oct. 26. In the West, it will increase Calgary-Edmonton service to 47 daily flights, Vancouver-Calgary to 34 and Vancouver-Edmonton to 16. In the East, Toronto-Ottawa will increase to 38 daily frequencies and the 36 Toronto-Montreal flights will be rescheduled to on-the-hour departures in both directions.
United Airline's flight attendants, represented by the Association of Flight Attendants, voted 51% to 46% in favor of accepting management's latest contract offer, and union leaders said the narrow victory, which came late Thursday, is a clear message to United that all is not right with the world. Three percent of votes were invalid, and 17,271 of United's 19,000 flight attendants cast ballots. United spokesman Tony Molinaro said the airline plans to meet with AFA. "A 46% 'no' vote is an issue that does warrant some discussion and action," he said.
KLM and Northwest have experienced a steady rise in alliance revenue per available seat mile. On hub-to-hub alliance flights, RASM has risen to 7.2 cents in March from 6.2 cents in 1994. Working on an expanded alliance (DAILY, Sept. 30), the carriers are exploring joint aircraft purchasing.
