Western Pacific and Frontier Airlines, which said Monday they will terminate their planned merger (DAILY, Sept. 30), will pursue individual plans to increase their presence in the United-dominated Denver market, executives of both carriers said yesterday. "We have an opportunity much like AirTran [Airlines] in Atlanta," said Westpac Chief Executive Bob Peiser, referring to the renamed ValuJet. Peiser said he would not discount another merger attempt in the future, given the "dynamic" nature of the industry, but he has no immediate plans for one.
Varig has contracted with IBM and SITA for information technology services worth US$400 million, the Brazilian airline said yesterday. Under the agreements, the first signed by a Brazilian airline and the largest of the type in Latin America, IBM will provide facilities outsourcing and SITA managed voice and data network services. The combination will enable the Star Alliance partner "to deploy state-of-the-art technology to help reduce total IT costs, improve cash flow and gain efficiency," said President Fernando Pinto.
IATA will hold its annual general meeting Nov. 2-5 in Amman, Jordan. With an air accident predicted to occur every week early in the next century, based on current growth and accident rates, safety will be one of the main agenda items, said IATA Director General Pierre Jeanniot. He said IATA's goal is to reduce the rate of hull losses 50% by 2005.
Cargolux and Lufthansa seek an amendment to their blocked-space/code-share agreement for all-cargo service so it can add a new route, San Francisco- Shannon-Luxembourg. The current accord permits operation of all-cargo service between Luxembourg and Los Angeles/San Francisco by Cargolux, and Frankfurt-Los Angeles/San Francisco via Luxembourg by Lufthansa. Under the amendment, Cargolux will operate Luxembourg-Los Angeles/San Francisco via Shannon with a 747-400 nine times a week.
Undersecretary of State Stuart Eizenstat has recused himself from decisions related directly to the American-British Airways alliance but does not rule out involvement "on the broader issue of reaching an open skies agreement with the United Kingdom." Recusal is intended to avoid any appearance of bias arising from "totally unjustified" and "erroneous" press reports on his recent conversation in Brussels with European Union Competition Commissioner Karel Van Miert, Eizenstat told DOT.
US Airways gate, reservations and ticketing employees yesterday elected Communications Workers of America to represent their interests. Elections last year were thrown out by the National Mediation Board after CWA accused the carrier of using an employee association to influence votes. In yesterday's re-election, 4,773 of 8,772 eligible employees voted for the union; 77 voted for other unions, and 156 votes were invalidated.
Winair has asked DOT for an operating certificate to conduct interstate and foreign combination charter service. It requested expedited action so it can begin operations Dec. 10, "during peak holiday season and [for] college bowl games." It also plans service to Mexican and Canadian transborder markets. The Utah-based startup will use two leased 737-200s initially. (Docket OST-97-2939)
German diversified group Harpen and U.S. partner Airport Group International are about to purchase the 50% share of Dusseldorf Airport currently held by the government of North Rhine Westphalia. Final talks between the German-American consortium, the government of North Rhine Westphalia and the city of Dusseldorf, which holds the remaining 50% of airport company Flughafen Dusseldorf, are scheduled to be completed by Oct. 31.
European Commission, under increasing pressure from the European travel sector to keep duty-free sales beyond the European Union's 1999 deadline for abolishing them, said it will not yield on the issue (DAILY, Sept. 29). "The Commission has no intention of proposing any extension of duty-free sales," Mario Monti, commissioner for the single market, said last week.
GE Aircraft Engines is working on material and design modifications of a variety of GE90 rotating components to restore an original 10,000-cycle life limit, following moves over the summer to reduce life limits based on better understanding of metallurgical data. FAA proposed an airworthiness directive (AD) last week to codify steps GE outlined for customers in a June 27 Alert Service Bulletin, saying the cost to pull affected parts, if necessary, is relatively modest because there are so few GE90s in active service, and none on U.S.-registered aircraft.
Frontier Airlines and Western Pacific Airlines said yesterday they have agreed to terminate their merger agreement and will end their code-share accord, effective Nov. 16.Westpac President and Chief Executive Officer Robert Peiser, whose carrier was to acquire Frontier, said each company was involved in "numerous activities designed to improve our respective airlines. We found the amount of time involved in consummating the merger was taking a toll on employee morale, financial performance and operations of both airlines.
U.S. National Carriers Financial Results Second Quarter 1997 Second Quarter 1997 Operating Operating Operating Revenues Expenses Profit/Loss (000) (000) (000) American Trans Air $ 184,005 $ 181,754 $ 2,252 Carnival 61,311 102,851 (41,539)
Bombardier Business Aircraft sold three more jets - one Learjet 31A/ER and two Challenger 604s - to Asian customers. The Learjet sale, to Chunichi Press of Nagoya, is Bombardier's first private-sector sale in Japan. Singapore-based Global Aviation Group Inc. purchased two Challenger 604s for delivery next summer. Bombardier recently delivered the first of five Canadair Corporate JetLiners to China.
Atlas Air countered filings by Millon Air, Colombia-based TAMPA, FedEx and Polar Air Cargo, urging DOT to approve Atlas's bid for an exemption to operate U.S.-Colombia all-cargo service. Millon served Colombia before and wants to return. Although the carrier continues to seek recertification to operate from DOT, Atlas said the timing of its relaunch is "anybody's guess.
Northwest and KLM, renewing their alliance vows for 10 years, pledged yesterday in New York City to grow the team to represent all regions of the world, starting with the integration of several European airlines. Declaring his carrier and KLM "the foundation of that network," Northwest President and Chief Executive John Dasburg said the partners have built a solid alliance but only went halfway.
Hughes Aircraft Co., FAA's contractor for the Wide Area Augmentation System, yesterday reported "early success" in fielding a prototype signal- in-space (SIS) using the National Satellite Test Bed. Dave Peterson, WAAS program manager, said the "truly remarkable accomplishment here is the accelerated schedule which the Hughes-led team met to achieve this prototype demonstration." The announcement came two days before a congressional subcommittee hearing on allegations of WAAS cost overruns and delays.
Continental Express told DOT it will terminate all service at New Haven, Conn., effective Dec. 18. The regional operates four roundtrips to Newark on weekdays, two on Saturdays and three on Sundays. Because of its proximity to Hartford and New York LaGuardia, New Haven is not eligible for Essential Air Service subsidy. Continental Express will continue to operate eight weekday and seven Saturday and Sunday roundtrips between Hartford and Newark. (Docket OST-97-2915)
U.S. carriers opposing, in varying degrees, recent filings by Korean Air and Asiana cite the lack of an open skies agreement with Korea. The applications include an American-Asiana code-share request and filings by Asiana and Korean for expansion of extrabilateral authority. Korean Air wants to serve Denver via San Francisco, the latter additional U.S. gateway for the carrier. Asiana and Korean want more flexibility to provide intermodal cargo services by adding new U.S. points to their extrabilateral authority.
Planet Airways applied to DOT for an operating certificate for charter interstate combination and foreign passenger service. Founded as a Florida corporation in September 1995, Planet intends to operate charters to vacation and gambling markets in the U.S. and foreign destinations, initiating service with one leased 727. The startup expects to operate 64 total block hours per month, using spare aircraft time to fly ad hoc charters between the U.S. and points in the Caribbean and to Las Vegas and Gulfport. (Docket OST-97-2940)
Airbus Industrie said yesterday that today's deadline with US Airways to finalize the purchase of 400 aircraft is "a hard contractual deadline," but the European consortium left open the possibility it might extend its terms. Airbus would not speculate on what will happen if current contract negotiations between US Airways and its pilots end successfully, saying "we will see what happens at that point," and the airline declined comment on whether it will try to renegotiate with Airbus if negotiations continue and appear to be near resolution.
Approximately 5,300 new business jets worth about $60 billion will be sold between 1998-2008, according to AlliedSignal's annual Business Aviation Market Outlook. New and derivative models will drive a strong near-term market, and deliveries will remain high, after peaking in 1999, and reach another record in 2007 and 2008. Deliveries of turbofan aircraft in the first half of 1997 increased 43% form last year's levels, with expected deliveries of about 400 new business jets forecast for 1997 and 480 in 1998.
City of Chicago has filed in support of Reno Air's bid for an extraordinary-circumstances exemption at O'Hare. The carrier already operates there and wants two more slots to add another Reno-O'Hare roundtrip. Reno said the market has more than doubled since it began service there three years ago, and Chicago supports the carrier's bid to serve this "burgeoning demand." Chicago told DOT it remains concerned about the high transaction costs and "uncertain standards" associated with the slot-exemption applications, and said it has supported virtually all new entrants.
Pan Am shareholders voted overwhelmingly to approve the company's merger with Carnival Air Lines Friday. The shareholders, of whom 97% voted in favor of the move, did not propose to oust Chief Executive Martin Shugrue at the meeting (DAILY, Sept. 26).
Civil Aviation Medical Association named John Hastings president and presented the Forrest and Dominique Bird Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Art and Science of Aviation Medicine for 1997 to Peter Siegel, San Antonio, Texas. National Association of State Aviation Officials Center for Aviation Research and Education re-elected Raymond Rought, director of the Minnesota Aeronautics Office, to the board and elected him chairman for 1998; Kim Stevens, director of the Nebraska Department of Aeronautics, was elected treasurer.
