Southwest Airlines will place Worldview Systems Corp. travel and entertainment information for more than 20,000 worldwide destinations on Southwest's web site (www.iflyswa.com). Online destination information publisher Worldview signed a distribution agreement that gives Southwest a private-label version of the company's electronic travel guide. Southwest expects its web site to evolve into a "one-stop destination and information resource," said Kevin Krone, director of marketing automation.
ICTS International said it has signed an exclusive contract with Northwest to install and operate its automated profiling system in the carrier's European stations. The contract is the second the Netherlands- based company has signed with a major U.S. airline. In March, it signed a five-year pact covering installation and operation of its system throughout Europe for Continental. ITCS said it expects to complete modification and installation of the system in Northwest's computer network this year and start operating it next year.
Delta, which applied to operate third-country code-share U.S.-Egypt service with Swissair (DAILY, Aug. 19), criticized Continental's "perfunctory and incomplete application" to serve the market with Air France. Saying Continental "for the third time violated the Department's process and burdened the docket" by submitting a third-country code-share application that is ineligible for consideration (DAILY, Feb. 28), Delta urged DOT to dismiss Continental's request since it has no code share with Air France.
US Airways announced a meetings and conventions fare program, offering an additional 5% discount for travelers who purchase tickets at least 60 days prior to departure. Meeting and convention rates, available when at least 10 passengers travel to the same destination during a designated period, normally are 5% off most published fares or 10% off unrestricted seven-day advance-purchase coach fares. Delta offers a comparable discount with similar terms through its Delta Meeting Network. Delta also provides zone fares guaranteed through Dec.
Most new airlines are started by enthusiastic aviation believers, but there are exceptions. Teng Bunma, one of the richest men in Cambodia, is starting his own airline, just a month after he shot out the tires of a commercial aircraft after his luggage was lost.
DOT and the Clinton administration dodged a political bullet last week when the Teamsters ended their strike against UPS. Seeking replacement lift, the package carrier had filed an application to use an Air Foyle/Antonov Design Bureau An-124-100 for flights between its Louisville hub and Cologne, Germany (DAILY, Aug. 18). The charterer would have been United Parcel Service Worldwide Forwarding, like UPS Co. a wholly owned subsidiary of United Parcel Service of America.
Air Canada asked DOT for authority to enter into a wet-lease arrangement with Air New Zealand under which Air Canada would provide a 767-300 for twice-weekly Vancouver-Honolulu roundtrips in conjunction with Air New Zealand's Honolulu-Auckland service. The carrier said reciprocity warrants approval - Canada has approved similar U.S. wet-lease requests. The recently concluded U.S.-New Zealand open-skies accord authorizes operation of wet-lease services.
Russia's Federal Aviation Service and Boeing will appoint a group of air traffic control specialists to establish technical requirements and justify the economics and safety of new transpolar routes, in particular from the U.S. to Southeast Asia.
Northwest's "Everyday Deals" simplified fare plan, announced Wednesday, attempts to restructure a small part of the overall pricing structure and is not expected to effect fundamental change in consumer buying, although Wall Street believes basic change is needed. The airline's introduction of year-round pricing of a portion of leisure fares, lowering advance-purchase tickets by up to 40%, aims to level the rollercoaster-like fare sale environment.
Air Transport Association Cargo Traffic June 1997 Revenue Ton-Miles (000) June June % 1997 1996 Change Domestic Freight 743,653 715,409 3.9 Mail 141,334 139,387 1.4 Total 884,987 854,796 3.5 International
Ben Bradley and Jack Eaton, who became the fifth owners of Austin- based Conquest Airlines in five years when they acquired the carrier in late July, said multiple ownership "had the airline going in a multitude of directions" and created the financial "debacle" that led them to shut the airline down as soon as they realized what they had. Now they intend to move the carrier to Oklahoma City and start fresh (DAILY, Aug. 15).
SAS officials were so skeptical about the potential success of Saab 2000 operations by its Swedish commuter affiliate that the schedules were not even put into the computer reservations system until the new service had been operating a week. The first high-speed 50-seater began scheduled operations Feb. 3 and SAS Commuter Sweden now operates four with two more on order. The carrier replaced MD-80s on routes too thin to support the larger jets, often doubling the frequencies in those markets. There are no longer doubts about the turboprop replacements...
Illustration: Graph: 14 Regional Airlines Regional airlines increased revenue passenger miles in July at a faster rate - by a margin of 6.4 percentage points - than capacity. Traffic, measured in RPMs, rose an average of nearly 9%, according to a DAILY survey of the nation's 14 largest regionals. Capacity, measured in available seat miles, was up 2.6%. The two airlines with the greatest traffic growth also are those currently taking on regional jets.
United Airlines wants DOT to extend a condition planned to govern U.S.- Mexico code shares to agreements solely between U.S. carriers operating in that market. The DOT action as proposed affects only code-shares between U.S. and Mexican carriers. DOT plans to award certain U.S.-Mexico code shares, but with the understanding that in specific cases the awards may be withdrawn if additional carrier designations do not become available and the department decides proposed direct service is superior to a given code share.
Abacus is making available information about the Abacus International Subscriber Conference via its web site, http://www.abacus.com.sg. The conference will be held Sept. 4-5 at the Bali International Convention Center in Nusa Dua, Bali.
Modiluft has reached an out-of-court settlement with former partner Lufthansa over the return of three leased 737-200s, Modiluft officials said yesterday. The settlement will pave the way for Modiluft's restarting operations after being grounded for more than a year following the breakup between the two partners in May 1996, Modiluft officials said. Terms of the agreement, approved this week by India's Supreme Court in New Delhi, entail the immediate return of the three aircraft to Lufthansa, together with monetary compensation of 14.9 million rupees (US$425,700).
British Aerospace Asset Management has delivered a second 19-seat Jetstream 31 to Northwest Air, a scheduled regional based in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories. The aircraft will be used to operate four weekly roundtrips between Fort Smith and Edmonton, Alberta. The first Jetstream operates twice daily between Fort Smith and Yellowknife, NWT. The airline's fleet also includes six twin-engine Cessna and Beech 99 aircraft.
Delta and TAP Air Portugal are seeking authority to expand their code-share pact. The current agreement covers New York Kennedy-Lisbon and Newark- Lisbon on TAP's aircraft and service from JFK and Boston to Lisbon on Delta's. The airlines are seeking authority on Delta's flights from JFK to Miami, Washington, Los Angeles and San Francisco, beginning Sept. 3.
Lufthansa Consulting and Coopers&Lybrand will assist the task force charged with the privatization of Montevideo Carrasco Airport. Uruguayan authorities aim to complete the handover to a private operator at the start of 1999.
WebFlyer, an Internet resource for frequent flyers, today will launch ClickMiles, a program that will give away 95,000 frequent flyer miles during the last 30 days of summer, until Sept. 21. Users download software at http://www.webflyer.com/clickmiles/signup.htm that will track the websites they visit. During the promotion, participants will be eligible to win daily and grand prizes of free miles on seven airlines.
US Airways Express affiliate CCAIR reduced capacity 10.6% in July as traffic declined 0.5%, resulting in a 54.6% load factor, up 11.2 percentage points from the same 1996 month. Passenger enplanements fell 0.7% to 71,163. For the year to date, available seat miles declined 6.5% versus a drop of 4% in revenue passenger miles, boosting the load factor 2.7 points to 49.1%. Passenger enplanements were down 2.7% to 453,814. CCAIR is based in Charlotte, N.C. July 1997 July 1996 7 Mths 1997 7 Mths 1996
Sabreliner Corp. called "totally misguided" a decision by Moody's Investors Service to downgrade its bond rating after the National Transportation Safety Board named its SabreTech subsidiary, along with ValuJet and FAA, as a probable cause of the crash of ValuJet Flight 592 in May 1996. Rodney Olson, chief financial officer, said Moody's position is "diametrically opposed to the market view.
Ukraine-based Kharkov State Aviation Manufacturing Co. is promoting its Antonov An-74TK-200 to Taiwan's domestic airlines. The STOL aircraft, a higher gross weight version of the An-74 Coaler twinjet, made its western debut at the 1997 Paris Air Show. Feng Chi-ming, who heads the company's Taipei office, said the An-74, which can carry up to 52 passengers plus a large cargo load and requires only 600 meters for takeoffs and 450 meters for landings, is ideal for the short runways at most of Taiwan's smaller domestic airports.
