United's Habitat for Humanity Onboard Coin Collection, which gathers loose change on transatlantic flights, has raised more than $35,000 in three months. Flight attendants and employees from cargo, airport services, and accounting collect the funds, which finance building homes for people in need.
India's civil aviation ministry directed the nation's leading state-owned carriers, Air-India and Indian Airlines, to reduce personnel 10% over three years. Ministry officials said the move is part of the government's attempt to make several "flabby" state-owned companies "leaner" while carrying out Pay Commission recommendations to raise salaries of federal government employees across the board. National carrier Air-India currently employs about 18,400 people and domestic carrier Indian Airlines has nearly 22,000.
Will Ris, American Airlines' VP-government affairs, discusses aviation excise taxes, passenger facility charges, the proposed American-British Airways alliance and the U.S.-Japan negotiations on Aviation News Today, to air Sunday on Washington's NewsChannel 8 at 12:30 a.m. and at 1:30 p.m.
Pan Am has reduced fares for travel between Sept. 3 and Dec. 17 when tickets are purchased by Sept. 3. The refundable fares apply across Pan Am's network, including Caribbean markets. Prices are lower for off-peak travel, Mondays through Thursdays and Saturday afternoons; peak periods are Fridays and Sundays and Saturday mornings.
Allison Engine Co. named Terry Graham as chief operating officer. Graham formerly was executive VP of business operations for Allison, a subsidiary of Rolls-Royce. He reports to Mike Hudson, president.
Airbus Industrie said yesterday it has signed an agreement with Russia's economics ministry for further cooperation in civil aviation, particularly in certification, R&D and production. Airbus Chief Operating Officer Volker von Tein said the consortium will provide technical assistance to Russia in obtaining European Joint Aviation Authorities type certification of the Tupolev 204 aircraft and its derivatives, and will help Russia reach harmonization with Western European quality assurance standards.
Mesa Airlines is sending out temporary furloughs to 81 ground school graduates to accommodate a hitch in simulator training on the Beech 1900, the entry point for its new co-pilots. The graduates had been retained on Mesa's payroll but are not eligible to fly until they receive final simulator training. The bottleneck is a shortage of certified check airmen, a Mesa spokeswoman told The DAILY. That shortfall is being addressed and Mesa expects to rescind the last furloughs within six weeks at most.
SAirGroup lifted its operating profit by 149% to 251 million Swiss francs (US$53.9 million) in the first half of 1997 despite continuing losses by Sabena, the holding company that controls Swissair, Sabena and Crossair, said yesterday in Zurich. The group reported a net profit of SF 109 million ($23.4 million), up from a loss of SF3 million ($644,000) in 1996, and posted a first half net profit for the first time since 1989.
UPS is not the only delivery company that has to restore services to longtime customers following the Teamsters' strike. FedEx says it is beginning to restore services it suspended, including money-back guarantees, and to remove restrictions on the number of packages its customers can ship. FedEx also is restoring normal Saturday service, which it suspended, and opening new customer accounts.
The three carriers bidding for seven new weekly frequencies for U.S.-Chile service made their case this week, with Continental emphasizing new hub service from Newark/New York, Delta saying its Cincinnati/Atlanta proposal provided a broader focus, and United claiming service from Miami is the best opportunity because that market carries the largest amount of Chilean traffic by far. Continental would fly daily nonstops from Newark International to Santiago using DC-10-30s.
Mountain Air Express (MAX), the startup regional unit of Western Pacific Airlines, reported a 50.5% load factor for July, its first full month of hub service at Denver, up from 29.3% in June at Colorado Springs, its former base. The load factor July 1-13 was 46.6%, compared with 70.5% during the first 13 days of August. The carrier placed its fifth Fairchild Dornier 328 high-speed turboprop in operation Aug. 1. July capacity was 46% higher than June, and traffic jumped 152%.
Decision by United to reimburse Express carrier Atlantic Coast for the lease of its Canadair Regional jets and associated crew costs through the end of the year indicates United and its ALPA unit are near agreement on the use of jets by United Express affiliates. ACA will have four CRJs by yearend and plans to begin scheduled operations as "Atlantic Coast Jet" Dec. 8 if the United approval is not forthcoming - a setback from the original September startup. With approval, startup as United Express (Jet) will come as soon as ACA "can pull it together"...
Air Canada Regional Air Ontario plans to start the first nonstop service between Toronto and Providence, R.I., Oct. 5, operating three flights each business day with de Havilland Dash 8s. The schedule enables travelers to make connections to cities on Air Canada's network, including Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver and Tel Aviv. An introductory fare of US$149 is available until Oct. 27, for travel until Jan. 17, 1998. Air Ontario also is offering triple bonus miles under the frequent flyer programs of United, Continental and Air Canada, ending Jan. 17.
United is adopting measures to deal with employees who do not follow the rules when they travel on the airline or whose companions abuse company policy. The carrier, which has established a Pass Travel Abuse Team, told employees it is developing guidelines that outline levels of disciplinary action. There has been an increase in employee problems, United said, including serious violations such as fraudulent use of companion travel privileges and non-payment of service charges.
Great Lakes Aviation, forced into a voluntary shutdown by FAA in May, continued its operational recovery in July. Following cessation of its Midway Connection operations at Raleigh/Durham, the carrier is focusing on its core United Express business at Chicago and, to a lessor extent, at Denver. Available seat miles were down 55.6% and passenger revenue miles 42.7%, lifting the load factor 12.8 percentage points to 57.1%. Year-to- date results for the Spencer, Iowa-based carrier were less damaging - traffic and capacity were down 28% and the load factor was 44.3%.
The Tupolev 204-120 jetliner powered by Rolls-Royce engines has won its first order, from Russian carrier KrasAir, Sirocco Aerospace International said this week in London. Sirocco, created in 1995 by Egyptian industrialist Ibrahim Kamel to launch aerospace products combining Western and Russian technology, said the 10 aircraft ordered by KrasAir will be assembled by Aviastar in Ulyanovsk and fitted with Honeywell and AlliedSignal avionics as well as RB211-535E4B engines.
Vivid Technologies said yesterday it received $1.3 million in repeat orders for its automated explosives detection systems. One order for three Vivid VDS-II systems came from Toyo Kanetsu, the baggage-handling contractor for Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur Airport. They will be used in a freestanding mode to screen high-risk baggage and luggage from passengers checking in just before departure. The second order is from BAA plc for a VDS-II system to be used at Level 3, the final and most critical baggage inspection procedure.
The prototype of the An-140 transport aircraft has nearly finished ground trials and is ready for its first flight, according to reports from the Moscow International Air Show. China's Xinhua news service reported that Antonov Aviation Design and Production Complex said the airplane, assembled in June, has been undergoing ground tests. The An-140 is planned to replace An-24s and Yak-40s on domestic flights in the Commonwealth of Independent States. The aircraft will be made at plants in Kharkov, Ukraine; Samara, Russia, and Isfahan, Iran.
Atlantic Coast Airlines has received its first indication that its regional jet operation is likely to be part of the larger United Express operation. United agreed to reimburse Washington Dulles-based ACA's expenses of leasing Canadair Regional Jets and staffing them with flight crews for the remainder of 1997, even though United's Air Line Pilots Association unit has yet to allow ACA's pilots to fly jets under the United banner. United would give no indication yesterday whether the interim agreement with ACA was a sign of progress with pilot talks.
Bombardier reported that revenues for the second quarter ended July 31 totaled C$1.96 billion, compared with C$1.92 billion in the same period last year. Net income was $87.8 million, down from $90.3 million. For the first six months, revenues totaled $3.6 billion, up from $3.5 million, while net income rose to $171.3 million from $167.1 million. Backlog totaled a record $12.5 billion as a result of a "significant increase" in new orders in the aerospace and transportation sectors.
Northwest Airlink Mesaba Airlines boasted record July enplanements, up 33.8% to 240,200, including results from the first three of 36 69-passenger Avro RJ85 quadjets on order. The larger aircraft upset the balance of traffic and capacity, however. Available seat miles jumped 43.4% from July 1996, while revenue passenger miles shot up 37.9%, depressing the load factor 2.2 percentage points to 53.8%. July 1997 July 1996 7 Mths 1997 7 Mths 1996 RPMs 56,472,000 40,960,000 312,499,000 235,917,000
National Mediation Board is scheduling conferences with UPS management and the Independent Pilots Association as it continues trying to help the parties reach agreement on a new contract, in the works since 1995. Previous mediation efforts have resulted in quick recesses, but the board has not yet released the parties from mediation.
ASA Holdings, which operates Atlantic Southeast Airlines, has declared a quarterly cash dividend of 10 cents per share, payable Sept. 15 to holders of record on Sept. 2.
Pratt&Whitney Canada said this week it has established a wholly owned Russian company, Pratt&Whitney-Rus, to design, develop and support a "full range of turboprop, turboshaft and turbofan engines for the general civil aviation industry in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States." Based in St. Petersburg and employing 80 people, including 78 Russian nationals, the company will work closely with Russian manufacturers that supply modules, parts and services for Rus engines and engines destined for P&WC markets.
