Nav Canada reported revenue of C$232 million for its fiscal third quarter, which ended in May. The amount includes C$175 million of transition period payments from the government, derived from the air transportation tax, and user charges of C$57 million. Nav Canada said higher volumes of overflights, combined with low interest rates, generated a surplus of $10 million for the quarter and $36 million for the seven months since the acquisition of Canadian civil air navigation service from the government.
As DOT scrutinizes the American-British Airways alliance, Continental wants it to consider another factor - last week's proposed "marketing merger" between American-BA, Aerolineas Argentinas and Iberia (see Page 114 of the hard copy of this issue). The Latin American alliance would make a dominant American even stronger, Continental said, and DOT must consider the implications of permitting such dominance by a single U.S. carrier in both the transatlantic and Latin American markets.
Korea's domestic market has grown 19% per year on average during the last decade, twice the rate of international growth. At the core is the Seoul- Cheju-Pusan triangle, which accounted for 55% of Korean Airlines' domestic traffic in 1996, according to Salomon Brothers. The three routes, carrying 12.7 million passengers last year, are the same size as all of Lufthansa's domestic system.
Signature Flight Support promoted Bruce Van Allen to executive VP and chief operating officer and appointed Blake Fish and Chuck Bobbitt VPs of operations and Steve Lee VP-finance.
American is changing the name of its Fly AAway Vacations division to American Airlines Vacations, saying it wants to give its product a name customers already know and trust. American also said it is refocusing efforts to develop a "better synergy" between its tour products and its route structure to key leisure destinations in Europe, Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean, and to U.S. destinations such as Hawaii and the Rocky Mountains.
Aviation Safety Reporting System has received reports from several pilots who found themselves in trouble using hand-held Global Positioning System receivers as a sole means of navigation, not just a backup. Pilots who did not cross-check themselves with VORs wound up on the wrong heading and/or invading restricted airspace. Hand-held units now in service do not have the Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitor that is built into IFR-certified units.
AB Airlines, formerly Air Bristol, will expand service from London Gatwick to Lisbon. The regional carrier, which operates twice-daily service during the business week, will offer Saturday and Sunday flights, beginning Aug. 16.
Boeing offered European Commission negotiators a "10-year moratorium" on exclusive-supplier deals with airlines as a concession for EC acceptance of the McDonnell Douglas acquisition, according to Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.). The catch: current 20-year agreements with American, Delta and Continental would remain, and Boeing still could offer an exclusivity deal in "campaigns in which another aircraft manufacturer offers one first." In the EC talks, Boeing was not willing to allow American, Delta or Continental to become a launch customer for Airbus Industrie's A3XX.
Royal Air Maroc will add a fourth weekly 747-400 nonstop from Casablanca to New York on Nov. 2. The carrier, which operates the only nonstops between Morrocco and the U.S., will give travel agents 12%-20% commissions for tickets issued and paid for in the U.S.
Air Line Pilots Association warned its members last week of an FAA Air Traffic Order permitting aircraft to simultaneously land, take off and taxi on intersecting runways and taxiways, and it advised pilots to refuse certain landing instructions under the program. Some pilots were acting on the recommendation Friday, FAA said.
Finnair and Braathens S.A.F.E. of Norway will code share between Stockholm and Oslo, starting Aug. 18, offering six flights per day using one aircraft from Finnair and five from Braathens. Departures and arrivals will be scheduled for connections with domestic flights in Norway and Sweden.
Alaska Airlines is the only airline among several companies that will test a security standard this fall for credit-card billing on the Internet. The program, sponsored by Visa, will be administered jointly by Bank of America, BA Merchant Services Inc. and VeriFone, a subsidiary of Hewlett- Packard.
European Union's competition advisory committee met yesterday in Brussels to review conditions under which the European Commission could approve the American-British Airways alliance, one of many hurdles facing the stalled pact.Definitive EC action is not expected until the fall, related U.S.- U.K. open skies talks are on hold, and DOT has yet to publish a procedural schedule on the alliance. American CFO Gerard Arpey said Wednesday the department is "nearly ready" to do so, but DOT declined comment.
CityBird, a new Belgian low-fare transatlantic airline, has hired an airline veteran to push it toward an initial public offering later this year. Serge Barder, former senior consultant for Aviation Management Services in Miami, has taken the role of senior VP-corporate development "to stir the carrier into an aggressive and ambitious development plan" leading to an initial public offering this fall, CityBird said. The offering is expected to raise $50 million to finance fleet expansion. CityBird, which operates two MD-11s to five U.S.
A British Aerospace Asset Management-Turboprops sales executive involved in a program to offer "pre-packaged" air service to underserved communities expressed optimism this week about the program and said it would help continue the useful life of 19-seat aircraft (DAILY, July 7). "We're fairly confident" that the program, developed with Smyrna, Ga.-based world Technology Systems, "is viable," BAe-AMT Director of Sales David Easton told The DAILY.
Senate conferees on the budget reconciliation tax bill proposed Wednesday to drop the Senate bill's taxation of the domestic segments of international journeys and accept the $15.50 international departure and arrival taxes included in the House-passed bill. The Senate also proposed to retain present law for domestic flights to and from Alaska and Hawaii.
