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.
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.
