Vanguard Airlines intends to expand into the East by launching daily nonstop service to New York from its Kansas City base Sept. 3, offering $59 one-way fares for a limited time, and it is making other changes to set it apart from the average low-fare, basic-service airline. The carrier will increase frequencies in the fall to Atlanta, Chicago and Dallas/Fort Worth, but it will eliminate service to Des Moines, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Orlando and Tampa/St. Petersburg.
The European Commission is scheduled to clear tomorrow a 2.75 trillion lire (US$1.3 billion) rescue package for troubled flag carrier Alitalia. The Italian government initially wanted to inject more than 3 trillion lire ($1.74 billion) into the airline, but the commission said the amount had to be scaled down. The aid will be paid in three tranches. The state already has poured one trillion lire ($580 million) into the company. Another trillion is to be paid now, 500 billion lire ($290 million) in May 1998 and 250 billion lire ($145 million) in May 1999.
New restrictions on night traffic at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, unveiled last week, have infuriated airlines operating at the Dutch airport. Martinair, jointly controlled by KLM and Nedlloyd, and cargo handler Aero Groundservices are mulling legal action, while El Al is considering shifting operations to Liege Bierset Airport, Belgium. KLM said the ban will hit three weekly 747-200 freighter flights operated on its behalf by Atlas Air.
Hawaiian Airlines' June traffic rose 15.7% to 387.2 million from 334.8 million last June. Capacity increased 5% to 450.1 million available seat miles from 428.6 million, while the load factor rose five points to 86%. Hawaiian carried 1.3% more passengers for a total of 448,417, while cargo ton miles declined 0.9 points to 4.2 million. For the first six months of the year, Hawaiian's RPMs jumped 10.5% to 2.1 billion. ASMs gained 10.1% to 2.8 billion as the load factor increased less than half a point to 76.5%.
Boeing delivered 92 jet transports in the June quarter, comprising 35 737s, 12 747s, 12 757s, 12 767s and 21 777s. It delivered 160 aircraft in the first six months - 60 737s, 22 747s, 24 757s, 23 767s and 31 777s. In addition, Boeing delivered one non-commercial 767 in the first quarter, the last of four being modified as airborne warning and control system aircraft by Japan.
Major Carriers % Of Total Operating Labor Expenses Alaska $ 94,619,000 29.97 America West 96,665,868 22.40 American 1,094,692,000 30.82 Continental 315,898,000 23.36 Delta 1,044,744,000 33.12
British Midland signed a contract with Airbus Industrie for 11 A320s and nine A321s as part of a fleet renewal program. The carrier, a new customer for Airbus, placed firm orders for eight of the aircraft and will operate 12 under a lease agreement with International Lease Finance Corp. Deliveries will begin next spring. The A320s will seat 160 passengers, the A321s 196. Michael Bishop, chairman of British Midland, said the decision to select Airbus is an "important vote of confidence in the European air transport industry."
Northwest and KLM said they will begin daily nonstop service between Seattle and Amsterdam Aug. 5. They said the flights will represent the only nonstop service between the two cities.
American Trans Air's June load factor jumped 11 percentage points to 76.6% as the carrier substantially decreased capacity from June 1996. Revenue passenger miles totaled 457.4 million, down 2.2%, and available seat miles declined 16.3% to 597 million. For charters only, RPMs were up 7.2% to 300 million and ASMs rose 5.7% to 453.8 million. For the first six months of the year, RPMs for scheduled service were down 20.8% to 2.1 billion and ASMs declined 29.9% to 2.7 billion, causing the load factor to rise 8.6 points to 76%.
Delta traffic increased 4.8% in June on 3.2% more capacity, which lifted the load factor 1.2 percentage points to 77.8%. But a less-than- favorable domestic pricing environment depressed yields. "Preliminary passenger mile yield data suggest a moderate year-over-year system yield decline for the month of June, driven primarily by weaker domestic yields," said Robert Coggin, executive VP-marketing. June 1997 June 1996 6 Months 1997 6 Months 1996 RPMs 9,036,002,000 8,624,392,000 48,954,600,000 45,129,360,000
The U.S. Court of Appeals in St. Louis yesterday dismissed for lack of standing Wilcox's protest against the FAA award of the then-$500 million Wide Area Augmentation System contract to Hughes, saying Wilcox "demonstrated no injury." FAA said it "believed all along" that canceling the Wilcox contract "was best for the agency and best for the taxpayer." The agency told Congress last week, however, that the contract cost has ballooned to $957 million (DAILY, July 14) since it was taken from Wilcox and awarded it to Hughes.
El Al will retrain every employee during the coming months, as it seeks to drastically improve customer service and compete better against Lufthansa, Swissair and other European carriers that have stepped up service to Israel. El Al President Joel Feldschuh said the airline will put all 4,000 through a rigorous 16-hour retraining program to better educate workers on service. "We have to concentrate much more on the service side," said Feldschuh, who expects the airline to be privatized by yearend 1998 (DAILY, July 11).
SAS's June traffic rose 6% and the passenger load factor reached 73.8%, the airline's highest monthly load factor this year. SAS averaged a 63.4% load factor and 4% traffic growth in the first six months.
British Airways was heading toward operating 95% of its system yesterday and said it could reach 100% by tomorrow. "There are still a couple of flights not in the system yet, but we are getting there," a BA spokesman said. Only three of BA's 36 daily flights out of the U.S. were not flown yesterday - a morning flight from Boston to London, the first flight of the day from Los Angeles and another from Detroit. BA operated two flights from Los Angeles.
Industrial holding company Istituto di Ricostruzione Industriale (IRI), majority owner of Aeroporti di Roma - operator of Rome Fiumicino and Ciampino airports - has launched a sale of 41%-45% of the airports company through a public share offering scheduled today and tomorrow. The share price was set at 11,000 lire (US$6.38), giving the company a total value of 1.32 trillion lire ($766 million).
An appeals court has upheld a U.S. District Court decision finding that the Teamsters union was properly elected to represent mechanics at America West. In an appeal, America West said the 378 mechanics it discharged after it began outsourcing heavy maintenance should not be allowed to vote in the representational election. But the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that federal courts do not have jurisdiction to review determinations made by the National Mediation Board, which said the discharged mechanics' ballots could be counted.
FAA yesterday proposed, as expected, four airworthiness directives reducing the payload of Boeing 727 cargo conversions from 8,000 pounds to 3,000 pounds per container, effective within 48 hours of its final AD (DAILY, July 10). Payloads as great as 4,800 pounds per container will be allowed for up to 120 days after a final rule, expected by October, if the operator meets specified restrictions.
Frontier Airlines, which is pursuing a merger with Western Pacific, reported a 24.8% rise in June revenue passenger miles to 88.9 million from 71.3 million last June. Available seat miles rose 26.1% to 143.7 million from 113 million, while the load factor fell less than one point to 61.9%. Frontier carried 119,017 passengers in June, up 20.8%.
Randall Lincoln, director-worldwide OEM sales and marketing for AlliedSignal Commercial Avionics Systems, Lenexa, Kan., was named publisher of Business&Commercial Aviation magazine and A/C Flyer, effective Aug. 3. He succeeds David Ewald, who has been associated with B&CA since it was founded in 1958, most of that time as publisher. Lincoln will report to Kenneth Gazzola, executive VP of McGraw-Hill Companies Aviation Week Group, who said Ewald will continue with the magazine for the near future, as an employee and later as a consultant.
As World Airways kept an eye on U.S.-Korea talks yesterday and today in Washington to see if its beyond-rights dispute can be resolved, it made progress on two other fronts. The carrier has resolved a payment dispute with Philippine Airlines and is developing new business with Brazil's VASP.
Air Atlanta Icelandic has wet-leased a Boeing 747-200 to Iberia for six weekly scheduled flights between Madrid and Havana, Cuba. About 100 people, comprising three flight deck and cabin crews, ground engineers and support staff, have been allocated to the operation. The contract, which is for nearly six months, was set up in record time, from initial contact June 28 to completion July 2. The first flight, which departed July 6, was configured for 16 business-class and 460 economy passengers. The 747 will operate on Air Atlanta Icelandic's certificate.
Traffic was flat at Shuttle by United in March, compared with year- earlier figures, despite the conversion of eight mainline routes to Shuttle status and the addition of a ninth route not previously flown by United. An analysis of DOT data by Northwestern University economist Robert Gordon shows that traffic on all 22 Shuttle routes grew 1.8% and traffic on the original 13 routes fell 2.6%.
Finnair's international passenger traffic in May expanded 11.1%, compared with the same 1996 month. Domestic and charter traffic also rose strongly, yielding growth in total passenger traffic of 12.9%. Cargo and mail traffic jumped 38.8% and the passenger load factor rose 0.5 percentage points to 66.2%.
FAA, which gave an unsatisfactory rating Nov. 2, 1995, to the Peruvian government's safety oversight of its air carriers, now says the nation meets international safety standards. FAA caused a furor among Latin American nations and carriers when it gave Peru a "conditional" rating, which means its inspectors found areas in which Peru's civil aviation authority did not meet International Civil Aviation Organization safety standards. Under a conditional rating, limited operations to the U.S. are permitted under heightened inspections and surveillance by the FAA.
European Commission officials, who negotiated throughout the weekend with Boeing in Brussels, threatened to reject the McDonnell Douglas merger proposal July 23 unless the Seattle-based manufacturer comes up with concessions by today.An EC-Boeing agreement is needed today in order to accommodate delays built into the European Union's merger control rules, EU sources said yesterday.
