Airbus Industrie VP-Marketing Colin Stuart still believes the European manufacturer will "achieve a 50% market share by the year 2002." Speaking last week in Toulouse at rollout ceremonies for the consortium's A330-200, he stressed that the consortium is building up a complete aircraft product line, "from 100 to 1,000 seats," with the development of the European-Asian 100-seat AE31X regional jet at one end and prospective A3XX jumbos at the other.
After working more than nine years, an international consortium says it has come up with a solution to the Loran-C data rate limitation for communicating Global Positioning System differential corrections. The team says such corrections over the entire European Loran-C service area can provide position accuracy within 10 meters without relying solely on a single system, as does the U.S. Wide Area Augmentation System.
Delta's new president and chief executive, the first outsider to run the company, will start his tenure by targeting the airline's crumbling customer service. Leo Mullin, formerly vice chairman of Unicom Corp. and Commonwealth Edison, said Delta is in "tremendous" shape financially, but data for the last three years show the airline has "slipped somewhat in customer service," a situation he said was "bent and not broken." Consumer relations, one of Mullin's strong suits, is an "early priority," as are efforts to improve efficiency.
U.S. and Russia have agreed to hold formal bilateral talks Nov. 11-13 in Moscow. Regulated expansion will be on the table, including additional routes, code-sharing provisions and capacity increases. Previously announced bilateral talks remain on track, with Japan Aug. 27-29 in Washington, Romania Sept. 16-18 in Washington, and France Oct. 15-17 in Paris.
FAA signed a $500,000 contract with Lockheed Martin last week to "productionize" color display capability for the Automated Radar Terminal System (ARTS) IIIA and ARTS IIIE if Raytheon Co. is late delivering the initial system capability version of the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) to the Boston Center in December 1998.
Airbus and Fokker Aircraft Operating Costs Systemwide Aircraft Utilization Per Day First Quarter 1997 A320-100/200 America West Northwest Number of Aircraft Operated 26 50 Total Fleet Operations Departures 135 188 Block Hours 347 530
Airbus and Fokker Aircraft Operating Costs First Quarter 1997 Dollars Per Block Hours A320-100/200 America West Northwest United Average Crew Cost $301 $596 $676 $539 Fuel&Oil 588 580 586 584 Rentals 723 403 555 537
American Airlines, which confirmed its aircraft acquisition plan in May, faces $4.67 billion in payments for firm-order aircraft during the next three years, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. The airline will pay $570 million this year, $1 billion next, $1.3 billion in 1999 and $1.8 billion in 2000. Its first new-delivery aircraft will arrive in mid-1998.
Attorneys working on the Amerijet/Air Jamaica case had a busy schedule late last week as DOT issued procedural deadlines on a move to revoke Air Jamaica's authority. DOT took the action after learning that Amerijet's long efforts to launch service to Jamaica appeared to have broken down. DOT gave parties until 11 a.m. Friday to file answers and 5 p.m. to file replies after Amerijet told it of continued problems in securing bilaterally authorized cargo service to Jamaica, the subject of a long dispute that as recently as mid-July seemed resolved (DAILY, July 17).
United appointed Andrew Studdert senior VP-fleet operations and administration, succeeding Joseph O'Gorman, who is retiring after more than 31 years with the company.
Orally approved an initial one-year exemption permitting Pan Am to conduct scheduled foreign combination service between Miami and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, under its code share with Carnival Air Lines...Orally approved a two-year exemption renewal for TWA to conduct scheduled foreign combination service between New York and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic...Orally approved a two-year exemption renewal for Midway Airlines to conduct scheduled foreign combination service between Raleigh/Durham and St.
Delta pilots' Master Executive Council intends to take a more aggressive tack against management. The Air Line Pilots Association unit said "overwhelming input" from its ranks shows members are dissatisfied with the current contract and "management's failure to comply with many contractual provisions." Union chief Denny Dolan asked members to indicate satisfaction with an MEC action plan.
American Airlines told DOT it opposes the Delta-TAP Air Portugal code share, an arrangement that would require extrabilateral authority, unless the carrier gains assurances from Portugal that it will permit third- country code shares for other carriers that want to compete with Delta-TAP. American plans to serve Portugal via London in a code share with British Airways if the American-BA alliance is approved. American cited DOT policy that the U.S. does not approve code-sharing between U.S.
ValuJet completed Friday a private placement debt offering that will give it $80 million. The airline will use the net proceeds to refinance some of its secured debt and buy hushkits for its DC-9s. The debt placement to institutional investors gives ValuJet more flexibility, said Chief Financial Officer Steve Nevin. "The company will no longer be subject to any financial maintenance covenant tests," he said, and about $50 million in payments due between now and April 2001 under previous financings has been deferred. The 10.5% senior secured notes are due 2001.
Advanced Aerodynamics&Structures said it has received 22 orders with non- refundable deposits in the last 30 days for its Jetcruzer 500 propjet executive aircraft. The new orders, valued at $26 million, bring the total to 53 aircraft valued at $65 million. Deliveries are expected to begin in the third quarter of 1998. The single-engine aircraft is based on an advanced canard wing design and features 360 miles per hour performance. List price is $1.3 million.
Although Delta's new chief executive, Leo Mullin, comes from outside the aviation industry, he likely enters his job with more than a few insights about the business. The president of Unicom and Commonwealth Edison, Mullin's former firm, is Samuel Skinner, former DOT secretary. (See Mullin story that follows.)
-- In Federal Register dated Aug. 11...Proposed an airworthiness directive on certain McDonnell Douglas DC-10 series aircraft to require inspection of the aft lower cargo doorjamb...Proposed an AD on certain Fokker F28 aircraft to require replacing the fusible pin in the upper torque link of the main landing gear...Proposed an AD on Israel Aircraft Industries AA21 through AA24 series aircraft to require inspections of the trim actuator.
NASA is using its new Boeing 757 research aircraft to test prototype systems designed to increase the efficiency of airport surface operations in low-visibility conditions. Through last week, agency pilots conducted 22 flights with the systems, which integrate differential Global Positioning System data and positioning information from the aircraft's inertial navigation system to tell pilots and controllers the aircraft's position as it taxies in bad weather and low visibility.
