- In Federal Register dated June 27...Issued an airworthiness directive on Boeing 737 series aircraft requiring a newly designed rudder limit device and yaw damper system...Issued an AD on Fokker F28-100 aircraft requiring reduction of stress on certain nuts on the horizontal stabilizer control unit...Issued an AD on Hamilton Standard 54H60 series propellers requiring removal of some blades...Issued an AD on General Electric CF700 series engines requiring replacement of fan guards.
George Kourpias, international president of the Machinists union for eight years, retired from the union and was elected to Northwest 's board of directors. He succeeds Tom Ducy, former Machinists general secretary- treasurer, who resigned from the board last Tuesday. The Machinists earned a seat on the Northwest board through an employee stock ownership plan in 1993. Thomas Buffenbarger, the union's newly elected international president, said Kourpias "will serve as the eyes and ears of the workers" on the board.
Alaska Airlines traffic for June rose 6.1% on 0.7% more capacity, which improved the load factor 3.7 percentage points to 70.8%. For the first six months of the year, traffic increased 7.2% on 1.4% more capacity. Horizon Air's traffic increased 3.1% in June on 1.1% less capacity, which pushed the load factor up 2.6 points to 63.2%. June 1997 June 1996 6 Months 1997 6 Months 1996 RPMs 956,000,000 901,000,000 4,963,000,000 4,630,000,000
Saab Aircraft and Jeppesen Maintenance Information Service are collaborating to produce a CD-ROM-based maintenance manual for Saab 340 and Saab 2000 aircraft, combining several of Saab's existing electronic manuals.
Mesa Air Group is two months into its new Canadair Regional Jet operation at Fort Worth Meacham Field and is not seeing the loads it expected by this point, The DAILY has learned. Load factors are running in the mid-30s but growing at a steady pace. The carrier now has three CRJs and is operating 11 daily roundtrips to Houston Hobby. The next three CRJs will go to Phoenix to operate as America West Express, replacing two Fokker 70s in daily service to Des Moines and Fresno. The Fokkers are being returned to the manufacturer...
Delta will report this week that it carried about 53 million passengers in the first six months of 1997, on a pace to become the first airline ever to carry 100 million in a year. The 53 million passengers through June would amount to more than the full-year 1995 totals of Singapore Airlines, KLM, Cathay Pacific, Swissair, Sabena and South African Airways - combined.
..Passenger traffic was heavy last week on Mesa's service into Roswell, N.M., from Albuquerque and Dallas/Fort Worth. Roswell was celebrating the 50th anniversary of the famed reported crash landing of an alien spacecraft northwest of the city. UFO aficionados from around the world doubled the city's 50,000 residents during the week, according to news reports, flocking to the International UFO Museum Research Centre to see "evidence" of the July 4, 1947, incident. "If we are full, people can catch something else into Roswell," quipped a Mesa spokeswoman.
Moves in Congress to change FAA funding sources as part of budget reconciliation legislation - before the National Civil Aviation Review Commission makes its recommendations - drew expressions of concern from several key lawmakers in Washington. In recent remarks on the Senate floor, Sen.
Air Line Pilots Association won an election to represent the pilots at Emery Worldwide Airlines. The National Mediation Board certified that of the 348 pilots eligible to vote, 64%, or 223, cast ballots for ALPA.
Sunworld International Airlines, despite a group of supporters for renewal of its certificate, including the City of Cleveland, is facing a request by Vacation Travel International that DOT revoke its authority. Denver-based VTI is a public charter operator specializing in college spring-break travel, flying primarily from midwestern and southwestern points to Cancun and Mazatlan. VTI told DOT it is preparing to litigate against Sunworld for withdrawing an aircraft at the last minute and causing a "near-riot" at Kansas City Airport.
- Approved orally a Tailwind International charter using a Volga-Dnepr An- 124-100 to carry Komatsu heavy truck equipment and spares on Peoria- Winnipeg-Anchorage-Petropavlovsk-Polyarny July 3-31...Approved a Nicaraguense de Aviacion charter using Lineas Aereas Costarricenses 737-200 configured for 125 seats for 365 roundtrips on a Managua-Miami routing for one year starting July 1...Recorded Guyana Airways' withdrawn application for short-term exemption and commingling authority...Approved an application by Aerolineas Argentinas to conduct nine roundtrips betweeen poin
Belgium's national railway authority, SNCB, has approved stops at Ostende and Namur by high-speed trains on the Brussels-Paris-London route, increasing competition for regional airports in Wallonia and Flanders that offer low-price flights to the French and English capitals. The changes will cut travel time by train from Namur to Paris by almost an hour, to two hours and 16 minutes, and the benefit for Ostende-Paris will be about the same. The new train service begins Dec. 14 with the expansion of high- speed rail service between Brussels and London.
British Airways chief Robert Ayling was scheduled to meet last Friday with European Union Competition Commissioner Karel Van Miert after months of no movement on the proposed American-BA alliance. European Commission and U.K. authorities continue to examine differences in their positions on the proposal. In the U.S., committees of both houses of Congress held AA-BA hearings last month, but the regulatory bodies with the power to act, including DOT and the Justice Department, have yet to take steps to advance or block the alliance.
Regional carriers in the U.K. and Denmark will purchase two ATP aircraft apiece from British Aerospace Asset Management-Turboprops. U.K. independent British World Airlines will take delivery in the September- October period, using the aircraft to complement its BAC-111s on charter flights from London Stansted Airport. And Sun-Air, a Denmark-based British Airways franchise partner, also is buying a Jetstream 41 it currently leases from BAe. The two ATPs will be delivered this fall, configured for 64 seats.
Douglas Aircraft's first MD-95 aircraft is standing on its own landing gear following completion of the primary structure - joining of the nose, fuselage and tail to the wing. The landing gears come from Israel Aircraft Industries. Douglas plans the first flight early next year.
Northwest's Air Line Pilots Association unit, in contract negotiations with the airline since November, has decided to seek help from the National Mediation Board. It will send a formal mediation request to the board this month. Northwest is negotiating contracts simultaneously with five employee groups.
Vanguard Airlines has brought back its "Take A Friend For Free" promotion at Kansas City. Tickets must be purchased by July 11 and at least three days in advance, and travel must occur by Aug. 14.
DOT restored Trans Continental Airlines' authority to operate scheduled cargo service with its own crew, removing a restriction that such flights be operated for the carrier by American International Freight (DAILY, May 17). Trans Continental already was permitted to conduct charter flights on its own. DOT said its initial concern in limiting Trans Continental's authority was the carrier's financial condition, but a review verified adequate revenues.
Giving up "exclusive" contracts with airlines could work to Boeing's advantage because "it is the airlines that won better pricing," according to Gruntal Research. "All Boeing got was production predictability, which it probably does not need anyway given its mammoth backlog." Boeing's product is rising from 26.5 aircraft a month in the first quarter to 43 by yearend 1998.
General Aviation Manufacturers Association President Ed Bolen cautiously endorsed a new rule from Europe's Joint Aviation Authorities that would allow twin-engine business aircraft involved in commercial operations to fly up to 180 minutes' travel time from an airport, subject to specified maintenance, operations and dispatch procedures. The measure, approved by a JAR operations committee, modifies an earlier proposal that would have set the limit at 120 minutes. U.S.
Midwest Express established a World Wide Web site at midwestexpress.com offering information on itself and subsidiary Skyway Airlines. The site has sections for frequent flyers and travel agents, and it includes information about charters and air cargo, investor data and specifications for DC-9, MD-88 and Beech 1900D aircraft. Midwest Express will provide real-time frequent flyer information this fall and expects to offer booking capability later in the year.
The fourth round of informal U.S.-Japan bilateral talks takes place tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday in Portland, Ore. The U.S. delegation includes Alan Larson, State Department assistant secretary for economic and business affairs; Joel Spiro, State's deputy assistant secretary for transportation affairs; DOT Assistant Secretary Charles Hunnicutt, and Edward Oppler, deputy director of DOT's office of international aviation.
American has completed installation of defibrillators on all 247 of its aircraft that fly over water. The automatic devices are used to treat sudden cardiac arrest, determining whether a patient needs electrical shock and delivering it when appropriate, and the carrier said it has trained 2,300 flight attendants to operate them. American ordered 300 of the machines from Heartstream, the manufacturer. It will install 16 units on new aircraft as they are delivered and keep the rest at larger airports as spares.
