Unisys said it has received a contract from Air China to supply an airport passenger processing system at Beijing Capital International Airport. Tan Zhi Hong, general manager of ground-handling for the carrier, said the new system "not only ensures us a leading position in the airline industry in China, but also helps Air China to compete more vigorously in the international market." He said the new system is "fundamental to our core goals of ensuring safety and improving quality of service."
Delta has signed a letter of intent with Air Jamaica to coordinate marketing programs and other services. The airlines said the LOI could lead to a definitive marketing and business relationship. Delta currently provides A310 aircraft maintenance, flight operations and related training assistance to the Jamaican carrier. Air Jamaica Chairman Butch Stewart said his carrier "will be working closely with Delta over the next few months in exploring the many opportunities this Letter of Intent presents for both carriers."
National Transportation Safety Board said yesterday the probable cause of the runway collision last November between a King Air and a United Express Beech 1900 was the failure of the King Air pilots to "effectively monitor the common traffic advisory radio frequency or to properly scan for traffic, resulting in their commencing a takeoff roll" when United Express Flight 5925 was landing on an intersecting runway. The Nov.
Millon Air was compelled to defend itself again in its bid to acquire recertification from DOT as a fit carrier, this time for a security problem at Miami Airport. FAA and airport officials conducted a security review of all carriers operating there, and FAA confiscated the security badges of some Millon employees, like those of other carriers, because record-keeping procedures had not been followed.
China Airlines, ranked 58th among 61 world airlines by 10,000 frequent flyers in Zagat Survey results announced two months ago, was dropped from survey results published later because of possible uncertainty about its identity. "Based on a review of the survey, it appears that a significant number of the surveyors may have confused China Airlines of Taiwan with any of the growing number of carriers based in the Peoples Republic of China," the company said. In the original announcement, China Airlines was said to have poor food and old airplanes (DAILY, April 30).
Western Pacific and Frontier, which lost a combined $21 million in the March quarter on revenues of $69 million, have little hope of attaining profitability together, said Mike Boyd of Colorado-based Aviation Systems Research. "It's kind of like putting Studebaker and Packard together and pronouncing them healthy."
US Airways Chairman and Chief Executive Stephen Wolf and President and Chief Operating Officer Rakesh Gangwal have told the Air Line Pilots Association the union's plan for the future is no good, pilot furlough notices are going out, "potentially considerably more" will follow and more aircraft will leave the fleet. In a June 27 letter to ALPA Master Executive Council Chairman Jon Bryan, obtained by The DAILY, Wolf and Gangwal also said the lack of a competitive operating cost structure may have already cost US Airways its Shuttle.
Federal Trade Commission yesterday approved the merger of McDonnell Douglas into Boeing, eliminating the transaction's largest hurdle in the U.S. One of the FTC's five commissioners dissented, saying that combining the two companies' commercial aircraft operations would violate the Clayton Antitrust Act. Commission members also expressed concern about Boeing's exclusive contracts with American, Delta and Continental.
Tower Air applied for an exemption to serve New York-Kiev, a route permitted under the current U.S.-Ukraine bilateral. Planning three scheduled combination 747 roundtrips a week, Tower asked for expedited approval so it can launch service Oct. 1. (Docket OST-97-2656)
The Air Transport Association said member carriers flew 48.4 billion revenue passenger miles in May, 4.6% more than in May 1996. Available seat miles rose 2.9% to 68.1 billion and the load factor inched up from 69.9% to 71%. "With increased numbers of people flying, the U.S. airline industry is showing promising signs of another profitable year," ATA President Carol Hallett said.
Great Lakes Aviation resumed service yesterday to Denver Airport from Alliance, Chadron, McCook and Grand Island, Neb. It voluntarily suspended flights to Denver May 16 and expects to be back to its full schedule by mid-July, when it resumes service to North and South Dakota and Iowa. The service was interrupted when FAA inspected Great Lakes' fleet.
Canadian Airlines and Fiji flag carrier Air Pacific have signed a cooperation agreement to speed connections to the island via Honolulu. Passengers on Canadian from Vancouver and Toronto will connect at the carrier's "midnight hub" in Honolulu before continuing to Nadi, Fiji, on Air Pacific's 767 service. Pending government approval, the link will begin Oct. 26. The two airlines are in discussions to enlarge the agreement to cover more flights, destinations, a coordinated frequent flyer program, cargo services and other areas.
Trase Miller Solutions, Oak Brook, Ill., has developed CRS Broker, a middleware program to simplify data access, storage and retrieval in computer reservations systems, and Tour Broker, a program enabling tour operators to launch their products on the Internet or through CRSs. CRS Broker facilitates communications between multiple applications and a CRS or vendor host system.
Kiwi International Air Lines is giving free tickets to men with the same names as any of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and to women who have the same first initial and last name. Outbound travel must begin July 3 or 4 and return travel July 8 or 9. San Juan is excluded. Jerry Murphy, president and chief executive, said Kiwi expects "a number of people with the name John Hancock, Jean Hancock, Thomas or Tina Jefferson, but I don't think we'll see many Button Gwinnetts or Caesar Rodneys."
American Society of Travel Agents filed its expected petition asking Federal Trade Commission to prohibit distribution of fake travel agent identification by card mills (DAILY, June 16). ASTA wants a rule against issuing credentials to people who have no record of selling travel services. The FTC seems to be inclined to agree with ASTA on card mills and has taken enforcement action recently against some individual operators.
Air New Zealand will make all its flights smoke-free by November. The carrier has banned smoking on domestic flights since 1988 and reduced it on international service since 1992. ANZ's move follows the New Zealand government's ratification of an international treaty banning smoking. Separately, ANZ and United said they will open their first shared lounge at Auckland Airport in September.
American's June traffic rose 0.9%, but capacity dropped 0.1% systemwide and remained flat domestically. The load factor increased 0.7 percentage points to 73.3%. In June, American chose to increase capacity to Latin America 4.8% and the Pacific 1.4%, while shrinking Atlantic capacity 6.3%. The Atlantic division continues to have the highest load factor in American's system, however, increasing 3.3 percentage points to 86.6%. The load factor on Latin American service fell one point to 61.6% and on Pacific flights 2.6 points to 84.2%.
France's new communist transport minister, Jean-Claude Gayssot, still is considering a third airport for Paris in spite of strong opposition from France's green party, which participates in the country's socialist-led ruling coalition. "I will not shelve plans for the third airport," Gayssot told the French Senate last week. He noted that Orly and Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airports have reached saturation and said France intends to avoid diversion of traffic to Amsterdam and Frankfurt.
India's finance ministry has imposed a service tax on travel agents, effective yesterday, ministry officials said. Agents can pay either a flat 5% service tax on total commissions received or a 0.5% tax on basic international fares and 0.25% on basic domestic fares. The biweekly report filed by agents to airlines - giving the number of tickets booked, fares collected, commission earned and other details - would be the basis for assessing the service tax.
American and United began a smoking ban yesterday on all their flights, including international travel, a move praised by DOT Secretary Rodney Slater, who said about 97% of nonstop scheduled U.S. airline flights between the U.S. and foreign points are now smoke-free. The federal smoking ban on domestic flights took effect in 1990. Slater noted that at last month's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Victoria, B.C., New Zealand joined an existing agreement by the U.S., Canada and Australia to ban smoking on flights between those countries.
Ernest DuBester became chairman of the National Mediation Board yesterday, replacing Kenneth Hipp, who has been chairman since last July 1. Hipp and Maggie Jacobsen are the other members of the three-member NMB. DuBester served his first term as chairman Dec. 1, 1993-June 30, 1995. He has worked in private practice on Railway Labor Act issues and was involved in several airline and railroad bankruptcy proceedings. He also has been counsel to the National Labor Relations Board and legislative counsel for the AFL-CIO.
DOT made final its tentative decision in the 1997-98 Brazil all-cargo charter allocation, giving Southern Air Transport 180 charters, Florida West 145, Air Transport International 83, Arrow Air 29 and Atlas 35 (DAILY, June 4). This leaves 278 available on an ad hoc basis from the charter pool.
Burlington Air Express will be Wal-Mart's primary carrier for heavy-weight international air shipments, weighing more than 50 pounds, and its secondary carrier for heavy-weight domestic shipments.
Newly established Air Travelers Association, a self-described "watchdog" of the airline industry, issued a "Report Card" yesterday that gave all U.S. airlines an "A" for safety except ValuJet, which received an "F." Most of the other "F" rankings went to Chinese, Latin American and African carriers. Canadian airlines received the top rankings, as did most Western European carriers except Air France, which got a "B," and Lauda Air and Martinair Holland, which got "Fs." Other carriers with "F"s include Aeroflot, Tarom and Indian Airlines.
EVA Air said it has signed a memorandum of intent with General Electric to construct jointly a major aircraft engine overhaul and maintenance facility in Taipei. The airline would hold the majority of shares in the venture. The new facility will expand EVA's capacity for third-party maintenance and overhaul services at a time when Taiwan wants to establish Chiang Kai-Shek Airport (CKS) as the primary air transit hub in the Asia/Pacific region.
