Alitalia has relaunched its business class product with improved seats, upgraded menus and a new name, Magnifica Class, replacing both first and business class on 747, MD-11 and 767 transatlantic service. "We are positioning Magnifica as first-class service at business-class prices," said Alitalia spokeswoman Ester Lorusso. Code-share partner Continental offers a similar two-class product, BusinessFirst, across the Atlantic. Alitalia has been installing leather-trimmed, electrically controlled "Capri" seats and is adding space between seats.
The city of Haarlemmermeer, which owns the land on which Amsterdam Schiphol Airport is located, said it intends to impose a passenger tax on the facility to compensate for cuts in government spending on local authorities. The cuts would depress its annual revenues by 140 million Dutch guilders (US$71.4 million). The city plans a NLG10.25 passenger tax, effective 1999, to be increased to NLG11 in 2002. Based on current passenger numbers, the tax would yield NLG127 million per year.
Northwest and First Bank have introduced a WorldPerks Visa card, enabling passengers to accrue miles by charging purchases. Participants approved for a card by Dec. 31 will receive 2,000 miles, plus 500 bonus miles if they use the card to charge an inflight call on an AT&T telephone.
Airways Corp., the parent of Orlando-based AirTran Airways, reported a net loss of $7 million, nearly six times the prior-year loss of $1.2 million, for its fiscal year, which ended March 31. In its fiscal fourth quarter, the company posted a net profit of $276,000, down from the year-earlier $737,000 but an improvement on its third quarter loss of $2.86 million. Annual revenues rose 50% to $102.6 million. Maintenance costs grew to $26 million and increased as a percentage of revenues to 25% from 17.5%.
Sabre Decision Technologies has installed its Airprice fare management system at America West. Sabre said the system takes over daily monitoring tasks, freeing up fare analysts' time, and enables the carrier to respond faster to fare changes. America West is the first U.S. carrier to license Airprice, which also distributes published fares to the marketplace, stores data and produces customized reports.
Pan Am and Carnival Air Lines will start code sharing on "most Carnival flights" June 15, Pan Am said. Pan Am's reclaimed "PA" code will eventually appear on all Carnival flights, as the former moves closer to acquiring Carnival. First routes carrying the code share will include New York-Fort Lauderdale, Miami-Los Angeles and flights from Islip, New York to a number of Florida points. All flights will be doubly coded by July 1, and after the acquisition is complete the Carnival code will disappear.
Colorado Springs-based Western Pacific joined Frontier Airlines and AirTran in asking for an extraordinary-circumstances exception from slot control rules. Westpac is looking for slots at Chicago O'Hare; the other two seek access to New York LaGuardia. All three point to the lack of credible competition at the high-density airports on key routes, and indications of increased concern by government officials over barriers to entry. The Westpac application reopens a 1995 DOT decision rejecting an exception for the airline.
Philippine Airlines has taken delivery of an A340-300, the first of 24 Airbus aircraft it will take in the next 20 months - four A340-300s, eight A330-300s and 12 A320s. The first A330 will arrive in July and the first A320 in August.
- In Federal Register dated May 23...Issued special conditions on Jetstream 4100 series aircraft with passenger airbags...Issued an airworthiness directive on Jetstream HP137, 200, 3101 and 3201 series aircraft requiring inspections of the main landing gear...Issued an AD on Sikorsky S-64F helicopters requiring inspection of the main gearbox second stage lower planetary plate...Superseded an AD on Hiller series helicopters concerning conversions to turbine engine power...Issued an AD on certain Airbus A320 aircraft requiring inspection of fastener holes on certain fuselage
Travel Industry Association launched an Internet site that offers travel industry research and marketing information, and issued grants to Visit USA committees in Ireland, Peru and New Zealand. The Internet site, at www.tia.org, offers travel statistics, research reports and other information. William Norman, president and chief executive, cited TIA's "dozens of original research reports covering minority travel, adventure travel, travel and technology, gaming, weekend travel and other specialized subjects" that will be available.
British Airways spends 26.5% of revenues on employee costs and profit sharing, much less than U.S. carriers and dramatically less than potential alliance partner American, which paid 38.4% in the first quarter. United's cost was 34.5% and Delta's 33%. BA paid only 1% of revenues in taxes last year.
SkyWest Airlines will launch new service this month, bringing its total daily departures from Salt Lake City to more than 100 for the first time in its history, the carrier said Friday.
Federal Express asked DOT for an exemption from dormancy provisions so it can phase in five additional U.S.-Brazil cargo frequencies rather than launching them at once. The carrier already operates five weekly frequencies using DC-10s. Under a recent DOT order granting FedEx additional flights, 1.5 new weekly frequencies are to start by June 28 and the other 3.5 by June 30. FedEx wants to phase them in over a three-month period.
International airline alliances can reduce fares, but it is easier to show they benefit the airlines than consumers, said an Australian government report issued last week. The report - The Economic Impact of International Airline Alliances - was written by Australia's Industry Commission, an independent body that advises the government on industrial policy. Alliances continue to grow dramatically, the commission found, comparing the 280 in 1994 with 390 in 1996.
Although Carnival Airlines flight attendants voted overwhelmingly last week to be represented by the Association of Flight Attendants, AFA says it is not clear how this will affect unorganized flight attendants at Pan Am. Carnival's acquisition by the smaller Pan Am awaits regulatory and shareholder approval, expected in midsummer.
ValuJet will use AMR Corp.'s Sabre computer reservations system for ticketing and distribution, the carrier said Friday. ValuJet will continue to use its own booking system, which accounts for 75% of all sales. The carrier's decision to add a traditional CRS was made public late last month at the company's shareholder meeting, where Chief Executive Joseph Corr said listings will appear by midsummer, followed by online booking (DAILY, May 23).
Concern is building at FAA and in industry circles that once all ground- based navigation aids are phased out, civilians will have no control over a Global Positioning System-based, sole-source air navigation system. Air Force refusal to consider an FAA request for a joint-use Satellite Navigation Center is a case in point. Another worry: whether the Air Force can sustain a 24-satellite system in the face of budget cuts.
LanChile's $300 million purchase of three 767-300ERs for delivery beginning next year (DAILY, May 29) is being financed entirely by a Canadian bank, airline officials said. The carrier purchased options for two more of the aircraft, and the deal, following a recent $70 million capital investment program, brings its total commitment to $370 million over the next three years.
Shareholders of Messier-Bugatti and Carbone Industrie agreed last week on a merger of the companies. The new entity will be known as Messier-Bugatti and will be headed by current Messier-Bugatti Chairman Yves Leclere.
All Nippon Airways posted a 3.9 billion yen (US$31.4 million) net profit for fiscal 1996-97, up 26.6%, despite sharply higher fuel costs and a weak Japanese yen. Although ANA projected revenues of 880 billion yen, revenue came in above the estimate, up 4.9% to 887.4 billion yen ($7.15 billion). Expenses increased 6% to 869 billion yen. Load factor dropped 1.5 percentage points to 67.7%, while international capacity rose 17.4% and domestic 5.6%.
Teamsters Union and Air Canada have reached a tentative agreement on a new 30-month contract, subject to member ratification. The union said details of the agreement will be made available Wednesday.
The Texas legislature has dropped all consideration of aviation fuel taxes that could have cost airlines operating in the state as much as $100 million a year. The Senate dropped aviation taxes from its revenue bill, but a conference committee of the House and Senate still tried to reach a compromise on the House proposal. The last version considered was a two- cent-per-gallon fuel tax, down from 10 cents when first proposed by a House committee and from four cents in the House bill (DAILY, April 15).
Eastwind Airlines has switched to a new PC-based reservations system, a modified version of Wings 2000 produced by Support Systems International. The program provides Arinc connectivity to Sabre, System One, Apollo and Worldspan. Eastwind will have Internet booking capability by the end of June. Ron Peri, president of Support Systems, said Wings 2000 "leapfrogs Eastwind ahead of the majors in reservation system technology."
