U.S. and France have agreed to meet July 9-10 in Paris for another round of bilateral talks. The last session, in Washington, ended at a cordial impasse as France proposed phased-in liberalization falling short of open skies. This month, U.S. negotiators will meet with Barbados, to discuss open skies, and Egypt, which wants more modest liberalization. A DOT spokesman said the U.S. expects to meet with Korea on open skies "later this summer."
American stands to reap a tidy profit if it does not buy the US Airways-run shuttle (DAILY, May 30).Its contract with the banks that own Shuttle Inc. includes a $10 million breakup fee, to be pocketed by American if US Airways exercises its option to buy the shuttle and the American deal falls through.
McDonnell Douglas DC-10, Systemwide Aircraft Utilization Per Day, Fourth Quarter 1996, DC-10-10, DC-10-40, DC-10-30 McDonnell Douglas DC-10 Systemwide Aircraft Utilization Per Day Fourth Quarter 1996 DC-10-30 American United Total Number of Aircraft Operated 14 25 39 Total Fleet Operations Departures 24 63 87
FAA said Friday it selected Booz-Allen&Hamilton to conduct a congressionally mandated review of its new acquisition system, which has been touted as a test case for streamlining the federal acquisition process across government agencies. The firm, under a $156,837 contract, also will review FAA efforts to promote full and open competition for contracts above $50 million, said George Donohue, associate administrator for research and acquisition.
Varig posted a 7% traffic gain in April, to 1.86 billion revenue passenger kilometers. Traffic for the first four months of the year rose 8.9%. Varig carried 5.3% more passengers in April. Domestic passengers comprised 73% and international passengers 27% of the total. The domestic load factor was 57.2% and international 64.9%. Year-to-date freight ton kilometers reached 394 million.
Reno Air launched online booking last Thursday for customers who have access to the World Wide Web (www.renoair.com). The ability to book is an addition to the carrier's site, which includes typical promotional items such as company news, a route map and vacation package information. The transactions will be handled as Reno "EZtrip" ticketless travel, with passengers receiving a mailed copy of their itineraries.
Mesaba Holdings reported a net profit of $12 million for fiscal 1996-97, which ended March 31, up 71.9% from 1995-96. For the fourth quarter, the Northwest Airlink affiliate posted net income of $2.1 million, compared with $1.4 million. Revenues rose 8.9% for the year to $170 million and jumped 17.6% to $48.6 million in the fourth quarter. Annual traffic grew 29.4% on 18% more capacity, which increased the load factor 4.5 percentage points to 51.6%.
Delta today will begin daily nonstop service from New York Kennedy to Madrid and Manchester, using will use L-1011 aircraft featuring its recently enhanced transatlantic business class.
U.S. officials mulling Japanese Transport Minister Makoto Koga's proposal to launch formal bilateral talks (DAILY, May 27) wonder, as one of them puts it, "what they're bringing to the table." Japanese officials have publicly reaffirmed their opposition to U.S.-style open skies, and it is not known whether they are prepared to offer any substantive changes in their position.
DOT granted an exemption to All Nippon Airways to conduct scheduled combination service between Hiroshima and Guam for one year. The award came over the objections of Northwest, which is protesting Japan's denial of its own new service beyond Japan. United and local Guam authorities supported ANA's bid, arguing against using Northwest's fifth-freedom issue as a bar to third- and fourth-freedom operating rights granted to Japan under a 1989 memorandum of understanding.
Eighteen privately owned corporations in Mumbai have decided to resurrect a dormant lobbying group to pressure India's Directorate-General of Civil Aviation to relax its norms for corporate jet travel within the country, industry sources said. The Aircraft Operators and Allied Services Association (AOASA) was formed in 1981, but its members "drifted for some reason or another," recalled one executive.
Great Lakes Airlines resumed flights Friday between Chicago Meigs Field and Springfield, Ill., Capital Airport. The carrier voluntarily suspended service to 80 cities May 16 at the request of FAA. This brings to eight the number of cities the carrier now is serving. FAA told the carrier last week that it would allow "additional expansion in the coming weeks in a controlled fashion" (DAILY, May 30).
FAA, following McDonnell Douglas's lead, Friday ordered the grounding of MD-900 Explorer helicopters (DAILY, May 30). The company had requested emergency action by FAA.
DHL has launched a once-weekly cargo flight from Miami to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, under the open skies aviation agreement signed last month by President Clinton during his visit to Costa Rica. DHL is operating the service for Antillas Air, a cargo airline headquartered in New York. Service will increase to twice a week in July.
U.S. and New Zealand initialed an open skies agreement late Thursday after two days of talks. The pact goes beyond the standard offer, exchanging seventh-freedom cargo rights. It will permit, for example, U.S. airlines to fly scheduled and charter cargo from New Zealand to third countries. The U.S.-Singapore open skies agreement has a similar feature, but only for scheduled cargo operations.
Avsco Airline Sales Division appointed Steve Newman manager commercial airline sales; Mark Lotti and Felicia Northrop inside account managers; Kenny Lott outside regional manager and Melanie Mayeux airline administrative assistant. Barfield appointed Patrick Harris senior VP-marketing and sales. Consolidators International named Rex Keeling managing director-New Zealand office. Cubic Corporation named Bruce Roberts VP and director-Miles 2000 program and Kenneth Zitek director-ground combat training systems.
Pratt and Whitney Canada late last week delivered to Bombardier, on schedule, the first PW150A engine for the new Dash 8Q Series 400 aircraft. The engine is the first of nine for the flight test program; delivery of follow-on engines will continue for the rest of the year as the flight test schedule requires, Bombardier said.
Spanish Development Minister Rafael Arias Salgado supported expanding Madrid Barajas Airport rather than building a second airport. "We don't have time for a second airport," he said on Spanish national radio. "If we begin now to build a second airport and leave Barajas as it is, Spain would stop being one of the key centers of world air transport." He emphasized government efforts to reduce noise for people most affected by the third runway at Barajas, under construction.
Before-and-after comparison of Comair financial data since first acquiring the Canadair Regional Jet shows that the results in most cases have more than doubled. Although total credit cannot go to the 50- passenger aircraft, its acquisition is a major component. Operating revenues from 1993 - before the first jet was acquired - to 1997 increased 127.1% to $563.8 million for the fiscal year ended March 31. Operating expenses, on the other hand, gained 107.2% to $447.7 million and operating profit was up 260% to $116.1 million.
Air France posted a 1.5% gain in April traffic, flying 4.9 billion revenue passenger kilometers on 6.5 billion available seat kilometers, up 2.6%. The load factor declined 0.8 percentage points to 74.9%. Freight ton kilometers increased 9.2% to 420 million.
SAS selected Arinc to provide VHF data link service, with needed ground stations, throughout Europe. Bob Jefferson, VP-marketing, said the deal is "an historic opportunity for Arinc to expand a critical service for our airline customers from North America into Europe." The service is a communications protocol that will link SAS's aircraft and its operational control centers.
Great Lakes Aviation President Douglas Voss was in Washington yesterday trying to find out why FAA is limiting the carrier's resumption of service. Great Lakes, which suspended operations voluntarily May 16 under pressure from FAA, resumed some service last week and built it up during the holiday weekend, but it has added nothing since then, a spokesman said yesterday. FAA said it is working with Great Lakes "with the goal of allowing additional expansion in the coming weeks in a controlled fashion." The agency said that "more flights could be added later this week."
Comair is on the verge of placing a major Canadair Regional Jet re-order, The DAILY is told. A spokeswoman confirmed that the company is in "final negotiations" and that the re-order likely would be announced "within the next few weeks." She could not confirm industry reports that the order would be in the range of 30 plus 45 options. The carrier, which intends to become an all-jet airline, also continues to talk to Embraer about its proposed 35- to 37-passenger EMB-135, a shortened version of the EMB-145. The fleet now comprises only CRJs (50) and Brasilias.
