"No comment at this time" was the response from Atlantic Coast Airlines when queried about reports that it will wet-lease some or all of its new Canadair CRJs to Midway Airlines for operation out of its Raleigh/Durham hub. ACA continues to seek United approval to operate the 50-seaters in the United Express livery, but United's pilots have reportedly drawn a line in the sand: United pilots will fly all jets. ACA has said it would operate the jets with or without United's sanction.
Lufthansa and private French regional carrier Air Littoral will link their frequent flyer programs next month and launch code-share operations in September under a marketing cooperation agreement signed yesterday in Paris. Based in Montpellier and Nice, Air Littoral flies to 26 destinations in southern France and the Mediterranean region using Canadair Regional Jets, ATR 42-500s and Fokker 70s. Lufthansa will be Air Littoral's general sales agent in Germany, Spain and Italy, and the French carrier will sell for Lufthansa at its 29 sales locations in France.
Termination of Jetstream 41 production by British Aerospace has led to speculation in Europe that the action may open the door for an invitation to Saab to join the Aero International (Regional) consortium. Saab was rumored to have been approached by AI(R) in the past about joining in the 70-seat regional-jet program as well as adding the 34-seat 340 program to the AI(R) portfolio to replace the J41. The highly successful Saab 340 could be considered as a competitor to the 46-seat ATR 42, but sources indicate it would be targeted at a somewhat different market.
SkyWest Airlines' passenger load factor fell 2.1 percentage points in May to 49.6% from 51.7% in May 1996 as traffic rose 2.6% to 63.4 million revenue passenger miles but capacity jumped 6.8% to 127.8 million available seat miles. Passenger enplanements rose 4.1% to 237,514. May 1997 May 1996 5 Months 1997 5 Months 1996 RPMS 63,360,629 61,771,624 301,427,428 280,236,050 ASMS 127,758,770 119,595,087 611,002,670 545,576,240
Atlantic Southeast flight attendants rejected a tentative agreement reached between the carrier and their union, the Association of Flight Attendants, AFA announced yesterday. Approximately 80% of those voting turned thumbs down on the deal.
Reps. Mac Collins (R-Ga.) and Jennifer Dunn (R-Wash.) agreed yesterday to withdraw proposed amendments to House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Archer's (R-Texas) revised aviation tax package, leaving in place a proposal that increases the airline industry's tax burden by about $3 billion. The Archer plan announced Monday would have increased taxes by about $4.5 billion. The modified Archer proposal, which eliminates the taxation of the domestic portion of international flights, would reduce that increased burden by more than $1.5 billion (DAILY, June 12).
Iberia reported a net pre-tax profit of 1.2 billion pesetas (US$8.4 million) in the first five months of 1997, compared with a loss of 5 billion pesetas ($35 million) in the same period of 1996. "This is the first time in Iberia's recent history that net profits are recorded in this period," the airline said yesterday in Madrid.
TWA's recommendation that DOT cut the number of CRS simulations in the American-BA alliance proposal - to reduce paperwork - may have come too late to make much of an impact. DOT Deputy Assistant Secretary Patrick Murphy said his department's request for documents from the prospective partners has produced "15 boxes, and counting." Data collection continues.
Saying FAA's lack of leadership has reached "a crisis point," House Appropriations transportation subcommittee Chairman Frank Wolf (R-Va.) yesterday commended the nomination of Jane Garvey to be FAA administrator and called on her "to clean up the mess at FAA as soon as possible." He suggested that Garvey and Deputy Administrator-designate George Donohue may be particularly effective because they do not spring from the FAA culture. Nevertheless, Wolf again chided the Clinton administration for taking so long to replace David Hinson.
American Eagle's four airline subsidiaries flew a collective 218.9 million revenue passenger miles last month, a 2.3% decline from May 1996. Capacity fell 2.7% to 355.6 million, pushing the LF down 0.3 percentage points to 61.6%. May 1997 May 1996 5 Months 1997 5 Months 1996 RPMs 218,946,000 224,111,000 1,027,775,000 1,081,810,000 ASMs 355,602,000 365,430,000 1,743,209,000 1,873,036,000 LF (%) 61.6 61.3 59.0 57.8
Frontier Airlines' May traffic jumped 39.6% to 84 million revenue passenger miles from 60 million last May, while capacity rose 41.5% to 140.3 million available seat miles. The capacity increase caused the load factor to dip to 59.9% from 60.8%. Frontier's passenger enplanements rose 30.6% to 114,242. For the first five months of the year, traffic grew 30.7% to 395.6 million RPMs from 302.6 million. ASMs were up 31.1% to 650.5 million from 496.2 million, and the load factor eased fractionally to 60.8%.
Code sharing tends to capture traffic for participating airlines instead of generating new traffic throughout the industry, benefiting the participants with higher revenue and traffic, according to an International Civil Aviation Organization study. Echoing a recent Australian industry commission report (DAILY, June 2), ICAO said the benefits of code sharing are pronounced when they are part of a larger alliance between the partner carriers.
Robert McAdoo, founder of Vanguard Airlines, has resigned from the carrier's board to accept an airline consulting position. The other five board members are considering whether to fill the vacancy. "I am lucky to have been a part of the Vanguard team and will continue to take great interest in the future of Vanguard," McAdoo said. With six 737-200s and one 737-300, Vanguard will return the -300 to the lessor in mid-July and is "evaluating opportunities to replace this aircraft."
Great Lakes Aviation, slowly resuming service after suspending operations under FAA pressure last month, has appointed Jeffery Redlin director of maintenance, a post described by the carrier as "the most senior maintenance position as required" by FAA. The suspension largely concerned maintenance shortcomings alleged by FAA.
Continental inaugurated daily nonstop service yesterday between Houston and Vancouver, British Columbia. It is offering a roundtrip fare of $238 on the route for the July 4 weekend only.
About 200 companies, nearly half non-Russian, have booked all available exhibit and flight line space at this year's Moscow Air Show, scheduled Aug. 18-24 at Zhukovsky, near the Russian capital, Itar-Tass reported. U.S. participants include Boeing Co., which collaborated with Tupolev on tests using the Tu-144 supersonic transport aircraft as a testbed, and Pratt&Whitney and Collins, principal U.S. associates of Ilyushin in the Il-96M/T project.
Chicago Express and Maverick Airways have withdrawn their participation in the Airlines Reporting Corporation, and Zuliana de Aviacion lost its membership by default. Chicago Express entered into a code-sharing agreement with American Trans Air in April and will withdraw from ARC with sales completed June 29. Also on June 29, ARC will discontinue processing the transactions of Maverick, which is terminating scheduled service to focus on charter flights.
Summary of U.S. National Carriers Systemwide Traffic October 1996 Revenue Average Revenue Passengers Length of Passenger Enplaned % Travel Miles Carriers (000) Change (Miles) (000) American Trans Air 242 (22.11) 1,554 375,606 Carnival 131 (6.08) 1,259 164,318
Citicorp, one of several financial institutions that own a combined 53% of US Airways-run Shuttle Inc., believes American is more likely than US Airways to acquire the operation. American as the winning bidder for the Boston-New York-Washington shuttle is "the most likely outcome," according to a report prepared by Reno Bianchi of Citicorp Securities Inc. US Airways, which owns the remaining 47%, "is a more likely seller than buyer of the shuttle," said Bianchi, VP investment grade research. Shuttle Inc.
Cathay Pacific is launching the fourth in its series of online auctions of seats from the U.S. to Hong Kong. The latest auction begins July 1, the day Hong Kong returns to Chinese rule, and covers 365 economy-class seats on roundtrips from New York or Los Angeles during September, October and November. Minimum bids begin at $400 and the maximum is $900. Bidders must register with Cathay Pacific CyberTravelers.
Boeing, with a third 20-year airline deal in its pocket, will appear today in Brussels before the European Commission, competition experts from the 15 European Union countries, European aerospace companies and other interested parties to defend the company's proposal to acquire McDonnell Douglas, a Boeing spokesman confirmed yesterday. One of the commission's main concerns is Boeing's long-term agreement with major U.S. airlines - Continental this week (DAILY, June 11) and American and Delta earlier. Airbus Industrie will appear before the commission Friday.
Summary of U.S. Major Carriers Domestic Traffic October 1996 Revenue Average Revenue Passengers Length of Passenger Enplaned % Travel Miles Carriers (000) Change (Miles) (000) Alaska 894 12.60 791 707,473 America West 1,556 10.31 863 1,343,541 American 5,418 (0.07) 1,113 6,028,038
Great Lakes Aviation resumed United Express service yesterday between Chicago O'Hare Airport and Sioux Falls, S.D.; is scheduled to resume today between O'Hare and Sault Ste. Marie and Pellston, Mich., and Mattoon, Ill., and intends to resume no later than the weekend between O'Hare and Terre Haute, Ind. The carrier, which suspended all service May 16 under pressure from FAA, has been resuming flights gradually as FAA completes fleet inspections.
Duty-free sales will be abolished as planned on international flights within the European Union beginning June 30, 1999, a European Commission spokesman confirmed. Airport operators and ferry companies re-launched their anti-abolition campaign recently, arguing that employment will suffer - a report tabled by ferry operators claims 50,000 jobs are in jeopardy. The commission replied that duty-free sales are completely inconsistent with the single market, and it emphasized that the decision to scrap them was made unanimously by the EU governments in 1991.
