U.S. officials expect to initial an open skies agreement with Korea in July, DOT Assistant Secretary Charles Hunnicutt said in testimony prepared for yesterday's Senate Commerce aviation subcommittee hearing on the American-BA alliance.Hunnicutt added the U.S. is "very close to reaching final agreement" with Malaysia. Talks are proceeding at the embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
Dallas/Fort Worth parties support the American/TACA code-share proposal to alter an "abysmal pattern of service" from that point to Central America. Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, home hub for American Airlines, has little service to the region despite being the world's third-busiest airport in enplanements, the Cities of Dallas and Fort Worth, their respective chambers of commerce, the DFW International Airport Board and the North Texas Commission said in a DOT filing this week.
United recorded a 3.1% traffic gain in May on 3.3% higher capacity, which lowered the load factor 0.1 percentage points to 71.5%. Atlantic and Latin American operations both posted increases during the month. Atlantic traffic rose 18% on 15.9% more capacity, improving the load factor 1.5 points to 85.5%. Latin American traffic grew 5.2% on 2% less capacity, which pushed the load factor up 4.1 points to 59.7%. North American traffic gained 1.7% on 1.3% more capacity. Cargo ton miles were up 19.5%.
Western Pacific Airlines reported a 42.9% increase in revenue passenger miles in May to 169.6 million from 118.7 million in May 1996. Capacity rose 22.8% to 258.4 million, driving the load factor up to 65.6% from 56.4%. For the first five months of the year, traffic rose 25.6% to 696.8 million RPMs and capacity 31.2% to 1.3 billion ASMs, while the load factor fell 2.5 points to 55%.
ValuJet's traffic continues to improve each month, as decreases in traffic over last year continue to shrink. In May, revenue passenger miles were down 34.7% to 124.6 million from 191 million a year earlier, while capacity fell 34.8% to 236.1 million available seat miles. The load factor rose 0.1 percentage points to 52.8%. For the first five months of the year, traffic was down 58.3% to 526.2 million RPMs from 1.3 billion, and ASMs declined 56% to 958.2 million from 2.2 billion, resulting in a load factor drop of 3.1 points to 54.9%.
American Airlines Fly AAway Vacations is offering tour packages to overseas visitors for the first time. One example is a stay at the Mayan Dude Ranch near San Antonio, Texas, that includes two horseback rides per day, fishing, hayrides, nature trails, swimming, tennis, volleyball and basketball, three meals a day including a cowboy breakfast cooked on the "open trail," Mexican fiestas and complimentary beer and wine. The package costs $266 per person, based on double occupancy, for three days and two nights.
Continental traffic for May jumped 13.3% on a capacity increase of 8.4%, which pushed the load factor up to a record 71%, 3.1 percentage points more than in May 1996. International traffic gained 28.2% on 20.8% more capacity, increasing the international load factor 4.1 points to 70.4%. Domestic traffic rose 8% on 3.8% more capacity, and the domestic load factor grew 2.7 points to 71.2%. Cargo rose 12.9% in May to 46.2 million revenue ton miles and has risen 17.2% year-to-date. May 97 May 96 5 Mths 97 5 Mths 96
Seven international airlines have filed motions for a stay of the collection of overflight fees by the FAA, supporting the Air Transport Association of Canada's (ATAC) earlier filings. "This takes the issue to a new level," said Bob Kneisley, attorney for ATAC. While a court can take a long time to respond to motions of appeal, it normally acts faster on a motion to stay a process. The seven airlines - British Airways, Qantas, KLM, Air New Zealand, Lufthansa, LTU International and Asiana - are the same carriers that joined ATAC in suing the FAA, Kneisley said.
Labor strife from two unions is clouding the British Airways Business Efficiency plan that aims to cut costs #1 billion during the next three years. Some 9,000 ground workers in the U.K. and 8,500 cabin crew plan strike ballots in separate disagreements with the airline. Each group could vote to strike by the end of this month. The Transport and General Workers Union is protesting BA's planned divestiture of its Heathrow inflight catering unit, even though BA has guaranteed all 1,200 jobs and worker pensions.
Moody's Investor Service has lowered Japan Airlines' senior unsecured long- term debt and other ratings. Despite the improvement in global airline industry health, "JAL's relatively poor cost structure is likely to continue to adversely affect future profitability," Moody's said. The ratings agency also is concerned that increasing domestic and international competition will step up pressure on JAL's margins. JAL, barely profitable since fiscal 1992, lost $74.5 million last year (DAILY, June 2).
UPS pilots are hoping that a close call involving Air Force One, with the President and the First Lady on board, and a UPS 747 will prompt the Clinton administration to require collision-avoidance equipment on large cargo aircraft. The incident occurred May 27 shortly after midnight 213 miles west of Shannon, Ireland, at about 28,000 feet. The two 747s, one climbing and the other descending, were within seven seconds of closing their distance had their pilots not taken evasive action, the Independent Pilots Association (IPA) estimates.
The first of Cathay Pacific Airways's Rolls-Royce Trent 700-powered A330s will return to service today following an 11-day voluntary grounding. The airline completed testing yesterday and reached agreement with regulatory authorities in England, France and Hong Kong to reinstate service. Cathay's A330 service resumes with Flight 506 from Hong Kong to Osaka, and the carrier expects all 11 A330s to be operational within a week, "but it could happen sooner," said spokeswoman Diana Fung.
The work-to-rule action launched last weekend by Air France's Syndicat National des Pilotes de Ligne (SNPL) has had no effect on traffic, the French flag carrier said. Air France has taken steps in recent days to neutralize the radical union's influence over pilots, including adoption of accounting measures needed to withhold pay from strikers. During previous conflicts, the airline could not distinguish striking pilots from non- strikers. The work-to-rule action is due to last until Friday.
Raytheon Aircraft will form Raytheon Travel Air, a company offering fractional ownership of its turboprop and jet aircraft, and will place nine new turbine aircraft in the program this year, Raytheon said yesterday. Outlining examples of its offerings, Raytheon said one-fifth ownership of a new King Air B200 will cost about $788,000, a quarter share of a Beechjet 400A will cost $1.513 million and a quarter share of a Hawker 800XP will cost $2.79 million.
American chief Robert Crandall heaped praise on a General Accounting Office report reviewing U.S.-U.K. issues yesterday, but obstacles to approval of the American-British Airways alliance seemed no smaller after testimony before the Senate Commerce aviation subcommittee. Airline opponents continued their attacks, DOT outlined a U.K. negotiating position that could slow down approval further, and various parties, including GAO, offered no widely accepted solution to slot availability problems at London Heathrow.
Top 25 Domestic City-Pair Markets O&D Passengers Fourth Quarter 1996 1996 1995 Average Mkt Mkt Passengers Top Carrier Rank Rank City-Pair Per Day (% Share) 1 3 Los Angeles - New York 7,897 American (34.7) 2 1 Chicago - New York 7,269 United (42.9) 3 2 Honolulu - Kahului 7,107 Aloha (46.5)
Northwest objected to United's request for immediate use of Russian overflight frequencies, which have again become useful now that the FAA permits routing over Afghanistan airspace (DAILY, May 22). Northwest questioned whether there are enough frequencies for all interested parties, including Northwest, which does not want United to be granted temporary use while the issue is sorted out.
Aviation-Related Bills Introduced In Congress February 24-May 23 - H.R.823 - introduced Feb. 25 by Rep. Van Hilleary (R-Tenn.) - to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to reinstate the aviation trust fund excise taxes and to suspend the 4.3-cent general revenue portion of such taxes during the reinstatement period. Referred to Ways and Means.
Spain's Air Europa, which has grown in Europe to more than 1,000 flights per week, is adding scheduled service to its two U.S. gateways. The carrier will increase New York-Madrid flights July 16 to daily from six weekly flights and will add service from Madrid to Miami, first rising to three weekly flights July 13, then possibly to five per week later this year. "We have no plans to add additional U.S. gateways; our current focus is to look for addition code share partners and interline agreements," said Angel Garay, deputy manager, North America.
Opponents of the American/TACA code share are more alarmed than ever now that they have reviewed confidential documents in the case. As interested parties, Delta, United and Continental have access to documents that American/TACA are not required to post in the public dockets, including internal memorandums, strategic assessments and commercial data. The carriers have filed two sets of responses - redacted comments for the public record and full comments to DOT.
The 76 Russian civil aviation officers attending the Second Russian- American Aviation Conference last week in Annapolis, Md., chose to fly Finnair rather than Aeroflot, the Russian press noted. Russian daily Komsomolskaya Pravda reported there were 137 empty seats on the Aeroflot Airbus aircraft that landed in Washington on the eve of the conference.
DOT issued its Brazil cargo charter allocations for the charter year beginning in July, awarding more than half the 750-flight pool to three of 10 competing carriers - Southern Air Transport, 180; Florida West, 145, and Air Transport International, 83. Atlas Air, 35, and Arrow Air, 29, also received allocations in the tentative decision, but Millon, Tower Air, ABX, Fine and World Airways received none. Any of them can apply for ad hoc charters on a first-come, first-served basis from the 278 that remain available, however.
United Parcel Service increased its service to Japan yesterday and indicated it wants to broaden its collaboration with Nippon Cargo Airlines (NCA) once the U.S. and Japan reach a new aviation agreement. Yesterday's service launch begins five 747-100 freighter flights per week between Chicago O'Hare and Tokyo Narita airports with an intermediate stop in Anchorage, replacing 767-300 service between Tokyo and Anchorage. UPS said it will expand its interline freight agreement with NCA to include cargo from Osaka and Tokyo to Chicago and vice versa.
Cathay Pacific has postponed for one day the planned restart of operations of its 11 A330s, grounded for 10 days due to Rolls-Royce engine problems. The airline expects to announce a new flight schedule today pending the results of final testing. Short-haul testing has been completed, but a planned long-haul Hong Kong-Bangkok test flight was delayed a day because of an unrelated avionics issue. "All the modifications have been signed off by regulatory authorities, so pending final testing we expect to have the aircraft flying shortly," said spokeswoman Diana Fung.
