Atlantic Coast, the Washington Dulles-based United Express affiliate, suffered a 0.3-percentage point decline in load factor last month to 47.3% as capacity rose 2.1% to 67.1 million available seat miles and traffic increased 1.6% to 31.7 million revenue passenger miles. Boardings were up 0.5%. April 1997 April 1996 4 Mths 1997 4 Mths 1996 RPMs 31,744,000 31,244,000 104,985,000 103,996,000 ASMs 67,065,000 65,669,000 253,958,000 239,434,000
Air France and German regional Eurowings started joint service this week between Frankfurt and Berlin Tempelhof, a route previously operated only by Lufthansa. Earlier this year, the German airline was denounced by the Bundeskartellamt, the German antitrust authority, for charging excessive fares on Frankfurt-Berlin.
A proposal by Trans States Airlines to operate nonstop, turboprop United Express service to Chicago O'Hare from Asheville, N.C., Chattanooga, Tenn., and Roanoke, Va., has won substantial community support. Trans States, proposing nonstop service from the points using Jetstream 41 aircraft, is seeking an exemption from DOT's high-density rule that would permit the service to O'Hare, one of the four airports covered by the rule.
Five airlines - Cathay Pacific Airways, British Airways, Singapore Airlines, Swissair and Virgin Atlantic Airways - received Five Star Diamond Awards from the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences. The award recognizes airlines, hotels, resorts, restaurants and chefs worldwide.
US Airways will discontinue jet service to nine unprofitable cities and close some crew bases in September under a plan that aims to increase efficiency and eventually ground 22 aircraft. The carrier said the moves are necessary whether it decides to implement plans to develop as a global carrier or reduce its size to that of a large regional carrier, depending on labor costs. As expected, the changes call for employee furloughs (DAILY, May 8). US Airways did not provide financial details of the new business plan.
United has begun a loose coin collection program aboard transatlantic aircraft to benefit homebuilding this summer in London, Oakland and Newark by Habitat for Humanity. The program is an attempt to take advantage of foreign-currency change that passengers find a nuisance to exchange.
Northwest Airlink affiliate Mesaba Airlines flew 43.1 million revenue passenger miles last month, a 31.9% increase from 32.7 million in April 1996. Capacity rose 29.3% to 82.6 million available seat miles, allowing the passenger load factor to gain 1.1 percentage points to 52.2%. Mesaba said it planned to place the first two of 12 Avro RJ85 jets into service about June 6.
American Eagle reported a systemwide traffic decline of 6.7% to 206.5 million revenue passenger miles last month. Capacity was off 7.1% to 344.3 million available seat miles, allowing the load factor to rise 0.2 percentage points to 60% from 59.8%. April 1997 April 1996 4 Mths 1997 4 Mths 1996 RPMs 206,479,000 221,379,000 808,829,000 857,698,000 ASMs 344,285,000 370,506,000 1,387,608,000 1,507,606,000
DOT has named Great Lakes to provide essential air service between Mattoon and Chicago O'Hare, establishing an annual subsidy rate of $182,319 for the service. The rate is retroactive to Feb. 17 until the department takes further action. (OST-96-1955)
U.S. Major Carriers Systemwide Share of Service Fourth Quarter 1996 Total Revenue Departures Alaska 36,885 America West 52,999 American 195,836 Continental 112,900 Delta 240,526 Northwest 146,121 Southwest 189,768 TWA 69,659 United 196,887 USAir 189,256
U.S. and Canadian officials meet today in Washington, at Canada's request, to discuss the overflight fees the U.S. plans to impose May 19. Though fees are collected by many countries and FAA defends its version as simply a method to recover costs, an absence of international consultation drew strong criticism at a May 1 FAA hearing (DAILY, May 2).
Shanghair-based China Eastern, China's third-largest airline, reported a 10% revenue increase to $797 million (converted at 8.30 yuan per U.S. dollar) for the 12 months through March 31. After-tax profit was $71.2 million, down 7% from $76.4 million earned in fiscal 1995. The result surprised analysts because the airline projected a profit of $66.3 million less than two months earlier, two months after the year ended.
Eastwind Airlines board voted unanimously to appoint Herman Gillis, who started at the airline as chief pilot before being promoted to VP-flight operations, as its new president. Gillis participated in the Trenton-based company's certification and led it through its first FAA Regional Airline Safety Inspection Program in January.
British Airways will have to wait at least two months for a French court ruling on its complaint against Air Algerie's operations at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport. BA is backed by other foreign airlines operating at the Roissy facility, and the U.K. government claims the presence of the Algerian carrier is a threat to the security of British passengers because of the persistence of Muslim fundamentalist terrorism in Algeria.
FAA yesterday revoked the repair station certificate of D&C Airparts Corp., Hialeah, Fla. In an emergency order, the agency said the company maintained aircraft power supply and emergency power supply equipment without FAA authorization.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Mongolia awarded Raytheon an $11.7 million contract to provide an air traffic control system and aeronautical communications system for the country. The ATC center, to be located at the Ulan Bator Airport, will be linked to 22 regional facilities by satellite communications. The system is scheduled to be operational in 1998. Raytheon also will train operations and maintenance personnel. The project is being funded by a loan from the Asian Development Bank.
FAA will launch a rulemaking soon on installing fire suppression equipment and smoke detectors in cargo compartments, a federal official said yesterday following renewed National Transportation Safety Board criticism on regulating hazardous materials aboard aircraft.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) said this week the supplemental appropriations bill (H.R.1469, S.672) should allow FAA to spend additional funds on "various" commercially available explosives detection systems, not just a single type of system as proposed by the House. The House bill provides $40 million for advanced security equipment, and the committee report (House Report 105-83) says the funds are needed to prevent disruption of the production lines of the one FAA- certificated system - InVision's CTX 5000 (DAILY, March 28).
Illustration: Graph: Mesa Air Group Mesa Air Group suffered single-digit operating profit margins in its second fiscal quarter ended March 31. Profit margins for the two recent quarters were in the minus column. Mesa posed a 3.6% operating margin for the March quarter after hitting a 13.8% margin in the quarter ended Sept. 30, 1996 - the fiscal 4th quarter. The December quarter produced an operating margin of 3.8%.
The governments of Brazil and Canada held consultations in Geneva April 30 on the Brazilian government's claim, filed March 10 with the World Trade Organization (WTO), that Canada was subsidizing its aircraft manufacturing industry in violation of the WTO Subsidies and Countervailing Measures Agreement. Canada's Bombardier, with its CRJ, and Brazil's Embraer, with its EMB-145, are in the middle of a fierce battle to gain regional jet market share.
Continental Express has taken delivery of its seventh EMB-145, Embraer said. It currently operates the aircraft type from its main hub in Cleveland to Greensboro, Saint Louis, Minneapolis, Newark, Hartford and Milwaukee. The EMB-145 orderbook stands at 65 firm orders and 194 options. European launch customer Regional Airlines of France will take delivery of its first aircraft May 15.
Teamsters union, stepping up industry organizing efforts, today will seek representation of one of the largest groups of unrepresented airline employees - Continental and Continental Express's 5,000 mechanics.The union has its eye on an even larger group, 6,000 Delta mechanics, and is drumming up support on that property. It recently gained 500 flight attendant members at Reno Air and 22 at Eastwind, and it will count ballots for Eastwind's dispatchers in June.
John Crichton, chairman of Nav Canada and president of the Air Transport Association of Canada, will discuss foreign overflight fees and Canada's transition to a private air traffic control system on this week's Aviation News Today, to be broadcast Sunday on Washington's NewsChannel 8 from 12 :30 a.m. to 1 a.m. and 1:30 to 2 p.m.
Atlantic Southeast posted last month a 2.3% increase in revenue passenger miles to 77.5 million as capacity rose 0.5% to 150.9 million available seat miles. As a result, the passenger load factor gained 0.9 percentage points to 51.4% from 50.5%. April 1997 April 1996 4 Mths 1997 4 Mths 1996 RPMs 77,543,431 75,810,981 281,342,001 277,211,450 ASMs 150,908,436 150,150,586 584,083,380 581,866,296
The regional aircraft manufacturing industry will earn profits consistently in the long term only if its players are willing to consolidate assets, according to Saab AB President and Chief Executive Bengt Halse.
