Air Transport Association and FAA are teaming up to produce in three years a turnkey Local Area Augmentation System (LAAS) station that could be replicated for about $500,000 each to provide precision landing capabilities at about 150 key airports. FAA is to budget $1 million or more a year while the airlines provide at least $1 million in in-kind services, such as aircraft, aircrews and engineering support for the project. "We have got the funding, the commitments and the contractors waiting in line," said Mike Rioux, ATA senior VP-operations and safety.
Port of Seattle weighed in on U.S.-Japan aviation disputes, backing Northwest's call for sanctions by turning down Japan Airlines' request to switch gateway designations so it can maintain service levels at Atlanta and increase them to Kona, Hawaii. "Wholesale sanctions against Japanese carriers would be self-defeating and would have an excessively negative impact on the trade and economies of the United States and Japan," Port of Seattle said.
Air Line Pilots Association joined numerous airlines opposing routine approval of the proposed American-British Airways alliance, saying in a DOT filing that the partnership must await the negotiation of an open skies pact with the U.K.
FAA lacks an overall blueprint for developing and maintaining the "many interrelated systems" that comprise its air traffic control system infrastructure, the General Accounting Office said yesterday in a report to Congress, the Transportation Department and the Office of Management and Budget. FAA has developed one of two principal components of a complete systems architecture, but the second essential component is not being developed, GAO said.
Boeing's 777 has had a much faster start than the 747. With 318 orders at the end of December, the 777 program already was more than one-fourth as large as the 747's 1,258 orders. The 777 total was 43% higher than the 223 orders the 747 had amassed after the same sales effort, seven years.
Transportation Law Section of the Federal Bar Association will host a reception Feb. 6 for the DOT general counsel and chief counsels, and the general counsels of NASA, the National Transportation Safety Board and others. Reservations are required. For further information, call 202-638- 0252.
The European Commission will unveil "in a few weeks" a proposal aimed at making sure aircraft operated by carriers from countries outside the European Union "are subject to checks regardless of their point of origin" when they serve EU airports, according to EU Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock. Dutch Transport Minister Anne-Marie Jorritsma said national aviation authorities will carry out the safety checks and exchange their findings.
The Communications Workers of America was scheduled to file objections late yesterday with the National Mediation Board against USAir management for what it says were company actions that hurt the union's organizing efforts. The CWA, which lost an election last week to represent USAir's passenger service workers (DAILY, Jan. 31), says it came up short "narrowly." It needed 4,637 votes to win but received only 3,973.
Senate Commerce Committee is scheduled to vote tomorrow on the nomination of Rodney Slater to be DOT secretary. An executive session will begin at 10 a.m., Room 253, Russell Building.
House Ways and Means Committee will hold a hearing tomorrow to review the solvency of the aviation trust fund in light of the statutory problem discovered last week with transferring fourth-quarter taxes into the fund (DAILY, Feb. 3). The hearing is tentatively set for 2 p.m. in Room 1100, Longworth Building.
Citing increased foreign trade and its ability to compete and end American's "stranglehold" on Latin American service, Delta submitted a detailed outline of its proposed U.S.-Brazil combination service. DOT will designate two new U.S. flag carriers, bringing the total to four, and award 21 weekly frequencies in the Brazil proceeding. Delta wants to fly from Atlanta (with connections from Cincinnati) and New York to Sao Paulo/Rio de Janeiro, initially with 767-300ERs and MD-11s if conditions warrant.
United said yesterday it will launch a second daily Chicago-London Heathrow nonstop following U.K. and U.S. government approval for additional service on the route. The flight will be operated with a 206-seat, three-class 767-300, beginning April 1 and ending Oct. 25. When United began operating service on the route in 1995, it agreed to limit capacity to a single nonstop with 767-sized aircraft capacity until Jan. 15, 1997. Two weeks ago, the carrier was allowed to add capacity, which it did by switching to a 292-seat 777-200.
North American Airlines wants to amend its authority for long-term wet- lease for El Al, permitting NAA to operate on the New York-San Francisco segment of a series of special weekly El Al roundtrips between Tel Aviv and San Francisco. The flights are scheduled June 24 through Aug. 26, using 757s.
Operating profits for Air France should exceed 1 billion French francs (US$185 million), and the airline finally should break even in net earnings when 1996 results are reported, said Christian Blanc, chairman. If the carrier is able to turn a net profit this year, it will be far ahead of Blanc's earlier prediction of positive net earnings in 1998.
Icelandair is adding summer flights that will give it the most capacity to Europe it has ever offered from North America. The carrier will add service to Glasgow, London and several Scandinavian points and operate to 20 European cities by summer. Icelandair operates from five North American gateways: Boston, New York Kennedy, Baltimore/Washington, Orlando and Halifax, Nova Scotia, all with 757s through Keflavik.
Mexicana and Aeromexico are seeking authority to code share on a Miami/Cozumel/Merida routing, starting Feb. 13. Aeromexico plans to place its code on Mexicana's daily flight.
Haggling about the reform of European air traffic management institutions continued Saturday as European Union transport ministers decided to set up a "high-level group" to discuss the future of Eurocontrol. Meeting informally in Amsterdam, the ministers did not support proposals by EU Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock for quick changes within the European air navigation organization, however. In particular, Kinnock wanted the EU to become a full-rights member of Eurocontrol.
The Allied Pilots Association has drafted a new economic analysis of its offer to settle its contract dispute with American, and the union will share it today with financial analysts in New York and tomorrow or Thursday with negotiators for the airline. The newly completed analysis, prepared by its negotiating committee with help from the union's technical resources and analyses committee and outside consultants, also may be made public today. The APA did not return phone calls yesterday.
United Airlines applied for an exemption to operate scheduled cargo service using Anchorage as a gateway to Japan, the Philippines and Taiwan. The carrier applied last year for an amendment to its existing all-cargo authority, and is applying for the exemption now because it is ready to start the service March 1, in advance of a pending decision on the amendment. United said it is already authorized to serve all-cargo routes to Japan and the Philippines from named U.S. points as gateways, and to Taiwan from all U.S.
Kiwi International Air Lines has filed a lawsuit against ValuJet, seeking $259,732 in compensation for termination of a contract, under which Kiwi was to operate about 120 charter flights to cover ValuJet's aircraft shortage in December. Kiwi was unable to round up enough crew members to perform the flights, which it had agreed to operate on short notice, leading ValuJet to cancel all flights from Atlanta to Dallas/Fort Worth and Fort Myers (DAILY, Dec. 24).
Air South, which recently launched a promotion allowing kids to fly free with a full-fare adult passenger, has extended the offer to anyone with the last name of Kid - spelled with one D, not two. Free tickets for travel through Oct. 11 are available to Kids who send Air South proof of their last name by Feb. 10.
Making the rounds at American is a "Help Feed the Pilots" signup sheet warning that "thousands of pilots in our very own country are living at or just below the six-figure salary line." For $300 a day, employees can sponsor a pilot in the event of a strike. "For you, three hundred dollars is nothing more than a half-month's rent or mortgage payment...but to a pilot three hundred dollars a day will almost replace his or her salary." It could mean the difference between "a vacation fishing in Florida or a Mediterranean cruise."
British Airways franchise partner CityFlyer has slashed its World Offer fares to 59 pounds return to all 11 destinations it serves from London Gatwick - Amsterdam, Antwerp, Cologne/Bonn, Cork, Dublin, Dusseldorf, Guernsey, Jersey, Leeds Bradford, Newcastle and Rotterdam. Tickets must be purchased before Feb. 19, and travel periods vary. The offer is available until at least April 24, excluding the Easter period.
Air France has set up Air France Servisair Limited (AFSL), a joint venture with Servisair Plc, to take over the French carrier's ground-handling operation at London Heathrow Airport. The new company, owned 51% by Air France and 49% by Servisair, is chaired by Etienne Rachou, Air France's general manager for the U.K. and Ireland.
