KLM said yesterday it would pay 46.821 Dutch guilders per share for the 17.29 million shares it is purchasing from the Dutch government. The 800.2 million guilders (US$456 million) KLM would pay the government would be in addition to the 176.25 million guilders (US$100 million) the airline will pay for 11.75 million preference "A" shares. The move will cut the government's share to 25% from 38%. The airline said the move is subject to approval by KLM shareholders, but it was pleased with the pricing.
Air transport liberalization moved forward last week in Italy as startup airline Azzurra Air launched operations to Germany, the U.K., and France, in addition to domestic services. The airline started twice-daily flights from Bergamo to Rome, Munich, London City Airport and Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport with two new 100-seat Avro RJ85s, the first aircraft of this type delivered in Italy. The airline, in which Air Malta holds a 49% stake, will take delivery of a third Avro jet in April 1997.
Chicago Aviation Commissioner Mary Rose Loney told The DAILY that closing Meigs Field "has not and will not have any deleterious effect on new commercial air service at Midway" after Burlington, Iowa-based Remmers Aviation President Ron Remmers earlier this month alleged that closing Meigs has "effectively destroyed the possibility of any new airline service from Midway" (DAILY, Dec. 9).
Sen. Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) is considered likely to succeed Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) as chairman of the Commerce aviation subcommittee in the next Congress.McCain is replacing defeated Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.) as chairman of the Commerce Committee.
An investigation by DOT's Office of Inspector General found no clear pattern of FAA discrimination against white males in its promotions to GS- 15 positions, as had been alleged. Examining other allegations as well, the IG did find an imbalance in the agency's selection of women and minorities as nominees for the DOT Fellows Program.
The DOT Office of Inspector General said it substantiated two allegations and partially substantiated a third regarding "waste and mismanagement" at two Air Route Traffic Control Centers' Critical and Essential Systems Project installation sites in Seattle and Southern California. "We found that FAA's review of technical specifications failed to identify both a power system wiring deficiency and a floor density problem, resulting in schedule delays and extra costs," the IG reported.
Louis and Madrid TWA told DOT it plans to operate daily nonstop 767 service between St. Louis and Madrid, starting June 15. The carrier said it already has authority to fly the route. Delta has been denied permission by Spain to fly its own U.S.-Madrid route, and the U.S. responded by granting only a temporary exemption to Air Espana for Spain-U.S. service.
Airlines are increasingly skeptical about such FAA-endorsed information- sharing programs as Flight Operations Quality Assurance and the Global Aviation Information Network. The industry wants to gain experience first with its own program, the Aviation Safety Exchange Support System (ASESS), says Al Prest, VP-operations for the Air Transport Association. ASESS will use generic information rather than FOQA-type data. "We need to learn how to share among ourselves non-FOQA information," Prest says.
Air France's worldwide revenue passenger kilometers for November jumped 15.6% to 4.3 billion, the airline said. Capacity rose 12.7% to 6 billion available seat kilometers, and the passenger load factor increased 1.9 percentage points to 72.8%. Freight ton kilometers rose 4.9% to 428 million. For the first eight months of the airline's fiscal year, Air France posted a 14.9% gain in traffic on 9% greater capacity.
The government of Sri Lanka, seeking to sell off 40% of Air Lanka in a privatization program, has identified the most likely buyers as being Air Asia Ltd., represented by the Mercantile Group of companies, and an American consortium associated with the Maharajah Organization. Malaysian Airline System and Thai Airways International also are potential purchasers, a government spokesman said. When Sri Lanka first solicited interest in the airline, 77 potential buyers said they would consider acquiring all or part of the shares being offered.
Fine Air, a scheduled and charter cargo operator flying DC-8s out of Miami, filed in opposition to a renewal of Aeroperu's extra-bilateral authority to operate additional flights to the U.S. during the holiday season. Fine, which for some time had operated to Peru on subservice agreements with other carriers, was banned from flying there by Peruvian authorities on grounds that it delivered a shipment of weapons to Ecuador at a time when Ecuador was engaged in military action against Peru. Fine said it was unaware of the contents of the shipment.
Southwest Airlines extended its winter fare sale by one week, until Dec. 19. Tickets are good for travel to any Southwest destination from Jan. 6 through March 6, and to Jacksonville, Fla., when service begins Jan. 15. Tickets cost as little as $29 one-way in some markets, based on a roundtrip purchase.
Canadian Airlines International expects to expand rapidly from Vancouver by next summer, adding 170% transborder capacity and increasing frequencies on several routes to Asia and Europe. In addition, following a recent Canadian trend, the carrier also expects to announce a continued reduction in domestic service. Airline spokeswoman Diana Ward confirmed that Canadian will reveal details of the expansion early this week, and said the domestic service reduction will total 11%.
Korea's Ministry of Construction and Transportation has decided to build an electric railway linking Seoul and the new international airport being built at Inchon. The 66-kilometer link, with stops in Kongdok-dong, Susaek and Kimpo Airport, is scheduled to be completed by 2005.
United Parcel Service received some free publicity Friday morning on NBC's Today Show during a segment on timely delivery of holiday gifts by catalog companies. A team evaluating the companies was impressed with UPS for delivering packages on time and below the cost of FedEx, which was deemed reliable but pricey. None of the test shipments by the Postal Service arrived on time.
Nine airlines have launched service on 10 new domestic and international routes in China in recent weeks. -- China Southern is flying Guangzhou-Beijing-Amsterdam twice a week, using 777 or 767 aircraft. The service is China's first to The Netherlands and China Southern's first to Europe. -- China Northern launched once-weekly MD-82 service for Harbin- Weifang-Shenzhen. -- Shandong Airlines is serving Shenyang-Yantai-Jinan twice a week with Saab 340s.
Uganda and Thailand have signed a bilateral air service agreement that will permit airlines from each country to operate three passenger and cargo flights a week between Bangkok and Entebbe.
Orally approved an exemption for Air Holland Charter B.V. to engage in charter foreign air transportation between any points in The Netherlands and any points in the U.S., via intermediate points; and an authorization to wet-lease aircraft to Icelandair linking Iceland to New York and Fort Lauderdale/Orlando Dec. 22, 1996, through March 15, 1997...Approved a Horse France charter using an Aer Turas Teoranta DC-8-63F to carry up to 45 horses Dec.
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association promoted Thomas Chapman to senior VP-government and technical affairs. North American Airline Public Relations Association named Dinaz Boga, Air Jamaica, president and Margaret Vodopia, British Airways, and James Lydon, Aer Lingus, co-vice chairmen.
Asiana will increase service between Seattle and Seoul to five times per week from four, effective Dec. 23. The new schedule includes two flights on Mondays and one each on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. The Korean carrier serves Seoul from Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Honolulu and code shares with Northwest from Detroit.
Civil aviation officials in Hong Kong are considering playing recordings of birds' distress calls as a way of frightening birds from the area of the new Chek Lap Kok Airport. Concentrations of shore birds lead experts to fear a greater threat of bird strikes there than at Kai Tak, where 16 strikes so far this year have caused one aborted takeoff and two cases of engine damage.
City Bird, an airline subsidiary of City Hotels in Brussels, took delivery Friday of a new MD-11 from Douglas in Long Beach. The airline plans to use the aircraft for long-distance scheduled and charter air service from Brussels. City Hotels previously owned EuroBelgian Airlines, now flying short- and medium-haul charter services in Europe as Virgin Express Airlines. "In deciding to re-enter the aviation business, we decided to focus on the long-haul markets, with both charter and scheduled operations," said Victor Hasson, president of City Hotels.
Continental has inaugurated Houston-Lima, Peru, service with special fares of $398 roundtrip, 50% off the regular excursion fare. The fares are good for tickets purchased by Jan. 15 for travel completed by April 30. Lima is the fourth city in South America served by Continental from Houston. The carrier will begin nonstop service to Guayaquil Jan. 9. Continental also began nonstop service to Mazatlan on Friday and San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Saturday.
United and the Machinists union have come to a tentative agreement on a mid-term wage adjustment for mechanics and related workers that will give workers lump-sum, profit-sharing payments if UAL Corp. achieves at least $1 billion in pre-tax earnings. United said the wage adjustment process was built into the employee stock ownership plan to allow the "relative wage positions of United employees to keep pace with the rest of the industry." United's pilots recently agreed to a similar wage adjustment.
