FAA's cost/benefit analyses have changed to account for the rising value of a human life. Barry Valentine, FAA assistant administrator for policy, planning and international aviation, said yesterday FAA now uses $2.7 million per life in its analyses, up from $1.5 million.
Airline franchising, recently floated as one way to provide U.K. carriers access to interior U.S. markets, received scant attention at last week's open skies talks in London.Sources familiar with the negotiations said it was never really clear what form franchising would take, and some parties felt the idea was something of a "media creation."
Air Canada will begin nonstop service to Osaka June 17 from Toronto three times a week. The new service will bring to 10 the number of weekly flights it operates to Osaka from Canada, including Vancouver-Osaka service offered under a code share with All Nippon Airways. The new flights, to be operated with new high-gross-weight A340 aircraft, will cut flying time to Osaka from Toronto by four hours. Air Canada begins taking delivery of five of the aircraft this month.
General Accounting Office upheld award of the Digital Airport Surveillance Radar (DASR) contract to Raytheon Electronic Systems against protests from Northrop Grumman and ITT-Alenia, Raytheon said Tuesday. Potential contract value is $620 million, it said. The DASR system, known in the FAA as the ASR-11, is a critical element of the DOD and FAA air traffic modernization program for terminal area surveillance. It provides primary radar surveillance of aircraft to an instrument range of 60 nautical miles and secondary radar coverage up to 120 nautical miles.
Midwest Express recorded an 8.1% traffic increase in November to 91 million revenue passenger miles from 84.2 million last November. Available seat miles rose 17.2% to 161.4 million from 137.7 million, resulting in a 4.8- percentage-point drop in load factor to 56.4%. Midwest Express carried 5.7% more passengers during the month, for a total of 110,790. For the first 11 months of the year, RPMs were up 7.1% to 1.136 billion, while ASMs rose 8.6% to 1.789 billion for a slight drop in load factor to 63.5%.
China Southern filed at DOT for a foreign air carrier permit to operate combination service between Guangzhou and Los Angeles, starting March 17, 1997. The carrier plans to fly four times a week using a 777 configured for 292 passengers - 18 in first, 67 in business and 207 in coach class. The government-owned airline has an all-Boeing fleet of 737s, 757s, 767s and 777s, although it plans to acquire 10 A320s through lease next year. (Docket OST-96-2008)
Kiwi International Air Lines has put off resuming scheduled service until mid- to late January. The carrier had intended to restart before Christmas, but a spokesman said it "just got too late."
AirTran Airways reported a November traffic increase of 4% from last November to 58.9 million revenue passenger miles. Capacity rose 11% to 105.5 million available seat miles, resulting in a load factor drop of 3.9 percentage points to 55.8%. For the first 11 months of the year, RPMs rose 138% to 867.5 million and ASMs were up 110% to 1.327 billion. The load factor rose 7.7 points to 65.4%. AirTran carried 69,037 passengers in November and 996,203 in the first 11 months.
DOT and U.S. airline officials will meet today to discuss opening service to Vietnam. Though diplomatic relations have been restored between the U.S. and that country, the two sides have not yet negotiated a bilateral aviation agreement. The purpose of the meeting will be to acquaint the carriers with a formal proposal recently submitted by Vietnamese officials in Washington.
Acting FAA Deputy Administrator Monte Belger took issue yesterday with claims that FAA's priorities on air traffic control are driven by internal budget considerations (DAILY, Dec. 9). Speaking at an Air Traffic Control Association meeting on the National Airspace System architecture, Belger said he heard such testimony last week at the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security. "That is not true. This architecture and our capital investment priority decisions that we've made have focused on service and have focused on efficiency.
Echoing comments from other airlines, USAir Chairman and Chief Executive Stephen Wolf told outgoing DOT Secretary Federico Pena that an open skies agreement with the U.K. will be a "meaningless facade" unless negotatiors find a way to permit "full competition" against the proposed American- British Airways alliance.
Korean Air Lines started Pusan-Shanghai flights yesterday. It offers service four times a week and will operate half the flights jointly with China Eastern.
Kansas City-based Vanguard Airlines' November traffic shot up 82.8% to 42.9 million revenue passenger miles from 23.5 million flown in November 1995. Capacity rose 87.9% to 86.6 million available seat miles from 46.1 million, depressing the load factor 1.37 percentage points to 49.5%. For the year- to-date, RPMs rose 137.1% to 613 million, ASMs 99.9% to 999 million and the load factor 9.64 points to 61.4%.
Macau and the Philippines signed a draft air agreement that will allow scheduled air services between the two sides. Sources with the Macau Civil Aviation Authority said the agreement was signed after two days of talks between its chairman, Jose Queiroz, and Franklin Ebdalin, assistant secretary for legal affairs of the Foreign Affairs Department of the Philippines. Air Macau and a Philippines air company will have the right to operate scheduled services between the two sides.
Informal talks on liberalizing the U.S.-Japan bilateral will take place Jan. 10 in Tokyo, according to DOT. The U.S. delegation will include DOT Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs Charles Hunnicutt and representatives from the State Department and the White House. Northwest's complaint that Japan has violated the bilateral by refusing to permit new service still is pending after four 30-day extensions postponing action by DOT.
Delta is searching for an agency to handle its $100 million a year advertising account, which will include an evaluation of its agency of 51 years, BBDO. The airline has begun a two-month agency review as part of a company-wide comprehensive evaluation of every aspect of its business. Delta will announce the agency it has chosen in March. It will contact certain agencies immediately and begin formal reviews in February.
China and North Korea signed a memorandum on aviation cooperation following a visit to Beijing and Zhuhai Airport by a North Korea Civil Aviation Administration delegation.
U.S. aerospace manufacturers are more profitable this year than they have been in the past two decades, and the "prospects for 1997 look even better," Aerospace Industries Association President Don Fuqua said yesterday in Washington. The jetliner market's rebound helped manufacturers boost revenue for the first time in five years, to a projected $112.4 billion in 1996. AIA projects that U.S. aerospace industry sales will jump 11% next year to $125 billion, with jetliner growth more than offsetting declines in military aircraft, missiles and space.
Lufthansa is pressing its workers to return to the bargaining table and refrain from carrying out a threat to strike today. The company described the planned two-hour work stoppage, which will affect several German airports, as "totally incomprehensible." Heiko Lange, Lufthansa's chief of personnel and industrial relations, said yesterday, "Sensible compromise proposals have been placed on the table.
United is launching a corporate card with National Westminster Bank Plc (NatWest), providing access to the American Express global merchant network. The card will be issued in the first quarter of next year. United will offer the non-revolving charge card to large and medium-sized companies as a means of controlling travel and entertainment expenses. The carrier will provide overall account management to the companies.
Sanya Phoenix Airport in South China's Hainan Province will launch air routes to Korea, Japan, Germany, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Macau by the end of this year.
Continental has closed its earlier-announced $250 million offering of 9 1/2% senior notes due Dec. 15, 2001. The proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes, Continental said.
The new Pan Am will expand to eight aircraft and several new destinations in the first quarter of 1997, and is a year away from making a narrowbody fleet acquisition decision, President and Chief Executive Martin Shugrue said yesterday at an Institute for International Research conference in New York. Pan Am's future destination choices will be guided by a dozen international alliances in place. "They want to go places like Detroit, Chicago, Boston and Las Vegas," Shugrue said.
U.S. Major and National Carriers Interest Expenses Third Quarter 1996 % Of Total Operating Systemwide Expenses Alaska $ 7,103,000 2.14 America West 10,932,729 2.28 American 76,246,000 2.21 Continental 29,890,000 2.13
