Juneau, Alaska, Airport has installed Wind Profilers - windshear detection equipment - and expects them to be operational by January. Alaska Airlines, which helped pay for the system, said Hong Kong and Colorado Springs, also located near mountain ranges, are the only other airports with the system, which tracks wind direction and speed up to 10,000 feet.
United's reservations operation got high marks from corporate travel agents and travel planners polled by Nationwide Surveys Inc. Among 20 airlines, United's reservations agents are the most knowledgeable, the easiest to reach by phone and the easiest to work with, respondents said. The DAILY does not know whether the survey was conducted the day "nice-guy" entertainer Donny Osmond, touring the Chicago facilities for a fundraiser, worked the telephones and helped a customer with a reservations problem.
Approved orally a code-share, blocked-space agreement between Mexicana and Aeroperu for daily scheduled service on a Newark-Cancun-Lima-Buenos Aires routing through March 15, 1997. Mexicana will operate the aircraft on all segments and carry its own traffic between Newark and Cancun under one flight number, operating beyond Cancun under different flight numbers. It will carry Aeroperu's code for traffic linking Newark to Lima and Buenos Aires. DOT said the approval is granted in the expectation that Mexico and Peru will approve U.S.
In the wee hours of Friday morning, Kiwi International Air Lines received the hand-shake it needed, from Isbre Holding Corp., to resume to scheduled service. Isbre, the second company to step forward with $5 million in debtor-in-possession financing, has agreed to fund the airline's restart. The New York firm also secured the rights to provide an additional $15 million-$20 million in equity financing that would give it control of Kiwi.
FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association local at the New York air route traffic control center disagree about the union's prediction that travelers can expect "long delays during the busiest air travel season of the year." Chris Boughn, president of the local, said FAA has told the center it must operate with a 20% reduction in its overtime budget.
Sabre Interactive's travel booking service, Travelocity, now has more than 50 car rental companies and 32,000 hotel properties worldwide in its system available for online reservations. Many of the hotel properties provide color maps on Internet site http://www.travelocity.com. Terry Jones, president of Sabre Interactive, said Travelocity "gives users a real advantage by offering access to more hotels and car rental companies than any other travel site, as well as hundreds of airlines worldwide."
SAS is expected to unveil a restructuring program tomorrow, as it publishes first half results lower than last year's, and may target a cost saving of $150 million over two years. Restructuring is sweeping Europe - KLM, British Airways and Swissair have launched programs during the past month.
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association is suggesting a number of people for membership on the National Civil Aviation Review Commission, which was mandated by the FAA reauthorization act. In a letter to DOT Secretary Federico Pena, AOPA recommended former Reps. Jim Lightfoot (R-Iowa) and Norman Mineta (D-Calif.), former Sens.
SimuFlite said FAA has approved its advanced maneuver training, offered as an alternative to the rejected-takeoff portion of its alternate recurrent training. The training explores the causes and characteristics of extreme roll and pitch attitudes, with wake turbulence as a primary culprit.
American Eagle is installing "special" passenger boarding bridges that accommodate turboprops at Chicago O'Hare Airport and in other cities, enabling passengers to board its aircraft without walking across the tarmac. The regional carrier will begin using the first of 20 bridges at O'Hare before Thanksgiving and expects most to be operational by Christmas.
Qantas Airways believes it has traced last week's outbreak of salmonella poisoning of passengers to a dessert sauce produced by a company that supplied the airline's catering operation in Cairns. More than 500 passengers en route from Cairns to Taiwan and Japan are believed to have been affected.
The gap between the supply of and demand for new Brazil air cargo frequencies for 1996-97 widened as Arrow Air amended its application and Tower Air weighed in. Arrow Air said it will accept any number of charters DOT may allocate, "although it will not be able to fulfill its contractual obligations with fewer than approximately the 50 it has requested." Tower Air asked that its authorization be increased from 58 to 83, carrying general cargo on all flights.
DOT awarded new route rights for Toronto service to four airlines Friday: Continental for service from Newark, Delta from Atlanta, Northwest from Minneapolis/St. Paul and Midway Airlines from Raleigh/Durham, N.C. The authority permits two roundtrips per day, starting Feb. 24. TWA received backup authority to fly from St. Louis. Objections can be filed by Nov. 26. Past awards include Delta from Atlanta, TWA from St. Louis, Continental from Newark and USAir from Washington National.
Low-cost charter operator Sun Jet, in conjunction with Sun Jet International Sales, will begin serving Oakland Dec. 12, linking it to its Dallas/Fort Worth service, as well as to Tampa/St. Petersburg, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando. Fares start at $99 one way between Dallas and Oakland, and $119 each way to the Florida destinations. Sun Jet operates the flights with MD-80s.
Amadeus has instituted a pricing structure that it says gives airlines greater control over their distribution costs and minimizes the financial impact on airlines of consolidating System One and Amadeus. Effective Jan. 1, airlines will be able to choose between the existing net booking pricing structure or new, territorial pricing. The latter allows for different pricing for different parts of the world, based on the origin of the booking. For North and Central America and the Caribbean, pricing will be in U.S. dollars instead of European currency units.
FAA, warned nearly 10 years ago by the National Transportation Safety Board about the danger of cargo hold fires to passenger aircraft, now says it plans to ban oxidizing materials from cargo compartments and require retrofit of fire detection and suppression equipment on about 2,800 older transports. The board recommended these steps on Oct. 24, 1988. Aircraft flying over water already carry the equipment.
Southwest Research Institute named Janice Olvera assistant director-A- 10 systems in the Avionics and Support Department of the Aerospace Electronics and Training Systms Division.
Summary of U.S. Major Carriers International Traffic April 1996 Revenue Average Revenue Passengers Length of Passenger Enplaned % Travel Miles Carriers (000) Change (Miles) (000) Alaska 71 19.33 1,056 74,989 Latin 71 19.33 1,056 74,989 American 1,170 (0.70) 2,125 2,486,594
