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.
U.S. Major Carriers Traffic November, 11 Months 1996 (000) November November % 1996 1995 Change Alaska Revenue Passenger Miles 739,000 711,000 3.9 Available Seat Miles 1,134,000 1,101,000 3.0 Load Factor (%) 65.2 64.6 America West
Northwest's steady expansion continues to build the case for calling the top-tier U.S. carriers "The Big Four" instead of "Three." Through the first 11 months, Northwest achieved a 12.7% traffic market share, closer to No. 3 Delta's 17.3% than to No. 5 Continental's 7.7%. The largest shares are held by United (21.5%) and American (19.2%).
Ann Hodges has been named counsel of the Senate Commerce aviation subcommittee. Hodges, who works for the Washington law firm Shaw Pittman Potts&Trowbridge, previously was senior director of congressional affairs for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.
Three passenger airlines - Northwest, USAir and United - are among the 50 U.S. companies with the largest underfunded pension liabilities, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. said last week. UPS also is on the list, as are aerospace companies Rohr, Loral, United Technologies, Unisys and AlliedSignal.
Canada signed a limited-entry bilateral agreement - its first - with Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua last week. Canadian Airlines International was designated by the Canadian transport ministry as the first flag carrier to the region and within the next few weeks will launch service to one city in each country, at first through a code share with partner American from Miami. Service by a Central American carrier will start this winter.
FedEx reported net income of $103.7 million on revenues of $2.9 billion for the quarter that ended Nov. 30 - the company's second - up from net income of $89.9 million on revenues of $2.5 billion in the same period a year ago. Operating income was $184.9 million, up from $170.9 million.
America West said it set a one-day revenue record, $7 million, on Dec. 1, the Sunday after Thanksgiving. The previous record was $6 million, set on Nov. 26, 1995. The holiday traffic gave the carrier an 88.1% load factor for the day.
