Continental is learning that one can go too far to satisfy customers.The carrier empowered its front line employees a few months ago to appease angry customers with an upgrade to Business First Class, but to use discretion. Authorized employees now have been told to consult supervisors before making offers. It seems full-business-fare-paying customers were being "displaced." $end 421 OMB Proposes Cut In Upcoming FAA Budget, Full User-Fee Funding In Fiscal 1999
Air France Europe said its new domestic shuttle flights, inspired by United's strategy in California, are a "promising" success in their first month of operation. The carrier said it increased its market share 8% on Paris Orly-Marseilles and Orly-Toulouse routes and 2% on Orly-Nice between Oct. 27 and Nov. 26, despite two 48-hour strikes. The airline operates 27 daily frequencies to Marseilles, 26 to Toulouse and 15 to Nice in an attempt to crush competition on the "millionaire" routes, which total 6 million passengers a year.
1995 World Traffic Results, By Route Areas Passengers Psgr-Kms Carried % Flown Route Area (thousands) Change (millions) Within North America - International 6,165 15.8 8,853 North America - Central America 14,770 3.2 25,440 North America - South America 5,340 19.4 18,200
DOT Secretary Federico Pena said the passage of voter initiatives in California and Arizona to permit the medicinal use of marijuana did not alter enforcement of federal bans against drug use. "This very clear warning means that any safety-sensitive transportation worker - such as a pilot, railroad engineer or bus driver - who tests positive under our program may not use Proposition 215 or Proposition 200 as an excuse or defense."
The Australian government enacted a code of conduct agreement with the two major domestic airlines, Qantas and Ansett Australia, and the Australian Federation of Travel Agents that forces all involved to inform travelers if they are booked on code-share flights. Tickets will include printed information advising that a code-share service is being operated and giving the name of the carrier operating the service.
Delta won part of its battle in the allocation of Brazil scheduled combination rights, with DOT deciding to consolidate Tower Air's temporary exemption into a previously separate case to designate a fourth U.S.
Daimler-Benz Aerospace (DASA) and Volvo Group, the premier industrial powerhouses of Germany and Sweden, respectively, have agreed to cooperate in the development and production of aircraft engine parts. An agreement signed Dec. 11 between MTU Munchen, a DASA subsidiary, and Volvo Aero, the aerospace division of Volvo, covers a minimum of 20 years and will generate work worth nearly $600 million. The arrangement stems from the increasing pressure on Europe's aerospace sector to rationalize itself by pooling resources.
Niche startup carrier Pan Am applied for code-share authority with Aeroperu. The carrier would place Aeroperu's code on Pan Am flights between Miami and New York Kennedy, currently operating with Pan Am's A300s.
DOT approved Air Jamaica's bid to start new service between New York Kennedy and Antigua, Barbados and St. Lucia. The carrier's MD-83 flights will start Feb. 6 next year. Air Jamaica currently has more than 120 flights a week from U.S. points to Montego Bay and Kingston.
"The atmosphere" of the EU-U.S. multilateral air talks held in October in Washington "was very positive," said EU Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock in Brussels yesterday. The next meeting will take place in Brussels next March, Kinnock added. The EU mandated the European Commission to discuss "soft" issues with the U.S. Transportation Department, with the aim of setting up a "common aviation area" across the Atlantic. The issues at stake comprise competition rules, ownership rights, computer reservation systems, safety and dispute settlement.
The European Commission unveiled plans this week in Strasbourg to set up a European organization for civil aviation safety that would have sufficient weight to counterbalance the influence of the U.S. FAA. The existing informal European structure, the Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) set up in 1990, has several disadvantages, said the EC. "All of its decisions require the unanimity of its 26 member states; its decisions are not legally binding, [and] it does not have sufficient legal nor political weight, particularly against the FAA," an EC official said.
U.S. Major and National Carriers Commission Expenses Third Quarter 1996 % Of Total Passenger Systemwide Revenues Alaska $ 25,636,000 7.71 America West 32,389,798 8.23 American 300,895,000 8.52 Continental 107,955,000 8.45
Indian carrier Jet Airways has ordered six next-generation 737-800 aircraft and four 737-400s valued at $486 million, becoming the first carrier in Southeast Asia to order the -800, a stretched version of the -400. Boeing Commercial Airplane Group said deliveries will start with one 737-800 in 1998 and will continue through 2000. The 737-400s will be delivered starting next year. "This is strategically an important sale in India because of the significant growth we forecast for the domestic Indian market," said Seddik Belyamani, VP-international sales for Boeing.
Galileo International said it has become the first global distribution system to offer the highest level of connectivity for bookings on China Eastern Airlines and Air China. Galileo and Apollo travel agents will have direct links to the Chinese airlines' inventory systems hosted in the Management Information System of the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
Hawaiian Airlines has set up a new department responsible for safety and security and has appointed Norman Davies as VP-safety and security, effective Jan. 13. Davies is an FAA aviation safety inspector, and a former captain for Delta and system chief pilot at Pan Am. Bruce Nobles, Hawaiian president, said, "Thanks to a long-standing tradition of vigilance and care when it comes to the safety of our passengers and each other, Hawaiian enjoys an unbroken 67-year record of safety that is the envy of our industry.
A group led by United Communications submitted the sole bid for a license to operate Thailand's second international airline, according to reports from Bangkok. The new carrier, slated to begin scheduled flights to Singapore and China in 1998, would present the first direct competition permitted against Thai Airways International. When bidding for the new license was first announced, more than 10 groups expressed interest.
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."
