Eight state attorneys general have asked DOT Secretary Federico Pea for a public hearing on the proposed American-British Airways alliance. The group, led by Richard Blumenthal, attorney general of Connecticut, and Scott Harshbarger of Massachusetts, wrote Pea and, in a separate letter, asked U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno to support their request and give the alliance suitable scrutiny in its planned request for immunity from U.S. antitrust laws.
TriStar Airlines has suspended flight operations in what President Don Martin called "a dispute with British Aerospace over the status of its leases" of four BAe 146 aircraft. The manufacturer obtained a temporary restraining order barring the Las Vegas-based start-up from operating the aircraft. Martin said the carrier is working with BAe to get one or more aircraft back on the line.
FAA has assigned a conditional rating to civil aviation oversight by members of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), including Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and The Grenadines, and St. Kitts and Nevis. The conditional rating means that the civil aviation authorities of those countries do not meet safety standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization, and FAA said it is negotiating with the CAAs to begin corrective measures.
Boeing 747 Systemwide Aircraft Utilization Per Day Second Quarter 1996 B747-100 Northwest TWA Number of Aircraft Operated 23 9 Total Fleet Operations Departures 36 14 Block Hours 271 93 Flight Hours 255 85
Two recent military contracts to civil aviation companies for helicopter training were praised by the Helicopter Association International as a "significant step toward broader privatization." HAI cited a UNC Aviation Services' contract valued at up to $101 million to provide helicopter flight training services for the Army Aviation Training Center, and an Air Force contract valued at more than $4 million with FlightSafety International for simulator training of UH-1N crews at the FSI Bell Helicopter training center.
Societe d'Exploitation et de Constructions Aeronautiques - Company (SECA), the Paris Le Bourget-based maintenance specialist and overhauler, has named Henri-Paul Puel as chairman and chief executive, replacing Maurice Bloch. Puel is chairman and chief executive of the SOGERMA Maintenance Centre, of which SECA is a subsidiary. Bloch had been chairman since March 1990.
Air Canada expects to add service to several Asia/Pacific destinations during the coming year while building its profitable transborder network, which now serves 34 U.S. cities. "The greatest potential for us over the next 10 years is in the Pacific," said R. Lamar Durrett, Air Canada president and chief executive, who will travel to Japan next month to meet with his counterpart at All Nippon Airways. Air Canada and ANA code share, but only on the Vancouver-Osaka route.
SkyWest Airlines has been named the third highest growth revenue company in Utah by Mountainwest Venture Group. SkyWest's operating income rose from $113.4 million in 1991 to $225.4 million in 1995. The award was presented at the "UTAH 100" awards luncheon Oct. 24 in Salt Lake City. SkyWest said the 100 companies on the UTAH 100 list had combined sales of $1 billion in 1991 and $2.7 billion in 1995.
Continental, pinning its hopes on Newark as a near-future alternative to American's Miami bastion for service to Latin America, will apply soon, perhaps as early as today, for service authority from Newark to Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The U.S. and Brazil signed a bilateral agreement last week that will allow the U.S. to designate a fourth carrier to provide scheduled service and add 14 new frequencies in April (DAILY, Oct. 28).
Cargolux Airlines International will use one of its 747-200 freighters in Paris-New York-Paris service today and Nov. 6-7 as a subcontractor to Air France, which arranged the service on an emergency basis due to mechanical problems with its own aircraft. (Docket OIA-96-772)
The average length of haul for 15 of the nation's largest regional airlines remained static during September at 239 statute miles, compared to the same month a year ago. Individual carriers, however, saw swings of as much as 7.8% on the plus side and 7.9% on the minus side. At the top of the list was Delta Connection Comair with its fleet of new Canadair Regional Jets (CRJs) pushing its average length of haul up 4.7% year over year to 330 miles. That was up from 315 miles in September 1995.
Air Line Pilots Association directors have voted unanimously in favor of a proposed merger agreement with the Canadian Air Line Pilots Association. The board approved the proposal at its 36th biennial meeting in Bal Harbour, Fla. CALPA officials will vote during its Convention Assembly Nov. 19-21 in Quebec City, which would be followed by a membership vote. ALPA President Randy Babbitt said a merger is a step toward ensuring that pilots of different nations "will not be pitted against one another."
Training Crunch at both Fairchild Dornier and Saab is forcing the companies to provide airplanes to train new crews at both USAir Express PSA (formerly Jetstream International) in the case of the former and Mesaba in the case of the latter. Fairchild Dornier's only U.S. Dornier 328 simulator at Portland, Ore., is booked solid primarily with pilots for new Western Pacific subsidiary Mountain Air Express, so it took an airplane from Lone Star to train pilots at PSA.
The 1996 congressional election brings few key individual races of interest to the aviation industry, but the possibility that control of the House, the Senate or both may shift back to the Democrats makes it notable nonetheless. The most significant race, between Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Larry Pressler (R-S.D.) and Rep. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.), is viewed by many as a toss-up. All House members are up for reelection, but none of the key committee or subcommittee leaders is believed to be in danger.
FedEx has started operations to Moscow, which it intends to develop as a gateway to Russia and the former Soviet republics. FedEx said it will be the "only U.S. express carrier to use a combination of its own aircraft and customs warehousing service," removing weight restrictions on express service.
United Parcel Service and the Teamsters union, which represents more than 800 UPS aircraft maintenance workers, reached a tentative agreement on a new labor contract, the company said yesterday. The proposal will be submitted to a vote by workers early this month, and terms were not revealed pending the vote.
Minneapolis-based Mesaba Airlines posted an operating margin of 13.9% for its second fiscal quarter ended Sept. 30, 4.1 percentage points higher than the 9.8% it recorded in the same 1995 period. The Northwest Airlink affiliate earned a net income of $3.9 million, or 30 cents per share, compared with 23 cents in the same year-ago period (DAILY, Oct. 25). The net profit figure represents a 51.1% increase over the previous year's second fiscal quarter net earnings of $2.6 million (excluding a $49.3 million nontaxable gain resulting from the Airways Corp. spinoff).
The French court that was expected to rule this week on who will buy Air Liberte has put off its decision until Nov. 5 because British Airways, the principal suitor, wants more information on the French carrier.The deal would give BA more than 30 slots at Paris Orly, an airport that likely will lose Delta and Continental to Charles de Gaulle Airport next year if and when their alliances with Air France are cemented.
Some 250 member airlines of the International Air Transport Association will hold an urgent meeting Nov. 13 in Geneva to address the high cost of jet fuel worldwide. In what is officially known as the Tariff Coordinating Conference, member carriers will consider how to counter fuel costs that have risen more than 10% globally in the past 12 months, reaching five-year highs. Carriers could absorb price hikes but are expected to agree as a group to pass them on to consumers by increasing passenger and cargo tariffs.
Belfast-based Bombardier subsidiary Short Brothers is creating 120 jobs in Northern Ireland to keep up with demand from customers for aircraft components. Shorts VP Ken Brundle said, "As a result of recent increases in the aircraft production rates of our major customers, there is a need to employ a further 120 production line employees at our two composite plants."
Farmington, N.M.-based Mesa Air Group posted net earnings of $30.4 million, or one dollar per share, for its fiscal year ended Sept. 30, a 138.1% increase per share from fiscal 1995 earnings of $14 million, or 42 cents per share. For the fourth quarter ended Sept. 30, net earnings reached $8.1 million, or 29 cents per share, a 26.1% per share increase from the prior period's $7. 6 million, or 23 cents per share.
Belgian flag carrier Sabena and its unions reached a preliminary agreement yesterday that will save the carrier 4.7 billion Belgian francs (US$151 million) during the next two years and return it to profitability. Three separate components of the union accords, framed under Sabena's "Horizon '98" restructuring, will reform the carrier's work rules, salaries, benefits, operational efficiency and provide for voluntary retirements. "There were some last-minute problems with the pilots, but they have been solved," said Sabena spokesman Eric Plateau.
Air Express International and Sears have created a "Miami Export Initiative" program that enables Latin American shoppers in Miami to buy goods, receive shipping quotes and pay for the shipment of purchases anywhere without ever leaving the store. In most cases, international shoppers visiting the U.S. must arrange their own shipment of goods. The program is being pilot-tested at Sears's 17 locations in Miami and may be expanded to New York, Los Angeles and Orlando.
AirWays Corp., the parent of Orlando-based AirTran Airways, posted a $4.1 million loss for the third quarter, versus a net profit of $201,000 during the year-earlier period. The airline continues to realign its service, withdrawing from several cities and trying others in a search for the best profitability for nonstop flights from mid-sized cities to Orlando. AirTran blamed its worsened results on negative publicity about low-cost airlines following the ValuJet crash in May.
