Southern Air Transport denied yesterday an assertion by its Teamsters unit, representing pilots and flight engineers, that the carrier will join the union in requesting National Mediation Board assistance in negotiations if the two sides do not reach agreement on a contract in January (DAILY, Dec. 3). David Sweet, administrator-corporate communications, said NMB involvement would lengthen the proceedings by six months to a year, and the company would rather continue private talks than accept such a delay.
The Association of Retail Travel Agents has filed a complaint at DOT charging that international discount fares offered on the World Wide Web are being sold at prices below internationally agreed tariff levels, in violation of federal law. ARTA named IATA, Cathay Pacific, Aer Lingus and Icelandair in the complaint.
Slots that American says could become available at London Heathrow Airport simply do not exist, according to a study commissioned by Delta Air Lines. American's slot assessment (DAILY, Nov. 13) was intended to show that under a U.S.-U.K. open skies agreement, slot access would create adequate competition to the proposed American-British Airways alliance.
United and Air New Zealand yesterday formed a code-sharing and strategic partnership linking destinations in North America, New Zealand, Australia and the South Pacific. ANZ gets broad access to 251 of United's North American destinations and United gains South Pacific traffic, destinations and visibility. Both carriers will retain existing service across the Pacific. The alliance will take effect in March, subject to government approval.
Douglas Aircraft Co. engineers will help Boeing develop derivatives of the 747 and possibly the 767 widebody jet transports under an agreement announced yesterday by executives of the two companies (DAILY, Dec. 2).
Far Eastern Air Transport Corp. of Taiwan received ISO-9002 certification for aircraft maintenance. The company is working to obtain certification for other functions, including flight safety.
Air South's recent contracting to Kiwi International was not caused by maintenance problems at Air South (DAILY, Nov. 27). Kiwi was hired to fly five flights on both Nov. 27 and Dec. 1 to cover busy holiday periods when two Air South 737s were undergoing routine heavy maintenance.
The Illinois House of Representatives executive committee yesterday approved a bill providing for state acquisition and operation of Chicago's Meigs Field. It was unclear yesterday afternoon whether the measure would come up for a vote during a special session of the House last night.
Following a break of more than 23 years, Taiwan hopes to restart air service to Osaka if disagreements between Taiwan and Japan can be ironed out at bilateral talks scheduled early next year. China Airlines, which operated service between Taipei and Osaka until Japan cut diplomatic relations with Taiwan in 1973, is reported to be lobbying for the right to fly the route once it is reopened. CAL currently serves Tokyo, Fukuoka, Nagoya and Okinawa.
Taiwan's China Airlines is believed to be preparing to begin operating flights between Taipei and Moscow next year. CAL has long been interested in serving the route but could not do so because China objected to allowing aircraft bearing the Taiwan flag from operating on routes to Russia. The recent introduction of a new corporate image, which eliminated the ROC flag from CAL's livery, has eliminated this problem.
British Midland has begun using its new 350,000-plus lounge for business passengers and a refurbished lounge for members of its Diamond Club frequent flyer program at East Midlands Airport. The facilities, located in the airport's new departure terminal, are part of the airline's 15 million pound (US$25 million) package of service improvements aimed at upgrading its Diamond EuroClass product.
Delta added one daily nonstop flight between Cincinnati and Dallas/Fort Worth over the weekend for a total of five. The new flight brings to 222 the number of daily flights Delta operates at Cincinnati, its second largest hub.
Carriers objecting to DOT's award of new all-cargo service to the Philippines said UPS would merely duplicate service provided by FedEx, but they devoted most of their energy to doubts that Polar Air Cargo would adequately serve the route it signed up for. Terming the selection of Polar "a monument to wishful thinking," World Airways echoed TWA's attack on DOT in the Toronto route case (see related TWA story in this issue).
Teamsters union said contract talks for pilots and flight engineers at Southern Air Transport have been scheduled in January. If an agreement is not reached in January, the company and the union will ask the National Mediation Board to assist in the talks, the union said.
Airline Industry Stock Trends Closed Closed Exchange 11/29/96 10/31/96 Majors Alaska Air Group NYSE $ 24.120 $ 22.000 AMR NYSE 91.250 84.000 America West (Class B) NYSE 14.620 11.500 Continental (Class B) * NYSE 28.370 25.120 Delta NYSE 75.250 70.870
It's now more of a hassle to visit FAA and other government aviation agencies in Washington. As of Dec. 1, it is not enough for non-government visitors to report to a visitor's desk. They now have to pass through a magnetometer as well, and hand-carried articles are screened by a fluoroscope.
Carnival Air Lines' October traffic fell 22.9% to 110.3 million revenue passenger miles from 143.1 million. Available seat miles decreased 23.7% to 182.9 million from 239.6 million as the load factor rose less than one percentage point to 60.3%. For the first 10 months of the year, RPMs were up 13.3% to 1.816 billion and ASMs 12.8% to 2.805 billion. The load factor inched up to 64.8%.
Texas regional Conquest Airlines says it will pass savings on to passengers at the end of the year when the federal excise tax expires. The carrier operates to nine cities in Texas. "With the Texas legislature reconvening in January 1997, we expect traffic to increase from around the state to Austin," the capital.
Italy's antitrust authority fined Alitalia 415 million lire (US$274,000) for anticompetitive practices against Air One and Meridiana. The private carriers complained that Alitalia, which is in charge of slot allocation at Italian airports, used this privilege systematically to schedule its flights shortly before their own, drawing passengers away from them. The abuse was found to be particularly evident at Milan Linate Airport, where Aliadriatica, now renamed Air One, had to abandon services to Brindisi and Lamezia.
KLM began to fine-tune its global route network last week as part of its Focus 2000 restructuring program, launching service and increasing frequencies for several destinations and dropping other service. On April 1, the carrier will begin service from Amsterdam to Abidjan, Ivory Coast, and introduce twice-weekly flights to Nagoya via Sapporo. The Japan service is contingent on Russian government approval to overfly Siberia.
TWA, the only applicant that did not win new service in DOT's recent tentative U.S.-Toronto route decision, strongly criticized the department's analysis and ridiculed elements of proposals from competing carriers. "This case raises important questions about how carriers should approach route cases," TWA said in response to DOT's show-cause order awarding service to Midway, Delta, Northwest and Continental in the third and final year of limited U.S. carrier operations at Toronto prior to open skies.
Air Canada and the Canadian Auto Workers reached a tentative agreement yesterday. The CAW Local 2213 bargaining committee will recommend ratification to the CAW board tomorrow, after the union said it achieved its goal of no wage concessions. Results from a union-wide poll will be issued Dec. 19.
Air Jamaica intends to operate flights to the Eastern Caribbean, beginning in February 1997, using a new MD-83. The new service, currently awaiting U.S. government approval, will include daily flights from New York to Barbados, extending to St. Lucia four days a week and Antigua three times. A second service - from Atlanta - is planned to start in spring 1997, as are art flights to Los Angeles, with the first service scheduled March 23 and a second May 3. Air Jamaica successfully re-entered the U.K.
Air France will increase A340 Paris-Bangkok-Hanoi service from two times weekly to three as of Dec. 15. The carrier also offers three weekly flights to Ho Chi Minh City.
