Mesa Air Group said it is planning to inject low-fare jet service next May in the Dallas/Fort Worth market by starting service at Meacham Airport to points throughout Texas and the region. Mesa's ambitious plan calls initially for 11 daily departures with the 50-seat Canadair Regional Jet, quickly expanding to 60 daily flights from the airport.
United has developed a proprietary software program that slightly alters the routes of its flights and is reducing fuel burn for the airline by 2.5%. United's Information Services Division, working with the airline's fleet operations and flight operations units, has created a model for choosing the most fuel-efficient routing for a given city-pair. Called "4DPlan," the system is operative on more than 250 daily domestic flights.
System One Amadeus will demonstrate the Amadeus Central System at the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) conference Oct. 6-12 in Bangkok. The computer reservations system company said it will display several advanced productivity options that are unique in the industry. "At ASTA, current and potential customers can see firsthand some of the unfolding results of the joint venture that was formed among Amadeus, EDS and Continental Airlines about 18 months ago."
Reno Air has asked for a nine-month extension of the provision conditions attached to its exemption to operate scheduled combination service between San Jose, Calif., on the one hand, and Puerto Vallarta and San Jose del Cabo, Mexico, on the other. Reno initially filed an application for the authority on March 18, planning to begin both services by June 20. The carrier said, however, that DOT action on that application was delayed by a contemporaneous filing by Alaska Airlines for exemption authority in the same two markets.
A handful of carriers and others have asked DOT to adopt proposed computer reservations system rules - strongly resisted by the large CRSs vendors - that would enable non-owner airlines to vary the service level they purchase from different CRSs. Carrier participation agreements for three of the four major CRSs - Worldspan, Sabre and System One - contain mandatory uniform participation, or parity, clauses.
Former Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen, who served on the Senate Commerce Committee and chaired the Joint Committee on Taxation, has joined Continental's board. The appointment of the Texas native expands the board to 13 directors. Continental President and Chief Executive Gordon Bethune said, "Former Secretary Bentsen has an extraordinary background in public policy and brings a wealth of experience in the areas of international and domestic finance."
Hawaiian Airlines traffic rose 5.7% in August to 365.1 million revenue passenger miles from 345.6 million in August 1995. Capacity for the month was up 6.6% to 449.4 million available seat miles from 421.7 million, driving the load factor down to 81.3% from 82% last August. For the first eight months of the year, traffic rose 11.5% to 2.598 billion RPMs from 2.331 billion. ASMs increased 12.8% to 3.389 billion from 3.003 billion, and the load factor fell to 76.7% from 78%.
Allied Pilots Association board of directors, representing American's pilots, has voted in favor of approving in principle the tentative agreement reached on a new contract with American. The agreement will now be put into contractual language, and then another vote will decide whether the contract will be sent to members for ratification.
AAR Corp. reported net earnings up 50% for the three-month period ending Aug. 31, the company's fiscal first quarter. Net income rose to $4.85 million on revenues of $136 million, 24% higher. The company said it realized increased revenues from all three business areas: aviation/aerospace parts and equipment, technical services and proprietary manufactured aviation products.
U.S. Major Carriers Traffic August, 8 Months 1996 (000) August August % 1996 1995 Change Alaska Revenue Passenger Miles 1,087,000 949,000 14.5 Available Seat Miles 1,437,000 1,339,000 7.3 Load Factor (%) 75.6 70.9 America West
Air France posted a 10.3% August increase in revenue passenger kilometers, to 5.4 billion RPKs. Available seat kilometers rose 6.8% to 7 billion, pushing load factor up 2.4 points to 76.9%. Worldwide freight ton kilometers rose 8.4% in August to 382 million.
Canadian Airlines and its regional partners will launch Friday the largest fare sale in the airline's history, covering more than 7,000 city-pairs in North America. Canadian is lowering air fares by as much as 30% on its lowest available tariffs. Travel can start Sept. 20 and must be completed by Feb. 28, except for a Christmas blackout period. The sale was organized after "close coordination" on pricing and scheduling with partner American, said Canadian's Gregg Saretsky, VP-passenger marketing. The promotion includes flights to London, Mexico City and Honolulu.
Air Espana, operating as Air Europa, is seeking renewal of its exemption to engage in scheduled combination service between Madrid and/or Santiago de Compostela, Spain, and New York, which expires Oct. 11.
DOT has granted authority for scheduled, all-cargo service to Thailand, as provided for in the aviation bilateral agreement reached in January, to UPS, Air Micronesia, Federal Express, Northwest and Polar Air Cargo. UPS received six weekly frequencies, Air Micronesia five, FedEx five, Northwest three and Polar Air Cargo two. It also confirmed an earlier grant to Northwest of three additional weekly frequencies, and one to FedEx. The aviation pact made it possible for DOT to grant all of the carrier's requests. The U.S.
August traffic for SAS rose 3% to 1.87 billion revenue passenger kilometers, the seventh month of the last eight in which the carrier posted an RPK gain. So far in 1996, SAS traffic was up 6% to 13.18 billion RPKs. SAS's freight operations also had a solid August, rising 8% to 39.4 million freight ton kilometers. The airline's load factor was 66.4% for the month and 64.3% for the year-to-date.
FlightSafety International has received French certification for the advanced Bombardier Dash 8 full-flight simulator recently installed at its Le Bourget training center near Paris.
Finnair and Estonian Air signed a code-share agreement last week covering flights between Helsinki and the Estonian capital, Tallinn. The cooperative agreement, which begins Oct. 29, includes Finnair handling Estonian ground services in Helsinki and Estonian reciprocating in Tallinn. The airlines also will coordinate inflight service operations. Finnair will operate three daily flights on the route, using ATR-72s, and Estonian will fly Fokker 50s four times daily.
Brazil's Varig reported a 2.3% drop in July passenger traffic from the same year-earlier period. The airline's revenue passenger kilometers fell to 2.15 billion in July, and RPKs declined 2.2% in the January-July period. Freight ton kilometers decreased 6.9% in July and 9.4% so far in 1996. Varig's passenger load factor was 68.6% domestically and 72.6% internationally in July.
NatWest Securities has revised upward its forecast for Boeing production in each of the next three years, with 1998 rising to 445 aircraft from 410. The firm expects 737 production to reach 21 aircraft per month in the first quarter of 1998, up from current plans to ramp up to 17 per month.
Federal Express Corp. posted 18% lower net earnings for the quarter that ended Aug. 31. Its $62 million profits came on lower international operating revenues. Revenues for the quarter rose 10% to $2.69 billion. Operating income was $129.9 million, compared with $149.2 million in the prior-year period. FedEx cited lower international air freight yields, rising fuel prices and last year's unusually low quarterly maintenance expenses. Higher fuel costs accounted for about $15 million in additional costs.
United, portraying the proposed partnership between American and British Airways as "a monopoly dressed up as an alliance," develops its case on market-share data and rests it on the ability of an alliance to dominate competition for business travel between its hubs. In a study completed early this month and submitted last week to the U.K.'s Office of Fair Trading, United commented that an American-BA partnership would have an "absolute monopoly" on capacity in 19 U.S.-U.K. city pairs and account for more than 58% of U.S.-U.K. capacity overall.
American Trans Air's August traffic rose 5.2% to 1.043 billion revenue passenger miles from 991.4 million in August 1995. Capacity rose 11.3% to 1.387 billion available seat miles from 1.246 billion, for a load factor drop of 4.4 points to 75.2%. For the first eight months of the year, RPMs were up 7.6% to 6.833 billion, and ASMs increased 11.2% to 9.695 billion. The load factor fell 2.4 points to 70.5%.
Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport's crosswind runway, now its longest, is scheduled to reopen today after being closed all summer due to construction. The runway was extended from 8,250 feet to 11,000 feet, permitting fully loaded widebody aircraft to operate on long-haul flights without an en route fuel stop. "This project will save huge sums for international airlines serving the Twin Cities and will shave hours from long international flights," said Jeffrey Hamiel, Metropolitan Airports Commission executive director.
Comair is upgrading three of its six Pensacola-Orlando roundtrips to jet service Oct. 1, and will add a jet in the Knoxville-Cincinnati market for a total of four jet flights a day out of five. It also intends to add a fourth daily flight between Asheville and Cincinnati on Oct. 1 with an EMB 120 jetprop.
