The board of directors of the American Society of Travel Agents decided to hold a computer reservations system "summit" within a month, elected new officers and approved other plans at its third quarterly meeting, just ended, in St. Petersburg, Russia. "Rising costs and new, alternative methods for making reservations are two key areas we'll discuss" at the CRS summit, ASTA President and Chief Executive Jeanne Epping said. Epping named a four-member task force, chaired by National Director Eric Ardolino, to plan the summit.
World Airways, which recently began phasing out its scheduled passenger service to focus on its most lucrative business, military charters, received a one-year renewal of its contract with the U.S. Air Force to carry military personnel to bases in the Far East, Europe and the Middle East. World said the contract is worth at least $55 million, and it expects another $15 million-$20 million in ad hoc awards during the life of the contract, which lasts until Sept. 30, 1997. The Air Force has used World every year since 1956.
The Association of Flight Attendants relied "inappropriately on a recent newspaper article" in its latest attacks on the managerial competence and compliance disposition of ValuJet Chairman Robert Priddy and President Lewis Jordan, the airline said. Repeating its call for a hearing on the carrier's safety and compliance disposition, AFA cited a report in last Friday's Cleveland Plain Dealer that said that while grounded, ValuJet gave false information to FAA on the condition of its aircraft (DAILY, Aug. 26).
En route air traffic control centers in New York, Chicago and Fort Worth had the worst equipment failure records in the nation over the past 16 months, according to the American Automobile Association. AAA, citing FAA data, said the centers reported 30 major computer and power failures during the period, of which 21 occurred at New York, Chicago and Fort Worth. In a national survey by AAA, seven in 10 respondents said they were concerned about the increase in flight delays and the level of air safety related to problems with the ATC system.
DOT has completed its show cause order tentatively designating Northwest and United to operate third-country code-share service between the U.S. and Warsaw with partners KLM and Lufthansa, respectively. The carriers received seven weekly frequencies and plan daily service between the U.S. and Warsaw, Northwest via Amsterdam and United via Frankfurt and Munich. Losing out in the proceeding was Delta, which asked for designation to operate daily service with Austrian Airlines between its U.S. gateways - Atlanta and New York - and Warsaw via Vienna (DAILY, July 29).
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association protest of the prospective Meigs Field closing during the Democratic National Convention yesterday did not come off quite as intended because the aircraft trailing a "Keep Meigs Field Open" banner was not allowed to circle Meigs as planned. At the request of the White House, FAA closed airspace within a seven-mile radius of the endangered airport.
American and its Allied Pilots Association continue to trade and reject proposals in mediated contract talks in Washington, but management has made a new offer on regional flying and the union has made its wage demands more flexible. Although the union rejected management's offer, made Monday, it said the bid made progress on two fronts - American would not continue its marketing relationships with Reno Air and Midway Airlines beyond 2005 unless agreed to by the APA, and it would limit the number of regional jets flown by American Eagle carriers.
The U.S. Air Force is testing sensors aboard a modified C-135 aircraft in an attempt to develop an autonomous landing system. The effort is aimed at merging separate images from a millimeter wave radar and a forward-looking infrared sensor to produce a real-time image of a runway in bad weather. A millimeter wave radar developed by Lear Astronics Corp., Santa Monica, Calif., has been flying on the test aircraft for several months, and an infrared sensor from FLIR Systems Inc., Portland, Ore, was scheduled to fly this week.
Quick International Courier said it defended itself successfully against a "major" lawsuit filed against it by the U.S. Postal Service, which accused the company of illegal international "remailing" practices. Quick said it proved that no federal laws were broken and that there was no basis for damages to be levied against it. The Postal Service charged that between October 1991 and March 1994, Quick orchestrated an "A-B-A" mailing scheme in which bulk mail originating in the U.S. (A) was sent to Barbados (B) for remailing back to the U.S.
Nacelle-maker Rohr Inc. and Pratt&Whitney are expected to announce today the resumption of a dormant program to re-engine Boeing 727-200 Advanced aircraft, enabling the trijets to fly, in most cases, with more range and greater efficiency for another 10-15 years, meeting Stage 3 noise rules. The new project, the Super 27 program, should receive its first order this week, Robert Korn, Rohr's Super 27 program business development manager, told The DAILY.
Kansas City-based Vanguard Airlines posted July revenues of $7.6 million, more than double the $3.5 million of July 1995, but passenger yield, in cents per revenue passenger mile, declined 19% to 10.3. Even so, the July yield was 6% higher than June's, and the July load factor reached 65.8%, up 13 percentage points from the prior-year period. July was Vanguard's "best month ever," said Randy Smith, director of marketing. "We've made some progress since June" on yield improvements, he said.
Canadian Airlines International and Philippine Airlines yesterday signed a code-share agreement to fly seven weekly frequencies between Vancouver and Manila. The service will begin Sept. 19 with four nonstop flights operated by PAL, using MD-11 aircraft wet-leased from World Airways. Canadian will operate 747-400s beginning Oct. 28 with one-stop service via Hong Kong.
Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs plans to expand the paid-in capital of the newly formed China Aerospace Corp. by NT$5 billion-NT$6 billion (US$181.8 million-US$218.2 million) by increasing private-sector ownership to at least 25%. CAC, awarded a contract to build a fighter aircraft for the Taiwan Air Force, has concluded agreements with Lockheed Martin, McDonnell Douglas, Sikorsky, Allison, AlliedSignal, International Turbine Engine Co. and Dassault for joint-venture production of turbine engines and commercial aircraft components.
Moody's Investor Service raised the senior unsecured debt rating of Southwest yesterday, citing "future fundamental shifts in the airline industry that could benefit Southwest." Those shifts include a major carrier focus on strengthening hub-and-spoke operations, a capacity squeeze at U.S. majors and a more stringent FAA oversight policy that may limit new-entrant Southwest-type imitators. The debt rating was raised to A3 from Baa1, and to A1 from A2 on the carrier's pass-through certificates.
America West will begin offering service Oct. 27 to San Jose, Calif., from Las Vegas, using 737-300 aircraft configured for eight seats in first class and 124 in coach.
The government of Trinidad and Tobago is considering legislation to open the skies between the two islands. Currently, only Air Caribbean and Liat fly internally. The government hopes a freer aviation environment will attract more air service and tourism.
FAA has decided to make final with some changes the streamlined procedures it adopted nationwide this year for handling civil penalty enforcement action in certain cases of weapons detected at airports. The final rule delegates assessment of civil penalties in these cases to the regional civil aviation security division manager and deputy manager. It also allows FAA to skip the investigation phase of the enforcement and move directly to a notice of violation (NOV).
Rejecting opposition from United Parcel Service and Evergreen International Airlines, DOT made final its tentative award of new fifth-freedom, all- cargo rights beyond Hong Kong to Air Micronesia (AMI) and Federal Express. AMI garnered three frequencies for Hong Kong-Manila (with one frequency converted to two for a total of four), and FedEx five for Hong Kong-Subic Bay. Opposing the tentative award to Air Micronesia, Evergreen maintained it would offer "significantly greater capacity" than AMI and greater public benefits from these frequencies.
Boeing said yesterday it will increase 777 aircraft production to seven from five units per month in July 1997. The company also will add 5,000 workers to its 1996 employment forecast. The employees are needed for both the 777 rate increase and product development. Boeing now projects a work force of 118,350 by Dec. 31.
Aviation economics continues to chip away at politics in Asia. Air Koryo of North Korea will add a stop in Macau to its Pyongyang-Bangkok route on Sept. 16, mainly to offer business travelers single-stop service from Taiwan to North Korea. Currently, the trip from Taiwan requires stops in Hong Kong and Beijing. North Korea sees Taiwan trade and investment as a source of hard currency.
Hughes has completed function verification tests on the Wide Area Augmentation System a week ahead of the incentive deadline in its contract, FAA said yesterday. The contract is under protest by Wilcox, which received the award originally. FAA said that once a contract is signed with Comsat for satellite facilities, it can start testing a "mini-WAAS," comprising five ground stations at its Technical Center; Bangor, Maine; Wilmington, N.C.; Oklahoma City, Okla., and Dayton, Ohio.
U.S. Majors Top 10 Domestic Airports By Enplanements The Year 1995 Carrier/ Enplaned Aircraft Rank Passengers Departures Miles Alaska 1 Seattle/Tacoma 2,948,594 35,627 30,922,813 2 Portland 1,151,422 15,917 10,602,780 3 Anchorage 827,800 13,572 11,344,130 4 Los Angeles 538,559 6,871 6,300,382
The future of the U.S.-U.K. open skies negotiations and the proposed American-British Airways alliance was in question yesterday after the U.S. abruptly canceled talks scheduled to begin today. No new dates were set for negotiations. The two countries were set to engage in government-to- government talks today in Washington on dispute resolution issues; however, after reviewing last weekend a U.K. proposal scheduled to be delivered on Aug. 19 but submitted last Friday instead, U.S.
The head of state-owned Air France Europe, Jean-Pierre Courcol, resigned yesterday after saying his work in bringing his airline and Air France to the brink of consolidation is completed. As the carriers merge, about 950 jobs at the smaller airline will be eliminated over the next two years, an Air France spokesman confirmed. "A successor [to Courcol] probably will not be named because the two airlines will be merged," said spokesman Bruce Haxthausen.
President Clinton proposed yesterday to raise $541 million over six years by charging corporate and business turbine aircraft a $225 per-flight fee phased in over three years. The fee would be one of the offsets for a $2.75 billion national literacy program outlined by Clinton at a stop in Michigan on his train trip to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The proposal is the second this year in which Clinton has suggested funding an education initiative by raising fees on aviation users.
