John Alden will be nominated as vice chairman at the next UPS board meeting in November, the firm said yesterday. Alden is currently senior VP- business development. The announcement follows the designation in May of James Kelly as the successor to Chairman and Chief Executive Kent Nelson, who will retire at yearend.
International Aviation Women's Association will hold its eighth annual conference Oct. 24-26 at the Maison Dupuy in New Orleans. Keynote speakers are Carolyn Corvi, VP of the Boeing Commercial Airplane Group; Susan Coughlin, former National Transportation Safety Board member, and Dr. Elizabeth Rodenz, who will lecture on the topic "Power Knows No Gender." Subjects to be covered include airlines in the new millennium, privatization of the aviation infrastructure, aviation insurance/risk management and general aviation and product liability.
National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Jim Hall is asking TWA, Boeing and Pratt&Whitney - so far without success - to contribute a total of $8 million to help pay the cost of investigating the July 17 crash of TWA Flight 800 off the southern coast of Long Island, N.Y.
American's managing director of international market development, Daniel Westbrook, has been named president of American's Fly AAway Vacations division, effective immediately.
A DOT proposal to increase origin&destination reporting requirements has drawn a mixed response from the industry. Repeating arguments against an earlier DOT directive addressing similar issues, the carriers argued against making public data related to their foreign code-share partners, citing the expense and effort involved in implementing the rules. DOT has proposed that large certificated U.S.
United States Air Tour Association (USATA), representing 31 air tour operators and associated companies, weighed in against FAA's proposed flight restrictions on air tour overflights at Rocky Mountain National Park. USATA said FAA's justification for the notice of proposed rulemaking - that air tours threaten adverse environmental effects - are "wild statements...without any evidence to support its claims." It said there are no air tour operations at the park, and since no problem exists, no regulation should be implemented.
Delta says it may need to hire even more pilots soon to replace the high number of pilots who are retiring. The carrier, which has already sent recall notices to all of its furloughed pilots, offered early retirement to as many as 505 pilots, in part because of efficiencies to be gained by the new Delta Express operation. The carrier said 929 pilots applied for early retirement.
World is seeking authority to perform expanded wet-lease services for Philippine Airlines between Sept. 15, 1996 and March 15, 1998. Noting that the permission requested is in addition to authority received Aug. 14 for similar wet-lease services, World said it and PAL "have subsequently agreed on an expansion of their arrangement requiring the wet-lease of two additional World MD-11 aircraft, for a total of four." Under the current request, World will operate long-term wet-lease flights for PAL to Newark and Chicago.
Delta is seeking an exemption and a new or amended certificate to operate scheduled combination service between Las Vegas and Mexico City. It also wants permission to integrate the requested rights with its existing certificate and exemption authority. Beginning Dec. 1, the carrier said it plans to operate two weekly nonstop roundtrip flights on the route, using Boeing 757 aircraft configured for 180 seats in two classes. Delta added it reserves the right to alter its schedules and frequencies and use other aircraft if market conditions require.
Bombardier is offering a 70-seat aircraft to the market, with the expectation of launching the program by the end of the year, a spokesman said yesterday. Bombardier will approach customers at the Farnborough Air Show next week about stretching its 50-seat Canadair RJ.
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association said it will protest today during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago a plan by Mayor Richard Daley to close the city's lakefront airport, Meigs Field. Phil Boyer, AOPA president, said that "if Meigs is not important to Chicago, you have to ask why the Mayor's Department of Aviation ordered the airport to remain open 24 hours a day during the convention." The protest will include a 100-foot aerial banner towed up and down the lakefront, "Decision 96? Keep Meigs Airport Open."
The organizational culture at FAA has led to resistance to changes in the agency's acquisition process, which in turn brought on substantial cost overruns, lengthy schedule delays and shortfalls in performance over the last 15 years, according to a report by the General Accounting Office. GAO cited the tripling in cost, to $7.6 billion from $2.5 billion, of the Advanced Automation System and performance shortfalls in the Mode Select radar, for which FAA let a contract in 1984 but which it did not field until 1995.
The private sector may have to pay for a large share of travel research previously conducted by the now-closed U.S. Travel and Tourism Administration, which has been replaced with the Commerce Department's Tourism Industries (TI) office in the International Trade Administration. The research data, including the U.S. International Air Travel Statistics Report, were saved from oblivion by the opening of the new office, which lost not only USTTA's budget, but also funding and staffing support from DOT.
A stronger Swedish krona and a temporary shortage of pilots led SAS to report flat first-half earnings for the period ending June 30. The carrier posted a pre-tax income of 1.05 billion Swedish krona (US$158 million), slightly better than an SEK1.04 billion (US$156 million) in the first-half of 1995. SAS was forced to cancel approximately 100 flights in late May and early June after its pilots union rejected mandatory overtime. "We had counted on the pilots accepting these changes," said SAS spokesman Anders Bjorck, "and it cost us millions" of krona.
A jury trial began yesterday in San Antonio in an antitrust suit brought by Chromalloy Gas Turbine Corp. against United Technologies and its Pratt&Whitney jet engine unit. Chromalloy, a subsidiary of Sequa Corp., alleges that United Technologies is engaged in a continuous, ongoing scheme to damage and destroy Chromalloy's jet engine repair business by deliberately misusing its monopoly power in replacement parts for Pratt&Whitney commercial engines, including new spare parts and repair parts.
Raytheon announced the Civil Aviation Administration of China has accepted its air traffic control system for Beijing Airport, and the company has received a contract for a secondary surveillance radar by the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority.
American Society of Travel Agents will hold its second annual travelers- with-disabilities symposium Sept. 11 at the Washington Hyatt Regency Hotel on Capitol Hill. ASTA said there will be a special emphasis on how travel agents can better serve the visually impaired.
TravelScan, a Bethesda, Md.-based aviation consulting firm, has revamped Virgin Atlantic's Apollo reservations data so the carrier's North American team can monitor sales more effectively. Using the marketing information data tapes, TravelScan made it easier for the carrier to access the information through user-friendly, graphic-oriented features.
USAir will increase service to Orlando on Nov. 6, adding three daily roundtrip flights from Philadelphia for a total of 11, and two from Boston for a total of five. USAir said more service is planned for February.
UAL Services has secured engine repair and overhaul contracts for three Chinese airlines worth more than $3 million, United said. The contracts, from China Southwest Airlines, Air China and Shanghai Airlines, cover the repair and overhaul of CFM International and Pratt&Whitney engines, including the PW2000, PW4000 and CFM56.
Boeing introduced during the weekend a complete, one-piece fuselage for the next-generation 737-700. In previous aircraft manufacturing programs, forward and aft fuselage sections were shipped by rail to the Renton, Wash., division. Boeing says the new process simplifies assembly and reduces manufacturing time.
The size of airspace governed by temporary flight restrictions (TFRs) along the south shore of Long Island, N.Y., has been reduced following the intervention of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, AOPA officials said. The FBI had declared a "large amount of airspace off-limits following the TWA 800 crash," said Melissa Bailey, AOPA director-airspace and system standards. "The reduced size of the TFR reopens an important VFR low-altitude flyway for cross-country traffic," she said.
Bombardier Aerospace yesterday rolled out its new ultra-long-range large corporate jet, the Global Express, at its de Havilland facility in Toronto. The twinjet, powered by new BR710 engines from BMW Rolls-Royce, is design to fly nonstop between New York and Tokyo.
