The Salvation Army has become a partner of Northwest's AirCares program. Northwest will promote the organization on flights through December and ask passengers for donations of cash or WorldPerks miles.
In a bulletin sent to its members, ACCESS U.S.-Japan disputed the conclusions in DOT's assessment of its study of the U.S.-Japan market. The department questioned the size of the gains ACCESS U.S.-Japan projected as the result of increasing third- and fourth-freedom service in the market.
Kansas City-based Vanguard Airlines, hurt by fare sales in the Midwest, expects to post a loss for the three-month period ended Sept. 30. Depending on the size of the loss, the airline may not meet net worth requirements to retain its listing on the Nasdaq SmallCap Stock Market. The airline, which began nearly two years ago, reported that slow September traffic, higher fuel costs, the return of the federal 10% ticket tax and negative publicity from the crash of TWA 800 affected its sales.
Sabre Decision Technologies (SDT) has acquired software company Princeton Transportation Consulting Group to expand its transportation and logistics information technology business. The logistics group of SDT provides systems to railroads, trucking companies and shippers. SDT is the business division of The Sabre Group, and the acquisition of the Boston-based company should help SDT increase its market presence in the trucking industry.
Wall Street underwriters exercised their option to purchase an additional 3.03 million shares of Sabre Group Holdings Inc. stock to cover over allotments from last week's initial public offering. The underwriter's move, at a price of $27 per share, will raise an additional $81 million for Sabre, and, subsequently, AMR Corp. As much as 90% of the IPO windfall will go to pay Sabre's AMR Corp. debt. A Sabre spokeswoman said the company was "very pleased" after the first day of trading, which resulted in a Sabre share price of $31.625.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York will hold a hearing Oct. 25 on USAir's lawsuit charging British Airways and American with violating antitrust laws and breach of contract. Judge Miriam Cedarbaum granted USAir's request to move ahead with the discovery phase of the case, USAir said.
Hawaiian Airlines reported a 2.8% increase in its September traffic to 302.5 million revenue passenger miles. Available seat miles rose 5% to 429.6 million, while the load factor fell 1.6 points to 70.4%. It carried 1.6% fewer passengers in September, 370,090, and 3.1% more cargo, or 3.9 million ton miles. For the first nine months, it flew 2.9 billion RPMs, a 10.5% increase, and 3.818 billion ASMs, up 11.9%. The load factor for the period was 76%, a 0.9-point drop from the same period in 1995.
Delta is going after the senior citizen market with a new membership program that eliminates coupon books. The Senior Select Savings Plus Program offers seniors special zone fares that are 38% off normal 21-day advance purchase fares in economy class and up to 50% off first class for travel to 240 domestic cities; unlimited travel from Nov. 18 until April 1, 1998; dedicated reservations agents, and more than $500 in discounts from companies such as Alamo, Delta Dream Vacations and five cruise lines.
United plans to add five minutes to its boarding process on most domestic flights to reduce delays in departures and, ultimately, improve its on-time arrival rate. The extra boarding time does not apply to Shuttle by United operations. United said the extra five minutes reduced delays by 15% in tests on flights involving 757 aircraft. Narrowbodies will have 30 minutes to board, and widebodies will have 40 minutes. Some domestic flights with tight turnaround times will not get increased boarding time, the carrier said.
Western Pacific's mystery fares - special fares to an undisclosed destination for a one- to three-night stay - have attracted more than 12,000 customers in the past three weeks. The fares start at $69 roundtrip from Colorado Springs and cost more from other points. Because of the overwhelming response, the carrier is extending the date to purchase the fares until Oct. 31.
Is Delta pulling the old bait-and-switch, or is it switching bait? Passengers on its U.K.-U.S. flights have spoken - they don't like the trout - so the carrier replaced it on the menu with halibut. There was no word on how Delta plans to satisfy customers who don't like fish.
United has signed an agreement with IBM and British Airways subsidiary Speedwing International to market and sell the airline's E-Ticket service to other airlines. United said the deal names IBM as the "implementor of choice" for E-Ticket. The company will install and support the electronic systems for airline customers. Speedwing has exclusive marketing rights for many of its customers.
American Society of Travel Agents and MasterCard will hold an Internet training seminar Nov. 21 at the Boston Back Bay Hilton Hotel. The seminar gives agents an overview of marketing on the Internet, information on finding new clients, and tips on building a home page and accessing ASTAnet. The seminar is free to ASTA members and $79 to non-members.
Vice President Gore's Aviation Safety and Security Commission has extended its 60-day deadline for testing a full domestic bag match program and instead will implement the program in steps, the Air Transport Association said Friday. The commission, after consulting with industry officials, agreed first to data collection and computer modeling before deploying a bag match test in an actual operating situation, ATA said.
It is a misperception that the U.S. effort toward open skies in Asia is simply a veiled attempt to get at Japan, said a senior U.S. official, countering media reports.Arguing that there is real value in developing liberal relations with the growing countries in the region, the official allowed that it would be nice to see an effect on Japan, but this is not the main reason for the effort.
Association of Professional Flight Attendants at American says union members in U.S. industries are paid an average $5,241 more a year than nonmembers. The APFA unit quotes Labor Department data showing that union workers can count on $2.52 more per hour in wages and $4.35 more in benefits.
DOT Secretary Federico Pena last week dedicated a new $28 million control tower at Chicago O'Hare Airport and a new $90 million approach control facility in suburban Elgin.
U.S. Major Carriers Productivity, In RPMs And ASMs Per Employee Second Quarter 1996 Revenue Available Passenger Seat Miles Miles Total Airline (000) (000) Employees Alaska 2,504,341 3,809,041 7,007 America West 3,848,442 5,353,210 10,122 American 26,630,976 38,392,650 83,463
DOT has granted the application by United and Saudi Arabian Airlines to conduct blocked-space code-share services. Under the arrangement, Saudia will on operate behalf of United in the New York- Dhahran/Jeddah/Riyadh markets. United will operate similarly between New York and Los Angeles, enabling Saudia to offer Saudi Arabia-Los Angeles service. To facilitate the arrangement, DOT granted exemptions to Saudia, to serve Los Angeles as an additional U.S. point on its Saudi Arabia-U.S. services, and to United, to serve New York-Dhahran/Jeddah/Riyadh.
Airbus Industrie officials are amused by a Boeing advertisement for 500-plus aerospace engineer openings, offering "top pay rates, per diem, travel, full benefits and more." The ad appears in the main daily newspaper of Toulouse, headquarters of Airbus
- Granted orally to Northwest an exemption to conduct scheduled combination service between the terminal point Minneapolis/St. Paul and Cancun, Mexico...Granted orally to La Valenciana Taxi Aereo an exemption permitting the carrier to conduct passenger charter operations between Mexico and the U.S. and other passenger charters, using small equipment...Granted to Gemini Air Cargo certificates of public convenience and necessity to engage in interstate and foreign scheduled air transportation of property and mail.
Some elements of FAA's new reauthorization bill, including a provision for pilot record sharing, are distressing members of the National Air Transportation Association. One NATA member, Bill Giannetti, president of the Flightstar Corp., Savory, Ill., complained the bill will have "absolutely no effect on safety yet will have a major effect on my business." He said it will be a "tremendous hassle to weed out one pilot in 10,000 who is unqualified.
Supreme Court's refusal last week to review a ruling by the U.S. district court in North Carolina on disclosure of USAir's internal safety documents (DAILY, Oct. 8) had little impact on litigation over the airline's July 1994 crash at Charlotte, N.C., but it leaves up in the air the scope or even existence of the airline industry's ability to keep such documents confidential in the discovery process.
U.S. Major Carriers Productivity, In Revenues and Expenses Per Employee Second Quarter 1996, In Dollars Total Total Operating Operating Revenues Expenses Total Airline (000) (000) Employees Alaska 342,014 304,590 7,007 America West 466,688 404,607 10,122
