Northwest's traffic has been surging and June was no exception. Last month, the carrier's traffic shot up 12% on an 8.5% capacity increase. The load factor grew 2.5 percentage points to 79.5%, while the number of passengers carried increased 7.6%. For the first half of 1996, the carrier's traffic was up 11.7%, compared with the same period in 1995, on an 8% increase in capacity. Load factor for the period was up 2.4 points to 72.6%. The number of passengers boarded by the carrier grew 7.9%.
Summary of U.S. Major Carriers Domestic Revenues and Expenses The Year 1995 (In Dollars) Total Operating % Passenger Carrier Revenues Change Revenues America West 1,543,431,622 9.89 1,426,071,984 American 10,860,658,000 2.16 9,249,079,000 Continental 4,218,336,000 4.75 3,718,157,000
IATA plans to file at the U.S. DOT, the European Commission and other international governments in the next few weeks two agreements outlining changes in the implementation of the Warsaw Convention concerning airline liability. After gaining the signatures of about 50 international carriers on the 1995 IATA Intercarrier Agreement on major changes to implementation of the Warsaw Convention airline liability, IATA said the airlines have moved to the second stage - bringing into force the Measures of Implementation Agreement.
British Airways is holding talks with its pilots union today in an effort to head off a strike by the powerful union later this month. The pilots' union, the British Airline Pilots Association, has threatened to impose a strike at the carrier July 16 if BA does not agree to increase compensation for its members. The carrier plans to hold its annual shareholders meeting on that date. BA said it agreed to a request by the union to hold a new round of negotiations.
Pratt&Whitney yesterday described as "unique" the engine fracture on a Delta MD-88 Saturday that proved fatal to two passengers when uncontained engine parts penetrated the cabin. The National Transportation Safety Board is looking at the fan hub of the JT8D-219 engine. "According to the physical evidence thus far, the fracture seems to be up in the fan area," the Pratt spokesman said. "The fracture of the fan hub is unique, something we have never seen before," he said.
Kiwi executives met yesterday in New York with "high-level" FAA Eastern Region officials. The carrier wants to restore some of the flights it cut last month, following FAA's suggestion to reduce its schedule 25%.
Reno Air's traffic increased 42% in June to 269.4 million revenue passenger miles, while capacity gained 33% to 1.298 billion available seat miles. The load factor rose 4.2 points from June 1995 to 68%. For the second quarter, RPMs jumped 55% and ASMs 43%, while the load factor increased to 65.8%. President and Chief Executive Robert Reding said the carrier is pleased with the performance of its new service to Denver and Colorado Springs, as well as its expanded service to Alaska and Orange County, Calif.
Continental's load factor slipped slightly in June as capacity outpaced traffic growth. Capacity grew 2.6% for the month, compared with June 1995, while traffic increased 2.4%. Load factor for the month was 70.8%, down from 70.9%. For the first half of the year, Continental's traffic was up 2.3% on a 4.7% decline in capacity, lifting the load factor 4.7 percentage points to 68.2%, from 63.5%. June 96 June 95 6 Mths 96 6 Mths 95 RPMs 3,624,847,000 3,541,238,000 20,284,433,000 19,824,599,000
ValuJet said yesterday it has submitted part of its schedule for resuming service to FAA. Late last week, the carrier submitted Phase 1 of the plan and is now awaiting feedback from the agency. The carrier said that Jim Jensen has joined the company in the newly created position of senior VP- maintenance and engineering. Jensen, mostly recently VP-product support for Douglas Aircraft, will supervise daily maintenance and engineering operations and report directly to President Lewis Jordan.
American's traffic grew 2.4% in June on a 2.1% decline in capacity and the rest of the summer is looking good, an airline executive said (DAILY, July 8). "June was a strong traffic month for American. The outlook for the rest of the summer is equally encouraging," said Michael Gunn, senior VP- marketing. The load factor for the month was up 3.2 percentage points to 72.6% from 69.4%, and the number of passengers boarded grew 0.3%. For the first six months of the year, American's traffic was up 2.8%, compared with the same period in 1995.
TWA will begin recalling 153 furloughed mechanics to its Kansas City overhaul base. The carrier said it has been reviewing its staffing requirements at the city, an issue raised during meetings with employees at Kansas City last week.
- S.1671 - introduced April 15 by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) - a bill to provide for cockpit voice recorders and flight data recorders on non-combat aircraft of the Armed Forces. Referred to the Armed Services Committee. - H.R.3263 - introduced April 17 by Rep. Harry Johnston (D-Fla.) - to amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Street Act of 1968 to establish a national clearinghouse to assist in background checks of law enforcement applicants. Judiciary.
Delta's traffic moved up 13.2% in June, giving the carrier its strongest month ever for load factor and traffic. With the Olympics coming to Atlanta this month, Delta expects traffic to soar even higher than in 1992, when airlines unleashed a traffic frenzy with a half-price sale. Capacity grew just 3.1%, while the load factor climbed 6.9 percentage points to 76.7%. The number of passengers grew 14.02%. For the first half of the year, the carrier's traffic grew 8.6% on a 1% jump in capacity. The load factor was up 4.8 percentage points to 69.3%.
An Eastwind Airlines 737-200 was involved in an inflight upset June 10 while descending for a landing at Richmond, Va., the fourth time the aircraft experienced yaw problems recently, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. Jim Hall, NTSB chairman, said the board is having difficulty investigating the incidents because FAA has not required updated flight data recorders on older 737s as the board recommended (DAILY, July 3).
AAI Corp. announced that Nexwos, the next-generation weather observing system, received FAA certification following a six-month in-service evaluation. The evaluation involved the system's processor, dial-up modem, very high frequency radio, operator interface device and sensors, including wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, temperature/dewpoint, visibility and cloud height.
Boeing President Phil Condit says the company's 737-700 business jet will be "complementary" to the civil airliner version and will not take lucrative business travel customers away from airlines that operate Boeing aircraft.
Allison Engine Co. will refine its T800-based CTS800 civil turboshaft engine into a turboprop to power U.S. Army reconaissance aircraft under a recent Technology Reinvestment Program, or TRP, award launching a nearly three-year, $28 million program, DAILY affiliate Aerospace Daily reports in its inaugural Aerospace Propulsion Extra. It is believed the program eventually could lead to retrofits in hundreds of commercial regional aircraft.
AMR Corp., American's parent company, completed the reorganization of the Sabre Group but said it has made no decisions on whether to sell all or part of it. In April, AMR announced plans to split Sabre into a wholly owned subsidiary that will handle technology for the parent company. Talk of a partial or full selloff to another technology company has been widely reported since then.
The air transport study by the United Nations Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development is going through another draft and is not expected to be made final until Aug. 1. Seen as a strong endorsement of liberalization, the study already has sparked strong disapproval from Japan.
SBS International said that Chautauqua Airlines has become the fifth regional carrier in the past year to become a customer. The carrier contracted for the SBS crew planning system and Maestro, its crew scheduling and operations control system.
Delta and TWA are opposing Continental's pre-emptive application for third- year service between the U.S. and Toronto. Urging DOT to institute immediately the U.S.-Toronto Third Year Service Proceeding, Continental put in a bid for two daily U.S.-Toronto frequencies, to begin service between Newark and Toronto on Feb. 24, 1997 (DAILY, March 14).
The U.S. and U.K. have agreed to resume formal negotiations in London July 18, following a series of informal meetings. The two sides agreed to talk without prejudice to investigations of the proposed British Airways- American alliance planned by their respective countries.
