Zambian Express has signed a contract to acquire its first ATR 42-320, Aero International (Regional) announced. Based at Lusaka Airport in Zambia, Zambian Express was founded in April 1995. It provides connections for domestic and international passengers to Johannesburg, Livingstone, Ndola, Lubumbashi and Lilongwey.
TWA said it has put two of three recently acquired 747s in service and has another in maintenance. It also has a letter of intent for a fourth 747. The 747s include two -100s and two -200s, the carrier said. The additional widebodies will enable the airline to add a second daily summer flight to Rome and one to Honolulu.
Maersk Air will take delivery Sept. 1 of a used Jetstream 41 aircraft, leased from British Aerospace Asset Management Turboprops (AMT), AMT announced. The aircraft will be placed in service on Maersk's Birmingham- Newcastle route, where it replaces a Jetstream 31 operating four roundtrips per day. The aircraft formerly was operated by Impulse Airlines of Australia.
British Airways' capacity growth outstripped traffic growth in June, lowering the passenger load factor 1.5 percentage points to 76.3%. Traffic grew 4.4% to 5.53 billion revenue passenger miles on 6.5% capacity growth to 7.25 billion available seat miles. The number of passengers rose 1.5% to 2.9 million.
American West plans to add frequencies in existing markets during the next six months. The carrier will add one flight in each of three markets - Boston and Columbus on Oct. 28, Boston and Phoenix on Nov. 22 and Colorado Springs and Phoenix on Jan. 9. On Oct. 27 it will add a single daily flight between Phoenix and three points, Columbus, Dallas/Fort Worth and Wichita, and between Orlando and Columbus. On Sept. 5 it will add a frequency between Santa Ana, Calif., and Phoenix.
Atlantic Southeast Airlines is battling a reliability problem with its new fleet of eight BAe 146 quadjets - one that is particularly troubling because of the upcoming Olympics in Atlanta and surrounding venues. One such venue is Columbus, Ga., where the women's fast-pitch softball competition will be held and where on-time reliability at times has fallen to the mid-70s for the ASA aircraft.
Alaska Airlines' June traffic grew 11.4%, compared with June 1995, on a capacity increase of 5.1%. The carrier flew 901 million revenue passenger miles on 1.34 billion available seat miles, boosting the load factor to 67.1% from 63.3% in June 1995. The number of passengers grew 13.7% to 1.06 million. For the first six months, its traffic was up 17.6%, compared with the first six months of 1995, on a capacity gain of 9.4%. The passenger load factor for the period was 63.3%, up from 58.9%, and the number of passengers grew 17.7%.
American and Continental urged DOT to reject Air Liberte's application for Bordeaux-Newark exemption authority. The French carrier filed for the authority in April and pressed DOT recently for a decision. American said it "has no objection to the issuance of a decision, provided that the decision denies Air Liberte's application." American noted that the March agreement between U.S. and France permitted Air France to operate additional summer service and a U.S.
Saying it "cannot find that Peru's action was inconsistent with its bilateral agreement with the U.S.," DOT dismissed Fine Airlines' complaint against the government of Peru. In a filing last September, Fine charged Peru with prohibiting it from operating to, from or over the territory of Peru in violation of the U.S.-Peru bilateral (DAILY, Sept. 29). Peru's actions stemmed from charges that Fine transported arms on three cargo charter flights to Ecuador in February 1995 when Peru and Ecuador were engaged in hostilities.
Regional Airlines, the private French carrier, plans to raise capital through a listing on the second market in Paris, scheduled for October, in search of funds to buy new aircraft, Chairman Jean-Paul Dubreuil announced. The airline, which serves 17 domestic and 10 European routes from hubs in Clermont-Ferrand, Bordeaux and Le Havre, intends to purchase five 50- seat Embraer 145s. It expects to carry 430,000 passengers this year, up from 344,000 last year and 234,000 in 1994.
- In Federal Register dated June 28...Issued an airworthiness directive on certain Jetstream 4101 aircraft requiring modification of the diaphragms on the emergency exit...Issued an AD on all Jetstream 4101 aircraft concerning the time in service for engine starter bearings...Issued an AD on Dornier 328-100s requiring replacement of a bus power control unit and two generator control units. - In FR dated July 1...Proposed an AD on Airbus A300-600 aircraft to require inspection for cracking of the upper radius of the forward fitting of Frame 47.
Spurred by the prospective strategic alliance between British Airways and American - and attempting to protect the interests of European airlines - the European Commission decided Wednesday to investigate BA-American and five earlier transatlantic mega-partnerships for possible violations of the European Union's competition laws.
Summer doldrums appear to have overtaken regional airline stocks in June, with the average price per share for the nine issues dropping by 16 cents to $13.30. It was the first dip of the average since January, having climbed nearly $5 per share since then - until June, that is. Overall market value of the nine stocks increased, however, by $28 million to nearly $3 billion. Delta Connection Atlantic Southeast led gainers with a $1.75 hike to $28.25, beating fellow Delta partner Comair's 75-cent gain to $27.
Dornier Luftfahrt, the 80/20 joint venture between Fairchild Aircraft and Daimler-Benz Aerospace, has acted swiftly to consolidate and reduce costs in the Do 328 high-speed turboprop program by hiring as president Jim Robinson, former president of Learjet and AlliedSignal Engines. Robinson is reputed for his skills in the consolidation of businesses and in eliminating unnecessary costs in the production process. His mission, he said, is to "stop the bleeding" at Dornier and restore the company to profitability. He is based in Germany...
Delta connection carrier Comair has added jet flights from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale, New Orleans and Nashville, offering an additional daily roundtrip in each market with 50-passenger Canadair Jets. Comair also will add a fourth daily roundtrip between Orlando and Melbourne and upgrade a flight between Orlando and Sarasota to a 30-passenger Embraer Brasilia aircraft.
Granted orally to Bay Air Cargo an exemption to conduct all-cargo charter service between a point or points in Brazil and a point or points in the U.S., and other charters. The authority is limited to operations conducted under a wet-lease arrangement between Bay Air Cargo and a duly authorized and properly supervised U.S. or foreign air carrier....Granted orally to American authority to operate scheduled combination service between Chicago and Budapest on a nonstop basis, and on a one-stop basis via the intermediate points Frankfurt, Zurich or Vienna.
Mediated contract negotiations between American and the Allied Pilots Association resume tomorrow in Orlando. As evidence of continuing acrimony between the two sides, the union said last week the company is violating the existing contract. It filed eight grievances and told its members the only pressure on American to negotiate will be the threat that the National Mediation Board will impose a cooling-off period.
Northwest has filed a complaint against Japan under the International Air Transportation Fair Competitive Practices Act. "Northwest is one of the airlines originally authorized to operate under the U.S.-Japan bilateral, and, as such, has the right to serve points of its choosing beyond Japan," the carrier noted. "However, Japan has elected not to allow Northwest to operate Seattle-Osaka-Jakarta service," planned for July 1. "By refusing to authorize the service...Japan has failed to honor its bilateral commitments."
The U.S. is looking again at liberalizing relations with Asia/Pacific countries, including Malaysia, South Korea, New Zealand, Taiwan and Singapore. On Commerce Secretary Mickey Kantor's recent trip to Asia, U.S. officials held exploratory talks with their Malaysian and Korean counterparts. Beyond aviation liberalization, the goal is to improve relations among the Asia/Pacific countries as well as with the U.S.
Some FAA units are not coordinating their research with the Human Factors Division, even though the division is "primarily responsible for allocating and coordinating" FAA resources for work involving human factors, the General Accounting Office found. GAO commented, however, that the "organizational structure for FAA's work on human factors is still evolving," and it is "too soon to evaluate the effectiveness" of FAA's procedures for incorporating human factors considerations throughout the agency.
Both traffic and capacity fell for Alaska Air Group subsidiary Horizon Air last month - revenue passenger miles dropped to 73 million from 75 million in June 1995, and available seat miles declined 2.3% to 120 million from the prior period's 123 million. Load factor fell 0.3 points to 60.6% from 60.9%. Enplanements dropped to 320,000 from 342,300.
General Electric Aircraft Engine said FAA has certified its GE90-92B at 92,000 pounds takeoff thrust, "making it the highest-thrust engine ever certified by the FAA." The certification means flight testing of the 777- 200IGW (increased gross weight) aircraft can begin in September. GE said the engine will the first certified for aircraft's operating range of 7,200 nautical miles. It will be derated to 90,000 pounds when it enters service with British Airways early next year.
Diagnostic/Retrieval Systems promoted Nancy Pitek to VP-finance. $end 33 NAMES IN AVIATION: Industry FlightSafety International FlightSafety International named Don Roney manager-FlightSafety Learning Center at San Antonio and Tim Fallon regional marketing manager-maintenance training, a new position.
