Rate of increase in the number of U.S. citizens who travel has outpaced the rate of population growth in the past 10 years, according to the Travel Industry Association. Total travel volume gained 45% between 1985 and 1995, while the U.S. population grew 10%. The statistics have led TIA to conclude that travel is "a staple of the American way of life."
Interlease Aviation Corp. said yesterday it will acquire five of United's 737-200s, which will be operated by Philippine Air Lines. The aircraft are being acquired with the assistance of Aries Financial Corp. and Lehman Aviation. Interlease currently has four 737-200s on lease. Aries is a commercial aircraft finance and brokerage and Lehman Aviation is an aircraft brokerage and consulting firm.
Sino Swearingen Aircraft Co. named Jack Braly president and chief executive. Braly was VP and general manager of Rockwell's North American Aircraft Modification Division.
Sabre Decision Technologies said its GSE Advisor recently was purchased by USAir. The carrier will support its GSE-related maintenance repair operations using SDT's system. It will enable the carrier to manage, track and control maintenance costs related to all ground support equipment operations, SDT said.
Despite worldwide airline use of Omega radionavigation, the State Department has begun formal termination of bilateral agreements with member nations of the International Omega Technical Committee. DOT supports the move, saying it has no further use for the system. Airlines rely on it for wind measurements as they try to optimize aircraft routings.
Sabre Group Holdings will pursue acquisitions, including Travelocity co- founder Worldview, and alliances with large travel agency chains and information system outsourcers as it develops its independent business, the former AMR unit said in last week's initial public offering registration at the Securities and Exchange Commission (DAILY, Aug. 9).
Continental has asked DOT for certificate authority to operate scheduled combination service between Cleveland and London. Noting that its proposal offers the only nonstop service between Cleveland and any point in the European Community, the carrier maintains the "service can be achieved without negotiating with the U.K. for additional route rights since the U.S.
Amadeus Global Travel Distribution supports implementation of IATA's Travel Industry Designator Service, which gives standard identification codes to non-IATA travel agents who use a computer reservations system. The service, which has operated on a trial basis, now is in use worldwide, except in the U.S.
LTU International Airways is offering reductions of up to 37% on early bookings for winter travel between the U.S. and Germany. The "Save" fares are available for flights between Nov. 1 and March 31 on service to Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg, Berlin and Stuttgart from seven of the carrier's eight U.S. gateway cities. From New York, travel must be completed by Dec. 20. Roundtrip fares to Germany are $398 from Florida and New York and $548 from Los Angeles. LTU operates from Fort Myers, Orlando, Miami, Tampa and Daytona Beach.
Boeing 747 Systemwide Aircraft Utilization Per Day First Quarter 1996 B747-100 -------------------------- Northwest TWA Number of Aircraft Operated 23 8 Total Fleet Operations Departures 36 10 Block Hours 276 67
Airline Internet sites are logging far more visits than travel agent addresses or independent sites, according to a survey by CIC Research, San Diego. CIC, which tracked the use of World Wide Web users April through June, found 23.3% of respondents to its Internet survey said they would buy from an airline site, while 16.9% said they would order from a travel agent site.
Carnival Air Lines will begin daily nonstop flights between New York Kennedy and Fort Myers, Fla., Dec. 19, charging $99 one way. The fares do not require roundtrip or advance purchase or a Saturday night stay. The carrier will use a 737-400 configured for 159 seats in one class. It offered the flights to Fort Myers last winter from Islip, N.Y., but will offer them from Kennedy this year to ease connections with its foreign partner airlines.
FAA's award of the $619.9 million Digital Airport Surveillance Radar (DASR) contract to Raytheon last week (DAILY, Aug. 12) forced a fundamental change in the radar industry as incumbent government supplier Northrop Grumman, formerly Westinghouse, was knocked out of the competition. Westinghouse supplied the ASR-9 and, in a joint venture with Unisys, produced the accompanying Mode-S system. The contract also is a major milestone for Raytheon because most of its past successes in air traffic control had come in the international market.
The Clinton/Gore campaign owed TWA $74,936, Dole for President owed USAir $23,405 and the Perot Reform Committee owed Federal Express $7,777 as of June 30, according to DOT's monthly report tracking the unpaid balance of unsecured credit extended to political candidates by major U.S. carriers in the 1996 election.
Ansett Australia and Air New Zealand plan to begin service to mainland China, joining the growing number of airlines that fly to both China and longtime rival Taiwan. Taipei's Central News Agency quoted a senior Ansett official as saying that the carrier has received permission from Australia's International Air Service Commission to begin flights to Shanghai from Melbourne and Sydney in late October. Ansett will lease two aircraft - one 747 and one 767 - to serve the new routes, he said.
Pratt&Whitney said yesterday it will provide a "full fleet management program" to Air Jamaica for the PW4000 engines that power its six A310 aircraft. Pratt said it will provide spare parts and spare engines, performance monitoring, support equipment and training at "competitive, guaranteed maintenance rates."
American International Freight, an overnight coast-to-coast cargo carrier, said it has introduced second-day service to all 51 cities it serves. The service offers three-zone pricing and three frequencies per week. AIF also is adding a combination of day flights and dedicated trucks to the service.
Russian aircraft manufacturer Saratov Aviation will set up a repair and assembly center in Taiwan. Saratov's chairman, Alexander Yermeshin, visiting Taipei as the head of a Russian business delegation, said Saratov also will seek to cooperate with Taiwanese partners in joint production of commercial aircraft suited for the Asia/Pacific region. Saratov is the second Russian aircraft maker, following Aviastar, to announce plans to set up operations in Taiwan.
Air Force Electronic Systems Center announced it will host 22 Central and Eastern European nations Sept. 10-12 at the Third Regional Airspace Management Conference in Bled, Slovenia. The U.S. will present its airspace management and air sovereignty recommendations to the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
McDonnell Douglas has made $2.03 billion in customer financing guarantees for aircraft on order or under option and scheduled for delivery through 2009. Guarantees and other commitments on delivered aircraft total $737 million, the company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
United has begun using laptop computers to speed up check-in at London Heathrow and Tokyo Narita airports, the company said, and it plans to introduce laptops at other international airports in the next year. Customer service employees accessing Apollo and Unimatic with laptops are trying to reduce long waits at the counter by conducting as much of the check-in process as possible in line.
Hawaiian Airlines' July traffic dropped 7.1% to 318.9 million revenue passenger miles from 343.2 million, and available seat miles fell 0.9% to 430.9 million from 434.9 million, depressing the load factor 4.9 percentage points to 74%. The airline carried 444,344 passengers during the month, a 0.4% increase. For the first seven months of the year, traffic rose 12.5% to 2.232 billion RPMs from 1.985 billion, while capacity gained 13.8% to 2.939 billion ASMs from 2.582 billion. The load factor fell to 76% from 76.9%.
Nearly 102,000 Taiwan residents were issued Canadian visas in 1995, an increase of nearly 60% over the 63,000 issued in 1994. An official of Canadian Airlines International in Taipei said the carrier expects growth to more than 130,000 visas this year. CAI currently operates six 747-400 flights per week between Taipei and Toronto. Passenger loads on the route average 90%, the official said.
Inventory Locator Service said it is developing a database of companies that have been issued parts manufacturer approval (PMA). Bruce Langsen, president, said the information will be organized by part number and available online to ILS customers using the service to buy and sell aircraft parts and equipment.
