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.
Sun Country Airlines extended its fall fare sale of $49 and $99 each way between Minneapolis/St. Paul and 14 cities and added four cities to the promotion. The new deadline for buying tickets is Aug. 16, for travel until Dec. 15. The new destinations are Los Angeles, Washington, Phoenix and Laughlin, Nev., and the original ones include Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle and New York. Sun Country, based in Mendota Heights, Minn., reported 1995 revenues of $230 million.
United, despite lacking clearance from Japan, yesterday announced Oct. 1 as the startup date for its new U.S.-Jakarta service. The carrier said the service would operate three times per week to Jakarta from San Francisco, via Osaka. The announcement follows Indonesia's decision to reverse itself and approve United's proposed service (DAILY, Aug. 5). However, the carrier has yet to receive approval for the service from Japan.
Air travelers looking for discounts can shorten their search with a telephone hotline that quotes the lowest fares for flights in the U.S., Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean. By dialing 800-DIAL-4-Travel, callers connect with a voice response system that provides up to 10 of the cheapest fares available. A fax service option quotes up to 30 tariffs. Creator Stanton Mirsky said, "Our goal is to save consumers the money and time of searching for the lowest air fare through travel agents or airline reservations desks." The cost is $6.95 per call from the U.S.
U-Land Airlines, one of Taiwan's newest domestic carriers, has received authority to begin charter service between Taiwan and Subic Bay, the Philippines. U-Land, which recently took delivery of two MD-82 passenger jets, will become the fourth Taiwanese carrier serving the Subic Bay area when it begins flying the route early next year. A company official said U-Land intends to expand to a number of other Asian destinations and will order either Boeing 767 or Airbus A300 aircraft to operate the anticipated routes.
Air Express International said it has entered a global alliance with Flying Cargo, a logistics services company and airfreight forwarder in Israel, for cooperation on a full range of integrated logistics services to and from Israel.
SkyWest Airlines recorded a 19.8% increase in July traffic to 64.4 million revenue passenger miles on 8.5% more capacity - 120.6 million available seat miles. Load factor increased five points to 53.4%. SkyWest carried 232,413 passengers in July, up 18.9%. For the first seven months of the year, RPMs rose 35.8% to 407.3 million, ASMs rose 21.7% to 781.2 million and load factor rose 5.4 points to 52.1%.
Yves Michot has been selected chairman of Aerospatiale by the French Council of Ministers as proposed by the company's board. Michot, who has been deputy general manager, joined Aerospatiale in 1984.
Some FAA personnel took advantage of free flights on commercial aircraft for personal gain, the DOT Office of Inspector General said yesterday in a semiannual report.
American is declining comment on a report in London's Evening Standard that Chairman Robert Crandall has threatened to revive the airline's talks with Air France if the U.K. blocks its alliance with British Airways. An American official, acknowledging past talks with Air France and other airlines, noted that the U.S. carrier would need to look elsewhere if the BA deal falls apart.
Jeppesen said it has launched JeppView, a Windows-based software package that enables subscribers to access, display and print current Jeppesen Terminal Charts and related information on desktop or notebook computers. JeppView offers high-resolution, vector-based graphics and provides an interface for fast, convenient access to charts and related information.
Carnival Air Lines will offer a "first-class party fare" Sept. 4 through Dec. 18 for groups of 15 to 24 passengers on its A300s. A roundtrip fare of $339 per person is available for travel in first class between Miami and New York or Puerto Rico, and between Fort Lauderdale and New York. The roundtrip fare between Fort Lauderdale and Los Angeles is $519. Groups will receive priority boarding, special welcome announcements and a complimentary inflight champagne reception.
WorldWide Parts Network Inc. said it has opened its Internet-based parts sourcing system for the aviation industry. The site provides parts searching, overhaul capabilities searching, messaging, request for quotations and full editing/viewing of parts and overhaul capabilities while users are on line.
Sabre Travel Information Network and the Hotel Clearing Corporation (HCC) are providing an electronic hotel commission reconciliation program to travel agents who use Sabre's TravelBase system. TravelBase matches hotel commission payment data supplied by HCC with hotel tracking information stored by TravelBase. Santa Ana-based Sundance Travel said the system saves 20 hours a week in staff time that would be spent manually entering and matching the data.
DOT is proposing new computer reservations system regulations to promote competition and reduce potential biases in the display of airline services. Responding to a rulemaking petition from Alaska Airlines, DOT is proposing to prohibit CRS contract clauses that bar a non-vendor carrier from choosing a level of participation in a vendor's system that would be lower than the carrier's level of participation in any other system.
United's flight attendant union, the Association of Flight Attendants, has distributed a pamphlet to its 21,000 members asking them to submit creative ideas on how to pressure management in contract negotiations, now or in the future, if talks reach the point that a 30-day cooling-off period is imposed and expires. The AFA and United reached a tentative contract agreement quickly early this year, before the amendable date of March 1, but the union memberships rejected it. Starting over, AFA and United exchanged opening contract proposals July 10.
DOT is inviting applications from U.S. carriers interested in providing scheduled combination air service between the U.S. and the Republic of South Africa. A total of 11 combination frequencies are available, including four that are unused and seven currently held by World Airlines. World told the department Aug. 1 it would discontinue its daily scheduled service between New York and Johannesburg, via Accra, Ghana, and Dakar, Senegal, on Aug. 23.
USAir is providing flight information to the hearing-impaired via a telecommunication device for the deaf 24 hours a day. The system offers the option of switching to a reservations agent.
Southwest is offering a $39 one-way fare special within California and between California and Las Vegas and Phoenix. The fare, available until Aug. 31, requires a seven-day advance purchase. Tickets are good for travel Aug. 20-Sept. 30 on all nonstop, direct or connecting flights.
Qantas Airways has asked for renewal of its authority to operate blocked- space/code-share services with American. Under the arrangement, Qantas displays American's designator code on its Los Angeles-Sydney, and Los Angeles-Auckland-Melbourne services, as well as on cargo-only San Francisco/Los Angeles/Honolulu-Sydney and San Francisco/Los Angeles- Auckland/Melbourne flights.
The Carlyle Group, a private merchant bank, said it has acquired Contour of California Inc., Brea, Calif., and Contour Industries, Everett, Wash., from Roger Berger for an undisclosed amount. The combined sales of the two companies total about $60 million per year. Both have been merged into Contour Aerospace, an entity formed by Carlyle and a management group headed by President Thomas Wallace. Buyers of Contour's complex aerostructure components include Airbus Industrie, Boeing and McDonnell Douglas.
Aeromexpress has been granted an exemption to operate scheduled all-cargo service between Leon, Mexico, and Los Angeles, and between Villahermosa, Mexico, and Houston. The carrier plans to begin the Villahermosa-Houston service tomorrow and the Leon-Los Angeles service Friday, using Boeing 727s (DAILY, Aug. 8). (Docket OST-96-1623)
Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., India's state-owned aircraft manufacturing company, lost more than 550 million rupees ($15.7 million) during the last two years because of idle capacity at its Fokker component facility, according to senior HAL officials. The company, which took it as a victory when it landed a Fokker contract to manufacture horizontal stabilizers for the Fokker 50 aircraft, has delivered only two of the six shipsets has manufactured so far, suspending all other scheduled work because of the Dutch manufacturer's bankruptcy.
Unisys Corp. is sponsoring USAir's Business Centers in Boston, New York and Washington, D.C., by providing Aquanta Personal Computers for USAir Shuttle passengers.
Prestige Airways plans to begin scheduled 727 service Sept. 3 from Flint, Mich., to Chicago Midway and St. Louis. The carrier said it chose Flint because the city "has no full jet service to any of the destinations."
