Wilcox Electric is challenging FAA's decision to award a single-source contract to Hughes Aircraft to build the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) (DAILY, May 3), the company's new president, Bill Marberg, said yesterday. Wilcox filed a protest letter with FAA's Office of Dispute Resolution, said Marberg, who was named president of the company May 24 succeeding Don Welde, who returned to parent company Thomson CSF.
Boeing 737 Systemwide Aircraft Utilization Per Day 20 Fourth Quarter 1995 20 B737-300 America West Continental Delta Number of Aircraft Operated 37 65 13 Total Fleet Operations Departures 247 286 69 Block Hours 427 633 115
Anticipating huge losses in the current fiscal year, the management of India's state-owned national carrier, Air-India, has begun several measures to cut costs at a number of operational levels, an AI spokesman said this week. These include recalling staff from foreign stations and discontinuing flights that generate little revenue. The measures, to be recommended in detail in the next couple of months by an internal panel comprising three AI deputy managing directors, come in response to the airline's projected losses for fiscal 1996, ending March 31, 1997.
TWA's Air Line Pilots Association unit has passed a resolution absolving the negotiating committee from further talks with the company designed to resolve open issues remaining from the contract finalized in fall 1994. TWA's ALPA unit told its members the union was wasting its resources on "futile discussions" with unprepared and unempowered company representatives. The union said it would rather focus its attention on preparing for new contract negotiations that start next year.
U.S. aerospace companies are more likely to pursue global expansion through majority interest in joint ventures than majority ownership of foreign companies, according to a Futures Group study. Unlike other U.S. industries, aerospace sees Brazil as a more important market than the Pacific Rim. All of the aerospace companies that participated in the survey said their most important objective is long-term market commitments, versus 76% overall.
Southwest edged out two of the Big Three in a popularity contest conducted on the West Coast. A soon-to-be-published airline safety study, as a throwaway question, asked respondents to name their favorite airline. Southwest came in first with 19.8% of respondents, followed by United, 17%, and American, 16.7%. Slightly more than half of the respondents were California residents.
Boeing 727 and 737 Systemwide Aircraft Utilization Per Day Fourth Quarter 1995 20 B727-200 American Continental Number of Aircraft Operated 81 36 Total Fleet Operations Departures 261 113 Block Hours 622 284
Apollo is planning to announce on May 30 a multi-million dollar technology "breakthrough" that it says will help travel agencies compete. Apollo said that while its competitors are introducing consumer-oriented online products, it is investing in the travel agency community.
Airlines are missing out on a potential $2 billion a year in gross revenues from the segment of the U.S. population that is "safety sensitive," according to a new study on the "elasticity" of airline safety. About 30% of the public falls into this category, says San Diego-based Becker Associates, and the airlines should jump at the opportunity to market directly to them and not only to regular customers.
A new contract between United and its flight attendants union probably is a long way off, observers believe. While a new round of negotiations is expected to get under way in July, United will have to negotiate soon on pay raises for its pilots and mechanics, which leaves a flight attendant accord as a low priority. The flight attendants voted down the company's last offer in April.
The American-Canadian Airlines International application for antitrust immunity, expected to be decided last week, apparently is getting another look in view of the possible American-British Airways alliance.
Sino Swearingen Aircraft Company Chairman Ed Swearingen was named the recipient of the 1996 Career Contribution to Aviation Award, conferred annually by the Aviation Division of the Texas Department of Transportation.
Cathay Pacific Airways will forego this year the 70,000 Christmas cards and 27,000 Chinese New Year cards it has sent out in years past. It will contribute the savings, HK$360,000, for a mobile classroom to teach grade- school children health awareness and drug prevention.
Granted orally to Asiana Airlines renewal for a two-year period an exemption to conduct scheduled combination service between Seoul and Detroit and authority to hold out Northwest's designator code on flights operated by Asiana between Seoul, on the one hand, and New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Honolulu and Saipan, on the other, under a code- share/blocked-space arrangement between the two carriers...Granted orally to Continental authority to operate scheduled combination service between Houston and Mazatlan, Mexico, and between Houston and Veracruz, Mexico.
ABSA-Aerolinhas Brasileiras, operating as Brasil Tranasair, has applied at DOT for an exemption to operate all-cargo flights between Miami and Sao Paulo, with an intermediate stop in Manaus, Brazil. Until DOT and FAA give it authorization to operate its own aircraft on the proposed service, the carrier plans to operate through long-term wet-leases with duly authorized U.S and foreign carriers. (Docket OST-96-1372)
Air Canada will open a customer service call center in St. John, New Brunswick, this fall, employing 100 reservations agents. The number of workers is expected to climb to more than 650 within five years, Air Canada said. The airline, which has been expanding its domestic and U.S. operations aggressively over the past year and a half, said it has experienced a large increase in call volume. Initially, the St. John call center will handle toll-free calls from within Canada, which will improve Air Canada's service in major cities.
National Air Transportation Association elected Kurt Herwald, Stevens Aviation, chairman and Michael Pittard, Aviation Charter Services, vice chairman.
Delta is offering double SkyMiles until July 31 to Texas residents using Dallas/Fort Worth Airport. Delta said it wants to show Texans that the airline is committed to DFW and the Texas marketplace with 143 flights at the airport every day. Delta Connection Atlantic Southeast offers 88 flights a day.
