DOT granted Polar Air Cargo's request for an exemption from the 90-day startup requirement in its allocation of eight weekly U.S.-Russia all-cargo frequencies. The department gave the carrier 30 additional days, to June 15, to start up service in the market. Polar said it was "operationally positioned to make use of the frequencies immediately" but experienced delays in obtaining government approvals within Russia (DAILY, May 6). Polar plans to operate via routings of New York-Moscow via Prestwick and Anchorage-Khabarovsk via Seoul, Taipei and Hong Kong.
Swissair is discounting travel on midweek economy-class fares between some U.S. cities and Zurich, Geneva and Basel. Fares start at $590 roundtrip from the East Coast. Tickets must be purchased by May 25 for travel by June 30.
Virgin Atlantic Airways has ordered two more A340-300s, according to the manufacturer, Airbus Industrie. The aircraft, scheduled for delivery late next year, will give Virgin a total of eight of the long-range jets.
USAir has cut fares to the Caribbean for travel by Oct. 8 to Bermuda, St. Maarten, San Juan, St. Thomas, St. Croix and Grand Cayman. Tickets must be purchased by May 28. USAir said some of the lowest fares are $337 roundtrip between Charlotte and Grand Cayman, $303 roundtrip between Philadelphia and St. Croix and $326 between Baltimore and St. Thomas.
Air Canada's traffic was up 15.3% last month, compared with April 1995, on a capacity gain of 11.9%. The carrier logged 1.4 billion revenue passenger miles on capacity of 2.27 billion available seat miles. The load factor for the month was 61.7%, a gain of 1.9 percentage points. A 19.9% increase in international RPMs drove the overall traffic growth. For the first four months of the year, Air Canada's traffic was up 18.3%, capacity rose 11% and the load factor climbed 3.8 points to 62%.
FAA issued yesterday a detailed study of plans to revamp its Regulation and Certification program (AVR). "The FAA must prepare now to meet the combined challenges of rapidly changing technologies, and unprecedented growth in air travel in the future," said FAA Administrator David Hinson yesterday.
In the face of the continued stalemate between the U.S. and U.K., Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science&Transportation, has put on indefinite hold plans to introduce legislation increasing the permissible level of foreign ownership in U.S. carriers from 25% to 49%. Pressler said he announced the initiative several months ago hoping that it would "jump-start" the stalled U.S.-U.K. talks.
China Airlines has placed four firm orders and four options with Boeing for 747-400s, valued at about $1.4 billion. Deliveries will begin in May 1997 and will be completed in 2002. China Airlines currently operates 23 Boeing airliners, including 20 747s. It recently ordered six 737-800s. It has chosen Pratt&Whitney engines to power the new 747s.
The General Services Administration has awarded a contract, effective Aug. 16, to Federal Express to continue providing express transportation service for government agencies and cost-reimbursable government contractors, the carrier said yesterday. The contract has a one-year term, with GSA options to extend for up to four more one-year periods. The carrier has been providing contract express delivery services under a GSA contract since 1991.
Great Lakes Aviation will begin service at Muskegon and Flint, Mich., from Chicago Midway beginning June 17, the carrier announced. At Muskegon, the carrier will operate four roundtrips on weekdays with a reduced schedule on weekends, using Beech 1900Cs. The Flint service will consist of an extension of its Muskegon service from Midway, i.e., four daily roundtrips, with a stop at Muskegon, and a reduced schedule on weekends. American Eagle's Simmons unit will drop its Muskegon service from Chicago O'Hare July 1.
A DOT analysis of new-entrant airline safety data, dated May 2 and issued yesterday by FAA, shows that ValuJet clearly had the worst accident rate among the nation's low-cost new entrants. Prepared for DOT Secretary Federico Pena, the study focused on 10 low-cost carriers, including Southwest. "ValuJet dominates the accident data with five accidents and three serious accidents in the carrier's relatively short history," said the report, prepared by the Safety Analysis Branch office of Accident Investigation, which includes data through March 1996.
Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer posted a loss of $26 million for the first quarter of 1996, compared with a loss of $114 million in the same 1995 period, the company reported yesterday. Operating revenues rose 41% to $76.3 million from $54.1 million in the prior period. Embraer President Mauricio Botelho said the company is "beginning to see the positive impact of the steps taken by Embraer to control costs and improve productivity beginning last year following the privatization" of the manufacturer.
The government of Switzerland, concerned about political problems arising from Swissair's decision to move international operations from Geneva to Zurich, has decided to end the carrier's monopoly on air transport in Switzerland and open Geneva to fifth-freedom operations by some non-Swiss carriers.
Operators in Alaska have removed almost one-half of their 10- to 19- seat aircraft from scheduled service and several more from passenger service, according to the Alaska Air Carriers Association. The association surveyed carriers in Alaska about their plans to continue operating 10- to 19-seat aircraft with the advent of the commuter safety rule that requires operators of aircraft with 10 or more seats to comply with FAR Part 121 regulations.
Air Transport Association has awarded its Engineering, Maintenance and Material Nuts&Bolts awards to ATA's Roger Fleming, senior VP-economic and external affairs, for the aviation category, and to Ray Valeika, an aeronautical engineer at Delta, for the industry category. Fleming was given the award for his 30 years of service at ATA as chief airline technical representative to the board, federal and local governments and the public.
USAir Express affiliate CCAIR earned a $69,555 net profit, or one cent per share, in the quarter ended March 31, compared with a $274,592 loss, or four cents per share, in the same 1995 period. Revenues totaled $15.8 million, compared with nearly $15 million in the prior period. CCAIR credited the improved quarterly results to the combination of an increase in yield to 47 cents per RPM, from 45.8 cents in the earlier period, and a 3.8% increase in RPMS. 3 Months 3 Months 9 Months 9 Months
The four American Eagle carriers flew 221.4 million revenue passenger miles among them in April, a 9.6% increase from April 1995's 201.9 million. Capacity increased 1.1% to 370.5 million available seat miles. Load factor gained 4.7 percentage points to 59.8%, the highest April load factor ever, Eagle said.
Sales and earnings of Precision Standard Inc. plummeted during the first quarter, the latter into the red, mainly because of interruptions in its operations at Birmingham, Ala. The aircraft maintenance/modifications company lost $2 million, or $0.16 per share, on sales of $26.5 million during the three months ended March 31, compared with a profit of $1.6 million, or $0.10 per share, on sales of $41.1 million a year earlier.
American Eagle and Canadian Airlines International, beginning June 1, will code share on Eagle flights between New York Kennedy and three eastern North America cities and between Los Angeles Airport and seven points in California, Eagle announced. Canadian's "CP" designator code will appear on American Eagle flights between Kennedy and Montreal, Ottawa and Raleigh/Durham. It also will appear on certain flights from Los Angeles International to Bakersfield, Carlsbad, Palm Springs, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Ana/Orange County and Santa Barbara.
British Airways is offering a 25,000-mile frequent flyer bonus for transatlantic passengers who dispute its claim that its business-class "cradle" seat is more comfortable than any other carrier's business-class seat. The offer continues through Sept. 15. Passengers who fly business class during the period also will earn double frequent flyer mileage automatically.
San Diego-based Becker Associates will issue a study in a few days on how safety - or the perception of safety - plays a role in consumer decisions on flying. The company found that 38% of its respondents said they would switch bookings from an airline that has a crash with fatalities and is at fault, but an even higher number, 44%, said they would switch from an airline fined by FAA for maintenance violations. Look for the survey to be expanded to the Internet in the future.
Allison Engine Company has launched a three-year re-engineering of its management and management systems, a program that already has lost 158 lower- and middle-management jobs. President/COO Mike Hudson said the management system was "archaic - an automobile-manufacturing mentality [with] sheet metal flowing in one end and automobiles out the other. We will not have as many clerks handling the paper for an Alfred Sloan type of business." Allison is a former General Motors unit now owned by Rolls- Royce (see related story below).
American is growing stronger and stronger, but its inability to reach a contract agreement with its pilots is holding it back, AMR Chairman Robert Crandall told shareholders at the company's annual meeting on Wednesday. Although the two sides have been in talks for 22 months, progress has been negligible, Crandall said.
DOT has granted Orient Avia Airlines an exemption to operate scheduled service between Honolulu and points in Russia. Also gaining permission to operate approved charter service to the U.S., the privately owned Russian carrier said it plans to begin operating the scheduled flights as soon as it obtains approval to use 132-seat Il-62M aircraft. The State of Hawaii urged DOT to approve the carrier's request, saying the service "will open an entirely new market for the State of Hawaii" (DAILY, May 10). (Docket OST-96-1280)
