FAA Administrator David Hinson dismissed concerns expressed by National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Jim Hall that the agency is not singling out early-series 737s for a special retrofit of flight data recorders but will include the aircraft in the retrofit program recommended for other older aircraft types. Hinson also discounted the board's concerns, contained in its findings on the Simmons ATR 72 crash near Roselawn, Ill., about the competence of European airworthiness authorities.
Indian Airlines has shortlisted Rolls-Royce as joint-venture partner for its jet engine workshop, IA officials said yesterday. Pratt&Whitney and General Electric were the other two contenders. Among the factors guiding IA's preference for Rolls is that most aircraft in IA and Air- India's fleets have Rolls engines, IA sources said. IA's choice now awaits the final approval of India's civil aviation ministry.
The U.S. airline industry is undergoing revolutionary changes in distribution that will forever alter the way it sells its tickets and could triple profits, Julius Maldutis, managing director of Solomon Brothers and a longtime analyst of the airline industry, told the International Aviation Club in Washington yesterday. "The current fare structure is completely irrational and will change," Maldutis said, noting that U.S.
Kenya Airways has ordered two 737-300s, Boeing said. The aircraft, valued at $82 million, will be delivered next year. The recently privatized airline reported a profitable year in 1995.
United Chairman Gerald Greenwald and President John Edwardson, addressing pilots union leaders Monday during their week-long Master Executive Council meeting, indicated United could expand the airline faster than called for in current plans and build the fleet according to profitability.
Reacting to Japan's refusal to allow Federal Express to operate authorized beyond-Japan services, DOT proposed limits on Japan Airlines' scheduled all-cargo services. In a show cause order issued yesterday, DOT recommended prohibiting JAL from carrying to the U.S. any cargo transported to Japan by any Japanese airline from Cebu and Manila, the Philippines; Jakarta, Indonesia, and Beijing and Shanghai, China, points Japan barred to FedEx. Comments are due by July 26 and replies by July 31. (Docket OST- 96-1551)
British Airways has signed up with the GETS Marketing Company for its Return Confirm service. Return Confirm enables a travel agent to contact an airline electronically and receive a message confirming that a seat has been saved for the passenger.
EVA Air and Air Macau have formalized their code-share agreement on the Kaohsiung-Macau route. Starting Aug. 1, Air Macau will block a preset number of seats on its flights for EVA passengers. It is EVA's second agreement with Air Macau. The first, signed in May, enabled passengers outbound from Taipei to fly directly to three mainland cities in China via a stop in Macau.
DOT made final late Monday its tentative approval of immunity from U.S. antitrust laws for American and Canadian Airlines International. (Docket OST-95-792)
USAir's customers who use its on-line personal reservations service, Priority TravelWorks, can now buy tickets electronically. Priority TravelWorks, introduced in October and used by the carrier's most frequent travelers, offers information on 740 airlines through the Apollo computer reservations system. An Internet version of the system is being developed for use later this year, and an application for corporate use, Corporate TravelWorks, also is in the works.
DOT instituted the U.S.-Toronto Third Year Service Proceeding as it made final its selection for second-year service in the market. In the proceeding, the department will select up to four primary carriers and four backup carriers to operate two daily, scheduled, combination frequencies each between the U.S. and Toronto, made available by the 1995 air services agreement between the U.S. and Canada. Applications are due by July 29 for the service, which will be available beginning February 1997.
TWA has signed a long-term leasing agreement with McDonnell Douglas for five new MD-83s, for delivery in the second half of 1997. It has an option for 10 more.
Pratt&Whitney has recalled six more JT8D-299 fan hubs for possible faults like the one that caused an uncontained failure on a Delta MD-88 July 6, killing two passengers (DAILY, July 9). None of the hubs is flying, Pratt said. FAA issued an airworthiness directive reflecting Pratt's all-operators bulletin to customer airlines that all six suspect hubs have been identified. The company said it found six more hubs that carried the same notation on final inspection as the Delta hub.
Base pay of Continental employees has risen this year within 80% of the industry average, up from 68% two years ago, according to the carrier's VP of human resources. Their total compensation this year will be more than 90% of the industry average as employees benefit from an overall improvement in the carrier's performance. The goal is 100% or higher in the next couple of years.
Rolls-Royce said it signed a memorandum of understanding with Boeing covering further development of its Trent 900 series engine for growth versions of Boeing's 747 series. Rolls said it has formed a Trent 900 project team to undertake a preliminary study defining a low-risk derivative, and detailed design and development work will begin after board approval of the project by both companies.
Lufthansa, as an initial step in its newest cost-cutting campaign, said it has laid off 100 workers. The employees, hired in February, worked mostly as airport check-in staff for a sixth-month probationary period, a spokesman said. No further layoffs are anticipated at this time, he added, although he did not rule out cuts altogether. "Unfortunately, this is the beginning of some of the measures we are going to have to be taking to reduce costs," he said.
The Senate Appropriations transportation subcommittee yesterday approved an $8.265 billion FAA budget for fiscal 1997, including funds for 640 more air traffic controllers, regulation and certification inspectors and hazardous materials inspectors. The budget, part of the DOT appropriations bill, is $110 million more than the House passed and $49 million more than the agency received for fiscal 1996.
All Nippon Airways has launched twice-weekly service from Osaka's Kansai Airport to Yangon, Myanmar. The carrier is operating a two-class, 204- passenger 767-300 on the route.
Aiming to resume service Aug. 1, ValuJet has applied to DOT for a fitness redetermination, reissuance of its certificate and a waiver from the requirement to file 45 days in advance its intention to fly again. The carrier said it "appears likely" that FAA may revalidate its operating authority for an early-August resumption. It said it is making "a number of operational changes" and working with FAA to "resolve other outstanding issues, including the future scope of its operations and the oversight of its outsourcing of maintenance services." (Docket OST-96-1548)
The number of airline tickets sold daily by the online system Preview Travel on America Online and the World Wide Web has tripled in the past week. Preview Travel says that with the fare war heating up, consumers may find it difficult to reach an agent by telephone. Instead, they can access the online reservations service at www.vacations.com on the Web and at keyword "reservations" on AOL. Preview Travel said it has been selling between $50,000 and $100,000 worth of airline tickets per day since May.
United and United Express carriers intend to beef up jet service to ski destinations this winter, specifically between Los Angeles and Aspen/Snowmass, and at Vail/Eagle, Hayden/Steamboat and Montrose/Telluride, adding 4,200 seats a week. The increased service, including flights from Chicago and Denver, begins Dec. 1.
Flight tests began this summer on a United DC-10 equipped with an advanced cockpit weather information system (CWIN) developed by a consortium led by McDonnell Douglas and sponsored by NASA Langley Research Center. The CWIN, an integrated inflight communication and navigation system, blends data from communication and Global Positioning System satellites, ground weather radar images and lightning strikes, and airport observations and forecasts. The composite gives flight crews up-to-date weather information, including trends.
A study undertaken by Taiwan's Industrial Development Bureau projects that the annual production value of the island's aerospace industry will reach nearly US$6 billion by 2006. The study shows that Taiwan's aerospace industry produced goods and services worth US$1.02 billion in 1995. The sector employed 11,500 workers with annual per-worker productivity of US$88,700. By the turn of the century, the industry's output is expected to be worth US$1.38 billion, with worker productivity growing to US$95,000 and the number of employees rising to 14,500.
Canadian Airlines International's June traffic grew 8.8%, compared with June 1995, on a 0.3% increase in capacity. The carrier flew 1.51 billion revenue passenger miles for the month on capacity of 1.95 billion available seat miles, boosting the load factor 6 percentage points to 77.6%. For the first half of the year, Canadian's traffic rose 10.3%, compared with the first six months of 1995, on a 4.4% jump in capacity. The result was a load factor gain of 3.7 points to 69.5%.
