John Watson, longtime British Airways executive and chairman of SITA's board of directors, was ratified by the board as SITA director general, effective Aug. 1. He will succeed Claude Lalanne, who will remain as president of SITA Telecommunications Holdings and devote full time to developing its commercial business.
Although European Union transport ministers voted last week in favor of multilateral talks with the U.S., nothing substantive is envisioned until the fall, a U.S. official said, noting that the EU still must work out its positions on various issues. The U.S. will not start with "soft" issues and defer traffic until later, as the Europeans want, but EU Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock's negotiating mandate still is an important step, the official added.
United's West Coast shuttle, which has withdrawn from four markets in which it could not compete with Southwest, has racked up an impressive performance on the remaining 14 routes that has surprised industry insiders. The markets dropped were Oakland-Seattle, Oakland-Ontario, Oakland-Burbank and Sacramento-San Diego.
Belgium International Travel has chosen Amadeus Global Travel Distribution System as its exclusive computerized reservations system. BIT travel agencies will be connected to Amadeus by the end of summer.
DOT has proposed that large certificated U.S. airlines participating in international and domestic code-share arrangements report both the ticketing and operating airlines' data in their quarterly passenger origin- destination survey reports. In a notice of proposed rulemaking to be published in today's Federal Register, the department said the information is needed to assess accurately the effects of code-sharing alliances.
World Airways has adopted SHARES, Shared Airline Reservation System, as its in-house computer reservations system for reservations and ticketing, to be implemented this month in conjunction with the launch of its code-sharing alliance with Continental, which also uses SHARES. World said the system will provide seamless connections for its international passengers coming from Israel, Ireland and South Africa connecting at Newark to Continental. SHARES is owned by Electronic Data Systems.
U.S. officials will be "primarily listening" when they sit down today with their U.K. counterparts in Paris, a senior U.S. official said. "It's in the court of the British," the official stated. "They have a clear idea of what we require." Some in the industry are confident that the U.K. indeed knows what is required, and this week's talks will begin a speedy process toward an open skies regime that facilitates the American-British Airways alliance.
Correction: A suit filed in federal court by a Federal Express pilot who had exhausted his Freedom of Information Act appeals to obtain NASA documents on flight and duty time research was funded by the Independent Pilots Association at UPS, not UPS itself, as reported June 20 in The DAILY.
Reno Air has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer three million shares of its common stock. The company also plans to issue an additional underwriter's allotment of 450,000 shares. Reno's common stock trades on the NASDAQ and the Pacific Stock Exchange. Proceeds of the offering will be added to the company's general funds to increase liquidity and may be used for capital expenditures, including the funding of down payments or deposits on aircraft orders, the carrier said.
Business Express still is up for grabs with at least three parties continuing to develop reorganization plans for the Delta Connection/Northwest Airlink carrier, currently operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy court protection. Former Continental Express Chief Executive Jonathan Ornstein has expressed interest, although sources close to the situation say that, "He wants it for a song." USAir Express Commutair "is still in the hunt," The DAILY is told, and BizEx Chief Executive Bob Martens continues to seek a partnership with his former employer - AMR Corp.
Regional airline load factors are on the rise. Average load factor for 14 carriers sampled by The DAILY was up by an average of 3.2 percentage points in May to 53.3%. Eleven of 14 carriers sampled by The DAILY filled more than 50% percent of their seats during May, while one - AMR Eagle - reported that 61.3% of its seats were filled. Flagship Airlines, one of four wholly owned Eagle carriers, set a new May load-factor record of 63.2%. Eagle carrier Simmons also posted a May record.
Frank Salizzoni, president and chief operating officer of USAir and USAir Group from 1994 until April, has been appointed interim president and chief executive of H&R Block.
Delta, which is trying to develop its maintenance services as a source of revenue, will contract out to Pratt&Whitney's newly created fleet management business unit for repair and replacement of critical spare engine parts under a materials management program lasting up to 10 years, P&W's top after-markets executive told DAILY affiliate Aerospace Propulsion. The carrier, which operates one of the world's largest P&W fleets, will continue to maintain its PW2000s and PW4000s itself.
Mesaba Holdings yesterday issued a request for proposals on a high- performance 50-passenger regional aircraft. Recipients are believed to be Bombardier for the Canadair Regional Jet, Embraer for the EMB-145 jet and Saab for the 2000 turboprop. Proposals are due by the end of the month.
TWA moved yesterday to replace two top officers who were instrumental in returning the carrier to health after a brush with bankruptcy that almost put it out of business. The St. Louis-based carrier said Robert Peiser, chief financial officer, and Mark Coleman, senior VP-marketing, are leaving the company. A spokesman for TWA said action to replace the two officers was taken unanimously Tuesday by the carrier's board of directors.
Air Transport Association airlines say they would need to hire more than 4,000 pilots every year until 2005, and more than 5,000 every year from then until 2010, to comply with FAA's proposed rules on flight and duty time. This accounts for the $5.2 billion ATA says the rules would cost, assuming average pilot compensation of $126,259 a year in salary, benefits, taxes and per diems. FAA's cost estimates used an average pilot salary of $82,572.
U.S. National Carriers Traffic May, 5 Months 1996 May May % 1996 1995 Change American Trans Air Revenue Passenger Miles (000) 707,614 603,697 17.2 Available Seat Miles (000) 1,132,552 866,651 30.7 Load Factor (%) 62.5 69.7
May Traffic for Gulfstream International was misstated last week because incorrect numbers were supplied by the carrier (DAILY, June 14). Correct figures are: revenue passenger miles, 10,497,000, up 113.9% from 4,908,000 in May 1995; available seat miles, 19,332,000, an increase of 115.6% from 8,966,000 in May 1995, and passenger boardings, 54,815, a 99.2% rise from 27,514 in the prior May.
TWA ends a three-day sale today that cuts ticket prices in 33 U.S. cities and San Juan. Travel must be completed by Oct. 31. Sample roundtrip fares are Miami-New York for $178, Moline-Indianapolis $198 and Charlotte- Honolulu $620.
The House DOT appropriations bill (H.R.3675) and its accompanying report (House Report 104-631) provide $34 million above the administration request for development of the wide area augmentation system (WAAS) in fiscal 1997. The committee is recommending $117.1 million for the program, including $8.6 million transferred from FAA's proposed operations budget to facilities and equipment.
UPS plans to open a regional sortation hub late in 1997 at Bradley Airport near Hartford, Conn., replacing the current facility. The new hub, part of a $41 million UPS investment in the Hartford area, is scheduled to be at full capacity by 2003. The two-phase expansion plan will create 230,000 square feet of sorting space. Sorting capacity at Bradley will increase from 10,000 packages an hour to 15,000 when the facility opens and to 20,000 by late 1998.
Miami-based Greenwich Air Services said yesterday that its board of directors has authorized it to repurchase up to 100,000 shares of its Class B non-voting common stock on the open market. The company said the stock will be purchased from time to time depending on its price and availability.
Atlas Air has awarded a 10-year, $300 million contract to GE Engine Services to maintain and repair GE CF6-50 engines that power the carrier's 15 Boeing 747-200 aircraft as well as 10 spare engines. "The majority of Atlas' fleet is powered by GE engines," said Mickey Foret, president of Atlas Air.
Airlines, pilots, industry associations and unions filing comments on FAA's proposed flight and duty time rules - no matter which side they take - agree on one point: they question the validity and accuracy of the scientific evidence used by FAA as the basis of broad changes in the rules. In some cases, they ask why available evidence was ignored.
