Simmons Airlines said it intends to terminate service to Marquette Aug. 1. Operating as American Eagle, the carrier offers two daily one-stop roundtrips between Marquette and Chicago O'Hare, using 46-seat ATRs. "We regret that we simply cannot afford to operate the air service any longer," said Ralph Richardi, president of Simmons. Marquette is one of 20 cities American Eagle will stop serving this year because of unsatisfactory earnings in the markets. It plans to continue to operate its maintenance base in Marquette. (Docket OST-96-1342)
Transwede Airways has asked DOT for permission to transfer its foreign air carrier permit to Transwede Leisure, a recently formed company under common ownership with Transwede. As part of a corporate reorganization, the charter operations of Transwede Airways are being transferred to Transwede Leisure, and Transwede Airways will operate only as a scheduled carrier within Sweden. Pending the transfer of the certificate, Transwede Leisure is seeking an exemption to operate charter service between Sweden and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., beginning June 12.
A computer software program designed to provide real-time comparisons of business travel costs on privately operated aircraft, charter flights and scheduled airlines is being developed by the National Business Aircraft Association. Use of the program will show that business aircraft perform better than airlines on most typical business trips, NBAA officials said.
Alaska Airlines' traffic increased 17.9% last month, compared with April 1995, on a 9.6% rise in capacity. The carrier flew 778 million revenue passenger miles for the month on capacity of 1.2 billion available seat miles, and the load factor increased 4.6 percentage points to 65.1%. The number of passengers carried by Alaska rose 22.19% to 945,300. For the first four months of the year, traffic grew 18.4% over the same period last year on 9.9% more capacity. Load factor was up 4.4 percentage points to 61.8%.
FAA demonstrated new fire-resistant insulation materials in the Full-Scale Fire Test Facility at the Technical Center in Atlantic City. The new material is expected to more than double the time in which fuel-fed flames can burn through an aircraft's aluminum skin and fiberglass batting. FAA said the test is one of its research efforts aimed at protecting air travelers from post-crash fires.
New floor-path markings that operate without electrical power are enabling customers of Lufthansa Technik to cut virtually to zero the number of takeoff delays due to failure of marking strips, according to Lufthansa Technik. German airworthiness authorities authorized LHT early this year to install the system in Lufthansa's Boeing 737-300/400/500 aircraft, and the company expects approval by midyear to install it in all other short- and medium-haul jets, and by yearend in the long-haul fleet.
World Airways Inc. has signed a $69 million contract to wet-lease aircraft to Philippine Airlines. Under the contract, World will operate several routes for PAL using one of its two MD-11ER aircraft and one DC-10-30. The accord covers the aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance for 18 months starting June 15, World said. PAL has an option to switch the DC-10 for an MD-11, and to wet-lease as many as two more MD-11s to World beginning this summer, World said. World took delivery of the first two MD-11ERs in March.
Boeing Commercial yesterday announced launch of "Boeing Direct," which will deliver spare parts from Boeing to customers' maintenance facilities through United Parcel Service at "substantial discounts from published shipping rates." The service will help airlines reduce spares inventories and meet needs for airplane-on-ground repairs, Boeing said. A single payment will cover both shipping and parts.
Iberia, Europe's latest recipient of state aid to make up for overall deficits, said its cargo operations posted record profits of 4.5 billion pesetas in 1995, three times those of the previous year. Gross income from cargo transport increased 10%, to nearly 32 billion pesetas, compared with the carrier's forecast of a 2.4% increase. Iberia said it carried 196,000 tons of cargo in 1995, up from 178,150 tons in 1994, and on the basis of its "vigorous increase" in freight, it expects to transport 255,000 tons by 2000. Spain accounted for 39% of the volume, the U.S.
U.S. Major Carriers Advertising Expenses Fourth Quarter 1995 % Of Total Passenger Systemwide Revenues America West $ 7,193,430 1.96 Domestic 7,189,051 1.99 Latin 4,379 0.08 American 49,542,000 1.51
Burlington Air Express said revenues increased 9% in the first quarter to $352 million from $330 million, and operating profits increased 8% to $8.7 million from $8.1 million. Net profit declined to $3.8 million from $4 million, however. Joseph Farrell, chairman, said the company's "greatest gains continue to involve our international operations." International air freight revenues rose 6% to $166.3 million, while domestic revenues were unchanged at $128.8 million.
A shrinking number of controllers and a lack of overtime pay mean that "summer delays will increase dramatically as staffing levels decline" at the New York air route traffic control center (ARTCC), the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said yesterday. An FAA official countered that the agency will have the "right amount of staff and the right amount of overtime" to ensure smooth operations. The center is responsible for aircraft flying over New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean.
Telephonics said it received a contract to build and install an air traffic control system for a major new air route traffic control center for southeastern China. The center, in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, will provide China with its first fully automated civil ATC area control center, the company said. The system uses Telephonics's advanced multi-radar fusion tracking system, a fully integrated flight data processing system and UNIX open systems architecture.
Delta is setting some lofty goals for the pilots who will fly its new lower-cost 737 operation.The carrier envisions pilots flying 82 hard hours - operating the controls - per month.By contrast, Southwest pilots, the undisputed champions of short-haul flying, squeeze out just 72 hours, notes Steve Lewins, an analyst with Gruntal Investment Research.
KLM flew 6% more revenue passenger kilometers last month than in April 1995 on a 7% increase in passenger capacity. The airline flew 3.72 million revenue passenger kilometers on capacity of 5.19 million available passenger kilometers. Load factor was down 0.5 percentage points to 71.7%. Overall, traffic increased 4% on a 9% jump in capacity, and the total load factor was 69.6%, down 3.3 points.
Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.) asked Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Larry Pressler (R-S.D.) to schedule a hearing on the FAA inspector work force as soon as possible. Hollings, ranking Democrat on the committee, noted that a recent Governmental Affairs oversight subcommittee hearing suggested several problems with the inspection system. "If such problems exist, it is incumbent on the Committee to review the matter and to take corrective action."
USAir's traffic fell 3.9% last month, compared with April 1995, on an 8.3% drop in capacity. The load factor for the month was 70.9%, up 3.5 points from 67.4% in April 1995. The monthly load factor was a record for the carrier. "We are pleased that demand has been strong all across our system and that future bookings continue to follow the trend of the past couple of months," said USAir President Rakesh Gangwal. For the first four months of the year, USAir's traffic was down 4.2% on a 10.6% falloff in capacity.
A discussion draft of a House FAA reauthorization bill would allow DOT to exempt up to five airports and their sponsors from various laws in order to allow the sale or long-term lease of the airports to the private sector. The pilot program would allow DOT to grant exemptions from revenue diversion prohibitions to allow an airport owner to recover proceeds from the sale or lease - but only in amounts approved by airlines accounting for more than 50% of total passenger boardings at the airport during the previous year.
An investor group including Carl Icahn has sold down its stake in TWA to 9.9%. The group said in a filing at the Securities and Exchange Commission that it sold 500,000 shares May 2 at $18 per share. Under a deal worked out to extricate Icahn from TWA, proceeds of the shares will be used to fund the carrier's pensions. With the sale, the Icahn group holds 3.67 million shares.
World Airways and Southern Air Transport are seeking increased service authority between the U.S. and South Africa. World asked that its certificate be amended to include South Africa and requested two more frequencies in the market, bringing its total to seven.
Continental's fifth-place finish among the largest U.S. airlines in on-time performance in March is the carrier's first slip below third since June 1995. Its operational turnaround continues, however. For the first quarter of this year, it ranked second in fewest mishandled bags, second in fewest complaints and second in on-time performance. It was first in on- time performance in the fourth quarter of 1995.
Northwest has applied for authority to operate code-share service with Alaska Airlines on U.S.-Mexico service. Northwest is seeking to place its designator code, beginning June 1, on Alaska's San Francisco/Los Angeles- Mazatlan/Puerto Vallarta/San Jose del Cabo; Phoenix-Puerto Vallarta/San Jose del Cabo, and San Diego-San Jose del Cabo services. "Although the U.S.-Mexico bilateral agreement does not specifically address code-sharing, the governments of the United States and Mexico routinely have authorized code-share service in the U.S.-Mexico market," Northwest said.
U.S. Major and National Carriers Landing Expenses Fourth Quarter 1995 Average Amount Systemwide Spent Per Landing America West $ 7,884,522 $ 156.45 American 52,447,000 260.98 Continental 22,772,000 204.81 Delta 55,874,000 238.26
Airbus Industrie reported that its A300-600 and 600R have been certificated by the Interstate Aviation Committee-Aviation Register (IAC-AR) of the Comonwealth of Independent States, while its A310 powered by Pratt&Whitney engines has been approved for extremely cold weather operation. Separately, the A340 family was certificated by the Civil Aviation Administration of China. Other Airbus aircraft that received type certification from the IAC-AR are the A320 and A321.
