Former FAA Administrator and NTSB member Donald Engen will be named director of the National Air and Space Museum today. Engen, who also has been president of the AOPA Air Safety Foundation, is a retired vice admiral who holds the museum's Dewitt Ramsey Chair for Naval Aviation History.
Travel and Tourism Research Association will hold its 27th annual conference June 16-19 at the Bally's Las Vegas Hotel. Sessions include standards for measuring tourism, ecotourism, the current status of the gaming industry, international tourism research and marketing to honeymooners and travelers with children.
The American Automobile Association kicked off a nationwide campaign yesterday to improve U.S. highways and airways, including a proposal to take the transportation trust funds off budget and reinstate the airline ticket tax. AAA branches will work with transportation officials and policymakers to find local solutions to problems caused by aging highways and the congested air traffic control system.
Visa and Barnett Bank of Florida are marketing Visa TravelMoney - a prepaid debit card enabling travelers to get cash anywhere in the world. TravelMoney is an electronic alternative to travelers cheques, they said, and is to be used at ATM machines. Travelers determine how much money they will need and purchase a card for that amount. The card is discarded after its prepaid value, which cannot be increased, is depleted.
Travel management firm Rosenbluth International has acquired Business Partners International, a $13.4 million travel agency in Brussels. The acquisition is Rosenbluth's sixth in a year.
French tour operator FRAM said it would purchase Air France's charter subsidiary Air Charter if the company were privatized. FRAM Chairman Georges Colson said his company would team up with other tour operators to take over Air Charter, but FRAM would hold a majority stake. Stressing that Air Charter is his company's main service provider, he said FRAM would stop cooperation with Air Charter if it were bought by a rival tour operator. FRAM posted a profit of 52.2 million French francs in 1995, down 19% from 1994, with sales totaling 2.011 billion francs, down 4.3%.
Association of Flight Attendants has received the news it expected from United - over the union's strong objection, the carrier plans to go forward with opening two more foreign flight attendant bases (DAILY, June 11). United AFA Master Executive Council President Kevin Lum said the airline is choosing a path of confrontation. The union believes the existing five bases already have cost 1,800 U.S. jobs.
A team of experts hired by ValuJet has found no safety problems since it began evaluating the carrier May 29, according to the head of the team. Both the safety czar, retired Air Force Gen. James Davis, and ValuJet President Lewis Jordan played down elements of a preliminary report finding numerous problems at the carrier, which Jordan hinted was leaked by FAA to the press.
System One Amadeus has about 50 letters of intent from travel agencies that want the computer reservations system's customized World Wide Web site. The product, Private Label, allots each agency an individual site, capable of airline bookings and other services. It began developing its first Private Label Web site 45 days ago for seven customers, and said all of them will make individual launches in the next 30 days. System One Amadeus has its own Web site, which directs consumers to individual agencies. It will be able to book airline travel in August.
American Society of Travel Agents Scholarship Foundation has awarded a doctoral candidate at Clemson University, Anthony Sheppard, its $5,000 Golden Flame Award for excellence in verbal and written communication. His paper "Non-traditional schools and family vacations: implications for the travel industry," studies the impact of year-round schools on vacation planning.
Lufthansa has taken over the share of TUI, Germany's largest holiday and travel company, in Start, the German computer reservations system. In exchange, the airline transferred its holding in German tour operator Airtours to TUI. Lufthansa now owns two-thirds of Start, while the remaining shares are in the hands of Deutsche Bahn AG, the German railway company.
Traffic at BAA plc's seven U.K. airports approached 8.2 million passengers in May, 4.6% more than in May 1995. Growth was strongest in traffic to Ireland, 17%, and within the U.K., 9.6%. Scheduled traffic to Europe, up 5.5%, "is gradually returning to the growth experienced prior to the opening of the Channel Tunnel," the airport management company said. European charter traffic was down 12% due to "continued weakness in the U.K. package holiday market, with European destinations most affected." Long-haul traffic gained 7%.
Six workers engaged in constructing a bridge on a rail link to Hong Kong's new Chek Lap Kok Airport died when a metal platform collapsed and they plunged 60 feet to the ground. A government spokesman said the cause of the accident still is under investigation.
TWA and Transbrasil plan to begin code-share operations this fall, offering U.S.-Brazil service through New York Kennedy Airport. Under a memorandum of understanding subject to government approvals, Transbrasil will lease a TWA 767 aircraft for flights four times per week on a JFK- Miami-Brasilia route and three times per week on a Washington Dulles-JFK- Brasilia route. Transbrasil will operate the aircraft between the U.S. and Brazil, and TWA will code share on the flights.
Summary of U.S. National Carriers Systemwide Traffic October 1995 Revenue Average Revenue Passengers Length of Passenger Enplaned % Travel Miles Carriers (000) Change (Miles) (000) Alaska 844 13.33 809 682,423 American Trans Air 310 4.07 2,003 621,291
Sabre Decision Technologies is marketing EC Slots, an automated slot request and management system available to aid airlines flying into and out of Europe. Sabre said the system is one of the first to address growing European air traffic, as well as new requirements imposed by Eurocontrol. EC Slots enables airlines to send and receive flight plans, slot approvals and revisions. Sabre said the system improves an airline's ability to get an optimal slot. The system also generates reports on problem areas.
Hong Kong Tourist Association is presenting an exposition at Universal CityWalk in Universal City, Calif., called "Hong Kong wonders never cease." The exhibit, to run through June 16, features performances unique to Hong Kong culture and highlights the ties that link Hong Kong and Los Angeles through trade, tourism and entertainment. A contest for a trip for two to Hong Kong, and other prizes, can be found on the association's Web site at http ://www.hkta.org.
American Chairman Robert Crandall and his new partners from British Airways continued to preach the virtue of their proposed union yesterday, but it became clear that BA's relationship with its other major U.S. partner, USAir, is beginning to fray. Crandall told reporters at a breakfast meeting in Washington that BA and American want to discuss several proposals with USAir but cannot do so because USAir refuses to sign a confidentiality agreement safeguarding against disclosure. British Airways, which owns almost 25% of USAir, is playing down the differences.
The American-British Airways alliance agreement, which is expected to soften the U.K. position in stalemated aviation negotiations with the U.S., is hardening the U.S. stance. Immunity from U.S. antitrust laws, a keystone of the partnership plan, will depend not only on an open skies U.S.-U.K. aviation agreement, but also on greatly improved access for U.S.
Worldspan has introduced a system that automates fare/availability searches and displays up to four low-fare options before an itinerary is booked. The new system, called Power Shopper, is an enhancement to Power Pricing - a tool that searches for the lowest fare options. Worldspan said only one entry is required to access Power Shopper.
Kaohsiung Hsiaokang Airport has taken delivery of three German-made shuttle buses. The new vehicles, manufactured by Gottlob Auwarter, can carry up to 150 riders and will be used to ferry passengers between the terminal building and outlying areas of the airport.
Century Plaza Hotel and Tower in Los Angeles will open a "Cyber Suite" this month, in cooperation with several corporations, to showcase new technologies.
TWA has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission to offer 8 million shares of the company's common stock and up to 1.2 million shares of additional common stock as an underwriters' over- allotment option. The offer is expected to begin this month and be completed next month, TWA said. Noting that the carrier expects to raise about $183 million from the offering, Standard&Poor's placed its triple- 'C' senior secured debt rating on CreditWatch with positive implications.
FAA is looking into an incident Tuesday at Kennedy Airport in which an America West 757 and an American A300 were arriving and departing at the same time on parallel runways and came too close to one another.
Taiwan's Ministry of Justice said employees in key sectors of the transportation industry will be required to undergo drug testing once new regulations, currently being drawn up, are implemented. Beginning in July, flight crew members and control tower employees will have to submit to scheduled tests designed to detect the use of a wide range of drugs, including amphetamines, marijuana, cocaine, heroin and opium, a ministry official said.
