Budget Rent a Car has signed a licensee agreement to open four Budget locations in Malaysia with Kopesma Car Rental, and has concluded a joint- venture agreement with Worldclass Rent a Car Limited of Thailand. The agreement with Worldclass gives Budget its first location in Thailand.
U.S. business travelers spent an average $456 on a roundtrip domestic airline ticket in 1995 and $1,610 on an international ticket, which is similar to 1994 spending, according to Runzheimer International. In its yearend analysis of business travel, Runzheimer also found that the business traveler spent an average $96 a night on a hotel room and $38 a day to rent a car. The survey of travel managers found that 78% of air travel expenses incurred by their companies are for domestic flights and 22% for international trips.
CFM International said yesterday that the design work is nearly 70% complete on its new CFM56-9 (Lite) powerplant for the proposed new Asian 100-passenger aircraft. CFMI said it plans to certify the engine within three years of aircraft launch, a schedule matched to planned aircraft certification in 2001. The CFM56-9 will meet thrust requirements of 18,500 to 23,000 pounds. CFMI said it sees a potential market for 1,200 aircraft of this size over the next 20 years.
American will join several foreign and U.S. carriers in banning cigarette smoking on more of its flights this summer. As of June 1, all American flights to Europe and the Caribbean will be smoke-free. At the same time, American will disallow smoking on flights from the U.S. to leisure destinations in Mexico such as Acapulco, Cancun and Puerto Vallarta. "A significant, and growing, majority of our customers in these markets tell us they want non-smoking flights," said American President Donald Carty.
Flying Colours, a British startup carrier based in Manchester, has leased three 757s from International Lease Finance Corp. for delivery in February, March and May 1997. The aircraft, to be powered by Rolls-Royce engines, will be configured for 235 passengers.
TWA is offering its Frequent Flight Bonus Program members 10 miles for every dollar spent dining at certain restaurants. With Dining A La Card Miles, members can register up to three major credit cards that will credit the miles to their account when meals are charged on the cards. The maximum allowance per restaurant is 6,000 miles, or a $600 bill. The first visit each month to participating restaurants will be eligible for the mileage.
Kintetsu World Express (KWE) of Japan and its Singapore and U.S. subsidiaries announced teaming with Singapore Technologies in a joint venture aimed at "developing and expanding the business of freight forwarding to China" and other Asian nations. The new venture grew from Singapore Technologies' role in developing the infrastructure for the demonstration city of Wuxi in southern China in the early 1990s under the aegis of the Chinese government, KWE said.
While discounting safety concerns and acknowledging some competitive issues, DOT is urging a continuation of the ban on electronic gambling on board foreign services in its study "Video Gambling in Foreign Air Transportation." Mandated by the Federal Aviation Authorization Act of 1994, the study concludes that if the ban were lifted, U.S carriers could earn up to $300 million per year without raising significant safety issues. On the other hand, the continued prohibition would allow foreign carriers access to these revenues, in some cases at the expense of U.S.
America West kicked off financial reporting for the first quarter of 1996 with record pretax earnings of $25.4 million, a 132% increase from the $10.97 million in pretax earnings the carrier collected in the first quarter of 1995. The airline reported net income of $13.73 million for the quarter, or $0.27 per share on a fully diluted basis. The net income result represents a 164% increase from first quarter 1995 levels and a 135% gain for fully distributed shares.
FAA yesterday named J.C. Johns to head its Global Positioning System team. His responsibilities include development and installation of the Wide Area Augmentation System and the Local Area Augmentation System. Johns has been a leader in developing WAAS and headed the acquisition part of the program, FAA said.
FAA still plans to complete by the end of April its proposal for assessing $150 million in new user fees during fiscal 1997, Administrator David Hinson said yesterday. At a House Appropriations transportation subcommittee hearing on the FAA budget, Hinson committed to having the agency's proposed schedule in time for the subcommittee's markup of fiscal 1997 funding, but he declined to outline specifics of the plan. He confirmed under questioning, however, that certain fees are being considered closely.
FAA published a notice in yesterday's Federal Register asking airlines to provide more information to support their claim that their compensation for collecting and remitting passenger facility charges should be increased above the current eight cents.
Fuel Cost and Consumption U.S. Majors, Nationals and Large Regionals March 1995 - February 1996 Total Total Cost Gallons (Dollars) 1995 March Domestic 1,081,585,267 562,499,369 International 353,694,597 205,136,520 System Total 1,435,279,864 767,635,889
U.S. travel industry has established the Ronald H. Brown Memorial Scholarship in honor of the late Commerce secretary. The scholarship will be administered by the Travel Industry Association of America Foundation. A $3,000 scholarship will be awarded each year to a minority student committed to a career in the industry. Travel industry members are encouraged to contribute to the scholarship. So far, more than $30,000 has been pledged by organizations and individuals.
Air Canada flew 19.4% more revenue passenger miles last month than in March 1995, logging 1.52 billion RPMs. Capacity for the month was 2.28 billion available seat miles, an increase of 9.1%, lifting the load factor 5.8 percentage points to 66.9%. Air Canada's international traffic grew 22.2% during the period. while domestic RPMs increased 14.3%. For the first three months of the year, the carrier's traffic rose 19.3%, compared with the same period in 1995, to 4.12 billion RPMs. Capacity increased 10.7% to 6.62 billion ASMs.
Hawaiian Airlines and Korean Air are joining the American Express Membership Rewards program, effective June 2. The program gives members one point for every dollar spent on American Express and Optima cards. Points can be redeemed for travel and merchandise. On Hawaiian, one roundtrip interisland ticket is valued at 10,000 Gold Plus miles, and one roundtrip mainland coach ticket is 40,000 miles. One Membership Reward point equals one Gold Plus mile. Korean is the first Asian airline to join the program.
Traffic carried by ATA member airlines rose 7.9% last month, compared with March 1995, according to the Air Transport Association. Fourteen of the nation's largest airlines enplaned 5.8% more passengers. The group's capacity increased only 1.8%, pushing the load factor up four percentage points to 71.7%. "Despite the persistent winter weather this year, which continued well into the spring, the first quarter passenger figures are quite impressive," said ATA President Carol Hallett.
Midway Airlines, which has been slowly shrinking over the past two months, says it is finally holding steady at one A320, 12 F100s and its current level of employees. The carrier had been leasing A320s to fly to the Caribbean, but its plans were dashed by the hurricane season, which "decimated the Caribbean from a traffic standpoint," said Midway VP- Corporate Communications John Ross. He said the carrier will refocus on the business market along the East Coast. Where possible, it will stay in leisure markets that have been profitable.
Hawaiian Airlines March traffic rose 27.4% to 334 million revenue passenger miles from 262.2 million in March 1995. Available seat miles increased 23.9% to 424.5 million from 342.8 million, and the load factor was 78.7%. Hawaiian carried 467,585 passengers during the month, compared with 411,146 in March 1995. For three months, RPMs rose 24.8% to 935.5 million, capacity was up 23.2% to 1.244 billion ASMs and the load factor was 75.2%.
United probably was too aggressive in introducing the 777 when it started flying the aircraft last June, the executive responsible for the aircraft at the carrier said. "We were really overconfident," said Gordon McKinzie, 777 project manager for United. "Had we really babied the airplane, allowed for longer turns and major maintenance stations, we would have done better. But we went really hard line and treated it just like any other aircraft on day one," McKinzie said. Dispatch reliability of the aircraft is improving.
KLM has named Robert Hougee VP-cargo operations. Hougee takes over for Jan Meurer, who was named senior VP and manager for KLM passenger sales and services in North America and Mexico. He joined KLM in 1978 and previously was divisional controller for passenger sales and services. He also holds a seat on Air UK's board of directors.
Collins Air Transport Division is holding discussions with the Chinese on co-production of its traffic alert and collision avoidance systems for Asian markets.The joint venture could be ready to turn out TCAS units in two years, a Collins official says. The company also is developing a new avionics suite for China's 100-passenger airplane.
Laker Airways has signed up Phoenix Information System Corp. to provide it with reservations services. The carrier plans to offer charter service between Orlando, Fla., and Gatwick, England, as of May 2. Service between Fort Lauderdale and Prestwick, Scotland, will start July 5.
The profits of U.S. carriers may continue to grow in 1996, but it will take years for the group to lower its debt, said Fitch. The ratings agency calculated that the top eight U.S. carriers generated $4.9 billion in operating profits in 1995, the most profitable year for the industry since deregulation in 1978, but that by contrast, the same group of carriers had $62 billion in debt at the end of last year.
U.S. National Carriers Traffic March, 3 Months 1996 March March % 1996 1995 Change Alaska Revenue Passenger Miles (000) 835,000 663,000 25.9 Available Seat Miles (000) 1,220,000 1,115,000 9.4 Load Factor (%) 68.4 59.5
