America West Chairman William Franke received Travel Agent magazine's Winners Circle Award for 1995 at the American Society of Travel Agents' Arizona Chapter meeting last week. The award is presented each year to an individual for significant accomplishment in the travel industry and support in travel agent community.
Augsburg Airways has introduced a third weekly flight to Cologne/Bonn, Germany, and a second flight per week to Augsburg from London City Airport. The airline, which operates de Havilland Dash 8-100s, launched Business Plus fares to Cologne/Bonn at 266 (US$406) roundtrip and to Augsburg at 388 (US$592). The carrier began serving London City in November.
Northwest launched a summer fare sale promising up to 50% off, and major carriers matched it in competing markets and added to it in some others. Northwest said the fares are good for travel May 1 through Sept. 9 in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean, and they must be purchased by midnight April 12. The deepest discounts require a 21-day advance purchase, travel on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and a Saturday night stay. Example fares are Boston-Spokane for $328 roundtrip and Detroit-Los Angeles for $398.
Citing rising costs and changes during the past five years in the way it routes packages, UPS has dropped plans to build an intermodal cargo hub at Denver Airport or the nearby Adams County (Front Range) Airport. Tom Scott, VP-UPS Airlines, said both airports were notified of the decision. "Both the city of Denver, which operates Denver International Airport, and the Adams County Commission, which operates Front Range Airport, made strong proposals to UPS," he said.
Northwest is calling on the U.S. ``to stand fast and not negotiate away aviation `beyond rights''' in an attempt to counter American's push to put such rights on the table in U.S.-Japan aviation negotiations. American said in a DOT filing Monday that, ``[A] reasonable negotiating goal for the United States is to secure expanded route opportunities between the U.S. and Japan in exchange for limitation on the future rate of growth of operations by U.S. airlines beyond Japan.'' American's statement, ``demonstrates that American Airlines is willing to bargain away U.S.
TriStar Airlines is selling $499 FastPass coupon books good for six one-way flights between Los Angeles and San Francisco, and between either city and Las Vegas. The tickets are transferable to others and commissionable to travel agents.
Dutch carrier Martinair will operate 19 nonstop flights per week from eight U.S. gateway cities to Amsterdam during its summer schedule period, which began April 1 and continues through Oct. 31. Roundtrip fares start st $548. The carrier will offer four flights per week from Miami and Orlando, three from Los Angeles, two from Newark, Oakland and Seattle, and one from Denver and Tampa.
The application by United and Lufthansa for antitrust immunity for their strategic alliance has spurred mixed industry reaction. TWA called on DOT to deny the petition, even though it "involves only two carriers and a country that receives a fair amount of service from U.S. airlines." This makes United-Lufthansa "not quite so anticompetitive" as Delta, Swissair, Sabena and Austrian Airlines, TWA admitted.
American has dismissed an Allied Pilots Association (APA) proposal to form a new division to operate a fleet of 70-passenger jets and become the entry level for the airline's pilots. The carrier also told the union that its bid to do all American jet flying "was not an acceptable alternative" and that there was nothing in the airline's proposal that would prevent the acquisition of "unlimited" regional jets for AMR Eagle. APA is in its 91st week of contract negotiations with American, in which American is proposing a 30% pay cut for Fokker 100 pilots .
Standard&Poor's raised its ratings of GPA Group debt and removed it from CreditWatch, where it had been placed last July 27. The ratings company also said continued improvement in the airline industry might prompt GE Capital to exercise options to acquire GPA. GPA Group's corporate credit rating, BB-, also was removed from CreditWatch. S&P said the rating outlook is ``positive.'' About $2.25 billion of debt is affected.
America West's traffic jumped 14.7% last month, compared with March 1995, on a capacity increase of 6.6%. Load factor for the month was 77.3%, 5.5 percentage points higher than in March 1995, and the airline carried 9.4% more passengers. For the first quarter of 1996, America West's traffic was up 18.4% over the same period last year. Capacity rose 6.9% and the number of passengers rose 12.7% during the quarter. Load factor for the period was 70.7%, a gain of 6.8 points. March 96 March 95 3 Mths 96 3 Mths 95
Qantas has added its flight schedules and departure and arrival information to its site on the Internet, which it established in February with commercial and corporate information about its services. The site is at: http://www.qantas.com.au.
The Association of Flight Attendants' Employee Assistance Program is the winner of the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention labor/business award for innovative support of alcohol and drug testing. The AFA will receive the award April 13 in recognition of prevention programs that have decreased substance abuse and related problems in the workplace and the community. AFA's program provides confidential peer counseling and referral services to flight attendants and their families.
The Air Line Pilots Association, which represents USAir's 5,600 pilots, urged DOT to approve USAir's application for Boston-Paris service authority. In a letter to DOT Secretary Federico Pea, ALPA President Randolph Babbitt said the selection of USAir would strengthen transatlantic and domestic competition, adding that USAir "will offer far more single- carrier connections behind Boston (22) than the other applicant for the route, American Airlines (8)." The pilots of USAir's competitor for the service, American, are members of the Allied Pilots Association.
Used Jet Aircraft Deliveries January 1996 Carrier # Type Engines Previous Operator Air Philippine 1 737-200 ADV JT8D-17 Atlanta Ice Air Alfa 1 A300B4-100 CF6-50C2 Ing Avn Lease Air Baltic 1 Avro RJ-70 LF507-1F Business Exp Air Jamaica 1 A310-300 PW4152 Delta Air Micro 1 727-200A (F) JT8D-17R DHL Airways
Cruise owner Carnival Corp. has finalized a deal valued at about $300 million to acquire 29.5% of the equity in Airtours plc. The British leisure travel group comprises charter carriers Premiair and Airtours International Airways; British, Scandinavian and Canadian tour operators; retail outlets in the U.K., Scandinavia and Finland; 41 hotels and two cruise ships. Of the total, $143 million will be payable through the issuance of 5.3 million shares of Carnival's Class A common stock.
The Travel Industry Association will sponsor a Discover USA workshop for South America in Salt Lake City Nov. 17-19. TIA estimates 2.5 million South Americans will travel to the U.S. this year. "The economic evolution occurring in many South American nations has invigorated the inbound travel market from these countries," TIA President William Norman said. "It's exciting, and it has numerous economic repercussions for the U.S. since the more than $5 billion South Americans spend in the U.S.
Chautauqua Airlines is "very definitely" in the black and will be sold or taken public by the end of 1998, according to the USAir Express carrier's owner - Guaranty Reassurance Corp. (GRC) of Jacksonville, Fla. GRC took control of the airline's assets from the state of Florida in 1993 after its former life-insurance-company owner went bankrupt and has been growing its value ever since. Chautauqua moved from Jamestown, N.Y., to Indianapolis and last year took over PSA's 19-passenger flying from Pittsburgh. Revenues last year were "in excess" of $40 million.
DOT has made final its tentative order selecting Ward Air to continue to operate essential air service at Chatham and Funter Bay, Alaska (DAILY, Dec. 22). Selected for a two-year period beginning Dec. 1, 1995, the carrier will receive a subsidy at an annual rate of $9,187, more than a competitor's bid for service with larger aircraft. Ward, which received strong local support to be redesignated, will continue operating once-a- week Funter Bay-Juneau service and one round trip per month at Chatham, operating over a Juneau-Funter Bay-Chatham-Funter Bay-Juneau routing.
Alaska Air Group regional subsidiary Horizon Air flew 74 million revenue passenger miles in March, an 8.5% increase from March 1995. Capacity rose more slowly - 7.2% to 123 million available seat miles from 115 million. The resulting load factor was 60.4%, an 0.8 percentage point increase from March 1995. Passenger enplanements climbed 1.5% to 319,700 from 315,100 in the comparable 1995 month.
United Express affiliate Atlantic Coast Airlines flew just over 29 million revenue passenger miles in March, 3.5% more than in the same month one year ago, while capacity rose 5% to 64.5 million available seat miles from 61.4 million. The resulting load factor of 45% represented a 0.6- percentage-point drop from 45.6% a year ago. Enplanements rose 6.5% to 120,772 from 113,437.
One-time restructuring charges in 1995 left the Swissair Group with a loss of 147 million Swiss francs (US$122.5 million) for the year, compared with a SF23 million (US$19.17 million) profit in 1994. Unfavorable exchange rates also contributed to the loss, Swissair said -- the strength of the Swiss franc cost the carrier SF34 million (US$28.3 million). The company posted a SF237 million (US$197.5 million) operating profit for the year, up from SF131 million (US$109.17 million) in 1994.
Singapore Airlines has added flights throughout Asia with new service to Australia, Seoul, Taipei, Beijing, Nagoya, Manila, Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh City. The airline said it plans to begin flying its new A340-300E in May. It added a fourth weekly A310 flight to Adelaide and increased service to Melbourne from five weekly flights to two per day. In May, the carrier will replace its three-times-weekly 747-400 service to Sydney with four weekly A340 flights.
Alaska Airlines has applied for authority to operate combination service between San Jose, Calif., on the one hand, and Puerto Vallarta and San Jose del Cabo, Mexico, on the other. The carrier proposes to start year-round MD-80 service on the routes Oct. 4 but said it will advance the initiation date to cover the summer season if aircraft availability issues are resolved. Alaska will operate four-times-weekly San Jose-Los Cabos service and three weekly San Jose-Puerto Vallarta flights. (Docket OST-96-1212)
Air New Zealand has not ended its efforts to acquire part of Ansett Australia despite a decision by Australia's Commerce Commission this week to disallow the sale of the carrier. "We still are very much committed to securing an influential stake in Ansett Australia," said Jim McCrea, Air New Zealand's managing director.
