Mercury Air Group yesterday announced a $9 million agreement to buy some assets of Raytheon Aircraft Services' fixed-base operations at six airports. The transaction, to be completed this spring, covers real estate, aircraft fueling and line service assets at Ontario, Calif.; Bedford, Mass.; Hartsfield and Peachtree in Atlanta, and Corpus Christi and Addison, Texas.
The City of Chicago is strongly supporting the application of El Al Israel Airlines to operate two additional weekly roundtrip cargo flights between Tel Aviv and Chicago, via Montreal.
FedEx has introduced an Internet logistics "Learning Lab" (http://www.fedex.com/logistics) designed to teach executives to use distribution as a competitive advantage. The lab provides on-site tools, such as case studies, white papers and an expert forum. Michael Janes, VP, said FedEx combined its logistics expertise with its online information capabilities to "create a blueprint for using distribution solutions to improve profitability and increase market share."
Continental Micronesia's request for immediate action on its two-year-old application for Honolulu-Osaka authority and its request for additional U.S.-Japan service spurred a mixed industry response. The carrier's motion "should be dismissed because there is no 'immediate action' that can be taken," said Northwest. As in 1994, the authority sought by Continental Micronesia is not available to it "under the U.S.-Japan Civil Air Transport Agreement of 1952 or under any of the existing memoranda of understanding between the United States and Japan," said Northwest.
DOT yesterday granted Aer Lingus and Delta authority to operate code- share/blocked-space service between the U.S. and Ireland. Aer Lingus will block space to Delta and use the U.S. carrier's designator code on its daily New York-Dublin/Shannon Airbus A330 flights. The two carriers also are looking into cooperation in other areas, including service operations and joint use of facilities. They will explore coordinating schedules, passenger and cargo handling, and marketing programs.
Airbus Industrie, penetrating what has been the domain of Boeing and Douglas so far, yesterday signed up China to a $1.5 billion contract for 30 A320s to serve short-to-medium-haul markets. In addition, China Eastern Airlines of Shanghai will acquire three previously ordered A340s valued at $390 million. All the aircraft were put under contract by China Aviation Supplies Corp. (CASC). Chinese Prime Minister Li Peng and French Prime Minister Alain Juppe witnessed the signing ceremony, which comes at a time when the U.S.
Massport, which operates Boston Logan Airport, has joined USAir in urging DOT to rule immediately on applications of USAir and American for authority to operate between Boston and Paris. "The absence of this service has been a major cost to the Boston, Massachusetts, and New England economy," Massport said, noting that when Northwest halted its Boston-Paris flights last year, only TWA's daily service to Paris remained. "A passenger market that has supported 600 daily seats has had to cram into less than 200 daily seats," Massport said.
SAS's three parent companies are changing their corporate structures in an effort to make it easier to raise funds. The three companies -- Danish DDL, Norwegian DNL, and Swedish SILA/ABA -- will change their names to SAS Denmark A/S, SAS Norge ASA and SAS Sverige AB. They will streamline their operations, shedding businesses that do not pertain to the running of the airline. They will sell real estate holdings to the carrier for 1,550 million Swedish krona.
USAir, Alamo Rent A Car and Visa USA have joined to offer companion certificates for flights in the U.S. and Canada to passengers who rent a car for at least five days with their Visa card. Auto reservations must be made by June 1 for travel April 14 through July 17. Lowest car rental rates, starting at $189 a week for an economy car, are in the Florida, as well as Mountain and some Western region locations. The cost in all other regions is $209 a week. The companion air tickets are good for travel April 24 through Sept.
Raytheon yesterday reported first quarter earnings of $186.5 million on sales of $2.8 billion, both records. In the same quarter last year, the company earned $173.9 million on sales of $2.4 billion. The company said the results were achieved despite a decline in revenue from defense operations.
Dollar Rent A Car Systems is offering a 10% discount to Frontier Airlines passengers. Frontier customers must present their ticket jacket at the car rental counter to receive the discount. The offer is good throughout the year in Albuquerque, Chicago, Denver, El Paso, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Omaha, Phoenix, Salt Lake City and San Francisco. Dollar, which has relocated its headquarters to Oklahoma, said it is offering the discount because it shares Frontier's "Spirit of the West."
General Aviation Technologies, Universal Asset Management and Jet Support Corp. have acquired a Boeing 727 inventory of more than 9,000 items from USAir. The inventory is "fully documented and traceable to USAir in accordance with present industry standards," the companies said. Jet Support will stock, maintain and market the inventory.
Hilton Hotels and Resorts is seeing cost and environmental payoffs from its employee "green teams," which have developed numerous recycling and educational programs at many of its facilities. In Huntington Beach, Calif., one Hilton offers guests "environmental rooms" equipped with air and water purifiers, all-natural amenities and live plants. Only bio- degradable and hypo-allergenic cleaning supplies are used.
Midas Commuter Airlines has applied for renewal of its authority to operate non-scheduled cargo service between Venezuela and Miami, New York, San Juan, Houston and Washington/Baltimore via The Netherlands West Indies, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica as intermediate points. The carrier also seeks renewal of its authority to conduct charter cargo flights between Venezuela and the U.S. Midas plans to operate the U.S. service with aircraft wet-leased from Fine Airlines. (Docket OST-96-1238)
The travel and tourism industry is expected to create more than 100 million new jobs by 2006, industry executives predict, and the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has drafted The Millennium Vision to spur that growth. WTTC estimates the industry will contribute more than $3.5 trillion in gross output in 1996, increasing to $7.1 trillion by 2006, while jobs will grow from 255 million worldwide to 385 million. Industry executives met recently at WTTC's annual general meeting in London to discuss growth opportunities.
A coalition seeking more air service between the U.S. and Japan has released a study that says California is being deprived of tourism revenues because of limited access and high fares, and it could reap an additional $1 billion a year from tourists. ACCESS U.S.-Japan said Japanese leisure travelers to California fell from one million in 1989 to 846,000 in 1994. Its market share of Japanese visitors decreased from 44.4% to 20.8%.
Reno Air's March traffic increased 47% over March 1995, to 251 million revenue passenger miles, on capacity of 333.8 million available seat miles, up 25%. The load factor was up 11.2 percentage points to 75.2%. In the first quarter, RPMs increased 48% to 645.2 million and ASMs by 25% to 947.3 million. The load factor gained 10.6 points during the quarter to 68.1%.
An 11.8% increase in Delta's domestic traffic in March offset a 7.9% decrease an international traffic, leaving the carrier with a 7% systemwide increase in revenue passenger miles for the month. The increase came on 0.3% additional capacity, with a load factor of 71.2%, up 4.4 percentage points from March 1995. The number of passengers rose 8.2%. For the first three months of the year, Delta's traffic rose 6.1% on 0.2% more capacity. The load factor grew 3.7 percentage points to 66.3% and the number of passengers was up 7.4%.
Ability of the U.S. Air Force's Air Mobility Command (AMC) to maintain its current and future level of participation in the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) program depends on whether it can continue to offer adequate incentives to air carriers and resolve differences on insurance coverage, the General Accounting Office reported.
Association of Flight Attendants at United was counting ballots last night on ratification of the contract its leadership agreed to tentatively early in February (DAILY, Feb. 8). There were 18,353 eligible voters on March 1, and an AFA official said about 80% of the ballots were returned. The new contract holds wages steady at least through 1998 and caps the number of non-U.S. domiciles.
Raytheon Electronic Systems said its air traffic control center near Oslo, Norway, has been commissioned by Norcontrol. The center controls southern Norwegian airspace and provides control capabilities for the four southern airports of Fornebu, Rygge, Torp and Gardenmoen. It also provides links to the flight database from Krisstansand, Stavanger and Trondheim, as well as coordination of flight information. Eight stand-alone airport control systems also were delivered as part of the contract. In a separate contract, Cossor, Raytheon's U.K.
Midwest Express Airlines traffic fell 1% in March to 110.7 million revenue passenger miles from 111.8 million in March 1995. Available seat miles decreased more, by 4.7% to 159.8 million, for a load factor increase of 2.7 percentage points to 69.3%. The carrier boarded 2.9% fewer passengers, 129,152. In the first quarter, Midwest Express's RPMs rose 3.4% as ASMs declined 2.8% for a load factor of 63.3%, compared with 59.5% for the same period last year.
Five lenders will participate in American's new AAdvantage program that will enable consumers to earn miles when they buy or sell a house or make mortgage payments. Consumers will earn mileage when they arrange a mortgage through PHH Mortgage Services Corp., Great Western Bank, HomeSide Lending, California Federal Bank or Downey Savings and Loan Association, or when they acquire real estate brokerage services through PHH Real Estate Services.
Canadian Transport Minister David Anderson yesterday signed an agreement to transfer the nation's air navigation system (ANS) from Transport Canada to Nav Canada for $1.5 billion. Nav Canada officials - Ken Copeland, president and chief executive, John Crichton, chairman, and Brent Aitken, board member - also signed the pact. The federal government will transfer all ANS assets to the new corporation July 1, subject to passage of legislation through Parliament. About 6,400 federal employees who support the ANS will be transfered to Nav Canada.
American Eagle has suspended its membership in the Regional Airline Association, effective immediately, because RAA's board voted 7-1 to oppose Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) bill to reform FAA. The dissenting vote came from the board member representing AMR Eagle, which, like its affiliate American Airlines, supports McCain's bill (S.1239). AMR Eagle says it favors taking a hard look at how FAA is organized. "We deeply regret having to suspend our membership in the RAA," said President Daniel Garton.
