Virgin Atlantic will subscribe to Worldspan Airline Source, the computer reservations system's highest level of participation. Availability requests will be routed instantly through Worldspan to the carrier's database, and travel agents receive immediate acknowledgment when flights are booked.
Free Flight can be in place by 2000, 10 years ahead of the FAA timetable, saving U.S. airlines as much as $50 billion, according to a new study by RMB Associates&Aviation Systems Research Corp."Blueprint to Free Flight" also says development of new technologies or new and expensive on- board equipment is not required.
El Al Israel Airlines is seeking permission to operate two additional weekly roundtrip cargo flights between Tel Aviv, via intermediate point Montreal, and terminal point Chicago from March 31 to Oct. 20, 1996, using Boeing 747 aircraft. The carrier said it is applying at DOT for an exemption to give it the necessary slots at O'Hare to operate the service.
TWA generated $169.31 million from its offering of 3.5 million shares of 8% cumulative preferred stock, the airline said yesterday (DAILY, March 22). The figure probably will increase slightly after TWA completes an over- allotment sale, still under way. Proceeds from the offering will be used in part to redeem the carrier's outstanding 12% cumulative preferred stock. TWA said last week that it had called for redemption of its outstanding 12% preferred stock.
Saudi Arabian Airlines has asked DOT to renew its authority to operate scheduled combination and all-cargo service between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. Saudia currently is permitted to operate scheduled combination service between a point or points in Saudi Arabia and Orlando, Fla., and to co-terminalize services at Orlando with its authority to serve New York and Washington. The authority also permits Saudia to stop over at the U.S.
DOT Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International affairs Charles Hunnicutt and his French counterpart are scheduled to meet today in Paris in an attempt to resolve the current dispute over summer service between the two countries. Following DOT rejection of Air France's request for additional U.S. summer service last week, France ordered six U.S. carriers to cut back their planned summer flights to France (DAILY, March 25). Hunnicutt will ask France to retract its order so the U.S.
New Aircraft Orders And Options December 1995 Last 12 Months Firm Orders Options Orders Options Carrier # Type # Type Engines Del. Dates # Type # Type Air Berlin 2 737-400 - CFM56-3C1 96 1 737-400 - 6 737-800 -
Finnair will prohibit smoking on flights to the U.S., Canada, China, Thailand and Singapore on March 31, when its summer schedule begins. With the change, 90% of Finnair flights worldwide will be smoke-free. Most of its service within Europe already is smoke-free, but smoking still is permitted on flights to Japan. In 1970, Finnair became the first airline in the world to introduce a non-smoking policy for some seats aboard aircraft, the airline said.
Officials from FAA and industry addressing the annual FAA General Aviation Forecast Conference today and tomorrow in Tampa will deliver a general message of renewed optimism for the industry, Barry Valentine, FAA assistant administrator for policy, planning and international aviation, told The DAILY. Valentine and Darlene Freeman, deputy associate administrator for air traffic services, and Carolyn Blum, Southern Region administrator, are among the FAA officials speaking at the session.
ValuJet said it will ``rescue'' passengers traveling to Atlanta during the Olympic Games from high air fares by not increasing its rates during the summer when the games draw thousands to the city. All fares will continue to be sold on a one-way basis, without a Saturday-night stay requirement. ValuJet's fares begin at $39 from Atlanta.
Delta's pilots union probably will not stand in the way of Comair's move to acquire jet carrier Spirit Airlines, a union spokesman said (DAILY, March 25). "From what we have been told, the Spirit transaction would not be a conflict," a spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association unit at Delta told The DAILY. "We have been contacted by Delta about the transaction, and will take a look at it," he added. On Friday, Comair Holdings announced that it would purchase the Eastpointe, Mich.-based airline for an undisclosed sum.
AMR Corporation expects 1996 to be a financially stable year as its transition plan implemented in the early 1990s - to strengthen American wherever possible and build the successful non-airline businesses - finally bears fruit. The Sabre Group is facing a rapidly changing distribution environment and, if it is to retain its leadership position, will require "a significant amount of investment spending" in the short term, AMR said in a 10K filing at the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Lufthansa Cargo said yesterday it will offer 39 weekly scheduled cargo flights from the U.S. and Canada this summer, which it called the "most freight capacity of any airline across the North Atlantic. In Chicago, Lufthansa increased from five to six its weekly freighter flights and "now offers more 747 freighter flights than any other airline from Chicago to Europe." It transported 35,000 tons out of O'Hare last year, up 30%.
World Airways is the first airline to take delivery of the extended-range MD-11ER. It accepted two of the aircraft, which have a nonstop range of up to 7,200 nautical miles or 8,280 statute miles. Initially, the leased aircraft will be used for flights between Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, serving Garuda Indonesia. World's aircraft are powered by Pratt&Whitney engines. Up to 3,000 gallons, or 11,356 liters, of additional fuel can be carried in a removable auxiliary tank in the lower cargo compartment.
British Airways will promote its one millionth frequent flyer program member this summer by giving away a prize of one million frequent flyer miles in a sweepstakes. Passengers who fly Concorde, first or business class across the Atlantic are automatically enrolled, while others can enroll by mail. BA will choose the winner at random May 16.
World Airways said yesterday it will inaugurate scheduled passenger service between Newark and Johannesburg in June. Operating the service under a marketing and code-share agreement with Continental, World initially will offer three weekly flights using MD-11 aircraft in two-class configuration with 27 seats in business and 316 in economy class. Held up for seven months by a restraining order from the U.S.
USAir issued last week the first profit-sharing checks to employees who participated in the 1992-1993 salary reduction program. The $73.7 million total payment represents 82% of each employee's original salary reduction, USAir said.
Former America West president and chief operating officer, Maurice Myers, has switched modes -- he is the new president and chief executive of trucking industry holding company Yellow Corporation. Based in Overland Park, Kan., Yellow recorded 1995 revenues of $3.1 billion. Prior to joining America West in 1994, Myers was president and chief executive of Aloha Air Group.
Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and the ProRodeo Hall of Fame, based in Colorado Springs, are the latest organizations to sign an agreement with Western Pacific to have their logos appear on the fuselage of a 737-300, one on the left side and the other on the right. The logos, and pictures of rodeo legends Ty Murray and the late Casey Tibbs, will be on the aircraft for four years.
In its first public statement since FAA sent it a "cure" letter, the team handling the $475 million Wide Area Augmentation System contract said yesterday it "remains confident of its ability to deliver a WAAS system that meets all of the FAA's requirements" (DAILY, March 20). The team, composed of Wilcox Electric, Hughes Aircraft and TRW, was told by FAA that it had until April 2 to correct "performance deficiencies." The cure letter listed 10 areas that are "endangering performance of the WAAS contract."
Responding to a joint letter from Northwest and United, ACCESS-U.S.-Japan Chairman Gerald Baliles wrote United Chairman Gerald Greenwald that the coalition "is in favor of increasing - not decreasing - service in the U.S.-Japan market, and beyond. Anyone who claims differently misrepresents our agenda" (DAILY, March 19).
Lufthansa will start nonstop service to San Francisco from Munich in June as part of its summer schedule. It will add frequencies from Frankfurt to Boston and Los Angeles and switch to 747s from smaller aircraft in the Atlanta and Newark markets. It will operate 103 flights per week to 10 U.S. cities this summer and will add a code-share flight with United between Dusseldorf and Chicago on June 1.
Comair Holdings Inc. has acquired Eastpointe, Mich.-based Spirit Airlines, a DC-9 operator with a fleet of 10 jets. A spokeswoman said Friday that Comair will operate the company as a separate subsidiary from its regional operation, which feeds Delta. But the transaction could raise protests from Delta's pilots union, a unit of the Air Line Pilots Association, whose leadership recently agreed to a new contract with the jet carrier. The situation is further complicated by the fact that ALPA also represents pilots at Comair.
