China Airlines has placed four firm orders and four options with Boeing for 747-400s, valued at about $1.4 billion. Deliveries will begin in May 1997 and will be completed in 2002. China Airlines currently operates 23 Boeing airliners, including 20 747s. It recently ordered six 737-800s. It has chosen Pratt&Whitney engines to power the new 747s.
The General Services Administration has awarded a contract, effective Aug. 16, to Federal Express to continue providing express transportation service for government agencies and cost-reimbursable government contractors, the carrier said yesterday. The contract has a one-year term, with GSA options to extend for up to four more one-year periods. The carrier has been providing contract express delivery services under a GSA contract since 1991.
Great Lakes Aviation will begin service at Muskegon and Flint, Mich., from Chicago Midway beginning June 17, the carrier announced. At Muskegon, the carrier will operate four roundtrips on weekdays with a reduced schedule on weekends, using Beech 1900Cs. The Flint service will consist of an extension of its Muskegon service from Midway, i.e., four daily roundtrips, with a stop at Muskegon, and a reduced schedule on weekends. American Eagle's Simmons unit will drop its Muskegon service from Chicago O'Hare July 1.
A DOT analysis of new-entrant airline safety data, dated May 2 and issued yesterday by FAA, shows that ValuJet clearly had the worst accident rate among the nation's low-cost new entrants. Prepared for DOT Secretary Federico Pena, the study focused on 10 low-cost carriers, including Southwest. "ValuJet dominates the accident data with five accidents and three serious accidents in the carrier's relatively short history," said the report, prepared by the Safety Analysis Branch office of Accident Investigation, which includes data through March 1996.
Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer posted a loss of $26 million for the first quarter of 1996, compared with a loss of $114 million in the same 1995 period, the company reported yesterday. Operating revenues rose 41% to $76.3 million from $54.1 million in the prior period. Embraer President Mauricio Botelho said the company is "beginning to see the positive impact of the steps taken by Embraer to control costs and improve productivity beginning last year following the privatization" of the manufacturer.
The government of Switzerland, concerned about political problems arising from Swissair's decision to move international operations from Geneva to Zurich, has decided to end the carrier's monopoly on air transport in Switzerland and open Geneva to fifth-freedom operations by some non-Swiss carriers.
Operators in Alaska have removed almost one-half of their 10- to 19- seat aircraft from scheduled service and several more from passenger service, according to the Alaska Air Carriers Association. The association surveyed carriers in Alaska about their plans to continue operating 10- to 19-seat aircraft with the advent of the commuter safety rule that requires operators of aircraft with 10 or more seats to comply with FAR Part 121 regulations.
Air Transport Association has awarded its Engineering, Maintenance and Material Nuts&Bolts awards to ATA's Roger Fleming, senior VP-economic and external affairs, for the aviation category, and to Ray Valeika, an aeronautical engineer at Delta, for the industry category. Fleming was given the award for his 30 years of service at ATA as chief airline technical representative to the board, federal and local governments and the public.
USAir Express affiliate CCAIR earned a $69,555 net profit, or one cent per share, in the quarter ended March 31, compared with a $274,592 loss, or four cents per share, in the same 1995 period. Revenues totaled $15.8 million, compared with nearly $15 million in the prior period. CCAIR credited the improved quarterly results to the combination of an increase in yield to 47 cents per RPM, from 45.8 cents in the earlier period, and a 3.8% increase in RPMS. 3 Months 3 Months 9 Months 9 Months
The four American Eagle carriers flew 221.4 million revenue passenger miles among them in April, a 9.6% increase from April 1995's 201.9 million. Capacity increased 1.1% to 370.5 million available seat miles. Load factor gained 4.7 percentage points to 59.8%, the highest April load factor ever, Eagle said.
Sales and earnings of Precision Standard Inc. plummeted during the first quarter, the latter into the red, mainly because of interruptions in its operations at Birmingham, Ala. The aircraft maintenance/modifications company lost $2 million, or $0.16 per share, on sales of $26.5 million during the three months ended March 31, compared with a profit of $1.6 million, or $0.10 per share, on sales of $41.1 million a year earlier.
American Eagle and Canadian Airlines International, beginning June 1, will code share on Eagle flights between New York Kennedy and three eastern North America cities and between Los Angeles Airport and seven points in California, Eagle announced. Canadian's "CP" designator code will appear on American Eagle flights between Kennedy and Montreal, Ottawa and Raleigh/Durham. It also will appear on certain flights from Los Angeles International to Bakersfield, Carlsbad, Palm Springs, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Ana/Orange County and Santa Barbara.
British Airways is offering a 25,000-mile frequent flyer bonus for transatlantic passengers who dispute its claim that its business-class "cradle" seat is more comfortable than any other carrier's business-class seat. The offer continues through Sept. 15. Passengers who fly business class during the period also will earn double frequent flyer mileage automatically.
San Diego-based Becker Associates will issue a study in a few days on how safety - or the perception of safety - plays a role in consumer decisions on flying. The company found that 38% of its respondents said they would switch bookings from an airline that has a crash with fatalities and is at fault, but an even higher number, 44%, said they would switch from an airline fined by FAA for maintenance violations. Look for the survey to be expanded to the Internet in the future.
Allison Engine Company has launched a three-year re-engineering of its management and management systems, a program that already has lost 158 lower- and middle-management jobs. President/COO Mike Hudson said the management system was "archaic - an automobile-manufacturing mentality [with] sheet metal flowing in one end and automobiles out the other. We will not have as many clerks handling the paper for an Alfred Sloan type of business." Allison is a former General Motors unit now owned by Rolls- Royce (see related story below).
American is growing stronger and stronger, but its inability to reach a contract agreement with its pilots is holding it back, AMR Chairman Robert Crandall told shareholders at the company's annual meeting on Wednesday. Although the two sides have been in talks for 22 months, progress has been negligible, Crandall said.
DOT has granted Orient Avia Airlines an exemption to operate scheduled service between Honolulu and points in Russia. Also gaining permission to operate approved charter service to the U.S., the privately owned Russian carrier said it plans to begin operating the scheduled flights as soon as it obtains approval to use 132-seat Il-62M aircraft. The State of Hawaii urged DOT to approve the carrier's request, saying the service "will open an entirely new market for the State of Hawaii" (DAILY, May 10). (Docket OST-96-1280)
The Polish Airports State Enterprise (PPL) selected Hughes Training Inc. to design an air traffic control training system. Hughes said the system, to be installed this fall, will provide PPL student controllers with real-time experience in aircraft separation standards, control techniques, controller operations, radio phaseology, communication network operation and emergency procedures training. The system will be installed at PPL's ATC training facility in Warsaw.
Hawaiian Airlines' April traffic rose 21.7% to 324.4 million revenue passenger miles from 266.4 million in April 1995. Available seat miles were up 22% to 412 million from 337.7 million. Hawaiian carried 432,210 passengers during the month. The load factor for April remained unchanged at 78%. For the first four months, Hawaiian's traffic rose 23.9% to 1.259 billion RPMs and capacity was up 22.8% to 1.656 billion ASMs. Load factor was up one point to 76%.
Air France flew 4.8 billion revenue passenger kilometers in April, 17.9% more than in April 1995, as capacity increased 8.3% to 6.4 billion available seat kilometers. The passenger load factor was 75.6%, an increase of 6.2 percentage points. The number of freight ton kilometers fell 3.2% to 385 million.
Ending a five-month search, Canadian Airlines International has chosen Gee, Jeffrey&Partners to be its new advertising agency, effective June 15. Canadian currently uses BCP, which has held the carrier's account for the past eight years. Ogilvy&Mather of Calgary provides all direct marketing. DDB Needham Worldwide handles advertising in Hong Kong, Gary Hendrick and Associates in Calgary for Canadian North and Canadian Air Cargo, and Ken Koo Creative Group in Vancouver for Asian advertising in Canada.
ILA, the biennial Berlin air show being staged this week for the third time, intends to become the second-largest event of its type in Europe, after Paris. Compared with ILA, the U.K.'s Farnborough show "will look pale," said Eberhard Birke, manager of Germany's aerospace industry association, which organized the Berlin show. ILA '96 welcomed back Daimler-Benz Aerospace, which passed up the 1994 event. In all, it drew 574 exhibitors from 29 countries, compared with 422 exhibitors in 1994 and 487 in 1992.
Regional fare war may be shaping up in the Pacific Northwest. New- start F28 operator Air 21 has announced plans to launch one daily roundtrip in the Eugene-Seattle market June 17 with an unrestricted walk-up roundtrip fare of $98. Horizon, with five Dornier 328 turboprops, plans to match the fare effective June 9, limiting the number of the cheap seats available, however. There was no immediate reaction from United Express WestAir, which also offers five daily turboprop roundtrips. Unrestricted fares have ranged up to $408 in the 234-mile market.
Lufthansa says that with the activation this week of two new flight simulators, its simulator center at Berlin Schonefeld Airport became the most modern in Europe. The devices doubled the facility's capacity. The Lufthansa and Lufthansa CityLine's Berlin Simulator Center, set up in 1992, has spent approximately 50 million Deutschmarks in capital investments since then. Starting out with two simulators - for the Airbus A310 and the 50-seat Canadair Regional Jet - the center took delivery in late April of another CRJ simulator and one for the Avro RJ85 jet.
Alamo Rent A Car is searching for a site near Calgary and Toronto to double its facilities in Canada in the next 12 to 18 months. Alamo said it also is looking for expansion opportunities in Edmonton, Winnipeg, Ottawa and Quebec City. It currently operates on-airport counters at Montreal Dorval and Vancouver airports.
