Delta carried more passengers from Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky Airport in February than in any month since it began service in 1941. Last April, it launched a "Cincinnati Instead" promotion to attract passengers who normally travel through more congested hubs, such as Chicago O'Hare. Delta boarded 488,470 passengers in February at the airport, up 43% from last February.
Egyptair has selected PW4000 engines to power three 777-200s, Pratt&Whitney said yesterday. The carrier will buy six installed and two spare engines valued at $100 million. All deliveries will be in 1997.
Florida continues to be the U.S. destination of choice for spring travelers, the Travel Industry Association said. According to a TIA survey conducted in late January, 39% of those polled picked Florida, 32% California and 17% Hawaii. Washington, D.C., slid four points this year, losing its usual spot in the top 10. TIA attributed the decline in interest to the recent government shutdown of national parks at the time of the survey. Rounding out the top 10 were Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Colorado, New York, Tennessee and Washington state.
GTE Airfone said yesterday it will outfit Cathay Pacific Airways with inflight telephone equipment. The company will install its digital GenStar system on 53 of the carrier's aircraft, and Aircom will provide satellite phone service. Installations are under way and most of the airplanes will be equipped with phones by the end of the year, GTE said. GTE already has equipped two China Southern 777s with the system. The company has a contract, announced in January, to install the phone system on four of the carrier's 777s.
BFGoodrich Aerospace Maintenance Repair and Overhaul Group (MRO) has realigned into four divisions. They are Transport Repair and Maintenance, Component Repair and Overhaul, MRO-Asia Pacific and MRO-Europe.
TWA has begun limited testing of electronic ticketing through Worldspan and says it will introduce ticketless travel to its customers later this year. "In cooperation with our airport support services, staff, computer systems experts and Worldspan, we are starting limited testing in the St. Louis, Kansas City, Columbus and Indianapolis markets," said VP-Domestic Sales Jan Wood. Thirty TWA employees who travel on business will make trial flight reservations through the system before it is opened to the public in mid-April.
Air Canada will launch nonstop service from Toronto to Kansas City Aug. 5, providing the only nonstop flights in the market, according to the airline. The service is the 32nd new route started by the airline since the U.S. and Canada liberalized their air services agreement, Air Canada said. The airline operates 1,100 flights per week to 31 destinations in the U.S. The flights will be operated with 50-passenger CL-65 jets.
Citing Nicaragua's refusal to approve its application for a second daily Miami-Managua flight, American is urging DOT to deny NICA Airline authority to operate to the U.S. Specifically, American asked DOT to deny NICA's bid for renewal of its exemption to operate combination service between Managua and Miami and its request to co-terminalize New York with that service. In addition, American urged denial of Continental's bid to place NICA's designator code on its flights.
Consolidators International reported 1996 sales of $8.7 million, up from $7.2 million the previous year. President Julian Keeling said tonnage grew to 3.09 million kilograms from 2.5 million. Shipments increased 17% to 9,446 from 8,088 for the two-year-old company. Keeling predicted revenues in 1996 will rise "at least 50%" with more gains in tonnage and shipments.
American Eagle set new traffic records in February when it flew 201 million revenue passenger miles, a 31.7% increase from February 1995. The load factor was up 4.5 points to 55.3% on 20.9% more capacity - 364 million available seat miles. Eagle attributed the increases partly to having an extra day in February this year. The Miami and San Juan operations also offset traffic severely affected by winter storms in the Northeast and the continued downsizing of Nashville, said President Dan Garton.
Summary of U.S. Major Carriers Domestic Traffic July 1995 Revenue Average Revenue Passengers Length of Passenger Enplaned % Travel Miles Carriers (000) Change (Miles) (000) America West 1,532 3.45 810 1,240,400 American 5,797 (7.42) 1,123 6,508,157
Reno Air has promoted Jeff Buckio, one of it's five original employees, to VP-maintenance from director-quality assurance. It also named Jimmy Duke VP-flight operations. Duke most recently was VP-operations for Ryan International Airlines and previously worked for Midway and Texas International.
Burlington Air Express said it has begun Emergency Response, a new air freight program to handle extraordinary emergency shipments. The new ER service is available "regardless of weight or size constraints, that require demanding time-specific delivery." The program has three levels of "crisis service" - First Arrival, Next Flight Out and Charter service.
The prospect that an alliance of Dutch government, industry and financial companies will save Fokker with fresh capital has disappeared, according to Chief Executive Officer Ben Van Schaik, and hope is fading in Amsterdam that the aircraft manufacturer can survive. A Fokker spokesman said the company still is talking with Samsung of Korea and the state-owned Aviation Industries of China about a rescue takeover, but the company's court-appointed administrators will file for bankruptcy Friday if neither has made a bid.
ValuJet will increase its daily departures from 306 to 320 May 1 with its summer schedule. It will add three daily nonstop flights in the Boston- Philadelphia market, one nonstop from Philadelphia to Tampa and Raleigh/Durham, one from Raleigh/Durham to Tampa and Fort Lauderdale, and one in the Washington Dulles-Jacksonville market. ValuJet will offer fares for every seat on every new nonstop at the regular 21-day advance purchase price for travel completed by May 22. Those fares range from $39 to $109.
Worldspan Travel Information Services has opened a home page on the World Wide Web. Initially, the site will serve as an information tool, but in the future, it will operate as a travel distribution and booking vehicle for licensed Worldspan subscribers and system associates. Worldspan said that although the home page is targeted to its airline and travel agency customers, consumers using a PC also are encouraged to check it out. By entering their geographic information, consumers can view a display of Worldspan travel agencies in their area.
Sen. William Cohen (R-Maine) says the government could cut $1 billion a year in travel costs if it adopted practices used by private companies. The paperwork required to process federal employees' travel vouchers last year alone would form a stack 26 miles high, he said at a hearing on federal practices, held by the Governmental Affairs oversight of government management subcommittee.
The Futures Group, a consulting firm based in Glastonbury, Conn., has joined with The Park Group, a transportation and information consultant, to undertake a "major study" of the airline industry. The companies said the work is intended to be an analysis of the main opportunities and obstacles facing the industry as the new millennium approaches. Topics will include distribution systems, the outsourcing of key functions and electronic ticketing. They hope to complete the study by yearend or early 1997.
Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration, responding to an increasing number of incidents in which disgruntled passengers occupy aircraft, has decided to treat such passengers as hijackers. A CAA official said there were 24 incidents during the 13 months through January 1996 in which Taiwanese passengers refused to disembark, both in Taiwan and at airports abroad, because they were dissatisfied with service or had other complaints.
Mainland China, already carrying out missile tests targeted into international waters near Taiwan, announced it will conduct large-scale, live-fire military exercises from today through March 20 in an area crossed by two major flight paths to Hong Kong.
The Pentagon is looking for a way to protect the use of the Global Positioning System by U.S. forces and their allies during conflicts while preventing its use by adversaries. The announcement is being made today in Commerce Business Daily by the Navstar GPS Joint Program Office. The military has expressed concern for years about the vulnerability of GPS in theaters of conflict, and the issue may be playing a role in delaying a long-expected announcement by the White House on a national GPS policy.
Three communities near Sydney, Australia, are seeking an injunction to prevent the newly elected national government from keeping its campaign promise to reopen Kingsford Smith Airport's east-west runway for full-time operation. The injunction would prevent Airservices Australia from complying with any runway restoration order that might be issued by new Transport Minister John Sharp.
DOT Secretary Federico Pena, in a letter to Japanese Transport Minister Yoshiyuki Kamei, has asked the Japanese to assure him they are not considering reneging on Federal Express's authority to serve points beyond Japan in China, agreed to last summer. When U.S. and Japan officials met recently in cargo bilateral talks, the Japanese agreed not to threaten the FedEx rights after U.S. officials refused to allow them to be used as leverage to conclude a cargo agreement (DAILY, March 5).
Horizon Air has reduced fares by an average of 35% for travel through May 31 between most cities it serves in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, California, British Columbia and Alberta. Fares range from $39 to $119 one way, and tickets must be purchased by April 3.
