Mesaba Holdings is expected to announce today that it will acquire 50 Saab 340 aircraft, ending a heated competition between Saab and the Dornier 328. The Minneapolis-based carrier will take 20 used 340 and 30 new 340BPlus airplanes to replace its de Havilland Dash 8 and Fairchild Metro fleets.
State governments intend to spend $413 million in fiscal 1995-96 on promoting tourism, 2.5% more than in 1994-95, according to a Travel Industry Association survey of state travel offices. For a majority of states, the travel industry is the first, second or third largest employer, said TIA President William Norman. The state with the largest travel budget this year is Illinois, which will spend $31.5 million, followed by Hawaii, $24.5 million after a 21% budget cut, and Texas, $21 million.
Boeing has invested more than $100 million in China since 1993 "because we want them to be able to buy aircraft and we are hoping they will buy our aircraft," says Nancy Bethel, VP-marketing. "We really hope that the market is stable and that we will be able to compete in it."
American Trans Air will begin scheduled service May 4 from New York Kennedy Airport to three Irish cities, Dublin, Belfast and Shannon, flying six times a week with 757s and L-1011s. Fares start at $269 one way before tax. ATA will continue to operate charter flights to Ireland from Boston, Chicago and Detroit.
Transport Canada estimates that 93 new scheduled services were operating one year after the U.S. and Canada signed their open skies bilateral. Canadian carriers account for 56 of the new routes, and most of them, 34, are converted charter services.Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary account for 68% of the new services.
Airport and Airway Trust Fund Income Statement October 1, 1995 - December 31, 1995 Current Month RECEIPTS (Revenues) Revenues: Excise Taxes (Transferred from General Fund): Liquid Fuel other than Gas $ 11,250,000.00 Transportation by Air, Seats, Berths, etc. 383,704,000.00
Air Canada will operate 273 more flights per week this summer than it did a year ago, a 13% increase in capacity. Of the 273 flights, 149 are in transborder markets, an increase of 21%. Air Canada will establish service to Atlanta from Montreal during the Olympic Games and put a widebody aircraft in the Toronto-Atlanta market. The carrier will increase service from Toronto to Nashville, Minneapolis/St. Paul, Boston, Orlando and Fort Lauderdale, and also in the Montreal-Orlando and Vancouver-Hawaii markets.
Careful analysis of competition in city-pairs comprising hubs of U.S. airlines and foreign partners applying for antitrust immunity is an "especially important" factor as DOT and the Justice Department determine whether to approve immunity, according to Mark Gerchick, DOT deputy assistant secretary for aviation and international affairs. Germany is linking implementation of its open skies agreement with the U.S. with U.S.
World Airways has no plans to scrap its recently launched scheduled service to Tel Aviv in the wake of terrorist bombings in Israel, Chief Executive Charles Pollard told The DAILY. Some carriers say they have seen a falloff in travel as a result of new violence. World, which already was struggling with the service, says it has not experienced a decline.
AEI said it has acquired Profreight Forwarding, which it described as one of South Africa's "fastest growing companies in the freight forwarding and clearing industry," with offices in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria.
FAA officials expressed surprise last week at the degree of interest shown by industry in the acquisition reform proposal the agency will implement April 1. An aide to George Donohue, associate administrator for research and acquisition, reported 2,090 "hits," or electronic accessions, since Feb. 22, when FAA made the proposal available on the World Wide Web, and "there has been no leveling off in the number of hits." Program officials will assess comments on the proposal before they make it firm and put it into effect.
Frontier Airlines' February traffic rose 127% - to 53.8 million revenue passenger miles from 23.7 million - from February 1995. The carrier recorded 94.6 million available seat miles, up 90.3% from 49.7 million last February, and a load factor of 56.8%, up 9.1 percentage points. It carried 78,986 passengers.
FAA's projections of a $12.1 billion shortfall in funding through fiscal 2002 are based on debatable assumptions and fail to take into account certain likely savings over the next several years, the General Accounting Office said last week. In testimony to the House Appropriations transportation subcommittee, John Anderson, GAO director-transportation issues, said GAO has begun a review - at the request of the subcommittee - of the methods and assumptions FAA used to estimate the revenues, costs and impacts associated with the funding shortfall.
Alitalia President Renato Riverso resigned last week, ending a rift with the company's parent, state-owned IRI, that widened greatly in recent weeks. Riverso's position was precarious since the replacement last week of his chief executive, Robert Schisano, by Domenico Cempella, who previously headed Aeroporti di Roma. Riverso and Schisano had been pressing Alitalia's labor unions to accept sharp wage and personnel cuts they felt were necessary to turn the airline around.
Aerospatiale reported a 1995 net loss of 981 million francs compared to a loss of 483 million francs due mainly to restructuring costs and a weak dollar. This year is expected to post a loss. Chairman Louis Gallois told Le Figaro that, calculating one dollar to five francs, Aerospatiale can break even next year and make "significant profits" starting in 1988."
Virgin Atlantic and Varig are the next carriers likely to be linked with the LatinPass frequent flyer program, a representative of LatinPass said. Last year, after LatinPass signed on USAir as its U.S. partner, the group said it was pursuing British Airways, USAir's U.K. partner, as a member.
Boeing had three paydays in February for the third time since it was founded in 1916. The previous occasions were in 1940 and 1968. The next will be in 2024.
Mesaba Airlines logged 29.5 million revenue passenger miles flown last month, a 36.8% increase from February 1995. Capacity increased 12.6% to 59.9 million available seat miles, allowing the load factor to increase 8.7 percentage points to 49.2%. Enplanements increased 34% to 134,000.
International Lease Finance Corp. leased seven new aircraft to five carriers in October 1995 - one A320-200 to Canada 3000, two A321-100s to Onur Air, one 757-200 to Transavia, two A330-300s to Malaysia and one A340-300 to Virgin Atlantic. A footnote in a chart on new aircraft orders and options for October 1995 incorrectly attributed the transactions to MDFC (DAILY, Feb. 14).
Claiming that DOT and FAA have shown no capacity for rate adjudication, the Air Transport Association proposed yesterday that Congress transfer adjudication of airport rates and charges and revenue diversion cases to the newly created Surface Transportation Board (STB) or a similar entity. Congress created the transportation adjudication panel as part of the Interstate Commerce Commission termination act signed into law in late December.
Atlanta-based Delta Connection affiliate Atlantic Southeast this week introduced two-for-one fares it says are designed to encourage travelers to the Olympic Games in Atlanta this summer to fly ASA instead of drive. Each passenger purchasing a ticket under the program, is given one free companion ticket. The tickets are valid for travel between July 15 and Aug. 6. The fares for the short-haul flights range between $169 and $219.
Continental's traffic grew 6.7% last month, compared with February 1995, on a 6.1% drop in capacity. Load factor was up 7.9 points to 65.7%. Cargo carried dropped 7.6% to 36.16 million revenue ton miles. For two months, Continental's traffic was up 0.7%, compared with the same period in 1995, on an 11% decline in capacity. Passenger load factor for the period was up 7.5 points to 64.2%. Cargo carried by the airline slipped 9% to 70.13 million revenue ton miles. Feb 96 Feb 95 2 Mths 96 2 Mths 95
Credit cards that offer airline miles and other bonuses, such as rebates on automobile purchases, rate higher in customer satisfaction and get more use, according to J.D. Power and Associates. The top four most satisfying reward cards - AT&T Universal Card, GM Card, Discover Card and Ford Citibank - do not offer mileage, however. They ranked above the Citibank AAdvantage Card and United Mileage Plus Card.
EDS is developing a client/server-based Passenger Revenue Accounting System for Continental that is expected to reduce the carrier's costs and improve productivity. The system will streamline Continental's revenue accounting processes by grouping all passenger sales and use information into an integrated data repository, EDS said. In addition to handling business processes, such as sales audit, fare maintenance, refunds and marketing reporting, the system will provide sales accounting and reporting for electronic ticketing.
Abacus Distribution Systems has formalized three partnership agreements with Asiana Airlines of Korea. The first supersedes the original three- year accord signed in 1991 to establish a National Marketing Company to distribute Abacus products and services in Korea. The new agreement is for 10 years. The second pact, the joint development and exploitation agreement, calls on the companies to work together to design and develop a front-end processor that will enable travel agents to book Asiana and other airlines' services through Abacus.
