BAe 146 operator Air Wisconsin flew 35.9 million revenue passenger miles in February, a 19.8% increase from the February 1995 figure of nearly 30 million. The United Express affiliate's capacity increased 27.5% to 79.7 million available seat miles from 62.5 million, causing the load factor to dip 2.9 percentage points to 45.1% from 48% Passenger boardings rose 17.1%. Air Wisconsin operates 14 of the four-engine 146s feeding United's Chicago and Denver hubs. Feb. 1996 Feb. 1995 2 Mths 1996 2 Mths 1995
Skyway will begin serving Nashville May 1 from Milwaukee, Dayton and Grand Rapids, Mich. It will offer two nonstop roundtrips each weekday to Milwaukee, three direct flights to Grand Rapids from Nashville and two from Grand Rapids to Nashville, plus two nonstop roundtrips to Dayton and three daily roundtrips between Dayton and Grand Rapids.
Finding success in its used retail jet leasing business, British Aerospace's recently formed Asset Management has shored up its marketing team in an effort to spread that same success to the turboprop market. British Aerospace created BAe AM in late January with the merger of its Asset Management Organization, the BAe 146 jet sales and leasing business, and JSX Capital Corporation, which leased the British manufacturer's turboprop line (DAILY, Feb. 2).
Business Express is not for sale but will seek additional investors in the near future, the company and its unsecured creditors committee said Thursday. Currently operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, the company's traffic, bookings and cash flow are running ahead of year-ago results and expectations on 20% less capacity, said CFO Lars-Eric Arnell. February revenues were $1 million ahead of February 1995, he added, saying, "The perception is wrong that we are going to sell the company next week; this is not a panic situation."
Eagle Canyon Airlines, based in Las Vegas, has entered into an agreement to use Worldspan's mainframe hosting and related technical services. Worldspan said the "new technology relationship" supports Eagle's future growth plans with an internal automation solution for organizing and distributing schedules, fares, rules, aviation weather and airport passenger check-in.
Alaska Air Group subsidiary Horizon Air flew 69 million revenue passenger miles in February, a 21% increase from the same 1995 month. Capacity rose more slowly - 16.6% to 114 million available seat miles from 98 million in February 1995. Feb. 1996 Feb. 1995 2 Mths 1996 2 Mths 1995 RPMs 69,000,000 57,000,000 135,000,000 118,000,000 ASMs 114,000,000 98,000,000 231,000,000 209,000,000
FlightSafety International said it will operate Embraer's Fort Lauderdale pilot training facility. The training company, which was recently named the factory-authorized pilot, maintenance technician, flight attendant and dispatcher training organization for the new Embraer EMB-145 regional jet, is building an advanced EMB-145 full-flight simulator for the center. FlightSafety said pilot and maintenance training systems will be in place at Fort Lauderdale in time for the first deliveries of the jet at the end of the year.
Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization yesterday directed the ICAO secretary general to begin immediately an investigation of the Feb. 24 shootdown of two U.S.-registered light aircraft by a Cuban MiG 29. A report is to be submitted to the ICAO Council within 60 days and then forwarded to the U.N. Security Council. The council took into account that both the U.S. and Cuba requested an inquiry.
Leading hotel chains yesterday opened TravelWeb, an Internet site that enables customers with a PC to reserve a room at one of 6,000 hotels (DAILY, March 7). The hotels say TravelWeb is the largest on-line hotel reservations system and Internet site for book-it-yourself travelers with more than 25,000 Web pages of lodging information. TravelWeb can be found at http://www.travelweb.com. Hotel participants are Best Western International, Days Inns, Hilton International, Hilton Hotels Corp., Hyatt, La Quinta Inns, Ramada and Westin Hotels and Resorts.
Express Airlines I has settled with its ALPA pilot unit on a new contract that sources say includes a 20% pay hike over four years and an end to the highly contested out-station domiciles. The settlement comes just before the carrier will be told whether its code-sharing agreement with Northwest will be continued beyond March 1997. Sources speculate that the current pact will not be renewed and that Express will have one year to renegotiate an agreement that keeps Memphis but loses the Minneapolis-hub operation to home-town carrier Mesaba...
Northwest's traffic rose 17.2% last month, compared with February 1995, on 11.7% more capacity. The load factor increased 3.2 points to 69.1%, while the number of passengers boarded was up 13.1%. For the first two months of the year, Northwest's traffic was up 12.1%, compared with the same period last year, on 8.8% more capacity. The load factor increased to 67.4%, a gain of 1.9 points. Passenger volume for the period rose 8.4%. Feb 96 Feb 95 2 Mths 96 2 Mths 95
Hughes Aviation International signed up Formation Inc. to supply it with media servers for its interactive, inflight video-on-demand systems. Hughes plans to begin installing its APAX 150 A/VOD systems on aircraft in the first quarter of 1997. It will demonstrate the system for the first time in September, at the World Airline Entertainment Association's annual meeting in Seattle.
American Automobile Association said total travel agency sales in 1995 rose 10% from the previous year to $2.15 billion. Jack Mannix, managing director of AAA Travel Related Services, said, "While many in the industry experienced flat or modest gains, our cruise and tour partners reported double-, even triple-digit increases in 1995 with AAA travel agencies." Tour sales climbed 18% to $450 million, cruise sales 12% to $300 million, air sales 4% to $1.13 billion and car rental sales 18% to $95.2 million.
ValuJet is making some operational changes to enhance safety following a special seven-day inspection by FAA, which also plans to monitor the carrier for the next 120 days. ValuJet President Lewis Jordan told The DAILY that when a carrier is as "highly visible" as ValuJet and experiences aircraft incidents, as it did this winter when a nose wheel collapsed and an airplane ran off the runway, FAA "often takes a closer look" to ensure it is operating safely. He said the review was "routine," and no aircraft were found to be unairworthy.
Kiwi International Air Lines has simplified its fare structure to "recapture a competitive advantage" by making booking faster. Kiwi said it rearranged its fares into five classes for easier fare comparisons and booking by travel agents and consumers.
Northern Greece, especially Katerini, southwest of Thessaloniki, is fertile ground for investment in resort hotels and tourist complexes, according to Greek tour operators and hotel companies. The area needs luxury-class hotels to accommodate travelers from Western Europe, the Balkans and Russia, as well as growing numbers of automobile visitors, which tourism officials predict will climb to previous levels of two million a year.
Canadian carriers made small gains on their U.S. counterparts in the first year of the U.S.-Canada agreement as phase-ins at Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver held down U.S. increases. Passenger growth has lagged service increases for carriers from both countries.
Southwest's traffic grew 14.5% last month, compared with February 1995, on a 16.8% increase in capacity. The result was a decline in load factor of 1.2 percentage points to 59.2%. It carried 16.6% more revenue passengers. For the first two months, the carrier's traffic rose 9.2%, compared with the same period in 1995. Capacity was up 14.3%, while the load factor fell 2.6 points to 56.4%. Revenue passengers carried rose 11.7%. Feb 96 Feb 95 2 Mths 96 2 Mths 95
TWA has gone after three more travel agencies it claims are engaging in the unauthorized sale and marketing of discount tickets obtained from Global Discount Travel Services, owned by former TWA owner Carl Icahn. TWA has terminated agreements with Colpitts World Travel of Dedham, Mass.; Hobbit Travel of Minneapolis, and Mr. Cheaps Travel Ltd. of Clackamas, Ore. TWA earlier brought lawsuits against two other agencies.
LatinPass, the frequent flyer program offered by 15 Latin American/Caribbean airlines and North American affiliate USAir, plans to offer an incentive program for U.S. travel agents, to be detailed at Focus Latin America '96 travel agent educational seminars. The seminars will be held in 15 cities nationwide in April, May, June, October and November. The first will be April 30 in Boston.
Potential new-entrant carrier Sunworld Airlines is seeking approval to begin advertising and listing schedules for service to be operated on or before March 17, and to accept reservations. The carrier also has asked for permission to enter into contracts with charter operators and receive deposits for charter flights. Found tentatively fit for scheduled service by DOT Feb. 29, the carrier expects to receive its FAA certificate on or about March 15, clearing it to start up operations March 17.
Worldspan, continuing to "re-engineer" itself, is dividing the company into eight divisions, each headed by a VP, and eliminating six officer positions to reduce management layers. The changes should enable Worldspan to expand product and system development and seek new distribution alternatives without significant impact on overall employment. It will maintain regional sales and training offices only in Atlanta, Minneapolis/St.
GE Aircraft Engines received a five-year, $61.8 million NASA contract to develop technologies considered critical for next-generation subsonic commercial aircraft engines. The contract calls for work to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 70%, improve fuel efficiency by 8%, cut direct operating costs by 3% and reduce engine noise. The contract was designed to provide technical data that addresses expected emission and noise regulations for large engines in the 20,000-100,000 lbst. class entering service between 2000 and 2005.
Air Canada promoted two senior officers yesterday in anticipation of Lamar Durrett's elevation to president and chief executive. Jean Jacques Bourgeault, formerly executive VP and chief operating officer, was named senior executive VP. He will be responsible for all key corporate functions. Robert Milton, formerly senior VP-marketing&inflight service, was named executive VP and chief operating officer. He will be in charge of operations, sales, marketing and commercial strategy.
