A 20.9% climb in revenue passenger miles across the Atlantic helped drive up American's systemwide traffic 6.5% last month, compared with February 1995. Capacity rose 3.6%, while the load factor inched up 1.7 points to 63.7%. The number of passengers boarded declined 1.1%. The carrier's traffic rose 2.1% for the first two months of the year, compared with the same period in 1995. Capacity declined 0.3%, and the load factor for the period gained 1.2 points to 63.7%. The number of passengers boarded by the carrier slipped 4.4%.
Air France's traffic rose 23.8% last month, compared with February 1995, on a 9.7% increase in capacity. The carrier flew 4 billion revenue passenger kilometers on capacity of 5.5 billion available passenger kilometers. Load factor was up 8.3 points to 73.4%.
Projecting into the future the funding cuts FAA has experienced in the past five years would mean "a drastic curtailing of current FAA services, let alone meeting new safety and capacity demands," the agency said yesterday. Replying to questions raised by the General Accounting Office about its funding shortfall estimates (DAILY, March 11), FAA noted that its budget over the past five years has declined by $600 million and its employee rolls are down by 5,000.
The Inmarsat maritime communications organization plans to establish a network of satellites with navigation capabilities, but it is running into interference from a U.S. Defense Department declaration that navigation payloads are "significant military equipment." Last week in London, an Inmarsat Assembly meeting authorized additional satellite capacity for navigation as a further step in its evaluation of a global International Satellite Navigation System (ISNS) (DAILY, March 11).
U.S.-Canada transborder traffic should grow at an average of 7.9% a year over the next five years, Transport Canada forecasts. Annual growth is expected to drop to about 4.5% after five years and level off at about 3.1% after 10 years.
The Pennsylvania congressional delegation and the governors of Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey have thrown their support behind DOT's tentative decision to award USAir Philadelphia-Rome rights. The group told the department in a letter that Philadelphia's international service has "long suffered at the expense of New York." The show of support follows last week's request by the Michigan congressional delegation that DOT reverse its decision and award the authority to Northwest for Detroit-Rome service (DAILY, March 8).
Summary Of Costs and Schedules For FAA's Major Modernization Projects 2-yr comparison of total F&E cost est (In millions of $) Projects Description/Anticipated Benefits 1995 1996 En-Route Replaces hardware, software& $1,055 $1,055 Automation controllers? workstation
Southwest Chairman Herb Kelleher, who celebrates his 65th birthday today, recently negotiated another five-year contract that will keep him at the helm of Southwest through the end of the century.
Mesaba Airlines, a Northwest Airlink carrier, contracted for up to 72 Saab 340s, the manufacturer said yesterday. Mesaba has firm orders for 50 aircraft and options for 22 more. The firm order includes 30 new Saab 340BPlus and 20 pre-owned 340A aircraft (DAILY, March 11). Deliveries will begin in May and continue at the rate of two a month through September 1998. Concurrently, Mesaba will begin eliminating its existing fleet of 26 Fairchild Metro III and 25 de Havilland Dash 8-100 aircraft.
United CEO Gerald Greenwald has started referring publicly to his carrier as "the most profitable airline in the world."United reported net earnings of $662 million on a fully distributed basis for 1995, but net earnings of only $349 million under generally accepted accounting principles.
House Transportation aviation subcommittee has switched the dates of the hearings on airport needs and the state block grant program. The hearing on airport needs is now scheduled for 9:30 a.m. March 13, and the hearing on the state block grant program is now scheduled for 1 p.m. March 14. Both hearings will be held in Room 2167, Rayburn Building.
Delta will collect donations on flights from Atlanta and Cincinnati to London Gatwick and Manchester until Dec. 31 for children in war-torn areas as part of Olympic Aid-Atlanta, a children's aid fundraiser keyed to the Olympic Games this summer.
South African Airways has installed Opinionmeters at three airports in South Africa to give travelers a chance to comment on their flying experience. SAA wants to measure customer satisfaction from pre-flight to post-flight operations by asking seven questions on waiting time, staff helpfulness, efficiency and comfort. SAA has installed four Opinionmeter kiosks at the airport in Johannesburg, three at Cape Town and two at Durban.
Civil Aeronautics Commission of Taiwan commissioned an air traffic control automation system developed by Loral Federal Systems-Air Traffic Control. The ATCAS will be phased into operation over three months and is scheduled to be fully operational on June 1. Loral has a $17.6 million CAA contract to maintain and support the system for 14 months.
British Airways won an appeal recently against a High Court ruling last June that supported 12 BA pilots who sued the carrier, claiming that a group of 90 pilots hired by BA were shortchanged of seniority because of the merger with British Caledonian in 1988.
Continental Micronesia will discontinue its Guam-Sydney service as of March 31. The Continental Airlines subsidiary has been operating the route three times a week with a DC-10 since April 15, 1995. It is dropping the service because it failed to draw enough leisure traffic from Australia to Guam and Micronesia, a Continental spokesman said.
Xionix Simulation, Irving, Texas, said it received a contract from United to upgrade 747 and 757 autoflight system trainers, the first major award for Xionix since it was acquired by Evans&Sutherland.
Delta will increase its four weekly flights to Nice from New York Kennedy to daily service April 5. The airline said it offers the only nonstop service in the market, on which it carried more than 80,000 passengers last year. The carrier also is offering companion fares for travel to Vancouver from 64 U.S. cities. Fares range from $395 to $598 roundtrip on flights connecting through Salt Lake City and Cincinnati. The companion fares are valid for travel March 13 through May 23. Tickets must be purchased by April 19.
Bassett Communications, Ellicott City, Md., plans to launch production this spring of Air Tour America, a cable TV series on touring the U.S. by air. Bassett is developing the series in cooperation with the U.S. Air Tour Association and Network Enterprises, which specializes in aviation documentaries, will distribute it. The series will be on the programming schedule of the planned Aviation Channel, a national cable channel for the aviation industry.
A 23% surge in traffic across the Atlantic and a 15% boost in Pacific markets helped United increase traffic 11% in February (DAILY, March 7). Capacity was up 7.4%, factor rose 2.1 points and boardings gained 11%. Feb 96 Feb 95 2 Mths 96 2 Mths 95 RPMs 8,279,172,000 7,459,292,000 16,790,350,000 15,903,333,000 ASMs 12,481,549,000 11,622,893,000 25,287,065,000 24,421,906,000 LoadFtr% 66.3 64.2 66.4 65.1
Military Traffic Management Command plans to standardize "all Department of Defense procedures for the movement of freight via air carrier, air forwarder and air taxi." A publication, MTMC Freight Traffic Rules Publication No. 5 (MFTRP No. 5), will regulate government air shipments between the continental U.S. and Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Canada. The draft publication can be obtained from the MTMC Homepage on the Internet at http://baileys-mtmcwww.army.mil. When the MTMC Homepage screen has loaded, access the "Functional Support" button on the screen.
Lufthansa told the German parliament last week that it made about 500 million Deutschmarks (US$340 million) in 1995 on sales of about DM20 billion (US$13.6 billion), even though a weaker U.S. dollar hurt its performance in the U.S. The results will be released officially May 21 at the carrier's annual meeting.
The House Transportation Committee last week filed a report (House Report 104-475, Part I) on legislation (H.R.2276) to establish FAA as an independent body and mandate other reforms in the agency. The full House is scheduled tomorrow to consider the bill, which was approved by the committee last year. Under the bill, FAA would be governed by a three-member board appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. The board would select a chief executive officer to manage the day-to-day operation of the agency.
FAA Technical Center will present a Technology Transfer Week April 9-11 at its Atlantic City, N.J., Airport facility. Small businesses, especially former Defense Department contractors, will be able to learn of opportunities for technology transfer and talk with FAA engineers and scientists. FAA also will "reaffirm" its commitment to bring research and technology to the private sector in the form of knowledge, facilities, products and product application, and clarify technology needs relative to its mission.
