Chairman Gerald Greenwald hinted at United's annual shareholder meeting in Chicago last week that he may retire when his five-year employment contract expires in July 1999. Greenwald, who will be 64 by then, was quoted by Reuters as saying that at that point, "I'm going to the mountains."
Amadeus has six new airline participants, two new hotels and nine new car rental companies. The new airlines using standard access are Aerosweet of Ukraine, Krasnoyarsk of Russia, Tame of Ecuador, Hemus Air of Bulgaria, Noman of Spain and World Airways.
Future Aviation Professionals of America will hold an airline career day for pilots May 31 at the Georgia International Convention Center, College Park, Ga. FAPA said recruiters from Delta, UPS, FedEx, Airborne Express, American Eagle, TWA and American Trans Air will participate.
Boeing Chairman Frank Shrontz reported yesterday first quarter sales of $4.3 billion and net earnings of $119 million, compared with sales of $5 billion and net earnings of $181 million the same quarter a year ago. Shrontz attributed the slide in earnings to fewer commercial aircraft deliveries - down to 40 from 59 - and a higher income tax rate. He said deliveries of all models were limited because of the 10-week Machinists strike in the fourth quarter of 1995.
DOT has assessed civil penalties of $20,000 against ValuJet for violating the department's regulations on fare advertisements. In a Feb. 2, 1996, Washington Post ad promoting fares to Florida points, the carrier failed to provide required information on the amount of the applicable passenger facility charges. Also, in a Jan.
British Airways has renewed its $105 million advertising contract with M&C Saatchi and Publicis. The contract originally was awarded to the agency in 1995 for one year.
Sabre has launched Direct Request for Hotels, a booking program that caters to small hotels and bed and breakfasts. The new product is designed to be economically feasible for small properties because it requires equipment they usually already own - a fax machine. When a request is made, Sabre generates a fax message to the property with the booking information. The hotel responds, also by fax, and Sabre electronically reads the information and updates the reservation. Direct Request for Hotels will be shown on the standard hotel availability display.
Revenue Management Quarterly's Revenue Management Achievement Award has gone to British Airways. The carrier won in the category for continuous improvement. "A continuous focus on improving revenue management is one of the reasons BA has been one of the most consistently profitable airlines in the world," the revenue management publication said.
British Midland parent Airlines of Great Britain Group (ABH) has acquired 100% of Aberdeen, Scotland-based Business Air. Business Air will continue to fly under its own colors from Scotland to Manchester, the Shetland Islands and Denmark, and it will provide flying to British Midland under a wet-lease agreement. ABH also owns Manx Airlines and Loganair.
Royal Jordanian will add a third weekly flight between Amman, Jordan, and Chicago and schedule six charter flights to Detroit from Amman during the peak travel season this summer. The new Chicago flights will start June 1 and run through Oct. 26. The carrier will operate the Detroit charters between June 13 and Sept. 2. Last month, Royal Jordanian announced plans to add two flights a week from Amman to New York during the summer.
Aerovias de Mexico (Aeromexico) reported a first quarter net profit of $27.36 million, a strong turnaround after a first quarter 1995 net loss of $129.35 million. The profit on a per-share basis was 0.32 cents, compared with net loss of 33.4 cents per share last year. The turnaround came despite a 1.3% decrease in operating revenues. Revenues totaled $219.5 million during the quarter, compared with $222.46 million in the year- earlier period.
Sprint has teamed up with America West to promote its dime-a-minute calling rate by offering 100 customers the opportunity to fly from New York to Las Vegas, roundtrip, for the price of a dime a minute. The first 100 people to show up at a site to be announced on the radio with 330 dimes, or $33, to pay for their ticket will be flown to Las Vegas May 3 for the weekend. Lodging for two nights is included. America West may participate in other Sprint offerings if the promotion goes well, a carrier spokesman said.
Icelandair has performed D checks on two Maersk Air Fokker 50 aircraft and has a contract to work on two more. Icelandair provides maintenance service for 757s and 737s as well as F50s at a 12,000-square-meter maintenance facility it opened recently in Keflavik. SAS Commuter has selected Icelandair to carry out D checks on three of its Fokker 50s this summer.
Express One International asked DOT for a fitness determination enabling it to start scheduled passenger service June 1. Initially, the carrier plans to operate subservice under contract to Western Pacific in the Colorado Springs-Newark and Newark-Colorado Springs-Atlanta markets. (Docket OST- 96-1319)
Lufthansa's general manager for Taiwan, Klaus Fussi, has denied reports appearing in the Taiwan press that blamed low capacity for the carrier's decision to halt service between Frankfurt and Taipei. He said that, contrary to the reports, Lufthansa in the past year has enjoyed the highest seat load factor of any all-passenger carrier operating direct flights between Taipei and Europe.
While FAA legally could have terminated Wilcox's contract for the Wide Area Augmentation System under its old procurement rules, "I will tell you we probably would not have done it for cultural reasons," George Donohue, associate administrator for research and acquisition, told The DAILY yesterday.
Four U.S. carriers have tendered bids for new all-cargo frequencies between the U.S. and Thailand. DOT has invited certificate and/or frequency applications from U.S. carriers interested in scheduled combination or all- cargo service (DAILY, April 4). Twenty-one weekly all-cargo frequencies are available for service via intermediate points. Northwest, currently holding two frequencies, has applied for five more to increase its service over the U.S.-Tokyo-Singapore-Bangkok-Tokyo-U.S. routing within 30 days of approval.
Systems Management received a $14.4 million follow-on order from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration for 106 automated surface observing systems (ASOS) for FAA use at airports around the country. The original NOAA contract was for 868 systems, of which 703 have been installed. The newly ordered units will go to small, remote airports to provide automated weather observation data to pilots and controllers.
DOT has assessed civil penalties of $30,000 against Venezolana Internacional de Aviacio, S.A. (Viasa) for operating unauthorized charter flights between Venezuela and the U.S. Between October 1994 and September 1995, Viasa operated a number of such flights even though its permit requires it to get prior approval before flying charters to the U.S., said DOT's Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings. Viasa told DOT that its employees overlooked the prior-approval requirement inadvertently as they sought approvals from other government agencies.
Silk Air looks likely to re-establish profitable growth this year, although it still must work within the confines of decisions made by its owner, Singapore Airlines. In 1994 and several months of 1995, the airline suffered from the traffic demands of filling two A310s, bought from SIA in a deal that appeared to be at variance with earlier-stated development plans for Silk Air - that it would serve routes within 737/MD-80 range. Load factors dropped, even with traffic growth around 30%, because capacity grew even faster, closer to 40%.
USAir intends to install onboard telephones in "virtually" its entire fleet. The new phones will replace equipment installed on 80 aircraft by Inflight Phone Corp. The two companies are in a legal battle over the entertainment and communications system provided by IFPC, which the carrier said was unreliable (DAILY, April 11). The carrier has not yet selected a new vendor. The phone installation coincides with a review of all aircraft for total refurbishment (DAILY, April 26).
DOT has dismissed Clipper Air Cargo's application for a certificate to operate charter all-cargo service. The department cited the carrier's continued inability to obtain the financing needed to operate the service. Applying for the certificate last spring, Clipper proposed operating between New York Stewart Airport and the Far East, using two Boeing 747- 100SF aircraft it intended to purchase or lease (DAILY, April 6, 1995). (Docket 50243)
