United could see more negative publicity at another Boeing 777 inaugural ceremony - again by its own employees. United's Association of Flight Attendants unit will rally tomorrow at Washington Dulles Airport, as they have at two other events for the 777, to protest the planned opening of a foreign domicile in Hong Kong. The union says the highest paying jobs are being shipped overseas because many of its members cannot afford, or do not want, to transfer to Hong Kong.
American Airlines' VP-Human Resources Mary Jordan has been named president of American Eagle carrier Wings West Airlines. Jordan began her career at American as a financial analyst and held various positions in finance before joining the personnel department in 1989. She replaces Barbara Feeser, who has rejoined American's headquarters staff in Fort Worth.
Continental is raising BusinessFirst fares to Europe, effective June 12, except in the two markets it serves jointly with Alitalia - Newark- Rome/Milan. Fares for service from Newark to London and Manchester will rise 3% eastbound and 20% westbound. Fares from Newark to Paris, Frankfurt, and Madrid, eastbound only, will be 3% higher. Houston-London fares will go up 18% in both directions, Chicago-London 3% eastbound only, and Los Angeles-Paris 5% eastbound only. Continental said only that the increases are "reflecting the strong demand" for BusinessFirst.
Mesa Air Group's board of directors has rejected Continental's offer to combine wholly owned subsidiary Continental Express with Mesa. The proposal, for Mesa to issue $90 million in common stock, representing 32% of the outstanding common stock of the combined company, in exchange for a 100% stake in Continental Express, was unanimously rejected as not in the best interest of Mesa shareholders.
TWA is seeking authority to operate scheduled combination service between St. Louis and Cozumel, Mexico. If its request is approved, the carrier plans to operate a single weekly flight, beginning Nov. 26, using Boeing 727 aircraft. If the service proves successful, the carrier said it will expand operations in subsequent seasons. (Docket 50380)
Europe is opposing a U.S. bid to ban the use of gambling devices on U.S. and non-U.S. aircraft, even in international airspace. The measure would violate a central principle of international aviation that one state cannot unilaterally impose its view on another country's aircraft when flights are conducted outside the first state's territory, said a diplomatic note endorsed by 18 European countries and the European Community.
U.S.-U.K. talks were going well, said a DOT official, but still were going on as The DAILY went to press Friday evening. One remaining sticking issue was a British timeline for completion of a Phase 2 agreement, a DOT official said (DAILY, June 2). Also, regarding the first phase, or so- called "mini-deal," the two sides still were determining the U.S. gateways where British Airways would be allowed to bid for Fly America passengers and the size of aircraft United can use for the new Chicago-Heathrow service.
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Airline industry still supports federal standards for child safety seats but is concerned that some FAA officials believe otherwise. The confusion arose after the Air Transport Association last month withdrew its petition for the standards at the request of FAA, which argued that the petition's existence limited the agency's ability to deal with the issue. "At this point, our priority is for FAA to develop standards for the seats," an industry official said.
Emirates will sponsor the 1995 Miss World Pageant, scheduled Nov. 20 in Sun City, South Africa. The sponsorship initiative coincides with the scheduled June 3 launch of Emirates' twice-weekly service from Dubai to Johannesburg and the Comoro Islands. It also supports the marketing cooperation agreement signed with Sun International.
Alliant Techsystems named Donald Short VP and controller; Donald Willis VP-Emerging Business Group, a new position, and Peter Bukowick VP- Aerospace Systems Group. Amtran, holding company for American Trans Air, named Gerald Carusi senior VP-marketing and planning for the airline. Atlantic Aviation elected Frank Milian senior VP-Flight Services and of parent company Atlantic Aviation Corporation. Diamond Aircraft Industries named Christian Dries president and chief executive.
Shuttle America Airlines is seeking a certificate to start up passenger service within the U.S. The proposed carrier is planning to operate between Long Beach, Calif., and Chicago Midway Airport, using a leased MD- 80 aircraft. Shuttle maintains that a significant niche in both the business and leisure travel markets has developed at Long Beach since it was recently abandoned by major air carriers.
DOT has issued its Air Travel Consumer Report for the first three months of the year. The on-time section of the report, issued last week, for the first time includes data on mechanical delays and cancellations and will continue to include the information until a proposed rule is approved (DAILY, June 2). The overall on-time performance for all reporting airlines for the three months was 77.3% That figure was well below the 82% for the last quarter of 1994 but better than last year's first quarter result of 75.7%.
The potential for U.S. actions against Japan was on hold Friday as U.S. and Japanese officials held talks aimed at breaking the aviation stalemate between the two countries. A Thursday meeting between U.S. Ambassador to Japan Walter Mondale and Japan's Minister Shizuka Kamei was followed on Friday by "ministerial level talks," said a DOT official. The talks are a positive development, but if they fail, "we'll be right back where we started."
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association appointed Rick Hodges director- legislative communications. General Aviation Manufacturers Association elected Edward Bolen senior VP/general counsel.
Legislation has passed in Texas that requires the state's travel purchasing unit, the General Services Commission, to approve as state vendors all travel agents that meet certain requirements, the American Society of Travel Agents reports. The bill (Texas Senate Bill 1295) also requires the GSC to give preference to Texas-owned businesses. ASTA's Southwest Chapter has worked on the legislation that it says could directly and indirectly affect $80 million in annual travel purchases.
Attempts by Orange County executives to sell John Wayne Airport are "purely a mechanism to finance the sale or leveraged buyout of an existing airport," according to the Air Transport Association. In comments to Orange County's John Wayne Airport Revenue/Sale Task Force, ATA said the sale of the airport could be considered a diversion of airport revenue to non-aviation purposes or an offset of county debt to another agency (DAILY, April 19).
THY Turkish Airlines' passenger traffic increased 15.7% during the first four months of this year to 2.69 billion revenue passenger kilometers. The number of passengers boarded rose 22.2% to just under 2.3 million, and the airline's cargo traffic was up 11.9% to 74.4 million freight ton kilometers.
When the time comes for American to order aircraft again - after getting labor concessions - the proposed Airbus A340-8000 likely will be a prime candidate. When asked about plans for the airline's long-haul fleet, Chairman Robert Crandall said the carrier can retain some MD-11s or it can get longer-range planes "that will allow us to overfly Tokyo." He also said that if London Heathrow continues to be a "constrained market," American probably will want a version of the same airplane to serve the Atlantic.
Alaska Airlines says fares introduced by competitor Reno Air to celebrate its second anniversary are so low - $22 from Seattle to Portland and San Jose, and $44 to Reno - that it wonders if Reno "is going to be around for its third birthday." But the low tariffs were not too low for Alaska - it matched them.
Mexicana is seeking authority to operate combination service between Morelia, Mexico, and Los Angeles. The carrier has asked for quick action on the application as it wants to begin operating twice-weekly roundtrip service on the route immediately, using Boeing 727-200 aircraft. Apologizing for the short notice of the application, Mexicana said it had been advised by the government of Mexico on May 31 of its authorization to serve the route and that the designation of TAESA for the route was canceled. (Docket 50378)
Canadian Airlines International began serving Chicago and Orlando, St. Petersburg/Clearwater, Fort Lauderdale and Fort Myers Friday. The carrier has operated charter service to Florida since 1974. By July 31, Canadian and code-sharing partner American will jointly offer 64 flights a day to 15 cities in North America. Canadian is offering daily service to Chicago O'Hare from Vancouver with 737s. The flights to Florida are from Toronto.
USAir and El Salvadoran carrier TACA have quietly signed a letter of intent and are currently looking at ways to cooperate, USAir officials confirmed last week. Daniel Brock, the U.S. carrier's VP-marketing services, declined to go into detail other than to say the two carriers are looking at cooperative scheduling. "We're very impressed with TACA," Brock said. One source at last week's International Airline CEO Conference in Miami said the two airlines have discussed code sharing, but the statement could not be confirmed. USAir is the only U.S.
Civil Aviation Administration of China, CFM International and GE Aircraft Engines broke ground Friday for a new aircraft engine maintenance training center in Chengdu, China. The new school will open in 1997 and will support operation of CFM56, CF6 and GE90 engines. Training is to begin soon in temporary facilities, with CFM and GE supplying engines and providing instructional staff.
DOT's Office of International Transportation and Trade has scheduled a public meeting June 20 to discuss concerns and issues regarding transportation in the Western Hemisphere. Comments from the meeting will be used in developing the agenda for a conference of transport ministers from the region. The proposed Western Hemisphere Transportation Initiative stems from a meeting in October of 12 transport ministers and from the Summit of the Americas in December.
