Philippine Airlines ordered a 747-400 Combi valued at about $170 million, Boeing said. The aircraft will be powered by General Electric engines. The combi can transport six to seven cargo pallets on the main deck, plus 266 passengers in a three-class layout.
Air Canada is looking to boost its service at Edmonton, according to the carrier's chairman, president and chief executive, Hollis Harris. Speaking at the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce last week, Harris said 1996 will be a "watershed year for Edmonton in terms of airline services," setting the stage for a closer relationship between the carrier and the Alberta city. Harris said he met with the city's mayor, Bill Smith, and business leaders, and discussed potential routes and services.
British Airways will not exercise rights to subscribe for additional preference shares in USAir that would have injected a further investment of $450 million into the U.S. carrier. The rights called for BA to invest $200 million in USAir by yesterday and $250 million by Jan. 21, 1998. The impasse in U.S.-U.K. bilateral negotiations - with no plans to resume talks - shut out any chance DOT would allow the British carrier to increase control over USAir. BA said simply that, subject to DOT approval, it would have "benefited from improved governance provisions.
A blue-ribbon panel of outside experts FAA put together last year to examine its efforts to replace power condition systems at the 21 air route traffic control centers (ARTCCs) has endorsed the agency's approach, FAA Administrator David Hinson said Friday in Washington. The panel, which also looked into air traffic service interruptions, found problems and made 77 recommendations but pronounced the agency's old power equipment "sufficient until replaced, if we stay on schedule," Monte Belger, associate administrator for air traffic services, said.
Granted orally an exemption to Rio Air Express, operating as SkyJet Brasil, amending its existing exemption to conduct charter all-cargo service between a point or points in Brazil and a point or points in the U.S.
Alaska Airlines has reached a tentative agreement with the Transport Workers Union on an amended contract for its 16 dispatchers. Union members will hold a ratification vote in the next few weeks. Alaska would not comment on the agreement, pending ratification.
Approved an IATA agreement reviewing the list of nonstop sectors used to generate shortest operated and maximum permitted mileages in the absence of service by IATA carriers in order to limit constructions resulting in inflated mileages.
Delta Connection carrier Comair will begin roundtrip flights Feb. 1 between Cincinnati and White Plains/Westchester County Airport, New York. Comair will operate three daily flights in the market with Canadair Regional Jets. Members of Delta's SkyMiles club will earn double bonus miles for each segment flown through March 31.
Vanguard will offer a monthly inflight magazine, called Vanguard Discoveries, published by Custom Publishing. Articles will highlight Vanguard destinations. The inaugural issue will appear in April.
Reno Air received authority from the Orange County Board of Supervisors to increase operations at noise-restricted John Wayne Airport April 4. It will add five John Wayne-San Jose roundtrips for a total of 11, and two John Wayne-Reno/Tahoe roundtrips for a total of three, using MD-90s.
Approved an IATA agreement readopting Resolution 313, which permits application of the piece-related baggage system, approved by DOT Oct. 30, 1995, to baggage carried by commercial couriers, unless otherwise agreed between the airline and couriers concerned.
British Airways has canceled its agreement to use 30 USAir 737 pilots for European operations at London Gatwick, according to the U.S. carrier's Air Line Pilots Association unit. Indications are that BA dropped the six- month agreement because of delays in obtaining work permits, and because of problems in contract requirements for BA to train the pilots, the union said.
Like many people in the airline industry, TWA Chief Financial Officer Robert Peiser acknowledges that a year ago, he was not sure his airline would be flying today. But that was before TWA slashed debt in an unprecedented 45-day prepackaged bankruptcy, and persuaded its labor unions to accept further wage concessions in just months. Now, the carrier is doing reasonably well, but "there are many things left still to be fixed," Peiser told an airline industry conference last week in San Francisco.
Threats from Continental and United made 1995 a difficult year for Southwest, but 1996 promises to be better, the carrier's chief financial officer, Gary Kelly, said last week at the Global Financing Opportunities 1996 symposium in San Francisco. "We closed 1995 conservatively because of Continental Lite and the Shuttle [by United]," Kelly said, but "we are a lot more confident than we were a year ago." Southwest had been steadily turning in record quarterly earnings since 1992, but it slipped in the fourth quarter of 1994 and the first quarter of 1995.
Aerospace Industries Association elected Kent Kresa, Northrop Grumman, chairman of the board of governors and Harry Stonecipher, McDonnell Douglas, vice chairman.
