In a joint letter, United and Northwest told Access-U.S.-Japan Chairman Gerald Baliles that despite public statements, Access is pursuing the "parochial interests of its founders and financial supporters, principally American and Delta...to obtain point-to-point service" from the U.S. to Japan in exchange for beyond-Japan service.
Creation of a proposed regional airport authority to run Chicago's O'Hare and Midway airports and develop and run the proposed airport near Peotone, Ill., could mean the withdrawal of low-cost carrier Southwest from Midway, where it has a large presence, Chicago Aviation Commissioner David Mosena told The DAILY. Legislation pending in the Illinois Senate (S.B. 1245) would establish the authority, put a cap on new runways at O'Hare and bar further development at Midway until activity at Peotone passes 120,000 operations per year.
EVA Airways has applied for an exemption to operate combination service between Taipei, Taiwan, and Anchorage, as an intermediate point for service to and from New York. The carrier plans to operate daily service on a Taipei-Anchorage-New York-Anchorage-Taipei routing. (Dockets OST-96-1151&OST-96-1152)
USAir reopened an expanded, redesigned USAir Club in the B Concourse of Charlotte Airport, one of three at the hub. The club offers a new ventilation system in the smoking area, free cappuccino and gourmet coffee, cordless telephones, an enlarged conference room with equipment and a new telephone system. USAir operates 26 clubs at 20 airports.
TWA, the city of St. Louis and the St. Louis Airport Commission (St. Louis parties) are urging DOT to ignore objections to its tentative award of new U.S.-Toronto services to TWA and USAir and make final its show cause order on the second year of the U.S.-Canada bilateral. The DOT tentative decision sparked protests from Continental, Northwest, Midway Airlines and the Raleigh/Durham Airport Authority (DAILY, March 14). "Of the five competing applications in this proceeding, TWA's proposal is clearly superior in all respects," said the St. Louis parties.
ValuJet Inc. received a BB corporate credit rating from Standard&Poor's, reflecting ValuJet Airlines' "limited operating history and current small size within the airline industry, offset, to some extent, by its low cost structure and very strong financial profile." S&P said ValuJet's outlook is stable but its margins could come under pressure from competition in Florida from Southwest and lower-cost service from Delta.
After one year of operating Trans World One, TWA reported big gains in filling up premium-class capacity on its transatlantic and transcontinental service. The load factor for first- and business-class cabins in 1994 was 53.5%, but the new combined front-cabin Trans World One class load factor was 72.2% in 1995. TWA said 94% of 3,600 comment cards returned by passengers rated overall service as excellent or very good, while 96% gave the same ratings to cabin service and 90% to personal space aboard the aircraft.
Irish carrier Aer Lingus said it will report "very successful results" in the next few weeks, proof that a two-year turnaround of the state-owned airline is firmly in place. Aer Lingus Group Chief Executive Gary McGann told The DAILY last week that most of the company's units posted profits and that the carrier's financial performance will show improvements.
The airline industry, whose average debt rating is Ba2, or junk, could return to investment grade by the end of the decade, an airline analyst said. At a Moody's conference in Chicago, Renee Shaker, Moody's VP and senior airline analyst, said that even if a recession strikes the cyclical airline industry, as some fear, the airlines are in a much better position to deal with it than in the past. "Before, there was a big run-up in aircraft deliveries," Shaker said.
At a hearing ostensibly about FAA's state block grant program, representatives of general aviation users, small airports and state aviation agencies pushed last week for a refocus of the Airport Improvement Program toward the needs of smaller airports. The General Accounting Office told the House Transportation aviation subcommittee that the block grant pilot program involving seven states has been a success. Many states - about 80% - appear interested in participating in the program and most seem to have the programs and staff to do the job, GAO said.
Competing U.S. interests and an absence of negotiating leverage are shackling U.S. efforts to gain new access to London Heathrow, the General Accounting Office told the Senate Commerce Committee aviation subcommittee last week. "While DOT has been successful in negotiating more liberal aviation agreements with a number of other countries, it has only achieved limited success in securing access for U.S.
Dutch planemaker Fokker was forced into bankruptcy Friday, ending nearly 77 years of aircraft production as rescuing bids failed to materialize. Saddled with high costs during a cyclic slump in commercial aircraft orders, the failed company will leave 5,664 workers jobless, although about 950 will be rehired by operating companies brought together under a new holding company. Another 350 will work for three more months to complete aircraft under assembly.
Seven months after issuing its show cause order, DOT made final last week its tentative decision allocating seven weekly frequencies in the U.S.- South Africa market to World Airways and Southern Air Transport. World was awarded five frequencies to operate three weekly roundtrip combination flights and two weekly roundtrip flights between New York and Johannesburg, via Accra, Ghana, using MD-11 on all flights.
Danzas North America said it has opened a facility in Indianapolis equipped to handle all domestic and international transportation and documentation services. The forwarding company also said it has moved to larger facilities in Minneapolis and Philadelphia and opened an office in San Antonio to keep pace with transborder business.
Airport Group International named Andrew Jarema director-information systems and David Allday manager-environmental safety and health. AlliedSignal Aerospace appointed Jim Strang VP-space station programs for its Aerospace Equipment Systems business and Peter Machuga VP-materials management. Cargo Network Services promoted Anthony Calabrese to full-time president of the U.S. subsidiary of the International Air Transport Association.
Aerospace Industries Association named Christian Shore, Hughes Aircraft, AIA representative on the U.S. NATO Industrial Advisory Group delegation. National Association of Flight Instructors appointed Sean Elliott executive director.
Herb Kelleher isn't the only western-U.S. low-fare airline CEO with a penchant for appearing in costume. While Elvis sightings are common at Southwest, Ed Beauvais of Western Pacific has dressed as a wizard to promote mystery fares and Jack Frost to promote winter wonderfares. Last week he showed up as a human projectile to highlight spring fling fares. A Hollywood stunt double stood in for him and was shot out of a nitrogen- powered catapult.
Cathay Pacific has received extended range twin engine operations (ETOPs) approval from the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department for its A330s. The carrier will be able to operate the aircraft up to 120 minutes away from usable airports, serving destinations such as Cairns, Brisbane, Colombo and Perth.
Delta intends to hire 90 people to fill new, full-time cargo support representative positions and 80 associates - part-time workers - for its Atlanta Air Mail Sort Facility. W.E. Doll, VP-cargo, said in an internal memorandum that the contract by which Delta outsourced its Atlanta air mail contract expired in January, and this "enabled us to take a fresh look at our staffing to determine if a Delta work force could compete cost effectively for the contract.
FAA is extending for 90 days, through June 19, the comment period on its proposed rule on flight and duty times for commercial pilots. Associate Administrator Anthony Broderick said the extension is "in response to requests filed. The FAA has determined that the extension is warranted because of the scope and complexity of the proposal."
- In Federal Register dated March 8...Proposed an airworthiness directive on certain Jetstream ATP aircraft to require inspection for damage of the antenna mounting reinforcing plates.
A NASA Ames research scientist, Steve Casner, has developed a prototype software program that helps pilots learn how to fly advanced commercial aircraft using a laptop computer. The program, operating on Macintosh computers, mimics the flight management system of an automated glass cockpit and enables flight training professionals to program their own learning materials and exercises for their students.
Poor credit quality of a purchasing airline killed prospects for a USAir buyout, says Renee Shaker, Moody's VP and senior airline analyst. The issues that would kill such a deal today, she said, are labor integration and antitrust issues.
DOT issued its procedural schedule for the antitrust immunity application of United and Lufthansa. Answers are due April 3 and replies no later than seven working days later. (Docket OST-96-1116)
Airlines operating shuttles in the Washington, D.C.-New York-Boston markets will be up against new competition in 1999 - high-speed rail. Vice President Al Gore, DOT Secretary Federico Pena and Amtrak President Tom Downs announced Friday that DOT has awarded Bombardier a contract to build a fleet of 18 high-speed, electric-powered trainsets, 15 high-horsepower locomotives and three maintenance shops along the Northeast Corridor to replace Amtrak's Metroliners.
