Aviall named Frank Leftwich executive VP-sales and marketing of Aviall Engine Services and president of Aviall Asia, Charles Kienzle senior VP- operations of engine services operations in the U.S. and Jeffrey Murphy senior VP-law and human resources, secretary and general counsel.
A strong performance in the fourth quarter helped the Alaska Air Group (AAG) through one of the roughest years in its 64-year history. The company posted a fourth quarter operating profit of $7.1 million, up from $1.2 million in the same 1994 period, and a net loss of $800,000, down from $5.1 million. For the year, the operating profit inched up 1.2% to $75.9 million, compared with 1994's $75 million. The results were achieved "despite the most intense competition in our company's history," said John Kelly, chairman and chief executive.
-- Proposed to supersede an airworthiness directive on Airbus A300 aircraft concerning certain structural inspections and modifications. -- Proposed an AD on certain Bellanca 17 series aircraft to require inspecting the nose landing gear strut...Revised a proposed AD on aircraft with certain engine oil filter adapter assemblies from Cessna.
De Havilland has made a design change in the new 70-passenger Dash 8- 400 that should prove a boon to operators. The manufacturer has added an aft Type I passenger door, although it will not be equipped with an air stair like the forward passenger entrance. Nevertheless, with portable stairs, operators will be able to enplane and deplane passengers at both ends of the aircraft, which should significantly reduce turn times at the outstations and increase utilization. It also could make it possible to deplane at one end while enplaning at the other.
Key findings of the National Transportation Safety Board's report on ATC equipment outages were questioned yesterday by the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (DAILY, Jan 24). Mike McNally, executive VP of NATCA, said that while the safety board concluded the ATC system is safe, the union "believes the margin of safety is being compromised by ever- increasing failures in power, radar, computer and communications systems. The system is safe, not because of the equipment, but because of air traffic controllers."
Boeing, hit by fewer aircraft deliveries and charges for a special retirement program, yesterday reported lower revenues and net earnings for 1995, compared with the previous year. Sales for 1995 totaled $19.5 billion and net earnings $783 million, compared with 1994 sales of $21.9 billion and net earnings of $856 million. Net earnings for 1995, including a one-time special retirement pre-tax charge of $600 million, were $393 million.
Conquest Airlines filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection late Tuesday - the third regional to enter Chapter 11 in two weeks after GP Express and Business Express. Carrier has been through two recent acquisitions and now is a wholly owned subsidiary of Air L.A., which no longer operates. A new management team took the step and said it should have been done months ago. Marketing Director Dan Shieldes cited a lack of management consistency, no financial controls and no marketing. Operations continue and creditors are supportive.
Scheduled U.S. airlines experienced 175 fatalities last year, down from 264 in 1994, the National Transportation Safety Board reported yesterday. Most of the fatalities, 160, came from the crash of an Americana 757 in Colombia in late December. The fatal accident rate per million miles flown for large scheduled airlines declined to 0.0004 from 0.0008. Based on 100,000 departures, the fatal rate was 0.024, down from 0.50. Scheduled commuter or regional fatalities dropped to nine from 25, the lowest since 1990.
Joe Dorfler, "product lead" for the Global Positioning System program at FAA, will leave the agency in two weeks for a job in private industry. Richard Arnold, leader of the integrated product team managing FAA activities in GPS and the Wide Area Augmentation System, said Dorfler has done an "outstanding job putting WAAS together" and he does not expect any program disruptions or delays. "We have formed a team to handle the WAAS contract, so we do not expect any big hitches," he said. Dorfler did not disclose the nature of his new position, Arnold said.
Continental Express has dedicated a new fitness center to former President and Chief Executive Jonathan Ornstein. The center, built on the sixth floor of the carrier's headquarters building in Houston, was pushed through the budget process by Ornstein and is open to all employees and other workers within the same office complex 24 hours per day. A plaque in the center commemorates the "Jonathan G. Ornstein Honorary Health Club."
Regional Airline Association said industry revenue passenger miles rose about 6% during the July-September 1995 period to 3.5 billion. Regionals completed more than 1.2 million departures, logged 15.7 million enplanements, and recorded an overall average load factor of 51.8% - 42.1% for Alaska. Average passenger trip length in the U.S., Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands was 225 miles.
DOT issued a final order awarding Polar Air Cargo rights to operate fifth- freedom all-cargo service beyond the U.K. The carrier plans two 747F flights per week over a New York-Prestwick-Frankfurt-United Arab Emirates- Delhi-Bahrain (technical stop)-Frankfurt-Prestwick routing. Polar beat out a bid by DHL, which proposed five weekly roundtrips from its sorting center in Cincinnati to New York, then to Belgium via the U.K., using DC-8-73F aircraft (DAILY, May 12).
SkyWest Inc. recorded a $682,000 net loss, or seven cents per share, on operating revenues of nearly $59 million for the three months ended Dec. 31, 1995. In the comparable 1994 quarter, SkyWest posted a net profit of $1.4 million, or 13 cents per share, on $51.4 million in revenues. Yield per revenue passenger mile was 32.3 cents, down 8.2% from the comparable 1994 period's 35.2 cents. Unit cost per available seat mile was 16.6 cents, a 3.5% decline from the 1994 quarter figure of 17.2 cents.
Comair, which earned a net income of $13.1 million for the quarter ended Dec. 31, saw its unit costs increase 4.2% to 14.9 cents per available seat mile as its yield was increasing 2.8% to 33.4 cents per revenue passenger mile (DAILY, Jan. 24) 3rd Qtr. 3rd Qtr. 9 Months. 9 Months. Ended Ended Ended Ended Dec. 31, 95 Dec. 31, 94 Dec. 31, 95 Dec. 31, 94 Op. Revenues 112,694,000 90,060,000 339,349,000 267,904,000
National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the ground collision of a VASP MD-11 and an Alitalia 747-200 Tuesday at Miami Airport. The aircraft collided as VASP 844 was arriving from Sao Paulo and Alitalia 631 was departing for Rome. There were no injuries, but an initial evaluation showed both aircraft sustained substantial damage.
Continental Express expects to make a regional-jet selection by the end of the first quarter to fuel what the carrier expects will be substantial "aggressive" growth. The choice, said Continental President Gordon Bethune this week, is between the Canadair RJ and the new Embraer EMB-145. COX also plans to replace its existing ATR and Brasilia fleets with new aircraft. The carrier is now taking delivery of 25 19-passenger Beech 1900Ds and, by the time all is said and done, it could be "one of the largest orders in regional aviation history," The DAILY is told.
Republican presidential candidate Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas said FAA's Age 60 retirement rule for airline pilots is "nonsense and I am against it," according to the Professional Pilots Federation, which opposes the rule. The PPF said Dole added that advances in medical science were sufficient to accurately indicate the health of a pilot. Dole was responding to a question during a Littleton, N.H., Chamber of Commerce dinner Jan. 19.
Thai Airways International applied for renewal of its exemption to operate scheduled combination service between Bangkok and Los Angeles via Seoul, with full traffic rights between Seoul and Los Angeles. The carrier currently offers four weekly flights on the route, using Boeing 747-400 aircraft. (Docket OST-95-338)
Fourteen regional airlines during December averaged a positive traffic balance - growth in revenue passenger miles outpaced growth in available seat miles - of 18.7% to 15.5%. Four members of the group, however, individually registered negative traffic balances - capacity grew faster than traffic. The largest imbalance was posted by United Express/Midway Connection Great Lakes Aviation, which recently opened Raleigh/Durham in support of Midway with additional Brasilias. Great Lakes RPMs were up 6.9% against an 18.3% gain in ASMs.
LARGEST PASSENGER-CARRYING U.S. REGIOANL AIRLINES THIRD QUARTER 1995 Revenue Passengers Percent Passenger Percent Rank Airline Carried of Total Miles (000s) of Total 1 Simmons Airlines 1,436,717 9.2 311,985 8.8 2 Mesa Airlines 1,088,119 6.9 245,328 7.0
U.S. Major and National Carriers Commission Expenses Third Quarter 1995 % Of Total Passenger Systemwide Revenues America West $ 32,785,439 8.60 American 320,567,000 9.13 Continental 97,756,000 8.67 Delta 277,622,000 9.34
Swissair has taken five of its Airbus A320/A321s out of service after discovering cracks in the turbine rear frames of the aircraft's CFM56-5B engines, a spokeswoman said yesterday. Flight operations were not seriously disrupted as a result of the grounding, she said. The problem was detected during routine checks to an A321. An inspection of the carrier's 13 A320/A321 jets revealed similar cracks in four A320 aircraft. Specialists from Swissair's Technical Services are working with engine manufacturers to repair or replace the engines.
Bombardier Aerospace Group named Jim Robinson president of Learjet. He succeeds Brian Barents, who resigned Jan. 31 but will stay on until the end of February to assist in the transition. Robinson was executive VP of Learjet.
Delta said yesterday it could take a pre-tax charge as great as $650 million in the March 1996 quarter to offset expenses related to its cost- cutting efforts. Thomas Roeck, the carrier's chief financial officer, told securities analysts late in the day that the charge is for recently announced layoffs and a writedown in the value of its 56 L-1011s, both initiatives in its effort to reduce unit costs to 7.5 cents per available seat mile. Delta took a $414 million charge in calendar 1994, also for cost-cutting.
USAir union representatives meeting this week with new Chairman Stephen Wolf were told that Lawrence Nagin, former general counsel at United, will join USAir. Wolf did not reveal major changes planned for the company, sources said, because he has been on the job only since Monday.
