Rapidly expanding Western Pacific Airlines is considering establishing a Colorado Springs-based commuter operation to serve nearby ski resorts and other feeder markets.WestPac says commuter service should begin by midyear, and it will solicit proposals soon for management of the commuter operations.A spokeswoman said WestPac has made no commitments at this time with another carrier to be a feeder.
United's traffic grew 1.3% last month compared to December 1994, on 2.2% more capacity. Load factor fell 0.6 points for the month to 67.4%, while the carrier flew 0.4% more passengers. For the year, United's traffic was up 3.3% on 4.2% more capacity. Load factor fell 0.6 points to 70.5%. The airline boarded 6.2% more passengers last year than in 1994. Dec 95 Dec 94 12 Mths 95 12 Mths 94 RPMs 8,954,881,000 8,837,192,000 111,538,412,000 108,018,173,000
TWA has hired George Aste as staff VP-international affairs in its Washington Government Affairs Office, effective today. Aste will represent TWA in bilateral aviation negotiations. He has been executive VP of consulting firm FPC/Experts Abroad since leaving United, where he headed the International Affairs Department and represented that carrier in bilateral discussions.
Kiwi International Air Lines founder and former Chief Executive Robert Iverson is back in the business as president of a new consulting group, Turn Key Aviation, which will draw on other former Kiwi executives as well. The Sussex, N.J.-based firm intends to provide a range of services to new- entrant scheduled, charter and cargo carriers, including financing, help in obtaining FAA and DOT certificates, training, operations and maintenance manuals, aircraft leasing, marketing and public relations, flight operations, accounting and system control.
New owners of Capitol Air Express, which moved from New York to Charlottesville, have applied to DOT to resume operations in March, flying 727s from Charlottesville to Roanoke and Newark.But the application perplexes some at DOT.Listed as president and chief operating officer of Capitol Aviation Group Inc. is Robert Iverson, former Kiwi chief executive, who said Friday he has formed an airline consulting company of a different name and may eventually become involved in yet another airline, this one flying charters (See story on Page 34 of the hard copy of this issue.)
Continental's traffic fell 9.8% last month, compared with December 1994, on 17% less capacity. The sharp capacity drop helped push the carrier's load factor up 5.1 percentage points to 63.9%, the company's highest December load factor since 1991. Cargo carried was down 30.3%, to 37.5 million revenue ton miles, from 53.9 million revenue ton miles the year before. For the full year, traffic was down 3.8% on 7.4% less capacity. The load factor for 1995 was 65.6%, up from 63.1% in 1994 and an all-time high for Continental.
Air Canada will eliminate service to Berlin and Vienna next week. "With the recent startup of new services such as Hong Kong, Calgary-Frankfurt and Brussels later this year, we had to re-evaluate the deployment of our aircraft for the summer schedule," said Marcel Forget, manager- international product.
British Airways has embarked on a two-year, $150 million advertising campaign designed by M&C Saatchi. The premier commercial, the first for BA from its new agency, was broadcast Sunday and will be shown in 133 countries through terrestrial channels and eight satellite stations, including CNN. The campaign also includes print and posters, and it will be carried in movie theaters and on BA's Internet site, which will be unveiled officially this month.
USAir has appointed Jim Hultquist controller for the airline and USAir Group, pending confirmation by the board, as part of its Resource Management and Reengineering Initiative to restructure financial operations. Hultquist was senior director-taxes, insurance and pension investments. Peter Breiling leads the RMRI project, which has top priority for the finance department this year. He most recently was the divisional controller for corporate and marketing departments.
Assuming user funding of FAA eventually resumes, redistribution of that responsibility is shaping up as the most important legislative conflict within the aviation industry this year. Simultaneously, airports may wage a contentious battle over a diminishing pot of federal money, while also fighting for statutory changes that could provide more funds for airports.
Preliminary data from five Airbus A340 transports flying with ozone, water vapor and temperature measuring equipment suggest that ozone is not being destroyed at the altitudes at which airliners cruise. The aircraft have made more than 2,200 flights, most of them long-haul operations that generate some 200,000 measurements, Airbus says.
Air Express International said Friday it has added Guam and Saipan to its network and will serve the Pacific islands through an agency agreement with the Clipper Cargo Corp. Clipper is a leading Guam forwarder and, with AEI, will offer services such as air and sea freight, customs clearance, container unpacking, warehousing and distribution.
United stopped using the automated baggage system at Denver International Airport Dec. 22 except for outbound baggage, United spokesman Tony Molinaro said. During pre-Christmas testing, the entire system was lost because of a software problem, he said. No timeline has been set with BAE Automated Systems, manufacturer of the trouble-prone device, to get the full system up and running, Molinaro said. "We just want to get all the systems working together," Molinaro said. "Each one works on its own, but when you put them together, that's where we have the problems."
KLM's traffic increased 9% in December from the same month in 1994 on 15% more capacity. The carrier flew 680.2 million revenue ton-kilometers during the period on 969.2 million available ton-kilometers. Passenger load factor was 69.2%, up from 69%. Passenger traffic grew 10% systemwide, with a 17% increase in passenger traffic to the U.S. Cargo traffic in Asia was up 18%, while systemwide freight and mail flown by the airline grew 9% on 19% more capacity. For the nine-month period that ended in December, total traffic was up 11% on 13% more capacity.
Baker&Hostetler partner Richard Jones, former FAA deputy administrator, retired on Dec. 31. Cubic Corporation elected William Boyle to the board. Eisner, Petrou&Associates promoted Lisa Miles to account supervisor. Emery Customs Brokers, USA, appointed Stephen Cortelli director with responsibility for administrative operations and business expansion throughout the U.S., a new position. Executive Jet International hired Richard Schwartz as chief pilot for its NetJets Gulfstream IV-SP shared ownership program.
American will present a plan for initiating a flight safety assessment program to senior FAA officials tomorrow in Washington. The carrier, the Allied Pilots Association and FAA developed the program in two days of meetings last week. Robert Baker, executive VP-operations, said that the "singular objective of this partnership effort is to enhance the company's safety performance and identify actions to ensure a zero accident performance."
Philippine Airlines has placed a $700 million order for General Electric CF6 and CFM International CFM56 engines to power eight 747-400s, eight A330s, 12 A320s and four A340-300s. Delivery of the aircraft will begin in the second quarter of 1997.
Alaska Airlines' December traffic rose 4.1% to 726 million revenue passenger miles on 4% more capacity. Load factor inched up to 63% for the month, compared with 62.9% in December 1994. For the year, Alaska's traffic was up 13.1% to 8.584 billion RPMs, while available seat miles totaled 13.885 billion, up 14.9% from 12.082 billion. Alaska carried 876,300 passengers in December and 10,140,000 during the year. Sister carrier Horizon Air flew 73 million RPMs in December, up 3.5% from December 1994, and 118 million ASMs, up 6.7%.
Future Aviation Professional of America promoted Edward Ray to director-sales and customer service and Janice Gibson to customer service supervisor. International Aviation Women's Association elected Dot Etheridge president for a two-year term. President-elect for the 1998-2000 term is Katherine Posner, and new board members are Rachel Trinder, partner of Zuckert, Scoutt&Rasenberger, and Eileen Cashman-Jermak, assistant VP of the Association of Aviation Underwriters.
DOT has awarded 126 fifth-freedom frequencies to Delta and United for 1996 U.S.-Germany summer service. Delta received 98 frequencies - five for Athens-Frankfurt, six for Vienna-Hamburg, seven each for Amsterdam- Stuttgart, Bombay-Frankfurt, Budapest-Frankfurt, Istanbul-Frankfurt, Moscow-Frankfurt, Warsaw-Frankfurt, Zurich-Frankfurt and Zurich-Stuttgart; 14 for Zurich-Munich, and 17 for Vienna-Frankfurt services.
Aer Lingus appointed Jack Foley executive VP-North America. AirWays Corporation named Cathy Hoag VP of jet subsidiary AirTran Airways, with responsibility for advertising, marketing and sales. AMR Eagle named Greg Hall VP-maintenance and engineering. Eastwind appointed Steve Davis VP-ground operations. TWA has hired Mark Abels as VP-corporate communications in St. Louis, subject to board confirmation.
Boeing Commercial President Ron Woodard says the company is four to six weeks away from "having specific resolution with every customer" on specific delivery dates of aircraft delayed by the Machinists' strike. The goal is to get the aircraft to customers in the same month they were originally scheduled for delivery. "It takes a long time to recover from something like this," Woodard said.
Granted orally an exemption to United renewing its authority to operate scheduled combination service between Atlanta, Houston and Tampa, on the one hand, and points in the Cayman Islands, on the other, under a code- share arrangement with Cayman Airways. United also received permission to integrate this authority with its existing certicate and exemption authority...Approved an IATA agreement amending fares within the TC3 area to reflect the government-approved level.
Northwest and KLM are offering winter reductions of 40% to 60% off regular discount fares. The cut rates, available through Jan. 12 for travel through March 30, requires a seven-day advance purchase.
Summary of U.S. Major Carriers Domestic Traffic Second Quarter 1995 Revenue Average Revenue Passengers Length of Passenger Enplaned % Travel Miles Carriers (000) Change (Miles) (000) America West 4,328 6.67 801 3,465,866 American 16,709 (1.70) 1,088 18,182,420
