All Nippon Airways President Seiji Fukatsu will address the International Aviation Club's monthly luncheon on Jan. 18 in Washington. Lunch costs $35 per person and begins at 12:30 p.m. at the Capital Hilton Hotel, 16th&K Sts., N.W.
Fernando Pinto, president and chief executive of wholly owned subsidiary Rio-Sul, has been named president and CEO of Varig, according to DAILY affiliate Aviation-Latin America&Caribbean. Pinto succeeds Carlos Willy Engels.
Tower Air's scheduled-service traffic jumped 34.7% to 318 million revenue passenger miles in December, and 30.3% to 3.6 billion RPMs for the year. Available seat miles increased 32.3% in December and 29.5% for the year. Load factors were 71% in December, up 1.4 percentage points from December 1994, and 74.7% for the year. Dec 95 Dec 94 12 Mths 95 12 Mths 94 RPMs 318,000,000 236,000,000 3,596,000,000 2,759,000,000 ASMs 448,000,000 339,000,000 4,811,000,000 3,716,000,000
Rep. William Clinger (R-Pa.), chairman of the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee, said he will retire at the end of the current Congress. He was ranking Republican of the House aviation subcommittee from 1989 through 1994.
American welcomed news from Colombian officials that alcohol found in the remains of the captain of Flight 965, which crashed last month near Cali, was the product of a natural body chemical process and did not come from consumption. Bob Baker, executive VP-operations, said American regrets that premature and incomplete forensic test data were leaked to the press.
America West has reduced fares from snow-plagued eastern cities Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, New York, Newark, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles, Phoenix, Tucson and Las Vegas. Tickets must be purchased by Jan. 19 for travel through Feb. 29. The "sunsational" fares range from $234 roundtrip between Boston and Las Vegas to $332 between Philadelphia and Las Vegas.
Air Atlantic has asked for authority to operate nonscheduled combination service between points in Canada and points in the U.S. In its application, the Canadian carrier noted that the charter services it proposes "are wholly consistent with the terms of the 1995 [U.S.-Canada] agreement." It plans to operate transborder charter service using 77- passenger BAe-146 aircraft, offering sports team charters as well as flights to "sun spots." Air Atlantic currently operates scheduled and unscheduled services within Canada.
Kiwi International Air Lines is shrinking its ranks, beefing up marketing and trying to cut its cost per available seat mile by 10% to ensure its long-term survival. The airline studied costs and operations for the past few months to come up with the new plan, called Beyond Tomorrow, which also is designed to increase revenues by 20%. The largest savings, $3 million annually, will come from cutting 60 jobs from the work force, spread throughout the system except for flight crews, and reducing about a dozen salaries, including those of pilots.
Servicios Avensa (Servivensa) has asked DOT to renew its authority to operate scheduled combination service between Venezuela and New York, via Aruba. The carrier currently operates daily nonstop Caracas-New York service, using Boeing 727 aircraft. Servivensa is a wholly owned subsidiary of Aerovias Venezolanas (Avensa). (Docket OST-96-992)
British Airways opened up bidding to five aircraft manufacturers with news yesterday that it is in the market for as many as 60 regional jets in an order that could be worth $1 billion. BA said Airbus Industrie, Avro, Boeing, Fokker and McDonnell Douglas are contenders for the order. The airplanes would be used on regional routes in the U.K. and in Europe by BA and its subsidiaries and alliance partners, such as British Airways Regional and Deutsche BA. The new aircraft would replace 36 737-200s BA acquired in 1983 and 1984, and they might provide additional capacity.
Capital Cargo International Airlines has asked DOT for authority to accept bookings and payment for cargo charter flights beginning Feb. 15. The carrier said it has satisfied all major preconditions for certification, except for completion of FAA Part 121 certification, which it expects to finish early in February. Capital Cargo said it would establish an escrow account for payments made to it for cargo transportation to occur after the effective date of its certification. (Docket OST-96-985)
Substantial investments in dual taxiways, runways and access roads will be needed to compensate for lost gates resulting from the design of American's proposed superconcourse at Miami Airport, according to airlines challenging the upgrade in a lawsuit (DAILY, Oct. 6, 1995).
Federal Express Corp. said last week's snowstorms in the eastern U.S. may have cost it as much as $20 million in lost revenues, and its operating profits for the third quarter, which ends Feb. 29, will be "significantly below" Wall Street estimates. FedEx blamed the shortfall on the latest storm, several earlier storms and continuing sluggishness of its international business. The company noted that the storm closed 18 airports in the Northeast, a region that accounts for 25% to 30% of its worldwide package volume.
Maverick Airways has asked DOT for permission to withdraw its application for a certificate to operate scheduled service. The would-be startup carrier said it has restructured its financing plan, changing it substantially from the one in its pending application, and it plans to submit a revised application. Maverick had planned to operate to Rocky Mountain resort and business destinations, targeting communities where regional service has been reduced or eliminated.
Eighth annual Greater Washington Aviation Open golf tournament is scheduled May 6 at the Manor Country Club. Proceeds benefit charity. For more information, contact Paul Bollinger by fax, 610-975-6700.
Air South's December traffic climbed 107% over December 1994, to 30.1 million revenue passenger miles from 14.5 million. Available seat miles rose 22% to 54.1 million from 44.3 million, resulting in a load factor gain of 23 percentage points, to 56% from 33%. Air South boarded 80,370 passengers during the month, slightly more than double the total for December 1994.
American's cargo traffic dipped 2.6% in December from the same period a year earlier. The carrier flew 172.1 million cargo ton miles last month, down from 176.7 million. "Our traffic was very strong in the first half of the month across the board, both domestic and international," said Dallas Sherman, VP of marketing and customer support. "Then winter weather struck hard in the Upper Midwest and the Northeast.
Contract negotiations between Federal Express and its pilots union are under way in Washington with the aid of a federal mediator. Both sides have agreed to honor a news blackout on the status of the talks, which entered a 30-day cooling-off period called by the National Mediation Board in October that expired Nov. 25 (DAILY, Nov. 22). The Air Line Pilots Association at FedEx is hampered by lack of pilot unity at the carrier, and a new union, the FedEx Pilots Association (FPA), still is trying to represent the pilots.
Air Line Pilots Association's Executive Council gave the Independent Association of Continental Pilots the nod to go forward with plans to merge the unions. The next step is for Continental's pilots to vote on the proposal.
United has stepped up efforts to curtail Japan Airlines service requests, urging DOT to deny JAL's bid to operate service between Tokyo and Kona, Hawaii, until the government of Japan allows United to operate beyond-Osaka service to Seoul. "Common sense dictates that it would be unjustified and inappropriate for the U.S. to approve JAL's exemption while United is being denied its bilateral rights," said Stuart Oran, executive VP and general counsel for United.
The trial of former South Korean President Chun To Hwan is looking into the possibility that Chun was bribed by Korean Airlines after a KAL 747 was shot down over Sakhalin Island on Sept. 1, 1983, according to a report from Seoul. An indictment submitted by the prosecutor's office states that Cho Choung Hoo, KAL chairman, paid a 3 million won (about US$4 million) bribe to Chun, requesting that the government not take punitive steps against the carrier and the conglomerate Hanjin group, a parent corporation of KAL.
Northwest has applied for renewal of its authority to operate scheduled service between the U.S. and Conakry, Guinea; Freetown, Sierra Leone; Kilimanjaro and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; Tunis, Tunisia; Lilongwe, Malawi, and Harare, Zimbabwe. The carrier proposes to serve these markets via Amsterdam under its code-share arrangement with KLM, with KLM operating aircraft on the segment beyond Amsterdam. (Docket OST-96-990)
World Airways flew 2,711 block hours in December, up 21% from 2,235 hours in December 1994. The airlines said average daily utilization of its fleet was 8 block hours, down from 9.2 last December. For the year, World flew 37,342 block hours, up 41% from 1994's 26,457 hours. Utilization for the year was up to 9.9 block hours per day from 8.8.
Summary of U.S. National Carriers Systemwide Revenues and Expenses Second Quarter 1995 (In Dollars) Total Operating % assenger Carrier Revenues Change Revenues Alaska 298,588,000 9.41 245,426,000 Aloha 53,706,670 (6.31) 43,610,090
