Washington Dulles-based United Express affiliate Atlantic Coast Airlines will begin service between Boston Logan and Newark March 18, operating five daily roundtrips with Jetstream 41 aircraft. The flights have been scheduled conveniently for local business customers and for Boston-originating customers making connections to United's international departures to London and Tokyo from Newark, Atlantic Coast said. Boston customers have "yet another alternative for traveling to major world business centers on United Airlines," Atlantic Coast said.
America West will expand service May 15 from its Phoenix hub to two new destinations, Philadelphia and Boston. Roundtrip fares on the nonstop flights are as low as $258 to either city.
Traffic among 14 regional airlines increased by an average of 21.8% in November while capacity lagged behind with an average increase of 19.4%. Together, the 14 carriers generated 634.2 million revenue passenger miles versus 1.24 billion available seat miles for an average load factor of 50.95%. Rapidly growing Gulfstream International again led the pack with a 154.5% increase in RPMs, 30.1 percentage points higher than the 124.4% increase in ASMs. The magnitude of the Gulfstream gains had the effect of skewing overall results, however.
Philadelphia is urging DOT to approve promptly World Airways' application for authority to operate scheduled combination service between points in the U.S. and Belfast, Glasgow and Manchester. If approved, the carrier proposes six-times-weekly service, including a weekly flight between Philadelphia/Newark and Belfast (DAILY, Dec. 12).
The European Commission will allow the government of Ireland to pay Aer Lingus the last 50 million Irish pounds of the IR175 million in aid it agreed to in December 1993, European Union Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock said. The infusion completes Aer Lingus's three-year restructuring program. The commission decided to allow it after independent consultants confirmed that Aer Lingus is returning to financial health and has maintained the restructuring program.
Air cargo specialist CAP Cargo is launching service with an ATR 42 in the middle Pyrenees region under the colors of Extand, ATR group announced. Extand is a subsidiary of the Geodis group. CAP Cargo hoped to begin service this week. ATR said CAP Cargo and Extand's choice "was not by pure chance. The ATR 42, which will assure the daily connection between Roissy- Avignon, was in fact selected for the improved performance by way of delivery times." The manufacturer said the aircraft's 40-cubic-meter volume and speed were "major advantages."
Lufthansa Airport Services Brussels, a ground-handling subsidiary of the German airline, has won the right to serve Lauda Air passengers at Brussels Zaventem Airport. The Brussels Court of Appeal ruled for Lufthansa against the Belgian Aviation Authority and ground-handling company Belgavia, which Lufthansa accused of abusing their dominant position as they prevented it from operating at Brussels. The court ruled that a partial exclusivity agreement between BAA and Belgavia violates European Union competition law.
Banner Aerospace said it will begin preliminary discussions with Fairchild concerning acquisition of Fairchild's Harco Division, a distributor of precision fasteners. Since the acquisition would be in exchange for Banner Aerospace common shares, Fairchild, which now owns 47% of the shares, would become majority stockholder of Banner.
Summary of U.S. National Carriers Systemwide Traffic May 1995 Revenue Average Passengers Length of Enplaned % Travel Carriers (000) Change (Miles) Alaska 789 15.37 855 Aloha 409 (3.56) 137 American Trans Air 332 22.69 1,819 Carnival 124 21.30 1,206
American Eagle pilots, who voted in November to be represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, last week in Dallas set up what ALPA called an "interim" organizational structure with a single Master Executive Council for all four Eagle carriers. Representatives voted to make the subject of a single MEC "the first order of business" to be taken up by a permanent MEC - which should be in place in about 90 days - temporary Chairman Homer Pugh from Council 83 DFW said. The four Eagle carriers are Simmons, Executive, Flagship and Wings West.
United Express affiliate Atlantic Coast Airlines will realize a one- time, pre-tax gain of $577,000 for the fourth quarter of 1995. The carrier said it was enabled to log the gain by prepaying its convertible debt and by selling five of its 18 landing slots at White Plains, N.Y. Atlantic Coast said the one-time gain was not figured into the regional's projection, issued earlier this month, that the company would exceed analysts' earnings-per-share projections.
Big changes are expected at Business Express after the first of the year under the tutelage of new Chairman and Chief Executive Bob Martens. The former AMR Eagle president has had little contact with existing BizEx executives, while spending time with company creditors. Meanwhile, November RPMs sank 18.6% against a drop of only 13.5% in ASMs as a result of removing the first 13 of 27 19-passenger Beech 1900Cs from service. Reports that the Delta/Northwest affiliate has suspended aircraft lease payments could not be confirmed. Three Avro RJ70s likely will go.
Allied Pilots Association may have pulled off an effective strategic move by allowing ALPA to assume representation of AMR Eagle pilots. The union immediately followed with a proposal to management to return short- haul flying now conducted by Eagle, Midway and Reno Air "back to the core carrier." The union wants to operate "small, efficient jets flown by other carriers...." American has shut down hubs at San Jose, Raleigh/Durham and Nashville.
Rolls-Royce board yesterday appointed John Rose chief executive, effective on the retirement of Terence Harrison April 30. Lord Moore was appointed non-executive deputy chairman, effective Jan. 1. Currently managing director of the Rolls-Royce Aerospace Group, he will be succeeded by Colin Green, VP-business operations of Allison Engine Co. Ralph Robins continues as executive chairman.
The four airlines selected to fly between Hong Kong and Taiwan have signed the newly negotiated aviation agreement that authorizes the service, but China has not yet approved it. Executives of Cathay Pacific, Dragonair, China Airlines and EVA Airways initialed the agreement this week in Hong Kong, but Hong Kong and Taiwan government officials agreed that operations under the previous agreement will continue until Jan. 29 or later, pending a decision from China.
Air Jamaica has ordered four Airbus A320s for delivery beginning next October. The aircraft, seating 150 passengers in two classes, will be used on new routes to points in North America, such as Newark and Toronto. The carrier received the first of six leased A310-300s in October.
An American 757 that crashed into a mountain near Cali, Colombia, Wednesday night was equipped with a digital flight data recorder, American said. The aircraft had undergone "our most in-depth inspection and overhaul" in January and in November, "we did a B Check, which is a very extensive overnight check of the systems on the aircraft and is the heaviest level of maintenance we do outside our two overhaul bases," said Robert Baker, executive VP-operations. The digital FDR "had lots of parameters, and we are hopeful we can find it intact," Baker said.
United Express affiliate Great Lakes Aviation flew slightly more than 21 million revenue passenger miles in November, a 24.2% increase from November 1994. Capacity grew more quickly - 29.1% to 51.9 million available seat miles from 40.2 million in the prior period. Load factor, as a result, dropped 1.6 percentage points to 40.5% from 42.1%. Revenue passenger enplanements rose 37.3% to 70,789 from 51,568 in November 1994. Great Lakes operates 39 Beech 1900s and 12 Embraer Brasilias to 74 destinations.
The U.S. and the U.K. signed this week a bilateral agreement that will make it easier for the two nations to act faster on safety-related issues, Anthony Broderick, FAA associate administrator for regulation and certification, said in Washington. The pact, signed in London, will permit the heads of FAA and the Civil Aviation Authority to agree on issues such as aircraft certification, maintenance facilities and training, instead of going through the State Department and the Foreign Commonwealth Office, Broderick said.
Hungarian airline Malev and International Lease Finance Corp. have taken joint delivery of the first of three Fokker 70s purchased by ILFC for lease to Malev, Fokker reported. Malev also will acquire one Fokker 70 directly from the manufacturer. The second and third ILFC aircraft will be delivered early next year, while the fourth will be delivered in the first half of next year. The aircraft are configured for 75 seats.
DOT has tentatively selected Ward Air to continue to operate essential air service at Chatham and Funter Bay, Alaska, for a two-year period beginning Dec. 1, 1995, at an annual rate of $9,187. Operating EAS in the markets since 1989, Ward Air will continue operating once-a-week Funter Bay-Juneau service and one round trip per month at Chatham, operating over a Juneau-Funter Bay-Chanthm-Funter Bay-Juneau routing. All the service is operated with three-seat Cessna 185 aircraft. (Docket 46478)
Systems Research Corp. was awarded a $75 million contract to provide engineering, test and evaluation services to the FAA Technical Center's Communications, Navigation and Surveillance Division.
Horizon Air has taken delivery of the 50th Dornier 328, Daimler-Benz Aerospace said. The aircraft - Horizon's 12th of the model - was ferried from Oberpfaffenhofen to the U.S. West Coast on Dec. 14.
The Airport Authority of Hong Kong signed an agreement yesterday with Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Ltd. to operate an air cargo terminal at the new airport. The 320,000-square-meter facility will be able to handle up to 2.6 million metric tons of cargo per year. The authority said it will sign an agreement soon with Asia Airfreight Terminal Co. Ltd., which will operate the airport's second air cargo terminal.
