TWA plans to begin operating its new service between St. Louis and Toronto May 1 if not earlier, said an airline spokesman. Using MD-80 aircraft, the carrier will operate twice-daily nonstop roundtrip service on the route, with single-plane service to New Orleans and San Diego. DOT awarded the service to TWA last week, granting it immediate, temporary authority to start the flights pending the final decision of the U.S.-Toronto second-year service proceeding (DAILY, Feb. 26).
Agreement has been reached with some of the parties on sharing the estimated $1.4 million cost of recovering the flight data and cockpit voice recorders from the Turkish-owned 757 that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean Feb. 6 shortly after takeoff from the Dominican Republic, National Transportation Safety Board Jim Hall said yesterday.
All Nippon Airways (ANA) will begin operating one weekly 747 flight between Tokyo and Vienna starting April 1. The service will replace three of five weekly roundtrips partner Austrian Airlines operates with an A340 aircraft. Austrian will continue to operate the other two frequencies. ANA also said it will add a frequency in the Tokyo-Paris market, boosting its service to seven flights per week from the current six. ANA will fly a 747-200 between Tokyo and Vienna, continuing on to Paris but without taking on passengers. It does not have local traffic rights.
Boeing 747 Systemwide Aircraft Utilization Per Day Third Quarter 1995 B747-100 Northwest TWA Number of Aircraft Operated 23 9 Total Fleet Operations Departures 37 16 Block Hours 283 122
Denver International Airport (DIA) recorded an 80% reduction in delays in its first year of operations, compared with Stapleton Airport, which it replaced, according to Fred Isaac, administrator of FAA's Northwest Mountain Region. The true anniversary is Feb. 28, and FAA statistics are for the first 11 months, Feb. 28, 1995-Jan. 30, 1996. Delays per 1,000 operations at the new airport are only one-fifth those at Stapleton, Isaac said.
FedEx Air Line Pilots Association unit's new chairman says the key members for his "team for a better ALPA" are in place, including new communications and membership committee chairmen. ALPA still is negotiating a collective bargaining agreement with the company, and the FedEx Pilots Association still is moving to unseat ALPA. The rival union says it has 1,451 authorization cards seeking a representation election.
U.S. and German officials will continue negotiations today in Washington. After breaking for the weekend, the two sides picked up the talks yesterday, addressing mainly technical issues. The issues are complex and time-consuming, requiring the coordination of various German government agencies on technical aspects of the agreement, such as customs and currency remittances, a U.S. official said. The two sides remain hopeful that they will conclude an agreement in this round, which currently has no deadline.
Objecting to DOT tentative allocation of U.S.-Germany summer frequencies, which pared back its request, United is urging the department to grant it five additional frequencies to support a second daily Chicago-Germany nonstop flight. The carrier also asked DOT to allocate to it temporarily 14 new frequencies allotted to USAir and World Airways "until such time as those carriers begin using them, and require each of those carriers to report to the department 30 days in advance of their proposed startup dates for using those frequencies." (Docket OST-95-813)
American Chairman Robert Crandall last week held talks with officials at Aerolineas Argentinas about cooperating with the carrier in an arrangement that an American official said could involve code sharing. The American chairman met with top airline officials in Buenos Aires last week and dined with Argentine President Carlos Menem and Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo during the tour of Latin America, according to DAILY affiliate Aviation-Latin America&Caribbean.
Sabena is expected to announce today the resignation of President and Chief Executive Pierre Godfroid and name a replacement.Godfroid is stepping down in hopes of helping end labor strife at the airline.He enraged workers last November when he abrogated the unions' collective bargaining agreements in an attempt to cut costs.
Fidelity Funds has increased its investment in America West to 10.24% from 8.95%, the carrier told the Securities and Exchange Commission. It bought 613,500 shares in the carrier from Jan. 30 to Feb. 15 at $19.50 to $19.92 per share.
Surinam Airways applied for renewal of its exemption authority to operate scheduled service between points in Surinam and the co-terminal points New York/Newark and Miami, via intermediate points Georgetown, Guyana; Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago; Curaao, Netherlands Antilles; Aruba; Barbados, and Port-au-Prince, Haiti. The carrier currently operates service between Miami and Paramaribo, Surinam, under a code-share/blocked-space agreement with ALM Antillean Airlines.
S.J. Pillay will step down as chairman of Singapore Airlines at the end of this month and will leave the board to become high commissioner to the U.K., the carrier said yesterday. S. Dhanabalan, a former senior member of SIA's cabinet, will be appointed director and non-executive chairman as of March 1. Cheong Choong Kong continues in his role as managing director. Dhanabalan agreed to accept the job for one term only, SIA said. Pillay was named the carrier's first chairman in 1972.
Japan Aircraft Maintenance Corp. (JAMCO), Japan's largest maintenance company, expects to select by May a site in Washington state for a new U.S. plant, to be built by the end of 1997. JAMCO plans to transfer about one-third of its production of lavatory modules for civil transports from Niigata in Central Japan to the U.S. facility. Beginning in 1998, the company will assemble 30 to 40 module units per month in the plant, with about 100 local employees. The shift of production to the U.S. reflects the recent increase in the value of the yen.
ValuJet will receive $700,000 in incentives from the city of Mobile, the Mobile Airport Authority and the business community. The DAILY Feb. 23 attributed the money only to the airport. The airport funding portion comes from a cooperative marketing program offered to all airlines.
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association said yesterday it has appealed directly to Chicago's 50 elected neighborhood representatives asking them to help persuade Mayor Richard Daley not to close the city's lakefront Meigs Field. Bill Dunn, AOPA VP-regional affairs, emphasized the potential reaction of the neighborhoods if Meigs's 54,000 annual operations are diverted to Midway Airport. While Midway is surrounded by residential areas, Meigs's approach and departure paths are over Lake Michigan.
Northwest said yesterday it has changed its aircraft order agreement with Airbus Industrie by postponing delivery of 16 A330s in favor of acquiring 20 more A320s to complement the 50 in its fleet. Sources outside Northwest said the carrier may never take delivery of the A330s, and a company official said it can substitute other Airbus aircraft for them. Northwest is quietly buying up DC-10-30s and plans to hushkit 32 more 727-200s and DC-9-30s.
Tokyo Narita Airport ranked first among Japan's gateways for international trade in fiscal 1995, followed by the Yokohama and Tokyo seaports, according to Japan's Ministry of Finance. Narita handled cargo valued at 11.94 trillion yen ($114.8 billion) during the year, while Kansai Airport in Osaka handled Yen2.52 trillion's worth ($24.2 billion), up 23.5% and 14.5% from 1994, respectively. Noting that the amount of international air cargo has risen 25.4% per year in the past 15 years, the ministry predicted continued growth in the near future.
U.S. was preparing yesterday to ask the International Civil Aviation Organization to restrict commercial civil aviation activities with Cuba as a punitive response to the shooting down of two Cessna 337s Saturday by the Castro regime. The action was awaiting a response by the United Nations to a U.S. request condemning Cuba for violating the Chicago Convention, which prohibits attacks against civil aircraft except in self-defense.
Baltia Air Lines Inc. has filed plans with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a $9 million initial public offering. The carrier plans to offer 1.5 million common shares priced at $6 per share. The underwriter is Englewood, Colo.-based Patterson Travis. DOT issued final approval yesterday for the carrier's operating certificate.
Japan Airlines and Canadian Airlines International will inaugurate Boeing 747 joint service between Nagoya, Japan, and Vancouver on April 1. The carriers will operate four weekly flights on the route initially, reducing the rate to twice weekly during the 1996-97 winter season. JAL currently operates seven weekly flights between Tokyo and Vancouver.
