Air Canada launched service to Hong Kong yesterday and said it will be known in Chinese as "Maple Leaf Airlines." The carrier will operate three weekly nonstop flights between Vancouver and Hong Kong and add a fourth in April.
U.S. negotiators are reporting progress in talks with Thailand and China. The U.S. and Thailand made headway but did not reach an agreement after three days of talks that ended yesterday in Washington. "Very good progress was made, with the two sides finding a great deal of agreement on major issues," said a U.S. government official, adding, however, that items remain that will need further discussion. The two sides are slated to meet again during the week of Jan. 15 in Thailand, and one U.S.
The Leading Hotels of The World Ltd. will be the first hotel company to use two of Sabre Decision Technologies' new products - CRSView and QIK-RES. Leading Hotels represents 300 luxury hotels and resorts in 66 countries. It will integrate QIK-RES, a host reservations system user interface, with CRSView, a distribution analysis system, into its own reservations network. Sabre said its reservations system can reduce training time for sales agents by up to 30%.
Alaska Airlines has leased two new 737-400s from International Lease Finance Corp. for 10 years, with delivery planned in November 1996 and February 1997. The equipment is addition to 20 new 737-400s also leased from ILFC. In a separate transaction, Alaska agreed to buy from ILFC this month three 737-400s built in 1992 that it had been leasing. The purchase price is about $86 million cash, ILFC said.
American Society of Travel Agents has asked airlines to be magnanimous by passing along all possible savings to consumers if Congress allows the 10% ticket tax to expire. The tax is scheduled to expire Dec. 31 unless President Clinton signs a continuing resolution bill. "Currently, Americans who fly are paying more than $4.8 billion annually through the excise tax and another $195 million through the international passengers tax," ASTA President Jeanne Epping said. That money has the potential to create growth in domestic travel through lower fares, she said.
America West is expanding its presence in Detroit with new service from its Columbus hub, adding to previously announced service from Phoenix and Las Vegas that is to begin Feb. 15, 1996. The Detroit service is part of a growth plan launched in September, when the airline said it would add about 20 new jets to its fleet of 91 over the next two years, increase capacity 29% and departures 17%. The growth plan is the most aggressive America West has undertaken since emerging from bankruptcy in August 1994.
Standard&Poor's revised its ratings outlook on BE Aerospace Inc. to negative from stable after news that the company has signed a definitive agreement to purchase seat-maker Burns Aerospace. The rating affects $125 million in debt.
Summary of U.S. Major Carriers International Traffic April 1995 Revenue Average Passengers Length of Enplaned % Travel Carriers (000) Change (Miles) American 1,179 11.31 2,121 Atlantic 294 11.49 4,142 Latin 858 11.53 1,321 Pacific 27 2.98 5,558
United will inaugurate flights March 2 from Denver and Los Angeles to Vancouver. Awarded for the second year of phasing in open skies at the Canadian city (DAILY, Oct. 19), the new services "will provide better access to Vancouver" and offer "smooth connections for Vancouver passengers flying via Los Angeles to the South Pacific and via Denver to the Midwest and the East Coast," said Montie Brewer, United VP-resource planning. It will operate one daily flight in each direction in the markets, using 737- 300 aircraft.
DOT has approved a Mexicana application for authority to operate scheduled combination service to Denver and New York. The carrier plans to begin a single weekly Guadalajara, Mexico-Denver roundtrip flight Dec. 21, using Boeing 727 aircraft seating 156 passengers. The carrier also got the go- ahead to operate Puerto Vallarta, Mexico-New York service, using A320 aircraft seating 156 passengers. (Docket OST-95-917&OST-95-906)
TWA said yesterday its board of directors has adopted a stockholder rights plan, or "poison pill," designed to protect the company against an unsolicited takeover. "We have simply put a poison pill in place," an airline spokesman said. "This is not in response to any specific takeover attempt that we know of," he added. Under the plan, if an outsider acquires as much as 15% of the carrier's voting stock, or initiates a tender exchange that would result in control of 20% of the company, then current stockholders would receive rights to purchase company shares.
ValuJet Airlines said yesterday it is offering ValuJet Small Package, counter-to-counter small-package service with next-flight-out shipping among the 26 cities in its route system. The carrier said VSP is the only such service in the U.S. that "pro-actively tracks the movement of every shipment." Package bar codes are scanned at check-in, transfer points and the final destination, and the scanned information is transferred to a reliability desk at the home office in Atlanta.
DOT notified industry it will no longer issue periodic formal orders updating the Standard Foreign Rate Level (SFRL) for cargo in each geographic area (Atlantic, Latin America and Pacific). The move follows issuance of a final rule last month exempting U.S. and foreign air carriers from the requirement of filing international cargo tariffs (DAILY, Nov. 30).
United's Mileage Plus Premier members will be able to use their Mileage Plus cards to receive inflight telephone calls in 1996. GTE Airfone has required a special card to activate the ground-to-air calls since October 1994. Passengers now can use their United cards to enter the seat number that is stored in the GTE system. A passenger receiving a call can accept it by swiping a credit card.
The industry's Big Three carriers, American, United and Delta, probably will ring up healthy profits next year and generate a lot of cash, but their debt ratings are not likely to be moved up to investment-grade level, Standard&Poor's said yesterday. American parent AMR is rated double- 'B'plus and United parent UAL double-'B'. Delta, which is rated double- 'B', may be upgraded but probably still would be categorized as a speculative investment, S&P said.
National Transportation Safety Board said the landing of an American MD-83 broke off tree branches about 15 feet below the tops of the trees it struck on approach to Bradley Airport last Nov. 12. The survey team from the board also found discrepancies on the three MD-83 altimeters on Flight 1572; that the ground proximity warning system worked as designed, and that there was no pre-impact damage to the engines. The design of the instrument approach procedures for Runway 15 is being studied to assure that it meets safety criteria, the board said.
IATA "cemented an agreement" at The Hague for its planned acquisition of International Airline Publications and Air Cargo Tariff, Director General Pierre Jeanniot said. "This will enable publication of cargo information, for all airlines - and their clients - on an equal basis, while reducing costs and duplication of activities," he said. The acquisition, "as an extension of our current tariff publishing role," will improve service and accuracy for consumers as well as member airlines, Jeanniot said.
Southwest will operate three flights between Tampa, Fla., and New Orleans as of April 7. The carrier said it originally planned to establish two flights in the market as of Jan. 22, but schedule changes enabled it to add a third flight.
Austrian Airlines ordered three more Fokker 70s and took options on another three. The carrier ordered four and took options on four last January. It now has seven firm orders and four options on the aircraft. The first two from the original order were delivered in September and October, and the remaining two will be delivered next March. The first of the latest order will arrive next fall and the remaining two in early 1997. Fokker said its firm orders now stand at 360, 70 of which are for the smaller F70. Fokker said it has booked 46 orders this year.
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Board of Commissioners has accepted recommendations from a study commissioned to determine whether the port authority can save money through increased privatization of functions at Newark Airport. The adopted measures will save more than $10 million at Newark in 1996, the port authority said.
Winter storms that blew across the Northeast yesterday wreaked havoc on airline operations, especially at New York, Boston and Philadelphia. Runways were closed for a portion of the day at Philadelphia, Newark and New York. Delta expected to cancel as much as 50% of its operations at New York yesterday and was considering diversion of international arrivals at New York Kennedy to Atlanta.
Apollo has enhanced its sign-on profile to enable it automatically to sign out travel agents when they physically move from one terminal to another. Apollo said the automatic sign-out saves time and reduces potential security problems. Agents requested the change, saying they often move between departments or desks, occasionally forgetting to sign off. Typing a short code on the new terminal signs off the user from other terminals to which he is logged on.
DOT's Aviation and Enforcement Office charged Miami-based Millon Air yesterday with running unauthorized wet-lease operations with the Guatemalan carrier LAMSA. In a formal complaint, the enforcement office maintained Millon may be liable for civil penalties of $300,000. DOT is charging Millon with operating at least 80 flights with LAMSA between Miami, San Pedro Sula, Honduras and Guatemala City, Guatemala, between July 31, 1994, and June 6, 1995, when Millon first received approval for the arrangement.
Carnival Air Lines is offering military personnel on active duty free flights on Christmas Day to all of its domestic points. The offer is valid for standby and same-day travel only. Carnival said travelers should be in uniform and present a military identification card.
A Canadian Senate committee has concluded that a contract for private redevelopment of Terminals 1 and 2 at Toronto Pearson Airport was to the benefit of Canadian taxpayers and should not have been canceled. In late 1993, newly elected Prime Minister Jean Chretien canceled the privatization deal with Pearson Development Corp., charging that the process was flawed and probably politically motivated.
