Regional Airline Association and the Air Line Pilots Association applauded the FAA rules establishing a single safety standard for all airlines (DAILY, Dec. 15). "This is an important action to assure travelers of the safety of all U.S. airlines, large and small," said RAA President Walter Coleman. He said that the fleets of regional airlines "include the world's most advanced airplanes and are, on average, seven years younger than the jet fleets of the larger airlines."
DOT granted LanChile's application to wet-lease equipment to Aerotransportes Mas de Carga for the operation of Mas de Carga's scheduled, all-cargo services between the coterminal points Mexico City and Cancun, Mexico, and Miami; and between Mexico City and Los Angeles. Under the agreement, Mas de Carga will operate up to four weekly flights on the former service and twice weekly service on the latter (DAILY, April 7). (Docket 50259)
-- Granted orally an exemption to United to operate scheduled combination services in the Chicago-Montreal, Los Angeles-Montreal and Los Angeles- Toronto markets. The carrier will operate the services under a code-share arrangement with Air Canada and will integrate these services with other outstanding certificate and exemption authority...Granted orally an exemption to Compania de Aviacion Faucett, S.A.
Summary of U.S. National Carriers Systemwide Traffic April 1995 Revenue Average Revenue Passengers Length of Passenger Enplaned % Travel Miles Carriers (000) Change (Miles) (000) Alaska 773 18.95 859 663,867 Aloha 405 (3.96) 135 54,705
Hong Kong Airport Authority issued what it termed the last significant construction contract needed to complete the first phase of the new airport for its opening, scheduled in April 1998. Nishimatsu Construction Co. Ltd. (HK) will build the airport's ground transportation center, which will house the airport railway station and other public transportation services, under a HK$1.761 billion (US$225.7 million) contract. The authority said the Hong Kong Mass Transit Railway Corp.
Males continue to make significantly more business trips a year than females, according to a Travel Industry Association survey, but the number of women traveling continues to increase steadily. In 1994, 14.5 million women and 24 million men took business trips. In 1991, when the most recent previous study was conducted, women accounted for 13.5 million business travelers and men 21.8 million. The average age for both sexes is about 40 years.
American has applied for renewal of its authority to operate services between Chicago and Birmingham, England, and between Dallas/Fort Worth and Paris. Operating Chicago-Birmingham nonstops since May, the carrier currently offers one daily roundtrip on the route. American has flown DFW-Paris nonstops since 1985 and currently operates one roundtrip a day. The carrier uses 215-seat Boeing 767 aircraft in both markets. (Dockets OST-95-927&OST-95-928)
DOT rejected an objection from American and issued the final order granting Continental authority to operate new U.S.-Peru services. The carrier plans to operate seven weekly Boeing 757-200 flights between Newark and Lima via Bogota, Colombia.
The Air Transport Association last week asked that House and Senate FAA reform bills (H.R.2276, S.1239) explicitly protect airlines from having to pay for costs attributable to other users of the air traffic control system.
Gerald FitzGerald has been confirmed by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey board as director of aviation. FitzGerald, acting director since October, previously was deputy director. He replaces David Plavin, who becomes president of the Airports Council International-North America next month.
Bombardier Aviation Services named Robert Sundin Learjet and Canadair Challenger maintenance manager; promoted Robert Butcher to sales director at Learjet Inc. for sales in South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware and the District of Columbia; named James Flynn manager- used aircraft sales, and named Nita Scrivner manager-public relations. FlightSafety International named Thomas Eff general counsel.
Cathay Pacific Airways applied for authority to operate scheduled combination service between Hong Kong and New York, via Vancouver, and all- cargo service between Hong Kong, and three U.S. points, Anchorage, Chicago, and New York, serving Toronto as an intermediate point.
U.S. and Japan remain "pretty far apart" in all-cargo talks, said a U.S. government official, and negotiators are likely to meet again late in January. Both sides offered proposals during last month's round in Washington. The U.S. called for open skies phased in over five years, with new entry, beyond rights and new third- and fourth-freedom services in the interim. Japan would minimize new entry and provide full rights for Nippon Cargo Airlines and Japan Airlines' all-cargo operations.
Coordinating committees from the Independent Association of Continental Pilots and the Air Line Pilots Association will present their analysis Wednesday of whether the IACP should become affiliated with ALPA. If deemed a good idea, the IACP request will be subject to approval by ALPA's governing body and ratification by Continental's pilots.
Air Canada flew 1.15 billion revenue passenger miles last month, a 13.1% increase over November 1994. International traffic grew 18% while domestic RPMs increased 5.8%. Capacity for the month was 2.11 billion available seat miles, an 11.1% increase over last year. Load factor rose one point in November to 54.6%. For the first 11 months, traffic was up 11.5% on 12.2% more capacity. Load factor was off 0.4 points, to 63.5%.
Air Canada and Swissair have signed a new code-sharing agreement that enables them to consolidate their services between Canada and Zurich and offer passengers a better flight schedule. Under the current schedule, Swissair operates a twice-weekly nonstop between Toronto and Zurich and four times a week on a Toronto-Montreal-Zurich routing. Air Canada, which currently flies five days a week between Toronto and Zurich, has a blocked- space code-sharing agreement with Swissair on the Montreal-Zurich flight.
National Air Transportation Association President James Coyne joined the Air Transport Association Friday in criticizing FAA's proposed flight and duty time rules for pilots. Both organizations accused the agency of confusing economic issues with safety issues. Regional Airline Association President Walter Coleman took a wait-and-see attitude while his members analyze the rule's impact.
Ten largest international airfreight forwarders captured IATA sales revenues of more than $6 billion last year, about one-third of the world total, according to MSAS Cargo International of the U.K. This concentration of the industry "will increase over the next five years," the logistic services company said.
DOT has rescinded the accounting and reporting directive in which it instructed code-sharing carriers to report both the ticketing and operating air carriers in their quarterly Passenger Origin-Destination Survey reports. Scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, the requirements sparked concern among carriers, many of which questioned the clarity of the rules and the schedule and cost of implementing them (DAILY, Nov. 30).
Air Transport Association Board voted last week to oppose a U.S. passport fee increase to help fund a national tourism promotion program. ATA President Carol Hallett said national travel organization funding should come from the general treasury.
The U.S. will hold key talks this week with two Asian nations. In Washington, officials hope to normalize relations with Thailand with a formal agreement. The critical issues are capacity and operations over third countries. In Beijing, U.S. negotiators will face a more difficult task - getting China to permit FedEx and Northwest to begin new services.
The good news is that Air France is meeting its restructuring goals and expects to break even in fiscal 1997, says Chairman Christian Blanc. The bad news is that losses in fiscal 1996, through March 31, will amount to 1.2 billion francs (US$ 242.3 million).
