Saab 340s have completed five million revenue flights worldwide, becoming the first regional airliner in the world to pass that milestone, Saab Aircraft of America said. The five millionth flight for the 30- to 37-seat turboprop was completed at the end of last month. The worldwide fleet totals 369 aircraft flown by 33 operators on five continents. The 340 firm orderbook stands at 419. The current version of the aircraft, in production, is the Saab 340BPlus, which followed the 340A and B versions.
Coastal Jet withdrew its application for a certificate to operate interstate, foreign and charter passenger service. Based in New Roads, La., Coastal had proposed to provide plane load charter service within the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean and Central and South America, using a leased Boeing 727-200 (DAILY, Dec. 1). (Docket OST-95-886)
Machinists union workers at Boeing voted Wednesday by an overwhelming margin to accept the four-year contract negotiated by their leadership, ending their 69-day strike. The union said 21,383 of 32,500 eligible employees cast ballots, approving the contract 18,604 to 2,779. The agreement limits the amount of subcontracting Boeing can use, increases wages, and avoids cuts in health insurance the company proposed earlier (DAILY, Dec. 13).
Bombardier Aviation Services said it has been approved by FAA as a Designated Alteration Station, qualified to engineer and approve supplemental type certificates on airframe and avionics modifications. The DAS authority will reside at the company's Denver facility, which will provide engineering services to the Bombardier network.
The General Accounting Office has dismissed a protest filed by Digicomp Research Corp., which said it should have been allowed to compete in FAA's Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) procurement despite missing the agency's deadlines for taking part. GAO rejected the protest because it was "untimely," filed more than 10 working days after a Feb. 22 Commerce Business Daily notice stating that competitors would have to certify by March 3 that they met qualification criteria. Digicomp filed its protest on July 25.
Most of the approximately 900 workers to be employed by the new regional aircraft joint venture Aero International (Regional) will be employed in France, with the remainder spread among the U.K., Italy, Asia and the U.S., venture Chief Executive Henri Puel said this week. The new company, responsible for marketing, sales and support of a range of ATR consortium and British Aerospace regional jets and turboprops in the 20- to 120-seat range, hopes eventually to take Daimler-Benz Aerospace on as a partner (DAILY Dec. 13). It begins operations Jan. 1.
European Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock said yesterday he has reached an agreement in principle with Spain that would provide Iberia with an 87 billion peseta (US$707 million) bailout package and a willingness by the European Commission to approve an additional 20 billion pesetas (US$163 million) in aid in 1997 if Iberia meets financial targets this year and next. EC officials said Iberia has agreed as a condition of the deal to sell most of its interest in Latin American airlines to its parent company, state-owned Teneo, and to two U.S.
Delta is offering tickets discounted by as much as 50% from Atlanta to 61 destinations for the next two weeks. Customers must purchase tickets by Monday. The fares are good for travel on Dec. 24-25 and from Dec. 28 through Jan. 1. A Saturday night stay is not required.
Northwest Airlink Mesaba Airlines flew 28.4 million revenue passenger miles last month, a 17.7% increase from the same 1994 month. Capacity grew more slowly, 13.6% to 60.7 million available seat miles from 53.4 million in the prior period, allowing load factor to rise 1.6 percentage points to 46.8%. Passenger boardings, like RPMs, increased 17.7% - to 130,199 from 110,657 in November 1994.
ITT Corp. awarded Emery Worldwide a four-year contract to provide services to all its North American divisions. Emery has worked with ITT more than a decade.
Air Line Pilots Association, which watched its influence wither under successive Republican administrations as airlines merged and downsized, bounced back as the big winner yesterday when DOT and FAA supported the union's positions on safety, flying time and Age 60. "Pilots are enormously pleased," ALPA President Randolph Babbitt told a press conference yesterday in Washington after DOT Secretary Federico Pena and FAA Administrator David Hinson issued or proposed new rules that reflect ALPA positions.
Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals (ASBCA) might not make a decision in the TPI International Airways case until March, according to Administrative Judge Allan Elmore. A decision had been expected this month, leading to some speculation that an additional investigation may be under way concerning the carrier's allegations of sabotage on its Lockheed Electra fleet while TPI was based at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla. TPI lost its Air Force Logair contract and was shut down by the FAA. It is seeking $20 million in damages from the Air Force.
Midwest Express intends to lease from Australian Aircraft Sales two DC-9-32s that were operated in the past by Garuda Indonesia. The U.S. carrier will use one of the aircraft for charter flights and the other to expand service between Milwaukee and Boston, Dallas and Philadelphia. It will take delivery of both aircraft this month at its Milwaukee base and will put them into service in April and May. The new aircraft bring its fleet to 21 aircraft, 19 of which are DC-9s.
United today begins its round-the-world service from Los Angeles, with stops in Hong Kong, New Delhi, London and New York and a return to Los Angeles. United said it is the first carrier to offer such a routing in more than 14 years. During inaugural ceremonies today, United will announce an educational pen-pal program designed as a cultural exchange among residents of cities on the route.
KLM plans to relocate its Canadian headquarters from Montreal to Toronto next spring to reduce its costs and give it a higher profile in Central and Western Canada, regions of the country where traffic is growing fastest. The airline said the move will not impact the frequency or quality of service between Montreal and Amsterdam - in fact, KLM may increase its five weekly flights between the two cities.
California is becoming increasingly popular as a winter vacation spot, ranking second above third-place Hawaii in a telephone survey conducted by the Travel Industry Association of America. Florida continues to be the destination of choice. Forty percent of survey respondents chose Florida, down five percentage points from last year, while 39% chose California, up nine points, and 19% picked Hawaii, down six points. Other states in the top 10 whose popularity increased marginally were Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Washington and Texas.
Delta Connection carriers are faced with a new equipment limitation under a domestic scope clause approved by the Delta ALPA unit - 70 passenger seats. The previous scope clause had no such limitation, which allowed Atlanta-based Atlantic Southeast to begin BAe 146 service Dec. 1. Up to 20 ASA 146s and Avro RJ85s are exempted under the clause, but Business Express, Comair and SkyWest will be limited to either the stretched Canadair Regional Jet or the RJ70, the only 70-passenger jets. BizEx already flies RJ70s; Comair and SkyWest operate 50-passenger CRJs.
DOT has issued a final order issuing Eagle Jet Charter Inc., operating as Eagle Jet, a certificate to engage in interstate scheduled combination service. The Las Vegas-based air taxi operator, currently holding authority to provide charter service using small airplanes, plans to convert its charter operations to scheduled, providing one daily scheduled round-trip between Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon, using 44-passenger F27 aircraft (DAILY, Aug. 25). Eagle Jet also plans to introduce one daily scheduled round-trip between Las Vegas and Long Beach, Calif.
American Trans Air said yesterday it has signed a tentative four-year contract with the Teamsters, representing its pilots and flight engineers. The contract is subject to ratification by the employees, and the carrier said it expects a vote by the end of the year. American Trans Air operates a fleet of 46 757s, 727s and L-1011s.
A China Airlines 747, involved in its second ground incident in two days, virtually shut down Ninoy Aquino Airport in Manila on Tuesday when it swerved off the runway during a takeoff attempt and became bogged down in mud.
Following a two-week criminal trial in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, a jury found Domenick Leonardi guilty of conspiracy for failing to service and test aircraft emergency equipment properly, potentially endangering the lives of passengers, DOT Inspector General A. Mary Schiavo said. A former production coordinator at Tec-Air Services Inc., East Northport, N.Y., Leonardi faces a fine of up to $250,000 and up to five years in prison. He will be sentenced Feb. 23.
