Alitalia's board will meet Dec. 15 to consider changes in the carrier's restructuring plan that may include cancellation of several aircraft orders and further personnel and organizational changes. The carrier is holding meetings on the plan this week and early next week. The changes are being directed by Alitalia President Renato Riverso, who took direct control of the company after chief executive Roberto Schisano was removed this fall.
KLM and its pilots union have agreed to resume contract negotiations, the two groups said yesterday. The airline and the union, the Dutch Air Line Pilots Association VNV, will pick up where they left off after negotiations stalled last month. Pay and benefit issues will head the agenda of the meeting, a date for which has not been announced. The talks broke off last month after a disagreement over an independent study which found that KLM's 1,300 pilots are not paid more than pilots at competitors.
Even if the more than 32,000 Machinists on strike at Boeing return to work right away, the company probably will deliver no more than 15 more aircraft by yearend, according to investment house Merrill Lynch, which cut its fourth-quarter earnings estimate for the company nearly two-thirds, to $61.76 million. Based on earlier estimates of fourth quarter deliveries, Merrill suggested that some 33 aircraft probably will slip to early next year or later, boosting profits in 1996 but eating into current earnings.
Officials representing FAA and the National Association of Air Traffic Controllers agreed yesterday to approach Congress for help in staffing busy facilities and providing incentives to keep controllers working at them. Kevin Haggerty, a legislative representative for NATCA, said he and Bill Jeffers, director of the FAA's air traffic service, will visit Congress next week in an attempt to get $24 million to beef up the facilities. "We will go on the Hill and say we need to find the money right now," Haggerty said.
The Supreme Court has declined to review an appeals court decision that FAA should be allowed to impose flight attendant duty time and mandatory rest requirements. The duty time regulations will take effect Feb. 1. Charter carrier Sun Country Airlines had challenged the rules, which would have taken effect last March if there had been no lawsuit (DAILY, Oct. 11). FAA pushed back the compliance date to February to allow carriers to get through the holiday period without having to implement new schedules.
Under current plans, Tower Air is slated to play a major part in USAfrica's operations, when and if that carrier restarts service. One of two companies providing new financing commitments totaling $15 million to USAfrica, Tower also will supply, under a lease agreement, the Boeing 747 aircraft and crews USAfrica will use on its Newark-Johannesburg service via Dakar, Senegal. Tower will perform marketing and sales functions under a service agreement with USAfrica. The carrier has not yet set a date for service resumption.
Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science&Transportation, is asking the U.S. to step up its negotiations for an open skies agreement with Germany. In a letter to DOT Secretary Federico Pena, Pressler said he was aware that progress has been made in the talks. "I believe, however, the importance of this initiative calls for renewed vigor on the part of both the Department of Transportation and the Department of State," said Pressler.
World Airways flew 60% more block hours in November than in the same 1994 month - 3,414 versus 2,135. Block hours for the year to date totaled 34,631, up 43%.
TWA's November traffic increased 2.4% on 1.2% less capacity, compared with the same month last year. The load factor was up 2.3 percentage points. A 7% increase in international passengers, combined with an 8.6% decline in international capacity, boosted the carrier's international load factor by 10.3 points. For the first 11 months of the year, traffic was down 0.1% on 3.5% less capacity, increasing the load factor 2.2 points. Nov 95 Nov 94 11 Mths 95 11 Months 1994
The industry team Raytheon assembled to compete for FAA's $1 billion Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) contract has passed a crucial FAA test qualifying it as a bidder, the company said. FAA is expected to issue a request for STARS proposals sometime next month. Raytheon Electronic Systems said the team successfully passed FAA's Operational Capability Demonstration (OCD), the final step in qualifying the team to bid.
Boeing Chairman Frank Shrontz and Machinists union President George Kourpias agreed yesterday to direct their negotiators to return immediately to the bargaining table. Federal mediator Ben Youtsey, who has agreed to oversee the new round of talks, asked both parties not to disclose the location of the meetings in an attempt to make them "as productive as possible." The 32,000 Boeing workers have been on strike since Oct. 5 (DAILY, Oct. 10). Shrontz and Kourpias agreed to a National Mediation Board request that neither side comment during the bargaining sessions.
KLM will begin service to Lusaka, Zambia, and Surabaya, Indonesia, next year, the carrier said. Starting Jan. 10, flights from Amsterdam to Lusaka will be operated twice a week with an MD-11 via Lilongwe, Milawi. Surabaya service, consisting of two weekly flights with a 747-400, will begin April 30. Those flights will continue on to Denpasar, Indonesia.
Transportes Aereos de Cabo Verde has leased a new 757 from International Lease Finance Corp. It will use the Pratt&Whitney-powered aircraft on flights from Sal, Cape Verde, to Lisbon, Amsterdam, Paris and Frankfurt.
Time Warner's World Wide Web site, called Pathfinder, is launching an interactive Internet site enabling users to plan every aspect of a leisure or business trip. Information includes text and audio lessons on common phrases in 15 languages, booking a ticket, converting foreign currency and descriptions of destinations, restaurants and golf courses. Getting Around the Planet is found at http://pathfinder.com/travel. Web browsers can search by country or by brand, such as Zagat, to find Zagat surveys on hotels, airlines and restaurants.
Boeing 737 Systemwide Aircraft Utilization Per Day Second Quarter 1995 B737-300 America West Continental Delta Number of Aircraft Operated 35 64 13 Total Fleet Operations Departures 231 268 73 Block Hours 401 587 120 Flight Hours 339 491 98
David Burner has been elected president and a director of BFGoodrich Co., succeeding John Ong, who will continue as chairman and chief executive. Burner was president and chief operating officer of BFGoodrich Aerospace. Ong plans to retire during the first half of 1997.
Japan Airlines plans to introduce service between Japan and Kona, Hawaii, beginning April 1966. JAL proposes three-times-weekly nonstop flights to Kona from Tokyo Narita Airport, with stopovers in Honolulu on return flights, using 404-seat Boeing 747-300 aircraft. The new service is permitted under terms of the Memorandum of Understanding agreed to by the U.S. and Japan in 1989, according to JAL. Carrying more than 1.8 million tourists to Honolulu in 1994, JAL said Hawaii is the most popular overseas resort for Japanese tourists.
Philippine Airlines has signed a contract with Lufthansa Technik to overhaul General Electric CF6-50 engines. The carrier has 87 of the engines on its 747-200 and A300B4 aircraft. Christopher Dehio, LHT's Singapore representative, estimated the contract value at $7 million. He said the PAL contract is the Lufthansa unit's first major success at its new Singapore base, which opened last July. Negotiations on the contract began in mid-1994.
Western Pacific Airlines is offering "winter wonderfares" as low as $29 one way for travel Jan. 4-May 23. The $29 fare applies to travel from its Colorado Springs base to Phoenix. Other fares include $39 to Dallas, $54 to Los Angeles and $69 to San Francisco. Longer-haul fares are $109 between Chicago and San Diego and $139 from New York to San Francisco. Reservations must be made by Jan. 3.
DOT has renewed Icelandair's current authority to serve Boston, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Cleveland and Detroit as additional U.S. co-terminal points on its authorized U.S. services and amended the carrier's authority by removing special conditions limiting service and frequencies. The carrier asked for elimination of a condition limiting it to five U.S. points at any given time, and of the frequency restrictions on its Boston and Orlando service, and for authority to serve Cleveland and Detroit simultaneously (DAILY, Dec. 1).
Iberia has scheduled a special board meeting this month in an apparent effort to prod the European Commission to approve the bailout package the carrier has been seeking. The meeting, slated for Dec. 23, was called "because the company's financial situation is such that it must approve the capital injection before Dec. 31," the airline said in a statement. Approval of the infusion is the only item on the agenda.
American is retrofitting its fleet of MD-80, 727 and DC-10 aircraft with GPS-based navigation systems from Honeywell/Trimble. The carrier will start installing the equipment next summer.
