Airlines began the short-term winter fare sales season Friday. Northwest is advertising up to 25% off the regular low fare for travel throughout the U.S. and Canada. Tickets must be purchased by Dec. 6 for travel Dec. 14- Jan. 7. TWA said it is offering savings of up to 35% from St. Louis, and up to 25% from other hubs and Hawaii. The tariffs are valid for travel Dec. 8-Jan. 7. Tickets must be purchased by Dec. 6. USAir reduced prices in 12,000 U.S. and Canadian markets for travel Dec. 14-Jan. 7, with a Dec. 6 purchase deadline.
Total orders for Rolls-Royce Tay 650 engines for the Fokker 100 and Tay 620s for the Fokker 70 now total 357. Rolls's volume was boosted by a recent order by Transportes Aereos Regionais of Brazil for eight Fokker 100s and another order, from a customer not identified by Fokker, for six F100s. Fokker said the lead engines on the F100 now have accumulated more than 17,000 hours and 15,000 flights, and that individual engines have remained on the wing for more than 10,000 flights.
American is increasing its marketing efforts targeted at gays and lesbians. A new employee group - Gay&Lesbian Employees at AMR (GLEAM) - is creating local chapters and the carrier has appointed a sales manager-gay and lesbian community. The Association of Professional Flight Attendants, in its Skyword magazine, said corporate America has begun to recognize that gays and lesbians are largely mobile and upscale.
Sen. Mark Hatfield (R-Ore.), chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and its transportation subcom-mittee, Friday announced his retirement from Congress at the end of the 104th Congress (DAILY, Nov. 28). Hatfield, a five-term senator, likely will be replaced as chairman of the full committee by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska).
America West has reduced fares at Detroit to introduce new service at Detroit Metro Airport to Phoenix and Las Vegas. The tickets must be purchased by Jan. 18 for travel Feb. 15 through March 31. America West will offer two daily departures to Phoenix and one to Las Vegas. The lowest fares are available on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays, and require a Saturday night stay. Fares are even lower for late evening flights. The roundtrip fare to both cities will be $278.
Canadian Airlines International and Lufthansa have reached agreement on ending their code-share service between Frankfurt and two points in Canada, Vancouver and Calgary, and they expect the program to "wind down" by June, CAI said Friday. CAI noted that code sharing was "needed to capture efficiencies in a developing market" when the carriers started it six years ago, and that its opportunities to serve Germany were limited to flights from Western Canada before Canada's International Air Transportation Policy initiative last December.
Combined passenger traffic at BAA's three London airports - Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted - is forecast to reach 113.6 million a year by 2006- 2007, up from the 81.1 million expected in the current year. The forecast, required to be provided to airport users by U.K. Civil Aviation Authority regulations, assumes construction of a fifth terminal at London Heathrow.
British Airways will not announce the results of Friday's board meeting until Dec. 11 at the earliest, said a spokesman. The board was expected to consider executive changes as CEO-designate Robert Ayling, scheduled to accept full day-to-day control of the airline Jan. 1, begins to form his team (DAILY, Nov. 30).
Negotiating late into the night in Delhi, U.S. and Indian officials hammered out a new agreement Friday, according to a U.S. industry official. The accord comes after earlier contentious rounds of negotiations broke off without an agreement, jeopardizing planned service by U.S. carriers and sparking formal complaints against the government of India from Northwest, United, Delta and Tower. The latter two carriers dropped their complaints last week. The new agreement will enable United to begin Delhi flights this month as part of its round-the-world service.
Iberia's expectation of receiving a 130 billion peseta (about US$1.04 billion) government rescue package tilted closer toward fulfillment Friday as the European Commission pushed off until this week a decision on the action. "We're no longer talking about state aid," said an EC official. The commission no longer believes the carrier is floundering near extinction. Instead, the EC now believes the airline can attract private and public investment, according to an industry source.
The 1995 Atlantic hurricane season, which wreaked havoc with tourism in the Caribbean and caused substantial damage in Florida and Mexico, was the second most active in 125 years, according to the National Weather Service's National Hurricane Center. There were 19 tropical storms during the year, 11 of them classified as hurricanes, and they caused an estimated $5.2 billion in damage in the U.S. alone. Five of the hurricanes were classified as Category 3, with winds of 111 miles per hour or greater.
Interactive Flight Technologies has completed installation of a digital video-on-demand inflight entertainment system on an Alitalia MD-11. The aircraft will be used on flights between Rome and Chicago and Los Angeles. After a 90-day test, Alitalia may commit to install systems on seven more aircraft. Las Vegas-based IFT has opened corporate offices in New York City.
The American Bar Association will conduct its 1996 Forum on Air&Space Law, titled "Charting the Next Course," on Jan. 25 in Washington. Featured speakers will be Anne Bingaman of the Justice Department's Antitrust Division and Rep. William Lipinski (D-Ill), the new ranking member of the House Aviation subcommittee.
Boeing, in the second month of its Machinists strike, began wing and fuselage assembly Friday for the first of its three next-generation 737 models. The 55-foot-long left front wing spar for the 737-700, manufactured at the Boeing Fabrication Division, Auburn, Wash., was loaded into assembly position at the Boeing Commercial Airplane Group plant in Renton, Wash. The first parts for the fuselage were loaded for assembly at the company's plant in Wichita, Kan. The first 737-700 is scheduled for delivery in October 1997, to launch customer Southwest.
Many Air France ground workers joined other transportation employees Friday on Paris Orly Airport runways in strikes against French austerity measures, according to news reports from Paris. Strikes by other industries are planned later this month. The strikers blocked two runways at Orly for more than 90 minutes and damaged them by setting fires.
Honduras's four international airports were closed for a few hours Friday when air traffic controllers went on a short strike to demand 100% pay raises, according to an Associated Press report from Tegucigalpa. The government responded by agreeing to negotiate, and the strike was halted. The report said controllers average US$500 a month. Continental and American serve Honduras. The airports affected are in Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula, La Ceiba and the island of Roatan.
Granted orally an exemption to SAETA to co-terminalize operations at Los Angeles with those at Miami...Granted orally an exemption to American to integrate its authority to serve London on Routes 4887 and 602 with its rights to serve Zurich on Route 137.
Boeing delivered 11 airliners during November, the second month of the walkout by its roughly 32,500 machinists. This is three fewer than in October, but the company still is four airplanes ahead of its pace during the last strike, six years ago, when it managed to ship only 21 aircraft in October and November.
The recent slowdown in cargo traffic growth dipped below zero in October. Total air cargo was down 1% last month from October 1994, the first decrease since November 1992, according to the Air Transport Association. Both freight and express package traffic fell off.
