Northwest, Radisson Hotels Worldwide and Boeing have teamed up this year to help the Toys for Tots campaign run by the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve. Northwest is providing donation envelopes in its inflight magazine and at Worldclub locations and city ticket offices. WorldPerks members who contribute at least $50 or a FlyWrite ticket earn 500 frequent flyer bonus miles. Radisson is providing toy collection boxes and donation envelopes in its U.S. hotels.
East Line Aviation is the newest member of GETS Marketing Co. East Line will distribute the GETS automation product line throughout Russia from its Moscow office. GETS provides information management to travel-related companies.
Delta's Escape Plan members have chosen New York as their favorite travel destination. The airline polled new subscribers in the program, which offers savings on weekend trips from Atlanta and Cincinnati. Boston was in second place, while San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego tied for third. Acting on the results of the poll, Delta said it will expand the plan to new destinations, including "several 'warm places' or perhaps even a 'magical' place." Escape Plan membership costs $69 a year and enrollment will close Dec. 15.
The Sunday after Thanksgiving, Nov. 26, was a record-breaker for United at Los Angeles. The carrier boarded 23,676 passengers there during the day, one every 3.5 seconds, and its load factor was 87.1%. Its systemwide load factor on Sunday was more than 80% (DAILY, Nov. 28). Frontier Airlines said it carried more passengers on Monday, 4,820, than on any day in its 17 months of operations.
Mercury Air Group of Los Angeles and Carnival Air Lines have backed away from a letter of intent agreed to last month for a potential merger, Mercury said. It said the transaction cannot go through because of the inability of the companies to agree on "certain material terms and closing conditions." Mercury, a provider of petroleum products, cargo and aviation services, was to acquire all of the common stock of Carnival (DAILY, Oct. 19). A Carnival representative said it was a "friendly divorce" brought on by a disagreement over how the shares would be distributed.
Air Transport Association President Carol Hallett urged the Treasury Department yesterday "to strongly encourage" the Internal Revenue Service to withdraw a technical advice memorandum (TAM) that concluded employees who use frequent flyer miles for personal trips should be taxed for the cost of the air travel that produced the frequent flyer miles (DAILY, Nov. 29). The IRS already is beginning to back away from the policy, which technically applies only to the single company that sought IRS's advice on the matter.
FAA plans to issue next month proposed new airline pilot flight and duty time regulations that will contain the "latest scientific data available," David Harrington, manager of the air transportation section of FAA's Flight Standards Division, said yesterday. The proposed rules are a "separate effort," beyond the agency's drive to bring the safety standards of regional airlines to the level of larger carriers, Harrington told The DAILY.
Guangzhou, Macau, Singapore and Vancouver are planning to build high-tech theme parks to lure tourists. Attractions include virtual reality rides and games. The parks are being developed by Singapore Technologies, a government-backed company, and Japan's mega-computer game producer Sega. A park in Singapore may open before yearend, and Macau plans to open one at the end of 1996.
Atlas Air has appointed Donald Hickey VP-marketing. Hickey worked for 12 years as program manager for Boeing's commercial/military modification programs in Wichita before retiring in June.
Abacus Distribution System's Hotel Source Direct Availability is now on line, enabling travel agents to use their Abacus terminals to access a hotel's internal database. Radisson Hotels Worldwide was the first hotel participant to upgrade to the system, which provides information on rate types and current availability status.
Neiman Marcus has received a winning bid of $177,747.17 in its "name the plane" auction. The winning couple, whose names will appear in foot-high letters on the nose of a United 777 for one year, will get a tour of Boeing's plant in Seattle, accept delivery of a new 777 on behalf of United and receive a Mileage Plus Pass entitling them to unlimited first-class travel for one year. A major portion of the bid will be donated to the charitable organization AmeriCares.
The future may be looking bright for ValuJet, according to Gruntal Investment Research. The carrier's stock was up more than 30% at 11 a.m. on the day before Thanksgiving, from $26 per share to $34 3/4, before the investment company "suggested that some profits be taken." The airline's stock still posted a healthy gain for the day. Later, ValuJet had an excellent Thanksgiving, with a 91% load factor Wednesday and 94% on Sunday, the best in the industry.
British Airways is expected to announce tomorrow a shuffling of executives as CEO-designate Robert Ayling begins to put together his management team. The changes are expected to be made public after a meeting of the BA board. Ayling becomes CEO and takes over full day-to-day control of the airline on Jan. 1.
Transportation Secretary Federico Pena yesterday exempted U.S. and foreign air carriers from the current requirement that they file international cargo tariffs, a move that will save the airline industry an estimated $600,000 a year. Pena said that the requirement was "costly and burdensome to everyone connected with it." The exemption stems from an earlier proposal and supports the administration's campaign to reinvent government, Pena said.
Reducing F-15 fighter flights across the Pacific Ocean - as well as maintenance jobs in the U.S. - the U.S. Air Force issued a $36.8 million contract yesterday to Korean Airlines to provide programmed depot maintenance through November 2000, for McDonnell Douglas F-15 fighter aircraft assigned to the Pacific Air Force theater. KAL, which will do the work in Seoul, was the only company the Air Force solicited for bids. The contract was issued by the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, Robins AFB, Ga., the F-15's U.S. depot.
Federal Express pilots represented by the Air Line Pilots Association yesterday moved up to Level 2 of self-help that they described as an aggressive advertising campaign to fully inform the public of the dispute. Relations have soured to the point where union and company statements offer contradictory assessments of how the job actions are affecting business. ALPA said the decision to refuse overtime flying is having a significant impact.
DOT's plan to expand reporting requirements for carriers in code-sharing arrangements, beginning Jan. 1, has raised industry concern. Carriers object to the timetable for the new requirements and want clarification of their execution. Responding to a congressional request to analyze more thoroughly the effects of code sharing, the department announced in October its intention to direct code-sharing carriers to identify both the ticketing and the operating partner in their quarterly Passenger Origin- Destination Survey reports.
British Airways is seeking renewal of its authority to operate scheduled combination service between London and Los Angeles and beyond to Auckland, New Zealand. The carrier operates the Los Angeles-Auckland service under a code-sharing agreement with Qantas. (Docket 49875&OST-95-876)
Southwest is offering free tickets to customers flying from Nashville to Austin, Cleveland, Las Vegas and San Antonio Dec. 1-14. Customers will pay only a $49 fare for travel in those markets, except to Las Vegas, which will be $99, and will receive gratis a one-way ticket good for any destination Southwest serves. The free ticket is good from Jan. 8 through April 5.
Air Transport Association President Carol Hallett's speech Tuesday calling on the airport community to condemn activities at Los Angeles "had the ring of an ultimatum," but "her call to arms was unnecessary," Airports Council International-North America President George Howard said yesterday (DAILY, Nov. 29). "ACI-NA policy is clearly and forcibly against revenue diversion. Los Angeles officials have stated publicly and frequently that they will abide by the law prohibiting revenue diversion.
U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ron Fogleman envisions a new Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF) enhancement program that might go so far as to fund development work on a new cargo aircraft or major modification for sale to airline customers.
A new air cargo consortium of Emery Worldwide, World Airways and Northwest Airlines has received a $21 million contract from the U.S. Air Mobility Command. The contract calls for a daily airlift of express medical shipments along with general cargo from military bases in the U.S. to U.S. military installations in Germany, Korea and Japan.
