American Eagle has carried 75 million passengers in its 11-year existence - the first regional carrier that can make that claim, the carrier announced last week. In the 11 years, Eagle's operation has grown from 60 daily flights to seven cities to 1,600 daily departures to more than 150 destinations in the U.S., Canada, the Bahamas and the Caribbean. Eagle operates 266 turboprop aircraft that range in size from the 19- seat Jetstream 32 to the 64-seat Super ATR (ATR 72).
Pan Am Historical Foundation last week honored 30 pilots, navigators, radio operators and flight engineers who flew the China Clipper and its sister ships on the 60th anniversary of the inauguration of air service across the Pacific to Asia. The flights reduced travel time between North America and Asia from 17 days - aboard the fastest vessel - to five.
U.S. will focus during the rest of 1995 on improving relations with Asian nations, beginning tomorrow with the continuation of all-cargo talks with Japan in Washington. On Wednesday the U.S. will resume negotiations with India, also in Washington, and it will convene talks with Thailand and China during the week of Dec. 18. Open skies will be on the agenda when the U.S. and the Czech Republic meet Dec. 5-8 in Prague. There still is no date for new negotiations with Germany.
Continental was on track to set a record for Boston operations on Thanksgiving Day - one year with no ground mishaps. The carrier said 16,000 Continental and Air Canada departures operated mishap-free during the year. In addition, Boston completed its 13th consecutive month of making its baggage goal and is ranked fifth this year in the customer complaint ratio.
National Mediation Board will count ballots Nov. 29 for union representation of flight attendants and pilots at the four AMR Eagle carriers. The original ballot count, scheduled Nov. 14 and 15, was postponed due to the federal government shutdown.
A delegation of Taiwanese aerospace industry executives, headed by Yin Chi- ming, director general of Taiwan's Industrial Development Bureau, will visit the Czech Republic to conduct a feasibility study on cooperation in producing small commercial aircraft. Several Taipei daily newspapers recently reported that a number of Taiwan companies are interested in forming strategic alliances or joint ventures with the Czech Republic's state-run Aero Vodochody Company.
FAA has backed a National Transportation Safety Board call for wider inspections of General Electric CF6 turbofan high-pressure compressor spools in search of signs of cracks from dwell time fatigue, but the agency rejected NTSB's proposed inspection interval (DAILY, Aug. 29). The safety board wanted no more than 4,000 cycles between inspections, but FAA said in a newly issued airworthiness directive it would require initial and repetitive ultrasonic and eddy current inspections based on more engine- specific criteria worked out among NTSB, FAA and GE.
In the aftermath of United's decision not to pursue USAir, the outlook for the smaller carrier seems to be brightening. Gruntal Investment Research said yesterday it was "boosting the rating for USAir from Underperform to Neutral now that the big hit from failure of UAL talks is history." The investment firm added that the carrier "hit the top end of our down-side $8-$10 target last week."
Eastwind Airlines is extending a promotion under which full-fare customers buy a second seat on flights to Jacksonville and West Palm Beach for only $1 each way. The fares are good from Trenton, N.J., or Greensboro, N.C., between Nov. 29 and Dec. 14. Eastwind also has added special flights between Nov. 21 and Nov. 27 because of demand. The fares do not require advance purchase or a Saturday night stay.
Raytheon's Beech King Air 350 business aircraft has become the first western jetprop to win Russian certification, the company said. It also is the first to be certified to the new rules applicable under AP23, the Russian equivalent of FAR 23, Amendment 42, Raytheon said. Raytheon's Hawker midsize business jet received Russian certification two years ago.
Qantas plans to introduce additional service Friday between Melbourne and Saigon for 13 weeks. The supplementary service comes in response to demand for travel between Australia and Vietnam during the holiday season, including the Lunar New Year in February, said Geoff Dixon, the airline's group executive general manager-commercial. Qantas operates one flight per week between Melbourne and Saigon via Sydney with continuing service to Singapore.
FAA has told Oracle Telecomputing Inc. of Canada it will not allow Boeing Defense and Space Group to be the prime contractor in the agency's Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) program. The FAA decision appears to be based on the selection of seven companies - one of them Oracle - allowed to submit proposals to FAA on the STARS program earlier this year. More recently, Boeing joined with Oracle, BDM, MCI and Formation to compete for the program. Boeing was listed as the prime contractor.
Delta said its proposed Atlanta-Rome flights would "inject new gateway service to an underserved region in order to maximize competition against Alitalia and provide optimum nationwide online service coverage." Also competing for the new service, slated to become available April 1, 1996, are Northwest for Detroit-Rome and USAir for Philadelphia-Rome services.
AlliedSignal Aerospace won FAA approval to market a solid-state cockpit voice recorder (CVR) that stores two hours of digitally recorded sound. Most current CVRs record only the last 30 minutes of sound. The European Joint Aviation Authorities soon will require a two-hour capability to increase the probability of having recorded sound from the onset of a problem until an accident occurs, AlliedSignal said. The National Transportation Safety Board has recommended that FAA adopt a similar rule.
UPS has reached agreement with the leadership of Teamsters Local 2727, which represents about 800 maintenance workers, on a six-year collective bargaining agreement. Union members will vote on the contract next week, and its terms would have a retroactive effective date of Aug. 1.
U.S. Customs Service has awarded a $92 million five-year contract to EG&G Dynatrend for national asset management for the Treasury Department. The company provides custody, management and disposal of seized property for Customs and other federal agencies.
Austrian Airlines is expecting a green light from DOT to set up "Atlantic Airlines" before the end of the year, according to the Austrian carrier's chairman, Mario Rehulka. Atlantic Airlines is the product of a partnership agreement among Austrian, Sabena, Swissair and Delta to offer "a homogeneous product" on transatlantic routes, which requires antitrust clearance from U.S. authorities, said Swissair sources. Rehulka said Austrian expects to post an operating profit of 50 million schillings in 1995, compared with a loss of ATS202 million last year.
Honeywell/Racal said they have shipped their 500th multi-channel aeronautical satellite communications system. The team has sold more than 800 systems in the air transport and corporate aviation markets since beginning the partnership in 1989. The 500th system went to Swissair. More than 70% of all multi-channel systems flying today come from the Honeywell/Racal team, they said.
Members of the American Bar Association's ABA Section of Labor and Employment Law Committee on Railway and Airline Labor Law have written a reference book on the Railway Labor Act. BNA Books, a division of the Bureau of National Affairs, is offering the book for $225 after a 30-day free trial review. To order, call 1-800-960-1220.
Frontier Airlines, after 16 months of service, has booked its one millionth passenger. The customer and her husband will fly free on their Denver-Las Vegas flight, and will receive a complimentary bottle of champagne.
A United official took his carrier's argument for hanging onto beyond rights in U.S.-Japan aviation talks to an industry luncheon yesterday, encouraging U.S. negotiators to stay focused on long-term benefits and shun American's position on loosening rights for other U.S. carriers. Stuart Oran, executive VP-corporate affairs and general counsel, told the International Aviation Club in Washington that there are a number of ways Japanese and U.S. carriers can participate in the growing Pacific market without forcing United and Northwest to surrender their beyond rights.
Harris Corp. was awarded an FAA contract valued at more than $10 million to develop an advanced system that will enhance communications and permit air traffic controllers to increase the number of flights over the Gulf of Mexico. The Buoy Communications Systems contract will use a network of satellites and water buoy-based radio links to provide controllers with direct voice communications to pilots. The new system will "seamlessly" transition into the Voice Switch and Control System that Harris is installing at 21 en route control centers in the U.S.
Mexico President Ernesto Zedillo has sent to the Mexican Congress proposed legislation to authorize long-awaited private investment in the country's airports. The government plans to issue 50-year renewable concessions for airport operation. Foreign investors will be limited to a 49% stake in consortia operating the airports, although there are provisions for the government to allow a larger investment on a case-by-case basis.
Total Revenue Departures Total Revenue Departures America West 436 American 23,181 Continental 6,687 Delta 2,900 United 4,133 USAir 1,828 Total 39,165 Average Number of Seats Per Departures Average Number of Seats Per Departures
American has allowed Hawaiian Airlines to defer its lease payment of approximately $7.1 million for a DC-10 further, until Dec. 9, while Hawaiian negotiates agreements with a private investor group, creditors and labor groups. Hawaiian is seeking new equity capital from the private investors and has signed a letter of intent which would terminate automatically if definitive agreements have not been reached by Dec. 8 with the investors, creditors and labor groups. The payment due American is for the lease of the DC-10 in late 1994 and early 1995.
