International Association of Convention and Visitor Bureaus (IACVB) will hold its Mid-Winter Management and Education Conference Feb. 17-20 at the Pittsburgh Hilton&Towers hotel. Participants earn credits toward certificates in communications, convention marketing, convention services, finance/administration, membership and tourism marketing. For more information, call Wendy Shapiro at 202-296-7888.
DOT Secretary Federico Pena and FAA Administrator David Hinson met yesterday in New Orleans with 300 industry representatives to evaluate the first year of nationwide aviation safety initiatives and to set what FAA called the safety agenda for 1996. Pena told the Aviation Safety Initiative Review to keep working on the goals of "zero accidents" and "shared responsibility" that were adopted last January at the nationwide Aviation Safety Summit in Washington.
British Airways is seeking authority from DOT to operate scheduled combination service between London and Phoenix, Ariz., and to co- terminalize Phoenix with San Diego. BA proposes to begin daily service over the London-Phoenix/San Diego routing on July 1, 1996, using DC-10 aircraft. Supporting its application, BA pointed out that Phoenix is named as one of several new gateway points available for selection by either party in the U.S.-U.K. Air Services Agreement. The carrier asked DOT to grant authority by Dec.
British Airways has lined up Harrods, Liberty and Aquascutum to sell their products through the carrier's new inflight entertainment system. While in flight, passengers will be able to order items offered by the stores, with delivery to destinations around the world. Purchases are made on the airplane through use of a credit card.
USAir's traffic fell 3.6% last month on 12.5% less capacity, compared with November 1994, lifting the load factor 6.2 percentage points to 66.4%. The airline noted that November was the third consecutive month of record load factors. For the first 11 months of the year, traffic fell 0.04% on 3.8% less capacity than in the comparable period last year, resulting in a load factor increase of 2.3 points. USAir's average stage length in November was 646.6 miles, up from 628.4 miles in the same 1994 month.
Island Travel, based in Providenciales, has become the first travel agency in the Turks&Caicos Islands to become a subscriber of the Worldspan computer reservations system. Patricia Duff, founder of Island Travel, said automation from Worldspan is the key to its continued growth. "We have increased outbound services and advanced with the tremendous growth in inbound tourism here in the island over the past several years." The company specializes in travel packages to Europe, Asia and South Africa.
Former pilots of People Express Airlines donated $8,000 to the National Air and Space Museum. The pilots said the money was "left over from our legal defense fund utilized to battle Frank Lorenzo." They said they spent "several million dollars" to protect senior rights "that Lorenzo tried to take away from us."
Continuing its effort to clear itself of charges brought by the government of Peru, Fine Airlines has issued an English translation of a Peruvian legal document absolving it of wrongdoing. The Fine-Peru dispute began in March when Peru barred Fine from operating to its territory, asserting that the U.S. carrier transported arms to Ecuador during the Ecuador-Peru border war early this year.
USAir Group, Northwest and UPS remained on the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation's annual list of the 50 companies with the largest underfunded pension plans. The listed companies account for 45% of the $13.5 billion in 1994 underfunding by single-employer plans insured by the PBGC. Being on the list does not mean companies are not in full compliance with federal government minimum funding requirements, or that the pension plans are at risk, PBGC said. A USAir spokesman said the carrier complies with all requirements and is current on all payments into the plan.
Boeing 757 and 767 Systemwide Aircraft Utilization Per Day Second Quarter 1995 B757-200 America West American Continental Number of Aircraft Operated 14 85 13 Total Fleet Operations Departures 58 260 36 Block Hours 174 880 164 Flight Hours 155 767 147
Mexicana has applied to DOT for authority to operate scheduled combination service between Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, and New York. The carrier said it plans to begin operations Dec. 15 to Newark Airport, using Airbus A320 aircraft seating 156 passengers. Asking for an exemption of at least one year, Mexicana apologized to the department for giving short notice but said the Mexican government advised it only in the past several days that it was authorized for the route. (Docket OST-95-906)
Citing a high rate of accidents among domestic carriers, Taiwan's Civil Aeronauics Administration said it will undertake an expanded, three-week safety check of the island's airlines. Taiwan has recorded 13 serious incidents so far this year, and a CAA official acknowledged that there is a need to strengthen air safety policy. The official said the agency has asked air safety experts in the U.S., Australia and New Zealand for help in developing the new policy.
Lufthansa signed a marketing agreement with Adria Airways this week. The pact, signed in Ljubljiana, Slovenia, on Tuesday, will go into effect Jan. 1, 1996. The carriers will code share on flights twice a week between Ljubljana and Frankfurt and once daily between Ljubljana and Munich. The airlines also will work together in the areas of check-in, ground-handling, flight schedules and joint use of airport lounges.
Travel management firm Travel and Transport, in an open letter to the American Society of Travel Agents board of directors, has asked the agency to reconsider its opposition to the mileage-based net fare system proposed by Business Travel Contractors Corporation. Travel agents have resisted the proposal because they fear they will be left out of the travel distribution process. Under the plan, BTCC would secure contracts from corporations for travel at established fares, allowing for fluctuations, such as a fuel crisis, that drive up airline operating costs.
Airports, travel bureaus and others signing on to the Internet in increasing numbers could benefit from a new magazine to be launched by Miller Freeman - Web Techniques. The monthly publication, which will debut in February, will target professionals who design, develop and maintain World Wide Web sites.
Galaxy Scientific Corp. said it has designed a baggage container for aircraft that withstood the blast of a bomb larger than the one that brought down Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. The company said its ECOS-3 container "met all our expectations" in FAA explosive testing. James Yoh, Galaxy president, said the container is designed and constructed for easy replacement of panels damaged by normal use, and the materials can be recycled.
Delta and Lockheed Martin are considering teaming up to offer "a full range of maintenance and technical services to owners and operators of L-1011 aircraft worldwide," the companies said yesterday. Delta, with 55, is the largest L-1011 operator.
Apollo has lifted computer reservations system (CRS) restrictions on the types of passenger name records that can be ticketed electronically, allowing agents to ticket PNRs with open or waitlisted segments. Also, tickets previously issued electronically and paper tickets can be exchanged for new electronic tickets. On Jan. 1, electronic ticketing will become the default method of issuing tickets on Apollo.
Alaska Airlines reported a 12.5% traffic increase in November to 711 million revenue passenger miles from 631 million RPMs flown in November 1994. Available seat miles totaled 1.102 billion, up 5.2% from 1.048 billion. Alaska's load factor improved from 60.3% to 64.5% as the airline carried 870,700 passengers. Traffic for the first 11 months was up 14% and capacity 16%, resulting in a decline in load factor to 61.7% from 62.8%. RPMs totaled 7.858 billion for the period, and ASMs 12.733 billion.
Members of the Texas congressional delegation assailed yesterday a key provision in the U.S.-India agreement permitting Air-India to operate fifth-freedom service from London Heathrow to Chicago and Washington. "I strongly oppose DOT giving access to Heathrow to Air-India, a foreign carrier," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison at a news conference in Washington. "The Department of Transportation is not being even-handed," she added, noting the long effort of the Texas delegation to get nonstop access to Heathrow from Houston or Dallas.
British Airways' November traffic grew 8.4% on 8.6% more capacity than in November 1994. For the month, the carrier logged 4.3 billion revenue passenger miles on 6.4 billion available seat miles. Strong international growth fueled the traffic increase. Intercontinental RPMs shot up 8.9%, but on 10.4% more ASMs. The airline carried 4.4% more passengers systemwide and 9.8% more in intercontinental markets. The passenger load factor was 67.1%, a dip of 0.2 points compared with November 1994.
American has signed a letter of intent to purchase Honeywell/Trimble HT9100 GNSS navigation systems for its Omega Replacement Program. The order, the first major project award for the Honeywell/Trimble team, calls for at least 400 of the Global Positioning System-based equipment to retrofit American's MD-80, 727 and DC-10 aircraft. Installation will begin this summer. The system combines the Global Navigation Satellite technologies with airline flight management system operational procedures.
Air Line Pilots Association, anticipating issuance of proposed new airline pilot flight and duty time rules next week by FAA, yesterday released a draft policy of its own to "prevent fatigue in the cockpit." Proposing a minimum rest period of 12 hours and a maximum basic duty period of 12 hours, ALPA said the current FAA rules "take no account of duty time." An FAA official said last week that the agency's proposed new rules will reflect the "latest scientific data available" on fatigue (DAILY, Nov. 30).
David Plavin has been selected president of Airports Council International- North America, replacing George Howard, who leaves at yearend. Plavin most recently was director of aviation for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
Kiwi International Airlines is seeking a two-year renewal of its authority to operate scheduled combination service between Newark, N.J., and Bermuda. After inaugurating service on the route in May 1995, the carrier discontinued the flights for the winter months but plans to resume them on or about April 1, 1996, for the peak summer travel season. Kiwi notes that its service will enhance competition on the route, now served only by Continental. Starting in April, Kiwi will offer seven weekly roundtrips using 162-seat Boeing 727-200 aircraft.
