United is getting less than 95% dispatch reliability from the Boeing 777 three months after the aircraft's entry into service. Airbus Industrie's A330 and A340 were doing better after three months, at 98.4% and 98.7%, but the 777 is doing better than the 767's 92.4% and the 747-400's 89.5%.
National Transportation Safety Board will begin wake vortex flight tests today at the FAA Technical Center as part of its continuing investigation into the USAir 737 crash last September. The board wants information on the effects of wake turbulence from a 727 on a trailing 737. The USAir aircraft was four miles behind a 727 when it went down.
Gemini Air Cargo, a new air freight leasing and management company based in Reston, Va., said it "acquired the purchase rights" to six DC-10- 30 aircraft from Potomac Financial Group (PFG). Gemini said it is modifying them to a cargo configuration under an agreement with Aeronavali, a freighter conversion company, and it plans to lease them on a dry or wet basis. PFG said the AGES Group has divested itself of financial interest in PFG and the conversion program. William Stockbridge, president of PFG, also is an investor in Gemini.
Boeing is joining four companies to pursue FAA's $1 billion-plus Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) contract, DAILY affiliate ATC Market Report has learned. The aerospace giant is represented on a team headed by Oracle Telecomputing, with BDM, MCI and Formation as members. The partners are expected to go public on teaming later this week.
Granted orally an exemption to Societe Nouvelle Air Martinique to operate scheduled combination service between Fort de France, Martinique, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, as well as charters...Granted orally an exemption to Mexicana to operate scheduled combination service between Morelia, Mexico, and Chicago...Granted orally an exemption to Canada 3000 to operate scheduled combination service between any point or points in Canada and any point or points in the U.S....
British Midland's systemwide passenger volume rose 13% during the first six months of 1995 to 2.35 million from 2.08 million in the first half of 1994. The international passenger count increased 8.4% and the domestic volume 20.8%. British Midland said its domestic passenger volume was boosted by a 13.4% rise on major U.K. domestic trunk routes, London Heathrow-Belfast and Edinburgh-Glasgow. The airline said these routes have benefited "significantly" from its code-share alliances with other airlines.
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association has issued an alert by telephone and 80,000 mailgrams, asking members to oppose the Senate DOT appropriations bill and the new Senate FAA reform bill. "The Administration has cashed in its privatization gambit to back unjustified new charges on aviation," said AOPA President Phil Boyer. "It is time to make our opposition absolutely clear."
Granted orally an exemption to Balkan Bulgarian Airlines renewing its authority to operate scheduled combination service between Sofia, Bulgaria, and co-terminal points Detroit and New York. It amended the authority to add Malta as an intermediate point on the route, with local Sofia- Detroit/New York traffic rights...Granted orally an exemption to ALM Antillean Airlines renewing its authority to serve Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, as an intermediate point on its Curaao-Miami operations.
After a week of negotiations in London, the U.S. and U.K. failed to reach an agreement increasing access for U.S. carriers to London Heathrow. "I am disappointed that, after all the time and effort we have spent to liberalize aviation relations with the U.K., the current round of negotiations in London has not resulted in an agreement," said DOT Secretary Federico Pena in a terse statement Friday.
Airlines will get another two-year exemption from paying the transportation fuel tax if a tax bill before the House Ways and Means Committee goes the distance. The airline exemption was added to the bill, introduced Thursday and expected to be acted on this week.
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey officials said last week that Aviation Director David Plavin has resigned from his post, effective Oct. 15. Current Deputy Director of Aviation Gerald Fitzgerald will become acting director at that time. Plavin joined the port authority as chief financial officer in September 1986 and was appointed aviation director in June 1989.
The issue of job security, the main source of contention for the Machinists union unit at Boeing and the hardest demand for the company to meet, has led to a strike authorization vote by union members. Negotiators began talks Aug. 4, and will start round-the-clock bargaining Wednesday. Whatever contract proposal results will go to employees Oct. 3, and if it is rejected and a two-thirds majority votes to strike, 34,000 Boeing workers in Seattle, Wichita, Portland and Spokane could walk off the job at midnight Oct. 5.
As a result of its restructured flight schedule, Air France expects aircraft utilization of 10.3 hours per day this winter, up from 9.5 hours per day in winter 1994-95. This improvement would be equivalent to 10 additional aircraft, or a saving of 3.6 billion French francs in capital expenditures.
TWA has set the subscription price for the company's equity rights at $4.1875. The carrier expects to receive gross proceeds of $55 million for the 13.15 million equity rights, which were issued as part of its bankruptcy reorganization plan. The equity rights, which are non- transferable rights to purchase for cash newly issued common stock from the airline, are exercisable, and subscriptions will be accepted through Oct. 5, the expiration date of the subscription period.
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KLM and U.S. partner Northwest will offer the "Amsterdam Super Stay" package this winter for travel on their transatlantic joint-venture flights from 11 U.S. gateways. Packages start at $539 per person from New York, based on double occupancy, including air fare, four-days'/three-nights' stay at deluxe hotels in Amsterdam, hotel service charges and taxes, and a daily buffet breakfast.
BWIA International Airways is offering an extra $100 in commission on first-class roundtrip tickets written by Oct. 30 for travel completed by Dec. 15. It is distributing $100 checks, which must be stapled to the auditor's coupon of tickets submitted through ARC or BSP. The check authorizes the agency to add $100 to the normal 8% commission and remit the net amount to the airline. Tickets must be validated on BWIA (BW) for roundtrip travel on BW only and are non-endorsable.
Seattle-Tacoma Airport received FAA's award for outstanding safety innovation at last week's annual Airports Council International meeting in Washington, D.C. FAA Administrator David Hinson cited Sea-Tac Airport's leadership of the runway incursion demonstration program.
House Transportation and Infrastructure subcommittee on aviation will hold a field hearing on computer outages Sept. 26 in Room 2025 at the FAA Air Traffic Control Center in Aurora, Ill.
Lawsuit brought by salaried and management employees against United has been dismissed by a federal court in Atlanta. The employees argued United violated the law by negotiating their wage and work rule concessions during last year's employee buyout through two unions that do not represent them. Throwing out the case, the court ordered the plaintiffs to pay United's litigation costs.
Mercury Air Group's net earnings for the June quarter rose 45% from the previous year to more than $1.1 million, or 19 cents per share, on a revenue increase of 95% to $48.3 million. For the fiscal year ended June 30, the company's net earnings were up 44% to a record $4.3 million, or 76 cents per share, on record revenues of $183 million. "Mercury's record results are due to solid growth in fuel sales to domestic and international airlines," said Seymour Kahn, president.
U.S. Global Positioning System Industry Council said Charles Trimble, president of Trimble Navigation, will be its chairman for 1995-97, and Honeywell has become a member. Other officers of the Washington-based council are Chairman Emeritus Randy Hoffman, president of Magellan Systems, and Vice Chairman Robert Denaro, director, Motorola. Directors include Charles Boesenberg, president of Ashtech, chairman and founder of the new USGIC Standards Committee; H.W.
Cost of elevating safety standards at small airports to support DOT's "zero accidents" goal raised concern at last week's Airports Council International-North America meeting in Washington.More than 300 U.S. airports would have to be upgraded, skeptics noted, and there are more than 160 in Alaska alone.
