Bombardier Aerospace Group-North America and CAE Electronics Ltd. officially opened their new training and research and development center near Montreal Dorval Airport. The 66,000-square-foot Bombardier Aerospace Training Center provides training support for operators of the 50-passenger Canadair Regional Jet and Canadair Challenger widebody business jet and maintenance training for the Canadair CL-415 amphibious aircraft. Total cost of the project is $108 million, "including the building, equipment, research and development and infrastructure," Bombardier said.
Bombardier Aerospace Group's Canadair Business Aircraft Division appointed Richard Beine sales director-Canadair Challenger and Matthew Hartnett VP-used aircraft sales.
United's passenger traffic grew 1.8% on 2.3% more capacity in November, compared with the same month last year. The carrier flew 2.5% more passengers, while the load factor slipped 0.3 percentage points to 68.6%. For the first 11 months of the year, United's traffic was up 3.4% on 4.4% more capacity, compared with the same 1994 period. The number of passengers carried grew 6.7%, and the load factor fell 0.6 points. Nov 95 Nov 94 11 Mths 95 11 Months 1994
Virgin Atlantic will establish service between London Heathrow and Jan Smuts Airport in Johannesburg next year, the carrier said. Starting in July, Virgin will operate the flights with an A340-300 aircraft, which accommodates about 260 passengers. The carrier will fly the route three times a week. Currently, British Airways and South African Airways have the only nonstop service in the market. While Virgin has had the right to fly the route for sometime, it has been holding off, waiting for aircraft and slots at Heathrow.
Flight attendants at Business Express represented by the Association of Flight Attendants have ratified their first contract. Negotiations for the 150 flight attendants were aided by the National Mediation Board in talks that began with the AFA election in April 1993. The flight attendants will receive pay increases of as much as 57.4% over the three- year term. For the first time, the flight attendants will have written work rules and a grievance procedure to enforce the contract, AFA said.
Association of Retail Travel Agents is expected to take a position this week for or against the mileage-based, net fare system proposed by the Business Travel Contractors Corporation. ARTA intends to communicate its analysis of the plan to its members. BTCC still is waiting to find out whether the American Society of Travel Agents will reconsider its opposition.
Standard&Poor's assigned its triple-'A' long-term rating to the 750 million Deutschmark multi-currency debt issuance program of DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung, Germany's air traffic control organization. S&P said the rating is based on the support of Germany, DFS's sole owner, and the strategic importance of ATC to the nation's economy, public safety and defense. S&P said that although DFS debt is not guaranteed by the government, constitutionally ATC is a sovereign function that by law must be provided by a 100% government-owned monopoly.
Charlotte, N.C.-based independent USAir Express affiliate CCAIR flew 12.1 million revenue passenger miles in November, a .3% decline from the 12.2 million it logged in November 1994. Capacity rose 4.8% to 25.9 million available seat miles from 24.7 million, pushing load factor down 2.4 percentage points to 46.9% from 49.3% in the prior period. Passenger enplanements declined 10% to 65,278 from 72,447.
Continental's reduction in unprofitable flying over the past year, resulting in a 15.2% capacity decline last month, produced the highest November load factor in the carrier's history - 66%. Continental flew 3.1 billion revenue passenger miles, a decrease of 7.9%, and 4.7 billion available seat miles. The 66% load factor was a 5.2-point increase from November 1994. Nov 95 Nov 94 11 Mths 95 11 Mths 94 RPMs 3,131,157,000 3,399,551,000 36,909,343,000 38,135,394,000
British Midland is testing a new duty-free service that enables passengers to phone in an order before they land at the airport. The service is being offered to passengers on flights between the U.K. and Dublin through Jan. 26. The items can be selected from the carrier's inflight magazine or a pre-order card, and are purchased via the telephone with a credit card.
British Airways says it made progress in many of the environmental objectives it set last year, including a 1.5% increase in fuel efficiency and an 18% reduction in noise infringements at London Heathrow Airport. BA fell back in two areas - fuel jettisoning incidents and fuel burn during stack times at Heathrow and Gatwick - but said this was "partly beyond its control."
DOT issued yesterday its report on financial and traffic results for the 11 major U.S. carriers for the third quarter of 1995, showing operating profits of more than $2 billion and net profits of more than $1 billion for the second quarter in a row. Six carriers reported record operating profits.
Taiwan carriers EVA Airways and TransAsia Airways completed trial flights between Taiwan and Macau in preparation for revenue service, beginning today under the terms of the recently signed Taiwan-Macau aviation agreement. Air Macau will be able to fly between China and Taiwan with a stop and a change of flight numbers in Macau, but the two Taiwan carriers will be limited for the time being to service between Macau and two points in Taiwan, Taipei and Kaohsiung.
...Desert Sun traffic helped contribute to a sharp traffic increase in November for Mesa Air Group (related story below). Revenue passenger miles were up 31.6% versus an increase of 18.5% for available seat miles - a 13.1 percentage-point spread. Also contributing to the gain were Mesa's United Express operations at Denver and Los Angeles, which carried 30,000 more passengers than in November a year ago, partly due to the Denver pullout of Continental Express.
World Airways has applied for authority to operate scheduled combination service between New York and Dublin, Ireland. If approved, the carrier plans twice-weekly service on the route with continuing service to Shannon, using 347-seat DC-10-30 aircraft. World does not plan to inaugurate the service until May 15 but asked DOT to process its application as soon as possible so it can begin immediately to market the services for the summer peak season. The carrier noted that the U.S.-Ireland Memorandum of Understanding signed in 1993 allows a U.S.
America West has cut fares indefinitely on night flights from Colorado Springs to some West Coast points. One-way tariffs to Las Vegas and Phoenix are now $29, and fares to Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Seattle are $49. Tickets must be purchased at least seven days in advance.
Referring to DOT's accomplishments in 1995 as "unparalleled in our international aviation history," Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and International Affairs Patrick Murphy said, "The question now is can we sustain that momentum in 1996." Speaking yesterday at the Airports Council International-North America's International Air Service Seminar in Washington, Murphy said he could not promise that 1996 will be as successful as 1995, but "we'll try." In the coming year, the department will continue to search for additional countries to sign open skies agreements wi
Abacus Distribution Systems Pte Ltd will be available, on a limited basis, to 10 travel agencies in Bangkok through a pilot program designed to enable the computer reservations system company to learn more about local requirements and "fine-tune" its system to meet the needs of Thai agents. Abacus intends to cut over more agencies at the end of the three- to six- month test period. To support the Thai agents, Abacus recently opened a National Marketing Company in Bangkok.
Lufthansa will recruit pilots and flight attendants during the next three years to take the place of retirees and satisfy plans for growth, according to a company spokesman. The carrier plans to increase its pool of pilots 6% next year, to about 3,200. Similar increases are slated for 1997 and 1998, the spokesman said. That means nearly 200 pilots will be added to the payroll in 1996, plus similar numbers over the following two years. Lufthansa imposed a hiring freeze for two years but dropped it last year.
Alitalia took delivery this week of its first 67-seat Fokker 70. The aircraft will be operated by subsidiary Avianova on new regional routes to Spain, Germany, France and the U.K., beginning with service between Turin, Italy, and Paris in the middle of this month. Alitalia has another 14 70s on order, with the second and third to be delivered before the end of the year, seven in the spring of 1996 and five the following year, Fokker reported.
Atlantic Southeast's BAe 146 issue still is on the table despite a federal judge's refusal late last week to restrain the Delta Connection carrier temporarily from operating the 88-passenger quadjets. The judge said the suit by ALPA was a labor issue that should be settled by the federal arbiter in the continuing pilot-contract negotiations with Delta. The pilots apparently want a 70-passenger cap on aircraft Delta affiliates can operate, similar to the scope-clause limitations on most other major carriers. Meanwhile, ASA began 146 operations last Friday.
National Transportation Safety Board accident data show that more FAA research and development is needed in the areas of turbine engine rotor failures, wake vortices, icing and human factors, the board's chief technical official said yesterday. In testimony before the House Science technology subcommittee, NTSB Chief Technical Adviser William Laynor acknowledged that, with lower budgets, competition for R&D funds is growing, but he argued that some programs are essential.
Mesa Air Group's six airline divisions flew 112.8 million revenue passenger miles last month, a 31.6 increase from the same year-ago month. Capacity rose just 18.5% to 203.6 million available seat miles from 171.8 million. As a result, load factor jumped 5.5 percentage points to 55.4% from 49.9%. Passenger boardings increased 13.5% to 529,042 from 466,111. For the first 11 months of the year, RPMs rose 23.1% to 1.1 billion; ASMs climbed 22.4% to 2.2 billion; enplanements gained 16.5% to 5,755,374, and load factor inched up 0.3 points to 52.1%.
