FlightSafety International said it has secured a site and building approvals for an aviation training center near the Kunming Airport. The facility will comprise a three-story training center and a 12-story building for flight crew accommodations. The pilot and flight attendant training facilities structure will follow the design concept and internal layout of FSI centers in Paris, Wilmington and Tucson but will have an additional floor for flight attendant training. The center will accommodate six simulators with easy access to a central computer room.
Local Florida authorities are supporting Sun Jet International's application to operate scheduled service. Currently authorized to operate charters, Sun Jet wants to launch full-service, low-cost scheduled flights on several domestic routes: Dallas/Fort Worth-Newark/Long Beach, Calif./St. Petersburg, Fla.; St. Petersburg-Orlando and Fort Lauderdale-Newark, using its two DC-9-31, two DC-9-51 and two DC-9-81/MD-81 aircraft.
The Air Transport Association said yesterday the Clinton administration "continues to make irrelevant comparisons" between the airline and trucking industries in defending the imposition of a jet fuel tax beginning Oct. 1. In an Aug. 9 letter to an airline employee, Mark Gerchick, acting DOT assistant secretary for aviation and international affairs, said that in fiscal 1994, commercial airlines paid 8.1% of their revenues in excise taxes, while commercial trucking firms paid 9.9%.
Skyjet Inc. has applied for authority to operate combination charter service between Antigua and Barbuda, West Indies, and the U.S. Operating as Skyjet Antigua and Barbuda, it proposes initially to operate between the West Indian points and Orlando or Miami, starting Sept. 1, using DC-10-30s. (Dockets OST-95-427&OST-95-428)
United and Microsoft have agreed to offer an online product United says will turn personal computers into "desktop travel stations." Diskettes will be available in November, and the system will be incorporated into Microsoft by early next year. United Connection is a travel reservation product on The Microsoft Network, a fee-based option in Microsoft Windows 95. Consumers using United Connection can book airline tickets and reserve rental cars and hotel rooms by linking directly to the Apollo reservations system.
Proponents of a longstanding suggestion that Norfolk, Richmond and Newport News/Williamsburg airports be replaced with a regional airport will be in for a fight from the airline industry if the idea ever moves beyond the conceptual stage, Air Transport Association President Carol Hallett said yesterday. In a speech to the annual Virginia Aviation Conference, Hallett said, "We simply cannot abandon facilities that meet our needs and pour money into another facility that is not warranted."
Citizens of Singapore travel more frequently than other nationalities in the Pacific Rim, primarily because of easy land and sea access to Indonesia and Malaysia. The ratio of outbound trips to population is 85.7% for Singapore, followed by 46.6% for Hong Kong (which excludes travel to China and Macau), and 22.8% for Taiwan. The lowest was for departures from Korea, 7.1%.
Cal Corp. of Ottawa has begun marketing CALQuest telephones, designed to provide voice, fax and data services on business jets via American Mobile Satellite Corp.'s new AMSC-1 satellite. Communications services will be available in AMSC-1's coverage area, which extends from Alaska to the Panama Canal, including the Caribbean, and two hundred miles off the North American coasts. The price of the phone equipment starts at $15,500, plus installation. Service costs $45 per month plus $1.99 per minute anywhere in the U.S. Cal Corp.
Federal Express pilots petitioned the National Mediation Board (NMB) Tuesday for an immediate proffer of arbitration after six days of contract talks in Washington. The NMB has called a recess in the talks - which have gone on for more than 15 months, seven of them in mediation - while it decides on arbitration (DAILY, Aug. 22). A FedEx spokeswoman said that the company is prepared to continue negotiations because progress has been made, and that the process was running its course. She said management believes the request for arbitration is "extremely premature."
Taiwan's Civil Aviation Administration has warned the island's domestic carriers against unauthorized reductions in ticket prices. Several airlines and travel agencies said recently they plan to cut fares in an effort to attract business. A CAA official noted that Taiwan aviation law prohibits price reductions - or increases - without official approval. Any company that wants to offer lower fares must apply for approval from regulatory agencies at least 30 days in advance.
Travel and Tourism Government Affairs Council has gone to bat for the U.S. Travel and Tourism Administration (USTTA), which is facing a House proposal that would cut its lifeline at the end of the year. Formation of a National Tourism organization with only a minor government investment may be a suitable successor to USTTA, the council said, but because it would need the existing agency as a "guiding force," the travel industry believes USTTA must be funded through fiscal 1996.
The Association of Flight Attendants will honor the founders of the first flight attendants union, the Air Line Stewardesses Association, at its annual board of directors meeting in October. The original union, which grew into the AFA, was founded in 1945 by five United stewardesses. Four of the five founders are alive and have been asked to attend a ceremony in their honor at the AFA board meeting. The first stewardesses received $125 a month from 1930 until 1946, when the first union contract was signed.
TransAsia Airways of Taiwan will inaugurate three-times-weekly service between Taipei and Surabaya, Indonesia, on Oct. 5, using an A320 aircraft configured to seat 162 passengers. The carrier will operate roundtrip flights on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.
American Automobile Association predicts Labor Day weekend will be the busiest for motorists in at least 11 years because of weather and cheaper gas prices. It expects 29.6 million people will vacation over the weekend, and another 4.1 million are expected to fly or take the train or bus. This follows last year's 11% increase, AAA said. Predictions are based on a telephone survey of 1,500 adults.
Emirates has applied for a one-year renewal of its authority to operate code-sharing service with United between the U.S. and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, via London. Under the arrangement, United operates service between the U.S. and London and Emirates operates the London-Dubai segment. (Docket 49147&OST-95-414)
Qantas's operations at nine Australian airports were disrupted Monday by a "snap" strike by check-in personnel protesting the airline's new staffing structure (DAILY, Aug. 22). The employees, represented by the Australian Services Union, returned to work Tuesday morning at Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide and the Sydney International Terminal, and workers at Cairns, Townsville, Brisbane, Coolangatta and Perth voted Tuesday afternoon to end the strike.
DOT intends to move "quickly" to allocate unused frequencies in the U.S.- South Africa market, according to Paul Gretch, director of the DOT Office of International Aviation.World, USAfrica and TWA are interested in frequencies for combination service, although TWA cannot say when it would start up. Southern Air Transport seeks all-cargo service in the market. USAfrica currently holds - but does not operate - all the combination frequencies.
With a new round of U.S.-Japan talks a month away, Federal Express Chairman and Chief Executive Frederick Smith is pressing the two sides to pursue an open skies regime and stay focused on cargo issues. Scheduled to begin Sept. 25 in Tokyo, the new round of negotiations will be devoted to cargo issues and is expected to last a week. "We have encouraged the United States government in the upcoming bilateral negotiations with the Japanese government to free up, to the maximum extent possible, all cargo operations by both Japanese and U.S.
Olympic Promotions: Hong Kong Tourist Association is encouraging visits to the Olympic qualifying rounds for beach volleyball Sept. 21-24 in Hong Kong. The sport, granted Olympic status three years ago, will debut at the 1996 games. Separately, Delta and the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games will hold an "Olympic Brick Day" Aug. 31, giving Delta's Orlando employees the chance to buy a $35 commemorative brick to help pay for the 1996 games.
The joint marketing agreement between Kiwi International Air Lines and Air South will go into effect Sept. 6, with Atlanta the cornerstone for connections between Kiwi's service to the North and Air South's flights to the South. The agreement calls mainly for seamless connections through joint fares, baggage transfers and joint ticketing. Officials from both airlines said yesterday code sharing is not involved yet but could be included in the future as the carriers explore their relationship.
Despite losing millions because of labor unrest that shut down all of its operations three times in June, SAS yesterday posted significantly improved financial results for the first six months of 1995 and forecast an even stronger second half. SAS Group reported pre-tax earnings of nearly 1.04 billion krona (US$141.1 million), an increase of nearly 70% from a year ago when, boosted by a 420 million krona gain on the sale of two non-core subsidiaries, the company had a pre-tax profit of 617 million krona.
Potential new-entrant charter operator Presidential Air explained undisclosed lawsuits against a director and updated its operational status in a filing to DOT this week. Presidential has applied for authority to fly charter service between Long Beach and Atlanta, and Long Beach and Houston (DAILY, July 25). The carrier is owned by President's Travel Club, which in turn is owned by First Nationwide Resort Management.
CIC Research, after conducting surveys for several months on the travel habits of Internet Web browsers, says nine million of the 13.5 million users took at least one domestic business trip in the past 12 months, accounting for $9 billion in domestic air travel based on an average fare of $1,000. International business trips were taken by 6.2 million users. At a fare of $2,000, that equates to $12.4 billion. CIC acknowledges that accepting the numbers requires "a leap of faith" in believing survey respondents are representative of all Web users.
Learning how to market and sell travel and tourism on the Internet will be the subject of a conference sponsored by the International Quality&Productivity Center Nov. 13-14 at the Hotel Nikko in Chicago. The conference will be followed by a half-day workshop Nov. 15 on turning "web surfers" into paying tourists, integrating technology for successful service and sales, offering one's business on the Net and becoming an interactive travel "super site." To register, call 1-800-420-2145.
EVA Airways of Taiwan plans to buy an additional 19% of Makung Airlines, increasing its stake in the domestic carrier to 51%. EVA purchased a 32% holding in April, putting it in control of three seats on Makung's board. Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission has expressed opposition to the additional purchase, but industry sources said the commission is expected to agree to it on the condition that EVA make no further acquisitions without prior approval. Earlier this year, EVA acquired a 20% interest in a second domestic carrier, Great China Airlines.
