Virgin Atlantic Airways is offering travel agents up to $400 in bonuses for every roundtrip Upper Class ticket they sell for flights from Miami or San Francisco to London. The carrier is paying agents a $200 bonus and their agencies a matching $200, in addition to regular commissions. For one-way tickets, Virgin will pay a total of $200 per sector flown ($100 for the agent, $100 for the agency). The offer is effective for full-fare J-class bookings made by Feb. 15. Travel must be U.S.-originating and must be completed by Feb. 29.
Dr. Russell Rosenberg, a sleep expert, will speak about jet lag and other travel-related sleep problems Nov. 5 at the ASTA World Travel Congress. Rosenberg will offer tips on how to beat jet lag, discuss whether melatonin really works and give advice on adjusting to new time zones. Travelers also can call 1-800-shuteye for advice.
ValuJet Inc., whose adjusted stock price has soared over the past year from less than $10 to more than $40 per share, yesterday announced another two- for-one stock split, its second in little more than six months. The split will be accomplished by a 100% stock dividend payable Nov. 21 to shareholders of record as of the close of business Nov. 6. "This stock split is intended to make the stock price more attractive to retail investors," said ValuJet Chairman Robert Priddy. ValuJet Inc.
Unisys has introduced the Virtual Integrator Suite, a set of services designed to help airlines and freight forwarders meet the changing demands of shippers. Under the new product, Unisys will audit and standardize the freight-handling processes common to forwarders and carriers, create a basic operations rule book and establish monitoring and control systems to enable users to deliver products consistently and reliably.
Million Air Dallas received FAA certification to provide worldwide service through its charter operation. The carrier, headquartered at Addison Airport in Dallas, has three 12- and 13-seat Gulfstream aircraft available for charter to international destinations. It has nine aircraft overall.
Cathay Pacific Airways plans to move all Hong Kong-based operations and staff - now spread among 19 locations - to Chek Lap Kok when the airport opens in 1998. The airline will move into new headquarters, expected to cost HK$3.5 billion (US$448 million), that will comprise a 775,000-square- foot office building with up to 10 floors, a stores center and a 250,000- square-foot, 20-story staff hotel. The complex will be on 3.3 hectares of land on the southeast portion of the island.
Daimler-Benz Aerospace will cut nearly 9,000 jobs and sell several factories under its Dolores - DOllar LOw REScue - survival program. The Daimler-Benz aerospace unit, which lost money in the first half of this year, aims to break even in 1997 and start turning a steady profit by the end of 1998, even if the dollar remains weak. The weak dollar, worth 1.39 Deutschmarks yesterday, has hurt DASA's bottom line badly - generally, the company prices its products in dollars but pays for labor and many materials in Deutschmarks.
America West has reduced fares to as little as $19 one way in markets where it competes with Southwest, and other airlines have matched the $19 fares. Tickets must be purchased by Nov. 7 for travel through Jan. 15.
American Trans Air parent Amtran Inc. yesterday posted third quarter net earnings of $3.6 million, or 31 cents per share, and an operating profit of nearly $7.6 million. In the third quarter last year, Amtran had net earnings of $2.7 million, or 24 cents per share, and an operating profit of $4.1 million. The company's net earnings improvement would have been significantly greater than 31.2% had it not been for a substantially larger income tax liability produced by a higher effective tax rate, among other factors.
Travel agents may begin reporting sales on Siberian carrier Krasnoyarsk Airlines d/b/a KrasAir, through the Airlines Reporting Corp. beginning Oct. 30. KrasAir starts scheduled service to Los Angeles from Moscow Nov. 14, and Moscow-New York service Nov. 16 with DC-10 aircraft.
DOT Secretary Federico Pena is scheduled to make "a major address on international aviation" on the eve of his trip to Asia at a noon luncheon Oct. 31 in the Capital Hilton Hotel. The event is sponsored by the American Bar Association's Forum on Air&Space Law, the Washington, D.C., Bar's International Law Section, and the Federal Bar Association's Transportation Law Section. To register, call Sarah Lynn at 202-626-3463.
The National Transportation Safety Board's next round of hearings on USAir Flight 427 will begin Nov. 15 at 9 a.m. at the Springfield Hilton Hotel, Springfield, Va., and last two or three days, the board said yesterday. The board will receive results of flight tests on the effect of 727 wake vortices on a trailing 737, conducted last month at the FAA Technical Center, near Atlantic City, N.J.
Airlines Reporting Corp. said travel agent sales processed through September were up 5% over the same period in 1994, to $47.434 billion, and September's sales were up 8%. Domestic fares for the year-to-date were up 6% and international fares up 3%. Domestic commissions were down 2% for the first nine months while international commissions were up 4%.
Delta has signed an agreement with Air Jamaica to provide maintenance support and crew training for six A310-300s returned by Delta to Airbus and then leased to Air Jamaica. The pact, which enables Air Jamaica to begin A310 service in time for the winter season to New York Kennedy from Kingston and Montego Bay, is the most comprehensive accord of this type Delta has ever signed with another airline, a Delta spokesman said.
Fearing the death of Europe's Future Large Airlifter project, Aerospatiale chief Louis Gallois wants a budget-cutting French government to commit funds to FLA before the end of the year. Of the eight nations involved in the program, only Germany has so far put up its money - 4.3 billion Deutschmarks, or US$3 billion, through 2009. "It is time, and even urgent, to become involved in the pre-development phase," Gallois said.
Swissair Group President and Chief Executive Otto Loepfe will give up operational control of the company on Jan. 1 and spend his last year at the helm focusing on its partnerships with Delta, Austrian Airlines, Sabena and Singapore Airlines. Day-to-day control of the group will pass to Philippe Bruggisser, currently president and CEO of Swissair Associated Cos. and a member of Swissair Group Executive Management, who will become chief operating officer and deputy president of the group on Jan. 1.
DOT Secretary Federico Pena will travel to Japan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines Nov. 6-21 on a mission to "advocate American interests in aviation, aerospace and other transportation sectors." The trip is intended to create opportunities for American businesses through airport, mass transit and highway developments and promotion of U.S. goods and services. Pena said he will press for open aviation markets with the Asian governments.
House last week appointed conferees for the Commerce-Justice-State appropriations bill (H.R.2076), setting up an eventual conference with the Senate on the measure. The House version of the bill provides funding for the U.S. Travel and Tourism Administration only through December, while the Senate bill provides $12 million to continue the agency for another year as it makes the transition to a public-private partnership.
Rep. William Lipinski (D-Ill.) yesterday was named ranking Democrat on the House Transportation aviation subcommittee, replacing Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), who now is ranking on the full Transportation Committee. As a result of the retirement of former ranking member Norman Mineta (D-Calif.), the committee yesterday reorganized its subcommittee leadership and membership. On aviation, Reps. Bob Wise (D-W.Va.) and Bob Clement (D- Tenn.) left the subcommittee for other panels, while Reps.
Lufthansa Group carriers - Lufthansa, Condor and Lufthansa CityLine - carried 30.9 million passengers in the first nine months of this year, an increase of 8.9% from the first three quarters of 1994. The cargo volume rose 11.7% to 1.15 million tonnes. Overall capacity was up 11.7% to 14.9 billion tonne kilometers, and overall traffic gained 10.3% to 10.5 billion tonne kilometers, producing a load factor increase of 0.1 percentage points to 70.5%.
Northwest is offering weekend fares as low as $59 roundtrip from Minneapolis/St. Paul to any domestic nonstop point. Tickets are available for purchase until Dec. 8. Travelers must leave the Twin Cities on a Saturday and return on Monday afternoon or Tuesday. Fares are good for travel Oct. 28-Dec. 12. On the high end, flights to Seattle, San Francisco or Miami will be $169 roundtrip, and on the low end, Eau Claire and Rochester, Minn., are $59.
