Senate Commerce Committee leaders have been working to complete an FAA reform bill this week and have been aiming to bring a bill to the committee tomorrow for consideration.It was unclear late yesterday what elements would be included in the bill beyond personnel and procurement reform.
Westinghouse said the hangar that housed its airship construction and service facilities at Weeksville, N.C., has been destroyed by fire. William Adams, chairman, said the company has set up a customer support hotline at its Baltimore headquarters and is looking at alternative facilities. "We are also developing a plan to rapidly restore full parts and technical support to our airship operators."
U.S. helicopter industry shipped 87 commercial helicopters in the second quarter, up slightly from 84 during the same quarter a year ago, according to Aerospace Industries Association. For the first half, 170 commercial helicopters were shipped, compared with 161 a year earlier. The value of civil helicopter sales increased from $62 million in last year's first half to $110 million this year.
Northwest's July systemwide passenger traffic rose 9.1% on 4.4% more capacity, boosting the load factor 3.3 percentage points to 76.8%. "Our passenger loads in July continued to run well ahead of 1994 levels," said John Dasburg, chief executive. Domestic traffic rose 9.1% on 2.4% more capacity, lifting the load factor 4.6 points to 74%, and international traffic rose 9% on 7.5% more available seat miles, pushing the load factor up 1.1 points to 81%. July 95 July 94 7 Mths 95 7 Mths 94
National Aircraft Resale Association, Alexandria, Va., will sponsor a tax seminar for its members Aug. 28 at the Northbrook Hilton in Chicago. Nel Sanders, National Business Aircraft Association senior manager-state and tax issues, will explain how state tax laws relate to aircraft sales. Keith Swirsky, a partner with Galland, Kharasch, Morse&Garfinkle, will speak on how brokers and dealers can minimize their tax exposure.
The Senate version of the DOT appropriations bill orders FAA to raise $10 million in fiscal 1996 through increased user fees, primarily in the areas of standards, regulation and certification, and security. In its report (Senate Report 104-126) on the bill, the Senate Appropriations Committee said it believes there are numerous areas for new or expanded user fees, and FAA should impose them in those areas "to at least cover the full cost of its activities." The committee's recommendation for FAA operations is $50 million below the House-passed level.
Business Travel Contractors Corporation (BTCC) has crafted an airfare purchasing program for businesses that spend less than $3 million annually on domestic tickets. The program, called BTCC II, is designed to simplify the mileage-based net fare system BTCC developed for corporations, which recently received antitrust clearance by the Justice Department, by menu- pricing its standard package. The standard package includes a domestic airfare program, fee-based consulting and training, an international airfare program, domestic hotel program and car rental program.
Allied Pilots Association at American, which often complains of inappropriate challenges to captains' authority, has this advice for members following an incident in which the captain asked police to detain a passenger found smoking in the lavatory upon landing.Police were not present when the airplane landed, and when they arrived they said they had no jurisdiction over the federal crime. APA says, "When you need a cop, call a cop, which in the case of our pilots means the FBI."
Seven U.S. carriers are applying for 265 third/fourth-freedom combination service frequencies in the U.S.-Germany market for the 1995-96 winter season, within two of the 267 available under the current bilateral aviation agreement. There is even less pressure on fifth-freedom applications - the carriers want 120, and 127 are available - so DOT should have an easy time making allocations late this summer or early in the fall. The winter season runs from Nov. 1, 1995, through March 31, 1996. Applications were filed last Friday, with answers due Aug. 11 and replies Aug.
Northwest will begin seasonal service to Cancun from Minneapolis Dec. 23 on Saturdays with A320s. It also will serve Palm Springs, Calif., for the first time, with seasonal weekend flights beginning Dec. 16 from Minneapolis.
Kiwi International Air Lines and Air South say they are "very close" to completing a marketing agreement that is intended to boost traffic between Kiwi's northern destinations and points on Air South's short-haul southern routes, connecting at Atlanta and Tampa. The carriers expect to start offering joint fares and ticketing by early September. The agreement does not involve cash transactions or ownership changes (DAILY, Aug. 3).
United Express operator Air Wisconsin reported record traffic in July, 46 million revenue passenger miles, up 58.3% from July 1994. Capacity for the month rose 54.6%, and the load factor improved 1.3 points to 57%. July 95 July 94 7 Mths 95 7 Mths 94 RPMs 46,029,405 29,083,849 264,370,556 189,840,609 ASMs 80,761,236 52,255,016 488,396,930 360,903,974 LoadFtr% 57.0 55.7 54.1 52.6
Reno Air carried a record 381,855 passengers in July, up from 301,186 in July 1994. Its revenue passenger miles increased 43% to 216.7 million from 151.3 million. Available seat miles grew to 317.3 million from 225.9 million, producing a load factor of 68.3%, up 1.3 points.
International Space Enterprises said it contracted with PanAmSat Corp. to provide satellite communications services for a nationwide airline ticketing system, based on Sabre, to be established in Russia. The C-band satellite service, to be provided via PanAmSat's PAS-4 satellite, will cover the majority of the Russian territory. Russian firm ITC Sirena is the prime contractor developing the integrated system to automate airline ticketing and reservations throughout the nation. As U.S.
Restoring FAA to its original role as an independent agency with personnel management flexibility, procurement exemptions and budget stability is the best way to meet aviation needs into the next century, former FAA administrator Najeeb Halaby told the Senate Commerce aviation subcommittee last week (DAILY, Aug. 4). Halaby, testifying on behalf of administrator alumni, proposed an independent agency that would report directly to the President, with a Senate-confirmed administrator serving a fixed term.
DOT's Office of Commercial Space Transportation will be transferred from the Office of the Secretary to FAA, effective Oct. 1, FAA Administrator David Hinson and OCST Director Frank Weaver said yesterday. DOT is working with Congress to "assure" that OCST's budget is transferred along with it to FAA, "at least for fiscal year 1996," Weaver said. He noted that this year, for the first time, the number of commercial space launches, planned at 15, will exceed government launches.
Employees represented by the Machinists union at Wyman-Gordon Co., a Houston aerospace manufacturing company, went out on strike following a vote to reject the company's contract offer, which would have replaced an agreement that expired Sunday night. Wyman-Gordon manufactures superalloy forgings for aerospace and other products used by the commercial transportation, power and defense industries. The Machinists represent 475 of the 750 employees at the plant. Forging facilities in Grafton, Mass., and Livingston, Scotland, are not affected.
Continental achieved a 71.9% load factor in July on a 4.9% decrease in traffic and a 9.2% capacity decline from July 1994. Continental flew 3.8 billion revenue passenger miles during the month and 5.2 billion available seat miles. Its load factor for the first seven months was 64.8%, a 1.5 point increase from last year. Continental's reduced widebody capacity produced a 17.3% decrease in cargo revenue ton miles in July to 37.9 million. Wholly owned subsidiary Continental Express reported a July load factor of 52.6%, up 1.1 points from July 1994.
Tower Air's scheduled traffic increased 6.5%, to 461 million revenue passenger miles, from the same month in 1994. Block hours rose 41.8%, from 3,590 to 5,092, mainly from military and commercial charters and increased scheduled flying in international markets. Scheduled available seat miles were up 13.8% for the month to 595 million, so the scheduled service load factor was 77.5%, down from 82.8%. The company cited a decline in passenger traffic between New York and San Francisco, San Juan, Los Angeles and Delhi.
Machinists Union, leading off with Boeing as it begins contract negotiations with major aerospace companies, says job security will be the focus of its talks with the Seattle-based company. Bob Gregory, lead negotiator for the union, said that "thousands of jobs are being wiped out as Boeing announces big new orders, and as productivity and profits go up. Our union believes Boeing's success must go hand in hand with the workers' success.
Southwest last week began operating new nonstop service to Baltimore/Washington, Kansas City and New Orleans from Nashville. Passengers on the inaugural flight were the winners of crab races - a promotional stunt celebrating Baltimore's reputation for good crabs - and received tickets to a Baltimore Orioles game and the National Aquarium, as well as a night in the Omni Hotel. Southwest offers two daily flights to Kansas City and New Orleans and four a day to Baltimore.
FAA has granted approval to MarkAir, which it grounded earlier, to use one of its 737s in passenger service between Denver and Dallas/Fort Worth (DAILY, Aug. 3). "By issuing the approval, FAA certified that MarkAir has made significant progress in showing it has improved" its maintenance oversight, FAA said.
World Airways said yesterday it flew 4,054 block hours in July, up 38% from 2,942 flown in July 1994. Average daily utilization was 10.9 hours in July 1995, compared with 11.6 hours in July 1994. The carrier flew 21,280 block hours for the year to date, up 28% from 16,601 hours last year. Utilization rate was 10 hours, up from 8.4 last year.
Alaska Airlines' July traffic was up 11.9% to 881 million revenue passenger miles, compared with July 1994 on 15.3% higher capacity. The load factor dropped to 65.5% from 67.5%. The other Alaska Air Group carrier, Horizon Air, posted a 14.2% traffic increase to 83 million RPMs. Its load factor dropped to 61.7% from 66.6%. Horizon carried 364,700 passengers, up from 341,500 in the same 1994 month. Alaska Airlines July 95 July 94 7 Mths 95 7 Mths 94
Gulf Air said it will start service from Houston Intercontinental Airport to Arabian Gulf points and Cyprus, via New York, on Oct. 29. It flies from New York to Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar, via Cyprus, using A340s.
