Representatives of six aviation labor unions yesterday asked President Clinton to support a waiver of the commercial aviation fuel tax while Congress considers a two-year extension of the exemption. The House budget reconciliation bill likely will include the two-year extension, and the Senate Finance Committee is expected to consider the measure, the unions said in a letter on behalf of the Transportation Trades Department of the AFL-CIO.
Virgin Atlantic Airways has leased an Airbus A340-300 from International Lease Finance Corp. The aircraft will be delivered next April and will be used on Virgin's Manchester-Orlando route. Virgin now operates two 747- 400s leased from ILFC and will get a third next March.
LorAir has applied for a certificate to operate foreign charter service. The Torrance, Calif.-based applicant plans to transport sports teams using a Boeing 737-200 aircraft. (OST-95-702)
Five airlines say they will continue a lawsuit against Dade County, Fla., to stop American's $900 million terminal expansion at Miami Airport despite approval of plans for the project this week by the county's Board of Commissioners. "We had hoped that politically we could defeat the plan," USAir spokesman Chuck Stipancic told The DAILY.
Nine regional airline stocks slid nearly 11% during September to finish the month with an average per-share price of $11.22. Market value of the nine issues was off by $123.8 million to $2.24 billion. Leading decliner was Northwest Airlink Mesaba Holdings, down $8.50 to $5.25. That result is misleading, however, because it was due primarily to the spinoff to stockholders of AirTran Airways. Other decliners were Delta Connection SkyWest, down $3.63 to $10; Delta Connection Atlantic Southeast, off $1.63 to $23.38, and Mesa Air Group, down 44 cents to $10.19.
The U.S. Bankruptcy Court that handled America West's Chapter 11 case has approved the distribution of about 2.4 million shares of the airline's Class B common stock to satisfy the claims of general unsecured creditors. The claims involved were not resolved at the time the company's plan of reorganization became effective with its emergence from Chapter 11 in August 1994.
Raytheon Aircraft delivered two Beech 1900D 19-passenger regional aircraft to Midway Connection. The new aircraft will operated on routes between Raleigh/Durham, N.C., and Hilton Head and Myrtle Beach, S.C. Midway Connection, a subsidiary of Minneapolis-based Great Lakes, serves 15 locations on the Atlantic Coast and in the Caribbean from Raleigh/Durham.
Clarification: Information on an international aviation art contest for children conducted by the Minnesota DOT and other agencies may be obtained by calling the aeronautics agency of one's state or Gordon Hoff, Minnesota DOT, at 612-297-7652. The DOT inadvertently issued an incorrect number, which appeared in The DAILY Oct. 5.
DOT has extended the service obligation of Great Lakes Aviation at Fairmont, Mankato and Worthington, Minn., and Brookings and Mitchell, S.D., for an additional 30-day period through Oct. 23 or until further department action. (Docket 46794)
United Express affiliate Atlantic Coast Airlines logged 30.6 million revenue passenger miles in September, a 17.3% decrease from September 1994's 37 million. Capacity dropped more slowly - 15.5% to 62.3 million available seat miles from 73.8 million, causing the load factor to dip 1.1 percentage points to 49.1% from 50.2% in the prior period. The carrier announced this week it is beginning United Express service between Rochester, N.Y., and New York Kennedy Airport.
Innsbruck, Austria-based Tyrolean Airways is sending its fifth class of pilot cadets to undergo ab initio training at FlightSafety International's Vero Beach Flight Academy, FlightSafety said. The newly qualified pilots are prepared for Austrian ratings and first officer duties on the carrier's Dash 8 aircraft. All of the first two classes of Tyrolean ab initio trainees, from 1992 and 1993 at Vero Beach, are now flying as captains, FlightSafety said.
Seattle/Tacoma-Spokane became the nation's top regional market during 1994. Washington, D.C.-based AvStat Associates said the market - ranked fourth in 1993 - was stimulated by the entry of Southwest Airlines, resulting in a 33.6% increase in passenger boardings for all regionals serving the route. Seattle/Tacoma-Portland, 1993's leading market, slipped to second place in 1994. Chicago O'Hare-Milwaukee jumped from No. 8 to No. 3 as American and United trimmed their jet frequencies in the market, and Denver-Aspen slipped from No. 2 to No. 4...
Summary of U.S. Major Carriers International Traffic March 1995 Revenue Average Revenue Passengers Length of Passenger Enplaned % Travel Miles Carriers (000) Change (Miles) (000) American 1,149 4.40 2,087 2,398,243 Atlantic 260 0.24 4,145 1,076,690 Latin 859 6.28 1,346 1,156,228
USAir Express affiliate CCAIR suffered a 7.5-percentage-point drop in its passenger load factor last month to 42.4% from 49.9% in September 1994. Traffic was off 11.7% to 10.9 million revenue passenger miles from 12.4 million, but capacity rose 3.9% to 25.8 million available seat miles. Sept. 1995 Sept. 1994 9 Mths 1995 9 Mths 1994 RPMs 10,945,377 12,393,788 102,070,214 110,504,889 ASMs 25,806,376 24,840,238 234,995,640 214,638,202
Ethiopian Airlines has placed an order for five Fokker 50 turboprops, selecting the aircraft to replace its ATR 42 and DHC-6 Twin Otter Aircraft, Fokker announced. Delivery of the five aircraft is scheduled between May and December 1996.
DOT is inviting carriers to comment on a complaint Fine Airlines has filed against the government of Peru. In a filing late last month, Fine maintained that Peru is prohibiting it from operating to, from or over the territory of Peru in violation of the U.S.-Peru bilateral (DAILY, Sept. 29). Originally, Peru barred Fine's operations in March because of reports that the cargo carrier had transported arms from Argentina to Ecuador during the hostilities between Ecuador and Peru.
With 86% of its flights arriving on time in August, Southwest captured the top on-time spot among major carriers for the third consecutive month. Overall, flights of the 10 largest U.S. carriers arrived within 15 minutes of schedule 79.9% of the time August, down slightly from July's 80.1%, according to DOT's Air Travel Consumer Report, issued yesterday. Continental was runner-up to Southwest with 84.9%, followed by USAir with 82.4%. For the second month in a row, Alaska Airlines placed last with a 69.7% record.
Summary of U.S. Major Carriers Domestic Traffic First Quarter 1995 Revenue Average Revenue Passengers Length of Passenger Enplaned % Travel Miles Carriers (000) Change (Miles) (000) America West 3,792 1.73 774 2,933,788 American 16,019 2.23 1,061 17,002,328
Bombardier Aerospace Group-North America named Mitsubishi Heavy Industries of Japan to develop and produce the fuselage and tail sections for the 350-knot, 70-seat de Havilland Dash 8-400 high-speed turboprop, the Montreal-based manufacturer announced. Bombardier Aerospace President Robert Brown said, "This further reinforces Bombardier's business associations in the Asia/Pacific region and, in particular, with Mitsubishi, which already participates in our Global Express business jet program with responsibility for the wing and centre fuselage sections."
Southwest's passenger traffic rose 9.5% last month, but its load factor dropped 1.2 percentage points to 61.1% as the airline's capacity growth outstripped the increase in revenue passenger miles. The number of passengers carried rose 4.4%. Through the first nine months of this year, Southwest's traffic was up 7.6% on 12.8% more available seat miles, causing the airline's load factor to decline 3.2 points to 65.4%. Sept 95 Sept 94 9 Mths 95 9 Mths 94
Cargolux Airlines International, Luxembourg, reported that freight tonne kilometers through August increased 15% from the same period last year to 1.2 billion. FTKs in August rose 9% to 154.9 million.
United Express affiliate Air Wisconsin flew 40.8 million revenue passenger miles last month, a 48% increase from September 1994's 27.6 million. Capacity rose 54.4% to 79.6 million available seat miles from 51.5 million, driving the load factor down 2.2 percentage points to 51.3% Sept. 1995 Sept. 1994 9 Mths 1995 9 Mths 1994 RPMs 40,843,314 27,591,274 355,353,736 246,865,314 ASMs 79,591,654 51,544,346 651,858,306 465,062,386
Delta's systemwide passenger traffic fell 2.7% last month from September a year ago on 0.1% less capacity, causing its load factor to slip 1.8 percentage points to just under 64.9%. The number of passengers boarded fell 5.7%. Delta's domestic traffic fell 2.9% on 1% more capacity, and its international traffic was down 2.4% on 3.3% less capacity. Sept 95 Sept 94 9 Mths 95 9 Mths 94 RPMs 7,002,339,000 7,198,594,000 64,353,907,000 65,183,071,000
DOT has assessed Executive Airlines, based in Canada, $8,000 in penalties for conducting fifth-freedom flights in the U.S. without authorization. "Between December 22, 1994, and January 20, 1995, Executive operated 12 flights on six different dates between the U.S. and Honduras without the proper authority from DOT," according to a consent order describing a DOT- Executive settlement of the issue.
Passengers on Air Canada flights from eight Canadian cities between Oct. 16 and Dec. 15 will have a chance to win a pair of tickets to anywhere the carrier flies, once a year for life. During the two-month period, 56 passengers on Air Canada flights out of Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa, Halifax, Winnipeg and Edmonton will win the prize. Flights and seat numbers drawn at random will be delivered to the captain of each flight before takeoff. Then, on the airplane, the captain will present the prize to the passenger in the winning seat.
