Kiwi International Air Lines has appointed Peter Pernice director-pricing and yield management, effective Nov. 1. Pernice has worked for Delta as coordinator of worldwide partners and supervisor of revenue control. Previously, he was director-yield and traffic management at Pan Am, where he also held other management positions.
Gearing up to begin service to Vancouver, Alaska Airlines is planning for a major presence in the Canadian city. Shut out in the initial round of Canadian frequency awards (DAILY, March 1), Alaska gained authority Wednesday to operate twice-daily roundtrip service from San Diego. The carrier plans to operate MD-80 aircraft and arrange its schedules to provide convenient connections with its flights to Los Cabos, Mexico. Authorized to begin the service in February 1996, Alaska said it has not yet determined a date.
ValuJet's net earnings reached $22.7 million, or 76 cents per share, and its operating profit jumped to $36.7 million during the third quarter. "The fundamentals for our business continue to be very strong," said Chairman Robert Priddy. "This marks the seventh consecutive quarter that we have delivered significant profits and further confirms ValuJet's ability to consistently achieve margins substantially above industry norms." The airline's net margin for the third quarter was 20.7% and its operating margin was 33.6%.
...Continental plans to turn over several Greensboro-based jet flights to its wholly owned subsidiary in December. Included would be Baltimore, Richmond and possibly Norfolk, to be served with ATR 42s. In addition, five new 19-passenger Beech 1900Ds go on line Nov. 1 at the carrier's Cleveland and Newark hubs. It wants to have 18 1900Ds on line by the end of July and plans to use them in opening at least 13 new markets. The service is made possible by the new recently ratified contract with Express pilots that allows for a pay differential for 1900 flying.
USAir Express affiliate CCAIR reported a net loss for the fiscal year ended June 30 of $362,123, or five cents per share, on an operating income of $553,153, or seven cents per share. Total revenue for the year was more than $63 million on operating expenses of $62.5 million. For the prior fiscal year, the carrier reported a $4.8 million net loss, a $3.9 million operating loss, total revenue of $62.1 million and expenses of nearly $66 million.
Interactive Flight Technologies has signed an agreement with seven film distributors to provide digitized films for inflight viewing as part of the In-Flight Entertainment Network, installed on an Alitalia MD-11 for a 90- day test. Passengers will be able to select up to 30 movies, which they can start, pause and stop at any time. Alitalia intends to install the system in seven more airplanes. The agreements were signed with Warner Brothers, MGM/United Artists, Paramount, Turner Home Entertainment, EIM, Jaguar Distribution and Swank Worldwide.
AirWays Corp. subsidiary AirTran Airways has signed a letter of intent with CIT to purchase the airline's ninth 737-200, and has canceled its LOI to lease to 737-200s from Pacific Aviation Corp. The 737 being acquired is configured for 126 passengers and is powered by Pratt&Whitney JT8D-9A engines. It is expected to be delivered in January and will enter service in February.
It's official: ValuJet has signed a $1 billion deal with McDonnell Douglas to become the launch customer of the 100-seat, twin-engine MD-95. After six weeks of negotiations with Boeing, Airbus Industrie and McDonnell Douglas - and earlier with Fokker - ValuJet agreed to buy 50 of the aircraft and took options on 50 more. ValuJet President Lewis Jordan said both the airline and McDonnell Douglas consider the deal to be a 100- aircraft order. "We expect to take them all," he said. First delivery is 42 months away.
Southwest yesterday posted third quarter net earnings of $67.7 million, or 45 cents per share, and an operating profit of $114.1 million, but Chairman Herbert Kelleher was decidedly less optimistic about fourth quarter prospects than other U.S. industry executives have been over the last few days. "Our fourth quarter outlook is cautious," he said. "Bookings have not been strong for post-September travel.
Standard&Poor's yesterday revised its outlook on TWA's CCC rated senior secured debt to positive from developing because of the company's improved operating performance and its completion of a $55 million equity rights offering. Noting that TWA's cash position as of Sept. 30 was $251 million, not including proceeds from the equity rights offering, S&P said the carrier's enhanced liquidity and a relatively stable industry environment ease previous concerns about a possible cash shortfall during the winter.
U.S. and U.K. officials resumed talks yesterday in Washington. Both sides had expressed some expectation of reaching agreement on some issues during the current round, which began Monday. But they failed to make much progress - if any at all - during the first three days, according to industry officials. Operating without a deadline, the two sides may meet again today, a DOT spokesman said.
Sterling, Va.-based United Express affiliate Atlantic Coast Airlines posted a record net profit of $5.95 million, or 61 cents per share fully diluted, for the third quarter, the company announced. In the same 1994 quarter, the company reported a net loss of $5.97 million, or 87 cents per share. Third quarter operating revenues totaled $43.9 million, compared with $43.1 million the third quarter of 1994. Operating expenses reached $37.4 million versus $48.4 million - including restructuring charges of $4.8 million - in 1994.
TWA yesterday reported a third quarter operating profit of $45.8 million and a net loss of $82 million, and confirmed that it has talked to Boeing, McDonnell Douglas and Airbus about acquiring new airplanes. The results would have been substantially better except for a $57.5 million charge covering shares distributed to employees as part of the company's financial restructuring. Excluding the charge, operating expenses dropped 10.4%, nearly $100 million below those of the 1994 quarter, as TWA rationalized its route structure. Operating revenues declined 3.1%.
The essential air service program apparently will be funded at $22.6 million during fiscal 1996 - a reduction of $10.8 million from the fiscal 1995 level. The House had proposed $15 million but required that communities provide matching funds while the Senate had recommended $26.7 million.
U.S. Major and National Carriers Maintenance Expenses Second Quarter 1995 % Of Total Operating Systemwide Expenses America West $ 29,505,626 8.45 American 343,561,000 9.76 Continental 133,649,000 11.28
Greenwich Air Services received an equity infusion as $3.74 million of its 88% convertible subordinated debentures had been converted into the company's common stock as of Oct. 9. This represents about 22% of the $17 million of debentures issued in connection with the company's initial public offering in November 1993. As a result, Greenwich's annualized interest expense will be reduced by about $300,000 and the public float of its common stock has been increased by approximately 320,000 shares.
National Tour Association Executive VP James Host has been inducted into the Travel Industry Association's Travel Industry Hall of Leaders. Host took over leadership of NTA in 1974 when it had 275 members and an annual budget of $100,000. Today it has 3,800 corporate members and a $7 million a year budget.
Fokker has authorized Honeywell to add Global Positioning System technology to the Honeywell Flight Management System (FMS) for the Fokker 100 and 70 aircraft.
Alaska Air Group has elected George Bagley as the new president and chief executive of Seattle-based subsidiary Horizon Air. He replaces Kathleen Iskra, who is resigning to pursue other career opportunities. Bagley joined Alaska Airlines in 1993 as VP-flight operations after a stint as senior VP of operations at Horizon. Mike Swanigan will replace Bagley.
China Airlines reports that its sales rose 194% in August from year-earlier levels to US$1 70.4 million. For the first eight months of 1995, CAL reported sales of US$1.15 billion, an increase of 2% from the same period in 1994.
A fleet of 500 supersonic transports could spew as large a volume of aerosol particles into the upper atmosphere as a small volcanic eruption, boosting the impact of SST traffic on stratospheric ozone levels, direct measurements of the exhaust trail of an Air France Concorde has revealed. A NASA ER-2 aircraft equipped with a special instrument suite made the first direct measurements of SST exhaust last October in experiments near New Zealand, flying S-shaped patterns along the route followed by the Concorde as it flew at Mach 2.
The Honeywell/Racal Satcom venture's multi-channel satellite communications system was certificated this month by Germany's Luftfahrt Bundesamt and the European Joint Airworthiness Authority on a Swissair Airbus A320. The partners said Swissair thus becomes the first airline in the world to begin equipping its medium/short-haul fleet for airborne satellite communications service. The type certification work was performed by Daimler-Benz Aerospace Airbus Hamburg. Swissair has ordered the systems for its fleet of 29 A319s, A320s and A321s.
Travel and Tourism Research Association (TTRA) will hold its annual awards competition for tourism professionals, educators and students June 16-19 in Las Vegas. Entries must be received by March 1. Five awards will be handed out, with prizes that include cash awards of up to $1,500. Awards will go to a travel and tourism research paper by a student enrolled in a university degree program and the best doctoral dissertation on a subject directly related to travel and tourism, among others.
