Declaring that Continental is not the same airline it was a year ago, Chief Executive Gordon Bethune yesterday reported second quarter net earnings of $102 million, the highest quarterly profit in the carrier's 61-year history. Earnings per share reached $3.02, more than double the Wall Street consensus for the quarter and 60% higher than the Street's estimate for the full year, and the operating profit was $109.8 million. For the six months ended June 30, Continental posted net earnings of $71.8 million, or $2.31 per share, and an operating profit of $137.3 million.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Bob Packwood (R-Ore.) asked a Treasury Department official yesterday at a Finance Committee hearing whether the Clinton administration would support a phase-in of the commercial jet fuel tax if the administration cannot back either a repeal or continued full exemption for airlines. Cynthia Beerbower, Treasury's deputy assistant secretary for tax policy, responded that the panel should not unravel the transportation fuel taxes deal struck in 1993.
Concentra Corp. has entered the sales force automation market with the release of Selling Point, a software product that supports three components of face-to-face sales calls - customer needs assessment, product configuration and proposal generation.
Delta has formed a Corporate Planning department to develop strategy and coordinate the development of operating and capital plans and business plans for each fiscal year. VP-Corporate Planning Julius Gwin, formerly VP-finance, will head the department, which includes the Strategic Planning group, headed by Hiram Cox, director-strategic planning, and a newly formed Annual Planning and Process Design group, headed by Beth Johnston, general manager-annual planning and process design. The latter group includes the Methods unit, formerly part of the Personnel Division.
Saying it does not oppose the service, Federal Express asked DOT to defer action on EVA Airways application for Taipei-Washington authority until the government of Taiwan allows FedEx to construct and operate its planned cargo handling facility and flight operations center at Chiang Kai Shek Airport. EVA seeks extrabilateral authority to operate three times weekly on the route via Los Angeles, starting Dec. 12, and use 747-400 aircraft. Washington area authorities are boosting EVA's bid.
Air Canada's systemwide passenger traffic increased 15% last month over June a year ago on 12.2% more capacity, pushing its load factor up 1.6 percentage points to 67.4%. The airline's domestic traffic rose 9.2% and its international traffic, which accounts for more than half of its systemwide total, grew 19.2%. Through the first six months of this year, Air Canada's systemwide traffic increased 10.1% on 14.2% more capacity, reducing the load factor 2.2 points to 60.6%. June 95 June 94 6 Mths 95 6 Mths 94
National Transportation Safety Board says it is pleased FAA agrees that Boeing 737 aircraft operated under 14 CFR 121 or 125 should be equipped with flight data recorders with expanded parameters, but it is disappointed that its recommended compliance date of Dec. 31 will not be met. The recommendation came from NTSB's investigation of the USAir Flight 427 crash near Pittsburgh Sept. 8. NTSB said FDRs should record lateral acceleration, flight control inputs for pitch, roll and yaw, and primary flight control surface positions for pitch, roll and yaw.
Citing the recent U.S.-U.K. deal allowing U.S. airlines to offer services between any point in the U.S. and any point in the U.K. except London Heathrow and Gatwick, Northwest has applied for authority to operate to a host of U.K. cities. The carrier said it plans to begin the services by Sept. 15, operating all of them via Amsterdam under code-sharing arrangements with KLM and Air U.K. With KLM operating Amsterdam-U.K. segments, Northwest would serve Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff and Southampton. Expanded code sharing with Air U.K.
Teamsters union lost an election to represent cockpit crew at Polar Air Cargo, Long Beach, Calif. The National Mediation Board yesterday counted 30 votes for the union out of 108 eligible voters. The Air Line Pilots Association received four write-in votes.
American and United have stepped up their dispute over rights to serve the Los Angeles-Guadalajara market. Saying it was proposing an earlier startup and greater capacity than United, American challenged DOT's tentative selection of United for scheduled combination service on the route (DAILY, July 6). American now says it is committed to operating a daily roundtrip on the route by Aug. 16 and increasing the total to three per day Aug. 31. "Under United's plan, there would be no service at all until Oct.
Twenty-nine aviation groups in the National Aviation Associations Coalition told key legislators this week they strongly support the basic concept of the so-called Duncan-Lightfoot FAA bill since it addresses the critical areas in need of reform - funding, procurement and personnel. In letters to House Transportation aviation subcommittee Chairman John Duncan (R- Tenn.), Rep.
Although the Air Transport Association says 120,000 airline employees have lost their jobs since 1990, U.S. airline industry employment last year was at its second highest level in history.According to ATA's annual report for 1994, employment for U.S. scheduled airlines totaled 543,325 - only about 2,500 below the 1990 level.
Proposed startup carrier Nashville Air has named airline veteran David Banmiller president and chief executive. The founding president, Charles Caudle, will become chairman. Banmiller is president of The Falcon Group, a holding company involved in aviation consulting. Before forming the company he served as president of Air/Lyon. Banmiller has held senior management positions with TWA, AirCal and American. At AirCal, he was president and chief operating officer.
The U.S. and Japan have scheduled another round of aviation talks tomorrow and Friday in Los Angeles. DOT Secretary Federico Pena and Transport Minister Shizuka Kamei of Japan are to meet Thursday, and separate vice ministerial level talks are planned. The two sides made progress last week in Tokyo and may be nearing an agreement, a U.S. government official said yesterday. Frederick Smith, FedEx president and CEO, and Gerald Greenwald, United chairman and CEO, will testify on U.S.-Japan aviation relations Thursday before the House Transportation aviation subcommittee.
Some of Air France's flight attendants are expected to strike today and tomorrow in an action management is calling "absurd and suicidal." Yesterday afternoon, Air France was bracing to handle a strike expected to force cancellation of 10 long-haul and 40 medium-haul flights, about one- third of its 160 daily Paris operations. Flights from Air France's eight U.S. gateways were expected to operate normally, except for one of its two daily subsonic flights from New York Kennedy, which will be canceled.
U.S. Major Carriers Traffic June, 6 Months 1995 (000) June June % 1995 1994 Change America West Revenue Passenger Miles 1,216,935 1,131,962 7.5 Available Seat Miles 1,624,614 1,503,681 8.0 Load Factor (%) 74.9 75.3 American
U.S. and Japan will hold ministerial-level meetings in San Francisco in a further effort to avert U.S. sanctions against Japanese cargo service, according to a government official. Three days of meetings last week in Tokyo, ending Saturday, failed to produce agreement, the official said. Those talks wound down as the comment and reply period on the show cause order for the proposed sanctions ended Friday.
ValuJet Airlines yesterday reported second quarter net earnings of $16.9 million, or 57 cents per share taking into account the carrier's April 10 two-for-one stock split, and an operating profit of nearly $26 million. The rapidly growing airline's second quarter revenues soared 192.5% from a year ago, to $86.9 million, on triple the traffic and an average fare that increased 3.4% to $66.31. The airline's yield declined 7.4% but its revenue per available seat mile increased 6.4%.
Qatar Airways has signed a contract with Boeing for two 747 aircraft, according to the official Qatari news agency. The report said the first aircraft will be delivered July 27 and the second Aug. 15. It did not say whether the aircraft are new.
ValuJet was expected by some on Wall Street to select Orlando as its next "focus city," but Southwest's announcement last week that it will enter the Florida market in early 1996 with flights to Orlando, Tampa and Fort Lauderdale may put a crimp in those plans.Yesterday, ValuJet Chairman Robert Priddy said he was not surprised by Southwest's move but had not expected it until 1997 or 1998. Nonetheless, he said Southwest's initiative does not preclude ValuJet from starting focus service in Florida.
TWA has ordered 600 LD-8 containers for its 15 767 aircraft. Air Cargo Equipment Corp. is to deliver the containers by November under what was described as a "fairly tight schedule."
USAfrica Airways is urging DOT to deny World Airways' request to serve Johannesburg, South Africa, as a beyond point on its proposed New York- Accra service. USAfrica, whose own operations to South Africa are suspended, took no position on New York-Accra service but noted that the current application is World's third attempt to gain South Africa authority.
Martinair Holland will increase service between Amsterdam and three Florida destinations from nine flights per week to 14, effective Nov. 1, with the start of its winter schedule. Service between Amsterdam Schiphol Airport and Miami will grow from three roundtrips a week to one a day, and the Amsterdam-Orlando rate will rise from four per week to five. Service to Tampa will remain at two roundtrips per week. The carrier will operate 767-300ER and MD-11s in the Florida markets. Also effective Nov. 1, all of Martinair's international flights will be smoke-free.
Delta and Korea Air have signed an agreement to code share on KAL's three weekly Atlanta-Chicago-Seoul flights, beginning Sept. 30, subject to government approval. Also beginning Sept. 30, but separate from the code- sharing arrangement, KAL will purchase seats on three of Delta's six weekly MD-11 flights between Portland and Seoul.
