Northwest will inaugurate year-round service between Minneapolis and Anchorage Oct. 1. It currently operates the service only during the summer. The carrier will eliminate its nonstop service to Anchorage from Seattle and redeploy aircraft from that route to the Minneapolis service.
United plans to ban smoking on its San Francisco-Taipei service Sept. 1 and on new Chicago-London Heathrow service when it is launched on Sept. 12. The airline said it is responding to passenger demand, and feedback on its other smoke-free international flights, including all flights to Australia, England, New Zealand and Switzerland, has been overwhelmingly positive. United serves Taipei with a Boeing 747-400 and plans to fly to London from Chicago with a 767-300.
Sabena likely will announce within the next month an order for about 15 70- to 80-seat aircraft, the airline confirmed. The carrier is considering the Fokker 70 and the Avro RJ85 but has not made a decision. If the Belgian airline is getting input from Swissair, which recently won approval to take a 49.5% in Sabena, it likely will go with the Avro. Earlier this year, Swissair dumped its Fokker 100s and transferred operations of its smaller jets, 100 seats or fewer, to subsidiary Crossair. It then ordered 12 Avro RJ100s for Crossair.
DOT's decision last September to include mechanical delays in airline on- time reports "was the correct one," 12 members of the House Transportation aviation subcommittee told DOT Secretary Federico Pena in an Aug. 4 letter. The members, including committee Chairman Bud Shuster (R-Pa.) and subcommittee Chairman John Duncan (R-Tenn.), said that "excluding certain types of delays reduces the integrity of the data and its value to the consumer."
Granted orally an exemption to America West for scheduled service between Phoenix and Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo...Granted orally an exemption to Aerovias de Mexico for scheduled combination service between San Jose del Cabo and San Diego...Granted orally an exemption to Compania de Aviacion (Faucett) for scheduled service from Santo Domingo/Puerto Plata and San Juan to Miami and New York until Dec. 31...Granted orally an exemption to Northwest for scheduled service between points in the U.S. and Edinburgh and Glasgow via London Gatwick, and between the U.S.
Frontier Airlines' July load factor was 49.7%, up from 25.2% in July 1994, the first month of flight operations for the Denver-based carrier. Frontier boarded 48,847 passengers last month, up from 5,922 a year earlier. Frontier's July 1995 load factor was 4.2 points higher than June's.
FAA, as expected, published Friday in the Federal Register its proposed comprehensive overhaul of pilot training rules, which it has been working on since September 1987 (DAILY, Aug. 11). The agency asked for comments by Dec. 11. The proposed revisions would change the certification and training requirements for pilots, flight instructors and ground instructors and the operation of pilot schools that are approved by FAA.
All Nippon Airways' international passenger volume increased 28.5% in June from the same month last year, to 158,046. The airline's international passenger load factor declined 0.8 points to 67%. ANA's domestic passenger volume for the month rose 6.6% to nearly 2.8 million, and its domestic load factor slipped 0.3 points to 58.3%.
- In Federal Register dated Aug. 4...Issued an airworthiness directive on AlliedSignal TPE331 and TSE331 engines requiring a record check for work done by Fliteline Maintenance. - In FR dated Aug. 7...Proposed an AD on certain Fairchild SA226 aircraft to require replacing the main landing gear door actuator tang.
Korean Air will offer non-smoking service on its transpacific and Oceania flights, effective Sept. 1. The offer includes flights between Seoul and Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, Vancouver and Toronto. Smokers will be accommodated on other Korean Air flights between Los Angeles and Tokyo, New York and Seoul, Los Angeles and Sao Paulo and Los Angeles and Seoul.
Travel Distribution 2000 conference, sponsored by the CRS Update newsletter, will mount two seminars devoted to the airline distribution system. One will focus on using booking and marketing tapes to cut costs, with panel discussions by executives from Delta, Air France and Lufthansa. The other will be on direct distribution by airlines, with managers from United, ValuJet and America West. The conference will be held Sept. 11-13 at the ANA Hotel in Washington, D.C. For more information, call 301-738-7927.
USAir has received a civil investigative demand from the Justice Department, requiring it to produce information on what DOJ called "possible predatory behavior" toward ValuJet and Nations Air Express. USAir said it will comply with the CID and denied predatory actions against the new entrants.
AAR Allen Group International named Jim Clark general manager-aircraft component maintenance facility, The Netherlands. Astra Jet Corporation appointed Walter Kraujalis director-Galaxy program. Cooper Industries board elected President H. John Riley to the additional position of chief executive. Flight Visions Inc. named Ivan Yung project manager-civilian aircraft programs. Goodkind&O'Dea named Anthony Cecere regional manager-New England.
Atlas Air said Friday it has begun an initial public offering of four million shares of common stock at $16 per share. The Golden, Colo.-based air cargo carrier operates 747 freighters on behalf of such major international airlines as KLM, Lufthansa, China Airlines, Varig and, soon, British Airways. The offering is managed by Merrill Lynch&Co. and Smith Barney.
FAA's designation of Peggy Gilligan, deputy to Anthony Broderick, associate administrator for regulation and certification, to oversee a task force on suspected unapproved parts, raised some eyebrows last week. In May, the DOT inspector general criticized Broderick, questioning his commitment to detecting such parts.
Alaska Airlines named William Ayer VP-marketing and planning. Federal Express promoted Robert Shirley to VP-sales, FedEx Logistics Services; Eugene Bastedo to VP-internal audit; Christopher Hjelm to VP- international systems, and Thomas Martin to VP-corporate communications. Island Air promoted Rosie Nenezich to director-airport services. Martinair Holland appointed Richard Saylor VP-passenger sales.
Overall business travel costs will increase 5.2% in 1996, according to the consulting firm Runzheimer International. The company believes air travel costs will increase 5%, lodging 7%, meals 3% and car rentals 5%.
EVA Airways plans to launch service from Taipei to Brisbane and on to Auckland, with fifth-freedom rights in both directions. It will operate the new service weekly, routed Taipei-Brisbane-Auckland-Brisbane-Taipei, with a 767-300ER. EVA began Taipei-Sydney-Brisbane service in September 1993 and now offers four flights a week between Taipei and Australia. It launched twice-weekly Taipei-Auckland service last September.
Boeing 777-200 maintenance training simulator built by Thomson Training&Simulation for All Nippon Airways has become the first 777 simulator to enter service in the Far East. The simulator achieved Japanese Civil Aeronautics Board approval July 20.
Air Canada, North America's first operator of the A340, is negotiating with Airbus Industrie about the proposed A340-8000, which the airline would like for nonstop flights between Toronto and Hong Kong. Air Canada Chairman Hollis Harris said the carrier may even slide some A340-300 high gross weight aircraft delivery positions to bring the Dash 8000 into the fleet as soon as possible.
General Electric Aircraft Engines settled a 1993 whistleblower lawsuit filed by former GE engineer Ian Johnson, agreeing to pay $7 million - $1.7 million of it to Johnson - despite FAA and Air Force evidence discrediting Johnson's claims. The Air Force asked GE to settle the case to avoid the disruption and expense of a trial, and GE said it did so "in the interest of good customer relations." The $7 million will pay for government testing and investigative costs as well as the award to Johnson.
Collins Commercial Avionics said Airbus Industrie is accelerating the certification schedules for Collins's Series 900 avionics equipment on A319/A320 and A330/A340 aircraft at the request of airline customers.
British Airways put travel to 23 cities in Continental Europe and Israel on sale in a new round of "World Offers." BA, which rolls out the promotion periodically to sell off surplus capacity, said the new World Offers fares will be available for purchase through Aug. 28 for travel Sept. 17 through Oct. 31. Fares are non-refundable and require five-day minimum and 30-day maximum stays. Full payment and ticketing are required within one day of reservation, except for travel to Israel, which requires a 21-day advance purchase.
KLM did not add much capacity in its North American and intra-European markets during the first half of the year - just 0.8% and 0.6%, respectively - but it did a good job of filling the capacity it did offer. The carrier's load factor increased a healthy 3.6 percentage points on North American routes and 1.8 points in the European market, while the Asia/Pacific load factor declined 3.5 points.
