Long Beach, Calif.-based Polar Air Cargo has become the Air Transport Association's 21st U.S. airline member. Polar operates 12 747 freighters in scheduled and chartered cargo service. ATA President Carol Hallett said, "We continue to look for ways to be of service to our cargo members...whether it be the maintenance and operation of aircraft or help in improving the way the Customs Service inspects and processes air cargo shipments." Polar Chief Executive Edwin Wallace is expected to be elected to the ATA board at the December board meeting.
The Orient Airlines Association (OAA), which has been supporting the Air Transport Association on the local operators' committee in ATA's opposition to the City of Los Angeles' attempts to increase landing fees and divert revenues from Los Angeles Airport, has established its own Los Angeles-based committee to monitor the situation.
Midwest Express Holdings launched an initial public offering (IPO) Friday for 4.5 million shares of common stock at $18 per share (DAILY, Aug. 2). Upon completion of the IPO, Midwest Express Holdings will own Milwaukee-based Midwest Express Airlines and Astral Aviation, which operates Skyway Airlines, Midwest Express's commuter affiliate. All shares in the offering will be sold by an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Kimberly-Clark Corp., which will retain 20% to 30% ownership of Midwest Express Holdings.
Reno Air's board appointed Robert Reding, president and chief operating officer, as chief executive. Chairman Lee Hydeman was acting chief executive for about one year.
U.S. and Japan will convene the first post-crisis round of aviation negotiations tomorrow in Washington. Devoted entirely to all-cargo service, the talks will address capacity, designation and other issues, including intermodal and charter rights. The countries seek agreement by March. No date has been set for the second round. Also tomorrow, the U.S. will begin negotiations in Hong Kong, looking to replace the current Bermuda 2 coverage with a separate bilateral.
Orient Airlines Association Director General Richard Stirland said IATA's forecast for Asia/Pacific traffic growth is too conservative, and the region may account for at least half of the world's traffic 10 years sooner than IATA's projection of 2010. Speaking last week at the International Aviation Club in Washington, Stirland said China has made great strides in improving air traffic control, rating its ATC system at five on a scale of 10. A Chinese member of the audience objected, giving China ATC a three.
Air traffic control equipment outages or failures have caused 11 operational errors during the past two years, according to Monte Belger, FAA associate administrator for air traffic services. This does not necessarily mean that the aircraft involved were in danger of colliding, Belger said, only that they came closer to each other than minimum separation distances allow.
Lacsa asked DOT to renew its authority to operate combination service between San Jose, Costa Rica, and Tampa, Fla. The Costa Rican carrier also asked for continued authority to co-terminalize this service with its authority to serve Orlando. Lacsa is not operating on the route but is "evaluating its service options" and wants authority to begin service "without delay." (Docket 49221&OST-95-655)
The National Air Carriers Association joined several U.S. carriers in urging DOT to allow additional time beyond Sept. 29 for comment on the joint antitrust immunity request of Delta, Swissair, Sabena and Austrian Airways. NACA said it needs more time, "not only to analyze and prepare its comments, but also to coordinate these comments with several of its members." Earlier, American, TWA, United and USAir filed a joint motion requesting the comment period on the immunity be extended 30 days (DAILY, Sept. 19).
All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines applied to DOT for one-year renewals of their authority to operate scheduled combination service between Osaka's Kansai Airport and Guam, and Sendai and Honolulu, respectively. In each case, the carrier seeks to succeed a renewal that was limited to six months as it became embroiled in last spring's overall aviation dispute between Japan and the U.S.
America West's board authorized Friday the purchase of up to 2.5 million shares of its Class B common stock. The purchases will be made as circumstances warrant over the next two years. The airline also said it is seeking approval to redistribute about 2.4 million shares of its Class B common stock following the resolution of certain claims that were disputed at the time of its emergence from Chapter 11 in August 1994.
Swissair is offering discounts on transatlantic economy-class fares purchased by Sept. 28 for travel between Nov. 1 and Feb. 29. Midweek fares to Switzerland range from $468 roundtrip from New York and Boston to $678 roundtrip from Los Angeles. Weekend fares are $70 higher. The fares are available from New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Chicago and Los Angeles. Minimum stay is five days and the maximum is 30 days. Blackout dates and other restrictions apply.
United is getting less than 95% dispatch reliability from the Boeing 777 three months after the aircraft's entry into service. Airbus Industrie's A330 and A340 were doing better after three months, at 98.4% and 98.7%, but the 777 is doing better than the 767's 92.4% and the 747-400's 89.5%.
National Transportation Safety Board will begin wake vortex flight tests today at the FAA Technical Center as part of its continuing investigation into the USAir 737 crash last September. The board wants information on the effects of wake turbulence from a 727 on a trailing 737. The USAir aircraft was four miles behind a 727 when it went down.
Gemini Air Cargo, a new air freight leasing and management company based in Reston, Va., said it "acquired the purchase rights" to six DC-10- 30 aircraft from Potomac Financial Group (PFG). Gemini said it is modifying them to a cargo configuration under an agreement with Aeronavali, a freighter conversion company, and it plans to lease them on a dry or wet basis. PFG said the AGES Group has divested itself of financial interest in PFG and the conversion program. William Stockbridge, president of PFG, also is an investor in Gemini.
Boeing is joining four companies to pursue FAA's $1 billion-plus Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) contract, DAILY affiliate ATC Market Report has learned. The aerospace giant is represented on a team headed by Oracle Telecomputing, with BDM, MCI and Formation as members. The partners are expected to go public on teaming later this week.
Granted orally an exemption to Societe Nouvelle Air Martinique to operate scheduled combination service between Fort de France, Martinique, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, as well as charters...Granted orally an exemption to Mexicana to operate scheduled combination service between Morelia, Mexico, and Chicago...Granted orally an exemption to Canada 3000 to operate scheduled combination service between any point or points in Canada and any point or points in the U.S....
British Midland's systemwide passenger volume rose 13% during the first six months of 1995 to 2.35 million from 2.08 million in the first half of 1994. The international passenger count increased 8.4% and the domestic volume 20.8%. British Midland said its domestic passenger volume was boosted by a 13.4% rise on major U.K. domestic trunk routes, London Heathrow-Belfast and Edinburgh-Glasgow. The airline said these routes have benefited "significantly" from its code-share alliances with other airlines.
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association has issued an alert by telephone and 80,000 mailgrams, asking members to oppose the Senate DOT appropriations bill and the new Senate FAA reform bill. "The Administration has cashed in its privatization gambit to back unjustified new charges on aviation," said AOPA President Phil Boyer. "It is time to make our opposition absolutely clear."
Granted orally an exemption to Balkan Bulgarian Airlines renewing its authority to operate scheduled combination service between Sofia, Bulgaria, and co-terminal points Detroit and New York. It amended the authority to add Malta as an intermediate point on the route, with local Sofia- Detroit/New York traffic rights...Granted orally an exemption to ALM Antillean Airlines renewing its authority to serve Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, as an intermediate point on its Curaao-Miami operations.
After a week of negotiations in London, the U.S. and U.K. failed to reach an agreement increasing access for U.S. carriers to London Heathrow. "I am disappointed that, after all the time and effort we have spent to liberalize aviation relations with the U.K., the current round of negotiations in London has not resulted in an agreement," said DOT Secretary Federico Pena in a terse statement Friday.
Airlines will get another two-year exemption from paying the transportation fuel tax if a tax bill before the House Ways and Means Committee goes the distance. The airline exemption was added to the bill, introduced Thursday and expected to be acted on this week.
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey officials said last week that Aviation Director David Plavin has resigned from his post, effective Oct. 15. Current Deputy Director of Aviation Gerald Fitzgerald will become acting director at that time. Plavin joined the port authority as chief financial officer in September 1986 and was appointed aviation director in June 1989.
The issue of job security, the main source of contention for the Machinists union unit at Boeing and the hardest demand for the company to meet, has led to a strike authorization vote by union members. Negotiators began talks Aug. 4, and will start round-the-clock bargaining Wednesday. Whatever contract proposal results will go to employees Oct. 3, and if it is rejected and a two-thirds majority votes to strike, 34,000 Boeing workers in Seattle, Wichita, Portland and Spokane could walk off the job at midnight Oct. 5.
