AirTran Airways has signed a letter of intent with Pacific Aviation Corp. to lease its ninth and 10th Boeing 737-200 aircraft, according to parent company AirWays Corp. The airplanes, to be placed in service in February, are powered by hushkit-equipped Pratt&Whitney JT8D-9A engines. They will be configured for 126 seats. AirTran Airways, which began flight operations in October, currently operates a fleet of seven 737s between Orlando and 17 cities. It plans to acquire an eighth 737 in December.
DOT issued an order Friday citing concerns about security at Eldorado Airport in Bogota, Colombia. In the order, Secretary Federico Pena said he found that the airport "does not maintain and administer security measures." The determination comes after an FAA assessment indicated that security measures used at the airport do not meet the standards established by the International Civil Aviation Organization. DOT said service into the airport can be continued if proper precautions are taken.
American Society of Travel Agents' top priority in developing new services for members is ASTAnet, an Internet World Wide Web site that could become the world's largest retail travel sales network. It would provide information about the association and a link to members' home pages.
Associated Air Freight appointed Dennis Kuhlman regional service manager-West. Parsons named Doug Pitts president-Parsons Latin America. Raytheon Aircraft named Scott Kalister VP-international sales, Latin America/Far East of the Raytheon International division. Rockwell named Earl Washington senior VP-corporate communications. Titan Corporation named Brian Mertes VP and chief operating officer of subsidiary Titan Information Systems Corporation.
Efforts to gain access to Tokyo Haneda Airport for business jet aircraft seem to have made progress. "After numerous informal negotiations, we understand that JBAA [the Japan Business Aircraft Association] has won approval to obtain landing slots for general [aviation] aircraft in late 1996," Rust Deming, charge d'affaires ad interim in Toyko, said in a letter to Sen. Larry Pressler (R-S.D.).
Air Transport Association attacks as "laughable if not ludicrous" a National Association of Railroad Passengers claim that trains are the safest bad-weather transportation mode. NARP is looking for Amtrak access to highway gasoline tax money, and ATA notes that rail is the only transportation mode that does not pay fees into a trust fund.
The Orient Airlines Association (OAA) has endorsed a tentative agreement on air carrier liability that would lead to an increase in worldwide passenger liability limits to more than $350,000 (DAILY, June 27). The agreement, hammered out this summer at the International Air Transport Association's Airline Liability Conference in Washington, D.C., will be considered at the IATA Annual General Meeting in Kuala Lumpur at the end of October.
AAR Corp. reported that net income for the quarter ended Aug. 31 rose 60.9% to $3.2 million from $2 million. Net sales increased 12.8% to $109.6 million from $97.2 million.
USAir is seeking authority to operate scheduled combination service between co-terminal points Philadelphia and Boston and the co-terminal points Madrid, Barcelona, Malaga and Palma de Mallorca, Spain. If approved, the carrier plans to begin service May 1, 1996, with daily nonstop roundtrip services between Madrid and Philadelphia/Boston, using Boeing 767-200ER aircraft. USAir said the service is "explicitly authorized" under the U.S.-Spain bilateral and would benefit the two U.S. cities.
United called in hundreds of its maintenance managers to its San Francisco maintenance base last week for human factors training in maintenance resource management (MRM) techniques, intended to help them train the mechanics and technicians who work for them. John Goglia, a new member of the National Transportation Safety Board, addressed several of the training sessions, drawing on his experience in developing the MRM program for USAir. Goglia is the first working airframe and powerplant mechanic to serve as an NTSB member.
Lufthansa Senior VP-The Americas Frederick Reid, who has been based in Frankfurt since joining the carrier a few years ago, has opened an office on Long Island, N.Y., to be closer to the markets for which he is responsible. Reid also has moved his residence to New York but will maintain an office in Frankfurt.
Continental Express continues its fleet renewal project, leading some observers to believe that Dornier may not have had quite the inside track as previously indicated (DAILY, July 28). COX is a major Brasilia customer, and Embraer would like the carrier to be the U.S. launch customer for the new EMB-145 50-passenger regional jet. On the other hand, John Sterne, the ATR salesman who sold COX its ATR 42 fleet, is now with Saab, which would like to see its 340BPlus and 2000 high-speed turboprop in Continental Express livery. And don't count out ATR.
Mesaba is renewing its executive suites and board room with the recent arrival of Bryan Bedford from Business Express. Former RAA President Alan Stephen and three others are off the board in favor of four Northwest executives; another former RAA president, John Fredericksen, VP and COO, has been bumped upstairs to VP-finance, administration and general counsel, making room for Darrell Richardson, a Bedford crony from Express Airlines I (related story below). Bedford's former BizEx begins Minneapolis-Aspen RJ70 service for Northwest this fall.
Federal Express's August quarter net earnings rose 23% to $75.3 million, or $1.33 per share, from $61.1 million, or $1.08 per share, in the same quarter a year ago. The August quarter is the first quarter of the company's fiscal year. Revenues for the quarter rose 10% to $2.45 billion, and operating expenses increased 10.3% to $2.3 billion. The company's operating profit increased 4.3% to $149.2 million.
Samuel Hill, a former chief pilot for several corporations, is the new president of Embraer Aircraft Corp., the U.S. office of Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer. Hill, 49, joins Embraer from the Brooke Group Ltd., where he was director of aviation for the Miami-based investment firm, as well as president of MilBrooke Helicopter Ltd. and L Aviation Inc. At Embraer, Hill will be responsible for the administrative, technical and product support, training, sales and marketing operations at the company's Fort Lauderdale, Fla., headquarters.
Former Braniff International Airlines owner and chairman, Jeffrey Chodorow, pleaded guilty yesterday to two felony counts for impeding DOT's airline continuing fitness program and obstructing enforcement of aviation statutes. Chodorow was accused of concealing the continued involvement of Scot Spencer in the management of the carrier after DOT banned him from the company.
Horizon Air is seeking authority to operate between any point in the U.S. and any point in Canada. Currently operating Seattle- Vancouver/Victoria/Calgary and Portland-Vancouver service, the carrier said it plans to startup in late 1995 between Seattle and Edmonton, Alberta. The carrier said it will use Fokker F28-1000, de Havilland Dash 8, Dornier 328 and/or Metro III aircraft to serve the markets. The broad request is subject to restrictions on service to Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver included in the U.S.-Canada bilateral. (Docket OST-95-634)
Regional-airline capacity increased slightly ahead of traffic during August, according to a DAILY sampling of 12 regional carriers. Available seat miles increased an average of 16.87%, compared with an average gain of 16.81% for revenue passenger miles. Traffic for five carriers actually declined during the month, led by United Express Atlantic Coast, which has substantially downsized and consolidated its Washington Dulles-based operations. ACA likewise led in capacity reduction, which exceeded that of traffic by about two percentage points - 17.38% to 15.23%.
Summary Of The Air Traffic Management System Performance Act Of 1995 (S.1239) Introduced Sept. 13 by Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Wendell Ford (D-Ky.) and Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.) A. Governance: 1. FAA Administrator is appointed for a five-year term and confirmed by the Senate. 2. Personnel and procurement decisions are made by FAA
The overallotment option on Reno Air's offering of senior convertible notes was exercised and closed this week, the airline said. The overallotment provides about $3.6 million in additional proceeds. "We're pleased with the oversubscription for our offering," said Reno President Robert Reding. Reno announced the sale of $25 million principal amount of 9% senior convertible notes due 2002 on Aug. 15. The overallotment option represents an additional $3.75 million principal amount of notes sold this week to cover oversubsciptions.
Lawyers in the $2 -million TPI International Airways breach-of- contract suit against the U.S. Air Force have submitted their final briefs to the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals (ASBCA). If the board decides the case on sheer weight - of the documents, rather than evidence - the Air Force will win hands down. Its brief weighed in at one pound, four ounces, compared with four ounces for the TPI document. The government brief left one reporter wondering if he had sat in on the same ASBCA hearings as the Air Force lawyers.
Atlantic Southeast's August passenger traffic slipped 0.2% from the same month last year on 1% less capacity, resulting in a load factor increase of 0.4 percentage points. The number of passengers boarded declined 0.1%. Through the first eight months of this year, ASA's traffic fell 1.6% on 2.8% more capacity, pushing the airline's load factor down two points to 44.9%. August 1995 August 1994 8 Mths 1995 8 Mths 1994 RPMs 67,383,622 67,505,532 505,415,823 513,430,145
