TWA has asked DOT to order the City and County of Denver to refund the "unlawful" increase in rates and charges it has paid at Denver International Airport because of a lease agreement between Denver and United and Continental. TWA said the basic rental rate rose 15% from $61.98 per square foot to $71.03, resulting in airlines other than Continental paying $10 million annually in rental payments that would have been made by Continental.
Delta recently filed articles of incorporation to establish a non- profit organization - Delta Air Transport Heritage Museum - to oversee, fund and operate a museum and aircraft restoration studio. Delta retirees have lobbied for several years to establish a museum in Atlanta to house a DC-3, other historic memorabilia and the airline's first passenger aircraft.
Washington Dulles-based United Express affiliate Atlantic Coast Airlines' revenue passenger miles dropped 15% in May to 30.4 million from 35.7 million as capacity declined more than twice as fast - 30.25% to 59.5 million available seat miles from 85.3 million. As a result, the load factor jumped more than nine percentage points to 51% from 41.9%. The regional carried 124,032 passengers last month, a 12.24% decline from May 1994's 141,325 enplanements.
AAR Corp., reporting preliminary results, said yesterday it expects net sales for its fourth quarter ended May 31 to increase 7.9% to a record $129.5 million from $120 million in the same quarter last year. Net income is expected to increase 45% to $3.5 million from $2.4 million. For the fiscal year, net income is expected to climb 10.2% to $10.5 million as net sales increase 10.6% to $451 million.
Rapidly emerging electronic ticket distribution systems are raising legal issues of liability and consumer protection, and antitrust and price fixing, according to a panel at the American Bar Association's Forum on Air&Space Law yesterday. The trend toward ticketless travel and other electronic methods eventually will lead to problems because of the lack of documentation and potential for misunderstanding between the customer and the seller on issues such as ticket price, overcharges that are not known right away and incorrect reservations.
Air Transportation Holding Company Inc., the corporate parent of Mountain Air Cargo, Inc., logged net earnings of nearly $1.6 million, or 48 cents per share, for its fiscal year ended March 31, compared with just under $2.3 million, or 69 cents per share, in the prior fiscal year. Operating revenues totaled nearly $33 million, up from $30.7 million. Denver, N.C.-based Mountain Air Cargo operates a large fleet of small aircraft, including single-engine Cessna Caravans, for cargo operations.
House Appropriations transportation subcommittee yesterday recommended $12.224 billion in discretionary spending for DOT in fiscal 1996 - including $8.3 billion for FAA - a $1.4 billion reduction from enacted 1995 budget levels. The panel recommended $4.6 billion in FAA operations funding, a $104 million reduction from DOT's proposal (DAILY, Feb. 7). Subcommittee Chairman Frank Wolf (R-Va.) said operational cuts in the bill will maintain full funding for air traffic control revitalization and the hiring of about 65 FAA safety inspectors.
Air Canada began service to Tel Aviv this week, its first flights to the Middle East operated with its own aircraft, and the only service to Israel on a Canadian carrier. It is operating two weekly nonstops from Toronto with a 767-300ER that seats 35 in Executive First class. Senior VP- Marketing and Inflight Service Robert Milton said the carrier spent time ensuring that the market's unique requirements are incorporated into the service, such as storing reading material in Hebrew and Arabic, as well as the usual English and French.
European Union members seemed no closer to consensus yesterday on European Commission ground-handling competition proposals than they were before Tuesday's initial discussions on the subject by EU transport ministers. Meeting in Luxembourg, the ministers divided into familiar camps:
As rivals try to map out strategic plans to create $1 billion businesses, GE Aircraft Engines has combined its support, overhaul, repair and parts units into a single organization already approaching $2 billion in sales with double-digit growth prospects.
China Airlines will open a representative office in Dubai. Announcement of the opening follows an earlier statement that CAL will begin passenger service to Dubai on July 16 with the inauguration of its new Taipei-Dubai- Rome route.
FAA said yesterday it plans to order U.S. airlines to replace the software in Honeywell windshear detection systems on 1,618 transport aircraft because they may not give pilots enough warning that they are encountering windshear when the aircraft's flaps are in motion. FAA's action stems from a recommendation by the National Transportation Safety Board following an investigation of the July 2, 1994, crash of a USAir DC-9 attempting to land at Charlotte, N.C., which killed 37 passengers.
Abacus Distribution Systems has implemented an X.400-based electronic messaging system in its Singapore headquarters and at national marketing companies in Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. The system enables the companies to communicate with Abacus via LAN-based E-mail. Abacus's total investment for the messaging system is about S$600,000. It also will enhance communications with business partners worldwide.
TWA is asking DOT to deny World Airways' application for a temporary allocation of five weekly frequencies to conduct scheduled combination service between the U.S. and South Africa. "World's application ignores the existence of two competing applications for frequency allocation, on which the department must act at the same time it considers allocations to World," TWA said. TWA and United also applied for the frequencies held by USAfrica, which is reorganizing in Chapter 11 and trying to hold on to them so it can restart service this year (DAILY, June 9).
Sabre Decision Technologies has signed a contract with BAA plc to license and install StaffPlan and StaffRoster at London Heathrow and Gatwick. The systems schedule and keep track of security staff and special services personnel. StaffPlan, which will be used in about three months, aids in more efficiently judging workload. BAA already uses StaffRoster.
British Airways will transfer its Central and Eastern Africa service from London Heathrow to London Gatwick next year in an effort to expand its long-haul network at Gatwick and make room for increasing demand at Heathrow. Next spring, BA will begin operating long-haul flights to six African destinations - Lusaka, Entebbe, Nairobi, Dar Es Salam, Harare and Lilongwe - from Gatwick's North Terminal. To accommodate the new service, the carrier said it is adding four Boeing 747s, three 767s and a DC-10 to its Gatwick fleet.
Malaysia Airlines has applied at DOT for authority to operate scheduled combination service between points in Malaysia and the U.S. co-terminal point San Francisco. The carrier plans to provide all-cargo services under a commercial arrangement with World Airways. Beginning July 5, the carrier wants to begin all-cargo service on a Kuala Lumpur/Penang-San Francisco-Los Angeles routing under the arrangement with World. The flight will be performed using MD-11 freighter aircraft operated by World.
LTU Lufttransport-Unternehmen has asked DOT for authority to operate scheduled combination service between Germany and Daytona, Fla. LTU wants to offer a weekly flight on Dusseldorf-Daytona Beach-San Andres, and Colombia-Daytona Beach-Dusseldorf routings, beginning Nov. 2. There will be no local traffic between Daytona Beach and San Andres.
The Air Line Pilots Association is supporting the nomination of AFL-CIO Secretary/Treasurer Thomas Donahue for president. Donahue has supported the efforts of airline pilots in the past, most notably at Eastern, Continental and TWA, ALPA President Randy Babbitt said. "He represents the kind of progressive thinking that will be needed to face organized labor's many challenges."
Dutch government and the U.S. have signed the world's first bilateral air safety agreement, the Dutch said. The accord is geared to promoting the highest air safety standards through close collaboration between civil aviation authorities. Collaboration will focus on certification of airworthiness, environmental tests and flight simulator assessments.
Competition authorities of the European Commission this week approved a second tranche of public aid worth 5 billion French francs for state-owned flag carrier Air France. It is the second installment of a total capital increase of FF20 billion, authorized by Brussels last July, although subject to certain restrictions. The Commission said approval of the third tranche will depend on progress achieved regarding the restructuring plan struck with Air France when the subsidy initially was agreed.
Denro Inc. said its 100th small tower voice switch (STVS) will be installed at FAA's San Carlos, Calif., air traffic control tower in October. Denro has delivered 80 STVS systems through May and has another 67 on order, as well as options for 147. The system integrates air-to-ground and ground- to-ground communications.
Boeing 737 Systemwide Aircraft Utilization Per Day Fourth Quarter 1994 B737-300 America West Continental Delta Number of Aircraft Operated 33 58 13 Total Fleet Operations Departures 211 370 71 Block Hours 364 614 115
