Boeing yesterday confirmed Saudia Arabian Airlines orders for 23 777-200 and five 747-400 transports, but Douglas said it had been asked by Saudia to delay an announcement of orders for 29 MD-90s and four MD-11 freighters, implying that the Boeing announcement was premature. A Douglas spokesman said contracts were to have been signed within a couple of days, but now it "might be more than a few days." The U.S.
Boeing said more than 8,300 employees have accepted an early-retirement offer, putting the company ahead of its goal to reduce its work force by 12,000 this year. The retirement incentives, the first ever offered by Boeing, were available to 13,000 workers. Boeing laid off 3,300 workers earlier this year, so its employment will total about 105,000 when the retirements take effect July 1.
Tower Air is opposing American's application for emergency allocation of four of the 16 additional Brazil weekly frequencies granted under the new U.S.-Brazil aviation agreement. "All U.S. carriers now serving Brazil desire to increase their frequencies to that country - including Tower," the carrier said, adding that DOT "should consider all such requests and allocate the available frequencies in a fair and equitable manner."
American Trans Air's traffic increased 19.6% in May to 603.7 million revenue passenger miles and year-to-date RPMs jumped 31.5% to 3.6 billion. Available seat miles increased 10.5% in May to 866.7 million, and ASMs for the first five months were up 30.6% to 5.2 billion. In May, the airline carried 55.9% more passengers in scheduled service, and the load factor increased 10.3 percentage points and 5.3 points overall.
American Society of Travel Agents' board of directors has approved the launch of ASTAnet, a World Wide Web site on the Internet, and other programs at its second quarterly meeting in Ho Chi Minh City. Every ASTA member will be listed in the ASTAnet global directory, and ASTA will construct home pages enabling on-line members to conduct business with Internet users. Applied Information Services has been chosen to sell the travel-agent and travel-supplier information displays, and to develop and manage on-line displays for participating agencies.
U.K. passenger and cargo charter carrier Air Foyle Ltd. and HMG Aviation Ltd., the aircraft trading and financing division of Harris Management Group, have entered into a cooperation agreement to provide commercial, financial, operational and technical services to airlines, banks, lessors and investors in the international, commercial aircraft market.
With all but one of nine European countries committed to open skies pacts with the U.S., the European Union may be moving toward a longer-term approach to countering the U.S. initiative. Denmark, Sweden and Norway signed last Friday, leaving only Belgium unsigned. Delayed by a change in government, it is expected to sign in a couple of weeks, said James Tarrant, deputy assistant secretary for transportation affairs in the State Department.
Mexicana is seeking renewal of its authority to operate combination service between Monterrey and Guadalajara, Mexico, on the one hand, and Las Vegas on the other. Although the carrier is not currently serving the market, it wants to retain the authority in case economic conditions warrant a resumption in the future. (Docket 49592)
Aeronaves Del Peru has asked DOT to renew its authority to operate twice- weekly all-cargo service between Lima and Miami. The cargo carrier has permission to operate the service via the intermediate points Panama City, Panama; Guayaquil, Ecuador (blind sector); Bogota and Cali, Colombia (blind sectors). Based in Lima, Aeronaves operates a fleet of Boeing 707 and 727 and Douglas DC-8F aircraft. (Docket 44944)
Reno Air's revenue passenger miles jumped in May to 155.2 million, 18% more than in the same month in 1994, as it carried 314,786 passengers. However, with a rise in available seat miles, the load factor fell from 62.1% to 56.3% for the month.
DHL Worldwide Express began service yesterday through its new mini-hub at Kansas City International Airport. The carrier is operating three new night flights to Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Wichita, Oklahoma City, Omaha and Sioux Falls. It flies 727s from its Cincinnati hub to Kansas City. DHL previously operated from Kansas City Downtown Airport. The move will enable it to offer deliveries about one hour earlier in the morning and pick up packages one and a half hours later in the evening.
Although the average price of airline stock is less than 45% of what it would be had it continued to track the general market average, as it did until 1989, Gruntal Investment Research says it thinks "change is in the wind."As carriers cut costs, "the gap between airline stocks and the overall market should narrow and perhaps even disappear."
Air Canada announced plans to inaugurate nonstop Calgary-Houston service in October yesterday, as it and other carriers launched services between the U.S. and two Canadian points, Toronto and Montreal. Canadian and code- sharing partner American began operating 12 daily nonstops from Toronto to New York LaGuardia. Kevin Jenkins, CAI's president and chief executive, said, "Unrestricted access to the U.S. was the biggest piece missing from Canadian Airlines' international route network."
A Texas District Court judge has agreed with American that the airline has the right to change the mileage requirements of its frequent flyer program for a free ticket, and has dismissed a lawsuit filed by an AAdvantage member.
The value of U.S. airline company stocks slipped 2% in May despite a stock market surge that pushed the value of the Dow Jones Industrial Average up 3.3% to 4465.14. The combined market value of the 19 stocks tracked by The DAILY declined to $26.72 billion at the end of May from $27.26 billion at the end of April, likely as a result of profit-taking. The performance of the three primary transportation indices was mixed in May. While the New York Stock Exchange composite rose 3.3%, the Dow 20 fell 1.4% and the S&P 20 slipped 0.3%.
Air Canada took delivery of its first Airbus A340 on Friday, becoming the first North American operator of the four-engine, long-haul jet. The aircraft, the first of two A340-300s leased from International Lease Finance Corp., is configured to accommodate 284 passengers in Air Canada's standard two-class layout. The second leased aircraft is scheduled for delivery on June 23. The arrival of the A340s will enable Air Canada to increase its Toronto-Vancouver-Osaka service to daily frequency June 30.
Lufthansa and United plan to increase the availability of smoke-free flights between the U.S. and Germany on July 1. The non-smoking operation will be added to United-operated code-share Flights 940/941 between Chicago and Frankfurt and Lufthansa-operated code-share Flights 3530/3531 between Chicago and Munich, and Flights 3502/3503 between Washington Dulles and Frankfurt.
Mahalo Air is adopting one fare of $42 for all flights. It has lowered its fare to Kapalua, West Maui, from $49, and on July 1, will raise fares to all other destinations, served with ATR-42s, from $35 to $42. The carrier said it offers the lowest unrestricted tariffs in interisland markets, and even though its competitors match, they only do so on a selected, capacity- controlled basis.
SAS and its pilots unions signed a new collective bargaining agreement early Friday morning after a week of intense negotiations and labor unrest in which pilot strikes and management lockouts shut down all SAS flight operations for three 24-hour periods in seven days (DAILY, June 14). The new contract, which runs through March 31, 1996, gives the pilots a 3.95% wage increase and calls for labor and management to form a task force this fall to study ways of modernizing the agreement. The unions initially demanded a wage hike of 6.7%, while the airline had offered 1%.
Precision Standard Inc. announced last week at the Paris Air Show that its Pemco World Air Services subsidiary has contracted with Lift Management Inc. of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to convert two 727-200 aircraft from passenger to freighter configuration. Precision Chairman and Chief Executive Matthew Gold said the conversion will involve installing a full, 12-pallet cargo-handling system, manufactured by Pemco engineers of Corona, Calif., and stripping and repainting the aircraft. The process takes about three to four months.
Business Travel International (BTI), an international corporate travel joint venture, has added Sime Darby Travel of Malaysia to its list of partners. "The addition of Sime Darby adds an important dimension in the rapidly growing Southeast Asian market, and further extends BTI's influence there," said BTI Chief Executive David Radcliffe. Sime Darby, one of Malaysia's leading travel management firms, was founded 1956, is based in Kuala Lumpur and has seven offices throughout the country. Estimated 1994 billings were nearly $13.9 million.
Association of Retail Travel Agents has filled two vacant board positions. Larry Zahra, who vacated a seat because of health reasons, has accepted a term that expires at yearend. Celeste Seimsen has accepted the second seat, which expires at the end of 1996. She will chair the Bylaws Committee and also serve as parliamentarian.
El Al's stock offering, originally scheduled last month but postponed, likely will occur in November, carrier officials said recently. The government of Israel is expected to sell 51% of its ownership in a public offering on both the Tel Aviv and New York stock exchanges.
