American and United have stepped up their dispute over rights to serve the Los Angeles-Guadalajara market. Saying it was proposing an earlier startup and greater capacity than United, American challenged DOT's tentative selection of United for scheduled combination service on the route (DAILY, July 6). American now says it is committed to operating a daily roundtrip on the route by Aug. 16 and increasing the total to three per day Aug. 31. "Under United's plan, there would be no service at all until Oct.
Twenty-nine aviation groups in the National Aviation Associations Coalition told key legislators this week they strongly support the basic concept of the so-called Duncan-Lightfoot FAA bill since it addresses the critical areas in need of reform - funding, procurement and personnel. In letters to House Transportation aviation subcommittee Chairman John Duncan (R- Tenn.), Rep.
Although the Air Transport Association says 120,000 airline employees have lost their jobs since 1990, U.S. airline industry employment last year was at its second highest level in history.According to ATA's annual report for 1994, employment for U.S. scheduled airlines totaled 543,325 - only about 2,500 below the 1990 level.
Proposed startup carrier Nashville Air has named airline veteran David Banmiller president and chief executive. The founding president, Charles Caudle, will become chairman. Banmiller is president of The Falcon Group, a holding company involved in aviation consulting. Before forming the company he served as president of Air/Lyon. Banmiller has held senior management positions with TWA, AirCal and American. At AirCal, he was president and chief operating officer.
The U.S. and Japan have scheduled another round of aviation talks tomorrow and Friday in Los Angeles. DOT Secretary Federico Pena and Transport Minister Shizuka Kamei of Japan are to meet Thursday, and separate vice ministerial level talks are planned. The two sides made progress last week in Tokyo and may be nearing an agreement, a U.S. government official said yesterday. Frederick Smith, FedEx president and CEO, and Gerald Greenwald, United chairman and CEO, will testify on U.S.-Japan aviation relations Thursday before the House Transportation aviation subcommittee.
Some of Air France's flight attendants are expected to strike today and tomorrow in an action management is calling "absurd and suicidal." Yesterday afternoon, Air France was bracing to handle a strike expected to force cancellation of 10 long-haul and 40 medium-haul flights, about one- third of its 160 daily Paris operations. Flights from Air France's eight U.S. gateways were expected to operate normally, except for one of its two daily subsonic flights from New York Kennedy, which will be canceled.
U.S. Major Carriers Traffic June, 6 Months 1995 (000) June June % 1995 1994 Change America West Revenue Passenger Miles 1,216,935 1,131,962 7.5 Available Seat Miles 1,624,614 1,503,681 8.0 Load Factor (%) 74.9 75.3 American
U.S. and Japan will hold ministerial-level meetings in San Francisco in a further effort to avert U.S. sanctions against Japanese cargo service, according to a government official. Three days of meetings last week in Tokyo, ending Saturday, failed to produce agreement, the official said. Those talks wound down as the comment and reply period on the show cause order for the proposed sanctions ended Friday.
ValuJet Airlines yesterday reported second quarter net earnings of $16.9 million, or 57 cents per share taking into account the carrier's April 10 two-for-one stock split, and an operating profit of nearly $26 million. The rapidly growing airline's second quarter revenues soared 192.5% from a year ago, to $86.9 million, on triple the traffic and an average fare that increased 3.4% to $66.31. The airline's yield declined 7.4% but its revenue per available seat mile increased 6.4%.
Qatar Airways has signed a contract with Boeing for two 747 aircraft, according to the official Qatari news agency. The report said the first aircraft will be delivered July 27 and the second Aug. 15. It did not say whether the aircraft are new.
ValuJet was expected by some on Wall Street to select Orlando as its next "focus city," but Southwest's announcement last week that it will enter the Florida market in early 1996 with flights to Orlando, Tampa and Fort Lauderdale may put a crimp in those plans.Yesterday, ValuJet Chairman Robert Priddy said he was not surprised by Southwest's move but had not expected it until 1997 or 1998. Nonetheless, he said Southwest's initiative does not preclude ValuJet from starting focus service in Florida.
TWA has ordered 600 LD-8 containers for its 15 767 aircraft. Air Cargo Equipment Corp. is to deliver the containers by November under what was described as a "fairly tight schedule."
USAfrica Airways is urging DOT to deny World Airways' request to serve Johannesburg, South Africa, as a beyond point on its proposed New York- Accra service. USAfrica, whose own operations to South Africa are suspended, took no position on New York-Accra service but noted that the current application is World's third attempt to gain South Africa authority.
Martinair Holland will increase service between Amsterdam and three Florida destinations from nine flights per week to 14, effective Nov. 1, with the start of its winter schedule. Service between Amsterdam Schiphol Airport and Miami will grow from three roundtrips a week to one a day, and the Amsterdam-Orlando rate will rise from four per week to five. Service to Tampa will remain at two roundtrips per week. The carrier will operate 767-300ER and MD-11s in the Florida markets. Also effective Nov. 1, all of Martinair's international flights will be smoke-free.
Delta and Korea Air have signed an agreement to code share on KAL's three weekly Atlanta-Chicago-Seoul flights, beginning Sept. 30, subject to government approval. Also beginning Sept. 30, but separate from the code- sharing arrangement, KAL will purchase seats on three of Delta's six weekly MD-11 flights between Portland and Seoul.
Summary of U.S. National Carriers Systemwide Traffic December 1994 Revenue Average Revenue Passengers Length of Passenger Enplaned % Travel Miles Carriers (000) Change (Miles) (000) Alaska 817 28.02 853 696,832 Aloha 378 (5.50) 136 51,613
FedEx said its average daily volume of express freight, packages and documents rose during June about 13.4% over the same month last year, to 1.03 million. International air freight grew to 44.9 million pounds from 44 million.
FlightSafety International yesterday reported second quarter net income of $20.9 million on operating revenues of $79.4 million, compared with net earnings of $18.5 million on revenues of $74 million during the same quarter a year ago. For the six months, net income was $41.1 million, up from $34.7 million, while operating revenues rose to $157.2 million from $147.3 million. Training revenues were higher in all areas, especially business aviation, but product sales fell due to reductions in commercial orders for new training equipment, he said.
Federal Express Corp. announced on-line enhancements it said will bring it "closer to its long-term goal of generating virtually all of its business on-line." It is offering: - FedEx Ship for MacIntosh, a new format for software enabling customers to carry out shipping transactions from their personal computers. More than 100,000 customers requested and received a Windows version offered since January. - Downloading of either version of Ship from America Online or FedEx's World Wide Web home page.
In what freight carriers and businessmen believe to be a landmark case, a division bench of the Bombay High Court has admitted an appeal by KLM against a court order on the liability of carriers for delayed delivery of goods. The bench will decide whether KLM can be held entirely responsible for the default of an overseas buyer who accepted goods supplied by Bombay- based Vorexpo Exports but refused payment on the ground that delivery was delayed by three days.
European Commissioner Karel Van Miert will speak on civil aviation competition in Europe at Sabre Travel Information Network's global subscriber conference at the Anatole Hotel in Dallas Sept. 7-9.
The House Transportation aviation subcommittee has not canceled its hearing, planned for Thursday, on U.S.-Japan aviation relations. The hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. in Room 2167 Rayburn.
BWIA International Airways has ordered up to 10 50-seat Embraer EMB-145 jets for its intra-Caribbean routes (DAILY, June 30). The airline, which was privatized earlier this year, placed firm orders for five of the aircraft and took options on five more. The Allison/Rolls-Royce-powered aircraft are scheduled for delivery beginning next summer. Financing will be provided by a consortium of Caribbean, U.S. and Brazilian banks. BWIA said it was able to secure "very favorable" export financing credits from the government of Brazil.
Nations Air Express voluntarily stopped flying Saturday following an FAA inspection, but a spokesman for the carrier said yesterday it hopes to resume flying this week. In the meantime, its passengers are being accommodated under contracts with other carriers. FAA said its inspection revealed that the airline's records were "insufficient to determine the training and qualifications of its pilots and flight attendants." The inspection also found "deficiencies in the airline's pilot training programs, pilot proficiency checks and crew manuals," FAA said.
FAA yesterday issued a correction concerning the pilot duty limits and rest requirements it will propose in November, saying the proposal will apply to all Part 121 and Part 135 operations, including aircraft seating fewer than 10 passengers, and to all non-scheduled operations (DAILY, July 17).
