Airline Suppliers Association appointed Marty Barrett, Pratt&Whitney; Fred Gaunt, Pacific Air Industries; Karen Borgnes, Pacific Aero Tech; Robert Powell, Flightspares, and Mike Molli, SAS Technitrade, to the board. Association of the Bar of New York appointed Shephard Melzer, Rogers and Wells, chairman of the Aeronautics Committee.
AirTran Corp. declared a cash dividend of three cents per share for the June quarter, payable Aug. 8 to shareholders of record as of July 25. On June 23, there were about 8.66 million shares of common stock outstanding. The company has paid a quarterly dividend since 1987. AirTran Corp. is the parent company of Mesaba Aviation, which operates as Northwest Airlink, and AirTran Airways, an Orlando-based jet carrier that began scheduled service in October.
Alaska Airlines plans to launch daily nonstop service between Phoenix and Puerto Vallarta on Oct. 5, pending DOT approval, the airline said. The carrier intends to use 140-seat MD-80s. Also on Oct. 5, Alaska will increase its Phoenix-Los Cabos service to one flight daily. It serves the market four times a week in the summer season.
A delegation of transportation officials from Romania, led by Transportation Minister Aurel Novac, was scheduled to begin a 10-day business visit to the U.S. yesterday. Including senior officials from the nation's civil aviation authority and Tarom as well as highway and railroad executives, the group is slated to meet today in Washington with DOT Deputy Secretary Mortimer Downey and about 50 U.S. business leaders.
- In Federal Register dated July 7...Superseded an airworthiness directive on certain British Aerospace BAC-111 aircraft concerning structural modifications...Issued an AD on all British Aerospace BAC-111 aircraft requiring inspections for corrosion of the center torque shaft of the wing spoilers...Issued an AD on certain McDonnell Douglas DC-10-10 aircraft requiring inspections for cracking of the upper caps in the front spar of the left and right wing...Issued an AD on Mitsubishi YS-11 aircraft requiring a corrosion prevention program.
Boeing will take a one-time charge of $600 million against its second quarter pre-tax earnings to cover the cost of the special retirement- incentive program it recently offered to employees at least 55 years old. The company had expected the charge to be $350 million to $400 million, but more employees than expected - 9,500 of 14,000 eligible - took advantage of the program. The size of the charge may leave Boeing, which had first quarter earnings of $181 million, with a second quarter loss.
Federal Express urged DOT Friday to impose on Aug. 1 its proposed sanctions on sixth-freedom cargo carried by Japanese airlines to the U.S. unless the government of Japan approves FedEx's pending request for beyond-Japan service. In a legal filing, the carrier said it "profoundly hopes that the impasse involving its beyond-Japan service will be satisfactorily resolved in the near future, and that the [proposed] countermeasures...will not need to be imposed" against Japan Airlines and Nippon Cargo Airlines.
Pratt&Whitney has completed assembly and is ready to begin testing its 90,000-pounds-thrust PW4090, which is to enter service in early 1997. This sets the stage for "yet another growth step," the PW4098 with 98,000 pounds thrust, the company says. The higher-thrust powerplant will require a supercharger and a fan design before the engine can enter service on the stretch 777-300 in 1998.
Summary of U.S. Major Carriers International Traffic November 1994 Revenue Average Revenue Passengers Length of Passenger Enplaned % Travel Miles Carriers (000) Change (Miles) (000) American 1,084 26.33 2,071 2,245,509 Atlantic 248 26.77 4,138 1,026,976
HeavyLift Cargo Airlines intends to operate a one-way cargo charter flight between Los Angeles and the Cape Canaveral, Florida, Space Shuttle space launch facility on or about July 31. Using a Shorts SH5 "Belfast" aircraft, HeavyLift will transport a containerized satellite and associated items. No U.S. civil aircraft can accommodate the load, the U.K. charter cargo carrier noted in an application to DOT. (Docket OST-95- 294)
AirTran/Mesaba stockholders will meet Aug. 18 in a special meeting to approve the spinoff to stockholders of AirTran Airways, the low-cost jet subsidiary on the East Coast that created major scope-clause problems for the pilots of senior partner Northwest. There is much speculation as to how the mission of Mesaba may change once the spinoff is complete and Northwest takes an increased stake in the company, including the operation of Northwest's considerable fleet of refurbished DC-9s. If that is the case, Northwest has yet to notify Mesaba.
Eastwind Airlines, which has twice received extra time to start up service (DAILY, June 7), has asked DOT for permission to accept reservations and payment July 16 for service beginning Aug. 16. The carrier said it has "completed all of the major pre-conditions to its receipt of effective certification, with the exception of the FAA Part 121 certification," which it said it expects to complete before Aug. 16.
The combined traffic of the U.S. regional airline industry increased 2.9% in the first quarter of 1995 to 2.66 billion revenue passenger miles, but traffic failed to keep pace with the industry's 8.1% increase capacity, resulting in a load factor decline of 2.3 percentage points to 45.6%, according to statistics issued by the Regional Airline Association (RAA). The number of departures completed increased 2.8% to 1.11 million, but the number of passengers carried declined 4.9% to 11.98 million.
Frontier Airlines has appointed Jeff Potter VP-marketing. Potter has been regional director of commercial marketing-Pacific and Asia for McDonnell Douglas, and he served earlier in marketing management positions with Northwest, Continental, Pacific Southwest and the original Frontier.
A list of code-sharing partnerships, beginning with Delta Airlines and its affiliates, is printed on the facing page. Alaska Airlines, American, America West and Continental and their affiliates were listed last week (DAILY, July 7).
American will put its designator code on British Midland flights between London Heathrow and Edinburgh, Belfast, Leeds/Bradford and Teesside Aug. 9 in an expansion of its code-sharing arrangement with the U.K. carrier. The two airlines currently code share between London and Amsterdam, Brussels, Glasgow and Frankfurt. Members of American's AAdvantage frequent flyer program will be able to redeem miles for economy-class PlanAAhead travel on British Midland, effective Aug. 1. Awards are available for as few as 10,000 miles.
Western Pacific Airlines, which began flying April 28, had a passenger load factor of 60.7% in June. During the month, the Colorado Springs-based startup carried 68,058 passengers on 834 flights, flying 50.2 million revenue passenger miles on 82.7 million available seat miles. "We expanded service by 69% and still maintained our 60.7% load factor," said Tom DeNardin, VP-sales and marketing. "We are extremely pleased with these results for our second full month of service.
The best way to solve the imbalance of service between the New York area and London Heathrow would be to assign Heathrow route authority to Continental at Newark, according to the Regional Business Partnership, a non-profit business organization advocating the economic growth and development of northeastern New Jersey. Slated to resume next week, U.S.- U.K. aviation negotiations "must include additional service between Newark and Heathrow by a U.S.
Iberia has relocated its North American reservations operations to its headquarters facility in Miami. Salvador Humbert, VP and general manager for the USA and Canada, said the move will reinforce Iberia's position and economic growth in South Florida. Iberia offers nonstop service to Spain from New York and Miami, plus direct service from Los Angeles via a code- sharing arrangement with Carnival Airlines. From Canada, Iberia operates six flights a week from Montreal and Toronto.
