American Trans Air plans to eliminate its 21 weekly scheduled flights from St. Louis on Aug. 26 because of poor load factors, reallocating the aircraft to better-performing markets. Competing with TWA at St. Louis, American Trans Air serves St. Petersburg, Fort Myers, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, but "basically, the load factors weren't where we wanted them to be," a company spokeswoman said yesterday.
Mesaba Aviation, flew 29.4 million revenue passenger miles last month, a 1.9% rise from June 1994. Capacity dropped 4% to 59.4 million available seat miles.
Aero International Regional (AIR), the new ATR/British Aerospace joint venture, will name Jeff Marsh its top sales and marketing executive, The DAILY has confirmed. Marsh currently heads sales and marketing activities for BAe unit Avro Aerospace and formerly ran sales and marketing for Saab Aircraft AB. Bill Black, the head of Jetstream Aircraft customer support and engineering, will be named to run customer support for the joint venture, and Joel Lebreton, who formerly was president of ATR Marketing in the U.S., will head contracts and sales finance...
United Express affiliate Great Lakes aviation projected it will suffer a loss of between six and 11 cents per share for its second quarter ending June 30 - "below the expectations of the analysts following the company," Great Lakes said this week. A definitive financial report will be issued during the week of Aug. 8.
Continental Express could be spun off to stockholders as early as this fall, making it a public company with significantly more operational latitude, including code-sharing arrangements with other major carriers. The company expects to make more than $10 million in pre-tax earnings this quarter and, according to one source, is "extremely profitable." Mesa Air Group in early June rejected an offer to buy Continental Express for $90 million, and Continental subsequently rejected a $100 million offer by Express President Jonathan Ornstein to acquire the regional.
America West will begin installing first-class cabins soon on the 39 aircraft in its 91-airplane fleet that are currently configured for a single class of service, and it plans to refurbish the interiors of all its aircraft by the end of 1996, the airline said yesterday. America West, which declined to say how much the changes will cost, thinks first-class service systemwide will make its frequent flyer program more attractive - it will be able to offer upgrades to all destinations - and improve its traffic mix with more higher-revenue passengers.
Grand Holdings Inc., a charter carrier, has registered with DOT the trade name Champion Air. DOT said the name is connected with a pending acquisition that will give the carrier a new market identity, said DOT.
General Aviation Parts Association (GAPA), being formed to represent the interests of distributors and dealers who supply aircraft parts to the general aviation market, held its first meeting July 7 in Wichita. About 50 people attended, discussing potential FAA regulation of parts distributors, proposed accreditation programs that would include third- party audits of quality procedures, stricter "tagging" requirements for parts, and paperwork and traceability issues.
India's two state-owned carriers, Air India and Indian Airlines, will be able to operate a total of 700 more seats each week to Kuwait and fly between Sharjah and Kuwait, India's civil aviation ministry officials said. India's bilateral aviation agreement with Kuwait, renewed last week, grants Kuwait Airways the same increase in capacity and authority to fly to Trivandrum as well as its current Indian destinations, Bombay and New Delhi. The new pact allows for a maximum of 3,500 weekly seats, compared with the present 2,800.
AIR may think in terms of a 70-passenger-class regional jet - one that is more economical to operate than current 50- to 70-passenger jet - rather than a large high-speed turboprop in its new product mix. The question being assessed is not only what the market wants, but what the market will be allowed to have. The recent American scope clause with its pilots would place a 70-passenger, 75,000-pound limit on any jets operated by AMR Eagle carriers, which would eliminate the Avro RJ70 and the Fokker 70 - 84,000 and 88,000 pounds, respectively.
Code-Sharing Regional Carrier Schedules Announced or Implemented - June 1995; (Delta, Midwest Express, Northwest, TWA, United and USAir) Domestic City-Pairs ------------------------------------ Carriers Added Dropped New Shared Delta Air Lines Business Express Albany-Roches- - -
SkyWest Airlines offered 107.2 million available seat miles in June, 27.1% more than in June 1994. Traffic rose 15.7% to 53.3 million revenue passenger miles from 46 million. June 1995 June 1994 6 Mths 1995 6 Mths 1994 RPMs 53,270,896 46,046,740 246,085,998 218,172,839 ASMs 107,202,414 84,332,939 530,745,840 434,207,240 LF(%) 49.7 54.6 46.4 50.2
Southwest will make its first foray into Florida early in 1996, putting pressure on incumbent carriers and possibly testing consumers' patience with no-frills service on relatively longer-haul flights. The airline's Florida expansion is targeted initially at Tampa and will be expanded to Orlando in April. Southwest also plans intra-Florida service between Fort Lauderdale and both Tampa and Orlando. The carrier expects to operate 26 daily flights to, from and within Florida by the end of the first quarter of 1996 and 52 a day by the end of the second quarter.
The U.S. is redoubling its efforts to develop a stable aviation bilateral with Hong Kong, according to an administration official, who said DOT Secretary Federico Pena spent "a good deal of time" with Hong Kong's transport minister in June at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation transport ministers' meeting in Washington. With control of Hong Kong slated to revert to China in 1997, there is "barely enough time" for the U.S. to get a new agreement, the official warned.
America West Airlines has become a shareholder in the Airlines Reporting Corp. Air Transport Association member airlines that operate scheduled passenger service are eligible to become shareholders. America West has been represented on ARC's board since 1985.
Avro International Aerospace signed a memorandum of understanding with Lufthansa CityLine to install an Avro RJ simulator at the Lufthansa Training Center in Schunefeld, Berlin. The sim-ulator, to be operational by June 1996, will be used to train Lufthansa CityLine pilots and engineers, and other Avro RJ operators. Reflectone of Tampa, Fla., will supply the new simulator.
Australian transport workers said yesterday they will not handle French airline flights in Australia for a 24-hour period beginning at midnight Thursday local time, to protest France's decision to resume nuclear tests in the South Pacific. The action coincides with the July 14 Bastille Day holiday in France.
Worldspan Travel Information Services is now the system provider for World Airways' internal airline reservations and passenger information processing. Hosting services provided through the Worldspan mainframe in Atlanta give World an internal automation solution for organizing and distributing schedules, fares, rules, aviation weather and airport passenger services, including ticketing, check-in services and baggage tracing.
FAA announced yesterday it has established with 11 U.S. airlines a government-industry consortium to develop the framework for an Aeronautical Telecommunications Network (ATN). Designed to provide fast, error-free and continuous communication between aircraft and other airspace system users, ATN eventually will replace current systems as it grows worldwide as part of the International Civil Aviation Organization's Future Aviation Navigation System, FAA Administrator David Hinson said.
Bombardier Dash 8 Series 400 main and nose landing gear will be built by Coltec Industries Inc. subsidiary Menasco Aerospace at its Oakville, Ontario, facility, Coltec announced. The 350-knot Dash 8-400 is scheduled for first flight in late 1997.
FAA announced yesterday a comprehensive review of its regulation and certification policies and procedures, as well as a proposed initiative to curtail the use of unapproved aircraft parts and increase the use of seatbelts. Under the review program - called Challenge 2000 - a task force of experts from within and without FAA will "take a fresh look at the way we do things," said FAA Administrator David Hinson.
USAir's Association of Flight Attendants Master Executive Council said yesterday it remains committed to returning the airline to profitability through restructuring despite its membership's rejection of a proposed tentative agreement with the company. In the balloting, 55% of those voting opposed the proposal, and both USAir and the AFA referred separately to the result as "disappointing." The MEC said that it has analyzed the reasons for the rejection of the tentative pact, and that it is determined to initiate discussions with the airline.
Oman Air will start flying to Bombay five times weekly, beginning tomorrow, airline officials said. Bombay is the second destination in India for Oman Air, which already operates five flights a week from Muscat to Trivandrum. An agreement on the new route, signed this week, follows talks last month in New Delhi between Omani Communications Minister Salim Bin Abdulla Al Ghazali and India's Civil Aviation Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. Gulf Air and Air India currently fly the Muscat-Bombay sector.
DOT is seeking carriers interested in providing essential air service at Nikolski, Alaska. MarkAir Express has been providing EAS at Umnak Island (Nikolski), Alaska, for the past two years. (Docket 43755).
Air Transport Association announced release of its 1995 CD-ROM containing new technical specifications and enhanced features. The new CD-ROM includes the latest revisions to Specifications 100 (manufacturers' technical data), 2000 (integrated data processing materiels management) and 2100 (digital data standards for aircraft support, plus the new data model). It also contains for the first time Specifications 104 (guidelines for aircraft maintenance training) and 105 (guidelines for training personnel in non-destructive testing), and other information.
