U.K. publication Decanter Magazine has judged American's Business Class wines as the best in the air for the second straight year. American has won Business Traveller International's Best Cellar in the Sky award for three of the past five years. Decanter's judges commended the airline for offering virtually identical wine lists in Business Class and First Class.
World Airways has asked DOT for a temporary allocation of five weekly frequencies, held by USAfrica, to conduct scheduled combination service between the U.S. and South Africa. World cited the failure of the U.S. and South Africa to sign an air pact and USAfrica to restart operations. "There can be no longer be any illusions about the fate of USAfrica: it is highly unlikely that it will ever operate again," said World, adding that USAfrica, reorganizing in Chapter 11, "has missed every one of its milestones" for a return to service. "Valuable U.S.
The Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), which has been negotiating for more than a year toward its first collective bargaining agreement with FedEx, claims the carrier faces a pilot shortage late in the summer and likely will not be able to make package deliveries on time. The union said its members at FedEx often fly overtime to make up for the shortage of pilots.
American's systemwide passenger traffic increased 5.2% last month on 1.7% more capacity, boosting its load factor 2.1 percentage points. The number of passengers boarded rose 1.3 points. Domestic traffic was up 3% on 2.1% less capacity, and international traffic grew 10.6% on 11.8% more capacity. For the first five months, its systemwide passenger traffic rose 6.4% on 1.8% more capacity, producing a passenger load factor gain of 2.8 percentage points, to 64.6%. The number of passengers boarded increased 2.4%.
United begins serving local Chicago food specialties on 500 daily flights to O'Hare this week as part of the city's Taste of Chicago extravaganza. Until July 15, United's menus will feature entrees and snacks from nine Chicago restaurants.
American was chosen as the favorite U.S. airline among 900 respondents to an Internet survey conducted in May by CIC Research. American received 21% of the vote, followed by United, 18%, and Delta, 17%. CIC said 60% of the Internet users participating were in the professional/technical and 19% in the academic/students caregory. Males made up 75% of respondents, and the average age was 35. CIC said it believes American's decision to build its large Internet presence was a very good decision - the carrier is the favorite among Internet travelers.
Hawaiian Airlines' April traffic rose 16.2% from a year ago on 13.8% more capacity, boosting the airline's passengers load factor 1.7 percentage points to 78.9%. The number of passengers enplaned by Hawaiian in April increased 12.9%. Through the first four months of this year, the carrier's traffic increased 15.8% on 10.2% more capacity, resulting in a load factor gain of 3.6 points. April 95 April 94 4 Mths 95 4 Mths 94 RPMs 266,393,000 229,214,000 1,016,030,000 877,777,000
Worldspan has signed a five-year, $5 million cooperative agreement with SITA, gaining access to SITA's airline fares database. Worldspan said the deal will offer increased coverage of international fares data to its 13,700 travel agency subscribers worldwide. The transition will take effect by the fourth quarter, when SITA begins daily electronic transfer of its database to Worldspan.
Continental's systemwide passenger load factor gained four percentage points to 65.8% last month as its passenger traffic decreased 1.1% and capacity declined a 7.2%. Domestic passenger traffic dropped 1.5% on 8.6% fewer available seat miles, and international traffic was virtually unchanged despite a 3% reduction in capacity. Through the first five months of this year, Continental's systemwide passenger traffic rose 2.1% on 0.6% more capacity, increasing the load factor 0.8 points.
FAA, which is conducting safety assessments of more than 60 foreign civil aviation authorities whose carriers operate into the U.S., will accept International Civil Aviation Organization assessments in place of its own, according to Anthony Broderick, associate administer for regulation and certification. ICAO is developing a voluntary Safety Oversight Improvement Program as part of an attempt to ensure that all CAAs oversee the safety of their carriers in compliance with the Chicago Convention and ICAO annexes.
Fledgling Airbus Finance Co. (AFC) has appointed John McQuaid, formerly of R.J. Reynolds, GPA Group and Pembroke Capital, to the post of chief executive. McQuaid will be responsible for the development of AFC toward its objective of achieving a stand-alone investment grade credit rating in support of the long-term aircraft financing commitments of Airbus Industrie. AFCA was formed in December and is owned by the four Airbus partners.
TWA's May systemwide passenger traffic rose 0.4% from the same month last year on 2.3% less capacity, pushing its load factor up 1.8 percentage points to 65.2%. The number of passengers boarded during the month increased 0.4%. TWA's domestic traffic was up 1.4% on 0.8% more capacity, and its international traffic fell 2% on 10.3% less capacity. Through the first five months, TWA's systemwide traffic rose 1.1% on 1.6% less capacity. May 95 May 94 5 Mths 95 5 Mths 94
Controllers in the Northwestern portion of the U.S. say an erroneous traffic alert and collision avoidance system command nearly resulted in a midair collision Sunday involving a United 737 and a Viscount Air Services 737, both on approach. After both aircraft received a TCAS warning, the United airplane began to climb from 10,000 feet to 12,000 feet while the Viscount plane started to descend to 10,000 feet. The aircraft came within 200 feet of each other before controllers instructed the Viscount flight to return to 11,000 feet.
Midwest Express Airlines has made a policy change to give travel agents more flexibility in confirming seat assignments. Agents can now confirm seats through their own computer reservations system up to 180 days in advance of travel, instead of the former 30 days.
Air Canada will take delivery of its first Airbus A340 at the Paris Air Show. The carrier plans to put the airplane into revenue service this month, including flights in its bread-and-butter Toronto-Montreal market.
FAA has reached cooperative agreements with U.S. carriers to operate airport demonstrations of certified explosives detection systems at domestic and non-U.S. international airports. United will be the first to initiate trials, which will begin this fall at San Francisco Airport. Trials by other airlines will follow at additional sites.
Top 25 Domestic City-Pair Markets O&D Passengers Third Quarter 1994 1994 1993 Average Market Market Passengers Top Carrier Rank Rank City-Pair Per Day (% Share) 1 3 Chicago - New York 8,860 United (40.2) 2 2 Hononlulu - Kahului 7,885 Aloha (54.5)
Top 25 Domestic City-Pair Markets Over 750 Miles O&D Passengers Third Quarter 1994 Long Total Average Haul Markets Non-Stop Passengers Rank Rank City-Pair Mileage Per Day 1 3 Los Angeles - New York 2,467 7,726 2 5 New York - Orlando 947 6,139
United Chairman Gerald Greenwald, after speaking at ceremonies for the first commercial flight of the Boeing 777 Tuesday at Washington Dulles, left to talk for nearly an hour with picketing United flight attendants, who were protesting a new domicile in Hong Kong. Greenwald, when asked why he will not agree to give half the flying to U.S.-based workers and half to foreigners, said he would sign that deal on the spot if the Association of Flight Attendants agreed. The crux of the issue is language barriers, he said. If a safety problem arose, U.S.
KLM and its pilots union, the VNV, came close to settling their contract dispute, but the talks collapsed yesterday after the union rejected a mediator-proposed compromise. The stage is now set for the pilots to stage a six-hour strike Thursday that will ground 53 KLM flights scheduled to depart Amsterdam Schiphol between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. local time (DAILY, June 6).
Westinghouse said the Airports Authority of India has begun operation of the first of four ASR-9 air traffic control radar systems, including the first operational Mode S secondary surveillance radar outside the U.S. Westinghouse also is providing airspace management automation systems for the interface between controllers and the radars. The first radar is operating in Trivandrum, and the others will be installed in Hyderabad, Guwahati and Ahmedabad.
AvAero said improvements to its 737-100/200 Stage 3 hush kits yield higher maximum takeoff gross weights (MTOGW) without turbine nozzle modifications. The company said it now offers FAA-approved configurations for aircraft with JT8D-15 engines with MTOGW of 124,500 pounds, JT8D-9 engines at 121,500 pounds and JT8D-7 engines at 114,500 pounds. Some configurations also offer landing flaps at both the 30- and 40-degree positions, it said.
Delta will terminate its nonstop Frankfurt-Prague service Nov. 2 and introduce one-stop service from New York Kennedy to Prague via Amsterdam. At the same time, its flights to St. Petersburg that now operate via Prague will stop at Warsaw instead. Delta also plans to discontinue its nonstop flights to Frankfurt from Dallas/Fort Worth on Nov. 30, and one 767-200 now used at Frankfurt will be returned for domestic service. The changes terminate 14 weekly flights at the Frankfurt hub, leaving Delta with 103 flights a week.
The world's scheduled airlines managed a combined operating profit of $8 billion in 1994, according to a preliminary estimate issued yesterday by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The profit marks the second consecutive year the world's airlines have made money on their operations after three straight years of losses. The industry had a 1993 operating profit of $2.5 billion.
