Air South has won designation as "preferred carrier" for travel on state business from the State of Florida. The contract, effective Aug. 1, 1995, through July 31, 1996, will apply to employees traveling on state business between Atlanta, Jacksonville, Raleigh/Durham, Tallahassee and Tampa. The airline said it offered the state "highly competitive prices" and frequent service patterns in the designated markets. Operating seven 737-200s, Air South serves Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
Flush with a recent firm order from BWIA for five EMB-145 regional jets, Embraer of Brazil today formally will roll out the 50-passenger-seat, $14.5 million aircraft at the company's plant in Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil. In a statement issued two days before the rollout, the manufacturer boasted that the aircraft "offers acquisition and operating costs equivalent to those of smaller turboprops." The company claims it has won 161 orders, options and letters of intent to purchase the aircraft from 21 airlines in 10 countries.
U.S. airline passenger traffic grew 0.8% in July from July 1994 to 48.4 billion revenue passenger miles, while the number of passengers carried fell 3% to 44,497,000.
A dispute over services and payment will go before a court following counter lawsuits by Northwest and Dalfort Aviation Services of Dallas. Northwest alleges Dalfort was performing "commission work" on the engines of several DC-9s formerly owned by Eastern Airlines to bring them up to Northwest specifications, but the aircraft were returned late, forcing cancellation of some flights. It alleges about $2 million in damages. "They did not live up to the terms of the contract," a Northwest spokesman said.
Allan Smolinski, former director of marketing at Jetstream Aircraft, Monday became VP- marketing support at Saab Aircraft of America. In his new position, Smolinski will oversee technical marketing efforts, such as technical sales presentations, aircraft performance analysis, airline route studies and competitive and market analysis. While with Jetstream, he directed marketing activities within the Western Hemisphere. Before joining Jetstream, he was a regional aircraft pilot in command and instructor pilot with Pilgrim Airlines.
Mexicana said that despite an 18% drop in domestic traffic in Mexico due to the country's economic crisis, the airline was able to post a net operating profit - 151 million new pesos, or US$24.6 million - during the first six months of 1995. The airline said an increase in market share by 2.6 percentage points, to 30.1%, minimized the decline in overall traffic. Mexicana's share of traffic between the Mexico and U.S. reached 22.5%, one percentage point higher than that of the first half of 1994. The load factor on international flights was 64% during the period.
United Express affiliate Great Lakes Aviation suffered a net loss of $542,000, or seven cents per share, for its second quarter ended June 30. For the comparable period in 1994, the carrier logged a net profit of a little more than $1.3 million, or 17 cents per share. Revenues reached $20.3 million, up 11.7% from the $18.1 million recorded in the June 1994 quarter. Operating income totaled $932,000, a 70.9% drop from $3.2 million in the second quarter of 1994.
Nashville Air has applied at DOT for authority to begin service as a scheduled passenger carrier, initially serving New York, Detroit, Atlanta and Orlando from Nashville. Financing remains a question mark, however. The would-be carrier will need $20 million in startup capital but has raised only $2.5 million to date through a private placement offering. Nashville Air wants to begin service before yearend with 737-300s configured for business and economy seating.
U.S. Nationals Carriers Operating and Net Profit First Quarter 1995 Operating Net Profit/Loss Profit/Loss (000) (000) First Quarter 1995 Alaska $ (14,201) $ (12,963) Aloha (1,292) (846) American Trans Air 10,619 5,404 Carnival 3,283 2,346
Former investigator John Deans of DOT's Office of Inspector General says his inquiry into Denver Airport revealed the diversion of airport revenue for non-airport purposes. Deans says he was fired in June as a result of his disclosures to the IG's office containing "political information that might have been embarrassing to [then mayor] Federico Pena and Denver Mayor Wellington Webb" (DAILY, Aug. 17). The DOT IG said yesterday it had no comment on the matter.
FAA plans to revise the requirements for operational and structural difficulty reports to "clarify and standardize" the type of information submitted. For the first time, reports can be submitted electronically to "encourage reporting that will give the FAA information on a near-real-time basis," the agency said. It said this will allow it to identify trends that may affect aviation safety.
Hawaiian Airlines traffic increased to 343 million revenue passenger miles in July from 293 million in July 1994. Capacity also rose to 434.9 million available seat miles from 388.7 million. Hawaiian carried fewer passengers during the month - 442,505, down from 444,579. July 95 July 94 7 Mths 95 7 Mths 94 RPMs 343,221,226 293,043,810 1,984,964,841 1,655,469,362 ASMs 434,932,096 388,672,071 2,581,745,176 2,267,776,363
American Automobile Association said it supports adding mechanical delay data to FAA's airline on-time reporting system. James Kolstad, VP-public and government relations, told DOT many of AAA's 73 million members are frequent flyers. "We believe that any data that makes the report more accurate, including flights delayed or canceled for mechanical problems, should be included in order to provide air passengers with the most accurate and reliable information."
Reflectone reported operating income of $1.4 million for the quarter ended June 30 compared with $6,000 during the same quarter last year. Net income was $739,000, up from a net loss of $343,000. Revenues jumped 51% to $21.9 million from $14.5 million. The company said it has received more than $106 million in new contract awards since the beginning of 1995, and its backlog rose to $113 million from $44 million at the end of last year.
The U.S. lodging industry accounted for $68.9 billion of the $400 billion in sales generated by travel and tourism in 1994, according to the American Hotel&Motel Association's Lodging Industry Profile. The $400 billion total excludes $12.5 billion in international visitor spending on U.S. air carriers. Traveler spending in 1994 equates to $45.7 million per hour, or $12,680 per second. The lodging profile says sales at U.S. hotels and motels were up from $61.7 billion in 1993, and the average occupancy rate rose 1.6 points to 65.2% in 1994.
American's fleet is 87.5% Stage 3 and averages eight years of age. As of June 30, AMR had 650 jet aircraft and 266 regional aircraft, which were an average of four years old. In all, it has one of the youngest fleets in the U.S.
Passenger revenues of AMR Eagle carriers decreased 7.7% or $30 million in the six months ended June 30, and the Texas hailstorm in April damaged about 10% of American's fleet and about 9% of the Eagle fleet, AMR Corp. said in a 10-Q form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company said the Eagles' revenues dropped after FAA placed temporary flight restrictions on ATR aircraft following the fatal crash of a Simmons ATR last October.
FAA said yesterday it ordered Japan Airlines not to perform work on U.S.- registered aircraft at Narita and Haneda airports because an inspection team discovered the two repair stations conducted unauthorized repairs. The stations also were turning over work to non-certified facilities, reusing parts that should have been discarded, failing to provide proper training to repair personnel and using parts from unapproved vendors, said Bill White, deputy director-Flight Standards Service. U.S.
Elsinore said Air France, working with its Quality Management Solutions Group and FAA inspectors based in Europe, has successfully completed a critical quality system improvement program that resulted in the full renewal and expansion of the carrier's FAA Repair Station Operations Specifications Ratings. Elsinore said it and Air France now are implementing an Advance Quality System at the carrier, with enhanced supplier surveillance and parts traceability.
Former investigator John Deans of DOT's Office of Inspector General has filed for assistance from the Office of Special Counsel under the Whistleblower Protection Act. Deans claims he was dismissed because of findings in his investigation into possible misuse of funds for the new Denver Airport. Deans filed a concurrent appeal with the Merit Systems Protection Board, the appellate body if OSC denies him assistance. Denver Mayor Wellington Webb yesterday denied that funds were misused.
Qantas has given its foreign investors 90 days to sell the Qantas shares they purchased that boosted foreign ownership of the company's stock above the legal limit of 49%. The exact level of foreign ownership will not be known until Friday, but it is expected to be about 52%. Qantas's Articles of Association give shareholders 30 days to sell their shares in such a situation, but Qantas decided to extend the period to 90 days because of the "unusual circumstances" surrounding the first few days of trading in the newly privatized company's stock.
Like Canadian, American is making it easier for weekend travelers to take spur-of-the-moment trips, offering BreakAAway fares ranging from $79 to $299 roundtrip with a one-day advance purchase. The fares are available in selected American and American Eagle cities to Dallas/Fort Worth, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Nashville and Miami. For the first time, American will offer BreakAAway fares on transcontinental flights.
Airlines and travel promoters, with the end of the lucrative summer season in sight, are plumbing the depths of creativity to reel in a few more customers in August. Some of the more unusual deals, as outlined by Best Fares Discount Travel Magazine, are: Develop a roll of film and save up to $100 on USAir; buy eight gallons of supreme gasoline and save up to $75 on Continental, and buy a box of cereal and receive the second admission free at Six Flags and Disneyland theme parks.
U.S. Major and National Carriers Landing Fee Expenses First Quarter 1995 Average Amount Systemwide Spent Per Landing America West $ 7,218,672 $ 155.07 American 58,814,000 281.01 Continental 25,751,000 211.03 Delta 64,883,000 271.53 Federal Express 17,131,000 239.93
USAir positioned aircraft away from Norfolk and Newport News, Va., last night to protect them from the effects of Hurricane Felix. The carrier said aircraft terminating in those cities will be flown elsewhere, and flights scheduled to originate at the two cities this morning will be canceled.
