Hawaiian Airlines received the 1995 onboard services award from Onboard Services magazine. The carrier's Hawaii Regional Cuisine menu in first class took top honors in the food service category. Hawaiian consults with local chefs and changes the menu every three months. Caterair, which caters all of Hawaiian's flights, adapts the recipes for airline meals.
Metro Dade County (Fla.) Board of Commissioners approved American Airlines' "Super A" expansion at Miami Airport. The board voted Thursday to incorporate the plan into its capital improvement program. Dade County Department of Aviation has 60 days to iron out a financing plan with the county manager for final board approval.
Airport and Airway Trust Fund Balance Sheet As of March 31, 1995 Current Month ASSETS Undisbursed Balances: Available for Investment $ 353.76 TOTAL UNDISBURSED BALANCE (Cash in Account) Receivables: Interest Receivables $ 169,984,451.01 TOTAL RECEIVABLES Investments:
House Transportation aviation subcommittee Chairman John Duncan (R-Tenn.) is drafting FAA reform legislation that would establish an independent control board to set policy and oversee the agency, a subcommittee aide confirmed Friday. Duncan is developing the bill on a bipartisan basis and hopes to introduce legislation next month. Members of the control board, to be confirmed by the Senate, would choose the FAA administrator, who would serve indefinitely and have day-to-day responsibility for running the agency.
Four independent pilots' unions have united in an attempt to strengthen their voice on aviation safety and security. The Allied Pilots Association, representing pilots at American and American Eagle; the Independent Association of Continental Pilots, which also represents Continental Express pilots; the Independent Pilots Association at UPS, and the Southwest Airline Pilots Association met May 17-18 in Arlington, Texas, to collaborate on issues of common interest, with FAA's one-level-of- safety initiative as the driving force.
Lep Profit International promoted Peter Brown to North American chief operating officer and executive VP for its U.S. and Canadian operations, and promoted Martin McDonnell to senior VP-logistics. Greenwich Air Services named Robert Vanaria to the new position of senior VP-administration and chief financial officer. Tubetronics selected Richard Brandon to be general manager. Raytheon Aircraft named Dan Smartt VP-treasurer and president-Beech Acceptance Corp. Inc. Ken Tomoda was appointed VP-controller.
National Transportation Safety Board will hold public forums on commuter airline and air taxi safety in Juneau, Alaska, today, and in Anchorage Wednesday and Thursday. In its last major look at aviation safety in Alaska, 15 years ago, the board said it found that Alaskan air taxis have "far higher accident rates than air taxis in the rest of the U.S." The forums, to be similar to NTSB public hearings that follow major accidents, will be overseen by Chairman Jim Hall.
Signature Flight Support, one of the nation's largest fixed-base operators, is scheduled tentatively to meet June 19 with the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association to discuss handling charges imposed recently by the FBO. Phil Boyer, AOPA president, wants Signature to "modify or scrap" its new fees levied on general aviation pilots who do not purchase fuel, saying these pilots use "few or no services" at Signature's facilities at 43 airports (DAILY, May 16).
CIC Research, San Diego, has started the Net Traveler Survey, a monthly survey of activities, preferences and plans of travelers who use Internet. CIC, which conducts surveys for the U.S. Travel and Tourism Administration, will update and analyze the survey. Its purpose is to find out where Internet travelers go and what they think of airlines, airports, aircraft and other travel services. It also will poll users on their interest in booking travel by Internet. The address for the survey is HTTP://WWW.THEGROUP.NET/CIC/SURVEY.
Lufthansa Technik AG has decided to outsource the overhaul work it does on Lufthansa's 737 fleet at Berlin Schunefeld to Shannon Aerospace because the Irish venture - co-owned by Lufthansa, Swissair and GPA - can do the work cheaper. Line maintenance on the airplanes, one of the largest 737 fleets in the world, will remain with Lufthansa Technik at Berlin.
Flooding conditions forced the Jefferson City, Mo., airport to close late last week with its runway and terminal building under two to three feet of water, according to DOT. As DOT monitored flooding along portions of the Mississippi, Missouri and Ohio rivers, Secretary Federico Pena said the department was "fully prepared to activate emergency response teams" if necessary.
An airframe weight savings of 2.5% is possible through use of fly-by-light technology, according to Raytheon Aircraft Chairman Arthur Wegner. "You can expect to see production airplanes from Raytheon using this technology before the year 2000," he told a recent SAE meeting. "Complete control-by- light is probably less than a decade away," he said, adding that Douglas projects a 50% reduction in the $12 million cost of the MD-11 control system with the technology.
In a surprisingly frank press release on its bid to turn itself into one of Asia's best, Philippine Airlines said it is "hobbled by corporate squabbles, saddled by a bloated work force, and crippled by huge financial losses." The self-described "anemic national carrier" has embarked on an effort to renew its fleet and restructure its route network.
Airports and communities are expressing frustration that only one airport/community witness is being allowed to testify at Wednesday's Senate Commerce aviation subcommittee hearing on international aviation policy. They argue that limiting their interests to a single voice does not present a balanced view or adequately represent the varied positions of airports and communities.
About 40% of international travelers from Russia prefer to fly with foreign airlines and the number is growing, according to Russia's Department of Air Transport. It estimates that Russian carriers will lease 100 foreign-made aircraft by 2000. One reason: Russian manufacturers demand 100% up-front payment for new aircraft.
Delta is seeking renewal of its authority to operate scheduled combination services between Los Angeles and Tokyo and between Portland and Nagoya, Japan. The carrier proposes to offer six nonstop Los Angeles-Tokyo and seven nonstop Portland-Nagoya flights per week. It said it will continue to use MD-11 or other suitable aircraft from its fleet on both routes, as market conditions demand. (Dockets 50358&50359)
Granted orally an exemption to Federal Express to operate scheduled cargo service between Great Falls, Mont., and Edmonton and Calgary, Canada...Granted orally an exemption to Antigua and Barbuda Airways International, operating as Antigua Paradise Airways, to operate scheduled combination service between Antigua and Barbuda, on the one hand, and the following U.S. coterminal points: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Miami, Newark, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and a point or points in Puerto Rico.
Bart Simpson is flying on startup carrier Western Pacific, but on the outside of the airplane. In what was described as a multi-million-dollar, joint-venture promotional program, Fox Broadcasting has become the second company to advertise on the exterior of WestPac aircraft. A 737-300 has been painted yellow with an ad for Fox's cartoon family, The Simpsons. Marge's blue hair covers the aircraft's tail.
American has joined United and Carnival in the bidding for additional frequencies to operate between Miami and Lima, Peru. The frequencies were made available in the new aviation agreement between the U.S. and Peru, struck this month, which boosts the number of weekly combination roundtrip frequencies for both countries' carriers from 21 to 31.5 (DAILY, May 8). The pact reserves seven of the new frequencies for cities other than Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., however.
The arrival of a third Boeing 747-400 earlier this month will enable Philippine Airlines to introduce nonstop service between Manila and San Francisco tomorrow, according to the airline. Since it acquired its first two 747-400s in late 1993, PAL has been operating daily nonstop service between Manila and Los Angeles. The three weekly San Francisco flights will give PAL 10 nonstops a week to the U.S. West Coast. In addition to the third 747-400, PAL expects to take delivery this month of two more Airbus A300-B4s as part of its fleet renewal program.
USAir will begin new nonstop service to Seattle from its Charlotte and Philadelphia hubs June 11, with one daily roundtrip in each market for the peak summer and fall season. The carrier will offer the service on a Boeing 757. Also on June 11, USAir will begin using the seven additional frequencies it has received from DOT to operate nonstop service to Frankfurt from Philadelphia and Boston. USAir's current Charlotte- Frankfurt nonstop will become a one-stop. The carrier will continue to offer Frankfurt nonstops from Pittsburgh.
Flight operations, international reservations and other Delta systems have been moved to the Worldspan Data Center in Atlanta, fulfilling the first phase of last September's Worldspan-Delta agreement by which Worldspan was to plan, develop and operate the systems for the airline. The flight operations system was down for 44 minutes during the transfer, and the Deltamatic internal reservations system -- the largest system moved -- was down for 51 minutes.
General Aviation Manufacturers Association has published its 1995 General Aviation Statistical Databook, which contains information on domestic general aviation shipments, composition of the aircraft fleet, exports, aviation safety trends, and hours flown by type and primary use. To order the $10 databook, write to GAMA, 1400 K Street N.W., Suite 801, Washington, D.C. 20005-2485.
Infini Travel Information, the Japan-based computer reservations system company, switched its fare system from SITA Fareshare to SITA Airfare. SITA Airfare will be used for fare quotes not available in the Infini in- house fare system, which is still the primary system used by Infini subscribers for pricing itineraries originating from Japan, and for fare display and other supplementary information. Infini also offers subscribers the option of using Worldspan's fare system for fare display and itinerary pricing of TC1 fares.
