To attract business during the long July 4th holiday weekend, Delta Shuttle is offering a two-for-one fare to passengers who wear red, white or blue and buy a ticket at Delta's special $173 roundtrip unrestricted rate. To take advantage of the offer, passengers must wear one of the patriotic colors and travel between Saturday and Tuesday. Return flights must begin by 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday. After the July 4th kickoff, the Delta Shuttle will extend the program through the summer. Passengers may then wear any color and still get the two-for-one offer.
House and Senate negotiators have agreed to a seven-year transportation budget of $244.8 billion in outlays from fiscal 1996 through fiscal 2002, a reduction of $34 billion from the outlays assumed by current law. Under the conference agreement on the budget resolution, transportation spending would drop from $38.9 billion in outlays for fiscal 1996 to $32 billion in fiscal 2002. The compromise level falls between the Senate proposal of $227.5 billion total transportation spending over the seven years and the House recommendation of $252.3 billion.
Harris Corp. said it is part of a consortium awarded a multi-million-dollar contract for the first two phases of a three-phase, eight-year program to develop and install a "total airport management system" for Kuala Lumpur Airport in Malaysia. Teamed with Harris are Malaysia-based Sapura, Holding Sdn Bhd and Tomen of Japan.
Teamsters General President Ron Carey has ordered a hearing into election results for 8,500 flight attendants at Northwest after a protest was filed by candidate Danny Campbell. The Nov. 18 election was won by Bruce Retrum, a union spokesman said yesterday. Carey said the hearing will review evidence filed by Campbell that observers were denied the right to observe the processing of ballots at the count, and to challenge mail-in ballots.
SilkAir and Bouraq Airlines signed a joint services agreement recently and plan to launch nonstop service between Singapore and Ujung Pandang in Sulawesi, Indonesia, on Oct. 29. The joint service is in line with the memorandum of understanding on tourism cooperation signed recently by the governments of Singapore and Indonesia, SilkAir said. SilkAir and its parent company, Singapore Airlines, plan to promote the services extensively in the U.S., Europe, Japan and other North Asian countries.
Northrop Grumman received a two-year, $3.4 million contract from the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) to develop and demonstrate "smart" adaptive wing concepts that could "significantly increase aircraft efficiency, leading to greater payloads, longer range and decreased operating costs," the company said. The concepts, called lift enhancement and optimal transonic cruise, use smart materials and structures to change the wing shape in flight, so it will perform more efficiently in various flight regimes.
Korean Air Lines has asked DOT for authority to operate scheduled single- plane, one-stop service between Seoul and Washington Dulles Airport via New York. The application is submitted under DOT's "Cities Program" and is based on the principles of reciprocity and comity, said the carrier, adding that "no U.S. or foreign carrier provides single-plane service of any nature to Washington, D.C., from Seoul." If approved, KAL plans to operate twice-weekly service on the route as a continuation of two of its current New York flights, using a 747 aircraft. (Docket 50417)
Reno Air has sold $4.8 million in newly issued common and preferred stock to accounts managed by Fidelity Management and Research and its affiliates. The airline also said it has hired Fieldstone Private Capital Group to raise additional capital to increase its liquidity further and position if for future development. The proceeds from the Fidelity private placement, which gives Fidelity a stake of less than 5% in Reno Air, have been added to the airline company's general working capital.
Southwest will take another step toward the distribution system of the 21st century next month, when its skycaps begin testing hand-held, wireless personal computers in Houston, Dallas and Oakland. The units will enable the skycaps to verify that ticketless passengers are booked on a flight before accepting their bags at the curb. The testing begins July 15, and Southwest intends to expand use of the system gradually to its 13 busiest cities. The 39 units, made by Telxon, cost about $200,000.
TAP Air Portugal's passenger traffic increased 2% last month to 598.5 million revenue passenger kilometers, and the number of passengers boarded rose 6.1% from the same 1994 month to 299,953. TAP's May cargo traffic gained 11.5% to 18.4 million freight tonne kilometers. Through the first five months of this year, TAP's passenger traffic declined 0.7% to nearly 2.8 billion RPKs, but its passenger enplanements increased 4.1% to 1.36 million. Cargo traffic improved 3% to 77.6 million FTKs.
Northwest requested authority to operate scheduled combination service between the U.S. and Dhaka, Bangladesh, beginning Sept. 1. If approved, the service will be operated via Amsterdam under Northwest's code-sharing arrangement with KLM. (Docket 50421)
DOT tentatively has selected United over American to provide scheduled combination service in the Los Angeles-Guadalajara market. United plans to operate three daily roundtrip flights with 737-300 aircraft on the route. American proposed the same level of service using MD-80 aircraft.
The chief executive officers of the 23 Air Transport Association member airlines yesterday told Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan in a letter that they oppose the city's attempts to channel revenue to non-airport projects and increase landing fees 32% (DAILY, June 23). "We are united as an industry in opposing city efforts to divert revenue off the airport and disappointed that an economic engine as important as LAX is languishing because of city policies and politics," ATA President Carol Hallett said.
Iberia's passenger traffic rose 10.9% in May from the same month a year ago to 1.89 billion revenue passenger kilometers. The number of passengers boarded increased 5.9% to 1.2 million, and the airline's cargo traffic skyrocketed 31.5% to 58.1 million freight tonne kilometers. Through the first five months of 1995, Iberia's passenger traffic increased nearly 7.1% to 9.1 billion RPKs, and its passenger boardings rose 4.7% to 5.56 million. Cargo traffic climbed 21.8% to 267.5 million FTKs.
TWA has asked DOT for authority to operate scheduled combination service between St. Louis and Mexican points Cancun, Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo, Manzanillo and Puerto Vallarta, and Montego Bay, Jamaica. If approved, the carrier plans to offer four weekly frequencies to Cancun, two to Puerto Vallarta, one each to Zihuatanejo and Manzanillo and two to Montego Bay, beginning in December. The carrier plans to suspend during the off season - between May 11 and Dec. 14, 1996 - Zihuatanejo and Manzanillo service, while scaling back its other proposed services between July 11 and Dec.
America West yesterday reduced its fares to Mazatlan, a port city in Western Mexico, on tickets purchased through June 30 for travel July 7 through Sept. 30. Fares range from $114 to $179 each way, based on a roundtrip purchase, with the lowest fares available for travel Monday through Thursday. The tickets are non-refundable and require a three-day minimum or 30-day maximum stay. Other restrictions may apply.
Regional Airline Association yesterday told FAA it supports the agency's proposed rule to require commuter airlines to meet the same safety requirements as carriers operating larger aircraft, but it questioned some of the costs associated with a single standard and suggested alternate means of compliance or dropping some requirements. The comment deadline was yesterday.
United's Mileage Plus frequent flyer program won four 1995 Tempo Awards from the Chicago Association of Direct Marketing. One of the awards was given for a promotion in which a compact disk of United's theme song, "Rhapsody in Blue" by George Gershwin, was given to its 100,000 frequent flyers.
Vought Aircraft Co., Dallas, a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman, has begun testing a preliminary design for the next-generation engine nacelle fan cowl door. The testing is part of an effort to produce what Vought called an "affordable composite structure with increased strength and damage tolerance." The work is being performed under a $22 million contract from Pratt&Whitney.
In what IATA Director General Pierre Jeanniot termed a "breakthrough," delegates to last week's International Air Transport Association (IATA) Airline Liability Conference in Washington, D.C., worked out a tentative agreement that would lead to an increase in worldwide passenger liability limits to more than $350,000. The tentative deal, hammered out by representatives of 67 airlines and regional airline associations, and observers from the European Civil Aviation Conference, the European Union and the U.S.
Boeing Co.'s board yesterday authorized production of the 777-300, the stretched version of its new twinjet, as what Boeing Chairman Frank Shrontz termed "an attractive option for progressively lower cost per seat within the 777 family and for replacement of early model 747s." The go-ahead follows this month's announcement that four airlines have ordered 31 of the aircraft, 20 of them new 777 orders and 11 conversions. Dale Hougardy, VP and general manager of the 777 division, said a 33-foot stretch will give the aircraft 368 three-class seats or 451 two-class seats.
The three largest U.S. airlines, United, American and Delta, accounted for 56.89% of the U.S. industry's total traffic in May. United led the pack with a market share of 21.174%, followed by American at 19.355% and Delta at 16.357%. Atlantic Coast had the smallest share among the 18 majors and nationals, accounting for 0.069% of the industry's total of 43.74 billion revenue passenger miles. The nine nationals together accounted for nearly 4.1% of the traffic total and 4.4% of the industry's combined capacity of 65.61 billion available seat miles.
Boeing said yesterday it will hold prices in its Spares Standards Catalog at 1994 levels until June 30, 1996. The standards catalog includes items such as fasteners, brackets and other components used in large quantities for repair and maintenance. Last fall, the company froze aircraft spares prices in its proprietary catalog, which covers parts from small machine fittings to large control surfaces designed specifically for Boeing aircraft, until May 31, 1996.
Worldspan will launch Worldspan Electronic Courier, a system that will distribute airline and rail tickets almost anywhere in the U.S. electronically, in the third quarter. Being introduced in conjunction with QuikTix Corp., an Arizona-based Electronic Ticket Delivery Network (ETDN) provider, Electronic Courier will become available automatically to Worldspan subscribers in the U.S. Delivery options will include same-day courier, airport pick-up and overnight standard or priority express for out-of-town deliveries.
As governments and carriers continue to push for open-skies aviation agreements and international airline alliances, antitrust immunity will play a key role in shaping the future of international competition, a panel of government and airline officials agreed last week. "It [immunity] is on the agenda for the next several years to be very, very important," DOT General Counsel Stephen Kaplan said at the American Bar Association's Forum on Air&Space Law.
