Air Transport International DC-8 cargo aircraft crashed last week at Kansas City International Airport, killing its three occupants. The crew was trying - with FAA approval - to take off on three engines, and was headed for maintenance work in Massachusetts. The pilot had aborted a first takeoff attempt.
DOT has decided to require carriers to file copies of their code-sharing agreements with the department when they involve "significant international code-sharing operations." American will be the first carrier affected by the new policy - in a notice on the requirement, DOT told it to submit its proposed code-sharing agreement with LOT of Poland. Both carriers have asked for additional underlying operating authority - American to add New York as a co-terminal point on Chicago-Warsaw authority, and LOT to serve Miami and Los Angeles.
Associated Air Freight named Mike Hess VP-strategic planning. Aviall appointed Dan Komnenovich senior VP-marketing and named Frank Leftwich president of Aviall Asia Limited, a newly formed marketing company based in Hong Kong. Aviall Caledonian Engine Services named Peter Muirhead, John Horsburgh and David Crews to its Executive Management Committee. Interstate Electronics promoted Michael Patrick to VP-operations. Precision Standard named Cleveland Howie director-marketing for the Pemco Nacelle Services Unit.
American has asked DOT to approve its application to expand its code- sharing services to Africa with South African Airways, filed eight months ago, if it grants World Airways' request to pick up the frequencies to South Africa not being used by USAfrica Airways.
Delta will install 20 new AT&T 5682 self-service ticketing machines by early spring in its Delta Shuttle terminals in Boston, Washington and New York. The new machines, replacing other electronic units, are capable of issuing a boarding card in less than 30 seconds. Delta is installing five machines at Boston and Washington, and 10 in the Marine Air Terminal at LaGuardia.
Air New Zealand's net earnings for the six-month period ended Dec. 31, the first half of its fiscal year, rose 59.4% to NZ$140.5 million (US$89.2 million) from NZ$88.1 million the previous year. Operating revenues were up 16.2% to NZ$1.47 billion (US$934.9 million). The airline's results were bolstered by strong passenger and freight traffic growth, and unit cost reductions. Air New Zealand's directors described the first-half results as "very satisfactory." As of Dec. 31, the carrier's net cash reserves stood at NZ$483 million (US$306.7 million).
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries has begun production of wing skins for the first Bombardier Global Express long-range business jet. MHI is responsible for the design, manufacture and assembly of the transonic wing and center fuselage.
Soon-to-retire Worldspan Chief Executive Cal Rader, discussing his five- year tenure at the computer reservations system company, says DOT's management of CRS rulemaking in 1992 was a disappointment because the process created a lot of uncertainty. DOT talked about a lot of issues, but never really dealt with them - there was "a lot of fuss and bluster, not a lot of substance."
British Airways Regional was to begin daily Birmingham-New York flights Monday using 757s. The new nonstop service replaces the previous four- times-a-week 767 operation that was routed via Glasgow. BA Regional suspended the flights Jan. 10 in a dispute with its cabin attendants over work-rule issues (DAILY, Jan. 10). "We are delighted that we can, at last, resume services to New York and can only apologize to our customers for the disruption, particularly to those whom we re-routed during the last six weeks," said George Cooper, managing director for BA Regional.
Boeing has petitioned FAA for exemption from head injury rules for 777-200 front-row economy-class passenger seats until April 1, 1996. The company says this will give it time to "implement [seat] design solutions." United launches 777 service June 7.
Pratt&Whitney will develop a 98,000-pounds-thrust version of its PW4000 engine, Karl Krapek, president, said Friday. He said the high thrust level will enable the engine to "easily power future versions of the 777 up to 660,000 pounds in gross takeoff weight." Current versions of the engine range up to 84,000 pounds' thrust, which supports a gross takeoff weight of about 550,000 pounds. Pratt had said earlier it would produce a 90,000- pounds-thrust engine. The two new engines will be called the PW4090 and PW4098.
Continental and Frontier have reached agreement to code share on some connecting flights in 18 markets out of Denver. Beginning April 2, Frontier's flights to Billings, Bozeman, Great Falls and Missoula, Mont., and Bismarck and Fargo, N.D., will connect to Continental's flights to Denver from Newark, Houston and Cleveland. Frontier joined Continental's OnePass frequent flyer program last month. Both carriers will operate from Concourse A when the new Denver airport opens.
Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.) introduced legislation (H.R.969) last week that would prohibit smoking on international flights to and from the United States. Similar legislation (H.R.4495) passed the House in October last year but died at the end of the 103rd Congress. DOT would have to issue regulations requiring U.S. and foreign air carriers to prohibit smoking in passenger cabins and lavatories on flights between U.S. and foreign points - the first point of arrival when leaving the U.S. and the last point of departure before landing in the U.S.
President Clinton said last week he will nominate John Goglia to the National Transportation Safety Board. Goglia is an aviation enforcement/safety specialist with the Machinists union for USAir in Boston and is the union's principal enforcement and safety representative for investigation, preparing and presenting defenses to enforcement action. He also represents the union on the Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee and is its principal liaison with DOT, FAA and Congress.
Air Line Pilots Association is supporting a State Department proposal to seize interest earned on billions of dollars in assets, frozen by presidential orders, from countries that sponsor terrorism, such as Libya, Iraq and Iran. ALPA supports State's plan to use the money for government counter-terrorism programs "Better intelligence means more warning about terrorist acts, and it's been shown that terrorism can be thwarted by early discovery," said Dennis Schaar, chairman of ALPA's Flight Security Committee.
Commission caps are just the start of airlines' travel agent cost reductions, consulting firm Avitas believes. Majors are likely to accelerate computer reservations system automation, enabling them to capture and retain business travelers by making their reservations systems available to big corporations. Eventually, the airlines and the large software companies will make reservations and ticketing available to the public via home computer.
Sabre Travel Information Network (STIN) has made available its new Sabre Group Planner, which it describes as the next-generation group travel and blocked-space management tool. "Sabre Group Planner is a single tool that can manage all aspects of group travel and eliminate the requirement for multiple tools or tedious manual processes because it is fully integrated with Sabre," said Eric Speck, VP-product marketing. The basic version, designed for 15 concurrent users, is available now.
U.S. trade sanctions scheduled to go into effect this week could force China Southern Airlines to cancel $2 billion in orders for eight 777s and 25 737s, according to the official newspaper China Daily. Ding Yuhua, an airline official, told China Daily the carrier instead may have to turn to Airbus Industrie for its equipment needs. Boeing did not return telephone calls.
Global Airlines hired more flight attendants in January, 295, than any other carrier category. National carriers were next with 249. United alone, which has been seeking bilingual applicants, hired 240. Continental, eliminating much of its CALite flights and grounding aircraft, still hired 1,151 flight attendants in the past 12 months, far more than any other carrier, according to the Future Aviation Professionals of America.
FAA plans to obtain a retired widebody aircraft for its Aeronautical Center in Oklahoma City to use in evacuation experiments. The agency has been looking into changes in current rules on evacuation, and the Association of Flight Attendants fears it may drop the requirement for full-scale demonstrations.
Legislation (H.R.951) introduced last week to allow increased foreign ownership of U.S. airlines would require DOT to apply a public-interest test ranging from the effect on the U.S. airlines involved to an analysis of reciprocity and access to international markets (DAILY, Feb. 17). In introducing the bill, Rep. William Clinger (R-Pa.) said no one factor is meant to be an absolute bar to the transaction, but the DOT secretary should give the proper weight to each factor in each individual case.
Kiwi adopted a more "stabilized" schedule Friday, integrating its 14th and 15th 727s for a Feb. 28 increase in frequencies in almost all its markets. Kiwi says it will operate more flights than ever before - 60 per day, plus charters - and is not in a desperate financial state. But just one week ago, management told its employees cash flow continues to be its biggest challenge.
A U.S. appeals court last week stayed the new FAA rule mandating duty and rest periods for flight attendants weeks before it was to be put into effect by the nation's carriers. The stay was obtained by charter carrier Sun Country from a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. The rule would have gone into effect March 1 (DAILY, Oct. 24).
DOT made final its tentative decision to allocate five weekly U.S.-China frequencies to Northwest and two all-cargo frequencies to Evergreen International, effective immediately, and to establish procedures for returning unused frequencies. U.S. carriers will be permitted to operate 27 weekly frequencies to China in 1995 and 1996, up from 20. Evergreen uses two all-cargo frequencies, Northwest four and United 14.
