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.
Midway Airlines is speaking to "a bunch" of smaller operators interested in becoming the carrier's commuter partner at Raleigh/Durham, to which it is moving most of its operation.
Servicio Aereo Leo Lopez, which has ceased operations and surrendered its foreign air carrier certificate, asked DOT to cancel its application for a three-year extension of authority to operate scheduled service from Chihuahua to Dallas and Albuquerque, from Ciudad Juarez to Albuquerque, and from San Jose del Cabo and Torreon to El Paso.
After about a year of consultations with Canadair and its customers, General Electric has decided to abandon its original, additive approach to growing the Canadair RJ's successful CF34 powerplant in favor of substantial rework of the configuration - including a bigger fan and a new compressor.
Shuttle by United will expand its service April 2 in eight city-pairs, including new flights from Portland to San Francisco and Los Angeles, while it drops out of the Ontario-Oakland market. The Shuttle will operate 378 daily departures in 16 West Coast city-pairs, up from its current 342. The changes will add two daily flights from San Francisco to Burbank and Ontario, four between San Francisco and San Diego and Phoenix, and two between Los Angeles and Oakland and Sacramento. The two new routes from Portland will cost $72 one way.
Qantas captured 50.9% of the Australian domestic passenger market in July, the most recent month for which Department of Transport figures are available, pushing it past Ansett and making it Australia's largest domestic airline. Qantas said its domestic market share increased from 47.9% in July the previous year, and on the 20 largest domestic routes, its market share, measured in revenue passenger kilometers, was 55.7%. In terms of passenger volume, Qantas also led Ansett with 50.5% of the total carried.
Korean Air has contracted to use SITA's Airfare fare quotation and itinerary pricing service. KAL passengers planning itineraries to the U.S., or other destinations, will receive fares quoted from Airfare. KAL will use an interface developed by Eva Air that enables airlines using IBM- based reservations systems to benefit from Airfare.
United will begin scheduled service June 13 to its eighth Latin American destination, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, offering the only nonstop flights to the city from the U.S. United will operate from Miami, connecting to Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, Newark, New York, Mexico City, Orlando, San Francisco, San Juan and Washington, D.C. It will provide service three days a week initially, increasing to daily Aug. 1, using 767-200s.
Northwest Airlink carrier Mesaba Aviation's January traffic rose 5.8% from a year ago, but failed to keep pace with a 9.4% increase in capacity. January 1995 January 1994 Rev. Passenger Miles 21,747,405 20,548,973 Available Seat Miles 54,601,721 49,925,283 Load Factor (%) 39.8 41.2 Passengers 99,103 98,616
Mesa Air Group's systemwide passenger traffic increased 15.5% in January, but its capacity rose 19.7%, pushing the company's overall load factor down 1.6 percentage points to 44.3%. January 1995 January 1994 Rev. Passenger Miles 82,014,000 71,013,000 Available Seat Miles 185,084,000 154,644,000 Load Factor (%) 44.3 45.9 Passengers 437,920 336,899
Although the Environmental Protection Agency eliminated a proposed general aviation takeoff fee from its interim final rule aimed at reducing air pollution in California, the National Air Transportation Association remains wary of further regulatory developments under the plan. EPA said it received comments indicating that GA "can and should reduce emissions through basic changes in refueling." It said it will continue to work with FAA and "private pilot associations" to develop training in low-emission operation and refueling controls.
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association urged air traffic controllers yesterday to review AOPA's five-point plan for FAA reform and support "a 'win-win' outcome for controllers and pilots." In a letter to National Air Traffic Controllers Association President Barry Krasner, AOPA President Phil Boyer said members of the two associations "collectively desire reform that improves services to pilots and improves working conditions for controllers."
Swissair has upgraded to the Direct Sell functionality in the Singapore- based Abacus computer reservations system. With Direct Sell, the Abacus system is automatically interfaced with the participating airline's host computer during the booking process for instant confirmation of bookings. The airline's inventory is automatically decremented. To date, 35 airlines have signed up to participate at the Direct Sell level, Abacus said.
Indications from Canada yesterday were that U.S.-Canada bilateral talks would finish up today, but that the two sides already have agreed on major issues that had been outstanding. Negotiators were said to be down to the last slot issues, and it appeared that dispute resolution, user charges and preclearance had been settled. Sources said the signing ceremony by President Clinton and Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien already is planned for Feb. 24.
The Indian government has set up a committee of experts to determine why Indian Airlines, the state-owned domestic carrier, is incurring heavy losses, and to devise a turnaround strategy for it. IA has been losing money for the past five years, with accumulated losses of more than 7 billion Indian rupees (US$225 million). The nine-member committee, whose report is expected by April, will consider a plan for the airline's organizational and financial restructuring, civil aviation ministry officials said.
A fatal crash Monday involving Las Vegas Airlines, which has experienced three other fatal accidents since 1983, is being investigated as any other accident would be, an FAA spokesman said yesterday. "The current investigation is a routine National Transportation Safety Board investigation," the spokesman said. "If in the course of the investigation they feel it appropriate to look at the airline's operation as a possible contributor to the accident, we will do so." FAA is aware of issues raised by NTSB following a 1991 accident, the spokesman said.
