National Transportation Safety Board yesterday blamed the pilots for causing a Continental Airlines MD-82 accident on March 2, 1994, at LaGuardia Airport. The aircraft sustained "substantial damage" when the pilot rejected a takeoff and overran the runway, and the aircraft's nose came to rest on a tidal mud flat off Flushing Bay. There were no fatalities or serious injuries among the 110 passengers and six crew.
American Trans Air's scheduled passenger traffic rose 71% last month from January a year ago on 74% more capacity, resulting in a load factor fall of one percentage point to 57.3%. The number of passengers carried rose 44.2%, and the length of the average passenger trip increased 18.6% to 1,396 miles. Its consolidated traffic, including scheduled and charter operations, rose 31.8% on 41.2% more capacity. Block hours flown in scheduled service were up 56.4% to 5,993, and block hours flown in charter service rose 24.1% to 4,361. Scheduled service results:
Fuselages for Douglas Aircraft's MD-11 airliner will be assembled at the company's plant in Long Beach, Calif., beginning early next year, the company said yesterday. The decision where to transfer the work, pending since last summer, will bring about 1,350 jobs to the area. It is being done now in San Diego by the Convair division of General Dynamics, but the companies decided last year to transfer it as General Dynamics scales back much of its aerospace contracting.
Wicat reached an agreement with Sabena to develop jointly a dangerous goods training course, designed to meet the new Joint Airworthiness Regulations OPS Europe 1, sub-part R for flight crew and passenger handling training. The course will be applicable for initial as well as refresher training..
UNC reported this week an operating loss of $61 million and a net loss of $67.9 million on revenues of $525.8 million for 1994. This compares with an operating profit of $23.4 million and a net profit of $11.1 million on revenues of $438.2 million the previous year. In the fourth quarter, the company reported that revenues declined to $135.4 million from $155.1 million in 1993. UNC had an operating loss of $10.9 million, compared with an operating profit of $8.3 million the previous year. The net loss was $15.8 million, compared with a profit of $2.8 million in 1993.
Switzerland yesterday became the first of nine European countries to initial the text of an open skies agreement with the U.S. Trying to wrap up open skies deals with each country as quickly as possible, the U.S. plans tentatively to meet with Belgium in the last week of February and Austria the week after. The Swiss pact, completed in bilateral talks in Washington, is the model agreement sent to each country, in which the U.S. said, in essence, that most of the document is non-negotiable.
Mesa Air Group has begun a comprehensive review of its executive compensation program that will cover about 35 key positions, including that of chief executive, the regional airline company said. The review comes less than two weeks after the company reported a 65% drop in earnings for the December quarter, the first quarter of Mesa's financial year, and after The Wall Street Journal reported that Mesa Chairman and Chief Executive Larry Risley was awarded a $2.6 million cash bonus for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30 (DAILY, Feb. 2). Risley's annual salary is $153,000.
Canadian Airlines International has applied for all 24 "free starter slots" the U.S. is to make available at Chicago O'Hare and New York LaGuardia as part of the soon-to-be-signed U.S.-Canada bilateral. Canadian, which currently serves only San Francisco and Los Angeles but holds unused authority to Chicago, wants to launch Toronto-New York, Toronto-Chicago and Vancouver-Chicago service. It plans to code share with American in the two Toronto markets.
Canadian Airlines International will add a fourth 747-400 to its fleet May 1 but is not saying where it will get the aircraft. The new airplane is earmarked for transpacific flying.
Hawaiian Airlines said yesterday it expects another delay in the distribution of common stock to creditors under its bankruptcy reorganization plan, (DAILY, Dec. 13). The delay, the second in three months, indicates that significant disputed claims stemming from Hawaiian's Chapter 11 proceeding remain to be resolved. Hawaiian emerged from bankruptcy in September and originally planned to begin distributing the stock to creditors in December, but the Bankruptcy Court granted a delay to avoid the possibility that more than 25% of the stock would end up in foreign hands.
Alaska Airlines has reached an agreement with its pilots that will enable it to continue serving Russia, reversing a decision announced last week to discontinue service to Magadan, Khabarovsk and Vladivostok. The carrier said at that time the decision was necessary because it could not reach agreement with pilots on deviations to the labor contract with the Air Line Pilots Association (DAILY, Feb. 9). Details on the agreement were not available. Alaska operates one roundtrip flight per week to Russia.
Continental said yesterday it will reluctantly cap travel agent commissions for domestic tickets, joining USAir, Delta, American, Northwest and United, while a small startup, Air South, said it will increase them. While the other carriers have implemented the cap or will have it in place by Feb. 27, Continental made the change effective April 1. To reduce the impact on agencies, Continental said it will accelerate plans to include Continental Lite in all travel agency incentive programs.
FAA will make it easier for airline pilots to receive flight training and checking maneuvers in Level C flight simulators that now must be done in aircraft or Level D simulators. Several airlines and the Air Transport Association petitioned FAA to permit more qualification through Level C simulators because of the cost of flight training in aircraft.
Swissair is now offering eight billion Belgian francs (US$260 million), down from its original offer of BF 12 billion, for a substantial minority stake in Sabena, according to reports from Europe (DAILY, Feb. 14). Only about two billion francs are earmarked for injection into Sabena. Of the remainder, about four billion francs would go to buy out Air France's 37.5% stake, which is held by Finacta of Belgium, and two billion would buy additional shares from the Belgian government. Swissair is said to be interested in acquiring up to 49%.
FAA Administrator David Hinson is expected to announce today that Christopher Hart will head the agency's new safety office.Hart, a former member of the National Transportation Safety Board, is deputy administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Atlantic Coast Airlines' (ACA) January traffic fell 6.5% from the same month a year ago on 5.7% less capacity, resulting in a fractional load factor decline to 35.8%. The number of passengers boarded declined 5.4%.
DOT has granted Mesa permission to use the trade name Desert Sun Airlines for a division it is establishing to operate from Phoenix and Las Vegas. Mesa also uses the trade names Mesa Air Group and Mountain West.
USAir Express carrier CCAIR yesterday reported December quarter net earnings of $196,625, or three cents per share, after losing nearly $600,000 in the December quarter of 1993. The company said it has completed a senior revolving credit line with JSX Capital Corp. for amounts up to $2.5 million through Dec. 31, 1995, with renewal provisions.
Singapore Airlines has placed firm orders for two Learjet 31 and four Learjet 45 aircraft in a deal valued at $56 million, including the cost of spares, SIA said yesterday. The new aircraft will replace the airline's pilot-training fleet of four specially configured Learjet 31s. The two new Learjet 31s are scheduled for delivery in December, when two of the existing aircraft will be retired. The four Learjet 45s will replace the other two older 31s in the last quarter of 1997. SIA took options on two additional Learjet 45s, with deliveries planned by 2000.
Buffalo Airways has withdrawn applications for authority to operate all- cargo service between Houston and Baku, Azerbaijan, and between Kansas City, Mo., and Amsterdam. (Dockets 49155, 49214&49222)
Airport Systems International said it received contracts valued at $2.4 million from Korea, Poland and Turkey for ground-based navigation equipment. Korea awarded two contracts totaling $1.5 million for an ILS glideslope system and two Doppler very high frequency omni-range (VOR) transmitters. Poland ordered two conventional VOR and distance measuring equipment (DME) units, and Turkey ordered three DME units.
United yesterday became the third of the Big Three U.S. carriers to set a $50 cap on travel agent commissions for domestic roundtrip tickets. United's cap takes effect tomorrow, while Delta's already is in effect, and American's and Northwest's will be imposed Feb. 27 (DAILY, Feb. 13). United-owned computer reservations system Apollo said yesterday it is ready to implement the commission changes and will offer agencies an enhancement to streamline and simplify the inclusion of the fees on invoices.
The new Saab 2000 jetprop regional airliner is on a tour of North America, scheduled to visit nearly 50 potential operators in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Company officials are demonstrating high-speed cruise powered by two Allison AE2100 engines, which enable it to operate at up to 450 miles per hour. Saab said the aircraft's "high speed and long range offer airline and corporate customers better operating economics than regional jets or conventional turboprops." The tour will continue through March 3.
The 1995 version of the U.S. Air Traffic Control Services Corporation (USATS), outlined yesterday by DOT and FAA, has governance and financing provisions only barely different from those announced last May. USATS would be a not-for-profit federal corporation of about 41,000 employees responsible for operation, maintenance and development of ATC.
