The bipartisan leadership of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and key subcommittees introduced legislation (H.R.842) this week to take four transportation trust funds, including aviation, off the federal budget. The bill would exclude from the President's budget, the congressional budget and any statutory general budget limitation the receipts and disbursements of the highway, airport and airway, inland waterways and harbor maintenance trust funds.
USAir's traffic rose 12.7% last month over January 1993 on 8.9% more capacity, increasing its load factor 1.9 percentage points. The number of passengers increased 11.6%, and the length of the average trip grew 0.9% to 660.7 miles. "We were helped by relatively good weather this January compared to last year's horrendous weather," said Chairman Seth Schofield.
Alaska Airlines will discontinue its service to Magadan, Khabarovsk and Vladivostok in the Russian Far East by April 4, saying it has been unable to reach mutually acceptable terms with its pilots over deviations from the current labor contract necessary to operate the service. Alaska's pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association said they resent "being cast in the role of a scapegoat," claiming Alaska made the decision to end the service because the routes did not show any potential for profit in the near future.
Airborne Express said it has established the "first electronic data linkage" between the U.S. and Canada, enabling customers to "dramatically improve the ease of shipping between the two points." Airborne said it set up the linkage for the Clackamas, Ore., office of ADP Dealer Services, a leading supplier of computer systems to auto, truck and equipment dealers in North America and Europe. Tim Kauppi, ADP's shipping manager, said the company's capacity to ship large volumes of packages has increased about 35% as a result.
U.S. District Court in Richmond, Va., sentenced three persons and a company yesterday for "criminal sale of bogus, counterfeit and fraudulently documented parts" to airlines and the Defense Department. James Daniele, a parts broker who operated D&D Air Inc., was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison and fined more than $250,000. He and D&D also were fined the $2 million to $3 million proceeds from selling inventory not subject to forfeiture.
FAA hints at a major shift in regulatory philosophy in its proposed airworthiness directive on Rolls-Royce-powered Boeing 747s (DAILY, Feb. 8).Long-term, repetitive inspections "may not be providing the degree of safety assurance necessary," the agency says. This, plus a better understanding of human-factors issues in inspections, leads FAA to put "less emphasis on inspections and more emphasis on design improvements."
ValuJet yesterday posted its fourth consecutive quarterly profit and its president, Lewis Jordan, confidently predicted his company will run its string to five straight with its first quarter 1995 results. "We are expecting to be profitable in the first quarter," Jordan told reporters. "We've been profitable in every quarter" since launching flight operations on Oct. 26, 1993, he said. For the fourth quarter, ValuJet reported net earnings of $6.95 million, or 49 cents per share, and an operating profit of $11.5 million.
The American Freight Association's membership will soon include airports, association President Steve Alterman said yesterday. Eventually to include airports all over the world, AFA will aim at placing U.S. airports that have cargo hubs in a new member category, Alterman said. He added that the American Association of Airport Executives has expressed an interest in cooperating by encouraging its members to participate.
Pilot Air Freight has become a member and Africa Airways an associate member of Air Cargo Inc., the wholly owned subsidiary of U.S. Scheduled Airlines. Membership now stands at 65.
Joanne Young has joined Baker&Hostetler as a partner and will head its international aviation practices. The firm has offices in Washington, D.C., and seven other cities. Young represents aviation interests in the U.S., Europe, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. She joins Richard Jones, who was deputy FAA administrator during the Reagan administration.
Swissair said yesterday it has "adjusted" its offer for a minority stake in Sabena but declined to confirm press reports from Europe that it has lowered its offer in the wake of the rejection of Sabena's plan to relocate Sabena pilots to Luxembourg (DAILY, Jan. 26).
Third annual International Cargo Symposium will be hosted May 10-11 by McCarran Airport, Las Vegas. Fourteen cargo experts will discuss current and future issues. For more information, call Cecilia Aguilar, 702-261- 5146.
U.S., European and Asian views on code sharing, fifth-freedom service and foreign ownership dominated policy debate on international issues at last week's American Bar Association forum on air and space law. Leading off the session, DOT Acting Assistant Secretary for International Aviation Affairs Patrick Murphy summarized the new U.S. international policy promoting code-sharing and open-skies agreements.
Although the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association was among the early advocates of the Global Positioning System, FAA's push to establish the satellite system as a "sole means" of navigation, approach and landing is causing some nervousness among general aviation advocates. Douglas Helton, AOPA VP-regulatory policy, said yesterday that "we still want Loran-C despite GPS" until it is proven that GPS can meet the sole-means requirement.
Travel from the Caribbean to the U.S., especially vacation travel, is on the rise, according to the U.S. Travel and Tourism Administration.Half of all Caribbean visitors to the states in 1993 were on vacation, compared with 40% in 1992 and 39% in 1991.
DOT has reissued a certificate to Trans Continental Airlines authorizing it to provide interstate scheduled cargo service. The new certificate lifts a provision of Trans Con's previous authority that limited it to operating no more than two aircraft. (Docket 49932)
Delta is selling its toll-free 800 service for incoming long-distance telephone calls to other businesses to further reduce its distribution costs. By selling the service and increasing its volume, Delta can negotiate more favorable rates from its long-distance provider and offer small businesses lower volume-based costs. Delta uses toll-free telephone numbers for reservations, flight information and other incoming calls. The carrier said the new service is part of its continuing drive to find innovative ways to reduce operating costs.
Air South boarded 56,095 passengers in January, 40% more than in December. The all-jet startup flew 18.7 million revenue passenger miles last month on capacity of just under 50.9 million available seat miles, producing a load factor of 37%.
USAfrica Airways, which suspended flight operations last week, is evaluating going into Chapter 11 as part of the process of creating a reorganization plan, Chief Executive Gregory Lewis said yesterday (DAILY, Feb. 6). If the carrier opts for the bankruptcy route, a filing could come as early as today. Either way, Lewis hopes to restart service as soon as possible, and certainly in time for the summer travel season. While he would not make any guarantees, Lewis said he is "fairly certain" that USAfrica will fly again.
Atlantic Coast Airlines has appointed Capt. Joe Hexter its corporate safety officer. The United Express carrier said Hexter will be responsible for on-board and ground operations safety, as well as environmental safety. He will chair established employee committees that cover those areas. The appointment follows the industry's support for DOT Secretary Federico Pea's drive toward zero accidents.
AlliedSignal said it will supply $20 million or more of flight safety and data management avionics to Singapore Airlines for 67 Airbus A340-300E and Boeing 747-400 aircraft the carrier has ordered or optioned. Equipment includes forward-looking windshear radars, traffic alert and collision avoidance systems/Mode S transponders, solid-state flight data recorders, ground proximity warning systems, aircraft condition monitoring system data management units and airborne data loaders.
U.S. Major Carriers Share of Latin Service Third Quarter 1994 Total Revenue Departures America West 228 American 21,608 Continental 6,589 Delta 3,622 United 6,173 USAir 1,736 Total 39,956
