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
The estate of Eastern Airlines this week issued 71,000 checks totaling $30 million to resolve "virtually all" remaining employee claims and all other general unsecured claims of $100,000 or less, the estate said yesterday. Vendors and other consumer claimants, such as ticketholders, will receive about $11 million, in addition to the $62 million already paid ticketholders with administrative claims. Part of the current $11 million will be used for payments to subordinated debtholders.
Industry officials criticized the administration's fiscal 1996 DOT budget proposal, complaining that it lacks specifics. On the surface, the budget, released Monday, proposes $8.38 billion for FAA, about the same as last year (DAILY, Feb. 7). But DOT restructuring, which consolidated many infrastructure elements into the Unified Transportation Infrastructure Investment Program, has left a number of funding issues unresolved. The future of the Airport Improvement Program, to be financed entirely from UTIIP, is especially unclear.
Retired Army Gen. Colin Powell, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Olympic gold medal speed skater Dan Jansen are scheduled to speak at Apollo Travel Services' 1995 Automation Conference June 4-9 in San Diego. Also speaking will be Apollo Chief Executive Paul Blackney, a 30- year veteran of the travel industry.
U.S. Major Carrier Share of Domestic Service Third Quarter Total Revenue Departures America West 46,732 American 195,336 Continental 135,610 Delta 230,774 Northwest 133,431 Southwest 152,047 TWA 67,032
The Humane Society has asked Delta to review and make necessary changes to its policies on transporting live animals after the carrier allegedly violated IATA standards last June when it carried 2,000 turtles to The Netherlands. The Humane Society said many of the turtles were dehydrated and diseased when they arrived at New York Kennedy from Arkansas, and an agent from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service told the Society he had recommended that Delta not accept the shipment. A Delta spokeswoman said it is investigating the alleged incident, and added that two U.S.
Aviation Capital Group investment vehicle ACG Acquisition Corp I has sold a 737-200 Advanced aircraft to El Salvador's TACA International Airlines. The aircraft had been on a two-year lease to TACA.
House Transportation and Infrastructure Chairman Bud Shuster (R-Pa.) pronounced "dead on arrival" the portion of the fiscal 1996 DOT budget that would allow expanded use of the transportation trust funds. "Frankly, I'm extremely disappointed" by the Clinton administration DOT budget, he said. The budget proposal calling for "busting open" both the highway and the aviation trust funds, under a Unified Transportation Infrastructure Investment Program (UTIIP) "is, pure and simple, a non-starter."
FAA issued special conditions on General Electric's newly certified GE90 turbofan because of an "unusual design feature" - the carbon composite material used in the engine's first stage fan blade. The agency questioned whether it is necessary to meet current requirement to show blade containment after a failure of the blade, saying failure under certain conditions "may be highly improbable." It said current requirements, based on metallic blade characteristics and service history, "are not appropriate for the unusual design features of the composite fan blade."
Continental flew 5% more systemwide revenue passenger miles last month than in January 1994, but its capacity increased 7.8%, producing a load factor decline of 1.5 percentage points. Continental does not report passenger boardings on a monthly basis. The airline's domestic traffic rose 3.3% on 7.4% more capacity, resulting in a load factor decrease of 2.1 points to 53.8%. It fared better internationally, however, with a traffic increase of 9.5% on 8.8% more capacity, pushing its international traffic up 0.4 points to 61.6%.
David Traynham, longtime House aviation subcommittee staff member, today will receive FAA's Extraordinary Service Award, the highest recognition it gives to persons it does not employ. He is leaving the subcommittee after 15 years.
FAA is preparing to require modification of the nacelle strut and wing structure of 747s with Rolls-Royce engines at a cost of about $120,000 per aircraft. The agency yesterday issued a proposed airworthiness directive based on a Jan. 12 alert bulletin issued by Boeing, which will supply the parts at no cost to the operator. The cost estimate does not cover changes imposed by other Boeing service bulletins that would be performed prior to or concurrent with the strut and wing structure modification. FAA said that while there are no Rolls-powered 747s in the U.S.
U.S. aerospace companies hope scheduled talks between the U.S. and China will resolve tariff disputes before the end of the month, when the U.S. is to impose a 100% duty on many Chinese products. China bought aerospace products valued at $2.4 billion in 1993 and the market is growing, an Aerospace Industries Association official said.
SAS Group yesterday reported a preliminary 1994 pre-tax profit of 1.5 billion krona (US$202.1 million) - the airline company's first pre-tax profit in five years and a significant improvement from 1993, when it lost 492 million krona. From 1990 through 1993, SAS Group had pre-tax losses, including extraordinary items, of nearly 3.31 billion krona.
USAir plans to start daily nonstop service to Frankfurt from Philadelphia and Boston on June 11, and transfer its Philadelphia-Paris service to Charles de Gaulle from Paris Orly on March 26. USAir currently operates daily nonstop service to Frankfurt from Charlotte and Pittsburgh. With the new schedule, the Charlotte service will become a one-stop over Boston, so the net increase in flights to Frankfurt is seven a week.
Carnival Air Lines is offering a roundtrip business fare of $159 for passengers traveling from Fort Lauderdale to New York Kennedy and returning on the same day. Business-class upgrades are available for $59 each way. The flights depart Fort Lauderdale at 8 a.m. and return at 11:25 p.m.
Kiwi International Air Lines' founder and chairman, Robert Iverson, and three other high-level managers have left the company and other departures are expected in a management shakeup about which the company offers few details. Kiwi would not describe Iverson's departure as a resignation, saying only that the consensus of the board was that it was time to take Kiwi "to its next plateau," indicating that there have been differences in philosophy by management on the future of the company.
Sabre Decision Technologies (SDT) has at least a tentative deal to supply Air France with yield management and other of its decision support software, the AMR unit confirmed yesterday. In addition to the yield management system, Air France and SDT are discussing the U.S. company's airline profitability model, its fleet assignment model, an aircraft routing model and other products. SDT has a team of about 20 consultants working with Air France in Paris.
