The government of Saudi Arabia, facing complications in talks with the U.S. Export-Import Bank, is exploring alternatives to financing up to $6 billion in commercial aircraft orders from Boeing and Douglas, according to Omar Bajamal, deputy general manager of the National Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia. Speaking yesterday at an Air Finance conference in Dubai, Bajamal was quoted by Reuter as saying the complications arise from Saudi Arabia's refusal to offer a "sovereign guarantee" for the 85% of the purchase that Eximbank is willing to finance.
FAA said yesterday that it stands by statements it made last week about ATR roll forces but allowed that it had been "overly conservative." The agency was responding to an ATR Marketing statement that FAA extrapolation for the force required to keep ATR aircraft from rolling was "erroneous" (DAILY, Jan. 18&12).
American Aerospace Corp., Bay Shore, N.Y., said it has developed a hand- held device to measure strobe light intensity on the wing of aircraft. The device, called Flash Test Model ST-4000, is FAA approved, the company said. The device enables the operator to measure the intensity of all strobe lights without removing them from the aircraft, and it provides a digital readout in effective candellas for record-keeping purposes, the company said. It said aircraft can be tested during routine maintenance visits, indoors or outdoors, and needs no special equipment.
Hughes Canada's Systems Division has won a $17.8 million contract to supply seven en route air traffic control centers in China, as well as training and logistics support. The company also is conducting ATC projects for Switzerland and Indonesia in addition to its work on Canada's automated ATC system.
DOT officials expect a detailed air traffic control corporatization proposal to be introduced by Feb. 6, when the administration unveils its fiscal 1996 budget.Department staff are working out details of the plan, which is expected to be basically the same as last year's concept. A meeting between DOT Secretary Federico Pea and House Budget Committee Chairman John Kasich (R-Ohio) to discuss the measure, scheduled yesterday, was postponed because of scheduling problems. DOT officials and Kasich staffers have met previously.
McDonnell Douglas yesterday reported lower revenues but record operating and net earnings for 1994, and Chief Financial Officer Herbert Lanese said the company will have to "revisit" options for MD-11 production in 1996 unless its long-expected order from Saudi Arabia comes through. The Douglas Aircraft unit delivered only 17 MD-11s last year, down from 36 in 1993, and the outlook for this year is 18 or 19 deliveries, Lanese said.
DOT has delayed announcing progress in its efforts to persuade foreign carriers to stop spraying insecticide on flights arriving in their home countries. It has been waiting for a formal response from the government of Mexico, but it is expected to make the announcement today, with or without a Mexican reply. DOT is expected to name eight countries that have stopped the practice and announce further rulemaking to curtail it.
American parent AMR Corp. yesterday reported a fourth quarter 1994 net loss of $123 million and an operating loss of $43 million after taking into account a $278 million special charge included in operating expenses relating to employee severance and the company's ongoing restructuring efforts. AMR has reduced its work force by more than 5,000 in the past two years and will continue to downsize in 1995. The bulk of the special charge ($272 million) covers severance to be paid to employees in 1995, according to Chief Financial Officer Michael Durham.
FAA will host a forum Feb. 7-8 in Houston to evaluate and approve ground facilities designed to provide local area augmentation to the Global Positioning System. Local augmentation provides a means to transmit differential corrections and integrity messages to airmen. The meeting will be held at the Hotel Sofitel. For more information, call William Dixon at 202-267-9147.
DOT is proposing new, expanded disclosure requirements for change-of-gauge service - service operating under a single flight number that requires a change of aircraft. Consumers too often "book flights without being told that they will be changing planes," DOT Secretary Federico Pea said. "Many assume that a service with a single flight number is a nonstop or direct flight when in fact it may require a change of planes," he added. In its notice of proposed rulemaking, DOT proposes three requirements for U.S.
A new air traffic control center was inaugurated in Mexico City . The Eurocat system was installed as part of a major contract awarded in 1993 to Thomson-CSF by Mexico's air navigation authority. The new center receives and processes data for eight radars and provides en route and approach control for airports in Mexico City and Toluca. It has satellite links with seven other centers used for en route and approach control at Monterrey, Mazatlan and Merida and for approach control at Guadalajara, Puerto Vallarta, Acapulco and Tijuana.
American will discontinue its hard-won Philadelphia-London service April 2, after only seven months, because of British Airways' recent announcement that it will launch a second daily flight in the market May 1. "We are taking this action with considerable regret because American's marketing efforts on the route were beginning to pay off," said Gerald Arpey, American's senior VP-planning. "However, the additional British Airways capacity...will make it impossible for us to earn a profit on the route," he said.
U.S. Major Carriers Traffic December, 12 Months 1994 (000) December December % 1994 1993 Change America West Revenue Passenger Miles 975,634 959,685 1.7 Available Seat Miles 1,570,559 1,494,038 5.1 Load Factor (%) 62.1 64.2
Air L.A. has signed a letter of intent that gives it a 30-day option to acquire the assets and operations of St. Paul-based startup Capitol Air in a $1.5 million stock transaction. Capitol Air, which recently dropped service between St. Paul Downtown Airport and points in the Midwest, will resume service Jan. 30 under the Capitol name between St. Paul and Chicago Midway. "Air L.A. has built much of its operations around its code-sharing agreement with Aeromexico and service to the Hispanic community in the Southwest," said Air L.A. Chairman Wayne Schoenfeld.
The nine U.S. major combination carriers flew 4.3% more revenue passenger miles in 1994 than they did in 1993 despite operating 0.3% fewer available seat miles. The result was a load factor increase of 2.9 percentage points, to 66.5%. In December, the majors' passenger traffic increased 6.5% on 2.5% more capacity, increasing the load factor 2.5 points. (See charts on Pages 97-98 of the hard copy of this issue.)
Continental executives continue to stand behind their money-losing Continental Lite product, insisting it only needs further fine-tuning. President and Chief Executive Gordon Bethune, speaking at a Wings Club luncheon yesterday in New York, said the short-haul services account for nearly one-third of the carrier's available seat miles, and new markets account for 81% of the losses.
The Supreme Court ruled 6-2 yesterday that members of American's frequent flyer program can seek damages in state courts on breach-of-contract claims based on changes made in the program in 1988. An American spokesman said the carrier is "disappointed" with the ruling, but "we believe we did nothing wrong and we will vigorously defend the case on its merits in state courts." Other airlines that made similar changes - involving capacity controls and blackout days - also could face challenges in state courts.
FAA Administrator David Hinson yesterday praised a voluntary move by Delta to require one level of safety for its commuter flight crews. The airline told FAA Jan. 9 that it plans to have its Connection carriers meet the requirements of large jets.
An interagency forum to exchange information on aircraft noise will be held March 2 in San Diego. The public forum is sponsored by the Federal Interagency Committee on Aviation Noise. It will be chaired by DOT and includes NASA and the Defense and Interior departments. The first such forum was held last July in Atlanta. Government agencies will present their latest research, and members of the private sector are invited to present their views at the San Diego meeting, which will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Southwest will add 1,000 jobs in Oklahoma City when it builds a new reservations center north of the airport terminal on 12 acres of land owned by the Oklahoma City Airport Trust. The new $10 million facility, Southwest's ninth reservations center, is scheduled to open in May.
Travel agency giant Carlson Wagonlit has acquired Dodwell Travel of Hong Kong in the first of a number of acquisitions planned this year. The agency said it is concentrating its expansion on the Pacific Rim market. Dodwell reported sales of $17 million in 1994.
The relationship between Amadeus and the Worldspan/Abacus partnership, which looked nine months ago like it could evolve from a technical collaboration into a merger of the three computer reservations system companies, has cooled substantially and has not moved beyond what Worldspan officials describe as "certain technical enhancements." In December 1992, the European CRS Amadeus agreed to collaborate with Worldspan and Singapore-based Abacus to form a technical alliance that resulted in GlobalServe, a link between the Amadeus data center in Erding, Germany, and the Wo
Sixteen members of the Air Transport Association told Illinois Gov. James Edgar yesterday that they oppose further planning and construction of a third Chicago area airport near Peotone. The facility's proposed location is "35 miles from the Chicago central business district and nearly 60 miles from the center of the area in which the majority of Chicago air travelers reside," the carriers said in a letter. They also said that "their passengers and shippers have invested huge amounts - measured in the billions of dollars - at O'Hare and Midway.
Amtran Inc.'s traffic - scheduled and charter - for December was up 39.4% to 594.5 million revenue passenger miles, compared with the same month in 1993. A corresponding 36.8% increase in available seat miles produced only a 1.1% rise in load factor, from 60.3% to 61.4%. For the year, Amtran's RPMs increased 28% to 7.2 billion and ASMs were up 26.9% to 10.4 billion. The carrier showed great improvement in its scheduled service in December, with revenue passenger miles leaping 102.7% and the number of passengers carried increasing 58% to 231,401.
