National Transportation Safety Board plans to address FAA certification requirements for flights in icing conditions when it conducts its public hearing on the Oct. 31 ATR-72 crash in Indiana. Chairman Jim Hall says the board is "aware" that weather conditions at the time "might have been more severe than the conditions required" for FAA certification of the aircraft.
The LatinPass frequent flyer program, comprising 14 Latin American carriers and USAir, is fully operational, the company said Friday. More than 15 million members of the individual carriers' frequent flyer plans can begin accruing miles on LatinPass member airlines, as well as Avis and Hertz, said Robert Booth, president of Aviation Management Services, which manages LatinPass. Separately, LatinPass has named Rosa Maria Plasencia general manager. She was formerly international director at Ladeco.
New service opportunities to Canada's three largest cities drew applications for 47 frequencies from 15 U.S. airlines. Nine airlines have applied for 17 frequencies to Montreal; eight carriers requested 16 to Vancouver, and seven carriers have asked for 14 to Toronto. DOT will be able to grant most requests for Montreal and Vancouver but will have to cut back on Toronto. Under the framework agreement, signed by the U.S. and Canada Dec. 22, the U.S. can add this year six carriers operating two daily frequencies each in Montreal and Vancouver.
Arinc, with participation from USAir, Continental and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, is demonstrating its ground mobile data service at Washington National Airport. The service can be used in fueling, catering, baggage handling, aircraft maintenance, deicing and other operations. Flight deck and ramp communications are connected to the ground mobile data service through an aircraft communications addressing and reporting system. The demonstration will continue through the first quarter of the year.
Rep. Richard Durbin, (D-Ill.), is urging DOT to approve antitrust immunity to eight carriers seeking to hold discussions banning smoking on some international service. "Granting the carriers limited antitrust immunity to discuss a voluntary ban would provide an important public health benefit that is clearly in the public interest," he wrote in a Jan. 6 letter to DOT Secretary Federico Pea.
Boeing technical employees based in the Irving, Texas, electronics plant voted last Thursday to keep the Seattle Professional Engineering Employees Association (SPEEA) as their collective bargaining agent over the Machinists union, which was vying to represent them. SPEEA said of the 135 technical workers eligible to vote, 86 chose SPEEA and 33 the Machinists, for a total of 119. The National Labor Relations Board ordered the runoff election after a Dec. 12 vote did not declare SPEEA the outright winner. SPEEA has represented the workers since 1990.
Justice Technology Corp., a licensed international telecommunications carrier, has signed a contract with the Association of International Air Carriers to provide a mileage incentive program. The World Miles program, an addition to the Justice Private Label Reseller Program, allows Private Label Resellers to provide customers with one World Mile for every dollar spent on long distance. It does not limit travel to a single airline or country.
United has applied for renewal of its authority to serve Saudi Arabia as part of its code-share operations with Lufthansa. The flights would be operated from 10 U.S. points to Jeddah or Riyahd via Frankfurt, using a combination of United's 747 and 767s and Lufthansa A300s. U.S. gateways for the service are Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Chicago, Washington, Newark, New York and Boston. (Docket 50010)
Northwest is offering companion fares in selected cities in the Midwest and Southeast without an advance purchase requirement. It will offer one-way fares as low as $69 for two between Atlanta and Memphis, and $99 for Detroit-Atlanta. Fares are available for purchase through Jan. 22 for travel completed by Feb. 28. Northwest recently doubled its jet service between Memphis and Atlanta, and added two new daily Atlanta-Detroit flights.
Galileo Canada last week signed a preferred supplier agreement with the INTRA Travel Corp., consisting of 190 travel agencies across Canada. "Galileo Canada has a lot to offer INTRA agencies from coast to coast," said Susan Bowman, INTRA Travel's chief operating officer. "Automation is an extremely important tool with which to compete in this market, and I'm pleased to say that our members will truly benefit from this agreement," she said.
Aerospace Industries Association Communications Council elected Eldon Kramer, Honeywell, chairman. Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) appointed Melissa Bailey director-technical services, and Kathleen Brockman to director- airports.
Creator Capital, its Sky Games International subsidiary and Harrah's have completed the formation of a joint venture called Interactive Entertainment Ltd. to provide interactive, inflight gaming entertainment to passengers on long-haul international flights (DAILY, Oct. 5). Harrah's Interactive Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Harrah's, will manage the operations of the new company.
FAA last week extended the period for comment on flight patterns over New Jersey until Feb. 23. The previous deadline was Feb. 9. Comments are sought on a supplement to the draft environmental impact statement.
National Air Traffic Controllers Association, which has shown enthusiastic support for turning over FAA's ATC activities to a government corporation, says it will "fight tooth and nail" against creating a private ATC corporation, "as has been proposed by some congressional Republicans." House Transportation and Infrastructure aviation subcommittee tentatively plans hearings in mid-February on ATC corporatization/privatization proposals.
Proper oversight of the aviation industry by a current, proficient inspector work force has "become an illusion," according to the union that represents FAA's flight standards aviation safety inspectors. The union, the Professional Airways Systems Specialists, is questioning the value of hiring 500 more inspectors without clerical help to back them up. There is currently a "critical shortage of 200 clerical employees" in flight standards district offices, the union said, and the shortage means inspectors now perform many administrative tasks.
Air L.A. will introduce daily direct service from Stockton, Calif., to Phoenix Jan. 18, which will continue on to Hermosillo, Mexico. The carrier also will increase service from its Los Angeles base to Stockton to five daily flights, three of which are nonstops that connect to Aeromexico, Mexicana, Northwest, Air Canada and Aeroperu flights.
MarkAir wants to develop an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) similar to those used by United, Northwest and America West to ensure its financial health. The carrier is seeking a state loan to keep it in Anchorage after Denver rejected an incentive package that would have led it to relocate its headquarters to the city (DAILY, Nov. 29). The Alaska governor is expected to appoint a blue-ribbon task force to study the deal, MarkAir said.
Regional carriers operating ATR aircraft are preparing to return to service in the North as FAA and NASA begin studying the deicing systems of other turboprops and small jets. FAA issued an emergency airworthiness directive (AD) lifting restrictions on ATR operations in icing conditions provided certain training and flight procedures are followed (DAILY, Jan. 12).
Horizon Air has asked DOT to renew its authority to operate large aircraft on its scheduled service between Seattle and Vancouver. The carrier, which has been operating 37-passenger Dash 8s on the route, initially received permission Feb. 3, 1994, from the department to operate Fokker F28 aircraft on the route. At that time, the carrier agreed to "rope off" two seats to reduce aircraft capacity to 60 passengers to comply with the restrictions of the Regional Notes, governing U.S.-Canada operations.
Atlantic Southeast flew 60 million revenue passenger miles in December, a 0.3% decline from the 60.2 million logged in December 1993. Capacity dropped 4.5% to 130.8 million available seat miles from just under 137 million. As a result, the load factor rose two percentage points to 45.9%. Enplanements dipped 1.9% to 238,207 from 242,944. Dec. 94 Dec. 93 12 Mths 94 12 Mths 93 RPMs 60,001,903 60,184,092 780,227,698 641,474,997
The Regional Airline Association is exploring ways to publicize the commuter airline safety record. After the DOT Aviation Safety Conference in Washington this week, RAA introduced a brochure concentrating on distinguishing facts from fiction about the system's safety record. The group also is looking using its sales agents to get the safety message out, and may produce a video that can be used by the airline at public events, such as speaking engagement.
Northwest will make four transatlantic flights smoke-free, beginning March 1. Flights from Detroit to Frankfurt and Paris, and to London from Minneapolis/St. Paul and Boston, will be non-smoking flights, as will be Detroit-London flights once Northwest completes the $1.6 million acquisition of that route from Delta. After the changes, all of Northwest's transatlantic service will be smoke-free except for code-sharing flights with KLM to Amsterdam.
David Stempler, the ubiquitous president of the International Airline Passengers Association, called to chide The DAILY for referring to his "association" as an insurance broker. IAPA, he said, merely buys air travel coverage from insurance companies and then sells it to its members - at a profit, which apparently is not be misconstrued as a commission. On another front, Stempler refused to discuss his stand that IAPA members should not fly on ATR aircraft despite the FAA's lifting of icing restrictions. "I'll catch up with you later," he said.
United Chairman Gerald Greenwald has put his carrier's safety expertise at the disposal of the government in its effort to achieve zero accidents, and he pledged to work "closely with the agencies [FAA and DOT] to establish specific timelines for implementation of new safety standards that make good economic sense." James Coyne, president of the National Air Transportation Association (NATA), called for a rollback of aviation taxes to help carriers pay for new safety standards.
Appleton, Wisconsin-based Air Wisconsin's traffic increased 32.4% to 30.9 million revenue passenger miles in December compared with 23.3 million RPMs in December 1993. Capacity increased 12.7% to 57.5 million available seat miles from 51 million, pushing the load factor up 7.9 percentage points to 53.7% from 45.8%. Passenger boardings rose 29.5% to 151,263 from 116,790. Comparisons are for jet operations only; Air Wisconsin no longer has a turboprop operation. Dec. 94 Dec. 93 12 Mths 94 12 Mths 93
