Sally Covington has been appointed director of marketing for Denver International Airport. She was vice president-marketing and student affairs at the Higher Education and Advanced Technology Center in Denver.
The $17-billion online travel market is hatching new ways to sell airline tickets that would put the old Asian ``bucket shops,'' known for deep discounts and block sales, to shame.
United Parcel Service plans to acquire 13 used MD-11s for conversion into freighters by Boeing. The aircraft are intended to expand the company's operations between the U.S., Europe and Asia. Including an option for 22 more MD-11s, the purchase could be worth up to $2 billion. Arch-rival FedEx, however, is proceeding with its acquisition of American Freightways, which specializes in next-day regional deliveries. The acquisition is part of a plan by FedEx to enlarge its North American ground-based distribution network to rival that of UPS.
Max L. Lukens has been named to the board of directors of Stewart and Stevenson Services Inc. of Houston. He is former chairman/president/CEO of Baker Hughes Inc. of Houston.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board will locate its new training academy at George Washington University in Virginia, adjacent to the U.S. Transportation Dept.'s National Crash Analysis Center. The facility is scheduled to begin operating early in 2003. The NTSB will lease classroom and laboratory space from the university, and plans call for housing the reconstructed wreckage of TWA Flight 800 for training purposes. The airline's Boeing 747-131 exploded off Long Island, N.Y., in July 1996.
Facing the prospect of being marginalized as a top-tier prime contractor, Northrop Grumman executives hope to prove that two years of refocusing the company have put it in a position to be a major competitor for emerging Pentagon programs.
An Ariane 5 launched a 6,313-kg. (13,889-lb.) payload into orbit last week, setting a commercial payload record. The mission--the fourth for the heavy-lift booster since it entered regular service a year ago and Arianespace's 10th of the year--orbited PanAmSat's PAS-1R, the Amsat Phase 3D amateur radio satellite and two DERA technology satellites, STRV-1c/1d (AW&ST Nov. 6, p. 63). One other Ariane 5 launch--to orbit the Astra 2D, GE-8 and Japan's LDREX technology demonstrator--is set for Dec. 20. Two other Ariane 4 missions, Anik F1 on Nov. 20 and Eurasiasat on Dec.
Chuck Zimkas, chief operating officer of the Space Foundation of Colorado Springs, also will be president, and Chairman Jaime Oaxaca also will be CEO. They succeed Bill Knudsen, who was president/CEO before resigning.
European airlines have recognized the need to improve both internal and external communications efforts in the face of rising public concern about flight delays, environmental issues, labor unrest and high-profile accidents. Airline officials maintain they are doing their part to work on the areas that concern the public, but they have not been as effective as they could be in explaining the views of carriers to the various parties involved.
SITA and SAP plan to create a venture to provide business applications software services geared to the needs of small- and medium-size firms in the aviation industry.
Continental Airlines is using an ``e-learning'' computer infrastructure developed by Saba Software to organize, track and document its training operations worldwide. The system transfers responsibility for training to individual employees and their supervisors from a centralized group of instructors. It also monitors course prerequisites, completions and acquired competencies, and provides instant notification of gaps in regulatory compliance. Employees who complete training and a certification can put their new skills to work immediately without waiting for paperwork.
John Syslo has been appointed regional vice president of Kinetsu World Express USA's Chicago Air Perishable Gateway. Mike Arbunich has been named assistant vice president for the San Francisco Air Perishable Gateway.
Royal Air Maroc has agreed to acquire up to 20 Boeing Next-Generation 737s and two 767s in a deal valued at about $1.4 billion at list prices. The airline's fleet currently includes 28 Boeing 737s, nine of which are Next-Generation aircraft.The decision by Royal Air Maroc came after a six-month study by the carrier of available aircraft for its fleet expansion.
Rising costs have prompted NASA to kill a palm-sized rover for Japan's Mu Space Engineering Spacecraft-C (Muses-C) that is due for liftoff in November or December 2002 on a voyage to orbit the Asteroid 1998 SF36. The NASA rover was to be one of the most innovative uses of nanotechnology. It was to weigh just 2.5 lb. and put man's presence on an asteroid for the first time. After descending from Muses-C to the asteroid's surface, the rover was to transmit infrared images of its surface to Earth via the mother spacecraft.
After some preliminary rearrangement of its Joint Strike Fighter management last month, Lockheed Martin has now named an executive vice president as the program's new manager.
Gerald Wilson has been appointed to the board of directors of the SatCon Technology Corp., Cambridge, Mass. He is the Vannevar Bush professor of engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and chairman of the science advisory boards of General Motors and Pratt&Whitney.
The European Space Agency has named the Sarcom consortium led by Radarsat International (RSI) as distributor for Earth Resources Satellite and Envisat data worldwide along with RSI's Radarsat-1 data.
Pro Air has abandoned its legal appeal of a rare FAA order that revoked its air carrier certificate and will work with the agency to restore the discount airline to operating status.
Eutelsat plans to develop a new satellite architecture, dubbed Ipsat, that would be specifically configured for supply of broadband and Internet applications.
The Assn. of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA), which represents more than 23,000 attendants at American Airlines, planned to begin informational picketing at 36 airports last weekend to protest the lack of a new contract with the nation's second largest airline. APFA officials and representatives from American have been negotiating for more than two years. In November 1993, the union called a strike against American that shut down operations for five days before President Clinton intervened.
Schiphol airport managers have detailed an ambitious expansion plan that would allow the Amsterdam facility to continue to compete effectively with London Heathrow, Frankfurt, Paris Charles de Gaulle and other leading European hubs. The airport is KLM Royal Dutch Airlines' main base and an important European link for connecting traffic.
