Regional carrier Business Express, operating as Northwest Airlink, plans to begin service from Minneapolis/St. Paul to the Aspen/Snowmass area for the winter ski season. From Dec. 16 until March 31, the carrier will operate two daily nonstops with 69-seat Avro RJ-70s. The flights will be timed to connect with Northwest departures at Minneapolis. Warren Wilkinson, Business Express director-marketing and sales, said the airline's extensive experience in operating in the Aspen market will facilitate a smooth operation.
Shuttle by United will expand to Reno Dec. 15, replacing United Express service with daily nonstop flights from San Francisco, using 737 aircraft. The Shuttle also will increase its service Oct. 4 from San Francisco to five cities - Las Vegas, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego and Seattle - and discontinue its nonstop flights between San Diego and Sacramento. Shuttle President Sky Magary said customers have "continually asked for" San Francisco-Reno nonstop service. The Shuttle currently accounts for 4% of United's capacity. As of Dec.
American Trans Air's July consolidated traffic - charter and scheduled operations - increased 27.3% on 21.4% more capacity, boosting the load factor 3.6 percentage points to 77.9%. The number of passengers carried increased 34.5%. Scheduled passenger traffic rose 47.7% on 44.7% more capacity, for a load factor increase of 1.6 points to 77.4%. Passenger traffic comprised 49.5% of American Trans Air's consolidated total in July.
Air Canada, North America's first operator of the A340, is negotiating with Airbus Industrie about the proposed A340-8000, which the airline would like for nonstop flights between Toronto and Hong Kong. Air Canada Chairman Hollis Harris said the carrier may even slide some A340-300 high gross weight aircraft delivery positions to bring the Dash 8000 into the fleet as soon as possible.
Consolidators International said it now offers air wholesaling services to key cities in Europe. Julian Keeling, president, said midsize and smaller forwarders "now can be assured of having cargo of all sizes and weights delivered to European destinations in as little as 48 hours, and at fully competitive rates." He said forwarders with "loose" or uncontainerized cargo destined for Europe often are at a disadvantage in dealing with airlines.
General Electric Aircraft Engines settled a 1993 whistleblower lawsuit filed by former GE engineer Ian Johnson, agreeing to pay $7 million - $1.7 million of it to Johnson - despite FAA and Air Force evidence discrediting Johnson's claims. The Air Force asked GE to settle the case to avoid the disruption and expense of a trial, and GE said it did so "in the interest of good customer relations." The $7 million will pay for government testing and investigative costs as well as the award to Johnson.
New airline operated by the National Fisheries Corporation in Micronesia has begun service to transport fresh fish to Guam, from which it is shipped on widebody aircraft to Japan. The startup carrier operates a modified 727-200 freighter purchased from Intrepid Aviation. The airline has contracted with RyanAir to provide flight crews. Continental will provide maintenance in Guam. Roberts, Roach&Associates helped establish the air cargo network.
KLM did not add much capacity in its North American and intra-European markets during the first half of the year - just 0.8% and 0.6%, respectively - but it did a good job of filling the capacity it did offer. The carrier's load factor increased a healthy 3.6 percentage points on North American routes and 1.8 points in the European market, while the Asia/Pacific load factor declined 3.5 points.
FAA said a former employee was fined $5,000 and sentenced to a year's probation after pleading guilty to a charge of violating statutory restrictions on post-government-employment activities. The unidentified former employee was charged with representing a contractor competing in a procurement program within two years of his participation in the program as an FAA employee.
Gulfstream International Airlines and United will expand their code-sharing relationship Aug. 19 to improve connections for passengers switching carriers at Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Tampa and West Palm Beach. Gulfstream announced last week it is expanding its intra-Florida service (DAILY, Aug. 11). Gulfstream will add new code-sharing flights using Beech 1900 aircraft in the Tampa-Orlando, Fort Lauderdale-Orlando, Miami-Tampa, West Palm Beach-Tampa and Miami-Naples markets.
FAA, as expected, published Friday in the Federal Register its proposed comprehensive overhaul of pilot training rules, which it has been working on since September 1987 (DAILY, Aug. 11). The agency asked for comments by Dec. 11. The proposed revisions would change the certification and training requirements for pilots, flight instructors and ground instructors and the operation of pilot schools that are approved by FAA.
Korean Air will offer non-smoking service on its transpacific and Oceania flights, effective Sept. 1. The offer includes flights between Seoul and Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, Vancouver and Toronto. Smokers will be accommodated on other Korean Air flights between Los Angeles and Tokyo, New York and Seoul, Los Angeles and Sao Paulo and Los Angeles and Seoul.
EVA Airways plans to launch service from Taipei to Brisbane and on to Auckland, with fifth-freedom rights in both directions. It will operate the new service weekly, routed Taipei-Brisbane-Auckland-Brisbane-Taipei, with a 767-300ER. EVA began Taipei-Sydney-Brisbane service in September 1993 and now offers four flights a week between Taipei and Australia. It launched twice-weekly Taipei-Auckland service last September.
British Airways put travel to 23 cities in Continental Europe and Israel on sale in a new round of "World Offers." BA, which rolls out the promotion periodically to sell off surplus capacity, said the new World Offers fares will be available for purchase through Aug. 28 for travel Sept. 17 through Oct. 31. Fares are non-refundable and require five-day minimum and 30-day maximum stays. Full payment and ticketing are required within one day of reservation, except for travel to Israel, which requires a 21-day advance purchase.
Sabena likely will announce within the next month an order for about 15 70- to 80-seat aircraft, the airline confirmed. The carrier is considering the Fokker 70 and the Avro RJ85 but has not made a decision. If the Belgian airline is getting input from Swissair, which recently won approval to take a 49.5% in Sabena, it likely will go with the Avro. Earlier this year, Swissair dumped its Fokker 100s and transferred operations of its smaller jets, 100 seats or fewer, to subsidiary Crossair. It then ordered 12 Avro RJ100s for Crossair.
- In Federal Register dated Aug. 4...Issued an airworthiness directive on AlliedSignal TPE331 and TSE331 engines requiring a record check for work done by Fliteline Maintenance. - In FR dated Aug. 7...Proposed an AD on certain Fairchild SA226 aircraft to require replacing the main landing gear door actuator tang.
Singapore Airlines' passenger traffic increased 5.6% in the first six months of 1995 to 22.38 billion revenue passenger kilometers. The number of passengers rose 7.3% to more than five million, and freight traffic gained 11.6% to 1.7 billion freight ton kilometers. In June, SIA's passenger traffic increased 7.8% to four billion RPKs and its passenger boardings rose 7.2% to 881,000. Cargo traffic was up 7.7% to 290.4 million FTKs.
FAA's designation of Peggy Gilligan, deputy to Anthony Broderick, associate administrator for regulation and certification, to oversee a task force on suspected unapproved parts, raised some eyebrows last week. In May, the DOT inspector general criticized Broderick, questioning his commitment to detecting such parts.
Many cockpit crewmembers found work at national airlines (1,933) and turboprop operators (1,928) during the past 12 months, Future Aviation Professionals of America reported. American International Airways hired 275, FloridaGulf 196, ValuJet 192, Trans States 164, American Eagle/Simmons 162, Mountain West Airlines 154, and Business Express 149. United outhired the rest of the majors, taking on 722.
Boeing 777-200 maintenance training simulator built by Thomson Training&Simulation for All Nippon Airways has become the first 777 simulator to enter service in the Far East. The simulator achieved Japanese Civil Aeronautics Board approval July 20.
FedEx reported that average daily volume in July rose 9.4% from the same month last year to 45,089 packages, documents and express freight. International air freight declined to 43.2 million pounds from 44.7 million pounds in July 1994.
LTU International Airways plans to begin nonstop service between Fort Myers and Frankfurt on Nov. 5, giving it three weekly flights between Fort Myers and Germany. It will operate the weekly Frankfurt service with a 276- passengers 767 configured for a single class of service. The German carrier is offering an introductory fare of $398 roundtrip between Aug. 10 and Sept. 15 for travel between Nov. 5 and March 31. A Christmas surcharge of $100 applies for departures between Dec. 17 and Dec. 24. LTU also plans to begin nonstop Miami-Acapulco service Nov.
United plans to open yet another foreign flight attendant domicile Dec. 1, this one in Santiago, Chile, with 30 flight attendants. Chairman Gerald Greenwald told employees the crews for its daily 767 flights between Miami and Santiago will be drawn from both cities, and incumbent flight attendants will be able to transfer to Santiago before locals are hired. United's flight attendants have expressed bitter opposition to the expansion of foreign domiciles.
Granted orally an exemption to America West for scheduled service between Phoenix and Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo...Granted orally an exemption to Aerovias de Mexico for scheduled combination service between San Jose del Cabo and San Diego...Granted orally an exemption to Compania de Aviacion (Faucett) for scheduled service from Santo Domingo/Puerto Plata and San Juan to Miami and New York until Dec. 31...Granted orally an exemption to Northwest for scheduled service between points in the U.S. and Edinburgh and Glasgow via London Gatwick, and between the U.S.
