The new Pan Am and Frost Hanna Mergers Group, Inc. said yesterday they have signed a definitive merger agreement that will give the new Pan Am $10 million in cash and allow it to become a traded company.
DOT has issued a show cause order tentatively granting Piedmont Aviation Service, operating as Premier Airlines, a certificate to operate domestic and charter service. The carrier plans initially to operate one leased 44-seat Boeing 737-200 to offer public charters and furnish charter service to sports teams. Headquartered in Winston-Salem and based in Charlotte, N.C., Piedmont has been involved in aircraft and engine maintenance and overhaul, and small aircraft leasing and charter operations since it began operations in 1947.
LanChile has selected GE Aircraft Engines CF6-80C2 to power three Boeing 767-300ER aircraft it will lease from International Lease Finance Corp. First aircraft will be delivered in December and two in late 1997.
Canadian Government moved this week to keep all or part of the Pratt&Whitney Canada PW150 program in Canada with a new C$150 million matching loan fund for technology development that replaces a fund eliminated last year. The fund eventually will grow to C$250 million and offer companies up to 25% in project funding. Pratt&Whitney had threatened to move all or part of the development program for the PW150 - the new turboprop that will power the 70-passenger de Havilland Dash 8-400 - out-of-country without some kind of assistance.
DOT has approved Aeroflot's request to operate scheduled combination service between Russia and Atlanta, via intermediate points, and to coterminalize Atlanta with the other U.S. points it serves. As the official Russian national carrier for the 1996 Summer Olympics, to be held in Atlanta, Aeroflot will transport the Russian Olympic teams and their families, official delegates and Russian tourists to the games. The carrier plans to operate 29 roundtrip flights to Atlanta in July and August, using Boeing 767, Il-96, Il-86 and Il-62 aircraft. (Docket OST-96-1081)
Ansett Airlines affiliate Kendell Airlines is seeking authority to operate code-share service with United. Under the arrangement, Kendell will display United's designator code on flights between Sydney and Canberra, Australia, beginning April 1. Operating Saab 340 aircraft, Kendell will replace Ansett Australia, which currently displays United's code, on the Sydney-Canberra route April 1. Kendell and Ansett are jointly owned by the Australian corporations TNT Limited and The New Corporation.
Air France plans to increase flying 8.5% in long-haul markets and 6% on medium-haul routes from Paris this summer, compared with the 1995 season. From Paris, the carrier will start service on or after March 31 to Maputo and Kampala, and it will drop service to Dar es Salaam, Kilimanjaro, Lusaka and Verona. This winter, it stopped flying from Paris to Nagoya, Sydney, Taipei, Denpasar, Pisa and Ankara.
KLM will fly to four new destinations and increase service in 12 current markets in its summer schedule, which starts March 31. Capacity for the summer season, which runs through Oct. 26, will expand 2.5% to 10.5 million seats. On June 26, the carrier will launch service to Beijing under the new Netherlands-China bilateral, and to Surabaya, Indonesia, an intermediate stop on continuing service to Denpasar, Bali. In Europe, KLM will begin flying eight times per week to Bucharest on April 9, growing to 10 flights per week July 20.
Delta Connection Comair's load factor rose 8.1 percentage points in February to 55.7%, pushed up by traffic that gained 41.9% to 112.2 million revenue passenger miles, while capacity rose 21.4% to 201.6 million available seat miles. Feb. 1996 Feb. 1995 2 Months 1996 2 Months 1995 RPMs 112,196,000 79,059,000 212,472,000 153,730,000 ASMs 201,590,000 166,057,000 400,372,000 339,205 LF (%) 55.7 47.6 53.1 45.3
Saab Aircraft won the protracted Mesaba Holdings fleet replacement competition over the Dornier 328 by offering 20 used 34-seat 340As at lease rates at or below those covering the airline's current fleet of 26 19-passenger Fairchild Metro IIIs. Those older aircraft will be used on existing 19-passenger routes that likely would not support 30 new 340BPlus aircraft, part of the $350 million order that will replace 25 37-passenger de Havilland Dash 8-100s. The future sale of a majority stake in Dornier by Daimler-Benz Aerospace also was a factor...
DOT made final its show cause order awarding an operating certificate to Sunworld Airlines. The carrier expected to receive its FAA certificate this week, clearing it to start operations Sunday. Sunworld plans to operate between U.S. points and Grand Cayman Island, West Indies, using a leased Boeing 727-200 aircraft (DAILY, March 7). (Dockets OST-95-666&OST-95-667)
United Express affiliate Great Lakes Aviation last month flew 21.2 million revenue passenger miles, a 37% increase from the same month in 1995. Capacity rose 22.9% to 47.9 million available seat miles from nearly 39 million, allowing the load factor to rise 4.5 percentage points to 44.2% from 39.7%. Passenger boardings rose 45.8% to 71,517. Great Lakes operates 38 Beech 1900s and 12 Embraer Brasilias. Feb. 1996 Feb. 1995 2 Months 1996 2 Months 1995
In testimony before the Senate Commerce Committee aviation subcommittee yesterday, DOT Assistant Secretary for Aviation and International Affairs Charles Hunnicutt said he has held an informal discussion with his U.K. counterpart in London. "Although I cannot announce that there is now a basis for resuming talks, the meeting was useful," he said. "I had a chance to explore possible ways of moving the process forward, and we will be evaluating what we learned," he added.
Canadian Airlines International boosted its traffic 14.7% last month on 10.5% more capacity. The carrier flew 1.13 million revenue passenger miles on 1.78 million available seat miles, producing a load factor of 63.6%, up 2.3 percentage points. For the first two months of the year, Canadian flew 2.31 million RPMs, up 9.8%, and 3.64 million ASMs, up 6.8%. The load factor rose 1.7 points to 63.4%.
Aeropuertos Espaoles y Navegacion Aerea (AENA), Spain's airport authority, issued a tender to select a second operator of ground-handling services at Barcelona, Madrid/Barajas and Malaga airports. The tender is part of AENA's continuing liberalisation of ground-handling at its airports, where Iberia held a monopoly until 1994. AENA recently gave the Spanish engineering group Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas and the airline Air Europa the right to offer ground-handling at Seville, Bilbao, Valencia and Santiago de Compostella.
The White House yesterday announced the appointment of Kenneth Brody and Clyde Prestowitz as chair and vice chair of the Commission on U.S.-Pacific Trade and Investment Policy. The commission will review "both the opportunities and the obstacles in U.S. trade policy with Japan, China and the Asia-Pacific region, and to recommend strategies for significant further market openings for U.S. competitive products, services and investment in the region," according to a statement issued by the U.S. Trade Representative.
Hawaiian Airlines February traffic rose 29.2% to 303.1 million revenue passenger miles from 234.6 million RPMs in February 1995. Available seat miles increased 26.7% to 310.1 million for a load factor of 77.2%, up 1.5 points. Hawaiian carried 434,454 passengers in February, an increase of 18.6%.
Continental inaugurated nonstop 757 service to Lima, Peru, from Newark yesterday. The carrier intends to add five Latin American destinations this summerto its current 11. "The addition of nonstop service to Lima, coupled with our upcoming service to Bogota and Quito, fortifies Continental's position as the New York metropolitan area's largest carrier and Newark's role as a true international gateway," it said.
DOT has revoked the operating certificates of Worldwide Airline Services, which did business as Leisure Air. The former carrier filed for protection from creditors on Jan. 19, 1995, and subsequently ceased operations, converting its Chapter 11 bankruptcy to Chapter 7 liquidation. (Dockets 47931&48803)
February 16, three days before the Lunar New Year, was a record-setting day for Cathay Pacific. The carrier processed 19,082 passengers at Hong Kong's Kai Tak Airport that day, and its catering arm produced 55,795 meals. Previous records in both categories were set in January 1995.
Summary of U.S Major Carriers Domestic Traffic August 1995 Revenue Average Revenue Passengers Length of Passenger Enplaned % Travel Miles Carriers (000) Change (Miles) (000) America West 1,562 8.99 804 1,256,328 American 5,846 (6.13) 1,130 6,606,842
Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.) last week introduced legislation (H.R.3037) that would fund the essential air service program from the receipts of a proposed overflight fee on non-U.S. airlines. The measure is similar to language adopted by the Senate Commerce Committee during its consideration last year of the FAA reform bill (S.1239). Pomeroy's bill would make EAS a mandatory spending program within FAA, thus removing the program from the annual appropriations process.
FedEx, citing "unprecedented winter storms and weaker-than-expected international airfreight revenues," yesterday reported net income of $27.2 million for the quarter ended in February, compared with $63.1 million during the same period a year earlier. Revenues increased 9% to $2.5 billion. Operating income fell to $78 million from $97.7 million and pretax income dropped to $52.7 million from $110.7 million. Terming the results "well below our plans," Chairman Frederick Smith said major snowstorms in January closed many airports and business throughout the Northeast.
Vanguard Airlines will open a telephone sales center in Lawrence, Kan., in April to supplement the existing center in Mission, Kan. President Bob McAdoo said the new center will be conveniently located near Kansas University and could create more than 300 part-time jobs that will be an alternative to employment in the fast food industry. "We will make it rewarding for students to work with us by providing flight benefits for themselves and their families." The center also will house a city ticket office.
