Summary of U.S. Major Carriers Domestic Traffic July 1995 Revenue Average Revenue Passengers Length of Passenger Enplaned % Travel Miles Carriers (000) Change (Miles) (000) America West 1,532 3.45 810 1,240,400 American 5,797 (7.42) 1,123 6,508,157
Reno Air has promoted Jeff Buckio, one of it's five original employees, to VP-maintenance from director-quality assurance. It also named Jimmy Duke VP-flight operations. Duke most recently was VP-operations for Ryan International Airlines and previously worked for Midway and Texas International.
Burlington Air Express said it has begun Emergency Response, a new air freight program to handle extraordinary emergency shipments. The new ER service is available "regardless of weight or size constraints, that require demanding time-specific delivery." The program has three levels of "crisis service" - First Arrival, Next Flight Out and Charter service.
The prospect that an alliance of Dutch government, industry and financial companies will save Fokker with fresh capital has disappeared, according to Chief Executive Officer Ben Van Schaik, and hope is fading in Amsterdam that the aircraft manufacturer can survive. A Fokker spokesman said the company still is talking with Samsung of Korea and the state-owned Aviation Industries of China about a rescue takeover, but the company's court-appointed administrators will file for bankruptcy Friday if neither has made a bid.
ValuJet will increase its daily departures from 306 to 320 May 1 with its summer schedule. It will add three daily nonstop flights in the Boston- Philadelphia market, one nonstop from Philadelphia to Tampa and Raleigh/Durham, one from Raleigh/Durham to Tampa and Fort Lauderdale, and one in the Washington Dulles-Jacksonville market. ValuJet will offer fares for every seat on every new nonstop at the regular 21-day advance purchase price for travel completed by May 22. Those fares range from $39 to $109.
Worldspan Travel Information Services has opened a home page on the World Wide Web. Initially, the site will serve as an information tool, but in the future, it will operate as a travel distribution and booking vehicle for licensed Worldspan subscribers and system associates. Worldspan said that although the home page is targeted to its airline and travel agency customers, consumers using a PC also are encouraged to check it out. By entering their geographic information, consumers can view a display of Worldspan travel agencies in their area.
Sen. William Cohen (R-Maine) says the government could cut $1 billion a year in travel costs if it adopted practices used by private companies. The paperwork required to process federal employees' travel vouchers last year alone would form a stack 26 miles high, he said at a hearing on federal practices, held by the Governmental Affairs oversight of government management subcommittee.
The Futures Group, a consulting firm based in Glastonbury, Conn., has joined with The Park Group, a transportation and information consultant, to undertake a "major study" of the airline industry. The companies said the work is intended to be an analysis of the main opportunities and obstacles facing the industry as the new millennium approaches. Topics will include distribution systems, the outsourcing of key functions and electronic ticketing. They hope to complete the study by yearend or early 1997.
Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration, responding to an increasing number of incidents in which disgruntled passengers occupy aircraft, has decided to treat such passengers as hijackers. A CAA official said there were 24 incidents during the 13 months through January 1996 in which Taiwanese passengers refused to disembark, both in Taiwan and at airports abroad, because they were dissatisfied with service or had other complaints.
Mainland China, already carrying out missile tests targeted into international waters near Taiwan, announced it will conduct large-scale, live-fire military exercises from today through March 20 in an area crossed by two major flight paths to Hong Kong.
The Pentagon is looking for a way to protect the use of the Global Positioning System by U.S. forces and their allies during conflicts while preventing its use by adversaries. The announcement is being made today in Commerce Business Daily by the Navstar GPS Joint Program Office. The military has expressed concern for years about the vulnerability of GPS in theaters of conflict, and the issue may be playing a role in delaying a long-expected announcement by the White House on a national GPS policy.
Three communities near Sydney, Australia, are seeking an injunction to prevent the newly elected national government from keeping its campaign promise to reopen Kingsford Smith Airport's east-west runway for full-time operation. The injunction would prevent Airservices Australia from complying with any runway restoration order that might be issued by new Transport Minister John Sharp.
DOT Secretary Federico Pena, in a letter to Japanese Transport Minister Yoshiyuki Kamei, has asked the Japanese to assure him they are not considering reneging on Federal Express's authority to serve points beyond Japan in China, agreed to last summer. When U.S. and Japan officials met recently in cargo bilateral talks, the Japanese agreed not to threaten the FedEx rights after U.S. officials refused to allow them to be used as leverage to conclude a cargo agreement (DAILY, March 5).
Horizon Air has reduced fares by an average of 35% for travel through May 31 between most cities it serves in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, California, British Columbia and Alberta. Fares range from $39 to $119 one way, and tickets must be purchased by April 3.
A U.S. airline executive advised Latin American carriers yesterday to join forces or risk being carved up by powerful carriers from the U.S., such as American and United. "Beware a pact with the devil," Martin Shugrue, president and chief executive officer of the new Pan Am, warned Latin American airline executives in a speech in Santiago, Chile. The "devil" reference is to American, which offered recently to partner and establish code sharing with Argentinian carrier Aerolineas Argentinas and Chile's LanChile.
Electric Fuel Corp. will produce a battery-powered, water-activated survivor locator light called "SurvivaLite." The lights attach to life vests and are required by FAA on commercial, over-water flights. The company said it has orders for 60,000 lights over the next two years.
Aeroservice Aviation Center has reached agreement with Emery Worldwide to install flight simulators at Emery's Dayton hub. Aeroservice said it already placed a DC-8-60 simulator and a 727-200 simulator. The DC-8 device received FAA certification Jan. 17, and an upgrade to its visual system is in progress. The 727 will be certified in the near future, the company said. Aeroservice said it will deliver a DC-8-70 simulator this month.
Carnival Corporation has joined Sabre's CruiseDirector, the computer reservations system's cruise booking system. Carnival includes Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Windstar Cruises and Seabourn Cruise Lines, which account for 26% of cruise industry cabins.
TRO Learning has signed an accord with FlightSafty International under which FSI will be able to use TRO's library of computer-based pilot and maintenance training courseware at its 40 training centers. The pact also allows FSI to market TRO's 1,200 hours of training courseware products to airline clients.
Air France has reached a new agreement with two of its pilots unions that will make it more competitive with its international rivals. The pact, signed Friday with its two main pilots unions - SNPL and SPAC - will increase the time that Air France pilots fly, bringing them more in line with their counterparts at carriers like Lufthansa. A third union, SNOMAC, which represents the carrier's flight engineers, has tentatively agreed to the pact, an airline spokesman said.
China Eastern Airlines has contracted for an ab initio training program for a group of pilot cadets at FlightSafety's Vero Beach Academy. China's Civil Aviation Flying College will participate in planning the program.
FAA said it has released an electronic copy of the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) request for proposal through the World Wide Web and the Defense Department's Hanscom AFB Electric RFP Bulletin Board (HERBB). The STARS RFP is being released only for information purposes, FAA said. "This is not a request for proposal. There are only three teams eligible to submit proposals or the STARS requirement.
Carnival Air Lines has opened a World Wide Web site offering company history, news, reservations information, flight schedules and tour packages. The Internet address is http://www.carnivalair.com.
Emery Worldwide said its international logistics subsidiary will operate under the name Emery Global Logistics. The unit, formed in 1993 as Logistics Worldwide, provides integrated single-source services, including scheduled or charter air, ocean and truck transport, supply chain management, shipment monitoring and expediting, warehousing, inventory management and order fulfillment, customs clearance, management reporting and invoicing.
A 20.9% climb in revenue passenger miles across the Atlantic helped drive up American's systemwide traffic 6.5% last month, compared with February 1995. Capacity rose 3.6%, while the load factor inched up 1.7 points to 63.7%. The number of passengers boarded declined 1.1%. The carrier's traffic rose 2.1% for the first two months of the year, compared with the same period in 1995. Capacity declined 0.3%, and the load factor for the period gained 1.2 points to 63.7%. The number of passengers boarded by the carrier slipped 4.4%.
