A United study indicates that the level of Chicago-London Heathrow service has been "artificially constrained" to prevent the entry of a competitor in the market, according to Chairman and CEO Gerald Greenwald. "Bermuda 2 specifies that when the authorized carriers - American and BA - exceed in carrying a threshold of 600,000 passengers for two consecutive 12-month periods, then a third U.S. carrier will be selected," Greenwald told The DAILY yesterday.
Continental has named Lawrence Kellner chief financial officer and transferred the current CFO, Daniel Garton, to strategic planning by appointing him senior VP-strategic business units and chief information officer. Kellner has been CFO and executive VP of American Savings Bank. Garton will now report to the chief operating officer and head a group of general managers responsible for improving overall profitability and develop the long-term strategic plan.
United plans to upgrade its Washington Dulles-Milan, Italy, service Oct. 29 by dropping a stop in Rome. The carrier may serve Rome again in the future by way of code-sharing flights. United operates the Washington-Milan service with 767-300s. Christopher Bowers, senior VP-international, said, "We appreciate the support we have received over the last three years from travelers and shippers choosing United in the U.S.-Rome market. It is our hope to be able to serve the Roman market in conjunction with another airline."
United will achieve a net gain of only 19 aircraft to its total fleet by the year 2000 as it replaces 75 aircraft, United Chairman Gerald Greenwald told The DAILY yesterday. He said the carrier has not chosen the aircraft types it will order, but it has decided that 50 aircraft will be replaced by 2000 (DAILY, April 13). Six of the 50 have already been ordered from Boeing. Greenwald would not say whether the remaining 44 aircraft to be ordered will include Boeing 777s for which it holds options, but he did say the orders will come at the end of this year.
BWIA International Airways is requesting renewal of its authority to provide service between New York and Barbados, and beyond to Grenada. The airline uses MD-80s on the route. BWIA also seeks renewal of its authority to serve Georgetown, Guyana, as a point beyond Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, on its New York-Port of Spain service. The carrier is not currently using the authority, but it operated three-times-per-week MD-80 service over the route previously and is looking at the market for future operations. (Dockets 50364&50365)
Indianapolis, Ind., Airport Authority's board last week unanimously approved plans to negotiate a 10-year contract for management of Indianapolis Airport with BAA USA Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of U.K. airport operator BAA plc. Negotiations will begin next week, and a final contract will remain subject to the board's approval. IAA officials estimate the contract will be in place by Jan. 1. "Because of the newness of the approach, the contract documents will truly be originals," Indianapolis spokesman Dennis Rosebrough said.
FAA said a videotape package describing its alcohol misuse prevention and breath testing regulations is available from the National Technical Information Service. The two-hour video package includes copies of the outline used for the presentation, questions and answers, and alcohol rule language. The package costs $95.95, and the video or written materials cost $54 each if ordered separately. To order the Overview of Alcohol Misuse Prevention Program for the Aviation Industry (#AVA19706VNB1), call 703-487-4650 or telefax 703-321-8547.
DHL co-founder Larry Hillblom died during the weekend when a small airplane in which he was a passenger went down in the Pacific Ocean near Saipan, UPI reported. Hillblom, 52, helped organize DHL in 1962. He left day-to-day operations of the company nearly 10 years ago but retained stock in it.
ALM Antillean Airlines has applied for renewal of its authority to operate scheduled combination service between Curacao and Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles, and Atlanta via Aruba. The carrier currently operates one weekly MD-80 flight between Atlanta and Curacao via Bonaire. (Docket 47444)
USAir will launch nonstop service June 11 from New York LaGuardia to Portland, Maine, for the summer and fall seasons. It will operate one daily flight with a DC-9-30.
Robert Buckhorn, 68, who retired May 3, 1994, after 10 years as FAA deputy assistant administrator for public affairs, died Sunday of a heart attack. Buckhorn worked at the National Transportation Safety Board before joining FAA.
British Airways yesterday reported record earnings for the fiscal year ended March 31, but also said it has written down by half the value of its $400 million investment in USAir. Citing USAir's suspension of dividend payments and a change in U.S. accounting rules, BA announced the action just days after USAir reached a tentative agreement with its flight attendants that brings it a step closer to the $2.5 billion in concessions management seeks from its employees during the next five years.
House Speaker Newt Gingrich's transportation task force probably will agree on a way to increase infrastructure investment, but not necessarily on House Transportation Committee Chairman Bud Shuster's proposal to take transportation trust funds off budget, Jack Schenendorf, Shuster's committee chief of staff, said yesterday at the American Association of Airport Executives annual conference in Boston.
President Clinton apparently is not as inflexible as top officials at DOT about allowing airlines to retain their exemption from the transportation fuel tax. In March, Clinton wrote M.G. Braatas, chairman of the Rochester, Minn., Airport Commission, that he would not oppose extending the airlines' tax exemption beyond Sept. 30, its scheduled expiration, under certain conditions. "As you may know, my administration decided not to request an extension of the airlines' fuel tax exemption in the proposed fiscal 1996 budget," Clinton wrote Braatas.
Singapore Airlines parent SIA Group posted higher net and operating profits for the year ended March 31 as economic recovery in major markets and lower fuel prices offset declining yields at SIA and weak results at other group subsidiaries. SIA Group's operating profit rose 13.6% to S$931 million (US$657 million) and the company's pre-tax profit increased 9.9% to S$958 million (US$676 million). Net profit rose 14.5% to S$918 million (US$648 million) on total revenues of S$6.56 billion (US$4.63 billion).
Airbus Industrie is due to get into the military airplane business next month by taking over management of Europe's long-stalled Future Large Airlifter program from the EuroFLAG consortium.Putting Airbus in charge was one of the U.K.'s main conditions for rejoining FLA and agreeing to buy some of the airplanes.
U.S. Major Carriers Operating and Net Profit Fourth Quarter 1994 Operating Net Profit/Loss Profit/Loss (000) (000) Fourth Quarter 1994 America West $ 30,534 $ 6,627 American (36,177) (120,400) Continental (56,176) (523,427)
A preliminary report from an FAA National Aviation Safety Inspection Program inspection of Business Express Airlines found no regulatory or safety violations, the carrier said. The Delta Connection carrier, which also operates as Northwest Airlink, said an FAA inspection team of 13 operational and safety experts worked for 11 on the inspection mandated for all airlines at the January FAA safety summit. Separately, Business Express announced it will expand and renovate its facilities at Boston Logan Airport, doubling its gates and ramps in the C concourse.
Duff&Phelps Credit Rating Co. has established an initial senior debt rating of A+ for EDS. The rating applies to EDS's proposed offering of $500 million in notes, to be sold under Rule 144A of the Securities Act. Duff&Phelps said the rating is based on the success of EDS's business strategy and strong cash flows.
U.S. Major Carriers Operating and Net Profit The Year 1994 Operating Net Profit/Loss Profit/Loss (000) (000) The Year 1994 America West $ 146,376 $ 62,239 American 911,583 268,493 Continental (86,262) (613,342) Delta (215,110) (159,687)
The Metropolitan Topeka, Kansas, Airport Authority is urging DOT to prohibit Air Midwest from dropping its essential air service at Topeka. The carrier, operating as USAir Express, said it intends to end its Beech 1900 service between Topeka and Kansas City, Mo., on July 11 (DAILY, May 11).
Jeppesen said it has begun supplying a new "briefing strip" approach chart format to selected U.S. and international airlines. The new strip format provides a number of crew resource management and human factors elements. It includes key approach information arranged in the chart heading; critical navigation information in larger, bold type; common placement of procedural notes in the heading, and symbolic depiction of approach lights for the landing runway.
More airlines will turn to alliances with other carriers as they try to expand their global reach in economically realistic ways, Northwest Chief Executive John Dasburg said last week. In a speech to the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan in Tokyo, Dasburg said the trend toward alliances is being fueled by the realization that it is too costly - in terms of capital needed and the potential for overcapacity - for airlines to create their own global airline systems individually. But the success of alliances does not depend totally on economic factors.
