Pan Am's international alliance partners are backing the airline's decision to launch Chicago-New York service with wet-leased aircraft. Pan Am, which had a 68% load factor in January, has "a number of presold bookings" from partner carriers even as it prepares to serve the new route, Chief Executive Martin Shugrue said in a message to employees.
Air Canada has acquired two more Canadair Regional Jets in a $40 million deal. The carrier operates 24 of the aircraft on transborder and domestic routes. Air Canada is getting between 10 and 11 hours of utilization a day from the 50-passenger turbofans.
The Senate Finance Committee approved legislation yesterday to reinstate the aviation excise taxes through Sept. 30, and to allow the Treasury Department to deposit tax receipts into the aviation trust fund regardless of when it receives them. The bill, drafted in cooperation with House and Clinton administration tax officials, now awaits Senate action, which would follow House action on the same or a similar bill.
Northrop Grumman said it was selected by Boeing to produce doors for the 737, 757 and 767, and more doors for the 747 in a contract valued at more than $400 million. The company now produces 11 passenger and cargo doors and a main deck door for the 747. The new work involves 28 additional doors for Boeing aircraft. Northrop Grumman said it plans to consolidate all door production in a new Aircraft Doors Center in Georgia.
McDonnell Douglas named Walter Orlowski president of Douglas Aircraft, succeeding Mike Sears, who will head McDonnell Douglas's tactical aircraft, missiles and space business. Orlowski had been VP-general manager of Douglas Aircraft. In the past, he was VP-marketing and senior VP of the MD-11, MD-90 and MD-80 programs. Most recently he was responsible for implementing the strategic collaboration agreement with Boeing.
Boeing 747 Systemwide Aircraft Utilization Per Day Third Quarter 1996 B747-100 Northwest TWA Number of Aircraft Operated 23 10 Total Fleet Operations Departures 37 18 Block Hours 295 134 Flight Hours 277 123 Miles 145,745 64,997
ValuJet flew 64.6 million revenue passenger miles in January, a 67.4% decrease from last January. Available seat miles fell 62% to 155.6 million and the load factor declined seven percentage points to 41.5%, which ValuJet attributed partly to predatory pricing by its large competitors. ValuJet operated 18 aircraft last month, compared with 41 a year ago. January's traffic results were below those of December, when ValuJet flew 84.3 million RPMs, 150 million ASMs and a 56% load factor.
Former Acting FAA Administrator Linda Daschle has joined the law firm of Baker, Donelson, Bearman&Caldwell as a senior public policy adviser in the firm's Public Policy Group. Former Sen. Howard Baker said Daschle "has an impressive 20-year career in the aviation industry and has demonstrated leadership in managing transportation issues."
Banner Aerospace has purchased PB Herndon Co., a specialty fastener distributor to the aerospace industry, for an undisclosed amount of cash. PB Herndon will join Banner's hardware group.
European Commission's closed-door hearing on competition issues raised by the American-British Airways alliance ended yesterday in Brussels. A source familiar with the proceeding said EC officials sharply questioned representatives of carriers, including the alliance partners, Continental, USAir, Delta, United, Virgin Atlantic, KLM, SAS and Lufthansa.
Air France is offering unions their first pay increases - about 3.5% in 1997 and 1998 overall - since wages were frozen four years ago. In the medium term, the French airline is aiming at an annual salary growth rate of 2.5%.
Munich's airport authority is selecting an architect to design a second terminal with capacity of 15 million passengers per year, to be operational by 2002-03. The current terminal, opened in 1992, already is approaching its capacity limit of 18 million passengers per year. Financing for the new terminal, estimated to cost 1.7 billion Deutschmarks, has not yet been arranged. In 1996, Munich Airport handled about 15.7 million passengers, 5.5% more than in 1995. It increased its turnover 10% to DM810 million and reduced its operating loss to DM30 million-DM35 million.
Communications Workers of America filed objections Monday at the National Mediation Board against USAir in hopes that NMB will allow another representation election for passenger service workers (DAILY, Feb. 4). CWA, which lost an election last week, claims USAir influenced workers improperly through employee roundtables. The union will continue organizing activities at the carrier if NMB does not grant another election, a spokeswoman said.
United's Air Line Pilots Association, in a letter to members this week, is detailing how the union will proceed in dealing with senior management and how it plans to enlist the support of other employee groups for its plan to change the "corporate culture" at United. ALPA, which recently rejected mid-term wage adjustment agreement, has embarked on a campaign to withdraw from certain company committees and has complained of serious pilot understaffing (DAILY, Jan. 29). The mid-term wage adjustment is in arbitration, and a decision is due by April 12.
The Senate Finance Committee plans today to approve legislation reinstating the aviation excise taxes through September and allowing for the transfer of some $1.2 billion in taxes collected by the airlines in 1996 but not remitted to the government until this year. At a Finance hearing yesterday, Chairman William Roth (R-Del.) said he hoped to move the bill to the Senate floor as quickly as possible and without amendment. Emergency markup is slated for 9:30 a.m. in Room 215, Dirksen Building. Since the U.S.
DOT Office of Aviation Enforcement rejected arguments by computer reservations system provider Sabre that it should be dismissed as a target of legal action against Preference MAAnager (DAILY, Jan. 23). The enforcement office charged that the add-on software, distributed by co- defendant American, violates anti-bias rules because it permits travel agents to give display priority to American and American Eagle flights. Sabre parent The Sabre Group Holdings Inc.
Prestige Airways, Manassas, Va., applied for an exemption to operate scheduled combination service between Miami and Cancun, using a 727-230. The carrier wants to begin flights March 30. (Docket OST-97-2104)
CFM International said 1996 was its most successful year, with orders for 1,280 CFM56 engines valued at $5.5 billion. The General Electric-Snecma partnership said the orders more than doubled the 1995 total and represented 61% of worldwide engine orders placed last year.
Continental and American are presenting arguments for why each would be the best code-share partner for Aerolineas Argentinas, though neither airline is saying publicly whether its intentions include an equity stake in the troubled South American carrier. Continental executives were in Buenos Aires yesterday, but it was unclear whether they had met with Aerolineas. But neither U.S. carrier - both of which have a penchant for code sharing without equity investments - may be willing to ante as much as Brazil's Viacao Aerea Sao Paulo (Vasp).
Bell and Boeing said they have opened the order book on the Bell Boeing 609 civil tiltrotor aircraft for deliveries starting in 2001. Since the project was launched last November, the Bell Boeing team has frozen aircraft configuration, begun manufacture of major tools, increased staffing and signed agreements with major component suppliers. Pratt&Whitney will provide PT-6 engines and Collins its Pro Line 21 avionics suite. Lear Astronics will supply a fly-by-wire flight control system and Dowty Aerospace the flight control actuators.
American said that any award of new Brazil combination rights that pre- empts its own bid for seven new weekly Manaus frequencies would merely duplicate existing U.S.-Brazil routes. Competitors said that awarding frequencies to American would merely guarantee its lock on the market, but the airline said it is the only one proposing U.S. flag service to the developing trade and tourism center in the Amazon.
Lufthansa Cityline is the first German carrier authorized to use a head-up guidance system it co-developed with American Flight Dynamics of the U.S. and Bombardier of Canada. Germany's federal aviation agency approved the system Monday for use at the airline's home base at Konrad Adenauer Airport, which serves Cologne and Bonn. The Lufthansa regional subsidiary has equipped its fleet of Canadair jets to carry out precision landings in Category 3 weather conditions.
American, which would likely welcome intervention by President Clinton to send its pilot dispute to arbitration - just as Clinton did with the flight attendants in 1993 - said yesterday a strike has foreign-relations implications. The carrier listed "Chilean salmon producers" and "waitresses in Jamaica" as potential strike victims.
American's pilots have drawn their line in the sand - they will strike Feb. 15 unless American agrees that only American pilots will fly regional jets, financial analysts said yesterday after the Allied Pilots Association showed them economic analyses portraying them as lowest-paid among the five largest U.S. airlines. Several analysts were left with the impression that the pilots are willing to accept stock options in lieu of retroactive pay, will wait until August to receive pay increases and could be flexible on other personal economic issues, but not on RJs.
