1997 Aviation&Aerospace Almanac, compiled by Aviation Daily and Aerospace Daily and edited by Richard Lampl. An all-inclusive, 950-page reference of facts and figures on aviation and aerospace, including 580 tables on topics such as airline operations, forecasts, safety, defense budgets and congressional committees. McGraw-Hill; $75 paper. To order, call 202-383- 2411.
The China Aviation Development Foundation, which owns 82% of China Airlines (CAL), is selling a portion of that share, the airline said Friday. The company has floated the plan to sell 16% of its share, and a decision on the sale is expected by the end of March. CAL has been exploring various international airline alliances. British Airways declined to comment on media reports in Asia that it is interested in acquiring a 16% of CAL. BA currently has no code-share or marketing relationship with the carrier, a BA spokeswoman said.
America West won an award it would rather forget - top honors in the Fineman Associates Public Relations 1996 PR Blunders List - for its October decision to turn an aircraft around in flight and off-load passengers in order to empty the plane for a California Angels baseball team charter. Then, America West denied it was a PR disaster. "It was a bumper crop year for public relations lunacy," said Fineman Associates.
Hawaiian Airlines will defer the start of its Seattle-Maui service until Feb. 15, citing an "unseasonably soft market demand in the Pacific Northwest" early this quarter. The service had been scheduled to begin Jan. 18.
New Nashville carrier Corporate Express Airlines, which has begun offering frequent hops for business travelers within Tennessee, plans to expand to Atlanta Hartsfield Jan. 19 and Little Rock, Ark., in March. The carrier operates five daily nonstops each to Knoxville and Tri-Cities (Bristol, Kingsport and Johnson City), and will operate four a day with 19-seat Super Jetstream 32 aircraft.
- In Federal Register dated Dec. 20...Superseded an airworthiness directive on Raytheon 400 series aircraft concerning certain flap roller retention components. - In FR dated Dec. 23...Proposed an AD on Bell 214ST helicopters to require a component history card using a retirement index number system. - In FR dated Dec. 26...Proposed to supersede an AD on Astra Nomad N22/24 aircraft concerning inspections of the control wheel subassemblies.
Orally approved LanChile's application to increase its six weekly combination flights to seven between Santiago and Los Angeles, via Mexico City and Lima, with full traffic rights between Los Angeles and Mexico City/Lima. LanChile also will be permitted to co-terminalize Los Angles all-cargo operations with its existing authority to conduct all-cargo operations at Miami, via Panama City, Panama, without local traffic rights between Panama City and Miami...Approved a Japan Travel Bureau charter using a Japan Air System DC-10-30 for Niigata-Honolulu Feb.
1996 Industry Stock Review By Month Closed Closed Exchange 1/31/96 2/29/96 Majors Alaska Air Group NYSE $ 19.750 22.500 AMR NYSE 76.000 87.750 America West (Class B) NYSE 17.125 20.625 Continental (Class B) * NYSE 44.625 48.000 Delta NYSE 68.375 78.000
Alaska Airlines "still flies a fleet consisting exclusively of Dakotas (DC- 3s)," according to Aeroflot's inflight magazine. Alaska's response - "Reporters for Aeroflot's inflight magazine need to get out more."
Morten Beyer Associates likes Airbus Industrie's forecast of a market for 1,380 aircraft with 500-plus seats better than Boeing's estimate of only 470. Assuming traffic doubles in 12 years, it would take 12,000 180- seaters to handle the growth, compared with 3,000 720-seaters, MBA says. "Given the fact that bigger jets have lower ASM costs and strong passenger preference, we vote with Airbus."
China's airlines carried 56.5 million passengers during 1996, 10% more than in 1995, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China. Bao Peide, CAAC deputy director and spokesman, said Chinese airlines handled 1.15 million tons of cargo and postal shipments, with traffic reaching 8.05 billion ton kilometers, both up about 14% from 1995.
Aviation authorities in Hebei Province, China, have opened Shijiazhuang Airport to foreign aircraft. Routes to Russia and Ukraine have been opened, and service to other points in the Commonwealth of Independent States will begin soon.
Airbus Industrie partners have agreed to a memorandum of understanding on restructuring the consortium, Airbus announced Friday in a two-sentence statement that contained no further details. "We are obviously encouraged," an Airbus spokesman told The DAILY. "There had been a number of reports recently, true and false, of a lack of an agreement among the partners. Now we have that." The four partners - Aerospatiale, British Aerospace, Daimler-Benz Aerospace and CASA - agreed last July to turn the groupement d'interet economique (GIE) into a corporation.
Carriers announced a myriad of post-Christmas winter fare sales, discounting many worldwide fares but imposing many restrictions, such as Saturday-night stays and limits on travel dates to Florida. Delta announced a worldwide mileage-based sale that includes Bermuda, the Caribbean, Russia and Asia. Several carriers matched in competing markets. In Canada and the U.S., except for Florida and Hawaii, the fares range from $158 to $358 roundtrip. They do not apply to the Delta Shuttle or flights operated solely as a Delta Connection. Passengers may travel between Jan.
Code-Sharing Regional Carrier Schedules Announced or Implemented - October-November, 1996 Domestic City-Pairs ------------------- Carriers Added Dropped New Shared From Major ---------------------------------------------------------------------- American Alns Flagship - - - -
China will treat air and shipping links between Hong Kong and Taiwan as special regional routes under the "One China" principle after China takes sovereignty over Hong Kong on July 1. Aviation and shipping issues should be handled on the basis of mutual benefit, a spokesman for the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office and Taiwan Affairs Office of China's State Council said in an interview with the Xinhua News Agency in Beijing.
