Floods and melting snow continued to disrupt airline operations yesterday in the Pacific Northwest, as Reno, Nev., became the latest city to feel the brunt of storms that shut down travel in the region during the past week. As airline operations began to return to normal in Seattle and Portland, Reno airport was flooded and runways were submerged. While last week's storms and high-water levels stopped service in and out of Seattle and Portland, blockages had been removed as of yesterday, although continued flooding kept many airline employees at home.
UPS has achieved 100% compliance with Stage 3 noise regulations three years before the deadline, making it the first North American airline to comply. UPS achieved the milestone Dec. 26 when the last of 51 727-100s entered the shop to be fitted with Rolls-Royce Tay engines. All large jet aircraft operating in the U.S. must comply with Stage 3 noise regulations by Dec. 31, 1999. UPS has spent $500 million on the re-engining program.
It was something of a prophetic statement from the man responsible for developing and bringing to market Embraer's new 50-passenger EMB-145 re- gional jet. "Looking at the requests for proposals, the market is bigger than we expected," said Satoshi Yokota. "We are discussing with a dozen airlines in the neighborhood of 300 aircraft." Yokota's comment addresses a question raised by others in the past - whether the regional jet manufacturers really understand the market potential and will be able to build the aircraft fast enough to keep up with demand.
Primark Corp. said yesterday the National Transportation Safety Board's investigation into the Dec. 22 crash of an ABX Air DC-8 cargo jet is focusing on operational aspects of the test flight in which the crash occurred. Primark, the parent of TIMCO, which was carrying out work on the aircraft, said the aircraft was delivered to ABX Air in an "airworthy condition" on the afternoon of the test flight. The aircraft, which was undergoing extensive maintenance, had lost some hydraulic fluid on a test flight the previous day.
Two former FAA administrators called on President Clinton to appoint Carl Vogt, former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, as the next FAA administrator. Vogt also is a favorite of several industry groups for the post.
Air France, trying to gain on its European competitors, wants to reduce its unit costs by 15% over the next three years. "We estimate they [the other airlines] will reduce their costs by 10% over the next three years," said Chairman Christian Blanc. "That will mold our own efforts: 15% lower unit costs" by the end of 1999. Air France estimates it lags 5% behind its competitors in terms of cost reduction.
Aviation career company AIR, Inc., has purchased the assets of the defunct aviation career company Future Aviation Professionals of America (FAPA), including its toll-free JET-JOBS number and membership list. FAPA was forced out of business Sept. 4 in a dispute with the Internal Revenue Service over back taxes, which led to a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing (DAILY, Sept. 12). The bankruptcy filing was later thrown out in favor of the IRS claim, which exceeded the value of the assets, AIR, Inc. said.
Atlantic Southeast has completed the formation of a holding company structure, carrier President John Beiser said. The company, ASA Holdings Inc., owns 100% of the airline's common stock. The reorganization became effective Dec. 31. Effective yesterday, ASA Holdings' common stock will trade over the counter under the ASAI symbol. (More regional aviation news follows Page 18 of the hardcopy of this issue.)
Universal Avionics Systems said it has received FAA approval for its new generation of lighter weight, solid-state cockpit voice recorders. The CVR-30B and the CVR-120 record 30 minutes and 120 minutes, respectively, and weigh 13 pounds each, the company said. The recorders accept four channels of cockpit audio - three crew and one area microphone - convert the audio to digital format and store the data in solid-state, non-volatile flash memory. The recorders are Arinc-compatible.
DOT has fined Western Pacific and its new, recently certificated regional subsidiary Mountain Air Express (MAX) $340,000 under a settlement of the department's charges that the carriers advertised and sold tickets for Colorado ski resort service prematurely last fall. Under the settlement, however, the bulk of the fine - up to $290,000 - could be offset by a discount coupon/alternate flight program the carriers will make available to the approximately 11,000 customers who purchased tickets to the seven ski resorts before Dec. 15, when MAX began service.
China Southern Airlines is offering China's first city check-in operation for passengers, at the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou. Lodgers at the hotel can check in and get boarding passes at the hotel as late as 90 minutes before departure. At the airport, they can go directly through the security check and enter the waiting room for boarding, reducing check-in time there. The time for queuing to check in at the airport is greatly reduced.
Stocks of eight publicly held regional airlines fell by half a dollar on average during December to close the year at $12.24 per share. If you had invested $100 in each of the eight stocks on Dec. 31, 1995, you would have made a whopping $360.60 on the year, minus dividends, which are not numerous among the group. Only two issues gained ground during the month. Mesaba Holdings was the only stellar performer with an increase of $1.56 to $14.88 per share. The other gainer was USAir Express CCAIR, with an increase of a quarter to $1.81 per share.
White House Office of Management and Budget is mulling essential air service funding of $30 million for fiscal 1998, $4.1 million above both the fiscal 1997 level and DOT's proposal to OMB for fiscal 1998. The hike will "ensure adequate funds to maintain service and allow for some service enhancements," OMB said in responding to DOT's budget request. The $30 million is $20 million below the level authorized by last year's FAA reauthorization act, which provided funding from foreign aircraft overflight fees.
Air Transport Association's 14 U.S. members reported modest traffic growth in November over the same month last year, up 3.8% to 41.8 billion revenue passenger miles. Capacity growth outpaced traffic, increasing 4.2% to 63.8 billion available seat miles, for a dip in load factor to 65.6% from 65.9%. The ATA airlines carried 36,976,000 passengers during the month. International RPMs were up 7.8% to 11.4 billion and international ASMs 5.1% to 16.3 billion. Domestic RPMs grew 2.3% to 30.4 billion and domestic ASMs 3.9% to 47.4 billion.
Xiamen Airport has opened its third terminal, the largest in China, increasing its capacity to 10 million passengers per year. The airport ranks sixth among China's civil airports overall and fourth in international travel, handling more than 700 arrivals and departures per week.
DOT issued its final order on additional cargo charter allocations to Brazil, retaining its tentative awards to Southern Air Transport (75 charters) and Tower Air (25), and giving 25 to Florida West International, fewer than the carrier's original request for 81 but meeting the minimum it said it needed when it filed an objection to DOT's tentative finding. This action reduces the remaining charter pool in this allocation to 175. DOT affirmed its earlier decision to modify charter pool rules to permit new entrants to apply for up to eight flights a month.
British Midland is offering to double commissions to U.S. travel agents who sell its Discover Europe Airpass promotion. Agents will receive a 20% commission on tickets booked between Jan. 6 and March 23 for travel completed by March 24. They also will be awarded one free roundtrip ticket for every 20 flights sold and a one-way ticket for every 10 flight segments sold. The one-way ticket is an addition to a promotion first offered to agents last year. Discover Europe Airpass is for short-haul flights within the U.K. and between the U.K.
Airborne Express's joint venture with European partner Van Ommeren Intexo Logistics Services, which became effective yesterday, will enable the U.S. company to consolidate its International Air Express, Air Freight Forwarding, Ocean Services, Brokerage and Logistics services by using exiting warehousing operations in Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Intexo currently has a partnership with Airborne subsidiary Advanced Logistics Services through which it runs logistics programs with consumer goods companies.
Private Italian regional airline Air One, putting increased competitive pressure on Alitalia, purchased slots from another private airline at Milan Linate and Rome Ciampino airports. Air One, launched in November 1995, is taking over Noman's Milan-Palermo, Rome-Olbia and Rome- Milan slots. The transaction will bring Air One's market share on the lucrative Milan-Rome route to 30%, versus Alitalia's 70%. Air One, which plans to expand its 737 fleet soon, carried 700,000 passengers in 1996 and had a 25% share between Milan and Rome.
TDG Aerospace said yesterday that Delta has ordered its overwing heater systems for 120 MD-80s. The heaters are an alternative means of complying with an FAA requirement for tactile inspections for clear ice on upper wing surface, TDG said. Clear ice has been known to build up and be ingested during takeoff into the engines, mounted on the aft fuselage. TDG said Delta chose its system over one from AlliedSignal after an eight-month evaluation, and American and Alaska also are TDG customers
American Airlines attorneys are filing their own motion for summary judgment in DOT's enforcement case against Preference MAAnager, the add-on program that gives display preference to American and American Eagle flights on the Sabre CRS. American will urge the judge handling the case to dismiss the complaint; DOT attorneys filed earlier this week to suspend further deliberations and move straight to determining the civil penalty (DAILY, Jan. 2).
Marc Rochet, chairman of British Airways' French subsidiary TAT, has succeeded Lofti Belhassine as chairman of the insolvent French airline Air Liberte, which is being taken over by BA. A French commercial court is expected to confirm the deal Jan. 8, but Rochet's appointment signals BA's effective victory over competitors that showed interest after Air Liberte went into receivership last September. Richard Branson's Virgin Express gave up in December, and other prospective buyers failed to muster enough financial backing.
Acting FAA Administrator Linda Daschle is expected to sign today a rule restricting fights of tour operators in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Sources said the rule will be enacted as DOT Secretary Federico Pena proposed, even though attorneys at FAA and DOT said they did not recommend it. On Tuesday, FAA and the Interior Department announced restrictions on air tour flights over Grand Canyon National Park (DAILY, Jan. 2).
FAA yesterday issued an emergency airworthiness directive requiring operators of 737 aircraft to adopt procedures it said will enable flightcrews to maintain control in an uncommanded yaw or roll. The agency said the probability of either event is "remote" and termed the AD a precautionary measure, but it requires new procedures to be in place within 30 days to address a jammed or restricted flight control. FAA said "no anomalies" have been detected following its Nov.
