Winter business travel probably will be disappointing, according to the Travel Industry Association, which predicts little or no increase over last year's volume. Only 10% of U.S. travelers are "very likely" to make a business trip during the winter, down from 13% last year, and 68% are expected to be leisure-only customers, up from 65% last winter.
U.S. Major Carriers Unit Revenues and Expenses, By Region Third Quarter 1996 Operating Operating Operating Revenues Expenses Profit/Loss Yield per ASM per ASM per ASM per RPM Carrier (cents) (cents) (cents) (cents) Alaska 9.39 8.09 1.30 11.49 Domestic 9.56 8.17 1.39 11.61
Reacting to the reluctance of French negotiators to give in to U.S. insistence on an open skies aviation agreement, some U.S. carriers are looking to get the best deal possible short of full liberalization, according to a source familiar with current U.S.-France talks. Neither the carriers nor U.S. negotiators are looking forward to yet another round of piecemeal agreements for the 1997 summer schedule, which normally would be in place by about March 1 at the latest. Given the French position on open skies and what U.S.
Swissair will acquire aircraft jointly in the future with partners Sabena and Austrian Airlines, replace its eight A310s with nine A330s, launch a new corporate identity and introduce all-non-smoking flights across the Atlantic beginning March 30, the airline's new chief executive, Philippe Bruggisser, said yesterday. The three carriers have ordered 17 A330-200s, and Swissair said yesterday it intends to replace five 747-300s later. The new corporate identity will be "more internal than visible externally," said Swissair spokeswoman Linda Parseghian.
DOT this week awarded Western Pacific regional subsidiary Mountain Air Express (MAX) its own certificate. Objections are due Monday. Earlier this fall, DOT said it was "looking into" allegations that Mountain Air Express, which hopes to operate to approximately six Rocky Mountain ski communities with a fleet of Dornier 328s, had sold tickets before receiving its economic authority (DAILY, Oct. 18). A department spokesman yesterday said DOT's review was still active but that the agency hopes to reach a decision on the matter by yearend.
Lan Chile has applied for an exemption to serve Sao Paulo, Manaus and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil as intermediate points in its all-cargo authority between Santiago and the coterminal points of Miami and New York, starting Jan. 1. The carrier also applied for blind-sector authority to commingle traffic between Santiago and the Brazilian points with other international traffic.
USAir's electronic ticketing option, on Sabre and Apollo since October, is available on System One. USAir will offer ticketless travel on the Worldspan and Amadeus computer reservations systems in the future.
South America - especially the southern half of the continent - will likely become the next major market for high-speed regional aircraft as a result of the Mercosur trade agreement that includes the deregulation of air services. Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay were the original members, joined by Chile in August and Bolivia is expected to be next. Deregulation will allow direct services between smaller cities now linked only through major capitals by large carriers. Example is Fiat, with plants in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and Cordoba, Argentina...
It is too soon to expect Peru to lift its ban on operations in Peruvian airspace by Fine Air, Aeroperu's counsel in Washington wrote to Paul Gretch, DOT director in the office of international aviation, countering Fine's attempt to block extra holiday sections of Aeroperu's flights until the U.S. carrier can operate freely again (DAILY, Dec. 16). Fine is barred because it delivered arms to Ecuador - unintentionally, says Fine - when Ecuador and Peru were engaged in military hostilities. (Docket OST-95-691)
The Thanksgiving holiday weekend ended Dec. 1 instead of in November and regional airlines felt the pinch. The final day of the weekend is arguably the heaviest travel day of the year. Although a sampling of 14 of the nation's largest regional airlines averaged gains in both capacity and traffic - growth in ASMs outpaced that in RPMs by an average of 6.9% to 5% - six carriers reported that traffic declined in November compared with the same month a year ago. Mesa Air Group suffered the largest loss with RPMs down 9.8% and ASMs 6.4%.
Airlines named by the Association of Retail Travel Agents in a complaint against their Internet travel discounts responded this week, saying the U.S. DOT is following long-established practice by not bringing action against below-tariff rates. Icelandair, Aer Lingus, Cathay Pacific and IATA were named by ARTA; IATA already has responded (DAILY, Dec. 18).
Aero International (Regional) has placed two engines - GE's CF 34-8C and SNECMA/Pratt&Whitney's SPW 14 - on its short list for installation on its new family of regional jets, beginning with the AI(R) 70 next year. A final selection will be made in spring 1997, AI(R) said. It said it would "soon form integrated teams with the two remaining engine manufacturers to further study the technical and and economical suitability of the candidate proposals."
DOT said yesterday it will hold a hearing on the Dade County, Fla., request for determination of the reasonableness of airport fees associated with expansion at Miami Airport (DAILY, Nov. 20). A DOT administrative law judge will hear the case and issue a decision by Feb. 17, and DOT will review the decision and issue a final determination by March 19.
A significant realignment of one quarter of Canadian Airlines' fleet, revealed yesterday by the airline, will include new service to Washington, Boston, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Tampa and Miami as part of a 141% increase in transborder capacity. The service restructuring was previewed last week (DAILY, Dec.
Great American Airways applied to DOT for authority to perform long-term wet lease operations for Air Jamaica from Feb. 1, 1997, to April 30, 1998. Flights would include a roundtrip combination linking New York and Atlanta to Barbados via Antigua, Barbuda and St. Lucia. Two MD-83s allocated to the service would be configured for two-class operation with 147 seats.
Divisional profitability statistics for the largest U.S. carriers show that slow-selling MD-11s anchor operations of the most cash-positive divisions, and "the rankings show several other surprising trends not widely reported," according to an analysis by Robert Gordon, a Northwestern University economics professor and airline expert. The analysis of DOT third quarter 1996 data of the top five U.S.
Northwest's Air Line Pilots Association unit nominated Duane Woerth to a fourth term as ALPA's representative to the airline's board of directors. The nomination, to one of three labor seats on Northwest's board, is subject to a stockholder election at the 1997 annual meeting. Woerth has been first VP in ALPA's national office since January 1991.
...Embraer, with its new 50-passenger EMB-145 regional jet, is expected to be a prime beneficiary of the open skies policies. Traffic is increasing very rapidly between the Mercosur- partner countries. "The regional market is there already, but the players are not there," an Embraer source said. "The potential is very difficult to project, but Brazil could replace the U.S. as Argentina's major trading partner," he added. Brazilian regional TAM recently acquired controlling interest in Paraguayan flag carrier Lapsa to gain access to the Mercosur markets.
Europe's regional airports are launching more aggressive marketing strategies to rope in travelers to their corner of the continent. Creating alliances with airlines and tour operators is a growing trend, according to the European branch of Airports Council International, ACI Europe. "Dozens of small and medium-size airports throughout Europe are crying out for traffic," ACI-Europe Director General Philippe Hamon said. "Clearly, an increasing number of them are resolved to finding this traffic themselves rather than waiting for a lucky break."
Arrow Air said in a filing this week that Millon Air should be treated the same way Arrow was when the latter went through its own recertification during 1995, including not being permitted to arrange wet-leases for planned shipments. Millon's operations have been suspended following a 707 crash in Ecuador this fall, but the carrier is working to be recertified and asked DOT for authority in the interim to use certificated U.S. carriers to fly wet-lease for it (DAILY, Dec. 19). Arrow "went through a similar review of its fitness " last year, the carrier said.
AeroRepublica Airlines, which plans to begin serving the U.S. next year, has become an Airlines Reporting Corp. participant, effective with sales on Dec. 30. The Bogota carrier serves Columbia and other Latin American cities through sales efforts in Mexico and Peru. Americana de Aviacion and Aerolineas Internacionales will aid its sales efforts in the U.S.
United and FedEx are using an Aerolineas Argentinas exemption request to make a case against monopoly price increases at ground storage facilities at Ezeiza Airport in Argentina. The U.S. carriers say a resolution adopted by the Argentina Air Force increases "by several hundred percentage points" on average the prices charged to airlines, importers and exporters to warehouse and handle shipments there. The services are provided by a monopoly firm, EDCADASSA, a joint venture of the Argentina Defense Ministry and a private company.
DOT dismissed an application by Reimers Air Service for a certificate to provide interstate scheduled passenger air service. DOT said it requested additional information and Reimers failed to supply it, despite several opportunities to do so. (Docket OST-96-1215)
