Worldwide Airline Customer Relations Association will hold its 51st conference next October in Vienna, Austria, hosted by Austrian Airlines. For details, contact Johann Kurzbauer at 71-110-5510 or Pamela Cole at 516- 562-9303.
JetTrain Corp. which shut down last week, continues to hold meetings to "ascertain what the direction of the company should be." Meetings in New York continue as the carrier pursues investment options. A company spokesman said there is no self-imposed deadline for any type of deal. The carrier is conserving cash by furloughing 150 employees (DAILY, Nov. 15).
DHL Airways the U.S. division of DHL Worldwide Express, has received ISO 9002 international quality registration for its U.S. airline and hub at Cincinnati Airport.
Regional-airline load factors rose nearly 1.6 percentage points to 51.8% during October, according to a sampling of 14 carriers. Nine of the carriers posted load factors of greater than 50% while two others were above 49% and two fell below 45%. United Express Air Wisconsin, which posted what is believed to be an industry high of 67.1% in August, led the sampling with a 52.2% load factor, up from 51.9% in October 1995. The four AMR Eagle carriers - Executive, Flagship, Simmons and Wings West - were second at 57.9%, up from 56.5% a year ago.
Cologne, Germany-based Lufthansa CityLine and a unit of Canadian manufacturer Bombardier announced this week formation of an executive corporate charter service for Europe.
AlliedSignal Aerospace is freezing or lowering the hourly rates of its 1997 maintenance service plan for TFE731 engines. The company said overall fleet reliability and durability improvements in the past year prompted the move.
The Export-Import Bank of the United States completed yesterday a $190 million loan guarantee for Uzbekistan Airways to acquire two 767-300ERs, the first time an export credit agency financed aircraft in a former Soviet republic. "We have a number of offers outstanding," said John Lentz, senior loan officer, "but none of them have come to fruition." Ex-Im Bank approved the guarantee of a 12-year loan by Chase Manhattan Bank. The airline will operate the aircraft from Tashkent to New York, Frankfurt, Tokyo and other Asian points.
International Civil Aviation Organization has offered to mediate a dispute between the U.S. and Cuba on overflight rights. Although U.S. commercial aircraft are currently permitted to overfly Cuba, Cuban-registered aircraft are not granted overflight in return. Like most countries in the Western Hemisphere except the U.S., Canada generates tourist traffic to Cuba, and Cuban aircraft are flying considerably out of their way to link the two countries. ICAO said its president, Assad Kotaite, could be the mediator and suggested fall 1997 as the goal for an agreement.
..Regionals now provide nonstop service in markets that were unimaginable 10 years ago, said AvSTAT President Doug Abbey, such as Atlanta-Nashville, Cleveland-Chicago, Dallas-Tulsa, Miami-Orlando and Cincinnati-Philadelphia. However, he said there is still some question whether former hubs can support regional service after they lose major connecting service to their largest O&D markets, as was the case with Greensboro, Nashville and San Jose.
Two FAA inspectors described yesterday to the National Transportation Safety Board the heavy work loads generated by ValuJet's rapid growth and the carrier's attitude toward FAA oversight, including a belief that it had the right to carry hazardous materials belonging to the company. The board is conducting in Miami a public hearing into the fatal crash of a ValuJet DC-9 May 11. Robert Bruce, FAA's principal operations inspector at ValuJet, and David Harper, principal maintenance inspector, both said they noticed problems developing at the carrier.
Now that the Allied Pilots Association board has narrowly recommended a contract that American described as its final offer, APA leadership will conduct road shows to prepare the rank and file to vote on the pact, a process to be completed next month.
The privatization of Lufthansa, involving sale by the German government of its remaining 35.7% stake in the carrier, will go forward on the basis of a "last in, first out" compromise assuring Germany that its national carrier will remain in German hands. Apart from national pride, Germany was concerned about living up to the roughly 200 bilateral aviation agreements between itself and other countries, but the European Commission insisted that there be no discrimination against investors from other countries in the European Union.
Performance for the Embraer EMB-145 regional jet has been improved from pre-certification-flight-test projections issued in June 1994. Certification of the 50-passenger aircraft is anticipated by the end of November. Brazil's civil aviation authority - Centro Tecnico Aerospacial (CTA) - has formally accepted Embraer certification data following 14 months of certification ground and flight testing. Final certification was awaiting final FAA approval of official documents concerning certification of U.S.
National Transportation Safety Board investigators of a Quincy, Ill., fatal collision involving a Great Lakes Aviation Beech 1900 and a King Air have found no evidence of pre-accident engine or propeller problems and no obvious weather problems at the time of the accident. Investigators also are looking into reports that the initial impact did not kill everyone on board.
U.S. Major Carriers Traffic October, 10 Months 1996 (000) October October % 1996 1995 Change Alaska Revenue Passenger Miles 766,000 683,000 12.2 Available Seat Miles 1,196,000 1,120,000 6.8 Load Factor (%) 64.0 61.0 America West
McDonnell Douglas's MD 600N, an eight-place, large-cabin version of the MD 520N, is on schedule to receive FAA-type certification early next month, the company said. Light Helicopter Division VP Erv Hunter said the project has met or exceeded its goals for hover, range and speed performance. The 600N, another no-tail-rotor (NOTAR) design, is fitted with a new Allison C- 47 engine that generates 800 shaft horsepower and has a full-authority digital engine control system. The company said it expects to deliver more than 30 600Ns by the end of 1997.
TWA said yesterday it will not implement its previously announced domestic cargo fuel surcharge, which would have been effective Dec. 1. Instead, the airline will impose an international surcharge of $0.06 per kilo on all air freight shipments as of Dec. 1. For shipments originating outside the U.S., the surcharge will be assessed in local currency.
Burlington Air Express Chile, a new division of Burlington, has acquired the assets of its longtime network partner, O.I.S.S.A., a leading export forwarder in Chile. Burlington, which will employ all of the forwarder's workers, said the move reflects its "aggressive growth in all Latin American markets."
Cape Air and senior code-sharing partner Delta have dropped fares for travelers to Cape Cod and Nantucket, Cape Air announced. Cape Air and Delta connect at Boston Logan and the new joint fares for the Cape apply to Cape Air flights serving Barnstable Municipal Airport in Hyannis. Sample fares include Nantucket-New York, $269; Nantucket-Denver, $662; Nantucket- Daytona Beach, $426; Hyannis-Los Angeles, $638, and Hyannis-Houston, $762. Cape Air offers 10 nonstop Nantucket-Boston flights per day in the winter and six nonstop Hyannis-Boston flights.
Phil Trenary, founder and chairman of Fort Worth-based Lone Star Airlines, resigned unexpectedly Wednesday as negotiations were under way for Aspen-based air service company Peak International Inc. to take control of Lone Star. Peak has an agreement with Lone Star and American for Lone Star to serve the Denver-Aspen and Dallas/Fort Worth-Aspen markets under an American code share. That service was begun Thursday by Lone Star, doing business as Aspen Mountain Air.
U.S.-Canadian open skies could yield a new entrant if authorities approve Hawaiian Airlines' application for a certificate to operate in the market. In accordance with the bilateral, Hawaiian applied for service between any points in the two countries except for Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto, where restrictions on U.S. access are being ended in phases. (Docket OST- 96-1977)
Summary of U.S. National Carriers Systemwide Traffic Second Quarter 1996 Revenue Average Revenue Passengers Length of Passenger Enplaned % Travel Miles Carriers (000) Change (Miles) (000) American Trans Air 1,372 18.79 1,535 2,104,898 Carnival 518 20.67 1,161 600,886
Continental, Delta, United, American and Northwest are filing with their respective alliance partners for third-country code-share authority to India. Northwest has been trying to serve India from Amsterdam with partner KLM since it received DOT authority in 1994, but India did not permit the service, Northwest said in its filing. A recent DOT invitation to file for the India code shares prompted the current round of applications, and as many as four U.S. carriers can be designated (DAILY, Nov. 5).
America West reported record October traffic of 1.3 billion revenue passenger miles, up 17.7% over the same period in 1995. Capacity rose 13.2% to 1.9 billion available seat miles, producing a record October load factor of 70%.
The National Transportation Safety Board yesterday recovered the cockpit voice recorder from a Great Lakes Aviation Beech 1900, which collided with a Beech King Air Tuesday after landing at Baldwin Municipal Airport in Quincy, Ill., leaving no survivors. Ten Great Lakes passengers and two crew were killed, as were the two occupants of the general aviation aircraft. Great Lakes operated the flight as a United Express carrier. NTSB member George Black is heading the investigation for the board.
