National Mediation Board has authorized an election at USAir for a group of non-union reservations and gate employees for the Communications Workers of America. The NMB will mail ballots Dec. 17 to 10,000 employees and expects to count them Jan. 30, an NMB spokeswoman said.
Testimony yesterday at the opening of the National Transportation Safety Board's public hearing on the May 11 ValuJet DC-9 crash indicated a lack of coordination not only among workers at third-party maintenance companies, but also between the maintenance companies and their airline customers. The testimony also indicated that mechanics did not always follow instructions provided on work cards and in general maintenance manuals.
TAP Air Portugal placed a $200 million order for CFM International CFM56- 5B/P engines to power 18 firm-order and eight option A319/A320 aircraft from Airbus Industrie. Aircraft deliveries are scheduled to begin late next year.
Reno Air's traffic jumped 52.7% in October to 261.7 million revenue passenger miles from 171.4 million in October 1995. Available seat miles rose 39.2% to 384.6 million, lifting the load factor six percentage points to 68%. Reno carried 476,361 passengers during the month, up 49.9%. "Although we are very pleased with these record October traffic numbers, they are tempered somewhat by lower yields, resulting from recent fare sales on the West Coast," said Robert Reding, president and chief executive.
The sale of one million shares of ValuJet stock each by company co-founders Robert Priddy and Lewis Jordan is not changing Wall Street's perception of the company or its leaders, aviation analysts said. The sale actually surprised some analysts because it did not happen earlier. It was the first sale of stock by both Priddy, chairman and chief executive, and Jordan, chairman and chief operating officer, since the company began. The two executives chose to sell at $8.25 per share, $2 per share lower than the trading price at the time of the sale.
IATA members participating in a fuel summit in Geneva last week voted to apply to their governments for air fare hikes that would compensate them for recent rises in the global price of jet fuel. In general, IATA said airlines attending the special session would propose 3% fare increases, except where 3% hikes already are in place. The increases are intended to take effect Dec. 15. IATA said the average price of jet fuel in October was 73.2 cents (U.S.), based on spot prices in Rotterdam, Mediterranean and U.S. Gulf and West Coast markets.
Juneau, Alaska, Airport has installed Wind Profilers - windshear detection equipment - and expects them to be operational by January. Alaska Airlines, which helped pay for the system, said Hong Kong and Colorado Springs, also located near mountain ranges, are the only other airports with the system, which tracks wind direction and speed up to 10,000 feet.
United's reservations operation got high marks from corporate travel agents and travel planners polled by Nationwide Surveys Inc. Among 20 airlines, United's reservations agents are the most knowledgeable, the easiest to reach by phone and the easiest to work with, respondents said. The DAILY does not know whether the survey was conducted the day "nice-guy" entertainer Donny Osmond, touring the Chicago facilities for a fundraiser, worked the telephones and helped a customer with a reservations problem.
Approved orally a code-share, blocked-space agreement between Mexicana and Aeroperu for daily scheduled service on a Newark-Cancun-Lima-Buenos Aires routing through March 15, 1997. Mexicana will operate the aircraft on all segments and carry its own traffic between Newark and Cancun under one flight number, operating beyond Cancun under different flight numbers. It will carry Aeroperu's code for traffic linking Newark to Lima and Buenos Aires. DOT said the approval is granted in the expectation that Mexico and Peru will approve U.S.
In the wee hours of Friday morning, Kiwi International Air Lines received the hand-shake it needed, from Isbre Holding Corp., to resume to scheduled service. Isbre, the second company to step forward with $5 million in debtor-in-possession financing, has agreed to fund the airline's restart. The New York firm also secured the rights to provide an additional $15 million-$20 million in equity financing that would give it control of Kiwi.
FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association local at the New York air route traffic control center disagree about the union's prediction that travelers can expect "long delays during the busiest air travel season of the year." Chris Boughn, president of the local, said FAA has told the center it must operate with a 20% reduction in its overtime budget.
Sabre Interactive's travel booking service, Travelocity, now has more than 50 car rental companies and 32,000 hotel properties worldwide in its system available for online reservations. Many of the hotel properties provide color maps on Internet site http://www.travelocity.com. Terry Jones, president of Sabre Interactive, said Travelocity "gives users a real advantage by offering access to more hotels and car rental companies than any other travel site, as well as hundreds of airlines worldwide."
SAS is expected to unveil a restructuring program tomorrow, as it publishes first half results lower than last year's, and may target a cost saving of $150 million over two years. Restructuring is sweeping Europe - KLM, British Airways and Swissair have launched programs during the past month.
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association is suggesting a number of people for membership on the National Civil Aviation Review Commission, which was mandated by the FAA reauthorization act. In a letter to DOT Secretary Federico Pena, AOPA recommended former Reps. Jim Lightfoot (R-Iowa) and Norman Mineta (D-Calif.), former Sens.
SimuFlite said FAA has approved its advanced maneuver training, offered as an alternative to the rejected-takeoff portion of its alternate recurrent training. The training explores the causes and characteristics of extreme roll and pitch attitudes, with wake turbulence as a primary culprit.
American Eagle is installing "special" passenger boarding bridges that accommodate turboprops at Chicago O'Hare Airport and in other cities, enabling passengers to board its aircraft without walking across the tarmac. The regional carrier will begin using the first of 20 bridges at O'Hare before Thanksgiving and expects most to be operational by Christmas.
