Qantas Airways believes it has traced last week's outbreak of salmonella poisoning of passengers to a dessert sauce produced by a company that supplied the airline's catering operation in Cairns. More than 500 passengers en route from Cairns to Taiwan and Japan are believed to have been affected.
The gap between the supply of and demand for new Brazil air cargo frequencies for 1996-97 widened as Arrow Air amended its application and Tower Air weighed in. Arrow Air said it will accept any number of charters DOT may allocate, "although it will not be able to fulfill its contractual obligations with fewer than approximately the 50 it has requested." Tower Air asked that its authorization be increased from 58 to 83, carrying general cargo on all flights.
DOT awarded new route rights for Toronto service to four airlines Friday: Continental for service from Newark, Delta from Atlanta, Northwest from Minneapolis/St. Paul and Midway Airlines from Raleigh/Durham, N.C. The authority permits two roundtrips per day, starting Feb. 24. TWA received backup authority to fly from St. Louis. Objections can be filed by Nov. 26. Past awards include Delta from Atlanta, TWA from St. Louis, Continental from Newark and USAir from Washington National.
Low-cost charter operator Sun Jet, in conjunction with Sun Jet International Sales, will begin serving Oakland Dec. 12, linking it to its Dallas/Fort Worth service, as well as to Tampa/St. Petersburg, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando. Fares start at $99 one way between Dallas and Oakland, and $119 each way to the Florida destinations. Sun Jet operates the flights with MD-80s.
Amadeus has instituted a pricing structure that it says gives airlines greater control over their distribution costs and minimizes the financial impact on airlines of consolidating System One and Amadeus. Effective Jan. 1, airlines will be able to choose between the existing net booking pricing structure or new, territorial pricing. The latter allows for different pricing for different parts of the world, based on the origin of the booking. For North and Central America and the Caribbean, pricing will be in U.S. dollars instead of European currency units.
FAA, warned nearly 10 years ago by the National Transportation Safety Board about the danger of cargo hold fires to passenger aircraft, now says it plans to ban oxidizing materials from cargo compartments and require retrofit of fire detection and suppression equipment on about 2,800 older transports. The board recommended these steps on Oct. 24, 1988. Aircraft flying over water already carry the equipment.
Southwest Research Institute named Janice Olvera assistant director-A- 10 systems in the Avionics and Support Department of the Aerospace Electronics and Training Systms Division.
Summary of U.S. Major Carriers International Traffic April 1996 Revenue Average Revenue Passengers Length of Passenger Enplaned % Travel Miles Carriers (000) Change (Miles) (000) Alaska 71 19.33 1,056 74,989 Latin 71 19.33 1,056 74,989 American 1,170 (0.70) 2,125 2,486,594
National Transportation Safety Board urgently recommended Friday that FAA immediately review and amend, as necessary, all airplane maintenance manuals to require operators to "use only standardized, highly conspicuous covers with warning flags attached in any situation in which static ports would need to be covered." NTSB cited the fatal crash of an Aeroperu 757 Oct. 2 as the reason for the recommendation. It said the flight crew declared an emergency immediately after takeoff because of erroneous airspeed and altitude indications.
State Department confirmed that the U.S. and the U.K. will conduct a new round of formal bilateral aviation negotiations Dec. 4-6 in London. The talks, moribund since summer, will include industry participation.
- In Federal Register dated Nov. 8...Issued a final rule defining two types of passenger emergency exits in transport aircraft...Revised a proposed airworthiness directive on Jetstream ATP aircraft concerning inspections for damage of the antenna mounting...Proposed an AD on Fokker F28-100 aircraft to require loosening certain nuts on the horizontal stabilizer control unit.
Neil Planzer, director of FAA's newly established Air Traffic Systems Requirement Service, says one of his main jobs will be to make sure the agency is "highly focused" on requirements as it replaces ground- and air- based infrastructures. The agency can defer "hundreds of millions of dollars" in costs merely by avoiding programs such as the Advanced Automation System and the Microwave Landing System, he says.
Teamsters Union, citing the midair collision last week of a Saudi Arabian Airlines 747-100 and a Kazak Airways Il-76 near New Delhi, called for FAA to require traffic alert and collision avoidance systems on U.S. cargo aircraft. Teamsters President Ron Carey said there are more than 1,000 cargo airplanes that "share airspace with passenger planes in the U.S.," and U.S. passengers aircraft are required by FAA to have TCAS but cargo aircraft are not. "The FAA knows this warning system can prevent disasters," he said.
World Airways' relationship with Malaysian Air System, supposedly a factor in the Korean government's delay of World's planned route changes out of Seoul, also is drawing fire from competitors who seek U.S.-Philippine cargo authority. Their argument, as described by DOT, is that World "would offer relatively little capacity to the U.S.-Philippine cargo market, and much of that would be operated for the benefit of Malaysian Air System."
Worldspan has asked DOT not to change computer reservations system regulations piecemeal at the same time it re-evaluates the rules comprehensively. Responding to DOT's proposal to make two changes to guard against display bias - changes that do not apply to Worldspan and would not require it to change its display algorithms - Worldspan said it is concerned by any "bit-by-bit" revisions during DOT's larger analysis.
France was crippled by strikes Friday, but with a new twist. Unions walked out to commemorate the first anniversary of last year's strike, which protested government welfare reform. This year's 48-hour shutdown, called by unions USPTN, SNPNAC, SPNL and SPIT, protested job cuts and government privatization efforts. A pilot strike halted 60% of Air France Group's flights, and French journalists also walked out, leaving newsstands bare.
AirTran Airways began operating flights last week from Toledo Express Airport to Orlando six days a week, with one-way fares between $89 and $189. AirTran said it is operating the only nonstop flights in the market, and its highest fare is 55% less than the lowest unrestricted one-way fare currently being offered. It operates the flights with 126-seat 737-200s.
BE Aerospace won a $130 million contract from United to supply B/E 2000M individual passenger entertainment systems for the airline's Boeing 777, 747-400 and 767-300 fleets. BEA will install the systems on 54 of United's 94 widebody aircraft, starting in February.
America West launched daily service between Miami and Las Vegas Friday and between Miami and Phoenix on Saturday. The carrier will operate two daily flights on Saturdays to Phoenix and serve both markets with A320s configured for 12 seats in first class and 138 in economy. Introductory fares start at $298 roundtrip from Las Vegas and $318 roundtrip from Phoenix. Miami is America West's fourth Florida destination.
Summary of U.S. Major Carriers Domestic Traffic May 1996 Revenue Average Revenue Passengers Length of Passenger Enplaned % Travel Miles Carriers (000) Change (Miles) (000) Alaska 933 26.08 816 760,997 America West 1,505 5.60 830 1,248,952 American 5,505 (0.34) 1,123 6,181,557
