The Bombardier Global Express business jet made its first flight Oct. 13 from de Havilland's facility near Toronto. The new aircraft, powered by two BMW Rolls-Royce BR710 engines, reached an altitude of 11,000 feet during the two-hour, 46-minute flight. Certification of the engine is scheduled in February, and the first aircraft is to be delivered in the fourth quarter of 1997.
International Airlines Travel Agent Network has awarded Jeanne Epping, the outgoing president of the American Society of Travel Agents, its Travel Agent of Distinction award. Epping received the award at ATA's 66th Annual World Travel Congress last week in Bangkok.
Carnival Air Lines' traffic dropped 20.6% in September to 111 million revenue passenger miles from 139 million, and capacity decreased 17.6% to 196.1 million available seat miles from 236.7 million, compared with levels in the same 1995 month. The load factor dropped from 59% to 56.6%. For the first nine months of the year, traffic increased 16.9% to 1.706 billion RPMs from 1.459 billion. ASMs rose 16.7% to 2.622 billion, and the load factor inched up 0.2 percentage points to 65.1%. Carnival carried 85,498 passengers in September, down from 115,015.
American is finalizing a sale with Federal Express that would transfer 14 DC-10-10s to the cargo operator, starting this month, sources tell The DAILY. Thirteen of the 14 aircraft have been in storage, and the last one will remain in service until FedEx acquires it in November 1997.
ARINC reported successful demonstration for general aviation of free flight concepts using a workstation demonstrated previously in tracking commercial aircraft of Southwest, TWA, United and UPS. Working with Mitre's Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD), ARINC conducted demonstrations using the CNS-12 integrated Global Positioning System/data link avionics unit installed in a Cessna 401 aircraft. The CNS-12 transmitted GPS-based position reports using automatic dependent surveillance (ADS) protocols and formats to the CAASD free flight workstation.
Thomson-CSF said its Airsys subsidiary has successfully completed FANS-1 compliant real-time communication tests between its facility near Paris and the Boeing 777 laboratory in Seattle. The tests were conducted at the request of civil aviation authorities in the Asia/Pacific region working with Airsys. Thomson said the tests, the first of their kind conducted anywhere in the world, prove the validity of Airsys's strategy on CNS/ATM (communications, navigation and surveillance/air traffic management) concepts and systems, and FANS-1 compliance.
In what it called a move to spur "efficiency and responsiveness to the customer," FAA is combining the system requirements elements of Air Traffic Services and Airway Facilities into a single organization, the Air Traffic System Requirements Service (ARS). The new unit will be headed by Neil Planzer, currently director of Air Traffic Plans and Requirements, and Dennis Koehler, director of Airway Facilities Requirements, will be the deputy.
U.S. National Carriers Productivity Revenues and Expenses Per Employee Second Quarter 1996, In Dollars Total Total Operating Operating Revenues Expenses Total (000) (000) Employees American Trans Air 185,897 190,040 4,350 Carnival 63,834 64,547 1,243
Western Pacific will reduce its California service on a small scale in December in order to start service to new cities. It intends to terminate service to San Jose and reduce flights from Colorado Springs to San Diego from two daily roundtrips to one on Dec. 4. "We are a low-fare airline, and we can only extend the benefits of safe, on-time, low-fare travel to our customers by being extremely vigilant about every aspect of costs," said Tom DeNardin, VP-sales and marketing.
The Salvation Army has become a partner of Northwest's AirCares program. Northwest will promote the organization on flights through December and ask passengers for donations of cash or WorldPerks miles.
In a bulletin sent to its members, ACCESS U.S.-Japan disputed the conclusions in DOT's assessment of its study of the U.S.-Japan market. The department questioned the size of the gains ACCESS U.S.-Japan projected as the result of increasing third- and fourth-freedom service in the market.
Kansas City-based Vanguard Airlines, hurt by fare sales in the Midwest, expects to post a loss for the three-month period ended Sept. 30. Depending on the size of the loss, the airline may not meet net worth requirements to retain its listing on the Nasdaq SmallCap Stock Market. The airline, which began nearly two years ago, reported that slow September traffic, higher fuel costs, the return of the federal 10% ticket tax and negative publicity from the crash of TWA 800 affected its sales.
Sabre Decision Technologies (SDT) has acquired software company Princeton Transportation Consulting Group to expand its transportation and logistics information technology business. The logistics group of SDT provides systems to railroads, trucking companies and shippers. SDT is the business division of The Sabre Group, and the acquisition of the Boston-based company should help SDT increase its market presence in the trucking industry.
Wall Street underwriters exercised their option to purchase an additional 3.03 million shares of Sabre Group Holdings Inc. stock to cover over allotments from last week's initial public offering. The underwriter's move, at a price of $27 per share, will raise an additional $81 million for Sabre, and, subsequently, AMR Corp. As much as 90% of the IPO windfall will go to pay Sabre's AMR Corp. debt. A Sabre spokeswoman said the company was "very pleased" after the first day of trading, which resulted in a Sabre share price of $31.625.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York will hold a hearing Oct. 25 on USAir's lawsuit charging British Airways and American with violating antitrust laws and breach of contract. Judge Miriam Cedarbaum granted USAir's request to move ahead with the discovery phase of the case, USAir said.
Hawaiian Airlines reported a 2.8% increase in its September traffic to 302.5 million revenue passenger miles. Available seat miles rose 5% to 429.6 million, while the load factor fell 1.6 points to 70.4%. It carried 1.6% fewer passengers in September, 370,090, and 3.1% more cargo, or 3.9 million ton miles. For the first nine months, it flew 2.9 billion RPMs, a 10.5% increase, and 3.818 billion ASMs, up 11.9%. The load factor for the period was 76%, a 0.9-point drop from the same period in 1995.
Delta is going after the senior citizen market with a new membership program that eliminates coupon books. The Senior Select Savings Plus Program offers seniors special zone fares that are 38% off normal 21-day advance purchase fares in economy class and up to 50% off first class for travel to 240 domestic cities; unlimited travel from Nov. 18 until April 1, 1998; dedicated reservations agents, and more than $500 in discounts from companies such as Alamo, Delta Dream Vacations and five cruise lines.
United plans to add five minutes to its boarding process on most domestic flights to reduce delays in departures and, ultimately, improve its on-time arrival rate. The extra boarding time does not apply to Shuttle by United operations. United said the extra five minutes reduced delays by 15% in tests on flights involving 757 aircraft. Narrowbodies will have 30 minutes to board, and widebodies will have 40 minutes. Some domestic flights with tight turnaround times will not get increased boarding time, the carrier said.
Western Pacific's mystery fares - special fares to an undisclosed destination for a one- to three-night stay - have attracted more than 12,000 customers in the past three weeks. The fares start at $69 roundtrip from Colorado Springs and cost more from other points. Because of the overwhelming response, the carrier is extending the date to purchase the fares until Oct. 31.
Is Delta pulling the old bait-and-switch, or is it switching bait? Passengers on its U.K.-U.S. flights have spoken - they don't like the trout - so the carrier replaced it on the menu with halibut. There was no word on how Delta plans to satisfy customers who don't like fish.
United has signed an agreement with IBM and British Airways subsidiary Speedwing International to market and sell the airline's E-Ticket service to other airlines. United said the deal names IBM as the "implementor of choice" for E-Ticket. The company will install and support the electronic systems for airline customers. Speedwing has exclusive marketing rights for many of its customers.
American Society of Travel Agents and MasterCard will hold an Internet training seminar Nov. 21 at the Boston Back Bay Hilton Hotel. The seminar gives agents an overview of marketing on the Internet, information on finding new clients, and tips on building a home page and accessing ASTAnet. The seminar is free to ASTA members and $79 to non-members.
Vice President Gore's Aviation Safety and Security Commission has extended its 60-day deadline for testing a full domestic bag match program and instead will implement the program in steps, the Air Transport Association said Friday. The commission, after consulting with industry officials, agreed first to data collection and computer modeling before deploying a bag match test in an actual operating situation, ATA said.
It is a misperception that the U.S. effort toward open skies in Asia is simply a veiled attempt to get at Japan, said a senior U.S. official, countering media reports.Arguing that there is real value in developing liberal relations with the growing countries in the region, the official allowed that it would be nice to see an effect on Japan, but this is not the main reason for the effort.
