Association of Flight Attendants said it filed a stay Friday of DOT's order finding ValuJet fit to resume service with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. AFA said that because DOT ignored its charges that Chairman Robert Priddy and President Lewis Jordan are unfit to run an airline, the union is taking its case to court. AFA said it requested a stay, pending appeal, with the Court of Appeals saying that based on public safety, a review must be made before flights can resume. ValuJet is scheduled to restart operations today.
Delta Connection carrier Comair will introduce jet service to New York LaGuardia Airport Oct. 1, when it begins flying to Montreal. In November, it will shift flights that currently operate from Newark to Charleston and Columbia, S.C. On Oct. 1, Comair will begin operating five daily flights from Montreal, and on Nov. 1, three daily flights from Charleston and Columbia, S.C. All flights will be operated with Canadair Regional Jets.
ValuJet will learn Wednesday, two days after resuming operations following its June 18 shutdown because of maintenance concerns, whether the Teamsters will represent its mechanics. Approximately 40 mechanics are eligible to vote.
Delta will begin operating the first daily roundtrip from Portland, Ore., to Europe Nov. 1, when it starts service to Frankfurt via Cincinnati. Delta will operate the 265-seat MD-11, equipped with personal entertainment centers in first and business class.
Delta Information Systems has developed a DBRITE Video Recording (DVR) system for the recording and playback of the air traffic control video signal. The system permits the use of the DBRITE display information in terminal airspace for analysis of operational incidents. Delta will demonstrate the system at the Air Traffic Control Association exhibition in Nashville Oct. 13-17.
Granted orally to Ghana Airways an exemption to conduct scheduled combination foreign air transportation between Accra, Ghana, and New York, using its own aircraft and crew...Granted orally to ALM Antillean Airlines an exemption renewing its authority to conduct scheduled combination service between Curacao/Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles, and Atlanta, via the intermediate point Aruba...
A Chicago district court may have settled the fate of Meigs Field Friday by refusing to grant a temporary restraining order or a preliminary injunction sought by general aviation interests to prevent the city of Chicago from closing the lakefront facility (DAILY, Sept. 25). Judge Joan Gottschall appeared to support nearly all the arguments advanced by the city and the Chicago Park Board in support of their plans to close the airport and convert the site into a park.
Rockwell International said last week that it will consolidate its Collins Commercial Avionics, Collins Avionics and Communications Division and the Communications Systems Division into a new organization called Avionics and Communications, headquartered in Cedar Rapids. Collectively, the units are expected to generate sales of $1.7 billion in fiscal 1996. Jack Cosgrove, who had headed the Avionics and Communications Division, was named president of the new unit and will become a member of the senior management council, reporting to Don Davis, Rockwell president.
Association of Flight Attendants, Aviation Consumer Action Project and Controllers United tomorrow will jointly call for rehiring more former PATCO controllers. Air traffic has increased 35% since the controllers' strike of 1981, but there are nearly 2,000 fewer controllers working today, according to Controllers United, which says FAA has been slow in carrying out a presidential directive to hire more former controllers.
A crew scheduling seminar will be held Oct. 7-9 in Orlando by SBS International. The program, which is expected to attract more than 200 officials from 70 airlines, will include a roundtable discussion on airline safety. SBS President Mark Hornby, said the event will observe the 10th year of user seminars sponsored by SBS. Other sessions will cover a newly released SBS/Inform Airport Resource Management System, which schedules airport/airline ground personnel and resources.
FAA Administrator David Hinson said Friday that Guy Gardner will succeed Tony Broderick as associate administrator for regulation and certification. Broderick was forced to resign following the ValuJet accident. Gardner was director of the FAA Technical Center in Atlantic City, N.J. He served 11 years as an astronaut, leaving NASA in 1991 to become a commandant of the Air Force's test pilot school at Edwards Air Force Base. Gardner retired from the Air Force in 1991 and rejoined NASA as program director of the joint U.S.
U.S. Major and National Carriers Interest Expenses Second Quarter 1996 % Of Total Operating Systemwide Expenses Alaska $ 7,688,000 2.52 America West 11,709,415 2.89 American 104,100,000 3.03 Continental 34,961,000 2.84
In a consent order issued by DOT last week, AirTran Airways agreed to pay $60,000 in compromise of potential of civil penalties for having failed to file on time required operating data. "As of June 1, 1995, AirTran became delinquent in filing its first quarter 1995 Passenger Origin-Destination Survey," noted the DOT Enforcement Office.
American Eagle will inaugurate a daily roundtrip flight between San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Tobago in the Caribbean Dec. 14. Executive Airlines will operate the service with a 64-seat Super ATR twin-engine turboprop. American Eagle operates 82 daily flights between San Juan and 18 Caribbean destinations, and American connects the flights at San Juan to 11 U.S. mainland destinations. American also operates a daily nonstop from Miami to Trinidad, the capital of the twin-island country.
AAR International named Joanna Hawkes VP-finance, Europe. AMR Corporation appointed Bella Goren president-Airline Services Division. Aero Systems Engineering elected Leon Ring president and chief executive, succeeding Roland Dilda, who resigned to pursue other activities. Aviation Service Corporation appointed David Sisson president and chief operating officer and named JoDee Bowen controller. Chevron Corporation elected Frank Shrontz, Boeing chairman, to the board.
El Al has named Joel Feldschuh as its new president, replacing Rafi Harlev, who is credited with effectively restructuring the carrier during his 14 years at the helm. Feldschuh, 47, served two years as president of Champion Motors Inc., the importer of Volkswagen, Audi and Seat cars into Israel. He also was head of Edunetics Inc., a software development company, and is a retired brigadier general in the Israeli Air Force, where he was an F-15 pilot.
Delta Express, after only five months of planning, will launch operations tomorrow as a separate airline with unit costs so low that at least six airlines already have altered their schedules to accommodate it. The carrier begins service tomorrow to eight midwestern and northeastern cities from Orlando, expanding to connect 10 cities with point-to-point service to five Florida locations by Jan. 1.
Eurocontrol has selected Thomson-CSF Airsys and its subcontractors to develop future telecommunications software in support of data link applications for the Aeronautical Telecommunications Network. The contract for the program - Trial End Systems - is valued at 1.25 million European currency units.
Industry expects FAA to issue at long last its proposals to modify Part 145 covering repair station rules but fears the proposal will contain "unacceptable elements" that will drive up costs, according to the Aeronautical Repair Station Association. The National Air Transportation Association already has plans for a meeting to address concerns raised by the new draft.
A French court last week told Air Liberte it has six months to improve its financial picture or possibly face additional legal hurdles to remain afloat. Last Thursday, the court placed the carrier in what the airline termed "legal administration" after it failed to make payments. Air Liberte Chairman Lofti Belhassine has received employee support for restructuring.
House narrowly approved Friday a comprehensive aviation package that would give FAA more autonomy from DOT and establish a 21-member task force to study FAA needs and funding. The legislation, H.R.3539, the compromise package of the House and Senate FAA reauthorization bills, passed 218-198 over the objections of Reps. James Oberstar (D-Minn.) and William Lipinski (D-Ill.), the ranking Democrats on the House Transportation Committee and aviation subcommittee, respectively (DAILY, Sept. 26).
Tests conducted by FAA before an international audience last week proved the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) concept, according to FAA and industry officials. The tests were conducted at a meeting of the Global Navigation Satellite System Panel (GNSSP) in Atlantic City, using an updated version of the National Satellite Test Bed.
Despite some recent back-and-forth between senior U.S. and Japanese officials to restart talks, progress toward an agreement between the two sides remains stalled, with no new talks in the offing. Japan's vice minister of transportation is scheduled to meet with DOT Deputy Secretary Mortimer Downey in Washington this week to discuss transportation issues, except those dealing with aviation.
