The Machinists union is calling on the Clinton administration to reject the proposed American-British Airways alliance on grounds that it "would result in a monopolistic international cartel answerable to no one," said International President George Kourpias in a letter to President Clinton dated Aug. 28. The union urged DOT "to find that the...alliance is anti- competitive and violative of our nation's antitrust laws," Kourpias said.
Delta, Swissair, Sabena and Austrian Airways will boost their North Atlantic network operation Oct. 27 with 30 new code-share destinations. The U.S. carrier plans to add as many as 10 cities in Europe, the Middle East and Asia via each of its European partners, for a total of 12 cities it does not currently serve. The three European carriers will add 10 cities beyond Delta's gateways, mainly Atlanta, New York and Cincinnati, for a total of 18 new North American destinations.
Delta Air Cargo said it began booking all shipments on Sept. 1 using a new cargo booking and management system jointly developed with Unisys Corp. The system will permit sales and service representatives to "maximize use of cargo bin space by identifying available capacity on Delta flights," the carrier said. The decision to book shipments was made to support a new time-definite cargo product line, which includes Dash, Priority First Freight, Priority Second Day and Priority Third Day (DAILY, Sept. 3).
Association of Flight Attendants asked DOT Inspector General Joyce Fleischman yesterday to investigate DOT's conduct in the ValuJet fitness case, saying the department has acted improperly and was influenced unduly by Congress to return ValuJet to service. The AFA, which represents flight attendants at ValuJet, said it believes DOT engaged in "prohibited communications" with members of Congress, did not submit correspondence into the docket and refused AFA's requests to read the correspondence.
C-S Aviation Services and Romaero signed an agreement yesterday at the Farnborough Air Show to form a joint-venture company to provide scheduled airframe maintenance for airlines in Europe. The new company, C-S Romaero, based in Bucharest, Romania, will perform heavy maintenance checks on Airbus, Boeing and McDonnell Douglas narrowbody aircraft. Construction of a widebody hangar and an avionics repair station is set to begin next year.
The Senate majority and minority leaders have designated Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Larry Pressler (R-S.D.) and aviation subcommittee ranking Democrat Wendell Ford (D-Ky.) as Senate liaisons to the Aviation Safety and Security Commission. Two House members, one from each party, also will be designated to the commission headed by Vice President Gore. In a statement yesterday, Pressler reiterated his commitment to watching the impact of the commission's work on airports and airlines that serve rural areas.
Shareholders of Pan American World Airways and Frost Hanna Mergers Group, the key funding source for the airline's re-launch, agreed yesterday to merge into a single entity - Pan Am Corporation. The combined company is expected to be listed on the American Stock Exchange.
House Transportation aviation subcommittee plans to hold a hearing this month on the so-called Big Seven proposal for airline user fees to replace the passenger ticket tax, but no further action is anticipated this year. The Republican congressional leadership is pushing to adjourn by monthend, increasing the chances that Congress will leave for the year without extending the excise taxes, due to expire Dec. 31.
Continental Connection carrier GP Express ceased flying and closed its doors last week after struggling for nearly two years to stay afloat. The carrier was beset by bad luck and slow traffic since it began as a Continental partner in 1994. GP Express, named after founder George Poullos, fed Continental at the two carriers' Denver hub until the major partner pulled out of the market in late 1994. GP Express later moved to Greensboro, N.C., and code shared there until Continental left the city this year.
Tower Air has hired Raymond Vecci, former chairman, president and chief executive of Alaska Air Group and Alaska Airlines, as its executive VP and chief operating officer.
Jet fuel prices have increased about 13 cents per gallon since Aug. 1 due to Middle East tensions, and some energy experts believe global energy costs may remain high throughout the fall and winter no matter how long Iraq-U.S. fighting is front-page news. And jet fuel prices may increase further in the next few days, energy experts tell The DAILY, if military action in Iraq intensifies. "Jet fuel prices are screaming; they've increased incredibly," a jet fuel trader at a top European bank said yesterday.
Airbus continues to refine its A3XX jumbo-jet design as it works to press the advantages of two, all-new models over Boeing derivative aircraft. "Over the last few months the mood has changed," one Airbus official said. "Airlines have accepted that it's in their best interest to wait and conduct a proper evaluation." First Boeing 747X deliveries, if the program is launched, likely will slip from the current target of late 2000, he added. Airbus is aiming to launch either of two versions of the four- engine A3XX in 1998 and make first deliveries in 2003.
British Airways' August revenue passenger kilometers rose 5.7% over August 1995, but capacity, measured in available seat kilometers, increased 8.5%, pushing the load factor down 2.1 percentage points to 78.4%. The airline's premium passenger traffic rose, however, gaining 9.8% during August, compared with a main cabin passenger growth of 5.2%. Cargo tonne kilometers increased 14%, producing a flat load factor of 73.8%. BA carried 3.3 million passengers in August, up 2.4%.
Delta, the airline that first capped travel agents' domestic commissions, will pay $20 million if a settlement of the lawsuit brought by the American Society of Travel Agents is approved (DAILY, Sept. 4). The settlements with all seven airlines originally sued give travel agents $86 million of the $725 million they claimed, and allows airlines to continue capping commissions without admitting to any wrongdoing.
Rich International Airways President William Meenan said he was "totally surprised" when the FAA suspended the carrier's operating authority late Monday. Meenan said Rich was told it was grounded, effective immediately, as a result of technical documentation discrepancies FAA allegedly found during an inspection conducted Aug. 26-31 of Rich's facility, manuals and records. FAA said the record-keeping discrepancies were found in crew training but also involved maintenance and equipment.
In its order on second-year U.S. Vancouver services, DOT yesterday denied American's application for authority to provide Chicago-Vancouver services and its request for allocation of a frequency from Northwest, and it granted Northwest an exemption to provide scheduled combination service between Los Angeles and Vancouver, on flights operated by Alaska Airlines. Amending an earlier order, the department also is allowing Northwest to shift its two second-year U.S.-Vancouver frequencies from Minneapolis and Detroit to the Los Angeles-Vancouver market.
South African Airways has asked DOT for an exemption to operate scheduled combination service between Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa, on the one hand, and Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, Houston, San Francisco, Dallas/Fort Worth, Chicago, Atlanta and Orlando, via New York and Miami, on the other. It plans to start the service Oct. 1 under a code-sharing arrangement with American. SAA also requested that the answer period be shortened and that all answers be filed by Sept. 9, so the department can act on its application by Sept. 13.
Northwest will open negotiations today with the Teamsters union, representing its 9,500 flight attendants. The Teamsters already are framing the talks, reminding the carrier that concessions the union made three years ago "helped save the airline from bankruptcy."
Newark-based Kiwi International Air Lines expects to raise $22 million-$24 million shortly and likely will decide in six to nine months how it will replace its 727 fleet, Chief Executive Jerry Murphy told The DAILY. The carrier already has narrowed the equipment choice to Airbus Industrie and Boeing, and it met recently with both manufacturers. "We want to transition forward to a newer fleet," said Murphy.
The Taiwan Aerospace Corp. (TAC) is working on a plan to form a joint venture with one or more partners to set up an aircraft leasing company. Taipei's China Post quotes TAC Chairman Jack Sun as saying that the new company, which will be capitalized at US$300 million, plans an initial purchase of 70 narrowbody passenger jets. The report quotes Sun as saying that details of the venture have yet to be worked out but the quest for capital is expected to begin within the next two months.
Executive Jet Aviation is purchasing 25 Cessna Citation X and 20 Citation VII business jets for its fleet of fractional-ownership aircraft, Cessna announced yesterday. The order, which surpassed the July 1994 EJA order for 25 Citation Ultras and is valued at more than $600 million, "is believed to be the largest business jet purchase in history," Cessna said.
A new agreement between American and its Allied Pilots Association union, tentatively signed on Labor Day, ends two years of bickering and strike threats and allows AMR Eagle to operate at least 67 regional jets for the four-year life of the contract. The deal, which also includes small pay raises and future stock options for the pilots, is part of a package APA President Jim Sovich called "industry-leading" and containing "the finest protections in the industry, bar none." The APA board will meet Sept.
American Trans Air, which has built its scheduled passenger operation to 55% of its total business, plans to refocus on its successful charter operation in a small, short-term downsizing. The carrier will buttress its core strengths and "de-emphasize those that are not producing," said Stanley Pace, new president and chief executive.
