Boeing 747 Systemwide Aircraft Utilization Per Day First Quarter 1996 B747-100 -------------------------- Northwest TWA Number of Aircraft Operated 23 8 Total Fleet Operations Departures 36 10 Block Hours 276 67
Airline Internet sites are logging far more visits than travel agent addresses or independent sites, according to a survey by CIC Research, San Diego. CIC, which tracked the use of World Wide Web users April through June, found 23.3% of respondents to its Internet survey said they would buy from an airline site, while 16.9% said they would order from a travel agent site.
Carnival Air Lines will begin daily nonstop flights between New York Kennedy and Fort Myers, Fla., Dec. 19, charging $99 one way. The fares do not require roundtrip or advance purchase or a Saturday night stay. The carrier will use a 737-400 configured for 159 seats in one class. It offered the flights to Fort Myers last winter from Islip, N.Y., but will offer them from Kennedy this year to ease connections with its foreign partner airlines.
FAA's award of the $619.9 million Digital Airport Surveillance Radar (DASR) contract to Raytheon last week (DAILY, Aug. 12) forced a fundamental change in the radar industry as incumbent government supplier Northrop Grumman, formerly Westinghouse, was knocked out of the competition. Westinghouse supplied the ASR-9 and, in a joint venture with Unisys, produced the accompanying Mode-S system. The contract also is a major milestone for Raytheon because most of its past successes in air traffic control had come in the international market.
The Clinton/Gore campaign owed TWA $74,936, Dole for President owed USAir $23,405 and the Perot Reform Committee owed Federal Express $7,777 as of June 30, according to DOT's monthly report tracking the unpaid balance of unsecured credit extended to political candidates by major U.S. carriers in the 1996 election.
Ansett Australia and Air New Zealand plan to begin service to mainland China, joining the growing number of airlines that fly to both China and longtime rival Taiwan. Taipei's Central News Agency quoted a senior Ansett official as saying that the carrier has received permission from Australia's International Air Service Commission to begin flights to Shanghai from Melbourne and Sydney in late October. Ansett will lease two aircraft - one 747 and one 767 - to serve the new routes, he said.
Pratt&Whitney said yesterday it will provide a "full fleet management program" to Air Jamaica for the PW4000 engines that power its six A310 aircraft. Pratt said it will provide spare parts and spare engines, performance monitoring, support equipment and training at "competitive, guaranteed maintenance rates."
American International Freight, an overnight coast-to-coast cargo carrier, said it has introduced second-day service to all 51 cities it serves. The service offers three-zone pricing and three frequencies per week. AIF also is adding a combination of day flights and dedicated trucks to the service.
Russian aircraft manufacturer Saratov Aviation will set up a repair and assembly center in Taiwan. Saratov's chairman, Alexander Yermeshin, visiting Taipei as the head of a Russian business delegation, said Saratov also will seek to cooperate with Taiwanese partners in joint production of commercial aircraft suited for the Asia/Pacific region. Saratov is the second Russian aircraft maker, following Aviastar, to announce plans to set up operations in Taiwan.
Air Force Electronic Systems Center announced it will host 22 Central and Eastern European nations Sept. 10-12 at the Third Regional Airspace Management Conference in Bled, Slovenia. The U.S. will present its airspace management and air sovereignty recommendations to the Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
McDonnell Douglas has made $2.03 billion in customer financing guarantees for aircraft on order or under option and scheduled for delivery through 2009. Guarantees and other commitments on delivered aircraft total $737 million, the company said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
United has begun using laptop computers to speed up check-in at London Heathrow and Tokyo Narita airports, the company said, and it plans to introduce laptops at other international airports in the next year. Customer service employees accessing Apollo and Unimatic with laptops are trying to reduce long waits at the counter by conducting as much of the check-in process as possible in line.
Hawaiian Airlines' July traffic dropped 7.1% to 318.9 million revenue passenger miles from 343.2 million, and available seat miles fell 0.9% to 430.9 million from 434.9 million, depressing the load factor 4.9 percentage points to 74%. The airline carried 444,344 passengers during the month, a 0.4% increase. For the first seven months of the year, traffic rose 12.5% to 2.232 billion RPMs from 1.985 billion, while capacity gained 13.8% to 2.939 billion ASMs from 2.582 billion. The load factor fell to 76% from 76.9%.
Nearly 102,000 Taiwan residents were issued Canadian visas in 1995, an increase of nearly 60% over the 63,000 issued in 1994. An official of Canadian Airlines International in Taipei said the carrier expects growth to more than 130,000 visas this year. CAI currently operates six 747-400 flights per week between Taipei and Toronto. Passenger loads on the route average 90%, the official said.
Inventory Locator Service said it is developing a database of companies that have been issued parts manufacturer approval (PMA). Bruce Langsen, president, said the information will be organized by part number and available online to ILS customers using the service to buy and sell aircraft parts and equipment.
Sun Country Airlines extended its fall fare sale of $49 and $99 each way between Minneapolis/St. Paul and 14 cities and added four cities to the promotion. The new deadline for buying tickets is Aug. 16, for travel until Dec. 15. The new destinations are Los Angeles, Washington, Phoenix and Laughlin, Nev., and the original ones include Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle and New York. Sun Country, based in Mendota Heights, Minn., reported 1995 revenues of $230 million.
United, despite lacking clearance from Japan, yesterday announced Oct. 1 as the startup date for its new U.S.-Jakarta service. The carrier said the service would operate three times per week to Jakarta from San Francisco, via Osaka. The announcement follows Indonesia's decision to reverse itself and approve United's proposed service (DAILY, Aug. 5). However, the carrier has yet to receive approval for the service from Japan.
Air travelers looking for discounts can shorten their search with a telephone hotline that quotes the lowest fares for flights in the U.S., Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean. By dialing 800-DIAL-4-Travel, callers connect with a voice response system that provides up to 10 of the cheapest fares available. A fax service option quotes up to 30 tariffs. Creator Stanton Mirsky said, "Our goal is to save consumers the money and time of searching for the lowest air fare through travel agents or airline reservations desks." The cost is $6.95 per call from the U.S.
U-Land Airlines, one of Taiwan's newest domestic carriers, has received authority to begin charter service between Taiwan and Subic Bay, the Philippines. U-Land, which recently took delivery of two MD-82 passenger jets, will become the fourth Taiwanese carrier serving the Subic Bay area when it begins flying the route early next year. A company official said U-Land intends to expand to a number of other Asian destinations and will order either Boeing 767 or Airbus A300 aircraft to operate the anticipated routes.
Air Express International said it has entered a global alliance with Flying Cargo, a logistics services company and airfreight forwarder in Israel, for cooperation on a full range of integrated logistics services to and from Israel.
SkyWest Airlines recorded a 19.8% increase in July traffic to 64.4 million revenue passenger miles on 8.5% more capacity - 120.6 million available seat miles. Load factor increased five points to 53.4%. SkyWest carried 232,413 passengers in July, up 18.9%. For the first seven months of the year, RPMs rose 35.8% to 407.3 million, ASMs rose 21.7% to 781.2 million and load factor rose 5.4 points to 52.1%.
Yves Michot has been selected chairman of Aerospatiale by the French Council of Ministers as proposed by the company's board. Michot, who has been deputy general manager, joined Aerospatiale in 1984.
Some FAA personnel took advantage of free flights on commercial aircraft for personal gain, the DOT Office of Inspector General said yesterday in a semiannual report.
American is declining comment on a report in London's Evening Standard that Chairman Robert Crandall has threatened to revive the airline's talks with Air France if the U.K. blocks its alliance with British Airways. An American official, acknowledging past talks with Air France and other airlines, noted that the U.S. carrier would need to look elsewhere if the BA deal falls apart.
