Jeppesen said it has launched JeppView, a Windows-based software package that enables subscribers to access, display and print current Jeppesen Terminal Charts and related information on desktop or notebook computers. JeppView offers high-resolution, vector-based graphics and provides an interface for fast, convenient access to charts and related information.
Carnival Air Lines will offer a "first-class party fare" Sept. 4 through Dec. 18 for groups of 15 to 24 passengers on its A300s. A roundtrip fare of $339 per person is available for travel in first class between Miami and New York or Puerto Rico, and between Fort Lauderdale and New York. The roundtrip fare between Fort Lauderdale and Los Angeles is $519. Groups will receive priority boarding, special welcome announcements and a complimentary inflight champagne reception.
WorldWide Parts Network Inc. said it has opened its Internet-based parts sourcing system for the aviation industry. The site provides parts searching, overhaul capabilities searching, messaging, request for quotations and full editing/viewing of parts and overhaul capabilities while users are on line.
Sabre Travel Information Network and the Hotel Clearing Corporation (HCC) are providing an electronic hotel commission reconciliation program to travel agents who use Sabre's TravelBase system. TravelBase matches hotel commission payment data supplied by HCC with hotel tracking information stored by TravelBase. Santa Ana-based Sundance Travel said the system saves 20 hours a week in staff time that would be spent manually entering and matching the data.
DOT is proposing new computer reservations system regulations to promote competition and reduce potential biases in the display of airline services. Responding to a rulemaking petition from Alaska Airlines, DOT is proposing to prohibit CRS contract clauses that bar a non-vendor carrier from choosing a level of participation in a vendor's system that would be lower than the carrier's level of participation in any other system.
United's flight attendant union, the Association of Flight Attendants, has distributed a pamphlet to its 21,000 members asking them to submit creative ideas on how to pressure management in contract negotiations, now or in the future, if talks reach the point that a 30-day cooling-off period is imposed and expires. The AFA and United reached a tentative contract agreement quickly early this year, before the amendable date of March 1, but the union memberships rejected it. Starting over, AFA and United exchanged opening contract proposals July 10.
DOT is inviting applications from U.S. carriers interested in providing scheduled combination air service between the U.S. and the Republic of South Africa. A total of 11 combination frequencies are available, including four that are unused and seven currently held by World Airlines. World told the department Aug. 1 it would discontinue its daily scheduled service between New York and Johannesburg, via Accra, Ghana, and Dakar, Senegal, on Aug. 23.
USAir is providing flight information to the hearing-impaired via a telecommunication device for the deaf 24 hours a day. The system offers the option of switching to a reservations agent.
Southwest is offering a $39 one-way fare special within California and between California and Las Vegas and Phoenix. The fare, available until Aug. 31, requires a seven-day advance purchase. Tickets are good for travel Aug. 20-Sept. 30 on all nonstop, direct or connecting flights.
Qantas Airways has asked for renewal of its authority to operate blocked- space/code-share services with American. Under the arrangement, Qantas displays American's designator code on its Los Angeles-Sydney, and Los Angeles-Auckland-Melbourne services, as well as on cargo-only San Francisco/Los Angeles/Honolulu-Sydney and San Francisco/Los Angeles- Auckland/Melbourne flights.
The Carlyle Group, a private merchant bank, said it has acquired Contour of California Inc., Brea, Calif., and Contour Industries, Everett, Wash., from Roger Berger for an undisclosed amount. The combined sales of the two companies total about $60 million per year. Both have been merged into Contour Aerospace, an entity formed by Carlyle and a management group headed by President Thomas Wallace. Buyers of Contour's complex aerostructure components include Airbus Industrie, Boeing and McDonnell Douglas.
Aeromexpress has been granted an exemption to operate scheduled all-cargo service between Leon, Mexico, and Los Angeles, and between Villahermosa, Mexico, and Houston. The carrier plans to begin the Villahermosa-Houston service tomorrow and the Leon-Los Angeles service Friday, using Boeing 727s (DAILY, Aug. 8). (Docket OST-96-1623)
Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., India's state-owned aircraft manufacturing company, lost more than 550 million rupees ($15.7 million) during the last two years because of idle capacity at its Fokker component facility, according to senior HAL officials. The company, which took it as a victory when it landed a Fokker contract to manufacture horizontal stabilizers for the Fokker 50 aircraft, has delivered only two of the six shipsets has manufactured so far, suspending all other scheduled work because of the Dutch manufacturer's bankruptcy.
Unisys Corp. is sponsoring USAir's Business Centers in Boston, New York and Washington, D.C., by providing Aquanta Personal Computers for USAir Shuttle passengers.
Prestige Airways plans to begin scheduled 727 service Sept. 3 from Flint, Mich., to Chicago Midway and St. Louis. The carrier said it chose Flint because the city "has no full jet service to any of the destinations."
ValuJet denies an assertion by the Association of Flight Attendants that it made money on its employees' parking. AFA President Patricia Friend told The DAILY the union has discovered that ValuJet made a $75,000 profit last year by leasing airport parking space and then charging employees to park in it. A ValuJet spokesman said, however, that "there is no way she could ever determine from any of our financial information" that a profit was made, and that the airline's controller said there is no way it made money on parking. "That is simply not the case."
Delta has introduced a SkyMiles program in which investors can earn miles when using the Charles Schwab&Co. financial services firm. SkyMiles members who open a qualifying account can earn 3,000 miles if their deposits reach $30,000 within one year. Miles can accrue on new deposits or on assets transferred from other brokerage or bank accounts. Every net new deposit or transfer of $10,000 will earn 1,000 miles, and 250 miles will be aded each calendar quarter for accounts that maintain a minimum balance of $30,000.
U.S. carriers continue to lose capacity share on the North Atlantic this year, according to Global Aviation Associates. European and Canadian carriers increased capacity this year, and some of them, including Air France, Aer Lingus and Virgin Atlantic, "expanded capacity significantly."
Servicios Aereos de Tribasa, S.A., a Mexican air taxi operator of executive aircraft, applied for an exemption and a foreign air carrier permit authorizing it to operate charter passenger service between points in Mexico and points in the U.S. Tribasa estimated that it will operate fewer than 75 roundtrips annually, launching service with a Gulfstream G-IV. Its average load will be three or four passengers, and it thinks almost all of its traffic will originate in Mexico. (Docket OST-96-1634)
Delta and American are discounting travel for the Labor Day weekend, sweetening their offers by dropping or reducing purchase restrictions. Delta is charging $96 or $156 per roundtrip to 150 domestic cities, with the lower price applying to stage lengths up to 1,000 miles. Travel must begin and end on Saturday, Aug. 31 or Sunday, Sept. 1. The fares do not require an advance purchase and do not include Delta Connection flights. American's fares are mileage-based, ranging from $79 roundtrip for flights up to 250 miles to $299 for flights over 2,000 miles.
InVision Technologies said yesterday it shipped two of its CTX 5000 explosives detection systems, ordered by Northwest Airlines, to the Philippines for use at Ninoy Aquino Airport in Manila to scan U.S.-bound baggage, starting in September. The shipment is the "latest in a series of FAA-sponsored demonstrations of certified EDS equipment with U.S. carries," the company said. Similar demonstrations of the CTX 5000 are under way in San Francisco and Atlanta. Airports in the U.K., Belgium, Israel and Japan are using the system.
FAA said yesterday that it has rated Kuwait Category 2, or conditional, under international aviation safety standards. The agency said that Poland and Aruba, previously rated conditional, have improved their safety oversight performance to acceptable. A Category 2 rating means that FAA inspectors have found areas in which a nation's civil aviation authority does not comply with safety standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization.
Korean Air will inaugurate flights from Seoul to Newark Aug. 20 and to Boston Aug. 21, operating to Newark on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday and to Boston on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The Boston service will include a stop at New York Kennedy, and both flights will stop at Anchorage to refuel. The services will be operated with 747-400s. With the new service, KAL will operate from 14 gateways, including New York, Washington, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Honolulu and Anchorage.
