An Eastwind Airlines 737-200 was involved in an inflight upset June 10 while descending for a landing at Richmond, Va., the fourth time the aircraft experienced yaw problems recently, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. Jim Hall, NTSB chairman, said the board is having difficulty investigating the incidents because FAA has not required updated flight data recorders on older 737s as the board recommended (DAILY, July 3).
AAI Corp. announced that Nexwos, the next-generation weather observing system, received FAA certification following a six-month in-service evaluation. The evaluation involved the system's processor, dial-up modem, very high frequency radio, operator interface device and sensors, including wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, temperature/dewpoint, visibility and cloud height.
Boeing President Phil Condit says the company's 737-700 business jet will be "complementary" to the civil airliner version and will not take lucrative business travel customers away from airlines that operate Boeing aircraft.
Allison Engine Co. will refine its T800-based CTS800 civil turboshaft engine into a turboprop to power U.S. Army reconaissance aircraft under a recent Technology Reinvestment Program, or TRP, award launching a nearly three-year, $28 million program, DAILY affiliate Aerospace Daily reports in its inaugural Aerospace Propulsion Extra. It is believed the program eventually could lead to retrofits in hundreds of commercial regional aircraft.
AMR Corp., American's parent company, completed the reorganization of the Sabre Group but said it has made no decisions on whether to sell all or part of it. In April, AMR announced plans to split Sabre into a wholly owned subsidiary that will handle technology for the parent company. Talk of a partial or full selloff to another technology company has been widely reported since then.
The air transport study by the United Nations Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development is going through another draft and is not expected to be made final until Aug. 1. Seen as a strong endorsement of liberalization, the study already has sparked strong disapproval from Japan.
SBS International said that Chautauqua Airlines has become the fifth regional carrier in the past year to become a customer. The carrier contracted for the SBS crew planning system and Maestro, its crew scheduling and operations control system.
Delta and TWA are opposing Continental's pre-emptive application for third- year service between the U.S. and Toronto. Urging DOT to institute immediately the U.S.-Toronto Third Year Service Proceeding, Continental put in a bid for two daily U.S.-Toronto frequencies, to begin service between Newark and Toronto on Feb. 24, 1997 (DAILY, March 14).
The U.S. and U.K. have agreed to resume formal negotiations in London July 18, following a series of informal meetings. The two sides agreed to talk without prejudice to investigations of the proposed British Airways- American alliance planned by their respective countries.
FAA's North Atlantic communications services are of third-world caliber, according to IATA. Despite the U.S. agency's leadership in most fields of aviation technology, the "poorest level of air traffic services offered in the [North Atlantic] is that provided by the New York Oceanic Center," the association says. According to KLM, comparing New York with Gander is like comparing a Russian Trabant with a German BMW. "Ultimately, both take you to your destination, but on very different levels of service and reliability."
Zambian Express has signed a contract to acquire its first ATR 42-320, Aero International (Regional) announced. Based at Lusaka Airport in Zambia, Zambian Express was founded in April 1995. It provides connections for domestic and international passengers to Johannesburg, Livingstone, Ndola, Lubumbashi and Lilongwey.
TWA said it has put two of three recently acquired 747s in service and has another in maintenance. It also has a letter of intent for a fourth 747. The 747s include two -100s and two -200s, the carrier said. The additional widebodies will enable the airline to add a second daily summer flight to Rome and one to Honolulu.
Maersk Air will take delivery Sept. 1 of a used Jetstream 41 aircraft, leased from British Aerospace Asset Management Turboprops (AMT), AMT announced. The aircraft will be placed in service on Maersk's Birmingham- Newcastle route, where it replaces a Jetstream 31 operating four roundtrips per day. The aircraft formerly was operated by Impulse Airlines of Australia.
British Airways' capacity growth outstripped traffic growth in June, lowering the passenger load factor 1.5 percentage points to 76.3%. Traffic grew 4.4% to 5.53 billion revenue passenger miles on 6.5% capacity growth to 7.25 billion available seat miles. The number of passengers rose 1.5% to 2.9 million.
American West plans to add frequencies in existing markets during the next six months. The carrier will add one flight in each of three markets - Boston and Columbus on Oct. 28, Boston and Phoenix on Nov. 22 and Colorado Springs and Phoenix on Jan. 9. On Oct. 27 it will add a single daily flight between Phoenix and three points, Columbus, Dallas/Fort Worth and Wichita, and between Orlando and Columbus. On Sept. 5 it will add a frequency between Santa Ana, Calif., and Phoenix.
Atlantic Southeast Airlines is battling a reliability problem with its new fleet of eight BAe 146 quadjets - one that is particularly troubling because of the upcoming Olympics in Atlanta and surrounding venues. One such venue is Columbus, Ga., where the women's fast-pitch softball competition will be held and where on-time reliability at times has fallen to the mid-70s for the ASA aircraft.
Alaska Airlines' June traffic grew 11.4%, compared with June 1995, on a capacity increase of 5.1%. The carrier flew 901 million revenue passenger miles on 1.34 billion available seat miles, boosting the load factor to 67.1% from 63.3% in June 1995. The number of passengers grew 13.7% to 1.06 million. For the first six months, its traffic was up 17.6%, compared with the first six months of 1995, on a capacity gain of 9.4%. The passenger load factor for the period was 63.3%, up from 58.9%, and the number of passengers grew 17.7%.
American and Continental urged DOT to reject Air Liberte's application for Bordeaux-Newark exemption authority. The French carrier filed for the authority in April and pressed DOT recently for a decision. American said it "has no objection to the issuance of a decision, provided that the decision denies Air Liberte's application." American noted that the March agreement between U.S. and France permitted Air France to operate additional summer service and a U.S.
Saying it "cannot find that Peru's action was inconsistent with its bilateral agreement with the U.S.," DOT dismissed Fine Airlines' complaint against the government of Peru. In a filing last September, Fine charged Peru with prohibiting it from operating to, from or over the territory of Peru in violation of the U.S.-Peru bilateral (DAILY, Sept. 29). Peru's actions stemmed from charges that Fine transported arms on three cargo charter flights to Ecuador in February 1995 when Peru and Ecuador were engaged in hostilities.
Regional Airlines, the private French carrier, plans to raise capital through a listing on the second market in Paris, scheduled for October, in search of funds to buy new aircraft, Chairman Jean-Paul Dubreuil announced. The airline, which serves 17 domestic and 10 European routes from hubs in Clermont-Ferrand, Bordeaux and Le Havre, intends to purchase five 50- seat Embraer 145s. It expects to carry 430,000 passengers this year, up from 344,000 last year and 234,000 in 1994.
- In Federal Register dated June 28...Issued an airworthiness directive on certain Jetstream 4101 aircraft requiring modification of the diaphragms on the emergency exit...Issued an AD on all Jetstream 4101 aircraft concerning the time in service for engine starter bearings...Issued an AD on Dornier 328-100s requiring replacement of a bus power control unit and two generator control units. - In FR dated July 1...Proposed an AD on Airbus A300-600 aircraft to require inspection for cracking of the upper radius of the forward fitting of Frame 47.
Spurred by the prospective strategic alliance between British Airways and American - and attempting to protect the interests of European airlines - the European Commission decided Wednesday to investigate BA-American and five earlier transatlantic mega-partnerships for possible violations of the European Union's competition laws.
