AAR Corp. expects net income for its fiscal year ending May 31 to increase 53% to $16 million compared with the previous year and net sales to increase 12% to $505 million. David Storch, president, disclosed the expected results in an interview last week with Dow Jones. The company said net income for the fourth quarter is expected to be up 42% to $5 million and sales up 6.5% to $138 million.
Officials of Taiwan's Chiang Kai-shek Airport, stung by increasing complaints about high surcharges demanded by taxis operating between the airport and downtown Taipei, are planning to introduce a free shuttle service before the end of this year. One official said the service will transport passengers from the airport to Taoyuan City, where they will be able to take taxis without paying the surcharge or connect with other forms of public transportation. The airport also has agreed to allow privately owned United Highway Bus Corp.
A June 28 Regional Aviation story - on a November 1995 incident in which a Simmons Saab 340 lost power in one engine and made an emergency landing at Corsicana, Texas - failed to mention FAA's followup action two months later. The National Transportation Safety Board linked the incident to ice accumulation in the engine and subsequent failure of the auto- ignition system. In January 1996 (DAILY, Jan. 12), FAA issued an emergency order requiring flight crews to verify that the auto-ignition system is operational.
FAA is flirting with another 737 disaster because it has not required flight data recorders on older 737s to be upgraded, National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Jim Hall said yesterday. Citing yaw problems experienced recently by an Eastwind Airlines 737-200, Hall criticized FAA Administrator David Hinson for the agency's failure to order FDR upgrades recommended by NTSB on Feb. 22, 1995, because it was concerned that not enough information was gathered from the FDR of a USAir 737 that crashed near Pittsburgh on Sept. 8, 1994.
FAA officials are looking at dispersing 54 domestic sectors of the New York Center and turning it into an oceanic center to solve chronic staffing problems, The DAILY was told. The plan reportedly has upset officials of the Washington, Cleveland and Jacksonville centers, but the Boston Center was more sanguine because it would handle more traffic and qualify for pay upgrades. The conversion would cost about $120 million. Bob Harris, head of Controllers United, said the plan "avoids the critical question. FAA cannot get sufficient talent to come into the facility.
DOT has granted American International Airways' request to add Guam as a co-terminal point on its Honolulu-Melbourne-Jakarta all-cargo service. AIA said it would operate initially once-weekly Boeing 747 service on a Honolulu-Guam-Melbourne-Jakarta-Honolulu routing (DAILY, June 26). (Docket OST-96-1378)
The French government said yesterday that Aerospatiale and Dassault Aviation will merge to form a $12 billion entity a year earlier than the timetable it announced in February. It said details are to be worked out before January 1997, versus the early-1998 goal set down when Prime Minister Alain Juppe outlined the government's merger plan in February. French President Jacques Chirac has pressed for the merger to help streamline France's defense sector, but Dassault has strongly opposed it and predicted slow progress.
Pratt&Whitney Canada Friday delivered the first PW530A production engine to Cessna Aircraft for its new Citation Bravo executive jet. The engine is the first in the PW500 family developed in collaboration with MTU of Germany.
Airlines Industry Stock Trends Closed Closed Exchange 6/28/96 5/31/96 Majors Alaska Air Group NYSE $ 27.370 $ 26.000 AMR NYSE 91.000 94.370 America West (Class B) NYSE 22.000 20.370 Continental (Class B) NYSE 61.750 56.870 Delta NYSE 83.000 82.870
FAA confirmed yesterday that all three vendors for the Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) program submitted their final cost proposals during the day. Teams headed by Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon are trying to win the $1.5 billion contract. A selection is expected in late September.
Whether the U.S. and Japan will meet again on aviation issues is uncertain following their failure to make headway in two days of negotiations that ended Friday in Washington. "We failed to make progress on any of the [outstanding] issues," said a U.S. official. In a statement issued yesterday, the head of the Japanese delegation acknowledged that "the consultation failed to achieve any constructive results." The two sides set no future dates for talks.
Civil pilots now can find out whether the Air Force is conducting jamming tests of GPS signals, according to the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. Martin Shuey, VP-air traffic control for AOPA, said the electronic countermeasure tests are conducted almost daily in the Southwest and can make GPS navigation signals "unreliable" for several hours within 300 miles of the test site. It was difficult for pilots to find out the area of signal disruptions because FAA was classifying the GPS-ECM test warnings as local notices to airmen, Shuey said.
Pratt&Whitney said it has received FAA type and production certificates for the PW4090, its most powerful engine with 90,000 pounds of thrust. The certification clears the way for flight testing aboard the Boeing 777 this summer and entry into service on increased-gross-weight versions of the 777 next March. Customers have selected the PW4090 for both the increased-growth-weight version of the 777-200 and for the stretched 777- 300. The PW4084 now is used on 777s.
China Airlines asked DOT to withdraw its order approving Federal Express's complaint against Taiwan. CAL said the department "violated its own regulations and procedural order, as well as the requirement of due process by approving FedEx's complaint without giving CAL a hearing on the central issues that were addressed in its answer" to the complaints. Deferring on the question of imposing sanctions, DOT approved last month FedEx's complaint against the government of Taiwan (DAILY, June 25).
AirWays Corp. warned Wall Street yesterday that its Florida AirTran unit probably will not meet profit expectations set by analysts for its first quarter 1997, which ends June 30. "During the past few weeks, we have encountered an unusually difficult operating period with flight delays and cancellations not normally experienced by AirTran," John Horn, the carrier's president and chief executive officer, said in a statement.
The European Union is likely to announce tomorrow it will investigate all the antitrust-immunized alliances involving U.S. and European airlines, not just the proposed American-British Airways partnership, to ensure that they comply with EU treaty competition rules.
Federal Express posted a net profit of $115.4 million for its fourth fiscal quarter, which ended May 31, the company said yesterday. Earnings per share rose to $2.01 for the quarter from $1.54 a year earlier.
David Golden, a managing director of Hambrecht&Quist LLC, has resigned from Vanguard Airlines' board of directors. The carrier said Golden is leaving the board because of a decision by the investment firm to limit board participation by its officers in public companies in which it holds large stakes.
Reports carried by two of Taipei's leading dailies say that Wheelock NatWest, a Hong Kong subsidiary of Britain's National Westminster Bank, is negotiating to buy a 16% stake in China Airlines for about US$300 million. CAL officials, contacted about the reports, said they were not in a position to comment. A spokeswoman for National Westminster Bank's Taipei representative office likewise declined comment, saying the office only learned of the reported negotiations through the newspaper stories.
CIT Leasing said it bought two 737-300s and two spare engines from GECC. The aircraft and engines, purchased with an existing lease to Continental, represent the fifth 737 transaction this year by CIT.
A class action lawsuit against Florida West Airlines and some of its ex- officers has been dismissed without prejudice by a Florida district court. The suit was brought against the airline for making false and misleading statements regarding its financial position and future business prospects before it filed for bankruptcy protection. The court said that because Florida West filed for bankruptcy, the reorganized Florida West has no assets or liabilities of the old entity, and it is discharged of all preconfirmation indebtedness.
KLM and Northwest may be on the verge of settling the acrimonious feud that has threatened to undermine the world's most profitable airline alliance. Pieter Bouw, KLM's president and chief executive officer, said that in the next few months the companies will sign new long-term cooperative agreements guaranteeing KLM that other Northwest shareholders will, like KLM, have what he described as a long-term perspective.
Delta is expanding its electronic ticketing program, the carrier said yesterday, adding 15 city-pairs to the list of points at which it is testing the program. Delta, following a trend set by other carriers in the U.S., launched a ticketless program in May in five test markets. The new points involve Salt Lake City, Boston, Orlando, Chicago and Cincinnati. Currently, travelers have to purchase a ticket with a credit card through a Delta agent, who then sends the passenger a receipt. Customers check in at the airport with identification.
