Tom Begley, commercial director of Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company Ltd., was appointed director and general manager of Hong Kong Aero Engine Services Ltd., the 50-50 joint venture of HAECO and Rolls-Royce scheduled to launch operations in January. Steve Jones of HAECO was named general manager-operations of HAESL.
United Parcel Service and Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) have signed a formal agreement that commits UPS to spend as much as US$400 million to set up an integrated regional air transshipment hub at Taiwan's Chiang Kai-shek Airport. The project will be the largest to date by a foreign company in Taiwan's aviation industry.
Mexico and Canada have signed a memorandum of understanding that is expected to yield more technical cooperation between the two countries in the commercial aviation sector. A second pact, an "agreed minute," will lead to the inclusion of aviation security provisions in the bilateral air agreement of the two countries, Transport Canada said.
DOT called yesterday for a fundamental change in FAA's charter as the agency continues to revamp its safety oversight policies in the aftermath of the ValuJet crash and Monday's grounding of the startup carrier. Saying the dual mission of promoting air commerce as well as safety "has caused some to believe that the FAA had to make choices between safety and promoting the industry it regulates," DOT Secretary Federico Pena urged Congress to "change the FAA charter to give it a single primary mission: safety." ALPA applauded the move immediately.
British Airways will begin testing electronic ticketing in the U.K., starting next month. The new system, which the carrier calls E-Ticket, will be available for booking as of July 17 for travel Aug. 1 on flights between London Gatwick and Aberdeen. Passengers without baggage make a reservation through the carrier by telephone and check in using a machine at the airport. The machine uses a credit card for identification and issues a boarding pass.
American has asked DOT for renewal of its authority to operate to Toronto from Tampa, which expires Aug. 17. The carrier began the service Nov. 1 and operates one daily nonstop with 150-seat 727-200s. (Docket OST-95-367)
Emery Worldwide opened a branch office and service center in Buenos Aires, its second major expansion in the region. In March, Emery opened its first South American operation, in Santiago, Chile. Emery had been represented in Argentina through local agents.
American said yesterday it has signed a letter of intent to code share with Russian carrier Transaero on flights between Moscow and the U.S. Under the accord, set to begin in April 1997, Transaero will participate in American's AAdvantage frequent flyer program and American will put its AA designator code on Transaero's flights between Chicago and Moscow. Transaero will place its code, UN, on American flights between Chicago and Dallas/Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Orlando, Seattle and Washington.
European startup Debonair plans to begin flying tomorrow, flying the first two of its planned five BAe 146s from London's Luton Airport to Munich, the new Dusseldorf Express Airport and Barcelona. Debonair will use its third 146 for service to Madrid on July 10, plus flights to Newcastle Airport. It will add Copenhagen and a second trip to Barcelona Aug. 7. The carrier will launch its service by offering free flights during its first day of operation. It plans to fly two to three roundtrips per week in each market.
Frontier Airlines concluded the second year of operations with its first full quarter of profits. The carrier generated a net profit of $815,700 for the three-month period that ended March 31 and capped fiscal 1996. The profit came on revenues of $26.05 million. The results compare with a $1.8 million loss for fourth quarter 1995 on operating revenue of $11.53 million. On a fully diluted basis, Frontier had a per-share profit of $0.10 per share, compared with a $0.52 per-share loss for fourth quarter 1995.
Air Line Pilots Association and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association plan to cooperate on safety issues. ALPA's Executive Board recently approved appointing a liaison between itself and NATCA.
USAir has begun operating two daily flights between Nashville and Washington National with continued service to Boston. One-way fares on the day of departure are $199. Roundtrip fares purchased at least 21 days in advance are $138. USAir already serves Nashville from Charlotte, Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
United's 1996 capital plan provides $765 million for items apart from aircraft, a $165 million increase from 1995. About $665 million goes to projects already under way, such as airport improvements, aircraft maintenance and parts, and ground equipment. The rest is for new projects, such as all-cargo service, growth of its UAL Services arm and development of an automated aircraft scheduling system.
TriStar Airlines and Peak International, an Aspen, Colo.-based air services group, are offering $3,000 Mountain Pass coupon books good for 20 one-way flights between Los Angeles and Aspen through April 1997 at prices 40% off the lowest 14-day advance purchase fare. Coupons are non-refundable, but reservations can be changed or canceled at no charge eight days in advance of travel. The passes can be transferred to family members or among employees of a single company.
The government of India ordered a special safety audit of all aircraft belonging to national carrier Air-India following an adverse inquiry report from the director-general of civil aviation, H.S. Khola, DGCA officials said yesterday. On March 22, during a visit to Toronto, Khola found cracks in the door of the aircraft operating the day's Mumbai-Delhi-London-Toronto flight and immediately invalidated the license of the AI engineer who had cleared the aircraft for its London-Toronto sector.
U.S. National Carriers Advertising Expenses Fourth Quarter 1995 % of Total Passenger Systemwide Revenues Aloha $ 3,997,000 1.76 American Trans Air N/A N/A Carnival 1,698,904 1.95 Hawaiian 1,131,231 2.13
Roy McNulty has been named chairman of Short Brothers Plc. McNulty takes the title from Laurent Beaudoin, who is chairman and chief executive of Shorts' parent, Bombardier. McNulty, who became managing director of Shorts in 1988, has been president of Shorts since it was acquired by Bombardier in 1989.
Allied Pilots Association will hold informational picketing systemwide today through June 27 to protest the state of contract negotiations, which begin Week 103 in recess while the federal mediator briefs the National Mediation Board on status. APA says a company counterproposal offered last week restates demands for pay cuts and a plan to transfer equipment to a short-haul division.
Biman Bangladesh Airlines has taken delivery of the first of two A310s, becoming a new operator of Airbus aircraft. Delivery of Biman's second Airbus is slated for August. The A310s will replace DC-10s the carrier is phasing out.
New research data on duty time and fatigue that will be submitted to FAA by tomorrow - as well as several groups' proposals to revise FAA's proposed pilot flight and duty time rules - are likely to cause FAA to take considerable time studying the issues before it releases a final rule, some industry observers predict.
The European Union's transport ministers gave the European Commission a mandate Monday to launch multilateral aviation talks with the U.S., but in a phased approach that the U.S. does not accept.
Singapore Airlines signed an agreement with Rolls-Royce over the weekend to purchase Trent 800 engines for as many as 77 Boeing 777s. The aircraft order, potentially totaling $12.7 billion, and the engine selection were originally announced last November.
FAA Administrator David Hinson shut down ValuJet yesterday, saying an intense inspection of the airline by the agency found "several serious deficiencies" with the carrier's operation. ValuJet agreed to stop flying last night at midnight, Hinson said, and FAA has set a number of conditions in writing that must be met in order for the carrier to resume operations. He did not elaborate on the conditions. Among the shortcomings were failure to establish airworthiness of some aircraft, systemwide deficiencies and a lack of engineering capacity, Hinson said.
Lufthansa said it is underperforming, which has resulted in an operating loss for the first five months of the year. The carrier, which suffered a 49 million Deutschmark operating loss for the first three months of the year, denied a report in a German newspaper published Monday that it lost DM200 million during the first five months of this year. But it acknowledged that it has been having problems, among them lower load factors that have dragged it into the red. The report sent Lufthansa's shares tumbling almost 4% on Monday.
