Northern Airlines, a Syracuse, N.Y., company that hopes to start F28 service in several months, issued a statement criticizing the proposal of the Big Seven airlines - a proposal largely endorsed by the Regional Airline Association - to replace the 10% ticket tax with a series of taxes and fees Northern said "would raise costs on short-haul flights and penalize passenger for choosing low-fare carriers" (DAILY, May 24). Northern VP-Marketing Timothy Sieber called the proposal "anti-consumer."
Regional Airline Association this week provided further details of its campaign to raise the consciousness of passengers and travel industry professionals about the comfort, convenience and safety of regional airlines.
United is confident that the American-British Airways deal will quickly lead to open skies between the U.S. and the U.K., but it worries about the impact the proposed accord could have on competition. "We have no problem with the theory of alliances, but you have got to look at each alliance on its own merits," Cyril Murphy, United's VP-international affairs, told The DAILY in an interview yesterday. Murphy said the size of the proposed alliance is not the problem but rather the nature of the market place. He said the U.S.-U.K.
Flight Safety Foundation has moved to 601 Madison St., Suite 300, Alexandria, Va. 22314. The new telephone is 703-739-6700 and the new fax number is 703-739-6708.
Travel agencies can check more fares without booking an itinerary on Sabre with the computer reservations system's new WorldFare pricing feature, FastFare. Agents can obtain multiple fare quotes for an entire trip, not just one market, by entering city-pairs. The CRS responds with all fares that apply. Entries can be customized as to preferred carrier or specific dates. FastFare is available at no additional cost as part of the base Sabre package.
Midwest Express Connection Skyway Airlines flew 6.4 million revenue passenger miles last month, a 6.4% increase from just over 6 million in the same month in 1995. Skyway is operated by Astral Aviation, Inc. - a wholly owned subsidiary of Midwest Express Airlines, which is itself held by Midwest Express Holdings.
American said yesterday it has issued a notice to redeem its 5 1/4% subordinated debentures due 1998. The debentures will be redeemed in full at par on July 1, American said. The carrier has about 2.95 million in debentures outstanding. The redemption will be handled by Citibank. They are listed on the New Stock Exchange under the symbol AMR98.
Gulfstream International's traffic grew 184% last month to 13.9 million revenue passenger miles, compared with 4.9 million in May 1995. Capacity climbed 115.6% to 19.3 million available seat miles from nearly 9 million; the load factor rose nearly 17 percentage points to 72.1%, and passenger boardings jumped 98.7% to 54,662.
Air Freight Association President Steve Alterman and Airports Council International-NA President David Plavin agreed yesterday to look jointly at Canada's privatization of air traffic control activities as a possible model for the U.S. Other groups will be invited to participate, Alterman said at a meeting in Washington of AFA members.
Comair flew 131.5 million revenue passenger miles in May, a 29.9% increase from May 1995. Capacity rose 18.7% to 227.5 million ASMs; load factor rose five percentage points to 57.8%. May 1996 May 1995 5 months 1996 5 Months 1995 RPMs 131,457,000 101,207,000 598,485,000 440,831,000 ASMs 227,460,000 191,651,000 1,070,833,000 903,616,000 LF (%) 57.8 52.8 55.9 48.8
The Senate Commerce Committee approved yesterday legislation to reauthorize FAA programs for one year and adopted a compromise measure regarding the future financing of the agency. The panel accepted as an amendment a revised version of the FAA reform bill (S.1239) that drops the presumption of air traffic control user fees and instead provides for an 11-member industry task force to recommend changes in FAA financing and an expedited process for considering those recommendations in Congress.
UPS is projecting a net income of $1.4 million for 1997 from its planned foray into the passenger charter business. In financial statements required to be made public by DOT, UPS predicted it will generate $23.3 million in revenues for the year, and operating costs will total $20.9 million. It expects to show an operating loss only in the first quarter, ending the year with an operating profit of $2.4 million. UPS plans to carry 84,511 annual passengers.
Summary of U.S. Major Carriers Domestic Traffic November 1995 Revenue Average Revenue Passengers Length of Passenger Enplaned % Travel Miles Carriers (000) Change (Miles) (000) America West 1,373 11.65 766 1,051,411 American 5,083 (9.61) 1,116 5,670,809
Summary of U.S. National Carriers Systemwide Traffic Novewmber 1995 Revenue Average Revenue Passengers Length of Passenger Enplaned % Travel Miles Carriers (000) Change (Miles) (000) Alaska 871 15.02 816 710,975 American Trans Air 317 10.30 1,878 594,438
The U.S. air export market will grow from 75.9 million shipments in 1996 to 112.5 million by 2000, "but if our projections are accurate, the non- integrated operators will see none of that growth," said Ted Scherck, president of the Colography Group. "While the consensus has been that U.S. integrated operators will not be able to dominate the international markets the same way they dominated in the United States, our research shows that the integrators have already taken command of the world's largest air export market," he said. The integrators' share of U.S.
AMR Eagle has sold four Shorts 360 aircraft to Aerolineas Pacifico Atlantico, the operator of Aeroperlas, a Panamanian regional carrier. As part of the deal, Eagle will acquire a 20% shareholder position in the Panama City, Panama-based carrier. Eagle President Daniel Garton said, "This transaction fits into our overall strategic plan to streamline operations, simplify the fleet and improve profitability."
Mesa Air Group received another labor setback with pilots of its Mountain West Airlines unit rejecting by a 55%-45% margin a new contract. Ratification had been recommended by the negotiating committee, the master executive council and ALPA national. Issues nagging the more militant pilots - some of whom are talking strike - are pay, pay for training, and a merging of the seniority lists of all the Mesa carriers. The pilots demanded, and got, an agreement identical to the Air Midwest contract. Negotiations also are under way with four other Mesa union groups.
Continental says it is capturing more of the lucrative business traveler market, which made up 18.4% of its total revenue passenger miles in the first quarter, up from 16.6% in the same quarter last year. Each 1% gain, the carrier says, adds $75 million to its bottom line.
Ryukyu Air Commuter will take delivery of and operate three Dash 8 Series 100 aircraft under a purchase agreement confirmed this week. RAC, a subsidiary of Japan TransOcean Air and a member of the Japan Airlines group of companies, announced its selection of the -100, pending approval by the Japanese government, which has now been granted. Deliveries of the aircraft will begin early next year. In addition to its three firm orders, the airline holds two options for Dash 8 Series 100 aircraft.
Air France logged 4.7 billion revenue passenger kilometers in May, a 19.4% increase from May 1995 levels. Capacity increased 10% to 6.4 billion available seat kilometers, lifting the load factor 5.8 percentage points to 73.8%. The number of freight ton kilometers increased 3.7% to 359 million.
China Airlines has agreed to purchase 33% of the outstanding shares of Taiwanese domestic carrier Formosa Airlines for NT$20 (US$0.73) a share. The stock, worth a total of NT$660 million (US$24 million), currently is owned by Formosa's largest investor, James C.C. Liao, chairman of the ADI Group. Under the agreement, Liao will be appointed chairman of Formosa Airlines and CAL will name the carrier's president. A CAL spokesman said the purchase will be completed as soon as it is approved by the government.
Multi-affiliated Great Lakes Aviation flew 26.2 million revenue passenger miles in May, 31.8% more than in May 1995. Capacity failed to keep pace, rising 29.8% to 59.1 million available seat miles from 45.5 million. The resulting load factor was 0.7 percentage points higher last month than in May 1995 - 44.4% versus 43.7%. Passenger boardings were up 36.2% to 88,711 from 65,132.
Western Pacific is focusing on the ATR 42-500 for its new regional feeder operation at its Colorado Springs hub, scheduled to begin service in November. The carrier expects to establish a separate company to operate the carrier - Mountain Air Express (MAX) - with an initial fleet of four aircraft. It is planned that the regional will offer "low fares" similar to those of WestPac (DAILY, June 7). Colorado's hot-and-high operating conditions limit the aircraft selection process to the ATR, Dash 8-200 and the Saab 340BPlus in the more-than-30-seat class.
Canadian Airlines International's (CAI) traffic climbed 10.7% in June, compared with the same month last year, on a 2.2% increase in capacity. The carrier flew 1.36 billion revenue passenger miles on capacity of 1.94 billion available seat miles, producing a load factor gain of 5.4 percentage points to 70.1%. "These results tell us we're making excellent use of our resources at a time when our competitive pricing initiatives are increasing demand for our services," said Don Casey, VP-capacity planning.
