National Council for Women in Aviation has joined the National Aeronautic Association as an affiliate member. The council, established to increase opportunities for women in aviation and aerospace, opens its membership to men and women.
Northwest's cost control plans have moved the airline within striking distance of matching Delta's unit costs, leading the fourth largest U.S. carrier to believe it may end up with a lower operating cost structure than its Atlanta rival. Delta's 1995 cost per available seat mile was 8.59 cents, compared with Northwest's 8.71, United's 9.42, American's 10.21 and USAir's 10.22. Delta's goal is 7.5 cents per ASM.
British Airways World Cargo said revenues for the year ended March 31 rose 9% to $861.4 million, and it carried 672,000 metric tons of freight, mail and courier traffic. "The results were achieved at a time when key markets, including North America, Western Europe and Southeast Asia, were sluggish," the company said. Leased freighters account for about 9% of total cargo uplift. Outsourced capacity grew by 56% to compensate for lower capacity on line flights, the company said.
Fokker, the Dutch aircraft maker that has been in bankruptcy since March, will build 15 more aircraft, keeping operations going for another year. The court-appointed receivers of Fokker confirmed yesterday that they reached agreements with several airlines for additional airplanes. Most will go to KLM. Without the new orders, Fokker would have been forced to close its assembly line this month. KLM agreed, however, to purchase six Fokker 70 jets. The carrier already has received three of four F70s ordered earlier, giving it a net total of seven on order.
The Air Line Pilots Association's Executive Council has warned union leaders at Federal Express of its concerns over a proposed plan to pressure FedEx into negotiating a better contract by subjecting the company to a public campaign questioning its safety. The strategy, referred to as the Phoenix Plan, was drafted by the new negotiating committee chairman, Jim Camp, who was brought in after FedEx ALPA leaders fired the old negotiating committee, which reached the March 18 tentative agreement the FedEx leadership opposes.
U.S. and Japanese officials have agreed to meet again June 27-28 in Washington after concluding two days of largely unproductive talks in Tokyo yesterday. After a rocky start Monday, negotiations went more smoothly yesterday, industry officials reported. The two sides failed to settle a number of longstanding disputes, however, and the U.S.
United is holding a job fair today at the Renaissance Hotel near Los Angeles Airport, with the intention of filling more than 600 positions this year. Openings are available for reservations, sales, customer service and ramp service employees, building and maintenance mechanics, automotive equipment mechanics and administrative personnel.
Amadeus Global Travel Distribution has launched Complete Access Plus, a hotel product that enables travel agencies to connect directly to the hotel's own inventory system without going through the Amadeus hotel database. The first chain to participate is Radisson Hospitality Worldwide.
SITA has developed two graphics user interfaces for its Flight Operations Services. The Windows graphical display enables users to display the optimum flight plan on a map and provides data on extended-range twin- engine operations, airports and upper-air weather. The revised version of FleetWatch provides information on improved aircraft utilization, on-time performance and increased productivity over a local area network.
United outhired all other U.S. carriers for cockpit crewmembers from April 1995 through April 1996, taking on 785 pilots. Federal Express hired 615 and Northwest 506. The Future Aviation Professionals of America said 8,286 pilots were hired by U.S. airlines during the 12-month period, while 1,758 were on furlough. Those on furlough include about 235 at Delta, which has sent a letter recalling all of them by Oct. 1.
The Business Travel Contractors Corp. (BTCC) is urging immediate reinstatement of the 10% airline ticket tax and announced yesterday its "unequivocal opposition" to proposals to replace the ticket tax with FAA user fees. BTCC, a group of corporations aimed at obtaining better airline fares for its members, is aligning itself on the ticket-tax-versus-user- fees issue with low-cost airlines, including Southwest - the only airline that has signed up for the group's mileage-based domestic airfare structure (DAILY, April 2).
Delta continues to break monthly boarding records one month ahead of the Olympics, not only in Atlanta, where it boarded more than two million passengers for three consecutive months. It set a boarding record in May at Hartsfield Airport by carrying 2,078,191 passengers, beating its March record of 2,066,777. Delta also set best-month-ever records in May at Washington Dulles, Nashville, Savanna, Huntsville, Richmond, Pensacola and Jacksonville. Following the trend, the Delta Shuttle boarded 191,139 passengers, its best month.
Aided by Northwest, KLM reported record net income of 547 million Dutch guilders (US$320 million) for fiscal 1996. A revaluation of its stake in the U.S. carrier added 258 million guilders (US$150.93 million) to the Dutch company's bottom line. The airline also announced plans to acquire additional aircraft for European service and a pact with its pilot union allowing it to contract with other carriers for some of its flying. While Northwest's financial strength bolstered KLM's bottom line, infighting between the two persists.
McDonnell Douglas DC-10 Systemwide Aircraft Utilization Per Day Fourth Quarter 1995 DC-10-10 American United Total Number of Aircraft Operated 17 30 47 Total Fleet Operations Departures 37 89 126 Block Hours 163 280 444
Vanguard Airlines has named retired Vice Admiral Robert Spane to its board and re-elected Edmund Shea, VP of J.F. Shea&Co., to the group. The carrier held its first annual meeting last week in Kansas City.
Northern Telecom has hired Greg Farmer, former under secretary of commerce for travel and tourism, to head its Washington, D.C., office as VP- government relations and international trade. Farmer was heavily involved in the planning of the first White House Conference on Travel and Tourism, held last October.
Continental President and Chief Executive Gordon Bethune will speak at the International Aviation Club's monthly luncheon June 12. Lunch begins at 12:30 p.m. at The University Club, 1135 16th St. NW, Washington, D.C. Cost is $35.
Three days before 25 District of Columbia inner-city high school students were to take their first flights as winners of a "Dream to Fly" contest, the sponsor, the National Air and Space Museum, canceled the rides. The museum's lawyers raised concerns about liability issues connected with sponsoring such flights.
Sabre Decision Technologies is offering Airpath, a client/server-based flight planning and dispatching system intended to help airlines enhance flight safety, optimize flight time and conserve fuel, the computer reservations system company said. "Airlines must be able to respond quickly to a host of variables - weather, aircraft performance and payload. Airpath allows them to do so by automatically providing dispatchers with the information they need to make efficient flight planning decisions," said Sabre VP Ira Gershkoff.
Sun Country Airlines is offering $49 fares for children up to 12 years old for the month of June to Boston, San Francisco, Seattle and New York Kennedy and Newark. Tickets must be purchased by tomorrow.
Wilcox Electric has been awarded a one-year contract by General Services Administration to provide satellite technology engineering support services to federal agencies, including FAA.
Reno Air will offer $39 one-way fares on new flights to Denver from Reno/Tahoe, beginning today. Flights from Denver through Reno to other points cost $69. The fares, which are available until one hour before the flight, can be upgraded to first class for $20.
The Clinton administration proposed yesterday a college scholarship program that would be funded in part through a new $10 departure tax on international travelers. The $6 international departure tax expired at the end of 1995, but the administration is proposing that it be restored at $16, with $10 going to the general fund to offset the cost of the education proposal.
Philadelphia's Aviation Division is urging DOT to approve Deutsche BA's bid to operate code-share service with USAir. Under the arrangement, the German carrier would hold out USAir's code on its intra-Germany flights (DAILY, May 24). Initially, the two airlines plan to code share on service from Munich to Berlin and Dusseldorf.
