Kimberly-Clark said yesterday it has completed a secondary offering of its final stake in Midwest Express Holdings Inc., the parent of Midwest Express Airlines and Astral Aviation Inc. As a result of the transaction, Kimberly-Clark will report a second quarter gain of $19.8 million on the sale of its 1.29 million shares of Midwest Express common stock.
In the show cause order tentatively awarding American and Canadian Airlines International antitrust immunity, DOT found that their proposed alliance would fortify competition, increasing consumer options in thousands of cross-border markets. Issued late Tuesday, the order exempted all-cargo and third-country services from the immunity and limited it temporarily on New York-Toronto services (DAILY, May 30).
Cabin crew unions of the International Transport Workers Federation will establish a task group to promote awareness of cabin air quality issues and lobby public interest groups, manufacturers, operators and governments to accept international air quality standards. Formation of the group follows a federation health and safety meeting in Dublin, which received a technical review of health hazards associated with poor air quality.
Northwest is not shopping around for a European alliance partner other than KLM but will do so if the Dutch carrier continues to push for control of Northwest, said President and Chief Executive John Dasburg. Speaking to reporters in Minneapolis yesterday, Dasburg said the relationship with KLM, which he described as "schizophrenic," still is a major strategic asset for Northwest. He said he hears, however, that KLM is talking to other airlines, and if control is what it wants, KLM will have to get it elsewhere.
Atlantic Southeast and Comair posted operating profit margins of better than 19% in the March quarter. Although down from recent highs - ASA hit 32.5% in the June quarter of 1994 - they are among the highest in the regional airline industry. SkyWest, the third publicly traded Delta Connection carrier, reported a negative 6.3% margin in the March quarter, due to nearly $4.6 million in fleet restructuring and transition costs related to early termination of Fairchild Metro leases and conversion to an all-Brasilia turboprop fleet.
Asia's largest aircraft maintenance hangar, a $70 million project, was opened last week in Peking by Ameco, a joint venture between Air China and Lufthansa. The 306-meter-wide enclosure can hold up to six widebody jets simultaneously. The facility will enable Ameco to improve the quality and timing of maintenance services, said General Manager Klaus Stahlschmidt. Ameco, established in 1989, is 60% Chinese-owned and employs 2,700 people.
St. George, Utah-based SkyWest Inc. posted a net loss of $2.15 million, or 21 cents per share, for the fourth quarter of fiscal 1996, compared with a slight net profit - $54,000, or one cent per share - for the fourth quarter of fiscal 1995. The loss contributed to a decline in fiscal year net earnings to $4.37 million, or 42 cents per share, from $13.70 million, or $1.23 per share, in the prior period.
Mesa Air Group, which operates as United Express at the Denver hub, said its costs at the new Denver International Airport have increased $500,000 per month, compared with its costs at Denver Stapleton, now closed. The company said in its quarterly 10-Q filing that it is working to reduce costs at DIA by eliminating scheduled banks in favor of a continuous hub. That has resulted in better aircraft utilization, improved baggage and on-time performance and a reduction of 20 full-time job equivalents.
A class action lawsuit was filed yesterday charging ValuJet with making "materially false and misleading statements" about the safety of its operations. It was filed by Berger&Montague of Philadelphia and Appel Chitwood&Harley of Atlanta in U.S. District Court in Georgia on behalf of three shareholders. The law firms said the suit represents purchasers of the carrier's common stock between June 9, 1995, and May 13, 1996. The defendants are ValuJet, Chairman Robert Priddy, Chief Executive Lewis Jordan and President Maurice Gallagher.
Boeing 767 Systemwide Aircraft Utilization Per Day Fourth Quarter 1996 B767-200 American Delta TWA Number of Aircraft Operated 30 15 11 Total Fleet Operations Departures 53 52 25 Block Hours 326 136 147
DOT issued a show cause order tentatively reselecting USAir Express carrier CCAIR to operate subsidized essential air service at Staunton, Va., for two years, beginning June 1. (Docket 49184)
TechniFlite of America, Inc., the Denver, Colo. flight training company, is hoping to "revolutionize" the way airline and corporate operators are trained with its Mobil Training Facilities (MTF) - a semi- tractor-trailer equipped with a full-motion, six-axis flight simulator and a classroom that will drive to a customer's home base.
Mesaba Holdings logged a net income of $7 million, or 60 cents per share, for the fiscal year ended March 31, compared with $2.6 million, or 29 cents per share, in the previous period. Revenues totaled $170.5 million, up from $145.9 million in the prior period. Mesaba said that its fiscal year results do not include a one-time, non-cash gain of $49.3 million from the spinoff of Airtran Airways to company shareholders in September 1995, but that fiscal year results include figures for Mesaba's former jet subsidiary through August 1995.
DOT has issued an order permitting American Eagle carrier Flagship Airlines to suspend its subsidy-free service at Muskegon, Mich., July 29. (DAILY, May 17). (Dockets OST-96-1289, OST-96-1290&EAS-668)
Alaska Airlines said it made "aviation technology history" on May 28 by operating the "first revenue passenger flight by a major carrier from takeoff to landing" using the Global Positioning System. The carrier flew from Seattle to Juneau using equipment that enables it to receive signals from GPS satellites. The equipment is being installed on Alaska's 747-400 fleet.
The captain of the ValuJet DC-9 that crashed May 11 in the Florida Everglades heard a sound that prompted her to attempt to return to the airport in Miami soon after takeoff, according to information from the aircraft's cockpit voice recorder issued yesterday by the National Transportation Safety Board. NTSB said the CVR shows that the captain questioned a "brief, unidentified sound that was recorded approximately five minutes and 47 seconds after takeoff." About 17 seconds after the sound, "the captain stated the need to go back to Miami," the board said.
Lufthansa has severed its ties to Indian carrier Modiluft, the German airline said. Links between the two carriers were established three years ago, when the private Indian carrier was founded. Since then, Lufthansa has provided a wide range of services to the carrier, training its pilots and flight attendants in Germany, providing maintenance, technical support and leasing it seven 737s, a Lufthansa spokesman said. The two carriers also participated in a joint marketing pact, under which they coordinated schedules.
Piedmont Aviation Services has formed an Airline Sales Division headed by Corwin Lindstrom, formerly international sales manager-airlines for Raytheon Aircraft Co. Lindstrom will be responsible for buying, refurbishing, selling and brokering used airline equipment. Piedmont also will be buyer's and seller's agent on an exclusive basis and is soliciting listings. The FBO has bought a Beech 1900C, which is being refurbished.
Dornier 328 is under a 45-day FAA emergency airworthiness directive for cracked or shattered windscreens. The company has installed a lighter - by 6.5 pounds - windscreen as part of an overall weight-reduction program. FOD damage, however, has caused the screens to crack or shatter in flight, which "could result in a restriction of the flight crew's ability to...control the airplane safely." The 328 is restricted to 10,000 feet MSL, although Dornier has proposed an alternative method of compliance that would raise that limitation to 20,000 feet.
Trimble and Honeywell together will offer Global Positioning System navigation systems to the regional airline market, the companies announced this month at the Regional Airline Association meeting in Orlando. Trimble will manufacture and Honeywell will market, sell and support two navigation products, the HT9000 and HT9100 Navigation Management Systems. Trimble Avionics VP Bruce Alspach said, "The immediate and future benefits of GPS should be available to all aircraft operators.
Two America West unions called on the airline yesterday to appoint a safety czar, noting that the carrier's top executive operations officer, Thomas Derieg, has resigned. Derieg, senior VP-operations, said he will leave the carrier July 12. A spokesman for the airline said Derieg is stepping down for personal reasons, and there is no connection between safety and his departure. The spokesman also denied any connection with Derieg's resignation and the recent appointment of Frito-Lay executive Richard Goodmanson as the carrier's new president.
Sen. Bill Cohen (R-Maine) asked Attorney General Janet Reno yesterday to investigate allegations that FAA is trying to identify the FAA inspector who testified anonymously last month at a Cohen-led hearing (DAILY, May 3). FAA Administrator David Hinson denied knowledge of such an attempt and ordered an FAA investigation.
The schedules of Kendall Airlines of Australia and Denim Air of The Netherlands are available for booking through Amadeus, the computer reservations system provider said. Two other carriers, Air Macau and China Eastern Airlines, have upgraded to Amadeus's Direct Access product, and Aero Mexico and Virgin Atlantic have upgraded to Access Sell, a higher level.
Fairchild Aircraft will get 80% of the Dornier Luftfahrt corporation, said Manfred Bischoff, chairman of Daimler-Benz Aerospace, despite a confidentiality agreement. Financial details remain elusive, although Fairchild is said to have received favorable terms from the German aerospace conglomerate. The Dornier family, which owns 47% of the company but controls only 20% of the voting stock, continues to talk of blocking the venture, charging that Fairchild is incapable of running the company while maintaining the "social concerns" of employees.
