Fuel prices have spiked and are starting to ebb, Alaska Airlines Chairman John Kelly said last week. The carrier, which paid as much as 77 cents for a gallon of jet fuel earlier this year, paid a little more than 63 cents last week.
Maverick Airways is once again seeking a certificate to operate scheduled service in Colorado. The carrier initially applied Sept. 12, 1995, but DOT dismissed the application at the request of the airline, which said it was implementing a restructured financing plan (DAILY, Feb. 1). The carrier now proposes beginning operations in the fall, using one 48-seat de Havilland Dash 7 aircraft to provide daily service between Denver, Grand Junction, Steamboat Springs, Colorado Springs and Salt Lake City.
Federal district court in Brooklyn, N.Y., last week sentenced Scot Spencer, former president of the now-defunct Braniff, to 51 months in jail for illegal activities at the carrier in 1991 and 1992. Jeffrey Chodorow, former chairman and part owner, received four months in jail and four years of supervised release for comparable offenses. Spencer also must pay $115,000 to the Braniff estate for accepting illegal kickbacks from the airline's advertising agency and concealing company assets from creditors.
Sun Country Airlines has applied for an exemption to operate scheduled cargo service between co-terminal points New York and Columbus, Ohio, on the one hand, and Hong Kong, on the other. The carrier proposes operating charter service, using DC-10-30F aircraft, eastward from New York via various intermediate points to Hong Kong, where it would continue the flight as scheduled service to Columbus and New York. (Docket OST-96-1392)
American is seeking renewal of its exemptions to serve several international routes. The carrier has asked for continued authority to operate daily nonstop Dallas/Fort Worth-Tokyo service and twice-daily Miami-Toronto service. American also asked for renewal of its authority to operate combination service between co-terminal points Dallas and Miami, intermediate points the Azores and Lisbon, Portugal, and terminal points Madrid, Barcelona, Malaga and Palma de Mallorca, Spain. American currently provides daily nonstop service between Miami and Madrid.
DOT and the Justice Department, at odds on the need for antitrust immunity restrictions on Delta and its European partners in major city-pairs, will reconsider in 18 months the limitations DOT imposed in three markets and rejected in four. Preserving competition in the seven city-pairs turned out to be the big issue as Justice reviewed the antitrust immunity application of Delta and its European partners, Swissair, Sabena and Austrian.
Express One agreed to pay passenger facility charges in a timely manner in a joint consent order issued by DOT Friday. Between October 1994 and June 1995, the department said the carrier collected about $1.4 million in PFCs from enplaning passengers but failed to remit it to the airports. The carrier entered bankruptcy on June 15 still owing that amount. Express One also failed to file quarterly PFC accounting reports with the airports, beginning January 1995.
U.S. airlines hired 7,917 airline maintenance technicians between April 1995 and April 1996, 2,531 more than the same 12-month period a year earlier. American led the way with 250 new hires, the Future Aviation Professionals of America reports. United was next with 202 and Southwest hired 137.
Travel agents began reporting sales on Uzbekistan Airways with the Airlines Reporting Corp. yesterday. The Tashkent-based airline provides scheduled service from New York to Tashkent, Uzbekistan, via Amsterdam. The flights connect to Frankfurt, London, Delhi, Karachi, Samarkand, Odessa, Sochi, Kuala Lumpur, Istanbul, Jeddah, Tel Aviv, Beijing, Bahrain and Bangkok. The carrier operates A310-300 aircraft.
United Express affiliate Atlantic Coast Airlines has named Richard Kennedy general counsel and secretary, effective June 1. Kennedy has served at British Aerospace since 1991, most recently with its JSX Capital subsidiary. Kennedy succeeds Mark C. Bisnow, who previously announced his plan to step down from the position of Senior VP, general counsel and secretary and act as a consultant to ACA through yearend. Bisnow, a former aide to Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, "will devote more time to the candidate's presidential election campaign," ACA said.
Regional carrier Atlantic Southeast Airlines' board of directors approved the airline management's plan to create a holding company in an attempt to gain additional flexibility in its corporate organization. Creation of the holding company still is subject to the approval of creditors and shareholders.
The European Commission plans a substantial overhaul of the European Union's code of conduct for computer reservations systems (CRS) in view of the expanding number of ticketing information sources available to the consumer via the Internet and other electronic data networks. "We think the code should be simplified," said Frederick Sorensen, of the EC's air transport policy directorate general, at a recent Brussels conference.
Aero International (Regional) plans to spend $1.1 billion to develop its new 70-passenger-class regional jet. The company is now looking at three variants of the airplane - 58 seats, 70 seats and an 85-seat stretch. The 70-seat aircraft will have a takeoff weight of less than 70,000 pounds, keeping it well under the 75,000-pound restriction in many airline contract scope agreements. The ATR/British Aerospace consortium said the new airplane will be announced at the 1997 Paris Air Show, and some U.S. companies have indicated strong interest in the machine...
Deutsche BA has applied for authority to operate code-share service with USAir, enabling it to use USAir's code on its intra-Germany flights. Initially, the two airlines plan to code share on service from Munich to Berlin and Dusseldorf. Also, USAir yesterday began daily 767-200ER service to Munich from Philadelphia. (Docket OST-96-1397)
Negotiators for Swissair and its pilots reached agreement on a three-year labor contract the company expects to reduce costs by at least 60 million Swiss francs per year through increased productivity and a 5% cut in wages, starting July 1. The airline guarantees that it will keep at least 950 pilot jobs throughout the three years, with no layoffs. In return, the pilots agreed not to strike, and to accept personnel reductions through attrition, increase duty time and reduce the retirement age to 55.
Fairchild Aircraft this week quietly showed off the mock-up of a new stand-up cabin for the 19-passenger Metro, a plan abandoned by the manufacturer several years ago. The aircraft would offer a 71-inch stand- up height and a 62-inch cross-section, which compares with 54 inches for the competitive Beech 1900D. The mock-up included a comparison with the "side-wall-hugging" Beech model. Fairchild officials would only say they will await customer reaction before deciding to build the aircraft.
Haiti Trans Air asked DOT to renew its authority to operate between Haiti and the terminal points Miami, Fort Lauderdale, New York and San Juan. It does not currently operate its own aircraft but has been negotiating with other authorized carriers to operate the services for it on a wet-lease basis. (Docket OST-96-1391)
DOT has granted Air South a temporary exemption from the High Density Rule to enable the new-entrant carrier to expand low-fare service between South Carolina and New York. The airline will use the slots to augment its current off-peak services to New York Kennedy, offered since April 10 at times when slots are not controlled. It has planned to begin peak or controlled-hour services June 20 (DAILY, April 8).
America West's Teamsters union unit used the company's annual shareholder meeting yesterday in Columbus, Ohio, to demand answers from Chief Executive William Franke on the airline's maintenance practices and their impact on safety. Mechanics have been critical of the company's decision to outsource heavy maintenance, which cut 400 jobs. The Teamsters in March won the right to represent mechanics who perform light-maintenance, who have already complained about the delay in getting negotiations going over a first contract.
While some analysts say FAA's "One Level of Safety" commuter rule would be the demise of the 10- to 19-seat aircraft category, Raytheon Aircraft praised the agency for taking "a pretty frightening" proposal and developing a workable rule that is a "non-event, non-ruinous." Raytheon Aircraft VP-Airline Sales Mike Scheidt eschewed predictions that the rule is killing the market, noting strong sales for the company's own 19-seat 1900D twin-turboprop. Scheidt said Raytheon Aircraft is "delivering a lot more airline product" than other regional manufacturers.
Delta has appointed Paul Matsen, VP-consumer marketing, as its new VP- corporate planning, responsible for directing the development of one-year capital and operating plans and three-year strategic plans. The corporate planning department will make decisions on international routes, the structure of Delta's domestic network and new code-sharing partnerships. After the fiscal 1997 operating plan is approved, corporate planning also will be responsible for cost-cutting initiatives under the Leadership 7.5 program. Julius Gwin, VP-business planning, will report to Matsen.
