Greyhound of Canada has gone to the country's Court of Appeals to try to overturn National Transport Agency rulings that the company must obtain an air license to offer commercial air service with partner Kelowna Flightcraft Air Charter. The rulings have pushed back Greyhound's plans to offer flights at least until the middle of June.
Granted orally to American renewal of its exemption to operate scheduled combination service between Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico, on the one hand, and Porlamar, Venezuela, on the other.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) introduced legislation (S.1774) Friday to strengthen the prohibition against airport revenue diversion and expand the definition of diversion (DAILY, May 14). McCain's bill would expand the prohibition to cover local taxes on aviation fuel and revenues at airports that receive any form of federal assistance or that operate under a federally issued airport operating certificate. Los Angeles has been declining airport grants for Los Angeles Airport as part of its efforts to "defederalize" the facility.
Adopted an AD on certain Boeing 737-300, -400 and -500 aircraft requiring inspection of a wire bundle and clamp in the electronic/electrical equipment bay, with replacement of the clamp and repair as necessary. Issued special conditions for the Cessna 750 aircraft. Issued special conditions for the Dassault Mystere Falcon 50 aircraft modified with a Flight Visions FV-2000 head-up display system. Revised an AD on certain McDonnell Douglas DC-9-80 and MD-88 aircraft regarding use of autothrottles during takeoff.
USAir President Rakesh Gangwal will work the line one day a month for the rest of the year to interact with employees and learn more about operations. Gangwal asked senior managers last week to pay more attention to employees' suggestions and concerns. USAir has promised workers that management will be held accountable not only for the decisions it makes, but also for what is not done.
Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association has filed notice of an appeal of a December decision by the U.S. District Court that prevented mechanics represented by AMFA from striking Atlantic Coast Airlines. AMFA argues that the company changed work rules after union certification in March 1994 and prior to an initial collective bargaining agreement, which has not yet been reached, and that this means the union may have a right to strike. AMFA filed the appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Granted orally to Southern Air Transport renewal of its authority to serve Miami and Bogota, Barranquilla, Cali and Cartagena, Colombia, via intermediate points.
FAA said it plans to conduct a competitive procurement for a contract to provide engineering services and program management support for satellite and satellite augmentation systems. Services will be provided to FAA's Satellite Navigation program office on a task order basis for up to seven years, including option years. The agency said it will issue an initial screening information request about May 24 to prequalify companies for participating in the procurement as prime contractors.
GTE Airfone promoted Jim Pilcher to director-sales. International Aviation Services appointed Patrick Browne manager- technical sales; Jeffrey Conrad director-business development; Charles Germany director-human resources, and Louis Werner director-sales. Raytheon Aircraft named Richard Klass VP-government arketing. Reed Travel Group named Kathy Misunas president-business development&technology solutions. Saab named Gregory Kinsella senior market analyst.
With United/Lufthansa tentatively approved and near final action, DOT is reported to be close to decisions on the two major antitrust immunity applications that are still pending, American/Canadian and Delta/Swissair/Sabena/Austrian. There is a good chance that the department will settle one of them this week, sources say.
Southwest plans to announce within a month its one and only focus city for the rest of this year, Chairman Herbert Kelleher said last week at the carrier's annual meeting. Kelleher said the city might be in the Northeast and then again it might not. Possibilities mentioned by observers include Hartford, Manchester, Providence and Newburgh, N.Y.
ValuJet reduced its schedule 50% Friday in order to inspect its fleet of 51 aircraft in the wake of the Flight 592 crash May 11. The carrier said that, effective immediately, it would operate a peak schedule of 160 flights per day, down from 320. It said it will keep all 51 aircraft in service during the review and still will fly to all 31 cities in its network, offering fewer flights each day, and USAir has agreed to transport passengers that ValuJet cannot accommodate.
Reno Air's traffic jumped 51.4% in April to 211 million revenue passenger miles from 139.3 million a year earlier. Capacity rose 48% to 337.7 million available seat miles from 228.2 million. The load factor for the month was 62.5%, up 1.4 percentage points from last April.
AirWays Corporation, parent of AirTran Airways, named Mark Rinder secretary and treasurer. America West named Gus Whitcomb director-corporate communications. Emirates appointed Edward Lim manager-Australia and New Zealand. Frontier promoted Donna Cavos to manager-pricing and revenue management, and Barbara Gessner to city manager-San Diego, and appointed John Hershner director-human resources and properties, and Jerry Schimetz city manager-St. Louis.
Canadian Airlines International will increase code sharing with American June 1, placing its code on flights from Los Angeles to Bakersfield, Santa Barbara, Carlsbad, Fresno, San Luis Obispo, San Diego, Las Vegas, Monterrey, Orange County and Palm Springs. As of July 1, Canadian's code will be placed on flights from Chicago and Dallas to Fort Lauderdale, San Antonio and West Palm Beach. Through Miami, Canadian will code share to Fort Myers, Key West, Naples, West Palm Beach, Sarasota and Orlando.
Data in a DOT report dated May 2 and released last Thursday show ValuJet to have one of the worst safety records of the nation's airlines. Covering 1990 to May 2, 1996, the data show rates of accidents, runway incursions and pilot deviations for low-cost and major airlines. "The report demonstrates that as a class of airlines, low-cost carriers and major airlines have had substantially the same rates in these categories," FAA Administrator David Hinson said Thursday.
Granted orally to LTU Lufttransport-Unternehmen an exemption to serve Phoenix as an additional U.S. point on its scheduled combination services between Germany and the U.S. and beyond the U.S. to any point or points outside the U.S.
Frontier Airlines appointed to its board William McNamara, who retired in 1994 as Continental's VP-finance and had worked for New York Air and TWA. Frontier now has three outside directors and one inside director.
Las Vegas pulled well ahead of Orlando as this year's No. 1 destination of summer travelers, according to the American Society of Travel Agents' annual Summer Hot Spots survey. Polling travel agencies across the country randomly about where travelers want to go, ASTA found that London still is the leading international destination. A clear majority of the agents, 71.3%, said overall bookings were up over last year.
UPS will begin construction this year of a new package sorting and distribution facility in East Los Angeles, the carrier said Friday. The 400,000-square-foot building, expected to be ready by late 1998, will operate 24 hours a day, five days a week. It will be located on 26 acres at 716 Lamar St. UPS's Soto Street facility has been sold to the company that is building the new facility.
Midway Airlines traffic jumped 161% in April to 93.7 million revenue passenger miles while capacity grew 127% to 144.9 million available seat miles, pushing the load factor to 64.7% from 56.2%. It carried 163,371 passengers during the month. The carrier, which launched service from its Raleigh/Durham hub in March, said April was the second consecutive month of significant traffic growth. Its March traffic rose 230% over that of March 1995. Midway President John Selvaggio attributed the improvement to added capacity and maturing markets.
American has objected to DOT's tentative decision to grant antitrust immunity to the United/Lufthansa alliance ahead of its request for similar immunity with Canadian Airlines International, filed more than three months before United's. American also said DOT should seek assurances from the German government that it will take steps to eliminate computer reservations system barriers that have existed in Germany for some time. The German government owns several companies that American claims have barred entry in the German market by U.S. CRSs.
U.S. Major Carriers Pacific Share of Service Fourth Quarter 1995 Total Revenue Departures American 525 Delta 938 Northwest 5,871 United 5,537 Total 12,871 Average Number of Seats Per Departure American 242
Helicopter Association International asked DOT not to go through with its proposal to prohibit overflights of Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park, Colo. The Rocky Mountain notice of proposed rulemaking is "ostensibly a reaction to very isolated reports of aircraft noise" over parks that cannot be attributed positively to helicopters, said HAI President Frank Jensen.
