George Mikelsons, chairman of Amtran, whose principal subsidiary is American Trans Air, was named the 1996 recipient of the Tony Jannus Award in St. Petersburg, Fla.
DOT will support the rights of U.S. airlines to sell their services abroad, the department said in its tentative approval of antitrust immunity for United and Lufthansa (DAILY, May 13), but the immunity petition is not the right forum for the computer reservations system complaints raised by American and TWA. American asked DOT to condition approval of immunity on the end of anticompetitive practices by German airlines and travel suppliers affiliated with the Amadeus CRS - owned by Lufthansa, Air France, Iberia and Continental - against American's Sabre CRS.
Air India and Air France have agreed to work together on an integrated promotional campaign aimed at doubling tourist traffic between the two countries by 2000, AI officials said yesterday. At present, nearly 70,000 French tourists visit India, and about 30,000 Indians travel to France annually, they said. The campaign entails pooling the efforts of the state-run tourist departments of India and France, and of the Indo-French chambers of commerce, and various hoteliers' associations in both countries.
U.S. and French officials still are trying to assign dates for informal aviation negotiations. The talks have been planned before July, and the U.S. would rather hold them this month. But it is beginning to look more like June, a U.S. official said.
Passenger numbers at Chinese airports for 1994, the most recent available, provide insight into this rapidly growing market, according to The DAILY's correspondent in Hong Kong. The country's top three airports maintained their relative positions, although their market shares dropped slightly. At the other end of the scale, Chongqing jumped two places to enter the top 10, and after two years of decline, Guilin dropped out. Shenzhen overtook Xiamen. Also showing high growth rates were airports in the West and Southeast - Chengdu, Chongqing and Kunming.
Jeppesen was selected by Lufthansa Technik to convert maintenance manuals for Lufthansa's fleet of A300, A310, A320, A340, 737 and 747 aircraft, and aircraft of other Lufthansa Technik customers, into a common electronic format for use in the Jeppesen data display system. When this is done, Jeppesen will process and distribute data revisions provided by the aircraft manufacturers as well as the Lufthansa Technik engineering department.
Hensel Phelps Construction, Irvine, Calif., obtained last week a $107,238,000 contract from the Los Angeles Department of Airports for Phase 2 of a terminal expansion project at Ontario Airport. "The end result will be two new passenger terminals eight times the size of the current facility and thousands of new jobs," said John Driscoll, Department of Airports executive director. In addition to the two 275,000-square-foot terminals, the project includes roadway and parking lot construction, landscaping and utility work.
DOT Secretary Federico Pena on Saturday announced a notice of proposed rulemaking that would restrict commercial sightseeing flights over Rocky Mountain National Park in Estes Park, Colo. The proposal, which grew out of a DOT-Interior Department working group formed in 1993, will be published this week in the Federal Register with comments due 90 days later.
EVA Airways Corp. said yesterday it plans to buy four more MD-90s. The carrier earlier ordered six of the jets and now has 10 on order. Two of the newly ordered jets will go into service in April and July 1997. One will be operated by EVA's domestic partner, Great China Airlines, and the other by UNI Air, formerly Makung Airlines, another EVA partner. It will be put into service in 1998. EVA owns 24% of Great China Airlines and 42% of UNI.
It appears to be about five times riskier to fly a commercial transport in a non-precision approach - as did the U.S. Air Force CT-43A VIP transport aircraft that crashed April 3 in Croatia, killing Commerce Secretary Ron Brown - than in a precision approach, researchers said in a report made public last week by the Flight Safety Foundation. The report, digested from a larger study performed under contract to the Dutch government, said the risk also can rise as much as eight-fold in certain regions of the world.
AirWays Corp., parent of Orlando-based jet carrier AirTran Airways, named Mark Rinder secretary and treasurer. He has been VP-finance since February 1996. He replaces John Olbrych, who will remain a board member.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) plans today to introduce legislation intended to boost enforcement of the prohibition against illegal diversion of airport revenue. McCain, chairman of the Senate Commerce aviation subcommittee, also will introduce a one-year Airport Improvement Program reauthorization bill. Under the revenue diversion bill, DOT/FAA would be required to conduct annual audits, certified by the DOT inspector general, to review spending by airports and their sponsors.
Continental, which gives cash bonuses to its workers for keeping its flights on time, said yesterday it will no longer include the performances of Southwest, America West and Alaska Airlines in computing the rewards. The change in policy comes because those carriers file ontime reports manually while other airlines report electronically. Continental claims the manual filers have the opportunity to shave minutes from their time, thereby achieving a better record.
The SIA Group, parent of Singapore Airlines, reported an after-tax profit of S$1.025 billion (US$728 million), an 11.7% increase from last year's results. Singapore's financial year ended March 31. The group's operating profit grew 12.3% to S$1.045 billion (US$742 million), lifting earnings per share 11.7% to 79.9 cents. But the airline company's operating profit fell S$61 million (US$39 million), or 7.4%, to S$756 million (US$537 million).
Qantas has received approval from the Australian government to operate scheduled service to India. The International Air Services Commission will allow the airline to operate a 767-300 two times per week between Australia and Mumbai (formerly Bombay) via Singapore July 3. The carrier plans to add a third flight on the route later this year.
Russian carrier Transaero plans this week to put out to bid an order for $1.2 billion worth of aircraft, Gregory Gurtovoy, the carrier's deputy chairman, said yesterday at a news conference in Washington. The bidding, open to U.S., Russian and European aircraft manufacturers, will be for a mix of up to 40 narrow- and widebody jets, he said. Between 10 and 12 of those would be widebodies, while the remainder would be for use in Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States. The jets will be used to replace aircraft on lease as well as for expansion through 2000.
Southwest announced yesterday an agreement with Salt Lake City to build its ninth and largest reservations center. The 47,000-square-foot facility will accommodate 800 agents when it is completed this fall. It will be built on a 13-acre parcel of land that is part of the Salt Lake City Airport complex and replace a center in Utah that currently employs about 560 agents. The carrier's other reservations centers are located in Dallas, Houston, Albuquerque, Phoenix, Oklahoma City, Little Rock, San Antonio and Chicago.
Colombia is urging DOT to throw out a complaint brought by American against its government and carriers. Also, awaiting an answer on its bid for U.S.- Colombia rights, Continental asked the department to defer action on the complaint. American's complaint, filed last month, charged Colombia with refusing to allow the carrier to exercise existing authority to operate nonstop New York-Bogota service (DAILY, April 30). American asked DOT to retaliate by holding up Avianca's authority to serve the New York-Bogota market.
Delta Connection carrier Comair plans to begin nonstop service June 1 between its Cincinnati hub and Huntsville, Ala., operating 30-passenger Embraer Brasilia aircraft.
USAir has tapped a new top executive to lead it through critical negotiations with its labor unions. The company said last week that John Long III, 48, will replace John Frestel Jr., 56, as executive VP-human resources. In addition to labor relations, Long will be responsible for other personnel matters and training. "With a new round of negotiations, he [Frestel] felt now was a good time to break off and move on," a USAir spokesman said. The carrier just started contract talks with its pilots, and discussions are under way with its unit of the Machinists union.
