Air cargo traffic, which increased 5% in February, decreased 2.6% in March, the Air Transport Association said yesterday. ATA President Carol Hallett said the industry was "encouraged last month," but the March data "marked a reversal of that progress, which shows just how fragile the industry's economic recovery truly is." Hallett said the turnaround shows "why sensible tax and regulatory policies are so sorely needed."
In its first extension of its brand name and services to a carrier outside the U.K., British Airways has signed up Danish regional airline Sun-Air as a franchise partner. Sun-Air's fleet will be repainted in the livery of British Airways Express and its crews will wear BA uniforms as of Aug. 1. Sun-Air will remain a separate company in which BA has no stake, but BA will work with it on marketing, sales and yield management.
DOT approved Carnival Airlines' application to operate scheduled combination service between Fort Lauderdale and Caracas, Venezuela. (Docket OST-96-1166)
AT&T Wireless Services has completed installing digital passenger telephones on all 260 of American's MD-80 jets. American now has AT&T digital phones on its F100s, DC-10s, 757s, 767s and 727s.
Interactive Flight Technologies said Donald Goldman, president and a director, has told the company he intends to resign, effective May 10, subject to reaching agreement on terms. IFT recently announced letters of intent with Swissair and Oasis International Airlines and a definitive pact with Debonair Airlines. IFT said it was the first company to offer, in a contract with Alitalia, digital inflight entertainment featuring video on demand, with more than 20 digitized movies per flight.
Surging fuel prices have led airlines in Hawaii to add a $2 fuel surcharge to their fares.The new fee, tacked onto tickets sold May 6, was imposed by Aloha Airlines after its jet fuel costs increased 14 cents per gallon in one month, leaving it with a cumulative fuel price increase of almost 30% since the beginning of the year. "We haven't seen these kinds of increases since the Gulf War," said Glenn Zander, Aloha's president and chief executive.
United is bringing members of the Democratic National Convention host committee, including Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, and samples of the city's cuisine from Chicago to Washington today for an event promoting the convention, to be held this summer in Chicago. A "Taste of Chicago," hosted by Chicago '96 and members of the Illinois delegation, will be held at the Rayburn House Office Building.
Mesa Air Group said yesterday that its Mountain West Division has reached a tentative contract agreement with the Air Line Pilots Association. The agreement follows several months of negotiations. "We are happy to have reached agreement," said Larry Risley, Mesa's chairman and chief executive.
Great Lakes Aviation Ltd. suffered a net loss of $2.77 million for the fist quarter, compared with a 1.73 million net loss in first quarter 1995. The company's revenue increased 43.2%, to $23.14 million, but operating expenses jumped 51.3% to $26.08 million, leaving Great Lakes with an operating loss of $2.94 million. The company's net loss per share was 37 cents, compared with 23 cents in the first quarter of 1995. The carrier attributed the loss to schedule interruptions and other effects of an FAA inspection of Brasilia propeller blades.
Greenwich Air Services yesterday reported that sales for its second fiscal quarter increased 36% to $60 million, a record for the quarter, while net income jumped 76% to $2.3 million. For the first six months, the engine overhaul and management services company's sales increased 43% to $118.6 million while net income rose 88% to $4.4 million, both records. Eugene Conese, chairman, credited the results to "the efficient utilization of our two major facilities and our ability to meet customers' expectations in quality, reliability and turntime."
FAA yesterday denied a charge by the air traffic controllers' union that it is putting untrained controllers on Automated Surface Observing Systems (ASOSs) (DAILY, May 3). The agency said it has adhered to a memorandum of understanding with the National Air Traffic Controllers Association to ensure that there are "sufficient air traffic personnel fully trained and certified to perform ASOS augmentation/backup until all of the controllers have been provided hands-on training before taking over ASOS sites from the National Weather Service.
Simmons Airlines said it intends to terminate service to Marquette Aug. 1. Operating as American Eagle, the carrier offers two daily one-stop roundtrips between Marquette and Chicago O'Hare, using 46-seat ATRs. "We regret that we simply cannot afford to operate the air service any longer," said Ralph Richardi, president of Simmons. Marquette is one of 20 cities American Eagle will stop serving this year because of unsatisfactory earnings in the markets. It plans to continue to operate its maintenance base in Marquette. (Docket OST-96-1342)
Transwede Airways has asked DOT for permission to transfer its foreign air carrier permit to Transwede Leisure, a recently formed company under common ownership with Transwede. As part of a corporate reorganization, the charter operations of Transwede Airways are being transferred to Transwede Leisure, and Transwede Airways will operate only as a scheduled carrier within Sweden. Pending the transfer of the certificate, Transwede Leisure is seeking an exemption to operate charter service between Sweden and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., beginning June 12.
A computer software program designed to provide real-time comparisons of business travel costs on privately operated aircraft, charter flights and scheduled airlines is being developed by the National Business Aircraft Association. Use of the program will show that business aircraft perform better than airlines on most typical business trips, NBAA officials said.
Alaska Airlines' traffic increased 17.9% last month, compared with April 1995, on a 9.6% rise in capacity. The carrier flew 778 million revenue passenger miles for the month on capacity of 1.2 billion available seat miles, and the load factor increased 4.6 percentage points to 65.1%. The number of passengers carried by Alaska rose 22.19% to 945,300. For the first four months of the year, traffic grew 18.4% over the same period last year on 9.9% more capacity. Load factor was up 4.4 percentage points to 61.8%.
FAA demonstrated new fire-resistant insulation materials in the Full-Scale Fire Test Facility at the Technical Center in Atlantic City. The new material is expected to more than double the time in which fuel-fed flames can burn through an aircraft's aluminum skin and fiberglass batting. FAA said the test is one of its research efforts aimed at protecting air travelers from post-crash fires.
New floor-path markings that operate without electrical power are enabling customers of Lufthansa Technik to cut virtually to zero the number of takeoff delays due to failure of marking strips, according to Lufthansa Technik. German airworthiness authorities authorized LHT early this year to install the system in Lufthansa's Boeing 737-300/400/500 aircraft, and the company expects approval by midyear to install it in all other short- and medium-haul jets, and by yearend in the long-haul fleet.
World Airways Inc. has signed a $69 million contract to wet-lease aircraft to Philippine Airlines. Under the contract, World will operate several routes for PAL using one of its two MD-11ER aircraft and one DC-10-30. The accord covers the aircraft, crew, maintenance and insurance for 18 months starting June 15, World said. PAL has an option to switch the DC-10 for an MD-11, and to wet-lease as many as two more MD-11s to World beginning this summer, World said. World took delivery of the first two MD-11ERs in March.
Boeing Commercial yesterday announced launch of "Boeing Direct," which will deliver spare parts from Boeing to customers' maintenance facilities through United Parcel Service at "substantial discounts from published shipping rates." The service will help airlines reduce spares inventories and meet needs for airplane-on-ground repairs, Boeing said. A single payment will cover both shipping and parts.
Iberia, Europe's latest recipient of state aid to make up for overall deficits, said its cargo operations posted record profits of 4.5 billion pesetas in 1995, three times those of the previous year. Gross income from cargo transport increased 10%, to nearly 32 billion pesetas, compared with the carrier's forecast of a 2.4% increase. Iberia said it carried 196,000 tons of cargo in 1995, up from 178,150 tons in 1994, and on the basis of its "vigorous increase" in freight, it expects to transport 255,000 tons by 2000. Spain accounted for 39% of the volume, the U.S.
U.S. Major Carriers Advertising Expenses Fourth Quarter 1995 % Of Total Passenger Systemwide Revenues America West $ 7,193,430 1.96 Domestic 7,189,051 1.99 Latin 4,379 0.08 American 49,542,000 1.51
Burlington Air Express said revenues increased 9% in the first quarter to $352 million from $330 million, and operating profits increased 8% to $8.7 million from $8.1 million. Net profit declined to $3.8 million from $4 million, however. Joseph Farrell, chairman, said the company's "greatest gains continue to involve our international operations." International air freight revenues rose 6% to $166.3 million, while domestic revenues were unchanged at $128.8 million.
A shrinking number of controllers and a lack of overtime pay mean that "summer delays will increase dramatically as staffing levels decline" at the New York air route traffic control center (ARTCC), the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said yesterday. An FAA official countered that the agency will have the "right amount of staff and the right amount of overtime" to ensure smooth operations. The center is responsible for aircraft flying over New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean.
Telephonics said it received a contract to build and install an air traffic control system for a major new air route traffic control center for southeastern China. The center, in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, will provide China with its first fully automated civil ATC area control center, the company said. The system uses Telephonics's advanced multi-radar fusion tracking system, a fully integrated flight data processing system and UNIX open systems architecture.
