Delta is setting some lofty goals for the pilots who will fly its new lower-cost 737 operation.The carrier envisions pilots flying 82 hard hours - operating the controls - per month.By contrast, Southwest pilots, the undisputed champions of short-haul flying, squeeze out just 72 hours, notes Steve Lewins, an analyst with Gruntal Investment Research.
KLM flew 6% more revenue passenger kilometers last month than in April 1995 on a 7% increase in passenger capacity. The airline flew 3.72 million revenue passenger kilometers on capacity of 5.19 million available passenger kilometers. Load factor was down 0.5 percentage points to 71.7%. Overall, traffic increased 4% on a 9% jump in capacity, and the total load factor was 69.6%, down 3.3 points.
Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.) asked Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Larry Pressler (R-S.D.) to schedule a hearing on the FAA inspector work force as soon as possible. Hollings, ranking Democrat on the committee, noted that a recent Governmental Affairs oversight subcommittee hearing suggested several problems with the inspection system. "If such problems exist, it is incumbent on the Committee to review the matter and to take corrective action."
USAir's traffic fell 3.9% last month, compared with April 1995, on an 8.3% drop in capacity. The load factor for the month was 70.9%, up 3.5 points from 67.4% in April 1995. The monthly load factor was a record for the carrier. "We are pleased that demand has been strong all across our system and that future bookings continue to follow the trend of the past couple of months," said USAir President Rakesh Gangwal. For the first four months of the year, USAir's traffic was down 4.2% on a 10.6% falloff in capacity.
A discussion draft of a House FAA reauthorization bill would allow DOT to exempt up to five airports and their sponsors from various laws in order to allow the sale or long-term lease of the airports to the private sector. The pilot program would allow DOT to grant exemptions from revenue diversion prohibitions to allow an airport owner to recover proceeds from the sale or lease - but only in amounts approved by airlines accounting for more than 50% of total passenger boardings at the airport during the previous year.
An investor group including Carl Icahn has sold down its stake in TWA to 9.9%. The group said in a filing at the Securities and Exchange Commission that it sold 500,000 shares May 2 at $18 per share. Under a deal worked out to extricate Icahn from TWA, proceeds of the shares will be used to fund the carrier's pensions. With the sale, the Icahn group holds 3.67 million shares.
World Airways and Southern Air Transport are seeking increased service authority between the U.S. and South Africa. World asked that its certificate be amended to include South Africa and requested two more frequencies in the market, bringing its total to seven.
Continental's fifth-place finish among the largest U.S. airlines in on-time performance in March is the carrier's first slip below third since June 1995. Its operational turnaround continues, however. For the first quarter of this year, it ranked second in fewest mishandled bags, second in fewest complaints and second in on-time performance. It was first in on- time performance in the fourth quarter of 1995.
Northwest has applied for authority to operate code-share service with Alaska Airlines on U.S.-Mexico service. Northwest is seeking to place its designator code, beginning June 1, on Alaska's San Francisco/Los Angeles- Mazatlan/Puerto Vallarta/San Jose del Cabo; Phoenix-Puerto Vallarta/San Jose del Cabo, and San Diego-San Jose del Cabo services. "Although the U.S.-Mexico bilateral agreement does not specifically address code-sharing, the governments of the United States and Mexico routinely have authorized code-share service in the U.S.-Mexico market," Northwest said.
U.S. Major and National Carriers Landing Expenses Fourth Quarter 1995 Average Amount Systemwide Spent Per Landing America West $ 7,884,522 $ 156.45 American 52,447,000 260.98 Continental 22,772,000 204.81 Delta 55,874,000 238.26
Airbus Industrie reported that its A300-600 and 600R have been certificated by the Interstate Aviation Committee-Aviation Register (IAC-AR) of the Comonwealth of Independent States, while its A310 powered by Pratt&Whitney engines has been approved for extremely cold weather operation. Separately, the A340 family was certificated by the Civil Aviation Administration of China. Other Airbus aircraft that received type certification from the IAC-AR are the A320 and A321.
Polar Air Cargo has asked DOT for an exemption from the 90-day startup requirement attached to its allocation of eight weekly U.S.-Russia all- cargo frequencies. Receiving the frequencies Feb. 13, the carrier has asked to extend the startup requirement from May 16 to June 16.
- In Federal Register dated April 26...Proposed to revise a proposed airworthiness directive on Fairchild SA26, 226 and 227 aircraft concerning inspecting acrylic cabin and cockpit side windows...Proposed an AD on Hartzell HC series propellers to require hub replacement.
The nation's 10 largest carriers posted a 75.9% on-time rate for March, an improvement over the 71.9% rate in February but down from 79.3% in March 1995. For the third month in a row, Southwest topped the majors with an on-time record of 84.1%, according to DOT's Air Travel Consumer Report. United placed second with 79.4%, followed closely by Northwest at 79.3%. Delta came in last with 68.3%. The data continue to reflect delays caused by mechanical problems as DOT determines whether to include or once again exclude that information.
American is offering special promotions to AAdvantage members to celebrate the program's 15th anniversary. The 15,000 members who fly the most base miles through July 31 will be awarded 15,000 bonus miles. Names of members who have been active during the past 15 months will be entered in drawings for 15 Fly AAway Vacation gift certificate packages for two worth $3,000; 15 packages worth $1,000; 15 roundtrip tickets for two to Europe, South America or anywhere in the contiguous U.S. or Hawaii; 15 one-year Admirals Club memberships, and 15 VIP upgrade certificates.
Alamo Rent A Car has joined Continental's OnePass program. Members can earn 500 extra miles for each car rental from Alamo in North America or Europe. OnePass members will receive double mileage on all rentals through Dec. 31 as an introductory bonus. To be credited, auto renters must show a Continental ticket or boarding pass at the counter.
Granted to Japan Airlines an exemption to conduct scheduled combination services between Tokyo and Kona, Hawaii, and operate up to seven weekly combination frequencies between Sendai, Japan, and Honolulu for five weeks commencing May 2, 1996...Granted orally to Sobelair N.V./S.A.
Senate Commerce Chairman Larry Pressler (R-S.D.) asked the General Accounting Office to report this fall on whether barriers to entry still exist and, if so, whether they prevent the entry of low-cost service into markets in the upper Midwest and the Southeast. GAO found in a recent report that portions of these regions have not benefited as much as other regions from the low-cost-carrier phenomenon.
Startup airlines are noted for flying old airplanes, and ValuJet's are among the oldest. The average age of its 49 aircraft is 26 years, according to FedEx Aviation Services, compared with 23 years for Kiwi's 16 aircraft and Frontier's seven. Reno Air's 24 aircraft are the youngest on average, six years.
Southwest is pressing DOT to throw out Delta's complaint against American's Sabre computer reservations system, charging violations of antidiscriminationprovisions of the department's CRS rules. Delta accused Sabre of imposing a discriminatory CRS transaction fee on most - but not all - carriers, beginning last Friday. The carrier complained that it is among carriers required to pay the fee, while Southwest is one of the few that are exempt (DAILY, Feb. 2).
BE Aerospace reported a fourth quarter net loss of $31.3 million on sales of $64.3 million, compared with a net profit of $465,000 on sales of $59.3 million in the same quarter a year ago. Sales for the full fiscal year ended Feb. 24 were $232.6 million, up from $229.3 million, with a net loss of $83.4 million, compared with a net loss of $12 million the previous year. The company blamed the performance on a change in its accounting methods and expenses associated with acquiring Burns Aerospace.
Mickey Foret, executive VP and chief financial officer of Northwest, has been named president of Atlas Air Inc. Foret will join the company June 1 and become a candidate for its board, which meets June 4. He takes the president title from Michael Chowdry, who remains chairman and chief executive. Foret joins Atlas during a period of rapid growth at the carrier, which is adding 10 747-200s to its fleet of 14 747s. Foret has been at Northwest since late 1992.
The world's airlines made money in 1995 for the third year in a row and are believed to have turned a net profit after non-operating items for the first time since 1989, according to preliminary estimates by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). ICAO estimated operating revenues of the world's carriers, excluding those of the Commonwealth of Independent States, at $274 billion for the year, while expenses came in at $260 billion. That gave airlines an operating profit of 5.1% of operating revenues, an improvement over 3.4% in 1994 and 1% in 1993.
