Working groups involved in the industry-labor-government Aviation Safety Initiative will make midyear progress reports on June 17 to the steering committee. "The purpose of the midyear review is to hold ourselves accountable," a steering committee member says. Full-year accomplishments are scheduled to be reported Dec. 5.
Boeing, after raising a fuss about the Export-Import Bank bankrolling Russia's Il-96M program, is the second largest supplier on the project behind engine supplier Pratt&Whitney. Boeing supplies the nacelles for the engines at $8 million per shipset for the 20-airplane project. Collins is third largest, supplying avionics at $4 million per aircraft.
- In Federal Register dated April 15...Issued special conditions on Turbomeca Arriel 2S1 turboshaft engines....Superseded an airworthiness directive on McDonnell Douglas DC-9 and MD-80 series aircraft concerning inspection for chafing to the wire bundle in the overhead switch panel of the cockpit...Superseded an AD on Lockheed L-1011-300 series aircraft concerning cracking of certain areas of the rear spar caps...Issued an AD on CASA C-212 aircraft requiring structural inspections...Issued an AD on Flight Trails Helicopters hardpoint assemblies installed on McDonnell
America West named Ron Cole VP-sales. He will be responsible for passenger sales, national sales, travel agent relations, air cargo and territory development. He previously was VP-sales at Reno Air and worked at American.
CIT Group/Capital Equipment Financing appointed Terrence McNamara VP- district manager for northern Ohio; Julie Rogers district manager-state of Michigan; Thomas Boegel district manager in CIT's Eastern Business Center in New York, and Michael Salatino district manager, also in New York. Lockheed Martin named Ray Crockett director-communications for Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems. Parson elected James McNulty chief executive.
Canadian Airlines International carried 17.1% more traffic last month than in March 1995, in what Canadian called "by far its strongest traffic growth in recent years," according to Don Casey, VP-planning. The increase came on a 5.9% increase in capacity. The carrier logged 1.38 billion revenue passenger miles. The load factor shot up seven percentage points to 73.3%, from 66.3%. For the first three months of the year, the carrier's traffic increased 12.4% on 6.5% more capacity, lifting the load factor 3.5 points to 66.8%.
FAA will host an international conference on aircraft inflight icing May 6- 8 at the Hilton Hotel, Spring, Va., that will explore a "wide range of technical issues involving operating aircraft in icing conditions." These include current certification requirements, operating regulations and weather forecasting capabilities for aircraft icing under varying environmental conditions. Icing and aviation experts from the U.S., Russia, Canada and Europe and expected to attend.
DOT's proposal to reduce the confidentiality period to six months, from the current three years, for all airlines' international nonstop segment and on-flight market, or T-100, data and collect capacity data from foreign airlines has received generally favorable reviews. American, TWA, USAir, the Air Line Pilots Association and Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA) voiced support for the changes. American said it believes "prompt discosure of T-100 data will be procompetitive and in the public interest.
Twenty-three members of the United States Airports for Better International Air Service (USA-BIAS) are urging the Clinton administration to open passenger talks with Japan as soon as possible with the strategic goal of creating a true "open skies" air service agreement between the two nations.
The U.S. airline industry will fragment in the next few years, shrinking to four major network carriers plus Southwest and a few niche carriers, predicts Ray Neidl, VP of Furman, Selz. Speaking at the fifth annual Phoenix International Aviation Symposium last week in Phoenix, Neidl predicted a 90% failure rate for startup carriers. The industry will shake out to American, United, Delta, "maybe Northwest" and Southwest, he said. At USAir, Chairman Stephen Wolf will "turn that carrier around" and probably sell it to another airline, mostly likely United.
TWA, Delta, United and Continental are urging DOT to reject Air Liberte's bid to operate combination service between Bordeaux, France, and Newark. "In view of the current state of aviation relations between the U.S. and France, the new application can only be called astounding," said TWA. "There is no indication that reciprocity exists for the grant of new access to the U.S. by the applicant," Delta said, noting that U.S.-France relations are governed by principles of reciprocity and comity. "The U.S.
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American's latest offer to its pilots, made last week, is a 2% pay cut for all members and a 30% cut for up to 20% of the work force, according to the Allied Pilots Association, the carrier's pilots union.James Sovich, APA president, called the offer a blend of the worst concessions Delta's pilots made plus the best productivity increases APA offered, all for the recall of pilots American needs anyway.
With U.S. airline consolidation on hold for the time being, Continental's pilots union has cooled to the idea of rushing to join ALPA. Randolph Babbitt, president of the union, says the process has slowed considerably and "is on a very back burner."
Airmax said it will offer May 1 an immediate response - within one hour - to all requests for shipment tracking, rate quotes and other information or donate $100 to a customer's favorite charity. The "One-Hour Customer Power" program is an "unprecedented guarantee in the air cargo industry," said Airmax President Kenneth Ryan. He said the program will ensure that Airmax's international airline and other shipping customers receive the most responsive service available.
German carrier Eurowings has ordered three A319s and taken options on another three. The first aircraft will be delivered in January and February. Airbus said Eurowings is a new customer.
AMR Corp.'s decision to separate Sabre from American will enable the computer reservations system to change its compensation structure internally and grow abroad without answering to managers and labor groups on where it is spending money, says Jeffrey Katz, president of Sabre Travel Information Network. AMR Chairman Robert Crandall will remain in control, but if two sets of shareholders emerge with their own agendas, the management hierarchy could change. "But quite honestly, I don't see that changing in the near future," he said.
Senate Budget and Appropriation committee leaders are wasting no time in fighting the House-passed bill (H.R.842) to take the transportation trust funds off budget. In an April 18 letter to Senate colleagues, Budget Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), Appropriations Chairman Mark Hatfield (R- Ore.) and Sens.
India's Civil Aviation Ministry has rejected a request from its Malaysian counterpart for expanding passenger capacity between the two countries, ministry officials said last week. Instead, India said national carrier Malaysian Airlines could enter into a commercial agreement with Indian carriers - Air-India and Indian Airlines - to exploit unused capacity of about 440 seats in the India-Malaysia sector. The decision was conveyed by India's Civil Aviation Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to Malaysian Transport Minister Ling Liong Sik at a meeting this month in New Delhi.
TWA named Jody Ruth VP and corporate comptroller. Ruth succeeds Dan Holmes, who has been with the carrier 26 years and will retire later this month. Ruth comes to TWA from KPMG Peat Marwick LLP, where she oversaw services for America West, USAir and Piedmont, Pacific Southwest Airlines and World Airways.
The U.S. government must proceed with a strategic and pragmatic approach to opening the U.S.-Asia market, and progress is being made, says Mark Gerchick, DOT deputy assistant secretary for aviation and International affairs. Speaking at the 5th Annual Phoenix International Aviation Symposium last week, Gerchick said five or six Asian nations, such as Malaysia and Korea, are moving toward opening their markets. It will not come close to open skies, but is a move in the right direction, he said. Gerchick was not keen on the idea of moving toward a multilateral system.
Midwest Express Holdings Inc. reported strong first quarter earnings, while its former parent, Kimberly-Clark Corp., said it will divest itself of its 20% stake in the carrier. Kimberly-Clark's remaining 1.29 million shares will be offered through a public offering that will be completed in the second quarter of this year. Kimberly-Clark took its airline subsidiary public in an initial offering in September. At the time, the company said it was shedding some operations to focus on its core business.
El Al reported a net profit of $15 million for fiscal 1995, the carrier's 10th consecutive year of profitability. Revenue grew 17.5% to $1.22 billion from 1994 levels. The number of passengers carried rose 18% to 2.93 million, while cargo went up 6%, or 210,000 tons. Aircraft utilization increased 2% for the year and employee productivity 14%. The overall load factor was 73.8%. During the year, the carrier launched service from Tel Aviv to Milan, Newark and Los Angeles. It also linked its Carmel computer reservations system with American's Sabre CRS.
Air Line Pilots Association is holding talks with representatives of Canadian pilot groups about a merger, ALPA President Randolph Babbitt said. Such a move, although difficult because of labor laws and a number of other practical issues, would enable ALPA to widen its representation net while giving Canadian pilots greater resources in dealings with their airlines.
El Al appointed Michael Gat general manager-North and Central America. American International Freight named Debra Yates regional marketing director-central region.
