Southwest Airlines plans to launch nonstop flights in September between Baltimore and Los Angeles, marking a first for the low-fare carrier as it attempts to lure back business travelers by offering competing service in long-haul markets dominated by larger competitors. Initial one-way fares will be $99. To inaugurate the BWI-LAX service, plans call for the airline to accept delivery of four new Boeing 737-700s. At 2,329 mi., the flights will be the longest in Southwest's history, according to the airline.
Robert W. Carroll has become manager of air service marketing and development at Tweed-New Haven (Conn.) Regional Airport for the Amports Aviation Group. He was an account manager in the Boston area for Delta Air Lines.
The European Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) has established rules aimed at educating pilot and cabin crewmembers on health risks associated with exposure to high levels of cosmic radiation at altitudes above 49,000 ft. According to Flight Safety Foundation's Human Factors and Aviation Medicine report, the JAA prohibits flight above 49,000 ft. without an instrument capable of measuring and indicating the dosage of cosmic radiation received by the crew. The recommended limit per person is 1 Millisievert (mSv) per year.
Vietnam Airlines is acquiring long-haul aircraft as part of a $2.2-billion fleet modernization program to help it penetrate international markets, including limited operations to Europe and the U.S. It has four Pratt & Whitney PW4084D-powered Boeing 777-200ERs on order with delivery slated for August next year through to 2005. Two more leased aircraft arrived in March to replace 767-300s operating to Paris from here in the nation's capital and Ho Chi Minh City. Both routes, Vietnam Airline's only European services, are operated three times a week via Dubai.
Airline security expenses may soar as much as $11 billion a year in the wake of the September terror attacks, adding about 11% to the cost of air travel and costing the national economy about 0.1% of gross domestic product, according to preliminary outside estimates compiled by the congressional Joint Economic Committee. Cautioning that the total economic impact will not be known for some time and is likely to go a lot higher, the committee said in a new analysis that if Sept.
General Electric and its teammate, Rolls-Royce, expect to complete detail design of the F136 powerplant this year, with the goal of bringing the first engine to test in mid-2004. The powerplant, which is being developed as the second engine for F-35, is in a presystems development and demonstration or risk-reduction phase, which began last October with the award of the Joint Strike Fighter program to Lockheed Martin.
United Airlines last week was found in violation of a union contract and ordered by the carrier's grievance hearing board to pay $8.89 million to the Assn. of Flight Attendants. United bought Air Wisconsin in 1992, but operated it as a separate carrier, not hiring cabin crew from United's seniority list, according to the AFA.
Michel Boucher has been appointed vice president-industrial affairs of Hispano-Suiza. He was quality director and head of the Precision Mechanics Div. Boucher has been succeeded by Joel Remond, who was vice president-industrial operations for Snecma Moteurs.
Andrew Drysdale has become regional director for Asia-Pacific in the International Air Transport Assn.'s Singapore office. He is the former CEO of Fiji's Air Pacific and Australia's Hazelton Airlines.
Ten years ago, turboprops dominated the regional airline fleet in the U.S. and turbofans ruled the airline fleet. The division worked well from an air traffic perspective: Turboprops cruised most efficiently at about 17,000 ft. and the physics of turbofans dictated a cruise altitude about twice as high. The system had evolved into a ``dynamic flow, broken up vertically,'' recalled one former air traffic controller. Then came the RJ revolution.
Marie Colton has become director of the Office of Research and Applications at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Environmental Satellite, Data and Information Service. She was deputy director and succeeds James Purdom, who has retired.
Reduced Vertical Separation Minimums (RVSM) are coming to domestic U.S. airspace and could be operational by December 2004, according to the FAA. RVSM decreases the separation from 2,000 ft. to 1,000 ft. between suitably equipped aircraft flying at 29,000-41,000 ft. (Flight Level 290 and FL410). That change has already been implemented in Europe, Canada and oceanic airspace in the Northern Atlantic and Pacific (see p. 40).
Commercial aviation suppliers, many of whom are trying to figure out how they will navigate the downturn that the industry has entered, should be so lucky as to have a stable of end-use customers as healthy as JetBlue Airways. It's profitable, with first-quarter margins of about 17.5%, versus a minus 13.6% for the broader industry. Compound system growth of 25-30% in the next five years looks like a safe bet; its fleet of 24 almost-new Airbus A320s is expected to more than double in the next two years.
Alitalia Engineering and Maintenance has received a five-year contract for the support of two DC-10-40 trijet freighters operated by Aeroflot under a lease from the Ten Forty Corp.
Northrop Grumman Corp. expects to begin reviewing TRW Inc.'s internal financial data soon, based on a confidentiality agreement signed by the two companies last week. As part of the pact, Northrop Grumman will defer until Sept. 30 any action on its $53-a-share bid for TRW until September. Until then, it will try to establish what it considers a ``full and fair'' value. If TRW doesn't find a buyer for the whole company by Sept. 30, Northrop can again tender its hostile offer.
Airbus does not expect to dip into all of the 1.8 billion euros ($1.64 billion) set aside in this year's budget for customer financial support. The company was able to carry forward about half of the 500 million euros set aside for this purpose last year but not needed, said co-CEO Rainer Hertrich. He also said 2001 net cash reserves of 1.5 billion euros would be sufficient to finance not only development of the A380 ultra-widebody transport but also other requirements and some acquisitions.
Mongolian Airlines will take delivery of its first Boeing 737-800, which has been leased from the GATX Financial Corp. The carrier is scheduled to begin operating the aircraft in revenue service in July.
Wayne Burk (see photos) has been named vice president-completions and maintenance sales and Kirk Kinkead director of avionics for the Executive Aircraft Corp., Wichita, Kan. Burk was sales manager for Garrett Aviation Services, while Kinkead was an avionics sales representative for Duncan Aviation.
Gilbert Gaudette, vice president-services centers for Pratt & Whitney Canada, has received the Outstanding Achievement in Aviation Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul Award from Aviation Week's Overhaul & Maintenance magazine. The award honors improvements to the efficiency, profitability, reliability and/or safety of MRO.
BAE Systems is developing hybrid integrated optoelectronic modules that combine the speed and parallelism of optical devices with the integration benefits of state-of-the-art electronic chips. Spatial light modulators (SLM) have recently demonstrated applications for steering coherent optical beams, as input/output devices for one- or two-dimensional optical memory systems, and for improved analog signal processing by combining analog optical and digital electronic processing.
EADS has decided to group its launcher and satellite activities--currently split between a division, EADS Launch Vehicles, and an affiliate, Astrium--into a single company. It will have three units for launchers, satellites and space services. The position of BAE Systems, which owns 25% of Astrium, in the new firm remains to be determined. BAE could maintain its stake in the satellite unit, purchase a share in the services unit--which will be responsible for building and operating the U.K.'s new Skynet 5 milsatcom system--or take equity in the space company itself.
Steady passenger growth and the addition of six new airlines since March 2001 are prompting the construction of 16 new gates at Denver International Airport (DIA). Ten jet gates and six commuter gates will be added to the west end of Concourse A, bringing DIA's total to 123 gates. In addition, another 48 ticket counters will be added in the East Terminal. The estimated cost of the project is about $270 million, with scheduled completion in 2004.
Scott Clements, president/CEO of the Edmonton (Alberta) Regional Airports Authority, has been named to the board of directors of Washington-based Airports Council International-North America.
Berlin is being warned it must either sign up for the $2-billion Meteor active radar-guided missile program, or shoulder responsibility for the European flagship program's collapse. In a stark statement, Britain's defense procurement czar, Sir Robert Walmsley, last week warned that without German participation the Meteor program would fail. Were Meteor to fizzle out, he noted, it would prove highly embarrassing and would cast a pall over Anglo-German defense relations.
