FAA is convening a two-day meeting today of more than 100 officials from the airport, airline and investment communities to discuss how to incorporate innovative investment concepts into funding for airports. The initiative is part of DOT's Partnership for Transportation Investment, announced yesterday by President Clinton. The current focus is on finding ways to allow airports to leverage passenger facility charges, said Cynthia Rich, FAA assistant administrator for airports.
Two companies have protested the U.S. Army's award of a $123 million contract to Martin Marietta for production of over 400,000 Hydra 70 rockets. A spokeswoman for the Army's Armament, Munitions and Chemical Command said yesterday in response to a query that Olin and Alliant Techsystems protested the command's Jan. 20 award to Martin Marietta's Ordnance Systems unit. She said the protests were filed with the Army on Jan. 27. The companies also protested to the General Accounting Office.
U.S. Naval Air Systems Command will solicit industry in February for the Advanced Message Oriented Data Security Module (AMODSM), an encryption device for aircrew training ranges. NavAir said in a Jan. 31 Commerce Business Daily notice that it initially planned the work as a small business set-aside, but that AMODSM now be procured through a "full and open competitive solicitation."
Air Canada and Soletur, a Brazilian tour wholesaler, have signed an agreement worth more than C$500,000 to bring more than 1,000 tourists from Brazil to Canada this summer. Rio de Janeiro-based Soletur plans to offer two-week, cross-Canada packages from April to October. Passengers will fly from Brazil on Varig and connect in Miami to Air Canada flights to Toronto.
The Joint Advanced Strike Technology (JAST) office is putting together a strategy for reducing risk in the "electric jet" effort to eliminate hydraulics in the next generation of strike aircraft, JAST program director Gen. George Muellner said yesterday.
Legislation to extend the exemption of airlines from the 4.3-cents-a-gallon transportation fuel tax was introduced yesterday in the Senate by Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) and Slade Gorton (R-Wash.) and in the House by Mac Collins (R-Ga.) and Jennifer Dunn (R-Wash.). Dunn and Collins plan to propose privatizing the Government Printing Office as a "significant down payment" toward offsetting the revenue losses the extension would cause. Airlines were exempted from the first two years of the fuel tax, but this will end Sept. 30 unless Congress votes an extension.
U.S. Army Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM) is surveying industry for engineering services to support the Advanced Threat Radar Jammer (ATRJ) program. CECOM's Night Vision and Electronic Sensors Directorate, Ft. Monmouth, N.J., said it plans a three-year contract to support systems of advanced development (AD) and engineering and manufacturing development (EMD).
The Dutch Ministry of Defense has indefinitely postponed a decision on a new attack helicopter. Disagreement within the cabinet over whether to select the McDonnell Douglas AH-64 or the Eurocopter Tiger has led to postponement of the selection before. The decision was first postponed from Jan. 16 to a Jan. 20 cabinet meeting, during which no consensus was reached. It was then delayed following failure to include the decision in the agenda of a Jan. 27 cabinet meeting.
United Airlines and parent UAL Corp. are being sued by six non-union customer service employees who claim last year's $3 billion restructuring plan, which cut employee wages and benefits, and implementation of the employee stock ownership plan violate the Railway Labor Act. The suit seeks a return to previous wage levels and restoration of benefits for about 24,000 non-union employees covered by the Railway Labor Act.
Northwest announced an "alarm clock" sale of 35% off fares that was quickly matched by Continental and will be matched in part by other major carriers, such as Delta, American and United. The fares, which must be purchased by Friday, are for travel between Feb. 21 and April 30 throughout the U.S. and to Canada, Mexico and Jamaica. Northwest, advising travelers to "set their alarm clocks" for the sale, began offering the fares at 3 a.m. yesterday for travel that includes Canada, Mexico City and Montego Bay.
United said it will raise cargo rates by 10% on some Pacific and Latin American flights March 1 to combat rising fuel and equipment costs and an "intensifying competitive environment." The rates will increase on Pacific westbound and Latin American southbound flights from all U.S. points to Asia and Latin America, with some exceptions. Major points affected include Tokyo, Hong Kong, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro.
Former UAL Chairman Stephen Wolf has been elected to the board of R.R. Donnelley and Sons Co. After leaving UAL last summer following the employee buyout of the airline company, Wolf joined Lazard Freres and Co. as a senior adviser and has been acting as a consultant to Air France Chairman Christian Blanc.
Pratt&Whitney's PW4084 turbofan, in development for the Boeing 777, completed a 3,000-cycle endurance test Saturday as part of Pratt's attempt to qualify the engine and aircraft for 180-minute Extended Twin Operations. David Crow, senior VP-high-thrust engines, reported "virtually no problems and excellent overall performance."
AMR Corp. will drop 10 markets from American's summer schedule out of Nashville and reduce American Eagle frequencies 8% to "reshape" the hub and eliminate unprofitable operations there. American has "every intention of making the hub work," Senior VP-Planning Gerald Arpey said yesterday, and the new schedule will enhance revenue and profitability. American operates 72 daily departures from Nashville and Eagle has 136. Effective June 15, these will be cut to 44 by American and 125 by Eagle.
Canadian Airlines International is offering all transcontinental passengers a "Taste of Hong Kong" on flights through March 22. During the period, passengers traveling in economy and business classes will be given the choice of a special Cantonese appetizer, entree and dessert, as well as a chance to win a trip for two to Hong Kong with seven nights' accommodation at the Shangri-La Hotel.
FAA officials, responding to concerns expressed by the military, will meet this week with Defense Dept. counterparts on potential changes in the GPS Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), which allows approaches to airports. Richard Arnold, FAA's integrated product team leader for GPS/Navigation, said Friday that the changes are related to signal accuracy. A source told The DAILY that DOD wants provisions for encryption of WAAS signals, and that FAA is trying to avoid this.
January 26, 1995 CAE Link Corporation, Link Training Services Division, Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, Texas, is being awarded an $8,016,034 face value increase to a firm-fixed-price contract for conversion of a DC-10 simulator to the KC-10 simulator conversion. The work will be performed at Binghamton, New York. Contract is expected to be completed March 1996. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Ogden Air Logistics Center, Hill Air Force Base, Utah, is the contracting activity (F25606-92- D-0004, QP03).
U.S. Major Carriers Productivity, In RPMs, And ASMs Per Employee Third Quarter 1994 Revenue Available Passenger Seat Miles Miles Airline (000) (000) America West 3,222,041 4,635,251 American 26,987,177 39,712,842 Continental 10,699,493 15,929,117
U.K.-based airport management company BAA plc posted nine-month after-tax earnings of 243 million (US$379 million) yesterday, an increase of 13% from 215 million earned in the same period of the previous fiscal year. Revenue for the nine months that ended Dec. 31, 1994, increased 6.1% to 926 million (US$1.445 billion) from 873 million. BAA, which manages seven U.K. airports, including London Heathrow and Gatwick, said its financial performance reflects the strong growth in passenger numbers and increased income from retailing and property at the airports.
Unions representing USAir's pilots, machinists and dispatchers have agreed on a labor-concessions proposal to present the company, but the fourth union in the labor coalition, the Association of Flight Attendants, has "declined at this point to participate at a level that is minimally acceptable" to the others, the pilots said.The three unions will continue to meet among themselves, without the flight attendants, to develop their proposal.
Defense Secretary William J. Perry declared Friday that the defense portion of the House Republican Contract With America creating a national security commission to review long term defense needs was a "flawed concept" that would undercut his role and that of the House National Security Committee.
An inquiry into the Jan. 19 crash of an X-31 aircraft near Edwards AFB, Calif., will be substantially aided by the flow of telemetry from the plane to Dryden Flight Research Center, according to a NASA spokesman. The agency has established a five-member board to investigate the crash. The board, headed by NASA astronaut-test pilot Guy Gardner, will submit its results within sixty days.
TAP Air Portugal's 1994 passenger traffic declined 3.6% from 1993's level to 7.59 billion revenue passenger kilometers. The number of passengers boarded also was down, falling 2.7% to 3.5 million. Cargo traffic rose 5.7%, however, to 180.2 million freight tonne kilometers. In December, TAP's traffic declined 1.9% to 558 million RPKs, while passenger boardings rose 4.6% to 256,933. Cargo traffic for the month fell 9.9% from December 1993 to 13.6 million FTKs.
Lockheed rounded out flight testing of an F-16C fitted with above-wing conformal fuel tanks with seven more flights, capping the program with 21 flights earlier this month after completing major flight testing by the end of November, Lockheed said yesterday.
