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Aviation History
1988
1988 - 0516.PDF
AIR TRANSPORT BA responds toDoT complaint WASHINGTON D.C. The war of words between British Airways and Ameri can Airlines over their rival computer reservation systems (CRSs) continues, with BA accusing American's Sabre system of bias against BA services in the United States. BA's allegations, made in a submission to the US. Department of Transporta tion, are in response to Ameri can's complaint to the DoT in January. This asked the DoT to take immediate action against British Airways to correct allegedly "unfair and discriminatory" treatment of US carriers in its Babs/ Travicom CRS in the UK (Flight, January 23, page 4). The argument stems from American's attempt to market in Europe its Sabre CRS, the largest in the United States. It claims that it is being prevented from doing so by a number of "unfair and anticompetitive" tactics being used against it in the UK by British Airways. These are the subject of a UK High Court case, which has yet to be resolved. BA now tells the DoT in Washington that Travicom provides a fairer display to US carriers in the UK than it is receiving from Sabre in the USA, and provides a list of 19 city pairs on which it alleges that Sabre relegates BA and British Caledonian services to inferior display positions. Display position on CRS screens is crucial, as up to 80 per cent of all bookings are made from the first "page" of information shown on screen (Flight, February 27, pages 32-35). However, American dis misses the BA allegations as "pure fairy tale", and adds: "We concede that Sabre does not show any BA direct services on the two routes Frankfurt-Rome and Frank furt-Los Angeles. That is because BA offers none. Of the remaining 17 city pairs, the flights of BA and its wholly-owned subsidiary British Caledonian are shown on earlier screens of Sabre than American Airlines' flights in 11 cases." American hopes for a DoT ruling on the matter within the next two months. It is asking the DoT to suspend BA's code-sharing agreement with United Airlines, and to allow US CRS operators to bias their screen displays against BA services. Under US law, CRS displays have to give neutral, unbiased display of all carriers' services on given routes. This is not the case in the UK. Douglas denies Airbus deal LONG BEACH ~ Both McDonnell Douglas and Airbus Industrie flatly deny rumours of a potential collab oration on a wide-bodied aircraft to rival the Boeing 747. Reports have been circu lating that Airbus would be prepared to supply the wings from its A330/340 to the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 programme, successor to the DC-10 trijet, and a direct competitor to the A330/340. But McDonnell Douglas tells Flight: "The world knows only too well that we have had on-and-off discussions with Airbus, but there is no substance to the rumours about a co-operation on the MD-11". Airbus adds: "We are not discussing with the Americans anything that would compete directly or indirectly with our own aircraft". Henri Martre, chairman and CEO of French Airbus partner Aerospatiale, tells Flight: "Airbus is engaged in very active negotiations with McDonnell Douglas, but to say that an agreement has been reached or is about to be reached is altogether premature and may prove to be inexact". Among the projects being discussed by the two manu facturers is the possibility of a stretched version of the Airbus A320, though Martre stresses "it is not the only one". Airbus adds: "What we are discussing is a whole range of possibilities in all areas of co-operation with Ameri can aircraft manufacturers McDonnell Douglas and Lockheed, but nothing that would be detrimental to our own programmes". Assembly of the MD-11 starts at McDonnell Douglas' Long Beach plant next week. It currently has 31 firm orders, with a further 45 options and 17 "reservations". Union troubles hit Pan Am and Eastern WASHINGTON D.C. ~ Both Eastern Airlines and Pan American are adopting a defiant posture against unions which are threatening to strike rather than accept concessions over pay and working conditions, writes Bob Burkhardt. Pan Am has imposed new cuts in pay and work benefits on its ground handlers and ticketing agents, as their union agreement expired in mid-February. The Team sters' Union has struck back, not with a walkout, but by threatening to mis-route baggage and delay ticketing. Eastern says it will take a strike if new wage concessions are not accepted. There are plans to replace any strikers, including pilots and mechan ics. Eastern's unions have appealed for help from the AFL-CIO, the largest US trades union federation, which says it will support any strike against Eastern, and may ask for a union boycott of all of Texas Air's com panies, including non-union Continental. There are fears that a walk out at Eastern by its pilots as well as its mechanics could kill the airline. Texas Air has already announced plans to separate Eastern's Boston, New York, and Washington shuttle operations. Governments involved in SAS/BA row STOCKHOLM The Swedish Government has become involved in the row between SAS and British Airways over the question of slot availability at Heathrow and Gatwick airports (Flight, February 27, page 6). Sven Hulterstrom, Swedish Minister of Transport and Communications, has asked his British counterpart, Transport Secretary Paul Channon, to meet a Swedish delegation to discuss SAS's complaints. These concern the alleged denial of requested landing slots, and its impli cations for fair competition between SAS and BA under the terms of the bilateral air services agreements between the two countries. Channon suggests that the matter could be resolved at a lower level, though this is unlikely to satisfy SAS, which wants a speedy resolution so that it can finalise its summer timetables. BA stresses that it has "no influence" over the scheduling committees at either Heathrow or Gatwick. New plug for charter hole BRISTOL A new charter airline, Celt Air, is being formed to fill the gap left by Airways Inter national Cymru, the Welsh charter airline that went into liquidation at the beginning of the year. Primarily funded by a Middle East consortium, the airline has lined up two McDonnell Douglas DC-9- 61s. It is planning to take delivery of the aircraft by the end of April on lease from Trans International Airlines of Florida. The aircraft are to fly holiday charter flights to Mediterranean resorts from both Cardiff and Bristol. Celt Air's operations direc tor, Kevin Davis, says that it is negotiating with the tour firms that were let down by the collapse of Airways Inter national Cymru. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 5 March 1988
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