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Aviation News June 2006
US airline industry - not for sale
CHICAGO,
June 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Directly in line with the Dubai ports
deal, the Bush Administration bypassed Congress and arbitrarily
set a rule that changes long-standing aviation law to allow
foreign control of U.S. airlines and their operations. United
Airlines Flight Attendants, represented by the Association of
Flight Attendants, AFA-CWA, AFL-CIO, has launched a massive
grassroots campaign to protect U.S. aviation. United Master
Executive Council (MEC) President Greg Davidowitch made the
following statement about the critical call to action to save
U.S. aviation:
"Allowing
foreign investors to slice up our airline industry is not good
for workers, the traveling public or the communities we serve.
The Bush plan to carve up our airlines and serve them to foreign
interests on a silver platter is one that deserves serious
Congressional scrutiny. Congress should be concerned not only
about the impact on our safety and security but the viability of
our jobs and the communities we support. "Think about it:
if the Bush Administration has its way US airlines could soon be
run from board rooms in Saudi Arabia and Shanghai. Airline
operations throughout the U.S. could be controlled by executives
in Tehran, Tripoli and Timbuktu. That would be a far worse
public policy outcome than allowing our allies in Dubai to
administer U.S. port operations.
"The
cost of allowing foreign control over a vital national interest
far outweighs any short-term gains for deal makers and
proponents of such an action. Speaker Hastert should be less
concerned with United Airlines moving its headquarters out of
Illinois and more concerned with those headquarters being moved
out of the United States. As a matter of public policy, Congress
should reject any plan that includes the sale of vital American
interests. "This arbitrary change in aviation law will
likely trigger the long- awaited industry consolidation which
could shake out in favor of foreign airlines to the detriment of
the American traveling public. Turning over the industry so
vital to our nation's commerce will ripple tsunami waves through
our corporations, small businesses and communities. We cannot
allow foreign capital to determine which American cities will be
provided air service and which will be abandoned when they have
no intrinsic interest in our well being.
"Aviation
law with limits to foreign ownership was debated by Congress and
put into place long ago for good reason. There's no way to know
the extent of harm in changing these rules because Congress has
been usurped by the Bush Administration as it cut off
discussion, debate or even Congressional study of the
issue." More than 46,000 Flight Attendants, including the
17,000 Flight Attendants at United, join together to form AFA,
the world's largest Flight Attendant union. AFA is part of the
700,000 member strong Communications Workers of America,
AFL-CIO.
Air Canada and WestJet settled espionage lawsuit
By
Robert Melnbardis
MONTREAL,
May 29 (Reuters) - WestJet Airlines Ltd.
admitted on Monday that it had improperly gained access to Air
Canada's key flight operations data and apologized as the two
rivals settled a two-year-old legal dispute over the issue.
WestJet said its conduct in the matter, which took place in
2003-04 as Air Canada was restructuring under bankruptcy
protection, was "unethical and unacceptable." "This
practice was undertaken with the knowledge and direction of the
highest management levels of WestJet and was not halted until
discovered by Air Canada," the companies said in a joint
statement on Monday. Calgary-based
WestJet apologized to Air Canada and to Robert Milton, chief
executive of Air Canada's parent company, ACE Aviation Holdings
Inc. WestJet
agreed to pay Air Canada's legal costs of C$5.5 million ($5
million) and accepted the latter's request to donate C$10
million to children's charities. Cameron Doerksen, an analyst at Versant Partners said in a research note
that the settlement was a fraction of what Air Canada had
originally demanded and would lower WestJet's legal expenses.
The airline had C$288 million in cash at the end of its first
quarter, he added.
"We
view this as a significant positive for WestJet," Doerksen
said. WestJet shares jumped 55 Canadian cents, or 5 percent to
C$11.63, while ACE class A shares were up 22 Canadian cents at
C$32.67 at midday on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Montreal-based
Air Canada had sued WestJet for C$220 million in April 2004,
claiming its no-frills rival had repeatedly and covertly gained
access to a password-protected Air Canada Web site for
employees. In its lawsuit, Air Canada alleged that WestJet had
used the Web site access to download details about Air Canada's
flight operations, such as how many seats were filled on certain
routes. Although WestJet had previously denied wrongdoing, the
scandal reverberated through the firm's top management ranks.
Mark Hill, a co-founder of WestJet and former vice-president of
strategic planning, resigned in July 2004. In November 2004,
Clive Beddoe, president and chief executive, and also a
co-founder, told reporters he had offered to resign over the
case, but Westjet's board refused to consider it.
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