Joshua949
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Posted on Thu, Apr. 08, 2004
Fayetteville, N.C., Officials' Effort to Land More Airline Flights Stalls
By Paul Woolverton, The Fayetteville Observer, N.C. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Apr. 8--RALEIGH, N.C. - Efforts to bring more commercial airline flights to Fayetteville, Moore County and four other communities in North Carolina have stalled, said several officials involved in the plan.
"We're not any further along than we were six months ago," said Brad Whited, director of Fayetteville Regional Airport.
The effort can't proceed because of a contract that American Airlines has with its pilots' labor union, said Harold Garner, chairman of the Moore County Airport Authority.
The contract limits how often American Airlines can hire outside companies to fly under American's name and airline reservations code, said Garner, who is a retired American Airlines pilot.
This is called "code sharing" in the airline industry.
The code share being pursued in North Carolina would have American partner with Corporate Airlines of Smyrna, Tenn. Corporate's planes, painted to look like American's, would funnel passengers from the six small cities and towns to Raleigh-Durham International Airport to connect to other flights. In the airline reservations system, Corporate's flights would appear to be American flights.
"For all practical purposes it's an American airplane," Garner said.
Garner, Whited and representatives from the other airports seeking more air service attended a meeting at the Raleigh-Durham airport Wednesday morning to discuss the plan's status.
Fayetteville, Moore County, Wilmington, New Bern, Kinston and Hickory, have formed a consortium to get the air service and have a $1.2 million federal grant to help them. Fayetteville, Wilmington and New Bern have some commercial flights; Moore County, Kinston and Hickory have none.
American is trying to get a waiver so it can code share with Corporate in North Carolina, said Douglas Caldwell, president of Corporate Airlines. "Once they get this waiver, then we will code-share" and can start the flights, he said.
Corporate could forego code sharing and fly to the six cities under its own name and reservation code. But the lack of a code share with American would make it much harder to sell Corporate's flights. Code-shared flights on other airlines, such as Delta and US Airways, would show up first to people booking the flights, he said.
American is negotiating with the Allied Pilots Association to get permission to code share for flights to Raleigh-Durham International, said American spokesman Tim Wagner.
"We just have not worked out the issue yet," Wagner said.
If the Corporate-American code share can't work out, Garner said, the consortium will look for other ways to add commercial air service.
Fayetteville, N.C., Officials' Effort to Land More Airline Flights Stalls
By Paul Woolverton, The Fayetteville Observer, N.C. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Apr. 8--RALEIGH, N.C. - Efforts to bring more commercial airline flights to Fayetteville, Moore County and four other communities in North Carolina have stalled, said several officials involved in the plan.
"We're not any further along than we were six months ago," said Brad Whited, director of Fayetteville Regional Airport.
The effort can't proceed because of a contract that American Airlines has with its pilots' labor union, said Harold Garner, chairman of the Moore County Airport Authority.
The contract limits how often American Airlines can hire outside companies to fly under American's name and airline reservations code, said Garner, who is a retired American Airlines pilot.
This is called "code sharing" in the airline industry.
The code share being pursued in North Carolina would have American partner with Corporate Airlines of Smyrna, Tenn. Corporate's planes, painted to look like American's, would funnel passengers from the six small cities and towns to Raleigh-Durham International Airport to connect to other flights. In the airline reservations system, Corporate's flights would appear to be American flights.
"For all practical purposes it's an American airplane," Garner said.
Garner, Whited and representatives from the other airports seeking more air service attended a meeting at the Raleigh-Durham airport Wednesday morning to discuss the plan's status.
Fayetteville, Moore County, Wilmington, New Bern, Kinston and Hickory, have formed a consortium to get the air service and have a $1.2 million federal grant to help them. Fayetteville, Wilmington and New Bern have some commercial flights; Moore County, Kinston and Hickory have none.
American is trying to get a waiver so it can code share with Corporate in North Carolina, said Douglas Caldwell, president of Corporate Airlines. "Once they get this waiver, then we will code-share" and can start the flights, he said.
Corporate could forego code sharing and fly to the six cities under its own name and reservation code. But the lack of a code share with American would make it much harder to sell Corporate's flights. Code-shared flights on other airlines, such as Delta and US Airways, would show up first to people booking the flights, he said.
American is negotiating with the Allied Pilots Association to get permission to code share for flights to Raleigh-Durham International, said American spokesman Tim Wagner.
"We just have not worked out the issue yet," Wagner said.
If the Corporate-American code share can't work out, Garner said, the consortium will look for other ways to add commercial air service.
