HIGHLIGHTS

European Union ambassadors met August 28 in an attempt to end the stalemate over plans to ban flights to EU airports by Yugoslav carrier JAT to punish Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic over the ongoing crisis in Kosovo. German officials raised concerns in May over possible retaliatory countermeasures Milosevic might take. On August 24, representatives from Britain and Greece, concerned about violating an international aviation accord requiring one years' notice before barring flights, blocked a vote for a flight ban. Greek diplomats over the weekend appealed to postpone the decision until September 8. If the body votes to ban flights with a weighted majority, the objecting representatives will be overridden. Details of the meeting have not been released to date.

A twin-engine Southern Air Cessna 402 plane en route from Stewart Island to Invercargill, New Zealand, crashed into Foveaux Strait, killing two people on August 19. The pilot contacted a control tower when both engines failed, minutes before the plane crashed. Seven people were rescued; one remains missing.

The U.S. Department of State lifted Travel Warnings against Kenya and Tanzania on August 14. The U.S. Tour Operators Association reportedly claimed the warnings were "unduly harsh and advisories would have been more appropriate."

Representatives from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) arrived in Venezuela on August 11 in accordance with an agreement reached in June 1997 to provide technical assistance and advise aviation officials on airport security and aircraft maintenance. Venezuela is currently ranked "Category Two" by the FAA but covets the "Category One" ranking given to countries with the best aviation standards and safety. To attain this ranking, authorities have designed new airport security measures, created an air rescue service, and signed international technical assistance agreements, but recurring security lapses and financial problems have prevented the change in status.

The U.S. Coast Guard reported an emergency rescue of the pilot of a private aircraft, which crashed near the Florida coast on August 10. The pilot was en route from Fort Lauderdale to the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean. The incident occurred due to a faulty oil compressor.

The Association of European Airlines (AEA) said that flight delays at European airports were the worst in nine years. Reportedly, in June nearly 30 percent of all member carrier flights were delayed more than 15 minutes. A spokesman for AEA believed the worsening situation resulted from a "lack of official action to improve air traffic control."

AIRLINE OCCURRENCES

A Sabena Airlines Airbus 340, en route from New York, skidded off a runway at Brussels National Airport on August 29. Four passengers were injured in an emergency evacuation. The pilot lost control of the jet when the tire of a landing wheel blew out. Air traffic was not significantly disrupted during the incident.

Some 6,100 pilots from Northwest Airlines began an indefinite nationwide strike over pay and job security issues August 29 that resulted in the cancellation of all 1,700 daily domestic flights through at least September 1 and international flights through September 2. The strike has also shut down Mesaba Airlines and Express Airlines I. Minnesota Governor Arne Carlson said that "a strike will virtually shut down the state of Minnesota, as well as much of Wisconsin, Iowa, and North and South Dakota." Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and Memphis International Airport were nearly closed. President Clinton may intervene, like in the 1997 American Airlines strike, if a resolution is not found by Labor Day. On August 26, a Dutch court upheld KLM's request for a court order to prevent a national pilots' union from participating in solidarity strikes supporting Northwest Airlines' pilots.

After a report of a drunken passenger caused serious disturbances on board a British Airways flight, the company announced they will begin issuing "yellow cards" to tipsy or unruly passengers beginning September 1. Two such cards on any international flights will result in arrest upon landing. British Airways stated that these incidents have risen by 400 percent over the last three years. 

Philippine Airlines (PAL) announced on August 26 a revised rehabilitation plan calling for further cutbacks to its fleet and workforce. Under the plan, PAL would be left with a fleet of 21 aircraft, with an average age of three years, and a staff of some 8,500, including 200 pilots. In June, PAL fired some 600 pilots and 5,000 ground crew during a strike, but later hired new pilots and rehired some of the strikers. Under the new plan, PAL will trim its international routes from 16 to 10 by October.

Nearly 100 employees of Air Kazakhstan, the national airline, demonstrated at the company's headquarters on August 25, demanding back wages and pensions. The airline bought out bankrupt Kazakhstan Aue Zholi airline, for which some of the strikers originally worked, in 1997 but refuses to assume that debt.

Taiwan's TransAsia Airways temporarily grounded its ATR aircraft and canceled nine domestic routes after most of its pilots resigned en masse on August 24 to protest salary cuts. The airline's decreasing business prompted management's plans for salary reductions.

A Myanmar Airways Fokker F-27 passenger aircraft crashed in eastern Myanmar on August 23, killing all 39 people aboard. Officials stated that the plane was on a domestic route and had been unable to land at Tachelik, some 340 miles north of Yangon, due to bad weather. The crash site is in the so-called Golden Triangle region, an area known for opium production where the borders of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos converge.

On August 22, Russian media reported that Aeroflot and TransAero are raising prices on domestic flights. The price for a round-trip flight between Moscow and St. Petersburg increased by 11 percent, while a trip from Moscow to Vladivostok now costs 15 percent more. However, airport taxes, which usually make up 40 percent of ticket price, have remained steady. 

A Nepali official said that rescuers had recovered bodies of 17 of the 18 passengers from the site of an August 21 airline crash in a mountainous region of western Nepal. The plane had been en route from the resort town of Jomsom to Pokhara, some 125 miles west of Kathmandu.

The Taiwanese Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) on August 14 canceled 62 daily UNI Airlines flights for two months due to "irregular landings and mechanical problems" experienced since a merger with Taiwan Airlines and Great China. If maintenance personnel are not better trained and equipped in two months, the suspension will be extended.

On August 10, a Nigerian pilot for the Congolese company Air Atlantic claimed that he was forced to fly hundreds of rebels soldiers and weapons to reinforce rebel troops in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The pilot said also that he was ordered to land in Kigali, Rwanda, to refuel. Besides his plane, two other aircraft brought reinforcements to the west. The troops and supplies appear to be part of a rebel effort to take control of Boma, a key choke point that would enable them to keep supplies from reaching Kinshasa.

American Airlines Flight 823 was forced to return to Miami after six passengers and two attendants were injured in severe turbulence from a thunderstorm on August 9. The passengers reported head injuries; none was serious. The FAA reports an average of 58 people injured each year due to air turbulence.

Passengers who purchased tickets from the now-defunct Zambian Express Airways Limited (Zamex) have been stranded across Africa, according to local media. Zamex reportedly halted all international flights in early August. On August 9, Aero Zambia applied to the Ministry of Communications and Transport to take over both international and domestic flights, but the ministry has not yet made a ruling.

On August 9, an East Line aircraft carrying 97 passengers from Irkutsk to Moscow was threatened with hijack. A flight attendant found a handwritten threat to blow up the aircraft unless $100,000 was paid. The pilot landed at Moscow's Domadedovo Airport where the Federal Security Services searched the plane but concluded the incident was a hoax. Hijacking threats are common in Russia; however, they are usually made by amateurs and rarely result in violence or death.

Grand International Airways of the Philippines was grounded August 7 for allowing an uncertified company official to fly a Boeing 737-200 flight from Manila to Cebu City on June 16, causing a "very, very serious safety violation," according to the Air Transportation Office. Both the official and pilot were fired after admitting the official had flown planes on two additional occasions. The grounding will not be lifted until a full investigation and reassessment is completed.

Varig, Brazil's largest airline, has announced plans to purchase nearly 40 Boeing 737-800 and 737-900 series jets as a result of significant passenger growth. The new jets are faster, more efficient and capable of longer distances than the current Varig jets. Domestic passenger traffic has risen by 18 percent through July, and international traffic is up nearly eight percent.

The Aviation Institute and the National Institute for Aviation Research this month released their quality ratings on top U.S. carriers. Factors included age of fleet; on-time performance; financial stability; baggage handling; and number of accidents. The carriers were Southwest, Alaska, Continental, American, United, Delta, Northwest, America West, TWA, and US Airways, respectively.

The primary carrier for Antigua and Barbuda, Liat, was fined some $90,000 by the U.S. Transportation Department for flying to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands without authorization. Liat was fined in 1996 for similar violations. Half of the fine will be suspended if the carrier complies with regulations over the next 18 months.

Airlines of concern based on fatal accidents compared to number of flights: AeroPeru, China Eastern, China Northwest, Cubana, Garuda Indonesia, Nigeria Airways, Transportes Aereos Regionais (TAM), and Aeroflot.

AUGUST AIRPORT ROUND-UP

According to an August 24 police report, a Canadian man has been camped out in front of Narita International Airport, in Tokyo, Japan, since May 28. The man, who holds an expired Nigerian passport and a valid Canadian passport, claims that he is "waiting for some friends to bring him a ticket so he can continue on to Nigeria," and refuses to leave the airport. An airport spokesman says that when his 90-day tourist visa expires, September 2, he may face legal penalties.

Eleven people were killed August 23 when a private Cessna jet crashed while attempting to land at Malvin Hall Airport in Roseau, Dominica. The airport traffic control tower reported the jet was traveling too low and crashed into a mountain. An investigation as to whether the accident was caused by mechanical problems or inclement weather is pending. This was the worst aviation accident in the Caribbean island's history.

The Juan Santamaria International Airport in San Jose, Costa Rica, was temporarily disrupted when a baggage cart broke a fuel pump on August 17. The spill closed Jetports 3 and 4 for more than three hours. Firefighters from the airport and Alajuela were summoned to collect the 800 to 1,000 gallons of spilled fuel. A nearby Panamanian COPA B-737 flight was evacuated, and a Nicaraguan NICA flight was delayed for hours. An airport spokesperson reported that the clean up was efficiently handled and, with the exception of the two flights, normal airport operations were maintained on schedule.

Local authorities reported that a section of the roof of the domestic departures lounge at Nassau airport in the Bahamas collapsed due to heavy rains on August 10, injuring two workers.

A Los Angeles International Airport terminal and three planes were evacuated on August 6 when a handgun was spotted in a woman's carry-on baggage. The terminal, which services Southwest, US Airways and America West, was closed during the search. The woman, realizing that she had the gun, went home to return it, but was arrested and charged with carrying a concealed weapon upon arriving at the airport. The search stranded some 4,500 people for two hours.

Some Malaysia Airlines' domestic flights will return to Kuala Lumpur's international airport at Subang, just weeks after the airline insisted all flights operate from Sepang. The move, announced August 5, came due to passengers' requests. The airports are on opposite sides of Kuala Lumpur, making transit between the airports difficult, and the airline requires passengers to check in three hours prior to departure. Due to these restrictions, many passengers opted to drive to domestic destinations rather than fly.

According to a report released by the Directorate of Civil Aviation in Kenya, safety warning systems including Instrument Landing Systems (ILS) at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, Wilson Airport, and Kisumu Airport have not been functional since August 3 and pilots must make landing decisions without mechanical guides. The report also stated that Kisumu control tower frequently experiences power outages, putting flight passengers at further risk. To add to the dangerous landing conditions at these airports, construction of residential neighborhoods has begun near the ends of runways, which, according to the Kenya Airports Authority, is a "disaster in waiting."

REGIONAL FOCUS

International Airport Security Measures In The Wake Of The Terrorist Bombings In Africa

The U.S. Department of State, in the wake of the bombing of two U.S. Embassies in East Africa and the U.S. reprisals in Sudan and Afghanistan, issued a Worldwide Caution on August 20 regarding U.S. international travel, reading in part:  "The Department of State urges U.S. citizens traveling or residing abroad to review their security practices, to remain alert to the changing situation, and to exercise much greater caution than usual…Americans should be aware that Embassy operations are currently suspended in Somalia, Sudan, Republic of Congo-Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo and Guinea-Bissau [and] in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Libya and North Korea, and therefore no support services are available to Americans in these countries…Family members and non-emergency personnel of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania [and] in Albania, Eritrea, and Pakistan…have been ordered to depart. Consular services in these countries have been reduced to minimal levels and in most cases to emergency citizens' services only. American citizens traveling abroad should contact the nearest U.S. Embassy or Consulate by telephone or fax for up-to-date information on security conditions."

While official U.S. facilities are at risk, the terrorists' primary goal is to make a statement, and overseas business facilities that are high-profile or represent important elements of the U.S. economic infrastructure, including the aviation industry, cannot be discounted as potential targets. For the near future, Americans traveling overseas should consider limiting their presence in areas and places of business generally associated with the United States, including places where expatriates are known to frequent.

As precautionary measures, the U.S. FAA has issued a flight ban barring all foreign carriers with transnational agreements with the U.S. from flying over Sudan and Afghanistan. Swissair was fined some $50,000 after flying through Afghanistan, violating the agreement, to which they retorted that it was a misunderstanding.

While several African governments have professed increased security measures at their respective airports, there have been few actual new security precautions taken. Neither the Jomo Kenyatta Airport in Nairobi, Kenya, nor the Dar Es Saalam International Airport in Tanzania have taken significant security measures following the August 7 bombings. However, security has been tightened at South African airports and border posts prior to the August 29-30 Non-Aligned Movement summit.

On August 24, Israeli officials said they stepped up security at airports following threats of revenge for the U.S. attacks on Sudan and Afghanistan. Travelers should expect delays at Tel-Aviv Ben-Gurion Airport and Eilat Airport on the Red Sea and should make arrangements to arrive at least three hours prior to departure.

Airports in the former Soviet Union, Europe, and Scandinavia have largely been unaffected by the ongoing crisis. Travelers may encounter heightened security presence and possible delays, but there has been no increase in threats to regional security tied to fundamentalist Islamic actions. Although U.S. and British carriers may be attractive targets, travelers may wish to carefully consider whether an alternative carrier has a strong record of security screening.

Air travel security to and within Latin America remains relatively unchanged. However, a potential terrorist threat, albeit small, exists in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. Argentina, home to the seventh largest Jewish community in the world, could be a possible target. In late August, the U.S. Consulate in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil received two fraudulent bomb threats. Although no explosives were found, the bomb threats were apparently linked to anti-American sentiment in the country. Additionally, the southeastern region of Paraguay is known to be a haven for Muslim extremists.

While there are no specific indications of heightened airport security in East Asia, the bombings and retaliation have undoubtedly caused those airports in the region where security is historically very tight to take additional precautions. These airports include Narita Airport in Tokyo, Kansai airport in Osaka, Hong Kong, Seoul, Taipei, and Singapore. The August 27 U.S. Department of State Public Announcement advising of a possible terrorist threat to official U.S. installations and personnel in Korea will undoubtedly result in increased security screening at Kimpo airport.

The United States has responded to the retaliatory threats by heightening security at major international airports nationwide. According to U.S. intelligence agencies, Osama bin Ladin, the financier of the strikes against the embassies, had plotted to bomb six U.S. Boeing 747 airliners over the Pacific Ocean in 1994, and he has claimed responsibility for innumerable attacks each year since, most of which resulted in U.S. fatalities. Although, FBI authorities have no specific reason to believe terrorists are targeting U.S. airports or transportation hubs, officials at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport have increased security personnel presence in the terminals, added bomb-sniffing canines, and called out additional tow trucks. Additionally, a Los Angeles International Airport spokesman has advised passengers to expect delays due to increased security checks, while Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport officials advise travelers to arrive early for departures and note that unattended vehicles and baggage will be confiscated.

Cities of Concern

Some international cities of concern for business travelers based on factors including political instability, terrorist actions, and sub-par infrastructure: Jakarta, Indonesia; Bogota and Medellin, Colombia; Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil; Johannesburg, South Africa; Karachi, Pakistan; Lagos, Nigeria; Mexico City, Mexico; Moscow, Russia; Dushanbe, Tajikistan; and Caracas, Venezuela. SUBSCRIBER LOGIN