<B>WashingtonWire</B>
<B>FAA Finds Boeing Fairly Safe</B>
The Federal Aviation Administration said Boeing has agreed to institute both short- and long-term measures to correct manufacturing problems uncovered during a special three-month agency audit of the company's commercial aircraft facilities. FAA officials said they found no immediate safety issues related to Boeing's design and manufacturing processes. However, Boeing is working with FAA to address all production-related findings in the audit and to tighten internal and external controls to ensure that products conform to their approved design, agency officials said in a press briefing. The agency identified 107 specific problems at seven plants in Washington and Oregon. "The findings show that these were not isolated events," said John Hickey, manager of FAA's transport aircraft directorate. Among the short-term changes agreed upon, Boeing has added inspectors at its suppliers' facilities, instituted self-audits in its own facilities, increased the size of the staff assigned to inspect individual airplanes for compliance and conformance and established a compliance board to review changes on every airplane. In addition, both FAA and Boeing have agreed to a long-term plan to fix systemic issues identified by the audit. Boeing said it already has increased its staff by 370 full-time positions as a result of the audit and added hundreds of part-time positions in its improved quality control system. "We stand by the integrity of our quality system and the excellent safety record of our products clearly validates that," Boeing said in a statement. "The improvements that are being implemented will further enhance the quality of our airplanes." FAA instituted the special audit of Boeing after the manufacturer experienced a series of production problems in 1999. The audit was to evaluate whether the difficulties were isolated events or highlighted problems.
<B><A NAME="2">US Airways-United Merger To Have Domino Effect</B>
Rep. Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.), voicing concern that the U.S. Department of Justice might consider a compromise that would allow the proposed United-US Airways merger to go forward, has written to the department to argue that the merger, if approved, likely would promote other carrier combinations "and reduce the industry to three mega-carriers with worldwide networks." Such a result, Oberstar said, "would lead to reduced competition and higher fares throughout the country." Oberstar wrote to Doug Melamed, acting assistant attorney general for antitrust, who replaced Joel Klein, who has left the department. "Recently, there has been speculation that your office is considering a compromise, in which you would not object to the merger if the proposal was revised to require divestitures of additional assets, and/or to impose limitations on post-merger operations," Oberstar wrote. If US Airways' network were merged with the nation's largest carrier, the post-merger carrier would have 65 percent more revenue than American Airlines and would have nine hubs, more than any other airline. "In these circumstances, the motivations of American and Delta Air Lines to merge would not be changed by any conditions your office can impose," Oberstar said. "The types of conditions that you could consider would still leave us with a substantially bigger United, and other major carriers would still seek to merge." Oberstar requested that DOJ not consider the United-US Airways merger in isolation, but also its potential to trigger other mergers.
<B><A NAME="3">Clinton Signs Visa Waiver Program</B>
President Clinton on Oct. 30 signed H.R. 3767, the Visa Waiver Permanent Program Act. The legislation permanently extends the visa waiver program, which allows citizens from certain countries to travel to the United States as temporary visitors without obtaining a visa. Since the Visa Waiver Pilot Program lapsed nearly five months ago, Los Angeles International Airport has reported that gate holds have increased to three hours per aircraft due to increased processing times. Airports in New York, Houston and Miami also have reported steady increases in their passenger processing times.
<B><A NAME="4">Load Factors Top FIve-Year Record</B>
The U.S. Department of Transportation has released a report compiled by its Bureau of Transportation Statistics showing that airline passenger load factors climbed this past summer to their highest level in five years, continuing the trend for more air travel, smaller planes and more effective matching of aircraft with passenger loads. The report showed that during June and July, the domestic passenger load factors were 78.3 percent and 77.8 percent, respectively.