Airline Avenues

NWA ranked No. 1 on the Internet

Northwest Airlines is the leader among U.S. airlines and one of the country's top e-commerce performers, according to a survey done by Business 2.0 Magazine.

Northwest ranked 63rd overall, joining a list that included such Internet heavyweights as Cisco Systems (1), America Online (5), Amazon.com (6) and Yahoo (11), Netscape (40), Mindspring (54), Microsoft (61), Gateway (66) and Apple (94).

"The Internet has become an increasingly vital way for customers and airlines to do business," said Al Lenza, vice president distribution planning. "We are delighted that our efforts have been recognized as the industry's top web site."

Business 2.0 set out to determine "what are the leading companies of the Net Economy." After reviewing more than 600 candidate companies, the magazine settled on a list of "the 100 companies that are taking the best advantage of the opportunities promised by the Net Economy." The list was published in the May issue.

The top companies were rated in 5 areas: annual web revenue, purity of web business (web revenue as a percentage of total revenue), growth momentum, market cap power, and B2 Factor (overall strength, market reach, online competitiveness, and future positioning). Northwest Airlines is the only airline that has award travel booking capability on the Internet. Northwest Airlines' web site will generate approximately $220 million in web revenue, and 5 percent of award travel is booked through the company's web site.

Northwest Airlines' web site can be found at http://www.nwa.com.

American reaches accord with flight attendants

American Airlines has reached a tentative agreement with the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) on a new contract for the airline's 20,000 flight attendants.

The airline said the contract recognizes the important contribution made by flight attendants, and provides pay increases, improvements in retirement and increased scheduling flexibility, while meeting American's need to remain competitive.

The parties reached agreement after nearly nine months of contract talks.

During the first week in May, the parties agreed to move the talks from Dallas to Washington, D.C., and asked the National Mediation Board to provide informal facilitation as the parties worked to conclude agreements on economic issues.

"We are very pleased to have concluded a contract with the APFA," said Sue Oliver, vice president of employee relations and the chief negotiator for American. "The interest-based process used in these talks created a climate where we could openly share all of our interests and work together to explore creative ways to meet the needs of both parties."

Air France's Concorde enters price-cut fray

Air France is celebrating the summer of 1999 with special Concorde prices and offers like never before.

More than 70 destinations across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Western Asia are included in the supersonic promotion via No. 1 connecting hub at Charles de Gaulle in Paris.

"Fantastic. Pay an Air France first or business class round-trip fare, upgrade free to Concorde round-trip for first class fares and one-way in either direction for business fares and with the benefit of free connecting flights to up to 27 countries," said Jean-Louis Pinson, vice president and general manager of Air France in the United States.

"Air France was delighted to welcome our one millionth supersonic Concorde passenger onboard earlier this month," he said. "Now we have set a goal to welcome tens of thousands of Concorde passengers in the months ahead with our special offers. We expect these promotions will be very well received by travelers who want the ultimate in speed, comfort and style when traveling transatlantic this summer to Europe and beyond."

Travel must originate in the U.S. Taxes and government-imposed fees are additional. Eastbound airport hotel accommodations available at JFK for Concorde passengers originating outside New York and arriving on a connecting flight the night before.

Lufthansa 'Skyshop' joins the world of e-commerce

Lufthansa, the largest German airline, has opened the Lufthansa SkyShop, an on-line store.

SkyShop sells exclusive travel accessories and is operated by Lufthansa LOEWE Druck und Distribution GmbH in Cologne, Germany.

The opening of Lufthansa SkyShop marks a major milestone for Intershop, the Internet company that developed the store for the airline. SkyShop is the 10,000th store to go live on the Internet with Intershop technology.

Stephan Schambach, president and CEO of Intershop, said the SkyShop is a symbol for the global acceptance of electronic commerce, its importance for convenient and borderless business and Intershop's vision of Creating the Digital Economy.

The SkyShop's catalog contains 300 products such as hard shell suitcases, cabin luggage, chronometers and airplane models as well as jewelry and gift items made from old airplane parts such as a titanium chess game and necklaces from turbine parts.

The store's Internet address is http://SkyShop.lufthansa.com.

Relief effort

In an effort to help out with the increasingly difficult refugee situation in Kosovo, Northwest Airlines recently provided an aircraft for transporting top information technology experts and crucial high-tech equipment to a refugee camp in Germany. The experts and the equipment traveling with them were to become part of the Kosovar Refugee Internet Assistance Initiative. The project's goal was to establish an Internet-based interactive information center designed to help refugees communicate and receive independent news. The flight made a stopover in Detroit, the home of 40,000 ethnic Albanians. During the stopover, Donald Foley (left), Northwest's vice president of worldwide communications, met with Thomas Becherer of the U.S. Information Agency, which organized the relief effort, and private sector info-tech experts Gary Coppeler and Bob Pencek, both of Silicon Graphics. Photo by Doug Ashley

Information about Detroit Metro Airport or Wayne County may be found at: www.metroairport.com  or www.waynecounty.com.

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