Executive Briefing - Oct. 4
- Bush, Fox Talk About Border, Air Security
- Report Claims Record Number of Announced Cuts
- Mail from Hijacked Plane Gets Delivered
- Asian Freight Companies Hurt by Terror Attacks
- Airborne Inc. Expects Lower 3Q Earnings
- Russian Plane Plunges Into Black Sea
- OPEC Rethinking Production Agreement
- Swissair Flies Again, Will Resume Freight Shipments
- Wabash Cuts Dividend
- ATA Asks States to Watch Insurance Costs
- Report Claims Record Number of Announced Cuts
Bush, Fox to Talk About Border, Air Security
Mexican President Vicente Fox President Bush met on Thursday in Washington to discuss new border and air security programs after last month's terrorist attacks.The Associated Press reported that Fox has promised to send a new intelligence-gathering law to Mexico's Congress. He also has said that he will speed up the process of extraditing criminals to prevent the U.S.-Mexico border from becoming a route of easy access for lawbreakers.
Another topic discussed was putting armed federal marshals on U.S. flights into Mexico. The suggestion has been well-received by Mexican officials, according to AP. Transport Topics
Report Claims Record Number of Announced Job Cuts
U.S. job cut announcements rose to record levels in September, according to a leading industry report.
More than half came from the airline, aerospace and defense industries.
Job-cut announcements aren’t the same as firings because many reductions will be carried out through attrition or early retirement.
Bloomberg reported that White House sources are indicating that President Bush will back a plan to extend unemployment benefits for 13 weeks. Transport Topics
Mail from Hijacked Plane Gets Delivered
The envelope was torn and dirty, but Jane Galliard’s invitation to her son’s rehearsal dinner did get delivered to her niece in Los Angeles.This would normally be cause for complaints and outrage from customers of the U.S. Postal Service – if not for the fact that the letter was probably carried in the belly of one of the two planes that brought down the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, according to USA Today.
Galliard said that her niece e-mailed her with a tale of a package arriving with the tattered invitation and a note from a man who said he recovered the envelope from the street in lower Manhattan and thought that the addressee might want it.
The Postal Service confirmed to the paper that all mail to the West Coast from Maine, where Galliard lives, is routed through Boston and that both planes which crashed into the World Trade Center were carrying first class mail in their holds.
The paper reported that the package was sent from an overnight service in London, but said that Galliard told them the note had no explanation for where the package was sent from. Transport Topics
Asian Freight Companies Hurt by Terror Attacks
Asian freight forwarders said that sales fell significantly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, and this has dimmed hopes for a recovery next year, Bloomberg reported.Airline surcharges, security delays and the threat of war are hurting demand, which was already slumping from the global slowdown. Much of this cargo is transported to trucks once arriving in the United States, so U.S. trucking companies suffer along with these Asian companies.
Mark Noske, South Asian operations manager for Emery Worldwide, told Bloomberg sales were down 25% in September compared to 2000, and the company is not expecting a significant turnaround until 2003.
Japan Airlines Co., like numerous other Asian companies, said it had a terrible month financially. It estimated it lost 4,000 tons of cargo between the day of the attacks and the end of September. Like Emery, Japan Airlines expects the effects of the attacks to be felt for at least the next 12 months. Transport Topics
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Airborne Inc. Announces Expects Lower 3Q Earnings
Airborne Inc. announced Wednesday that it expects its third-quarter earnings to be lower than previously estimated.The company, which is parent to Airborne Express, was expected to take a net loss of 10 cents per share, according to analysts. The company blamed the lower earnings on the disruption in airfreight delivery in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The company said the loss does not include any funds that may be received from the Air Transportation Safety and System Transportation Stabilization Act. Nearly $500 million of the $15 billion package was earmarked as direct aid to cargo-only airlines. Transport Topics
Russian Plane Plunges Into Black Sea
A Russian passenger plane flying from Tel Aviv to the Russian port of Novorossisk crashed into the Black Sea on Thursday, Reuters reported.A spokeswoman for Russia's Emergencies Ministry said that the plane appeared to have exploded in the air. The plane belonged to Sibir air carrier and had 66 passengers and several crew members on board.
News services reported that the United States believes that it may have been downed accidently by a surface-to-air missile during a Ukrainian military exercise. Transport Topics
OPEC Rethinking Production Agreement
The world’s oil producers are rethinking their agreement to maintain production levels in the wake of free-falling prices, the New York Times reported.The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries met last week and decided to maintain their current levels of production in an effort to help the world economy ward off a recession. Now, as crude oil prices plummet since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, OPEC is considering cutting back production by 500,000 barrels a day, the Times said.
According to the Times, the oil cartel would cut production if the average of seven benchmark prices fell below $22 for 10 consecutive days. As of the close of trading Wednesday, that average stood at $22.30.
The price of Brent crude oil, the major oil benchmark for much of the world, fell 53 cents to $21.52 in trading on the International Petroleum Exchange. The price fell 71 cents to $22.08 in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange on Wednesday. Transport Topics
Swissair Flies Again, Will Resume Freight Shipments
After being grounded for two days, Swissair resumed some flights on Thursday thanks to a last-minute government bailout that temporarily ended its cash crunch, Reuters reported.Also, Swissair said it will resume cargo shipments on Friday, the Journal of Commerce reported.
Swissair said it would operate only about a third of its regular schedule, and there were long delays reported with almost all of its flights.
The Swiss government late Wednesday provided the company with up to $277.3 million in emergency financing that will allow flights to operate until October 28. After that, most of the group's flight operations will be taken over by its former subsidiary carrier Crossair. Transport Topics
Wabash Cuts Dividend
Trailer manufacturer Wabash National Corp. said Thursday that it is cutting its quarterly dividend to 1 cent per share from 4 cents.The company said that the latest dividend will be paid on Oct. 29, to stockholders of record on Oct. 15.
In other news, the company said Tuesday that John T. Hackett has been elected chairman of the board of directors. He succeeds Donald J. Ehrlich, who founded the company in 1985. Transport Topics
(Click here for the full press release.)
ATA Asks States to Watch Insurance Costs
In a letter to every state insurance commissioners, William Canary, interim president and chief executive officer of the American Trucking Asssociations, asked that officials monitor premium costs for unusual increases.Since the Sept.11 terrorist attacks, there has been a fear that insurance companies may try to unfairly raise premiums on the trucking industry.
"I appreciate that market forces may dictate some increases in premium costs," Canary said in the letter. "But we are concerned that a few unscrupulous companies may attempt to take advantage of the recent turmoil and impose unconscionable premium increases on our industry." Transport Topics
(Click here for the full press release.)
