CNN - FAA orders Kiwi to cut 25% of flights

FAA orders Kiwi to cut
25% of flights

June 21, 1996
Web posted at: 10:50 p.m. EDT

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Kiwi International Airlines, the operation named after a flightless bird, has had its wings clipped for a third time. The airline was ordered by the Federal Aviation Administration to reduce the number of planes it flies from 15 to 11 until it changes the way it keeps pilot training records.

Kiwi agreed to the cuts voluntarily, the FAA's Nicholas Sabatini said Friday during a conference call with reporters. The 25 percent cut in Kiwi's flight schedule begins Saturday.

Kiwi said in a statement that it would honor all tickets and would arrange for other airlines to carry its passengers where necessary.

"Kiwi believes it has been in continued compliance with all regulations," the statement said.

Sabatini, who manages flight standards for the FAA's eastern region, said Kiwi does not have the proper crew training program to ensure the safety of its flights.

"Out of 277 crew members, 30 crew members were not qualified for their jobs," Sabatini said.

The FAA will allow Kiwi to resume flying all 15 of its Boeing 727s once its "infrastructure and organization are compatible with the size of the airline," Sabatini said.

He said the situation had gone unnoticed since March 1995 because of a clerical mix-up. "The revision sheet that was approved for a different amendment was put in the wrong book," Sabatini said.

A misfiled approval statement made the airline appear, on paper, to be meeting FAA training standards, he said.

Kiwi has also agreed to replace its director of training operations, the FAA said.

In December 1994, Kiwi agreed to ground all of its planes for several days when the FAA raised questions about pilot training. The airline insisted the problem was just a question of poor record-keeping. It put its passengers on charter flights or competitors while it worked to either qualify their pilots or prove that they'd already taken the required courses. They were back to business as usual a week later.

The airline was also grounded in April 1995 for the same reason.

Kiwi, a New Jersey-based low-cost carrier, was founded in 1992 by a group of pilots who lost their jobs when Pan Am and Eastern Airlines collapsed. They named the carrier after a flightless bird because many had lost their wings when their other airlines failed.

More than 100 pilots paid $50,000 apiece to launch the employee-owned company, which started out with one jet but built up its fleet over the past four years.

Related sites:

Federal Aviation Administration
Taking the Fall - from Inc. magazine, September, 1995

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FAA orders Kiwi to cut 25% of flights

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FAA orders Kiwi to cut
25% of flights