European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - February 1, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Pago 6 the stars and stripes sunday february 1,1967 air fare bargains Spur buying Rush others join Continental Eastern War new York nyt1 customers seeking to Lake advantage of new Low fares uttered by Continental and Eastern airlines swamped ticket Sellers Friday and competitors continued to join the latest air fare War. Tens of thousands of callers jammed Telephone lines at travel agencies nation wide As Well As at Continental and East Ern which announced the new fares thursday. The Calls overwhelmed ticket agents As Well As Continental s computer reservation system which slopped for two hours Friday morning. Competing airlines matched the fares which Cut the lowest available ticket prices by As much us 40 percent for travel from feb. 1 to May 20. Fan american world airways heightened the fare Bat the Friday by Matching the lower Price for flights through March 31, but eliminating nearly All the Purchase restriction that Continental and Eastern Are imposing. But pan am whose Domestic Light account for Only 30 percent of in Busi Ness is not a dominant Domestic Carrier. In turn. Eastern said it was rescinding two requirement for routes where it Ana pan am compete mainly new York to Florida and new York to California. These requirements that tickets bought under the new ant be for round tops and that they be bought at least two Days ahead of departure still apply on other routes. One important restriction remains on All the new discount fares no refunds. The fares do not apply to the shuttle services that operate Between washing Tan new York and Boston. One Way prices under the new fares include j/9 Between new York an Miami and $89 Between new York and san Francisco. Ticket prices in general Cost j10 to $20 less on Way than the super Saver fares purchased at least 30 Day before departure. These had been the cheapest available. On the first Day of Sale for the new Max Saver fares gremlins played havoc with the airlines computer systems an Telephone lines. Continental airlines computer reservation system was not operating from 7 to 9 . Bruce Hicks a spokesman for Continental said 30 min utes after the glitch surfaced the airline was Able to begin Selling the new Tares Ona makeshift basis. Hicks said Continental brought in extra Telephone agents to its nine Reser vation centers nationwide to operate its 2,260 ticket reservation comp Lei at full capacity. By late afternoon callers were phoning in a a Rale to,300an hour Paula Muslo a in Hetman Tor Eastern airlines said 25,000 callers an hour were clogging Eastern s lines 50 percent above Normal. She said most people were interested in flights to Florida or Calfo Nia. It s been overwhelming said Musto. United airlines which starting Selling at the lower rates Friday on routes competitive with Continental and Eastern said the volume of oils was up 40 per cent Over Normal and people Are buy ing said Chuck Novak a United spokesman dispelling Tome analysts Ini tial predictions that travellers would be reluctant to buy a ticket for which no refund would be available. American and trans world airlines As Well u United announced thursday they would match the Continental and Eastern often on competitive , on Friday Delta Northwest and us air followed suit most travel agents said they were inundated with callers eager to buy new tickets and rebook ones they already held for lower prices it s been a terrible headache said Liz Rooks a travel agent with travel trend in fort Lee officials of Continental and Eastern which arc owned by Texas air corp., have cautioned travellers that few if any of the cheapest scats will be available Lof Lorida in the next several weeks because of heavy vacation travel there. Most airlines were allowing passenger with sup Enaver tickets to rebook on the lower priced fares when available with out incurring the Normal cancellation penalties of up to so percent. Prospective travellers encountered Busy signals or Long Waits when they called continents and Eastern. The car Rier recommended that Calls instead remade to travel agents most of whom have Access to the airlines reservation systems. 12 air controllers de certified because of close straying planes stateside Palm Dale Calif. A planes controlled by the regional air traffic Center Here strayed closer to each other than they should have 12 times this month and a dozen controllers were temporarily de certified As a result an official said Friday. However Don Early manager of the los Angeles air route traffic control Center said All but one of the 12 controllers have been re certified after addition Al training. The 12 close encounters in january were Ifie highest number for any month since Early 1984, Early said adding there were 55 such incidents during All of 1986. Planes Are deemed to be too close when the distance Between them is less than five Miles horizontally and 1,000 feet vertically. Early noted that none of the incidents resulted in collisions or near collisions and none was reported by pilots. The incidents were detected by equipment at the regional Center he said. I am not saying there is not a problem Early said. I think one operational error is a serious problem. We Don t a ant  but he said Media reports made it appear controllers were Slipshod adding i think they should be applauded. That is a perspective that has t been reported  he said the 55 incidents in 1986 amounted to Only three Ane Hiildred thousandths of a percent of the 1.69 million operations handled by the Center hat year. The regional Center has 437 controllers the Center controls thousands of Miles of airspace Over Southern California Arizona Nevada and Utah. Anti Denver letter draws fire Denver a a slate Job service Counselor has been disciplined for advising an Illinois Man not to move to Denver because of High housing costs medi Ocre schools and increasing crime. We regret that letter Bart Alexander acting director of the Colorado department of labor said Friday we be taken Steps to ensure that we provide accurate information in the future and that personal and pejorative kinds of comments Are not made  officials refused to say How the unidentified coun Selor was disciplined. The Illinois insurance supervisor who asked that his name not be used said he wrote the letter seeking information about Denver and Job opportunities. We weren t at All sure what Denver looked like let alone what it had to offer he said Friday. I have to give the person credit for quoting me the facts. But it s not something i expected for somebody so  the Counselor told the Man and his wife that hous ing is plentiful but expensive at least to us. Schools Are considered mediocre. Wages always have been and Are now very Tow. Crimes rapes and homicides Rose 31,9 percent in i9s6." the mayor s office has drafted another letter touting the City s Strong Points but the Illinois couple say the have decided not to move to Denver. We were just turned off immediately the Illinoisan said. 2 copter Case charges dropped fort Rucker Ala. A a military judge dropped attempted murder charges against a fort Ruder flight instructor accused of tampering with 11 army helicopters but the Man still faces a general court martial official said Friday. Warrant officer Louis h. Plunkett jr., 27, has been charged with five counts of damage to government property and one count of violation of Federal Law said belly Goodson a spokeswoman at he Southeast Ala Bama base. Two counts of attempted murder were dropped from the charges on the recommendation of a military judge Goodson said. Plunkett was apprehended nov 10 and was As signed to ground duty while military police and the Fri investigated the lamp rings. He was formally charged dec. 19. Officials said then the attempted murder charges did not result from any crashes but they arose from several instances in which soldiers flew helicopters that had been tampered with. No Date has been set for the court martial Goodson said. Operations at 1 pm Plant will end by september Detroit a general motors corp announced Friday it will phase out operations by september 1989 at a Fisher guide division Plant Here that employs 2,057 people. Layoffs at the fort Street Plant weren t expected for about Sii months and no estimate was made of the number of workers affected division spokesman Ron Woods said. The Plant produce  rests door trim instrument panels and other Eulo parts pm said. The number of operations relocated to other Fisher guide or pm plants Wilt affect the num Ber of workers who might be eligible to work in those facilities. Woods said. Shipyard workers of 3-year pact with Bonus Pascagoula miss. A about 11,000ingalls shipyard workers Friday approved a three year contract that includes no wage in crease but gives an immediate $1,000 Bonus toll employees Union officials said. New workers hired by Ingalls will be paid s3 less per hour than those already employed under the pact which replaces one thai expires sunday. The new contract which extends through february 1990, was agreed to late thursday in negotiations Between Ingalla and several Trade unions. De Lowe president of the Pascagoula Mela trades Council said he believed the workers approved the contract because they thought How bad the Economy was in this Day and age epidemic of hepatitis in Oregon continuing Portland Ore a Oregon had a re Cord number of hepatitis cases for the second consecutive year in 1986, and no end is in Light to the epidemic declared a year ago stale health officials said Friday. The Oregon health division said 1,900 cases of hepatitis Type a were reported last year up from 1,850 cases in 1985, that s the highest number of cases reported since the state began keeping records in 1949. Oregon led the nation in the number of cases reported in 9s5, said or Laura fetus a health division epidemiologist. National figures arc not in Yit for 1986. I imagine we re up there in the top few states said fehrs. Considering we re not the largest Staten terms of population it s very