February 2006 Archives

It's not hard to read a lot into a symbol - especially when it's a self-declared symbol like "The Spirit of Delta", a Boeing 767 that was paid for through a voluntary fund drive begun by employees. Back in 1982, three Delta flight attendants began the campaign to persuade others at the nation's number-three airline to sign up for payroll deductions to finance the purchase, which was about $30 million in then-dollars.

Much has changed since then: Delta is desperately bankrupt, riven by internal strife, its employee contributions are now involuntary, and the carrier is retiring all of its older 767s. 'Spirit' is making a farewell tour of Delta cities, and after 3 March goes into a hangar at Delta's Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson airport hub.

That is perhaps a happier fate than the airline's other vintage 767s, many of which will be converted to carry cargo in the overnight package-express trade, some of which have gone to Hawaiian Airlines, and some of which are headed, along with the type of spirit that Delta people showed nearly a quarter-century ago, for the runway of memory.

Air Berlin is ramping up its Scandinavian presence with services out of Denmark's Copenhagen Airport starting 2 May. This follows the low-cost carrier's successful introduction of service to Helsinki in February.

A glance at the Copenhagen Airports press release would lead you to believe that its low passenger charges have been instrumental in luring the low-cost airline. "Air Berlin, Germany's largest low-cost carrier, has now finally confirmed that it is going to start up service out of Copenhagen Airport," it boasts.

"Flying out of Copenhagen Airport has become cheaper. Not only have we lowered our airport charges, but the political decision to phase out the Danish passenger tax gives us a good trump in our sales vis-à-vis the airlines - low-cost airlines in particular," says Copenhagen Airports chief executive Niels Boserup. "There is no doubt that we are going to see a clearly favourable effect on the number of new routes at the airport."

But a quick call to Air Berlin sets the record straight: "Saving money is always a big plus, but not the biggest factor in our decision," says the carrier, as it seeks to expand its network to European capitals.

Including Air Berlin, there are now nine low-cost carriers to choose from for passengers wanting to fly out of Copenhagen Airport. Last year, low-cost carriers accounted for 10% of total traffic at Copenhagen Airport.

Expect fireworks in Brussels on 6 April when the European Commission (EC) holds a public meeting to discuss airport pricing. Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot has called the meeting following a discussion with Giovanni Bisignani in mid-February at which the IATA boss laid out airline concerns over what it sees as excessive charging.

Airlines and airports have never seen eye-to-eye on charging over the years but IATA's campaign on this issue has caused a major rift between the two lobby groups. The relationship has got so bad that Airports Council International (ACI) went so far as to refuse to engage with IATA on charging matters last November. This has not stopped IATA one bit. In fact, it is characterising Bisignani's recent meeting with Barrot as a "major victory". "This is a major step forward," says IATA, because Barrot has publically said that they could be a problem with the way airports are priced.
Some suggestions as to the way forward could be offered at the April meeting. At present, airport charges are regulated on a national basis. IATA is "calling for a European authority to take care of economic regulation for airports handling over 5 million passengers per year," says Bisignani.
The European arm of ACI rejects this call. It believes the national regulatory system works reasonably well. "Having a European regulator could add a new layer of European legislation and wouldn't, in our view, help the situation," it says.
Alternatives to a pan-European regulator could be a performance review body similar to that which monitors and benchmarks Europe's air traffic control providers, or the EC could put forward new guidance to European states and national regulators to ensure airport charging is being applied consistently and to ICAO rules.
Whichever strategy plays out, one of the first tasks is for airlines and airports to iron out their differences and work together as proper business partners (as they do in plenty of other fields). We are not holding our breath though.

The hour-long queue for check-in at London's Stansted Airport could be a thing of the past, as the airport is encouraging carriers using its facilities to offer passengers online check-in. In fact, Ryanair (which has recently attracted the attention of undercover reporters investigating its service and security standards) has announced it will offer online check-in from the middle of March.
A visit to a participating airline's website will allow travellers to print out their boarding cards at home. These cards will show the flight number, date and time of departure and incorporate a unique barcode that can be scanned by airport security staff at a central search area at Stansted.

Initially the service will only be available to passengers travelling with just hand baggage. Hold baggage will have to be presented at check-in in the usual way.

It has taken a while coming, but the Australian Government's decision not to allow Singapore Airlines (SIA) the chance to operate services between Australia and the USA is certainly not a major step forward in freeing up air markets in this still restrictive industry.

The decision is a relief for Qantas and a blow to SIA. In a statement SIA said: "Today's decision from the Australian Cabinet to not lift protection of Qantas on the Australia - US route is a disappointment in the long journey to opening the aviation market to more competition. It is a sign that free trade principles, open market competition and consumer choice have again been sacrificed to protect sectional interests."

In what is being seen in Australia as a big victory for the country's flag carrier, Transport Minister Warren Truss held out little hope of a change in heart from his government as he rejected SIA's pleas. "If access is negotiated in the future, it will be limited and phased and we would not envisage Singapore Airlines operating on the route for some years," he stated.

Truss then became one of the latest to advocate a potential link-up between the two rivals: "The Australian Government believes that future mergers between major players in the international aviation industry are inevitable and considers that the Boards of Qantas and Singapore Airlines should consider the strategic advantage gained from such an alliance in our region."

Surely this is a business decision for the two carriers and not something a government should be meddling in.

The outside world looks on with a mixture of admiration and astonishment at Japanese corporate management practice. The admiration comes from the vision and determination of conglomerates like Honda or Toyota to innovate and expand.

In the airline business, All Nippon Airways, is, under the guidance of surefooted chairman Yoji Ohashi, pursuing a sound strategy. It was recently even confident enough to raise its operating profit forecast to ･78.5 billion ($671 million) for the year ending 31 March 2006.

Now for the astonishment: what is happening at Japan Airlines (JAL)? With less than a year under his belt at the helm of JAL, chief executive Toshiyuki Shinmachi has faced a call to resign by four our of the carrier's top 15 directors and 50 senior managers. The incredible development, which came in the form of a petition, also called for fellow senior directors Katsuo Haneda and Hidekazu Nishizuka to step aside too.

It is reported that the unnamed directors asked for the resignations "in a bid to renew management" amid JAL's poor financial performance and stuttering market reputation. The call has been flatly rejected by Shinmachi and his fellow directors. In a statement Shinmachi said: "Their behaviour undermines public trust at a time when JAL Group must join hands and hearts to meet the two urgent management challenges. At the same time, I apologise sincerely to all the stakeholders."

The reasons for JAL's woes are analysed in depth in the March issue of Airline Business by our Asia-Pacific editor Nicholas Ionides. And the carrier is adamant that the measures it is taking, and more to come in its eagerly awaited new business plan, will enable it to turn the corner.

However, this latest move illustrates how deep the internal misgivings run about JAL's strategy. No doubt the upstarts wanted action, and fast. Their petition might result in another management change at JAL, although Shinmachi appears determined to fight on.

Whichever faction wins out, it is a telling sign of underlying trouble that a carrier of the stature of JAL is in a major fix. And with greater competition on the horizon as airport capacity opens up in Japan the repair crews need to redouble their efforts to shore up JAL's stressed balance sheet and its dented market image.

The fly-on-the-wall television programmes that have followed the ups and downs of daily airport life for carriers like easyJet and Southwest Airlines have become popular viewing. The scenes are sometimes uncomfortable as passengers are refused boarding when they arrive too late for check-in or there are delays, but nothing as uncomfortable as some of the footage from last night's "Dispatches" hour-long programme on a UK station about Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair.

The editors sent two reporters undercover at the carrier to train as stewards and get under the skin of what really happens behind the scenes. They wanted to investigate Ryanair's training methods, how it treats crew and passengers, and in particular if it violated security or safety practices and procedures.

There was a lot of wobbly hidden filming, muffled conversations as well as the oligatory stock shots of aircraft landing in a pretty sunset. Now, I have got to confess that I have never flown with Ryanair so I cannot comment on its service. All I've got to go on is the TV programme, and readers will have to watch that to judge for themselves (check the link above to the Channel 4 website but unfortunately it doesn't include any footage).
Ryanair's reaction is perhaps as interesting. The fightback has been furious. It has printed detailed statements on its website to the allegations in the programme. Take a look, it makes for some fascinating reading.
This is certainly a story that has, as journalists say, legs.

Hades, they say, hath no fury like that of...Try lawmakers, if a House aviation panel hearing, or grilling, of administration liberalisers is a gauge.

All the objections were there: loosening the interpretation of limits on foreign control of US-flag carriers to nudge EC agreement on sort-of-open skies would: (a) endanger US national security by weakening military airlift participation (b) endanger US jobs because European airline workers are lower paid, (c) allow nationals of suspect nations like Nigeria to take over US airlines, (d) threaten motherhood and apple-pie production, and (e) cause weight gain.

Well, maybe not the latter two, but the proposal, in the form of an administrative notice of proposed rulemaking, would, and indeed already has, outraged the gentle sensibilities of the men and women of the congress. Take for instance, Rep. Ted Poe, a Republican from Texas, who after repeatedly silencing the DoT's Jeff Shane with the minatory phrase "I'm not through yet", suggested that a foreign investor with a management stake could crimp a carrier's security budget and staff.

A criminal courts judge in Houston until his election in 2004, Poe recalled that he had often had to deal with misunderstandings of the role of the courts. Shane offered this deferential interpretation: The division of labour between executive branch departments like DoT and Congress "is pretty clear: we interpret the law; you write it", but Judge Poe was not placated. After all, he had just pledged Continental employees back home in Houston his support "to keep American airlines in the hands of Americans". He told them: "When I look out across these runways, I want to see American-made Boeing aircraft, not European ones."

Given the debate now burning bright in partisan hearts through Washington over presidential and executive branch prerogatives, perhaps that's an arguing point, but then there's Peter DeFazio, the Oregon Democrat who has followed aviation matters for nearly a decade, who called the proposal "claptrap".

And there's Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Democrat from Dallas, who found the proposal "arrogant" in its scope and was offended by the administration's admitted failure to consult the aviation subcommittee before issuing the proposal. "Tell me," she asked Shane, "did you ever think to tell Congress or this committee" before issuing the plan? No one, responded the still-diplomatic Shane, regrets more the failure to communicate.

The State Department's ever-diplomatic advocate, chief negotiator John Byerly, offered a bit of unintentional flattery. Byerly addressed the panel's senior Democrat, the well-respected Jim Oberstar, as "Mr Chairman", a title Oberstar held before the Republican takeover of the House in 1994.

Not to be out-finessed, the 32-year veteran Oberstar quickly cut off Byerly's apology with "no, that's all right, I'll take 'Mr. Chairman". Oberstar, who still has a chairman's eloquence, did make the point that this is a serious issue. The DoT proposal, he said, was "artfully crafted, carefully, shrewdly worded and stoutly defended. But its purpose is to hand over US airlines at their most vulnerable to their international trade competitors".

David Field, the Airline Business Americas editor, writes about one of the late Sir Freddie's later air ventures - an operation he ran between South Florida and the Caribbean islands on behalf of a gambling casino in the mid-1990s.

He used DC-10 trijets for the relatively short hops. At a Washington lunch to garner (translate: purchase, by means of offering free booze) press attention, he turned to the reporter and said by way of explanation: "Always use three engines. You never know when one will go broke and you won't be able to get a spare."

The youngish reporter turned to Laker and asked if this was a reference to the way in which the majors had (allegedly) kept him from getting access to spare parts, rotables and other essentials. Sir Freddie nodded his white-fringed head, winked and said: "Oh no, you know I'm not allowed to talk about that", apparently in reference to the gag-order provisions of the settlement of his lawsuit.

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Another Airline Business veteran, Robert Hancock, who labours in the advertising and commercial side, has fond recollections of the time a decade ago when he met Sir Freddie - an icon when Robert was growing up in the UK- after an avation club luncheon address in New York.

"He was his usual witty and down-to-earth himself while making a few comments that made obvious his English roots. I went nervously up to him and said hello to him, proudly presented him my Airline Business business card, which seemed to give me instant credibility. He then promptly introduced me to Mrs. Laker and took me to one side (out of US native earshot) and asked me how I thought the speech went. 'Do you think they understood it okay?' he asked me. I was just really taken back over how normal and friendly he was. After all, he was a Sir."

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Meanwhile, Flight International's Commercial Aviation Editor Max Kingsley-Jones recalls earlier memories:

"I have a vivid childhood memory of Sir Freddie's hands-on approach to running his airline. As a nine year old a the end of a family holiday in Tunisia during Christmas 1975, we arrived at Tunis airport for our flight home, only to find that the departure was delayed after the Laker Airways Boeing 707 we were supposed to fly back on had suffered an engine problem at Gatwick.

After a lengthy delay, our 707 finally turned up at Tunis. As we taxied for take-off, the skipper came on the radio to apologise for the delay, informing us that Freddie himself had been down on the apron directing proceedings as mechanics swapped out the Pratt & Whitney JT3D engines.

Whether such a declaration was a standard part of the brief from Laker's pilots after a technical delay I will never know, but it was certainly a very effective damage limitation exercise that left all his passengers with an amusing tale to tell.

I came across Sir Freddie again as an adult while working at an aviation consultancy company in the 1990s. He was setting up his Laker Airways Bahamas operation and we had been tasked by a bank to value one of the 727s he planned to operate. But when our appraisal came up short of the number he needed to make the deal work, he called our office and treated us to some of his legendary charm and determination.

Using first name terms, he spoke to us like an "old dad" trying to cajole us into finding a few more dollars in the aircraft's value. Despite failing to push up our valuation, his new airline still took the air, and we'd had a brief, first hand glimpse of how one of aviation's great characters had been so successful."
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Go to the Flight website for Sir Freddie's obituary, lovely pictures of his doomed Skytrain transatlantic service and a link to Flight's story from 1977 reporting on the carrier's first flight.

Sama may not be the first low-cost carrier start-up in the Middle East - that distinction goes to Sharjah-based Air Arabia - but it certainly appears to have the loftiest ambitions. As the proposed Saudi Arabian entrant said on its brand launch on 5 February: "Our objective is simple: To be the preferred and most successful low fares airline in the Middle East."

The carrier, which has the approval of the Saudi government, has backing from 30 Saudi private and institutional investors. It is being headed up by a management team consisting of former executives from UK low-cost carriers easyJet and go.

Sama aims to begin services by the middle of this year using leased Boeing 737-300s to bring the low-cost revolution to Saudi for the first time. Initially it will serve domestic destinations, expanding to other states in the region over time.

The word Sama in Arabic is a verb, says the carrier, with a number of meanings: to rise (high), tower up, go up, to be or become elevated, high, exalted or sublime. The brand image is a modern white and blue geometric design, with echoes of that of US low-fares carrier Spirit Airlines.

To keep abreast of Sama's development, and to find out where it will be flying, visit its website.

When the wise men and women of the United States Congress aren’t back home mendin’ fences, kissin’ babies or chompin’ down corn at the country fair, they do spend time under the Capitol dome, and some of the things they do here can easily escape notice of the newshounds chasing the latest lobbying or pork barrel story. So here are a few tidbits:

Penchant for reform: Speaking of lobbying scandals, the House leadership has changed now that Republican leader Tom DeLay, indicted in his Texas home district, has stepped aside from leadership posts; the outcome of a closely contested election to succeed him has some interesting news for the airlines.

The winner, John Boehner, may well be known to the airline industry not because of his politics - he’s a fairly conservative Republican from Ohio - but because of his interest in pension and retirement problems. Long the chairman of the House Committee on Education and Workforce - still known by its old moniker 'the Labour Committee' - Boehner pushed a pension reform bill through the House in late December.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that Boehner refused to put any special consideration for airlines in his bill, even though the counterpart Senate bill has some provisions desired by airline lobbyists. The two versions will be reconciled in a differences or conference committee, and now that Boehner is in such a high-profile position, hopes are that he will compromise. Interesting sidelight: Boehner’s pension bill nearly died in December when the acting House leader, the aptly named Roy Blunt, blocked it. Boehner’s main opponent in his winning race: the self-same Mr. Blunt.

The ‘F’ word and the ‘U’ word: They’re both back in Washington - User Fees that is. The airlines are gearing up for a big legislative battle over the formula for funding the FAA, the agency that employs the nation’s air traffic controllers and runs and maintains its radar, en-route, terminal, and tower facilities among other segments of the infrastructure.

The fight is over who pays how much for what, and the airlines, in the person of Air Transport Association chief executive Jim May, have already begun their campaign to get private pilots – general aviation - to pay more.

The last FAA rewrite was signed in late 20003 after monumental battles over user fees and ‘privatisation,’ and this time around, the FAA really needs the money, says Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta. So the DoT, which is the FAA’s parent agency, has allied with the airlines to move to force private pilots into paying more for their air traffic services. Both have begun using similar phrases: May says that air-traffic charges and fees “should be based on proportional use”. Mineta told another aviation group that “I expect that we are going to see a cost-based plan that creates a more direct relationship between revenue collected and services provided”. He called for a “stable and predictable” source of revenue for FAA capital improvements. To private pilots and corporate aviation, this is anathema. His words “sure sounded like an oblique reference to user fees”, Doug MacNair, the Experimental Aircraft Association’s vice-president of government relations, said after Mineta’s talk. It will be an interesting year.

Man on the move: They let the post sit vacant for a year, but the White House has finally made its pick for US Ambassador to ICAO, choosing Washington lawyer Don Bliss to represent its interests at the international body. Bliss, head of the O’Melveny & Myers aviation practice, is well-known in Washington circles, having worked at the FAA and having written a book on customer service. (This book, we hasten to add, was NOT in the series known as the “very thin-book” series.) Active in the city's aviation organisations, Bliss is widely regarded as a genial past master of these issues; he tells Airline Business that he's looking forward to getting his diplomatic passport - to make it easier to get through airport queues.

The deal was clinched in a mens room corridor in a public building downtown, but he's still proud of it. Dave Banmiller, peripatetic fixer-upper of ailing airlines, tells Airline Business that the delayed emergence of Aloha Airlines from its bankruptcy reorganisation is on for Valentine's Day, having been postponed from a Christmas date when last-minute pensions watchdog objections emerged.

The federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp (PBGC) filed several objections a few minutes before the deadline on the Friday afternoon of the last day of the objection period back in December, says Banmiller, who adds that he was in negotiations with the PBGC within hours.

After the PBGC's protest over the proposed termination of several pensions schemes, Aloha had to rewrite its plan to accommodate these added costs and the rising price of fuel. The final approvals and agreements came just minutes before a final hearing in the bankruptcy court building in downtown Honolulu, with Banmiller making mobile phone calls from just outside the restrooms.

"But coming out," says Banmiller, "we'll have more equity than before and better equity/debt ratio, one of the best in the industry." The modified deal, worth $98 million, provides $63 million in cash and $35 million in exit debt financing. The previous reorganization plan was worth $100 million and provided $50 million in cash and up to $50 million in debt. The new deal also includes $4.5 million more in cost savings.

Banmiller, who had earlier done workouts at Sun Country, one of the Pan Am resurrections, and other struggling carriers, is sorry he couldn't do the Aloha reorganization within the year he had set as a goal, back on New Year's Eve of 2004, when Aloha filed for Chapter XI, but he calls the delays "just sort of a bump along the way". Banmiller is too diplomatic to point out that its island rival, the considerable larger Hawaiian Airlines, took about twice as long to do its Chapter XI reorganisation. The next step: intensified marketing on the west coast mainland markets that Aloha serves.

When the federal pensions watchdog forced Manmiller to redo the Aloha plan of reorganisation it had an unexpected upside, he says: more hometown participation. The plan had always included the Ching and Ing families, two longstanding pillars of Hawaiian commerce that had helped found the airline in 1946 years ago as Trans-Pacific Airlines (TPA). The January plan brings in a new group, Aloha Hawaii Investors, which includes notable investors Duane Kurisu and Colbert Matsumoto, who have also helped rescue a Honolulu radio station and newspaper. The group added $2.2 million to the total, while the chief investor, California supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle added another $10 million.

Banmiller, who engineered a turnaround at Air Jamaica before heading to Hawaii, says the hometown investment has the advantage of supporting the airline's identity as the local airline. Honolulu locals recall that in the bad old days when island society was strictly segregated along ethnic, racial and class lines, the old TPA was seen as 'the peoples airline': local lore has it that on some airlines, Hawaii native people were removed from flights to make room for a visitor or a westerner - but not on TPA. Whether or not this is strictly accurate historically (and one has to hope against hope that it isn't) the hometown branding has to help in Aloha's bid to attract the large number of island expats, Hawaiians who work on the mainland but still travel home frequently. (TPA became Aloha in 1958).

Banmiller says that once the funding is completed and the exit formalised, "I'll send off a damned big check to Goldman Sachs" the Wall Street firm that has financed Aloha while the carrier reorganised. After that, says Banmiller, who was chief operating officer of Air California and then vice president-international at American after it bought out Air Cal, says that, "the focus will be on the employees. They have made the sacrifices and the contributions that kept Aloha alive".

If the offer by Ryanair and Flybe to charge you for the privilege of putting your baggage in the hold of their aircraft leaves you underwhelmed, maybe First Luggage can get your pulse racing.
This company, set up in 2004, enables you to send your luggage separately, delivering it directly to your destination before you get there and sending you a text message to confirm its safe arrival. As the luggage is scanned at several points during its journey it can be tracked in real time online.

Orders are placed with First Luggage, either via their website at www.firstluggage.com or by phone. The item of baggage is then collected prior to the day of travel and effectively couriered by FedEx.
Charges are per item regardless of weight and prices start at ｣49 ($85) for a single journey within Europe. The service was first introduced in Europe but has now been extended as well-heeled travellers head for winter sunshine in the USA and the Caribbean. First Luggage counts actress Joan Collins and veteran travel broadcaster Alan Whicker among its customers.

Curiouser and curiouser. Low-cost carrier AirAsia has cemented its partnership with Manchester United - the UK's Premier League football team - by painting one of its new Airbus A320's in Man United's signature red. And emblazoned three metres high on the fuselage of the plane are the team's elite players Wayne Rooney, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Cristiano Ronaldo, Rio Ferdinand, Alan Smith, Park Ji Sung and manager Sir Alex Ferguson.

AirAsia brokered the partnership back in September to reactions of initial incredulity here at Airline Business. But there seems to be some logic behind the trail-blazing carrier's thinking. And at a reported cost of £2 million ($3.6 million), there'd want to be.
AirAsia's charismatic chief executive Tony Fernandes explains the decision:
"Manchester United has one of the biggest followings in Asia. As the official low-fare airline for Manchester United, AirAsia hopes to create opportunities and exciting avenues to reach out and connect with Manchester United's loyal fan base in Asia. As such, it is only befitting that we dedicate the aircraft to all the Manchester United fans in Asia."

The photos show Tony Fernandes and the deputy group chief executive officer Kamarudin Meranun posing in front on the newly arrived A320. Plus the "Red Devil" A320 touches down at Kuala Lumpur International airport. Park Ji Sung, Sir Alex Ferguson and Rio Ferdinand are shown on the fuselage, and Manchester United's crest adorns the tail.

The 10m long steel scaffold pole swings precariously close to the transfer bus door as the ex-patriate Indian worker, clad in full-face scarf to ward off the swirling dust, heaves it up to a colleague on the next level. Work is in full swing in and around the daily operations during a busy peak at Doha's international airport.

Workers crawl all over the modestly sized terminal and apron to expand the Qatari capital's airport capacity in advance of a bright, shiny new model (see artist's impressions above and below) scheduled to open in 2009. It is urgently needed. The small Gulf state's flag carrier Qatar Airways is out-growing its home base. In fact it has virtually out-grown it already, and is already capacity constrained at peak times.

So, even though the new airport complex is within sight, some $300 million is being spent at the current one to cope with the ambitions of Qatar Airways. This interim measure will expand the apron and terminal and include the fast-track construction of a dedicated first and business class terminal to open in the third quarter. It is badly needed: the airport's lounges were bursting at the seams during a recent visit.

The new airport will be impressive, and a testament to the aspirations of this gas-rich state to develop a flourishing economy and tourist trade. In fact, so fast is the growth of Qatar Airways that the airport's planned second phase has already been approved. This will boost its capacity from 12 million passengers annually to double that number.

In common with near-neighbours Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Qatar is pouring concrete like mad to meet anticipated demand. It is an amazing story that needs to be seen at first hand to appreciate the scale and speed of progress.

And although for many the only sight of Qatar is in a brief glimpse as they transfer to an airport bound for Bangkok, Berlin or another such destination, more are making a stopover. That is why in January and early February alone Qatar hosted a professional cycle tour event, a round of the European golf tour and a charity concert given by rock star Bryan Adams.

More is in the calendar before the big one: The 2006 Asian Games, which arrives in Doha in December. For most Qatar may still be an alien destination, but within five years I predict many of us will have witnessed its progress at first hand.

The UK's low-cost airlines are thinking outside the box in their race to gain competitive advantage. EasyJet has announced all-night check-in at London Gatwick for flights departing before 0830. In a bid to give travellers an extra half an hour in bed easyJet now permits check in for early flights from 2200 the previous night.

Presumably the sort of passengers taking advantage of this scheme are either planning to stay overnight in one of Gatwick's hotels or anticipating a marathon shopping session in the terminal, which remains open all night. It is hard to imagine passengers making a special trip to the airport late the night before travel and then returning home to set the alarm clock for just that little bit later.

Meanwhile, Ryanair and Flybe are outdoing each other in their battle to discourage travellers from checking in baggage. Flybe was the first to announce its "Fair deal on baggage", in which travellers without checked baggage save ｣1 ($1.80) off the ticket price and enjoy double the weight allowance for cabin baggage. Passengers with hold baggage will pay ｣2 for every pre-booked item (or ｣4 if presented unbooked at check-in), but Flybe says 99% of excess weight charges will disappear as it raises the limit to 25kg. Economy plus passengers will pay no baggage costs at all. Jim French, Flybe chief executive says the move will mean "passengers paying for the service they use rather than the cost being spread unfairly across all people on the aircraft".

Hot on Flybe's heels, Ryanair has announced five measures aimed at reducing its airport and handling costs by around 10% by increasing the proportion of passengers flying with carry-on baggage only. The carrier says it will cut fares by ｣2.50; offer travellers with hand baggage only web check-in and priority boarding; increase baggage allowance by 5kg; and charge passengers ｣2.50 per item of checked-in baggage booked via the web and ｣5 per item if not prebooked. Ryanair says the changes overall will mean passengers with cabin baggage only - estimated to be 25% of total travellers - will get lower fares.

Oh Baby Blue, who's singing the blues now? JetBlue and no baby she, but an adolescent with some real growing pains: the blue-eyed darling will lose money this year and posted a deficit for 2005, the first time since 2000 it was in the red.

For the full year, the net loss was $20.3 million, largely because of a fourth-quarter net loss of $42.4 million, when JetBlue's costs for fuel climbed by 90% from a year earlier. Labour costs at the non-union airline rose 22% as it hired workers to fly its new Embraer regional jets. Just like every other struggling player in today's airline industry, fuel and labour were its largest expenses.

Before the fourth quarter, JetBlue and role-model Southwest were the two biggest US airlines not to have reported a quarterly loss since the 11 September terrorist attacks. Southwest remains profitable, while the largest US carriers have lost more than $40 billion since the end of 2000, and pundits, analysts and legislators held out JetBlue as demonstrable proof that a well-managed airline could make money. Since it went public in 2002, JetBlue's shares have been a magnet for investors, peaking in late 2004 and retaining Wall Street's favour even as they have declined in price since. Its last quarterly deficit was in the closing period of 2000, a year for which it also lost money.

While growing pains, in particular the maturing of its workforce and fleet, its expansion and ambitious plans to integrate the Embraers, certainly combined to account for some of the red ink, stiffening competition from low-cost rivals, from Southwest to an aggressive AirTran, and rebounding legacy carriers such as US Airways and Delta's Song unit, presents a continuing challenge.

The other fundamental problem: fuel. A slightly embarrassed chief executive David Neeleman said almost wistfully: "I wish we had Southwest's hedging position, but we don't." Neeleman, who founded the carrier in 1998, some 18 months before it began operations, sees more costs ahead. The Embraers have presented some teething problems, and the airline is committed to heavy spending on a new terminal facility at its New York JFK hub, where it expects to have 26 gates by late 2008 or early the next year.

The public still loves JetBlue, but its revenue was, in the words of Merrill Lynch analyst Mike Linenberg, "a little light". Total operating revenue in the fourth quarter was up 34% to $446 million, but that was $15 million short of his forecast, and unit revenues were up just 5.3% in the quarter. That was short of the increase estimated by JP Morgan's Jamie Baker, who was looking for unit-revenue growth in the 9% range. As Baker put it: "The maturation of JetBlue has occurred far more quickly than we ever would have envisioned."

But, for just a few bucks more, things could be a lot brighter: Neeleman said that with an added $4 on each ticket, it would have made money. "What we really need is for fares to go up about $10 each." He may ask, but it may not be given.

United Airlines' big day is Wednesday but it is waiting until Sunday to celebrate, when it is betting on a big sports match to bring back the business. On 1 February it formally emerges from its three-year bankruptcy - the most expensive airline reorganisation ever - having eliminated 25,500 jobs, cut $7 billion in total spending, and attracted $3 billion in financing to fund its exit from bankruptcy court protection.

Starting Sunday, United is spending big in its bid to attract high-paying passengers, pouring dollars into the most expensive advertising arena of all, the Super Bowl of American football. These ads, which cost as much as $2.5 million for 30 seconds of airtime to reach about 130 million people, will run during the Sunday game, at about the most expensive time, just before the half-time break.

In an event watched as closely for its marketing, sponsorships and advertising as for its kicks, passes and touchdowns, presentations from companies such as Ford or Budweiser have traditionally made as much news as the game itself.

United is going at it with puppets and animation, using them to revive a theme it has used for a decade: a parent's business trip, from a child's point of view. These ads include "Daddy the Dragon Slayer" as a new theme. One advertising agency executive, Stuart d'Rozario of Fallon Worldwide, says: "A parent's business trip seen through a child's eyes seemed like rich creative territory."  The ads use the music of Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue,' which United bought back in the 1980s in a then-unprecedented move for an airline.

The ads come days after United announced its 22nd consecutive quarter of deficits - $17 billion for the 2005 final period, including reorganisation costs - and a $21.2 billion annual net loss.

Ironic note: the football game will be played in Detroit, where Southwest Airlines, the Official Airline of the National Football League, will have billboard ads throughout the stadium. And that is a dragon United can slay only in its dreams.