February 2008 Archives

We just have to direct you to the Airspace forum, where we're getting fast-breaking news of Southwest allegedly victimising two 18-year-old women because they're young and pretty.
Southwest responded with a clip on youtube (it's a modern world), which appears to be read by one of their own young and pretty employees - perhaps an air steward?
Our sympathies go out to this often-overlooked minority group.

The two top Delta Air Lines executives, including CEO Richard Anderson (right), broke silence on a possible merger with Northwest Airlines, telling Delta’s employees that the Atlanta-based carrier has yet to “arrive at a potential transaction that meets all of our principles” for a merger or combination. The employee memo, the first such detailed communication from either Delta or Northwest Airlines since merger discussions became public knowledge, suggests that any possible big step toward domestic consolidation is faltering. See Left Field for the complete Delta memo and more, including an IAG podcast here about the labour issues.

At last: a blog on Ryanair that doesn’t involve scantily clad swimsuit models or a cheap publicity stunt, or indeed both.
Ryanair has been feeling the heat as it scrambles to upgrade its New Skies reservations system. The airline that makes an astounding 99% of its bookings online had to shut down its reservations system between 22:00 on 22 February and 23:00 on 25 February to make the changeover.
Yesterday Ryanair released a statement apologising “to any passengers who have suffered inconvenience in attempting to access Ryanair.com over the last 24 hours”.
And despite “significant progress” with the cut over, Ryanair expects “further bedding down problems over the next day or two”.

Singapore Airlines is using "social marketing" to drum up passenger excitement ahead of its first Airbus A380 flight from London on 18 March.

SIA has sent passengers an email inviting them to submit "creative expressions" of the A380 next to a London landmark. Squint hard at the picture to the left and you'll see an A380 in the top left corner. Every week, the submission with the highest number of votes gets the honour of being featured on the main page of the carrier's online A380 "gallery".

Passengers are also invited to submit written articles describing their own experiences on the A380. Examples of previous submissions can be seen here.

This is a good example of "user-generated content", something us journalists are only too familiar with as our profession evolves and changes to take into account the potential to reach and engage with readers in new ways through the web.

Airlines are obviously beginning to incorporate this technique into their marketing strategies, and it will be interesting to see who else jumps on this bandwagon and what methods they will adopt to communicate their message to the masses.

This fine and sunny morning (yes, I'm serious!) I headed into London to attend a presentation at the Institute of Directors (which represents 52,000 business directors) to unveil the results of a survey sponsored by UK carrier bmi entitled "High Fliers: business leaders' view on air travel". Now forgive me for not being blown away by one of the main points raised by the survey, which is that, wait for it, drum roll.....most business organisations use air travel at some point. Well blow me down with a feather! Who'd've thought it?!

However, once I'd scraped myself off the floor and recovered from the shock revelation that UK businesses actually need to do the odd bit of travelling from time to time, there were actually some interesting points in the survey. For instance, of the 500 IoD members surveyed, half agree that air fares should be higher "in order that the aviation industry pays its full environmental costs". This is not something you see very often, particularly as we head towards a possible recession when travel budgets are normally one of the first things to be cut.

The IoD is also using the survey to throw its weight behind the argument in favour of building a third runway at London Heathrow, pointing out that 70% of respondents agree that UK airport capacity should be expanded over the next 20 years. Expect more arguments in favour of the third runway as we approach the end of the government consultation into Heathrow expansion - my inbox when I returned to the office contained press releases from both British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, calling for the third runway to be approved.

And in the against camp, Greenpeace made its feelings crystal clear this morning as campaigers climbed on top of a BA aircraft at Heathrow and dropped a banner saying "Climate emergency - no third runway" (see picture). Whatever your feelings on airport expansion, this stunt certainly raises serious security concerns that BAA will no doubt be facing a grilling over!

Ryanair's planned three-day shutdown of its entire reservations system over this weekend turned into just two days, the carrier says.

As we commented in our March issue, it had incredibly taken the decision to close itself for bookings while it transferred from its Navitaire Open Skies res system to the all-singing all-dancing New Skies one.

Most remarkable of all is Ryanair's plea for customers: "We expect to be dealing with some small bedding down issues over the next few days and we would ask passengers to please bear with us as we iron them out."

Hang on, you want customers to cut you some slack. That's rich coming from the airline that is as black and white about customer service as it gets.

British Airways is having a tough week. Not only has the baggage system at its London Heathrow base broken down, forcing the carrier to tell long-haul passengers not to bother bringing any hold luggage with them, but its pilots have voted to go on strike for the first time in nearly 30 years.

BA's pilots are protesting the carrier's planned new OpenSkies subsidiary, which the pilots see as a "Trojan horse" which will "force down" their pay and conditions.

This is the last thing BA needs with its move into Terminal 5 just around the corner, and will no doubt dampen the optimism expressed by chief executive Willie Walsh during his recent cover interview with Airline Business.

The pilots union BALPA has not set a date for the planned strike, but it could prove catastrophic for the grand opening of the much trumpeted T5 if the two events coincide.

London's incumbent mayor Ken Livingstone and the arch-rival who's vying for his job, Boris Johnson, may be poles apart politically, but they have something in common: they both oppose further expansion at their city's biggest airport.

On a recent visit to one of the villages that would have to be demolished if proposals for a third runway at Heathrow became reality, Livingstone spelled out his fierce opposition to expansion, saying: "It is vital that all airport expansion in London and the South East, including Heathrow, is halted now as it is contrary to growing evidence on the role of aviation in contributing towards catastrophic climate change."

Boris (pictured below) has gone one step further, according to this report in The Times, and is calling for Heathrow as we know it to be demolished and moved lock, stock and barrel to a set of artificial islands in the Thames estuary.

I think Boris's plan is far-fetched and pretty unrealistic, given how long it took for Terminal 5 to be built let alone how long it would take to bulldoze Heathrow and move it eastwards. Plus I don't see how moving one of the busiest airports in the world to a different location would lessen the environmental impact in any way.

The third runway debate is reaching fever pitch here in London - what are your thoughts? Should they or shouldn't they build one? And if they don't build one, what is Heathrow's future in comparison to other global hubs?

Has Rusdi Kirana gone crazy?

The president and founder of Indonesia’s Lion Air today ordered another 56 Boeing 737-900ERs, lifting his commitment to the new aircraft type to a whopping 178.

I know the Indonesian low-cost market has a lot of potential (in fact I’ve been hearing that since deregulation came to Indonesia 10 years ago) but 178 aircraft seems ridiculously ambitious. Rusdi (pictured here in 2006 when Airline Business paid him a visit for a cover interview) told our sister publication Air Transport Intelligence today after signing for the 56 additional aircraft at the Singapore Airshow that only about 60 of its 178 737-900ERs will be flown in Indonesia. That seems feasible – Lion now operates a fleet of about 30 aircraft including seven 737-900ERs and barring four short-haul international routes it is entirely a domestic operator. But the other markets Rusdi plans to put the aircraft – Australia and Thailand – are already oversaturated with low-cost carriers.

At it's Annual General Meeting last year, IATA head Giovanni Bisignani stunned his audience of airline bosses by declaring that in his view the industry should aim for a "zero" emissions future within 50 years.

Uh? How can an industry which relies on fossil fuels for its basic propulsion achieve this? Surely not even Giovanni's fierce will power could pull this one off?

But in addition to some fine words, IATA is trying to back its grand vision, which we applauded back then, with action. It has signed a partnership deal with the Solar Impulse project to help this aircraft on its planned journey around the world.

As my colleagues at Flight reported last year, the Solar Impulse is an aircraft that will fly around the world with no fuel and zero emissions.

AirAsia founder and CEO Tony Fernandes is an upbeat man, so when he says the number of new airline entrants will grind to a halt this year you should pay attention.

That's what he told the FT this weekend, in as pessimistic assessment of the prospects for the Asian market as he's probably ever given.

As he readily concedes, he started AirAsia at the right time and in the right place. That's an important ingredient in business as in any walk of life.

Today's market conditions look like they would definitely make him think twice about doing it all again.

For other recent blogs about AirAsia and Tony check out:

* Tony with the Red Arrows
* Tony seals Vietnamese deal
* Tony gets together with Richard Branson

SkyEurope might have set their standards high when they set out to break the world record for the number of airborne kisses on Valentine’s Day.
But the cynics have been silenced, as yesterday more than 2,200 kisses were recorded onboard 14 of SkyEurope’s aircraft and 84 flights.
Check out these pictures, especially the shot of the couple who weren’t even allocated adjoining seats and had to crane over to the next row to cop a snog. Now that’s romance.

I'm a sucker for nice snaps and this is one of them. And after my colleague Brendan Sobie interviewed Royal Jordanian CEO Samer Majali for our February cover issue frankly I just noticed the story.

And, as an airline writer who rarely ventures outside commercial air transport stories it's not surprising I never knew Jordan had its own air display unit - the Royal Jordanian Falcons, which in fact have been flying for over 30 years.

A regular date for the Falcons is a Friday outing to please the crowds aboard this cruise ship, the Thomson Celebration, as its crosses the Red Sea.

In an event that defines the term "publicity stunt", SkyEurope will be attempting to set a world record for kissing 10km above the ground on Valentines Day.
Passengers flying on 14 February are invited to kiss their partner in exchange for a certificate and a free air ticket. Not bad going.
SkyEurope does add the proviso that kissing records will be allowed on "all the flights on which the safety procedures and sector length will allow". Good to hear that safety regulations won't be broached for the smooch-off.
“Nobody has ever attempted to create a world record in kissing in the skies in European airspace," says Steven Greenway, chief commercial officer of SkyEurope. "We will be the first, and for this year I want to say also world champions in this discipline,” he says rather confidently.

As one of the shrewest airline bosses around, it comes as no surprise to see ACE Aviation Holdings chairman Robert Milton taking advantage of merger and consolidation mania across the border by talking up the prospects of a sale of ACE's greatest asset - Air Canada.

Globe and Mail reporter Brett Jang was spot on describing Robert's words to a conference call as "putting a for sale sign on Air Canada".

"In my view, as I watch the U.S. airlines scurrying around to merge, anybody that actually ties up with Air Canada gets a unique piece of geography relative to the way the US guys would split it up," Milton said, according to the Globe report.

Gone, it seems, are the days when the French government only supported its own.

None other than French Minister for tourism and consumption, Luc Chatel, was on hand at easyJet's bash in downtown Paris to launch its new base at Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Here is M. Chatel (right) cutting a ribbon with M. Harrison, the easyJet CEO.

Outrage, outrage. That was the reaction after United Airlines said the other say that it would start charging people in the cheap seats to check a second bag. Some were alienated, and one flyer told a discussion group that the policy would doubtless hurt those who could least afford it and that it was “kind of like the rich getting richer and poor getting poorer.” She did not suggest a federal baggage-fee subsidy, however. Someone you know and (we hope) like can be heard talking about the reaction here in an IAG podcast.
Left Field has a longer discussion of this whole marketing concept of unbundling or a la carte pricing, and the way some carriers such as Spirit Airlines or Skybus are trying to carve out a new niche where extras (“ancillary charges”) are as important a revenue stream as ticket fees. Spirit is certainly committed to the philosophy: a day or two after United came out with its new policy, the South Florida-based discounter said it was raising its fees for checked bags.

Okay, we’re over here. The guy who’s been babbling on the Airline Business blog is now over in his own corner. You can ignore him or respond, both at your own peril. Because his new blog Left Field is entirely a personal perspective based on about 20 years of reporting about airlines, you’ll probably want to respond, even if it’s just to point out that two decades of reporting does not necessarily make for wisdom. Some of our Left Field musings will appear in the Airline Business blog and some won’t, but we’re hoping you’ll check out both.

Virgin Atlantic will be starring in the next James Bond film as global partner for the dubiously titled Quantum of Solace.
Full details of the tie up are yet to be revealed, but let’s hope there will be another amusing cameo from Sir Richard Branson, like the one seen in 2006’s Casino Royale, where he plays a passenger passing through security at Miami airport. (Interestingly British Airways took the step of editing Branson from their in-flight screenings of Casino Royale.)
Virgin Atlantic aircraft were also featured in the Miami airport scene.
Branson claims Virgin and James Bond “make a great partnership – slick, smooth and renowned the world over”.
Quantum of Solace will be released on 7 November and is the 22nd Bond movie to be released.

What have heavy rock group Iron Maiden and UK charter carrier Astraeus got in common?

Aerosexuals among you will know the answer straight away - Maiden lead singer Bruce Dickinson is a pilot for the airline, flying its Boeing 757s.

Only natural therefore that Bruce should pilot one of the airline's 757s on Maiden's world tour which started rocking in Mumbai, India on 1 Feb. And by all accounts the "veteran" rockers worked up a storm.

Now for the aviation link - independent UK-based airline Astraeus has created the world's only Boeing 757 Combi to cart the band and all their kit on their global trip.

India’s rail tradition could soon be overshadowed by India’s growing regional air network.
The Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation has painted an interesting picture of India’s aviation future.
Apparently India’s Civil Aviation Ministry has aggressive plans for expansion, aiming for 500 operational airports by 2020, compared with the 80 airports that currently handle scheduled flights.

British Airways today dropped an unexpected bombshell - it plans to launch business class only Airbus A318 flights between London City airport and New York in 2009. The move marks two major landmarks for the downtown London airport: its first scheduled transatlantic service and its first A318 flight. BA will configure the aircraft with 32 lie-flat beds, and passengers will be offered a 15-minute check-in time.

BA has already announced that it will launch a new subsidiary called OpenSkies this June, which will take advantage of the EU-US agreement from which it takes its name and operate Boeing 757 flights from points in continental Europe to New York.

The airline is clearly on a roll this year - February has only just begun and already we've had these two announcements, not to mention the fact that its long-awaited new home, Heathrow's Terminal 5, opens its doors to the public next month.

The Germans - I gather - are keen on naturist (aka nude) holidays. Don't ask me why, ask a German?

Anyhow, from today a German travel agency is taking bookings for a nude holiday flight from Erfurt to the Baltic Sea.