June 2008 Archives

If you're not sick to death as I am of TV programmes showing washed-up C-list celebrities trying to resurrect their careers by chowing down on insects in the rainforest or flailing about on ice skates, UK TV station ITV2 is reportedly planning to launch a new airline-based celebrity reality show called CelebAir.

ITV is said to be close to signing a deal with UK carrier Monarch Airlines to lease an aircraft for the show. The idea is that 12 famous people (or more likely 12 people who were famous for 10 minutes, 10 years ago) will be trained up as cabin crew to fly passengers to Ibiza.

UK tabloid The Sun has put together some amusing photos to show what it thinks the crew of CelebAir will look like.

The show is expected to be launched this autumn, for those of you who are interested. I plan to be washing my hair.

A pro-marijuana group in the US has come up with a novel way of combating increased instances of air rage: let passengers mellow out before taking a flight by using the airport smoking lounges to have a quick toke on the old waccy baccy.

Reggae legend Peter Tosh famously argued that marijuana could cure anything from asthma to glaucoma, but SAFER (Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation) believes it can also "alleviate anxiety for people who are afraid to fly" and that "passengers could use pot in the smoking lounges at the airport as a safer alternative to alcohol".

SAFER is recommending that this option is made available to passengers at Denver International Airport, which the Denver Post says is "a hotspot for arrests of drunken, unruly airplane passengers".

Maybe they have a point - would it really be any worse than getting on a flight with a bunch of blokes on a stag weekend who've been getting beered up in the airport bars since before breakfast?

It could also be a good ancillary revenue driver - imagine how many on-board snacks a plane load of stoned passengers with the munchies would buy! 

US President George W Bush's recent visit to London did not just raise the hackles of anti-war protestors - whose demonstrations in Parliament Square resulted in a 60 year-old female protestor being arrested for alleged indecent exposure, of all things . It also incurred the wrath of British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh.

Walsh did not indecently expose himself to express his displeasure, but he is reported to have written in BA's in-house newsletter that "the decision to allow President Bush and his fleet of aircraft to fly into Heathrow rather than a military base was one that all of Heathrow's users could have done without", and that he was "angry that this was allowed".

The report goes on to say that the unpopular US President's arrival and departure at Heathrow resulted in BA having to cancel 53 short-haul flights and delay another 260 flights for more than 30 minutes - which the carrier could have done without following the chaos that surrounded the opening of Terminal 5.

The Presidential visit affected 38,000 BA passengers, which will no doubt translate into another 38,000 people who are less than pleased with President Bush (who is pictured above in a White House photo by Eric Draper alongside UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown). 

Ah well, they can console themselves with the fact that a new US President will be elected this November! 

Honestly? I didn't.

So, the news that British Airways is selling its 10.5% share in Air Mauritius was a surprise, mainly because I'd forgotten they even had it.

It's no surprise BA is selling it. Not because of the cash riches it will release - it's only worth £3.2 million - but because it is meaningless and frankly not worth the management hassle. I'd like to know why BA took the stake in the first place (it dates back to 1973). Something about helping a start-up get going I've read.

VJ Mallya has been captured by the BBC talking about his plans for launching Kingfisher Airlines onto the international stage.

He says that the first services kick off at the end of August/early September with a service either from Bombay or Bangalore to London.

The FT reports that Kingfisher is in talks with KLM to grab a pair of its spare slots at London Heathrow to add to the pair it has obtained (for free) from the limited slot pool at the airport. As a start-up it has the ability to gain slots from this pool.

The interview ranges over which drinks brand his UB Group could buy next and the performance of his Indian Premium League Cricket Club.

Airline Business Asia-Pacific editor Nicholas Ionides did this cover interview with the great man in 2006.

There's something about aviation that attracts unblinkered devotion, but if you are worried your love of aircraft is tipping over into obsession, it's probably nothing compared to this enthusiast spotted at iamneurotic.com - the website confessional for neurotic behaviour.

Unfortunately for anyone thinking Boeing has been able to accelerate on the quiet the long-delayed delivery schedule of its 787 Dreamliner, the headline on this blog is deliberately misleading.

The aircraft in question is about 1/50^th the size of the real thing because it's a model. It was on display on the second deck of the HQS Wellington vessel (seen below at her mooring on the River Thames in London) at the Commercial Aviation Inside Air Finance event held on 18^th June in London. For more on the Wellington's Second World War history, which included North Atlantic convoy duty look here.

Managing director of Monarch Airlines, Tim Jeans (seen below), the keynote speaker at the event, spotted the model: "I hope I'm going to win the model of 787 as it's the closest we're going to get to a 787 for the next five years."

Gosh it's all going on in the US airline industry, isn't it? The will they/won't they merge saga has taken a slightly different turn, as I'm sure you've heard, with United and Continental deciding not to go the whole hog but opting instead to co-operate with one another in a pact that will also see the latter join the former in the Star Alliance.

It would seem that Continental has found itself in strong demand lately - British Airways and American Airlines had also been trying to sweet talk the Houston-based carrier into joining oneworld.

But they ultimately lost out to United and Star, with Continental chief executive Larry Kellner saying: "As we experience some of the most challenging conditions airlines have ever faced, we look forward to the benefits of a new relationship with United and the other Star Alliance members."

Continental said it was exploring its alliance options when SkyTeam partners Delta and Northwest announced their planned merger. Will safety in numbers be enough to shelter these airlines from the current storm?   

After being downgraded and cast aside by Alitalia when the carrier decided to slash its operations at the airport to focus on Rome Fiumicino, Milan Malpensa has had its confidence boosted by easyJet's decision to turn it into its largest base on the European continent.

easyJet's 11th Malpensa-based aircraft (pictured) has just arrived at the airport - you probably can't make it out on this picture but the aircraft features the slogan "I love Malpensa". The carrier will have 13 aircraft based at the airport by the beginning of the winter season.

Chief executive Andy Harrison describes Malpensa as "Northern Italy's most important airport", and says that with 19% of the airport's capacity, easyJet is now "the largest airline in Malpensa".

And easyJet is not the only airline to have set Malpensa in its sights since Alitalia's decision to dramatically reduce capacity at the airport. Air Berlin, Lufthansa subsidiary Air Dolomiti and Air One have all unveiled plans to grow their operations at the airport.

Scandinavia's SAS Group has called off the planned sale of its Spanish subsidiary Spanair due to "challenging market conditions".

SAS has been trying to offload Spanair since last June but despite previous interest from Spanish flag carrier Iberia and Grupo Marsans owner Gonzalo Pascual, nobody seems to want the carrier. So it looks like SAS is stuck with it.

Pascual, who sold his 5.1% stake in Spanair a year ago to clear to way to bid for 100% of the carrier, is busy negotiating with an Argentine businessman over the future of Marsans' subsidiary Aerolineas Argentinas. So he obviously has quite a lot on his mind at the moment!

If I had pots of money to invest (if only, if only), I wouldn't be overly keen on buying Spanair either. The Spanish market is fiercely competitive nowadays, following the arrival of low-cost operators Clickair and Vueling.

Also, Spanair operates a fleet of fuel-guzzling MD-80s which, in a time of environmental concerns and $140 oil, doesn't make much financial sense. 

A new study carried out by AirlineForecasts and the Business Travel Coalition  has concluded that the US airline industry is "headed toward catastrophe" at current oil prices, and "stabilising this ailing industry must become a national policy priority".

The study, which can be seen in full here, says that "with oil prices in the $135 range, airlines could be forced to park upwards of 1,000 aircraft and shed up to 80,000 employees, and still not return to health".

This gloomy outlook poetically states that with record oil prices, "the US airline industry stands on a ledge, staring into the abyss". It also calls on the US Government to "adopt new energy policy priorities with great purpose and haste".

Any thoughts on calls for the Government to get involved? The airline industry was, after all, deregulated - should it not just fend for itself and allow the strongest to survive and the weakest to perish? All questions that will no doubt be debated as US carriers continue to slash jobs and capacity.

Now might be one of the worse times ever to launch a new airline, but Korean Air's plans to bring Jini out of the bottle in mid-July are ploughing on. Here's what Korean Air said about its new baby.

The airline unveiled its livery the other day at a party in downtown Seoul. After initially being touted as a low-cost domestic player, Jini is now billed as a "premium short-haul carrier". Which puzzles and worries me somewhat. Surely, this thinking goes contrary to every new domestic launch in the past decade.

At any rate we'll look forward to more news from Jini on its pricing soon.

United Airlines has copied fellow US carrier American Airlines in charging passengers for the privilege of checking in a piece of luggage. 

In a latest desperate bid to cope with record high fuel prices, and following on from its decision to remove a quarter of its fleet, United today announced that it will charge domestic passengers $15 each way to check one bag.

This is the latest example of how badly carriers in the US are being affected by skyrocketing oil prices and a slowing economy. No wonder United chief executive Glenn Tilton was so evasive at the IATA AGM in Istanbul when we tried to convince him to take part in our on-camera interviews for the website!

American chief executive Gerard Arpey also declined to be filmed. In fact, come to think of it, Hawaiian Airlines chief Mark Dunkerley was the only US airline boss who was brave enough to face our camera.  

Flight Group's very own Victoria Moores handed over a framed copy of the May issue of Airline Business to the cover "star" easyJet chief executive Andrew Harrison yesterday.

Victoria, who was at easyJet's London Luton Airport headquarters yesterday (11 June) at an event co-hosted by the carrier and engine manufacturer CFM International, is a senior reporter for Air Transport Intelligence, Flight International and Flightglobal.com, and also a regular contributor to Airline Business.

Watch the video interview I did with Andy shot during the interview for the cover story here.

Read the full interview from the May issue of Airline Business here.

Anyone out there lost a Boeing 727?

Perhaps you've misplaced it at Vietnam's Hanoi International Airport? Which looks a rather smart facility as this website and accompanying shots illustrate.

Anyhow, I couldn't resist linking to this story from the BBC website which tells of a 727 that flew into Hanoi in late 2007. It arrived from Siem Reap in neighbouring Cambodia, the crew departed and no-one has come back since.

Anyone got any clues on this one?

In one of the most aggressive statements I've seen so far on the potential use of biofuels by carriers, Air New Zealand is aiming for 10% of its "total annual needs coming from environmentally sustainable fuels by 2013".

It is predicting it will use one million barrels of such fuel annually by 2013.

Air New Zealand is one of the latest carriers to announce flight tests of jet fuel-biofuel mixtures. A Rolls-Royce powered Boeing 747-400 test flight is expected to take place in Auckland in the last quarter of this year subject to final regulatory approvals and fuel testing by the engine manufacturer.

It says it will be the world's first flight test on a large passenger aircraft using fuel sourced from the plant jatropha.

Airlines tend not to make much PR fuss about asking the airframers for their best offers when preparing an order.

So I note this press release from Nigeria's Bellview Airlines with interest.

It already operates a few Boeing 737s and 767s and wants more - a lot more: narrowbodies, widebodies and 70-seat regional jets.

As the release, which I print in full below, states, the ultimate order could be for up to 58 aircraft.

The Airline Business and Flightglobal team has assembled some remarkable video interviews from this week's International Air Transport Association Annual General Meeting.

You can listen to immediate reaction from the world's largest gathering of airline bosses, with ex-airline CEO himself Peter Davies getting some fantastic interviews with among others:

* Willie Walsh, BA

* Fernando Conte, Iberia,

* Naresh Goyal, Jet Airways

* Mark Dunkerley, Hawaiian Airlines.

Greetings from Istanbul, where the Airline Business team has spent the past couple of days pestering airline chief executives for interviews as they dash between meetings at this year's IATA AGM.

A smattering of those CEOs can be seen in the picture above, posing for a photo shoot yesterday to mark the IATA deadline for 100% electronic ticketing.

This year, as well as covering the event in three daily newspapers , we've recruited former Caribbean Airlines chief executive Peter Davies to conduct a series of web video interviews with the big names from the airline industry. It's been quite an adjustment for Peter to attend the AGM as a hack rather than a CEO, but I think he's enjoying it!

The formal opening of the event isn't until tomorrow so in the meantime we'll continue to stake out the big cheeses in their down time - keep an eye on the video link, which we'll be updating with new interviews as and when we do them.