February 2009 Archives

The fantastic idea of AirAsia becoming the shirt sponsor of probably the world's biggest soccer club, Manchester United, was dashed this morning by the airline's group CEO Tony Fernandes.

Tony has toyed with the idea, discussing it on his blog, but for now this shirt is just a souvenir.

What Tony said during a conference to analysts this morning, when the airline announced its Q4 and full-year results, was this:

"We have a strong brand, but just to confirm we will not be sponsoring Manchester United."

Of course AirAsia is already a Man U sponsor, but not to the ultimate extent of having the AirAsia name on the front of the team's shirts. The airline does make a big play out of it at home in Malaysia as you'd expect where they absolutely love the UK's Premier League Football.

In the meantime, AirAsia has posted its Q4 results and full year 2008 figures. Here's the airline's release on them.

"So we've charged for the food, the drink, to check-in bags, for priority boarding, where do we go next?" the conversation presumably goes.

 

Could Michael O'Leary REALLY be considering charging passengers to use the toilet onboard? In an interview with BBC Breakfast this morning, the Ryanair boss said the airline was looking at just that.

"One thing we have looked at in the past and are looking at again, is the possibility of maybe putting a coin slot on the toilet door, so that people have to actually spend a pound to spend a penny in future," he told the programme.

The logic goes you sometimes have to pay to use a toilet at a train station, so why not onboard? 

I just wouldn't want to be sat next to the person who needs to go but baulks at paying the charge.

Irish budget carrier Ryanair - long renowned for squeezing every last drop and then some out of ancillary revenue opportunities - has entered into a partnership with advertising agency AD2ONE that will allow other companies to advertise on its website.

The carrier calls its website an "advertiser's dream", and says that allowing adverts to appear on the site will enable it to "grow this new form of revenue, which will lower our costs and help us to lower fares".

A recent survey carried out exclusively by Airline Business, the results of which you can read here as part of our recent marketing feature, showed that 81% of respondents rate the internet as being "very important" to their marketing strategies this year, and this latest move from Ryanair shows the carrier to be no exception.

However, another online trend highlighted by our survey might not be so appealing to Ryanair: social marketing. Judging by this earlier blog from my colleague Michael Targett, Ryanair will not be joining the blogosphere any time soon, having railed against what it calls "idiot and lunatic bloggers".

Well this lunatic blogger is tired of blogging about Ryanair now so will sign off for now. Ironically, though, they do provide an endless supply of blogging material...

Buried in the AMR Corp latest annual financial report, and unearthed by Dallas Morning News "Airline Biz" blogger Terry Maxon, is the fact that:

* Early retirements by 517 pilots brought them an average lump sum of $1.8 million each from the airline's A Plan and B Plan.

Sounds like a good deal to me. Read what others felt in Terry's blog comments.

Almost a year on from the shambolic opening of British Airways' spanking new Terminal 5 at London Heathrow, evidence is beginning to emerge of the damage it has caused to BA's brand.

According to the Business Superbrands survey for 2009, carried out by the UK-based Centre for Brand Analysis , BA's brand position in the UK has plummeted from number 8 in 2008 to number 36 this year.

To rub salt into the wound, the survey also reveals that BA's arch-rival, Virgin Atlantic, has improved its brand position in the UK to number 25, up from number 28 in 2008.

T5 opened on 27 March last year amid a fanfare from BA about how wonderful it would be, and how it was an "opportunity of a lifetime" for the carrier. But things did not go smoothly and the opening quickly turned into a highly-publicised disaster. To read my full account of the run-up to T5's opening, the shambles that followed and the desperate attempts to pick up the pieces, visit my 2008 end of year blog.

On releasing the survey, Stephen Cheliotis, chief executive of the Centre for Brand Analysis, said: "Our research suggests that the more discerning business professionals might have had enough. After another turbulent year, including the T5 debacle, [BA] has for the first time fallen out of the Business Superbrands Top Ten.

"This is a worrying sign for an airline that is heavily reliant on its business customers, and with competition for flyers at an all-time high, and pressure on airlines so intense, clearly a reduction in the brand value of British Airways could in financial terms be significant."

For its part, BA is keenly aware of the impact the opening of T5 had on its reputation. To counter this, it launched its "Terminal 5 is working" ad campaign, and has set aside part of its website to showcase what passengers now think of the terminal.

I've been through Terminal 5 once, after the dust had settled and it was doing what it was supposed to do, and I was impressed. The question is, how many former BA passengers have been put off for life, and how many will show their forgiving side and give the carrier another chance? 

 

The jet lag is beginning to wear off as Stefan the pilot and I settle down in Sydney as part of Virgin's 'round the world in eight days' tour. The first leg of our adventure took us from London to Sydney, via Hong Kong. Monday and Tuesday also turned out to be full of quirky surprises. Our behind the scenes Virgin press trip diary continues...

Sydney, Australia (Wednesday 25 February - Thursday 26 February)

Our day kicks of with an early morning media event. We're summoned to the top of the Four Seasons Hotel, navigating our way through a maze of pipes and other industrial kit to get to the roof. Despite their late nights, Richard and his son Sam are on hand to promote Virgin's new around the world fares against the backdrop of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House (see above).

Reports coming out of the Spanish press today suggest British Airways might be ready to accept a 55% stake in its planned merger with Oneworld partner Iberia, as the two carriers close in on finalising a deal this month.

Both BA boss Willie Walsh and his counterpart at Iberia Fernando Conte spoke last month of growing momentum in the talks, which had stalled over issues including the Spanish carrier seeking more information relating to BA's final salary-based pensions schemes. The talks have since been focusing on other issues, including what the split in ownership between BA and Iberia in the new company would be. The proposed deal is an all-share merger and has been complicated by the weakening of Sterling and BA's share price, which has significantly reduced the stock market value of BA in relation to Iberia since the merger plans were first announced last summer.

Now a report in Spain's El Economista today, citing sources close to the talks, suggests BA is ready to settle for a 55% equity stake in a merged carrier. BA itself says only talks continue, but its shares were up more than 6% today off the back of the reports

 

 

 

Two days after setting out from London, we've arrived in Sydney which has some quirky surprises in store as we continue our Virgin's 'round the world in eight days' tour, which I'm posting live to Twitter.

Sydney, Australia (Monday 23 February - Tuesday 24 February)

We arrive at the hotel on Monday morning, slightly dishevelled but in good spirits about the adventures ahead. The Four Seasons is beautiful and we're given a warm Australian welcome by public relations director Sally.

After frantically setting up the laptop and catching up with some work, we head off to Bondi Beach where Stefan the pilot spots a nice restaurant/bar, Icebergs. It turns out we'll be returning at a later point for dinner with Richard. A couple of other female reporters and I decide to revive our energy levels with a quick dip in the sea. We're ceremoniously battered by the waves; I guess Bondi's better for surfers than swimmers.

Ever wondered what it's like to be a guest on a Virgin press trip with Sir Richard Branson? Or to travel around the world in eight days?

Well here's my behind the scenes take on Virgin's 'round the world in eight days' tour which started in London on Saturday 21 February, bound for Hong Kong, Sydney and Los Angeles. You can also follow my progress on Twitter.

If you didn't know the name Sir Allen Stanford a week ago, you certainly do now following the US authorities charging him and three of his companies with an alleged fraudulent multi-billion dollar investment scheme. But one region where they certainly did know the Stanford name is in the Caribbean (his Stanford International Bank was based in Antigua), not least because of his attempt to ignite Caribbean cricket through his $20 million winner takes-all 20:20 Stanford Superstars v England game last year.

For an interesting perspective on Sir Allen Stanford high-profile presence in the Caribbean and what his fall could mean for the region, check-out this guest blog from chief executive of Caribbean regional carrier LIAT, Mark Darby.

http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/02/24/323009/liats-mark-darby-blogs-on-sir-allen-stanford.html

 

I've heard of airline CEOs personally chatting to customers on the aircraft, and even serving a drink or two, but how about performing check-in?

Here's an example from today, with this note via a friend of a friend:

"I flew on FR 112 from Dublin to London Gatwick this morning at 0800. As soon as the gate opened, Michael O'Leary (Ryanair's CEO as if you needed telling) himself stopped reading his paper, took off his coat and proceeded to check in everyone onto the flight. I have my torn online boarding pass as a souvenir. He then got onto the aircraft for his journey with the rest of us."

Have you got any examples of senior executives rolling their sleeves up like Michael?

Virgin Atlantic president Sir Richard Branson has flagged the importance of social media channels, such as Facebook, during a media briefing in Hong Kong.

The stop, en route to Sydney, forms part of Branson's 'around the world in eight days' journey. The trip is aims to promote Virgin's new global connectivity, with the launch of Virgin Blue's new long-haul arm, V Australia.

During the briefing Branson said: "We take the Internet very seriously." He highlighted the fact that young people are increasingly using the Internet as a news channel, in favour of print publications, adding: "Things like Facebook are an essential part of many, many people's lives."

So Ryanair has formally launched its onboard mobile phone service. In the in-flight mobile connectivity world this is a big deal. Ryanair is not the first, nor does it yet have the largest number of aircraft equipped with a service allowing passengers to use their mobile phones onboard - Air France was the first commercial airline to trial OnAir's service at the end of 2007 and Emirates has been flying for nearly a year with the Aeromobile voice and text service and already has more than 30 aircraft equipped.

But for OnAir this is a red letter day. While it has plenty of customers in the books, Wataniya and three single aircraft trials are all that have flown in the commercial airline space to date. Ryanair's eagerness to start with 20 aircraft - growing to nearly 50 in the next six months -guarantees some critical mass. With Royal Jordanian, AirAsia, Oman Air and AirBlue among those to follow this year it hopes to have up to 100 aircraft flying by year end. Together with Aeromobile's further roll-outs and with Emirates recently trumpeting its 100,000th call, this year should finally be one of momentum to what has thus far been an arduous path. In short, we should at last get some real idea if and how people will use phones onboard.

In principle I had my chance to try this out for myself, having taken two OnAir-equipped Ryanair flights in the space of 24hrs. I say in principle, as my Blackberry powered by Vodaphone in the UK could not get a signal other than emergency calls (they were very good about it, but did not seem to think me ringing to say I was calling from the sky was an ACTUAL emergency). So here in lies another of the difficulties for an airline marketing these services in these early stages of roll-out. Not only does an airline have to manage passenger expectations of whether they will be on one of the flights operated by an aircraft where you can use your phone, but it also depends on who your phone's mobile operator. OnAir has roaming agreements in place with two key players in Ireland - alongside 50 operators across Ireland and is now working to fill in the gaps, notably with key Irish operators 3 and Meteor.

 

But if Ryanair is cautious about over-promising on the service, it is not holding back should you find yourself on a phone-equipped aircraft. Adverts promoting the service adorn the overhead bins, while there are some overhead lights featuring a red Please Turn Off/ and a green Phone Use Permitted sign in the aisle.  Cabin crew also announce when the service is about to become available - it is only switched outside take-off and landing phases.

On my flights I found it quite entertaining watching the double-takes around me as people suddenly realised the crew were saying you COULD use your phone. Now the many regulatory hurdles have been overcome, this is one of the major challenges to get the message across that on some flights, mobile phones and blackberrys can be used.

"It will take time, not like the [instant move to] non-smoking," acknowledges OnAir chief executive Benoit Debains. "People have been used to not using their phones onboard."

By the way, thank to Lars at Inmarsat for the Ryanair pictures. For more on phones, onboard connectivity and all things in-flight entertainment, do check out if you have not already the excellent Runway Girl blog

My recent visit to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia revealed it to be a place filled with contrast, extremely warm characters and confusing timelines.

First up, the timelines. It's like travelling back in time. No, literally. In Ethiopia it is 2001. Their calendar is seven to eight years behind ours, depending on whether we've had our New Year. This means the Ethiopians celebrated the turn of their millennium on 11 September 2007.

The Ethiopian year also has an extra month, giving them the perk that their tourism brochures can truthfully boast 13 months of sunshine (even though the thirteenth month lasts only five days).

Here's the latest twist in the battle for hearts and minds in the UK over aviation and the environment. Pro-aviation grouping Flying Matters has a launched campaign in which it wants the public to spot celebrities who have been vocal critics of the expansion of aviation, if they are seen flying themselves. Number one targets are actress Emma Thompson - click here for her side on a third runway for Heathrow - fellow actress Fay Ripley and singer James Blunt. It says the "light-hearted campaign" aims to highlight double-standards among high-profile anti-aviation campaigners and is calling on the public to help spot them if they take flights themselves. So does this mean we can look forward to a new breed of plane spotter, recording sightings of Emma Thompson just as excitedly as the aircraft registration?

I kept my eyes peeled going through London Gatwick and Dublin airports yesterday and can report no sign of Emma, Fay or James. Or in fact anyone famous at all. My collection of celebrities (which includes a very lost, then Middlesborough football club manager Steve McClaren at Schiphol Airport in what was to become something of a metaphor for England's 2006 World Cup  qualifying campaign) will have to wait a bit longer.

After a pretty tortuous path overcoming the regulatory hurdles, there appear increasing signs we might be getting a bit closer to finding out how popular mobile phone use onboard aircraft is going to be, as there is a bit of momentum among the airlines testing the water. Interesting figures from Emirates today, the first to go live with the AeroMobile service nearly a year ago. It started allowing passenger to make voice calls with their mobile onboard last March and its now available on 31 aircraft. On 15 February it passed a milestone by logging its 100,000th call. But pointing to momentum for the service, the companies say half of these calls were logged in the last two months alone and AeroMobile chief Bjorn-Taale Sandbe says:

"The sharp increase is not due only to the wider availability as our system is rolled out across the Emirates fleet, but the acceptance from passengers of what a valuable and stable service it is."

 

Plenty of airlines have signed up for these services as well and its a real horses for courses, depending on what type of carrier or where in the world you are, as to whether the driver for this is as a service offering or ancillary revenue driver. The same is true as to whether carriers want voice calls, e-mails or texting, or all of, or none of.

One of the latest to sign up is BA, but its opting for e-mail and text messaging capability only its all-business transatlantic service from London City. Air France, TAP Portugal and now bmi have all been carrying out tests of the OnAir service already, and Ryanair will finally go live with its trial of the OnAir service by the end of the month. This promises to be one of the most informative, as not only are is the Irish carrier starting relatively big - it will initially deploy the service on 20 Dublin-based aircraft with another 20 equipped by summer - it is the first carrier to deploy which is primarily driven by its potential for ancillary revenues.

The next few months in this sector promise to be interesting.

For more on this check out this article Mary Kirby wrote for Airline Business late last year.

Here is the press release we issued yesterday following the Loyalty 2009 Awards.

 

And, here's the picture, from left to right: Global Flight's Ravindra Bhagwanani, Shahab Shadman of Amadeus, Anita Hawthorne of Air New Zealand (with the gong!) and Mark Pilling of Airline Business.

 

PRESS RELEASE:

 

Air New Zealand recognised for leading frequent flier programme

 

 

Air New Zealand wins award for the airline industry's most innovative frequent flier programme at Loyalty 2009 conference

 

 

Vienna, 12 February 2009: The outright winner of the 2009 Loyalty Awards was named as Air New Zealand at the Loyalty 2009 event gala dinner.

 

Launched at the inaugural Loyalty conference (www.loyalty09.com), organised by Airline Business and Global Flight and held in Austrian capital Vienna, the awards recognise the airline industry's best frequent flier programmes.

 

This year's Loyalty Awards went to Air New Zealand, Corsairfly and Emirates.

 

Air New Zealand was chosen by the 250 delegates at the event as the most outstanding loyalty programme.

 

"Air New Zealand's Airpoints loyalty programme combines the creative use of mobile and web technology to radically enhance its customer experience," said Iain Webster, Loyalty Business Development Consultant, who was one of the Loyalty Awards judges.

 

Air New Zealand uses new mobile and web technology to give customers full control of their pre-travel and travel experience with the needs of frequent fliers in mind.

 

The airline's award was collected by Anita Hawthorne, Manager Airpoints, Air New Zealand. "We are delighted that our customer led innovations have been recognised by the global loyalty community.  By using frequent flyer information Air New Zealand has improved the end to end customer experience with the airline," she said. 

 

Commenting on the Corsairfly award, judge Santiago Ontañón, General Manager, Mexicana Loyalty, said: "Corsairfly has executed a very creative way of doing a friends and family loyalty programme - it is very simple and developed for a clear target market."

 

French carrier Corsairfly has introduced a family focused programme in line with its overall strategy catering mainly for leisure travel.

 

Commenting on the Emirates Awards for its SkyRewards programme, judge Herbert, Verschuren, Director Flying Blue, Air France KLM, said: "Emirates have done what many airlines would love to do - offer seat upgrades on board."

 

Emirates has introduced a last-minute upgrade option for its top clients allowing them to upgrade to a higher class either at check-in or even on board the aircraft.

 

 

The Loyalty 2009 judges:

Santiago Ontañón, General Manager, Mexicana Loyalty

Herbert Verschuren, Director Flying Blue, Air France KLM

Iain Webster, Loyalty Business Development Consultant

Ravindra Bhagwanani, Managing Director, Global Flight

 

 

About Airline Business

The Airline Business brand is the one that airline executives turn to - whether in print, on the web or at face-to-face events - when they need to make sense of our turbulent industry.
At the core of the brand is insightful, impartial and in-depth analysis and intelligence provided by the Airline Business editorial team in London, Singapore and Washington.  That team is committed to the highest standards of reporting and providing the best value for time and money possible at its events.  With its mission as being "The magazine for the airline boardroom" Airline Business focuses on the leaders and business critical issues that drive our industry forward.
Throughout the year we will continue to invest in providing our world renowned Rankings and Special Reports, such as the World Airline Rankings, which appear every month in print.

www.flightglobal.com/AB

 

About Global Flight

Global Flight is a specialised management company providing management-related services to airlines worldwide in the FFP/CRM field. Based on an unparalleled knowledge of all some 180 Frequent Flyer Programmes and its ability to adapt to the individual requirements of each airline, the company's customer basis has grown since 1996 to include all types of airlines from Top 10 to regional airlines worldwide.
Privately owned and acting independently of any suppliers, the company can fully focus on delivering value at the critical management level of loyalty issues rather than upselling other products or services.
www.globalflight.net

 

For more information

Ravindra Bhagwanani, Managing Director, Global Flight:
Tel: +33 5 61 71 16 57
E-mail: info@globalflight.net

 

 

As Flightglobal's web community editor Stuart Clarke commented to me just now - "this man is relentless".

See publicity magnet Sir Richard Branson doing his bit to save marketing dollars by being the news and photo fodder.

Sir Dick - as he likes to be know - is also doing his bit of self-publicity on the blogosphere or Twittosphere.

Here is a story I am posting directly from the Airline Business/Global Flight meeting here in Vienna where some 250 experts from the frequent flier side of this industry have gathered.

Newly appointed joint leader of troubled Austrian Airlines Andreas Bierwirth, looking pretty bright considering he'd been in an emergency board meeting the day before until 2130, took us through the airline's survival strategy.

Austrian working to late summer deadline for Lufthansa takeover approval

 

Vienna, 10 February 2009: Austrian Airlines is putting in place a series of emergency cost-cutting measures to ensure it can survive until the second half of the year when its take over by Lufthansa is expected to be finalised.

 

"Yes we will survive but not independently - ours is not a future as a stand alone carrier," said Andreas Bierwirth, board member and chief commercial officer of Austrian Airlines, speaking today at the Loyalty 2009 conference organised by Airline Business and Global Flight.

 

Management's task is to ensure the airline has enough cash to remain viable until the take over is approved in the August-September timeframe by the European Commission, said Bierwirth. "We are convinced we will do it," he said. Lufthansa was selected as the strategic partner for Austrian in November.

 

"We want to save in the short-term about €220 million, half from production cuts," said Bierwirth. Another €50 million will come from staff salary cuts. The target is for a 5% cut in staff salaries across the airline with management taking a 7.5% cut, he said.

 

Austrian is also having talks with its suppliers for cost cuts. "There is for example Vienna Airport - it is very profitable - and we expect from them and [Austrian] oil company OMV a crisis path to help Austrian," said Bierwirth.

The new Virgin Atlantic TV ad, which I blogged about earlier, has apparently been getting some people's hackles up for being sexist.

According to this report in The Guardian, the UK's Advertising Standards Agency has been forced to dismiss complaints that the advert is sexist and insulting to women.

Oh pur-lease, sometimes it feels as though all some people do is look for things they're "offended" by and then make formal complaints. It reminds me of British campaigner Mary Whitehouse, who used to prattle on about the decline in moral decency on television.

Sometimes she was so offended by the sexual content of certain TV shows that, rather than switch over to another channel, she'd watch the whole programme before picking up her pen and paper and complaining about how disgusted she was.

Was anyone else offended by this advert? Or did most of you just passively watch it, maybe have a slight chuckle about the over-sized 1980s mobile phones, and then continue having a life? 

   

Well that's how I feel now that I've started this Twittering business. Blogs are history. Long live Twittering.

OK, that's not true! I've got to feel loyal to blogging. It has served us well in the past couple of years that we've been doing it as a team here at Airline Business. We are getting over 4,000 visits to our blog a week, which is none too shabby. Although we are well in the shade of our blogmeister general here at Flightglobal - Jon Ostrower's Flightblogger.

Now I am going to be loyal to blogging, especially as I am on the way, via Heathrow Terminal 2 (very quiet), to Vienna for our new Loyalty event, which we are doing in partnership with FFP guru Ravindra Bhagwanani.

There is a long list of Twitters in the Flightglobal stable. Check out Jon Ostrower, Andrew Doyle, Victoria Moores, Mike Targett and Stuart Clarke, plus lots of others.

Take a look at where they are and what they are saying.

Now to liven up this blog a little here is a photo. This Clickair A320 was just rolling to the gate here at T2 when I arrived. In the background are some bmi A320s and its fellow Star Alliance partners United Airlines and US Airways.

As soon as I saw the news today on Flightglobal's Airlines Channel that Mexicana is going to launch a domestic CRJ regional jet operation my blood ran cold.

Now I've got a lot of respect for the team at Mexicana, but I've got a bad feeling about this. ALMA tried to do the same thing and failed because the aircraft is wrong, the network didn't work and demand isn't enough. What has changed in Mexicana's view this time?

About a decade ago, and probably even more, airlines could make a living on regional routes of this kind (in Europe and the USA but not at that point Mexico). But it was a thin living even back then when fares were higher and fuel was cheaper.

I would love to be proved wrong of course, but I can hear the chuckles at low-cost competitors Volaris and VivaAeroBus and Aeromexico. They will be only too glad to see Mexicana spending their time on a venture like this.

And this at a time of intense competition in the Mexican market, as we frequently note.

I'm guessing that Cathay Pacific CEO Tony Tyler gave this interview to UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph en route to the latest meeting of the oneworld airline CEOs in Madrid yesterday.

In it he talks a lot of sense about consolidation. The sense being consolidation does not always make sense.

Tyler is also refreshingly honest, as usual, about the big challenges Cathay is facing as premium demand tumbles and cargo throughput falls.

At last year's IATA annual meeting in June, Tyler was extremely realistic about the prospects for the business in the coming year. He clearly had some early warning indicators flashing.

The big issue then was the high price of fuel. Cathay issued a profits warning just weeks after the IATA meeting.

Cranky Flier has posted this great blog about the suggestion that Spirit Airlines plans to offer advertisers the chance to put their message on flight attendant uniforms. Nice one Cranky.

It seems nothing is sacred anymore, and perhaps it shouldn't be? It does smack of desperation a little though doesn't it.

What would Argie Hoskins Shumway make of it - over to you Argie.

Never one to miss an opportunity, Ryanair, which today reported a a third quarter net loss of EUR102 million, says it expects to benefit from "traffic collapses" at European airports.

Here's what Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary had to say on the matter: "The dramatic cut in flights and capacity by many of Europe's flag carriers has created traffic collapses at many of Europe's larger airports. This is creating enormous opportunities for Ryanair, as these airports compete to reduce charges in order to attract Ryanair's growth and to develop low-cost facilities to take advantage of Ryanair's quick turnarounds and our improved web check-in facilities.

"This movement towards lower cost, more efficient airports in Europe is welcome, even if it is 20 years too late."

And this is not where Ryanair's optimism ends. It sees itself as the "Lidl, Aldi, Ikea and McDonald's" of the airline industry, with O'Leary boasting that "the longer and deeper this recession, the better it will be for the lowest cost producers in every sector".

Despite the losses posted by Ryanair this morning, O'Leary says it will return to "substantial profitability next year", and will be one of "four large European airlines" left in the market - the others being "high fare fuel surchargers" Air France, British Airways and Lufthansa.

Say what you like about O'Leary, but he can't be accused of pessimism or bashfulness!

 

Posted by Kerry Ezard, who is stranded at home by the snow and unable to log in to her own blogging account!   

The wonders of the web mean we can tell you this, and keep on posting blogs and updating the Airlines Channel of Flightglobal.com. Which we will.

So the south of the UK is at a virtual standstill because of a bit of snow - well a foot. In our country this is very rare and we can't get about. I know a lot of you in colder climates scoff at our difficulties. This is a time to get scoffing!

Heathrow's two runways were closed as of 0815 while Gatwick and Stansted are severely disrupted.

You will be pleased to know that snow is not falling in Singapore or Washington DC, where our other offices are based. So normal service there.

We'll try and keep our service as normal as possible from the UK too.

In the meantime, some nice pictures of snow in the road outside my house (above) and in my garden.