March 2010 Archives

For watchers of airlines and their social media policy, here are a couple of interesting pieces I have stumbled across online about European budget carriers easyJet and Ryanair, and their different approaches to social media.

Firstly there is this NewMediaAge news story here, which is reporting the UK low-cost carrier is exploring adding a direct booking function to its Facebook presence.

Secondly, here's a piece from Utalkmarketing.com on Ryanair's social media strategy of creating its own online travel community within its own website.

Airline strategies for social media are still in their formative stages, but it you want me on this you can also check out our recent in-depth piece on airline social media strategies here. Any thoughts you have on those doing it right, please let us know

Big smiles all round yesterday for the top brass at China Airlines who were out in force to celebrate only their fifth route launch in Europe.

The Taiwanese flag carrier began flying to London Heathrow on Sunday 28th March. It becomes the only carrier to fly non-stop between the UK and Taiwan giving EVA Air a run for its money. EVA currently flies between the two countries via either Bangkok or Hong Kong.

I got the chance to interview China Airlines chairman Philip Wei (below), who talked about its fleet plans - which don't include the Airbus A380 or 747-8 for the time being - and how he is surprised at the pace of the traffic recovery the airline is seeing.

CAL's launch party for the route was at Altitude 360 which is 29 floors up Millbank Tower overlooking the Tate Gallery on the north bank of the Thames.

The airline's flight crew loved the view!

Twenty-four hours since this story broke and no sign yet of the obvious gag? Dear me.

In a classic demonstration of the Streisand Effect - the spectacular backfiring of censorship that generates publicity far in excess of original fears - an attempt to gag South African carrier Kulula's don't-mention-the-Cup posters has simply spurred it to prod the sleeping dragon again, but this time with a bigger stick.

Kulula has been banned from featuring just about anything to do with football on its promotional material, a prohibition whose greatest impact appears to have been to force people to look up 'vuvuzela' in the dictionary*.

It's certainly done little to curb Kulula's cheek, because the airline has knocked up another poster which brazenly draws attention to 2010 - 'Not next year, not last year, but somewhere in between' - and pictures various objects pathetically masquerading as non-football paraphernalia. As well as an image of the 'Storms River Suspension Bridge' that looks nothing like the real thing but a lot like the Moses Mabhida Stadium for the World Cup. Which, unlike Kulula, I'm still allowed to mention.

* I'll save you the trouble, it's one of these

UK budget carrier EasyJet has named media group head Carolyn McCall (below, picture from AOP) as its new chief executive, succeeding Andrew Harrison who is leaving in June to become the chief of hotel and restaurant operator Whitbread.

McCall has led UK newspaper publisher Guardian Media Group since 2006. She is expected to join the carrier in the summer, although no firm date has yet to be set for her start. She will form part of a new management team at the carrier, also including new CFO Chris Kennedy - who will join from EMI in the summer - and chief commercial officer Dana Dunne who joined the carrier last September from AOL Europe

Check out this article here from the Guardian for a bit more about McCall and in a video interview with UK financial news service Cantos this morning, she says the skills from her existing position are transferable to her new role at easyJet. "I've come from a background where there's been enormous change, enormous pace, it's 24/7," she says. "The structural change and cyclical effects have been dramatic. And I think that that, and the skills that I have from that, are very transferable. The media is about people - it's a people business. It is very customer focused, and yet we've had to take a lot of costs out in response to structural and cyclical change. So I think the skills and capabilities that I've gained over the last 20 years are immediately transferable to easyJet."

And as for the opportunities ahead for easyJet, she says: "The opportunities are massive. I think there is, as I said, opportunity in Europe. I think there is opportunity to take share from other airlines. The consumer proposition is so strong that we can do even more with the brand and promoting that proposition, and just putting the customer right in the centre. The website is good - but could be better - and I think there is a lot of opportunity with what we could do with that."

And here is a nice up to date photo easyJet have just issued of its new chief executive.

Hot Tub Time Machine isn't the only outlet celebrating the, ahem, charm of the 1980s. US Regionals are heralding some old school tactics as well.

For months talk has centered on a transition from current fee for departure contracts that are the mainstay between US regionals and their mainline partners to more pro-rate deals that were prevalent in the 1980s and 1990s.

Under pro-rate deals regionals take on more risk such as fuel expense, pricing and some revenue management.

SkyWest Airlines during the last year has reached some pro-rate deals with long-time partner United Airlines and AirTran Airways.  The deal with AirTran entails the operation of five SkyWest-branded CRJ200s from Milwaukee, which has suprisingly been ian nteresting market to watch during the last few months after Republic's buy of Midwest.

To further confuse you, some of the CRJ200s SkyWest is flying for United under pro-rate deals were previously operated under a capacity purchase with Midwest Airlines. But that deal was quickly dissolved around the time Republic became intertwined with Midwest.

Speaking at the Aero Club of Washington yesterday SkyWest President Chip Childs predicted a continuing trend away from contract flying to pro-rate deals.

But Childs isn't concerned about regionals taking on additional risks in some cases. In some instances SkyWest works better with some smaller communities than its mainline counterparts, he says.

In fact SkyWest has a dedicated staff that evaluates service to communities, and can work with those localities to make the codeshare model work with legacy airlines, either through subsidies or other support.

Let's hope leg warmers don't experience a similar revival.....

Imagine the scene. You're a BA passenger, a bit cheesed off by the strike, but your flight is apparently operating. So you turn up at Gatwick only to find your BA flight flying in Ryanair colours.

Yep, Ryanair has been helping BA with capacity during their cabin crew strike, providing them with three aircraft which operated 24 flights a day on Saturday, Sunday and Monday.

Never one to miss a quick snipe, O'Leary joked about how shocked the passengers would be to see their aircraft and hear the on-time bugle while flying BA.

But on a serious note, he voiced whole-hearted support for Willie Walsh's tough stance during BA's labour dispute.

"It doesn't happen often, but this time I entirely support Willie. It is insane for cabin crew to strike during a time of recession. The strike is stupid and insensitive and the staff should get back to work."

O'Leary is aiming to help BA out with between three and five aircraft during the next tranche of strike action, which is scheduled to start on Saturday, although he adds: "I hope it [the strike] doesn't go ahead."

When asked whether he was simply looking to cash in on the dispute, O'Leary countered: "Frankly, we'd get more money by refusing to charter the aircraft and carrying the passengers on our own services. I am very happy to help BA to deal with these unwanted and unjustified strikes."

Apparently the Ryanair and BA bosses spoke briefly by phone yesterday. 

"Willie thanked me for the aircraft and was seeing if he could charter some more for next weekend," says O'Leary. "I said that I thought BA was winning the strike - they had no passengers stranded at airports over the weekend. I think BA has managed it extraordinarily well. If I was Willie, I'd do exactly what he's doing at the moment. It is vital to the future of BA for them to win this dispute."

Lufthansa is claiming a new lounge first at Munich, and I like the idea of this one, with the creation of a Munich beer garden at the airport. The carrier detailed the new lounge during the ITB Berlin travel show during a press briefing to the general approval of the assembled journalists - who knew journalists would like the idea of a beer initiative?

The lounge, located in the refurbished business lounge in the Schengen departures area of Munich's Terminal 2, formally opened on 23 March and features panoramic views to make you feel like you are nestled in the Bavarian Alps. Looks pretty surreal to me - judge for yourself from the photo below (and if you've been there, please let me know what its like).

Here's a pretty cool little innovation that's popped up at Helsinki Airport; a wireless phone recharger device which passengers can use to recharge their mobile phone while having a coffee at the airport waiting for their flight. The device is developed by a small start-up Finnish design firm Powerkiss, and specialises in integrating the charging device into various furniture surfaces. The airport says it is available at three locations at Helsinki; Café Aalto, Seasons restaurant and at Finnair's lounge, and so far is not available at any other airport. Passengers can get the device from the cashier - free of charge but a deposit is necessary - and charge the device by finding the LED spot embedded in the furniture. It has the benefits of no wires and enabling passengers to recharge the phone in the same place as where they are sitting - no having to find a seat either next to or close enough to a power point to keep your eyes on the mobile.

The innovation was on show during the recent ITB Berlin travel trade show (for more on ITB, see this earlier blog) and marketing communications manager at Finnish airports operator Finnavia, Johanna Metsala, says the service fits with its customer-focused 'smooth travelling' initiative -- which was launched to coincide with last year's extension at Helsinki Airport  "Part of the idea is it combines new services which are useful for the passenger or increase passenger comfort, which is in line with out smooth travelling concept," she explains.

And of course the obvious next question is if it can be integrated into furniture at the airport, is there any scope for one day doing it in the aircraft?

The great and the good of the travel industry met for the annual ITB Berlin travel trade show last week. It was held against the backdrop of cautious optimism for the economic recovery, especially outside of Europe, and after a bright first couple of months of the year coincided with IATA cutting its total industry loss projections for the year.

This is the first ITB I have been to, but my feeling is the mood around the show was still somewhat muted - though I'm guessing more upbeat than a year ago. As ever Qatar Airways was among those with the highest profile during the show.  "We always at Qatar Airways have optimistic news to give you, there is always a ray of light wherever there is darkness" opened chief executive Akbar Al Baker, announcing its first South American routes during a press conference at the show (Doha to Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo). Adding to five new routes already announced this year, Al Baker outlined plans to take the number to 15 by year end.

Fellow Middle East carrier Emirates also had a prominent presence at the show, with this eye-catching, huge globe-based stand design impossible to miss!!

Hybrid carrier Air Berlin took the occasion to flag up its increasingly strong presence in Italy and Spain, as well as a summer revamp of its hub structure at Berlin Tegal Airport aimed at boosting its transfer traffic. This comes ahead of next year's opening of the new BBI airport at Schonefeld, Capital Airport Berlin Brandenburg International, which will see the closure of Tegal Airport and the new facility open at the end of October next year. The new airport is expected to handle 22 million passenger in its first full year. "We will have the roofing ceremony in May this year and we are on track with budget and schedule," says a company spokesman. "We plan to open at the end of October next year, and trials will have to start a year before."

But there was a cautious note from the World Travel and Tourism Organisation, which detailed its forecast for the year ahead during ITB. "Despite recent encouraging short-term indicators of tourism activity, the recovery in world Travel & Tourism is expected to be muted," WTTC president and chief executive Claude Baumgarten warned, "with both firms and households examining travel plans carefully and continuing to limit expenditure. Spending in real terms is expected to increase by a mere 1% - while business travel spending will again decline, by nearly 2%." It estimates the travel and tourism economy GDP to grow only fractionally this year, though second half momentum would continue into 2011 boosting growth to 3.2%.

"Baby Branson" Martin Halstead may only be 23 years, but he already has two failed airline projects under his belt. One never flew. The other got a little futher, operating just 11 flights before suspending services after just one week. Aviation can be a harsh teacher.

Halstead's latest venture, Varsity Express, launched operations between the UK cities of Oxford and Edinburgh on 1 March, using a Jetstream 31. It suspended flights on 8 March. 

The airline says this was caused by "operational issues" with its AOC provider and it is seeking alternatives.

But some newspaper reports are non too flattering about Halstead. For instance, The Times refers to the venture as a "bogus business", reporting that Halstead has admitted to basing the company on a number of false claims.

Halstead was 18 when he attempted to set up his first airline venture in 2005, but Alpha One Airways never flew.

I can't help but think that it will be a while before we hear from the former teen entrepreneur again.

(Gulf Air have just sent me some cool photos - far better than those I took on my camera phone - so enjoy)

It has been a massive weekend for Bahrain with the eyes of the Formula 1 world decending on the Kingdom for the first grand prix of the 2010 season. This is always a major event for Bahrain, but even more so this year in securing the first race in one of the most eagerly awaited seasons for years and the race which marked the return to F1 of Michael Schumacher.

And as the race name suggests, the Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix, it is equally significant for the race's title sponsor, Bahrain's carrier Gulf Air. The airline's presence at the race was capped by a Gulf Air fly past which took place just before the start of the race.

These are crucial times for Gulf Air, which is embarking on a major restructuring aimed at achieving commercial sustainability by 2012, under the leadership of former Royal Jordanian chief Samer Majali. Under the plan the carrier has begun reshaping its network, shifting the emphasis onto serving the key cities in the Middle East region - a strategy which has already seen it launch new flights to Iraq and introduce its first regional jets. One of the central aims of the new strategy is to help improve its revenue mix by reducing its strong dependence on transfer traffic - currently about 80% of its business - and this is where something like the Bahrain Grand Prix fits in.

"Bahrain has a very strong financial and tourism centre and it is very nice place to work and to live," says Majali. "We believe we need to encourage more people [to come to Bahrain] We have a big reliance on transit passengers. This is where we are in line with the national strategy. We need to promote people coming here for tourism and this will enable us to keep  people coming into Bahrain and reduce our dependence on transfer passengers. F1 is a primary magnet to increase the visibility of Bahrain. Whether you like F1 or not, it is very visible."

It's not surprising that Pratt & Whitney is commending Republic on its recent order for the Bombardier CSeries, powered, of course, by P&W's PW1000G geared turbofan.

While no one knows the final price paid by Republic, the deal itself does give Bombardier and Pratt & Whitney its first North American customer for the CSeries.

So what's P&W's take?  During the recent analyst day at P&W's parent company United Technologies P&W President David Hess touted the "huge traction" the geared turbofan is gaining in the market.

Hess believes the fact that Republic is using the CSeries to replace Airbus A319s operated at its subsidiary Frontier Airlines gives a lot of credence to his belief the engine is gaining market acceptance.

It's tough to say if one order will accelerate highly-ancitipated plans by Airbus and Boeing to finalise schemes this year to re-engine their narrowbody programmes, but it does pose an interesting case to airlines evaluating potential re-engined products and the clean-sheet CSeries. Let me stress, I recently had a conversation with an incredibly wise source where this concept was bantered around.

How much are you willing to pay for the efficiency offered by the CSeries versus Airbus and Boeing offering a known product at a significant price advantage?

It's an evaluation that's no doubt taking place at several North American carriers as they weigh a key decisions in 100-150-seat replacements.  

United could be a bellwether for how the competition plays out as they've reportedly asked all four major airframers to participate in discussions regarding narrowbody replacement. And United's management remains committed to making a decision this year on its narrowbody strategy.  

Ever since bmi rebranded from its former incarnation as "British Midland", it has insisted that the 'i' in bmi didn't stand for anything.

In the first few days following the announcement, I witnessed the confusion of passengers and staff first hand (I worked for bmi when the rebrand was rolled out). 

Pilots slipped 'international' onto the end of their tannoy announcements by mistake and were quickly reminded by bmi's marketing gurus about the mystery status of that enigmatic 'i'.

Passengers would ask what it stood for and we could only say, slightly red-faced, that it stood for nothing or was probably just the 'i' from Midland.

Nearly 10 years on and I finally have an answer, which crept out silently in bmi's press release this morning about the BA strike.

To quote their words: "Heathrow's second largest airline bmi, British Midland International, has reacted today to the news that British Airways crew will be striking over two separate periods in March."

10 years on, it seems like the pilots were right all along. What an anti-climax!

A quick call to bmi's press office and we received this explanation. "Our marketing branding people were looking for something to reinforce the brand in overseas markets. They were finding that bmi didn't mean an awful lot, particularly in the former BMed markets."

I guess that's one decade-old mystery cleared up then!

It's been a while coming, but it seems like the recovery might actually be here at last.

This morning IATA halved its 2010 loss outlook. "For a change today we have some good news to present," said IATA director general Giovanni Bisignani. "We are cutting our 2010 loss forecast in half, from $5.6 billion to $2.8 billion."

Picture credit: rainbow_aerial by Cessna 206 

He describes the news as "very, very positive" for both the industry and the economy, adding: "We can see from the numbers that the industry situation is improving. Passengers are returning to flying."

It seems like the turnaround has taken even IATA by surprise. "The increase is much better than expected," says Bisignani.

The good news is that things are on the up; revenues could be back to 2008 levels by 2011. The bad news is we've lost three years growth.

Another boost is that IATA seems to be commending the industry for a momentary victory in the never ending demand/capacity battle. "This is probably the first time during a big crisis when capacity has been handled in the right way," says Bisignani.

Another plus: after last year's 14% drop in yield, passenger yields are now expected to grow by 2% and cargo by 3.1%. This compares with a previous forecast for 0% growth. Bisignani says: "Tighter supply and demand conditions have given airlines some pricing power."

So, where's the catch? The catch is that in the airline industry it's never all good news. The target for the bad news is Europe and North America's short-haul business cabins.

Bisignani said short-haul premium yields in Europe have fallen by 10% and in North America by 13%, prompting concerns about permanent change. Bisignani says: "We have certain concerns because this could not just be cyclical, but an indicator of structural change."

The future of short-haul business traffic is the subject of a feature which will run in the May edition of Airline Business. Get involved and share your views here.

And, with a reminder that the recovery is very much regionalised, Bisignani tempers the party spirit with a quick reminder: "This is not the time to have a big party. The situation is still in the red."

Continental's CEO Jeff Smisek has a simple message to the US government -- Get out of the way.

Responding candidly and colourfully to a question about the relationship between industry and Washington during the recent JP Morgan Aviation, Defense and Transportation conference Smisek's answer was:

 "What I'd like them to do is just leave us alone for a while, because every time they try to make things better, they make things worse."

Staying spirited about Washington's role in industry Smisek quips:

"The day I rely on government to help this industry, you should make sure I get fired."

A new rule effective 29 April in the USA requiring carriers to deplane passengers if an aircraft is on a tarmac longer than three hours draws particular ire from Smisek.

"That is solving a problem that doesn't exist. Long tarmac delays are extremely rare. They do occur, there's no question about it. But having a rule that requires us to cancel flights at three hours or suffer a fine of $27,500 per passenger is inane. The reason they [the aircraft] are on the ground is that we use the very finest 1950s ground-based technology. So the government sticks us on the ground because they refuse to invest in the highways in the sky, and then they fine us as a result."

I think it's safe to say we know where he stands.  (photo credit wheelmaker on flickr)

Police on the French overseas territory of Reunion have managed to bring a counter-hijacking exercise to a truly Clouseau-esque conclusion by, er, accidentally shooting the aeroplane.

Not an inexpensive aeroplane, either, but one of Air Austral's brand-new Boeing 777-300ERs, identified in this local report as F-ONOU (and doesn't that seem oddly appropriate?)

If you don't parler le francais, the story goes that the GPIOM gendarmerie was conducting a hostage-rescue training session yesterday which normally involves using blank ammunition.

For reasons which have yet to be explained, however, one of the weapons was carrying at least one bullet of 'the exploding kind' and, as a result, the aircraft is out of service with a window of the broken kind.

Canada's Windsor International Airport is celebrating the return of low-cost carrier WestJet after a six-year gap. The airline will begin seasonal daily Boeing 737-700 service between its Calgary base and the southern Ontario city in May.

The airport has signed a three-year deal with WestJet, said Federica Nazzani, president of Your Quick Gateway, the management company that took over the running of Windsor in July 2007 on behalf of the city.

Since that time YGQ has been working to revamp the airport's profile and marketing efforts and sell Windsor in its own right and not simply being perceived as a suburb of Detroit which is close by across the US border.

From WestJet's point of view the addition of Windsor, Canada's 16th largest city, is important as it builds up its network in the country, said Peter Tong, director network and schedule planning at the carrier. "We want to make sure we serve southern Ontario well," he said.

Federica Nazzani, above right, with WestJet's Peter Tong.

WestJet will begin the service at the end of May and run the route until October.

Apart from Windsor the airline has announced the addition of two other destinations so far this year: it will fly a daily service between Toronto and Bermuda and a weekly route between Toronto and Samana in the Dominican Republic.

For Windsor the next target is to tempt a US carrier to begin service to a major hub, such as Chicago or Atlanta. 

Following on from my blog last month about CityJet ditching its business class fares from London City and Willie Walsh's thoughts on permanent changes to short-haul business travel, there's an Airline Business feature in the making.

Since the advent of low-cost carriers we've seen huge changes in the short-haul product, with business travellers placing a greater emphasis on practicality over prestige.

Picture credit: sky3 by fontplay.com

So what's the future for short-haul business travel? Just how different are budget and traditional airline business products now? What value can traditional airlines really add? What has driven these changes? Who's got the right strategy to tap the potential of this market going forward?

Please get in touch with me at victoria.moores@flightglobal.com or share your views by leaving a comment below.

UPDATE: I've had some great responses so far - please keep them coming. It would be great to hear from you.

Best wishes,

Victoria

Michael Nicolaas, which will be a familiar name to many in the Latin American aviation market, is at Network 2010 in Ft Lauderdale for the first time in his new role as the director of corporate business development at Aerodom, the Dominican Republic airport operator.

The former KLM executive (seen to the left with a map of the Dominican Republic) had been part of Aerodom for 10 years following the privatisation process of the airports there several years ago. He has also run the Puerto Plata airport, been chief commercial officer at Peru's Lima airport and looked after air service development at Colombia's Bogota airport.

Now at Aerodom, where he takes over the role vacated by Ken Hassard, who has moved across to Hermes Airports in Cyprus, Nicolaas said his priority is to ensure Aerodom retains the service it has worked so hard to bring to the country and to develop airport destinations on the north coast of the Dominican Republic.

This means attracting new service to Puerto Plata, mainly from the US and Europe, and developing the Samana airport.

This little known area of the country, served today by European and Canadian leisure operators, is promoted as an eco-tourism destination.

Nice Airport is once again at Network USA keeping the southern French destination on the map in the North American market. It remains the only city in France outside Paris with a direct link to the USA with its Delta Air Lines service to New York JFK, said Filip Soete, marketing director at Nice.

The Nice team of Soete (left) and network development manager Michel Tohane (right) is here to consolidate its New York service and the pair also hold an outside chance of another service to a US destination this year. "We still believe we could in the summer have a flight to a major US hub," he said.

With 57 airlines operating to 103 destinations, Nice remains a strong European airport. Traffic dipped 5% in 2009 to 9.8 million passengers but Soete hopes it will go back over 10 million again this year.

One success story is Dubai's Emirates, which upped its frequency to its Middle East hub from Nice to daily in January. The Airbus A330 service has also been doing well on the cargo front helping the airport boost its overall cargo volume by 30% last year.

A new arrival this summer at Nice is TACV, the airline of the Cape Verde islands, which are located off the west coast of Africa in the mid-Atlantic Ocean. It will operate a weekend service using Boeing 757s in June.

Chris Curry, airport director at GaryChicago Airport, is aiming to secure a commitment from a scheduled carrier to begin operations at the Indiana airport at Network 2010.

He's feeling more hopeful now than ever before of putting the city's third airport on the map as negotiations are coming to a close about relocating some railways near to the airport that will enable a runway extension.

"It has been a 9-year communication and now we are in final stages of the draft agreement with the railroads to relocate. Then we can go ahead with the $100 million project to divert the railroads and extend the runway," said Curry.

"The timeline is: we are open for business right now and we only go up from here. In addition there is a very real possibility of a high-speed rail connection between Gary and the City of Chicago.

"Our message to airlines is get in now, get in at a very reasonable operational cost. There is no-one better than the first carrier. They have a chance to really corner a particular part of the market."

GaryChicago has FAA funding of $57.8 million already approved. The airport current supports a variety of cargo, business aviation and military flying.

"We are looking for a carrier at this conference that will come in and prove what we already know - that a third airport is needed and can be supported in the Chicago land region."

Read another story from Network 2010 about Colombia's AIRES read.

Colombian low-cost carrier AIRES is seeing such a strong response to its launch of services to South Florida that it is adding more service to the region in preference to opening a second destination in the US.

Speaking to Airline Business at the Network USA event, AIRES station manager Ft Lauderdale Fabio Andrade said: "With our extra flights even though we have got the rights to operate to New York we decided instead of adding our second [US] destination to concentrate on Ft Lauderdale because it has been such a success. The community has really supported  us."

Fabio Andrade (left) of AIRES and Ft Lauderdale's Steve Belleme.

AIRES, which operates Boeing 737-700s, began daily service between Ft Lauderdale and Colombian capital Bogota in late November. The carrier has been growing fast in the domestic market and is now branching out into international services.

This month it will add service to Cali and Baranquilla with a further route to Cartagena beginning in July, said Andrade.

"We have been talking to AIRES for a long while about coming in," said Steve Belleme, business development director at Ft Lauderdale International Airport. "There is a large Colombian population in this area and the CVB has been very dynamic in Colombia."

"The Ft Lauderdale market in South Florida is the station of choice of Colombia," said Andrade, who formerly head up JetBlue's operations in Florida. "Ft Lauderdale is non-congested, friendly, it has easy access and is low-cost - not only for us as a tenant but for passengers too."

So far AIRES has had a 94% on-time performance for its US flights and is seeing load factors of 82%. Average round trip fares on the route are $250 to $300 nearly half that charged by network carriers in the past, said Andrade. 

Further extra service at Ft Lauderdale in recent times is Virgin America, which began flying between the airport and San Francisco and Los Angeles in November. 

In May, German leisure carrier Condor will launch services between Frankfurt and Ft Lauderdale, marking another important new route for the airport, said Belleme.

The Network USA event, organised by Airline Business, is being co-hosted by Ft Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and the Great Ft Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau.

If you ask me (I know, you didn't), the US National Mediation Board is a curious and mysterious entity. It is tasked with the Herculean job of ensuring labour stability in the country's rail and airline industries, which by no stretch of the imagination is a walk in the park.

And, you guessed it, when negotiations between a given airline management and a particular labour group sputter, they can seek out a board staffer to help kickstart talks.

What happens in these mediated talks remains largely under a dark shroud, until a union gets fed up and pulls the strike threat lever.

That's what happened this week when American's flight attendants said enough is enough. They're formally seeking release into a 30-day cooling off period, which means they can take "self help" measures [read strike] once the that period ends.  Let's not even get into the irony of doing something as disruptive as striking at the end of a cooling off period. But these employees have some huge frustrations over emotionally charged issues of pay and work rules, not to mention concessions made in 2003 to help American stave off a bankruptcy filing.

American thinks a 14 month stint in mediated negotiations is too short a time for either side to need to cool off.

"Historically, negotiations settled during mediation in the airline industry last an average of 19 months after the mediator comes on board, and again, on average, a declaration of an impasse by NMB may take even longer," says American.

But two of three members overseeing the board are what you might describe as labour friendly. They were appointed by US President Barack Obama, who drew enormous applause from labour when he took office just over a year ago. So, the time to declare an impasse could very well be shortened.

Then again, no administration wants to be saddled with handling a strike at the world's second largest airline, so predicting outcome is akin to shaking a Magic 8 ball.

Rumours are also flying that NMB is close to finalising a proposed rule that would drastically alter how union elections are conducted at airlines. If the rule is adopted, a union can win a representation election by capturing the majority of the votes cast, rather than requiring a majority of the group affected electing to have union representation. Lawyers with the Air Transport Association of America are poised to pounce if NMB reverses current procedure.

In the mean time, here's a pretty fiery video from American's flight attendants union that accuses carrier negotiator's from walking out of talks. Not so, says American. "The notion that we walked out is categorically untrue." Stayed tuned to see happens....  

Interesting insight on passenger habits from market research agency BRDC which suggests travellers are, at the very least, getting used to the idea of paying separately for extras when booking  flights. The research shows two-thirds of those surveyed believe it is acceptable to charge for an extra bag and 61% thought likewise over charging for priority boarding. Here are some of the headling findings and you can find more on the survey here:

When purchasing airline tickets extras are often charged separately. Which of these do you think are acceptable to charge for as extras on your ticket price?
 
66%:  An extra item of hand luggage
61%:  Priority boarding
53%:  A seat reservation charge
50%:  Surcharge on people over a certain weight
29%:  A carbon off-setting charge
27%:  Assistance to aircraft if have mobility problems 
26%:  Paying for ticket on a credit card charge
25%:  To be checked in via a member of staff
18%:  To check in a bag
15%:  Paying for ticket on a debit card
 

Source: BDRC Continental (Q19) Base: All 20-64 year old online users (1005)

I think the least suprising bit here is 50% of people think its acceptable to put a surcharge on people over a certain weight - I assume this 50% of people are not over a certain weight and not in danger of having to pay the extra!

The unbundling of the elements in airline tickets, ferociously driven by low-cost carriers, has been one of the key in building airline ancillary revenues. We recently covered the topic in Airline Business - check out this article looking at how close the ancilliary revenue stream is to drying up.

Impressed with Hawaiian's stock skyrocketing almost 200% since last March, CNBC invited carrier CEO Mark Dunkerley in for an interview.

Among the wide-ranging topics covered were Hawaiian's pursuit of slots at Tokyo Haneda and ticket pricing.

Hawaiian is lobbying to garner two of the four available slots to fly Boeing 767s from Honolulu to Tokyo.

"We like our chances," Dunkerley says of the current proceedings of by US regulators to allocate slots. All the majors except for US Airways are also fiercely competing for access to close-in Haneda.

The trading of barbs has started with US regulators as each airline tries to make its case. American argues Hawaiian's proposal is inferior since Narita is better-suited for leisure travellers.

Continental is blasting Hawaiian's "wingtip-to-wingtip" service, or flights that essentially depart 10 minutes apart, arguing that if Hawaiian believes there a need for 528 seats on the Honolulu-Haneda market, "it should be purchasing a high density B747-400 or A380 to operate the route". 

On a broader subject, Dunkerley was asked about consolidation, saying it "has a lot of industrial logic in our business".  Although he also thinks it is anyone's guess of when or if it actually might happen, characterising consolidation in general as "out there in the ether of the industry".

Here's in the interview -- he's also asked in joking manner about buying United.

MEPs look set to clash with European ministers on the thorny issue of who should pay for heightened security equipment and measures at European airports. The European Parliament's Transport Committee last night adopted a position calling for EU member states to pick up the cost of security methods above and beyond common EU standards. The proposed EC directive on the subject, drawn up last May, does not currently impose public financing.

This issue of course has been thrust back into the spotlight following the alleged attempt to destroy a Delta Air Lines flight over Detroit on 25 December. This has seen moves to rush in body-scanners at a number of  EU airports, which are not currently listed in the EU common standard.

In adopting its position, the Transport Committee argued that governments, rather than passengers, should pay for national security measures that aim to protect citizens from acts of terrorism.

This sets them on a collision course with members states which are opposed to a directive imposing public financing. But MEPs say they are determined, if necessary, to take the fight all the way to the Parliament/Council conciliation committee, and Transport Committee chairman Brian Simpson, said he would recommend rejecting the proposal as a whole if EU ministers did not accept Parliament's position.

The burden of increasing security costs has long been a worry among European airports and it is one of the key issues addressed by airports body ACI Europe in recently launching its vision for future EU aviation policy. "Security now accounts for 35% of airport operating costs in Europe - almost entirely borne by the industry, while elsewhere in the world security is - quite correctly - paid for by government," says ACI Europe. It appears the MEPs are listening.

More here on the Transport Committe position.

More here on the EC proposals

More here on ACI Europe's EU aviation policy vision

Picture credit: Rii Schroer/Rex Features

No cheap jokes about airline food or budget carrier service needed here - this is already too bizarre. Angry Ryanair passenger eats his winning scratchcard

A LAN flight from Lima in Peru yesterday (Sunday) was the first commercial landing at Chile's Santiago Airport following the huge earthquake in the South American country on Saturday.

According to a release from LAN, operations at the airport have been severely disrupted and there has been major damage to the airport terminal.

It appears that several flights landed at Santiago Airport on Sunday but that outgoing flights have yet to resume.

This shot from Rex shows a woman trying to salvage something from her devastated home in Santiago. 

Here's a shot from one of the few travellers who have landed there in the past 24 hours http://www.fotoglif.com/f/7qcwgnua576c

If you have any photos or links showing the extent of the damage to the airport or any further infromation about flight operations at Santiago and in Chile please share it with us on the Airline Business blog or via Twitter http://twitter.com/theabed