April 2011 Archives

US low-cost giant Southwest Airlines, which turns 40 in June, has moved a step closer to completing its merger with fellow budget operator AirTran after the US Department of Justice cleared the planned merger. The deal is now set to complete on 2 May.

Southwest is already the largest low-cost carrier in the world, while AirTran was the eighth largest no-frills operator by revenue in 2010. The merged operation will create the biggest low-cost carrier in history with joint revenues of $14.7 billion based on 2010 performance.

We spoke to Southwest chief executive Gary Kelly about what the merger means for Southwest earlier this month, as part of  a special interactive edition of Airline Business looking at low-cost carriers. Here's a short extract from our video interview with Kelly.

"It is a growth opportunity, and growth opportunities have been very hard to come by over the last couple of years with higher gas prices. It creates a stronger network and brings 38 new destinations and AirTran is a great fit for us."

Watch the full interview in our interactive low-cost special edition of Airline Business here  

If the unnamed carrier mentioned in a Flight International advertisement this week was hoping for anonymity then it probably should have checked the small print.

The advertisement covers the auction of five Boeing 777-200ERs, all with Pratt & Whitney PW4090 engines, and aged between 10 and 14 years.

It doesn't identify the seller, just describes it as a "reputable airline", and all inquiries for auction documents are being handled by its consultant, DVB Bank.

But there might be a clue in the last line, which lists a 16 May deadline for offers - at noon, er, "Cairo local time".

Passengers booking Ryanair between Dublin and Malaga and Gatwick can now pay a £10/€10 supplement to reserve a seat.

This is an interesting break with tradition - albeit a trial at the moment - for the airline's boss and "low-cost fundamentalist" Michael O'Leary that means it offers a "frill" not yet available on its local rival easyJet.

From 16 May, each seat in the front two rows and the two overwing exit rows will be available to book on these routes. This means that 24 of the 189 seats on its Boeing 737-800s can be reserved. When booking, just check the "reserved seating" box and then on the next page you can select your seat - suddenly the booking experience feels more British Airways than Ryanair!

The airline says that the trial results from passenger feedback surveys. But the reality is it looks like it could be a good ancillary revenue generator. If there is sufficient demand, then reserved seating will be rolled out on other, selected routes, says Ryanair.

In the latest Airline Business our annual low-cost carriers survey takes a look at the way the gap is closing between the no-frills and full service airlines.

And stay tuned for our low-cost airlines interactive special report - it will be on the airlines channel (flightglobal.com/airlines) to download from 26 April.

Good things, they say, come to those who wait...and wait.

After more than three years of delays, All Nippon Airways is now confident enough in Boeing's latest schedule that it has finally started training its pilots to fly the Dreamliner.

The airline, which expects to receive its first 787 during the third quarter, began training the first 10 pilots today (18 April). This first training programme will take around a month, and a further 70 ANA pilots are scheduled to undertake the 787 course during ANA's current fiscal year.

ANA, which has 55 Dreamliners on order, says that the start of pilot training is "a big step forward" in its preparations towards the type's introduction, initially on domestic services and then to international destinations.

This should, of course, have happened in May 2008, according to the original schedule. Better late than never, as they also say!

Kirsch Municipal Airport carries an unfortunate IATA identifier code and, if this comment to the Google Maps forum is genuine, it's starting to wind up the local jet charter firm.

'IRS' is the common abbreviation for the Internal Revenue Service but, in Google's geographic database, a search for 'IRS' doesn't bring up the US Government's mighty tax machine but rather a small airport in the northwest corner of Sturgis, Michigan.

"About two months ago we started receiving phone calls from individuals wanting to contact the Internal Revenue Service," says the forum poster, whose name 'raijets' matches that of a Kirsch air charter company.

"We get 20-50 calls a day for the Internal Revenue Service - even after hours and on weekends."

Having worked out how to request a change, the "sooo fed up" poster has submitted an amendment to Google Maps - although, judging by a quick search, the problem still hasn't been fixed. The upside is that it's provided possibly the best unwanted-airport-code story since Sioux City tried to offload 'SUX'...

Find me on Twitter @FlightDKM

Middle East carrier Oman Air has been showing off its new Embraer 175 regional jet at a ceremony in Muscat today. The airline has just taken delivery of the first five of the type it placed firm orders for in November 2009, as part of efforts to develop domestic routes within Oman.

The carrier will operate the aircraft in a dual-class configuration, featuring 11 seats in business class and 60 in economy.

It further renews the Oman Air fleet, the carrier having taken delivery of six Airbus A330s since 2009. A further A330 follows later this year and the airline will also take delivery of its first Boeing 787s in 2014

You know the upstart Caribbean airline that aimed to launch last December?  Well they've now officially said their launch is a go for 8 May, and tickets go on sale 13 April.  Here's an email sent out by CEO Ian Burns today.

The Management team and staff of REDjet are pleased to announce that as of Wednesday 13th April 2011 REDjet's low fares finally go on sale! Our first flights will launch from the 8th May and will feature frequent trips to our first destinations, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad. We know that so many you have all been eagerly awaiting our launch and the feedback has been massive. We promised not to disappoint and not only are we launching with fares from US$9.99 one-way excluding Government Taxes and Charges, but we are also launching 250,000 seats for US$49.99 or under! This truly will be a REDvolution as we aim to lower fares even further and open more routes across the region. Join us on our mission to end high fares so that Everyone Can Fly!
Get online on Wednesday and get your hands on the lowest fares ever seen in the Caribbean and let's turn the Skies RED!

Seems like the launch is somewhat closer to a go -- despite some setbacks detailed in this Trinidad and Tobago Newsday article, including a recent tailstrike of one of its two MD-80s at the carrier's Barbados base.

REDjet aims to model itself after Ryaniar, but Antiguan carrier Liat warns that replicating that model in the Caribbean might not be so easy. Here's what Liat had to say shortly after REDjet declared a targeted December 2010 launch.

Liat weighs in on potential new competitor
(09Dec10, 13:36 GMT, 215 words)

Antiguan carrier Liat is questioning if the business model adopted by upstart REDjet is viable for the region.

Irish father-son team Ian and Robbie Burns have secured two Boeing MD-80s based in Barbados to support REDjet's launch, and they plan to use the Ryanair low-fare and no-frills business model.

The startup is touting $9.99 fares and has created a website that states it is launching soon.

Liat director of schedules and special projects Lesroy Browne told ATI at the Network Latin America 2010 conference in San Jose, Costa Rica that while he does not want to sound critical, the difference in applying the Ryanair business model in Europe versus the Caribbean is Europe is a region where people can migrate from bus to train to air travel. That's not the case in the Caribbean, he says. "The critical mass is not there in the region."

REDjet's low fares will likely stimulate the market a bit, says Browne, but "to what extent", he asks.

Regardless, Browne believes that "they [REDjet] will certainly create some turmoil in the marketplace".

Former Caribbean Airlines chief Ian Brunton, told ATI before he left the carrier late last month that while he wouldn't comment specifically on REDjet's plans, he believed REDjet "would not be a threat to us".

So we'll see how REDjet performs in the often unpredictable Caribbean environment as Caribbean Airlines moves forward with its merger of Air Jamaica and Liat hopes to strengthen its own ties to Caribbean.  The MD-80s are a particularly interesting aircraft at the moment, given WTI oil is trading at $110 per barrel.

Airbus's venerable A320 development hack is being prepared for one of its last major test programmes before retirement - the Sharklet trials. 

A320 "MSN0001" was the first of its kind to fly on 22 February 1987 and after completing a large portion of the original flight-test and certification programme has spent the last 24 years as the airframer's single-aisle workhorse. It has been used to test CFM and IAE engines and upgrades and - in the recent past - back-to-back trials of various winglet designs before Airbus decided to launch the Sharklet programme. 

It is now in the hangar in Toulouse (pictured) being modified to start a 220h test programme of the prototype Sharklets in October, ahead of the first production Sharklet machine flying in August 2012.

This historic aircraft - pictured below taxiing after completing an early test flight in Toulouse when it was the world's only A320 - will continue test duties until it is finally replaced in 2014 when Airbus begins testing the first A320neo. This upgraded aircraft, which will first fly with Pratt's GTF engine, will then be retained as Airbus's new development airframe and MSN0001 will be gracefully retired.

It has not yet been decided where it will be preserved, but either Le Bourget's Musée de l'Air et de l'Espace or the museum at Airbus's Blagnac airport base must be the frontrunners.

Airbus's chief salesman John Leahy at "full chat" is like poetry in motion. If anyone was put on this planet to sell aeroplanes, Leahy was, and there's no hiding his excitement now he's got his hands on his latest gizmo, the A320neo.

 
A bit like Sebastian Vettel in his Red Bull F1 car, Leahy clearly believes his "equipment" is on a different level to the competition and its "last century" engines, and that he just needs to turn up to claim the prize. He's already sold 300 Neos and thinks that he'll get 200 more by Paris.

So why is he is so keen for Boeing to join him with a "737neo"? He was at pains this week in Toulouse to declare that the market has made it clear it wants the re-engined A320 "and probably a re-engined 737 as well".

Leahy sets out a fairly rational argument as to why an expensive all-new design would not offer enough of a step over re-engined single-aisles if it would be introduced a decade from now. Which is why he's of the firm belief -publically at least - that once all the noise about a clean-sheet design dies away after Paris, Seattle will be in the market with its own re-engined narrowbody.

But perhaps the reality is he needs Boeing to do the "737RE" because he knows the alternative could spell disaster. Boeing is unlikely to do nothing, at least not in the longer term, and Leahy doesn't want the spectre of another all new "game-changer" like the 7E7 forcing him to follow suit - especially now EADS has committed money and resource to Neo.

Anticipation is already building for the nex round of "The Sporty Game" at Paris, and it's going to be fascinating to see how it all plays out...

I grabbed some quick video of the new first class seat being installed on US Airways Express CRJ700/900s and E-170s/175s at the carrier's "unplugged" event (previously known as media day) here in Tempe.

The seats are being supplied by C&D Zodiac, and are offering 37-38 inches of pitch. Here's a bit more about the first class upgrade.

US Airways is also planning to spurce up its menu on domestic first class--

Envoy class menus are also getting refined -- and the glass is back! Take a peek...

Almost a decade after declaring that four engines were the only way to fly long haul with the introduction of his Airbus A340-600s, Sir Richard Branson finally joins the long-range twinjet club today (2 April) when Virgin Atlantic introduces its first A330-300 between Manchester and Orlando.

The 314 seater, dubbed "Beauty Queen" and appropriately registered G-VSXY, is the first of 10 A330s that Virgin will receive over the next two years. They will be deployed on routes from the UK to the US East Coast, east and West Africa, the Middle East and India.
In a remarkable declaration of the twinjet's efficiency over its four-engined sister, the A340-300, Virgin says the A330s will burn "15% less fuel per seat".

Like the airline's 19 larger A340-600s, the A330s will all be powered by Rolls-Royce Trents, but half as many! When the A340-600 made its debut at Farnborough in July 2002, Virgin adorned the Trents with the slogan "4 engines 4 long haul". Branson said that Virgin had found that 18% of travellers would "go out of their way" to fly on four-engined aircraft. 10 years on, with sky-high fuel prices, the increasing penalty of flying a quad clearly makes it a no-brainer to use a twin if it can do the same job. Just compare the sales fortunes of the A340-600 and Boeing 777-300ER to see that.

Virgin's first two A330s will be operated on leisure routes in a two-class layout seating 59 passengers in premium economy and 255 in economy.  The remainder will have a three-class configuration through the addition of Virgin's Upper Class business cabin. They all feature Panasonic's latest IFE kit using touch screen technology, and on-board email/texting from mobile devices will be introduced later this year.

The A330s are the first of a new wave of long-range twinjets joining the Virgin fleet, with orders also held for 15 Boeing 787s. But this does not signal the end of new four-engined airliners for Virgin though, as it also has six A380s on order.