Airline Business

United's 787s return to the skies

2013-05-21T14:47:35Z

United Airlines returned its fleet of Boeing 787-8s to revenue service on 20 May, with an inaugural flight from Houston Intercontinental to Chicago O'Hare.

The flight, United 1, fittingly flew from the former home of Continental Airlines - the North American launch customer of the 787 in 2004 - to the United's current home, not to mention the corporate headquarters of manufacturer Boeing as well.

Jeff Smisek, chairman, president and chief executive of United, and James McNerney, chairman and, president and chief executive of Boeing, spoke before the flight. Both commended the aircraft, with Smisek joking about it being a "fairly expensive piece of sculpture to have on the ground" and McNerney apologising for the delay.

United's 787s had been grounded since January, following two separate battery related incidents onboard aircraft flown by Japan's All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Japan Airlines.

Onboard the flight, which was flown by N27903, the mood was festive. Passengers were keen to play with the dimmable windows and clapped after took off from Houston and upon landing in Chicago.

Inflight, economy passengers had their preference of food from United's Choice Menu, all for purchase with a major credit card.

When the school bus turns into an Airbus

2013-05-03T15:27:59Z

Thanks to Monarch, 600 British kids got to swap their school bus for an Airbus recently and jet off on the ultimate geography field trip.

As a 70s' school kid, I dreamed of a trip like this! The best we could hope for was our form teacher borrowing the school minibus and taking us for a tour of one of the local attractions - Windsor Great Park or the RAF Memorial.

But Monarch took "school's out" to a new level, running a nationwide appeal to make education fun. Three schools got exclusive use of a Monarch aircraft for the day. Harris Academy Beckenham flew from Gatwick to Gibraltar, Icknield Community College from Manchester to Verona and Fulbrook Middle School from Birmingham to Dubrovnik.

And despite the excitment of a school trip at 35,000ft, I bet there was still a rush to nab the back row!

Phoenix seeks its place in the international sun

2013-05-01T18:25:07Z

Phoenix Sky Harbor International is a bustling domestic airport, with competing hub operations on both Southwest Airlines and US Airways. If you are flying around the American southwest, odds are that you will pass through Phoenix at some point.

City of Phoenix

But if your destination is somewhere abroad, Dallas-Fort Worth or Los Angeles are much more likely to be in your future.

International service from Sky Harbor is limited to mostly Canada and Mexico with a daily nonstop to London Heathrow on British Airways. International traffic represented just 5.4% of overall passenger traffic, or 2.19 million passengers, in 2012, according to airport data.

"We want more nonstop [international] service to places where there is demand," Deborah Ostreicher, deputy aviation director at Sky Harbor, tells Airline Business on the sidelines of the Phoenix International Aviation Symposium on 25 April. She names Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Tokyo as well as an additional flight to London as markets where the airport sees demand for nonstop service.

Airlines may be coming around, too.

The proposed American Airlines-US Airways merger creates a huge amount of possibility for the airport. Ostreicher says that the airport is targeting the merged carrier for new service as well as its Oneworld alliance partners, naming Japan Airlines to Tokyo as a possibility.

Andrew Nocella, senior vice-president of marketing and planning at US Airways, says that there are no specific plans for international service from Phoenix after the merger but that it would create many opportunities for the hub, at a media event on 24 April. He cites the combined fleet and networks.

Together the carriers had 148 widebody aircraft with an additional 62 on order at the end of March. The orderbook includes 42 787s, which - along with the Airbus A350 - is seen by many analysts as ideal for international service from Phoenix.

"The 787 is the right type of airplane for a Oneworld airline to serve Asia from here," says Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst at Hudson Crossing, on the sidelines of the Phoenix symposium.

Ambitions and possibilities aside, the reality for international service to Phoenix is very much up in the air. The merger has yet to be approved while no route launched by an airline specifically with the 787 has flown long enough to prove its worth.

International travellers would be well advised to keep up on the dining options at Dallas-Fort Worth and Los Angeles for at least the near term.

Not quite the gourmet

2013-04-26T10:04:32Z

Speaking to Temel Kotil, it's easy to assume he harbours a passion for cooking given the amount of references to food preparation and food quality which he drops into conversation.

He describes alliance strategy as mixing together ingredients in a recipe, while challenges faced by his airline are "adding spices" to its diet.

He is also keen to expand the number of Flying Chefs on board Turkish Airlines services, who are trained in food preparation and service, and continue cooking the food on board.

Yet in reality his culinary enthusiasm is simply an airline chief executive's clever pragmatism, using a subject familiar to everybody to reach "common ground". He also views food quality as a cost-efficient way to make his airline's customer service stand out against its competitors.

"I don't have time for cooking and my wife doesn't allow me to cook, because she is a great cook," he says.

In fact, Kotil says that he has not really done much cooking since his salad days as a student, with the notable exception of Turkish Airlines staff picnics, for which he helps prepare food for the carrier's employees.

To hear how Kotil is convinced Turkish Airlines' rapid rise can be sustained to the summit of the aviation industry as it makes the most of its location on the crossroads of Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Africa; including video interviews visit: www.flightglobal.com/interviews/temel-kotil/

American joins the regional refleeting party

2013-04-16T20:18:14Z

American Airlines will begin upgauging its regional aircraft fleet with Embraer 175s this August, following the lead of Delta Air Lines in rejigging its regional feed.

The Fort Worth-based carrier will use the 76-seat E-175s to replace 63-seat Bombardier CRJ700s and add capacity in nearly all of the 12 markets that they will serve from Chicago O'Hare beginning 1 August. Only two - Minneapolis-St. Paul and Washington National - will result in a reduction of capacity.

American Airlines

While not surprising in light of an industry that wants to dump its 50-seat regional jets, the move is a switch from American's previous position where it presented 66- to 76-seat jets as an alternative to its mainline fleet.

"Larger RJs [regional jets] have lower per departure costs than our 140-seat MD-80s, which enables us to offer a better schedule without increasing capacity, since each larger RJ has far fewer seats than an MD-80," the airline said in an employee newsletter in May 2012. "With this superior frequency pattern, American can earn higher yields because we can better schedule flights at times when customers are most willing to pay higher fares."

American had this to say in its reorganisation plan that it filed with the bankruptcy court on 15 April: "The debtors plan to accelerate the retirement of smaller regional aircraft - those with 50 seats or less - thereby increasing their ability to acquire a significant number of larger regional jets with 51 to 76 seats."

The airline will place 15 E-175s in service and remove 11 37-seat Embraer ERJ-135s and three 44-seat Embraer ERJ-140s from its regional fleet during the second half.

With American's plans now clear, it is easy to extrapolate that the 32 E-175s slated for delivery in 2014 and 2015 will continue to replace smaller regional jets.

And what about the proposed merger with US Airways? Doug Parker, chairman and chief executive of the airline and future chief executive of the combined American and US Airways, said in July 2012 that he would like "some larger regional jets to offset some of those 50-seaters" - a sentiment that will undoubtedly be carried over through the merger.

Now only United Airlines is alone in refleeting its regional feed, a move that executives say will occur in 2014.

BA A380: Thatcher would have (probably) approved

2013-04-09T10:42:09Z

If you think the British Airways Airbus A380 looks resplendent in its new livery, you probably ought to thank, at least in part, the late former prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

Thatcher openly disapproved of BA's bold decision to abandon its Union flag colours in favour of a multitude of ethnic designs intended to reflect its global reach - a controversial marketing ploy spearheaded by then-chief Bob Ayling.

When she encountered the models of a BA Boeing 747-400 and an Aerospatiale-BAC Concorde during the 1997 Conservative Party conference, Thatcher pronounced her verdict.

"Absolutely terrible," she said, in front of the cameras, and - in a moment that has passed into legend - retrieved a paper tissue from her handbag to cover the 747's fin. Concorde, carrying a stylised version of the flag, was untouched.

Virgin Atlantic and BMI mischievously responded by incorporating the flag in their own colour schemes, while operational concerns emerged as to whether the diversity of BA fins might cause identification problems.

BA backtracked on the fin designs just two years into the scheme, declaring that it would cap the number of aircraft. When the repainted fleet reached triple figures, in 2001, the airline gave up completely, scrapping the tail art to bring back a "simpler identity" that would illustrate "consistency and unity" - and, of course, be less likely to suffer a "handbagging" from her ladyship.

O'Leary donates own prize to injured jockey fund

2013-04-02T11:00:29Z

If you only know Michael O'Leary from his cost-control obsessed side running low-cost carrier giant Ryanair, this might be a side to him you are less used to seeing. The horse-racing mad airline boss this weekend donated €200,000 to the fund set up for injured jockey JT McNamara - who suffered serious neck injuries after a fall at the recent Cheltenham Festival.

The donation came after O'Leary had offered a €200,000 prize for the winner of the race that precedes the Irish Grand National - a race he has previously bought the winning horse - only for his own horse Akorakor to win the race. So instead he donated the money to the fund set up for JT McNamara.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/horse-racing/21997219

O'Leary has a long-held passion for national hunt racing and his own horse, War of Attrition, is a former Gold Cup winner.

Ireland looks to Aer Lingus chief for help on turning postal round

2013-03-28T08:47:03Z

Aer Lingus chief executive Christoph Mueller has obviously been impressing the Irish Government with his turnaround skills, as they are looking to tap his expertise to help turnaround the state-owned Irish postal service An Post as well.

Mueller has returned Aer Lingus to profit after embarking on a major turnaround after joining amid spiralling losses in 2009. Now Irish communications minister Pat Rabbitte has turned to Mueller to chair the An Post board at what he calls "a critical time" for the company. The company will benefit from the strategic leadership approach that Christoph Mueller has brought to Aer Lingus," he says.

The role, which does not effect his Aer Lingus position, underlines the value the Irish Government see in Mueller's ability to turn around companies. It is also familiar ground for Mueller as he was previously CFO at DHL and served on the executive committee of Deutsche Post.

You can read more about Mueller's strategy at Aer Lingus in our cover interview we did with him in 2011 here.

Spinetta hangs up his boots after offloading to de Juniac

2013-03-26T11:37:02Z

Yesterday, Jean-Cyril Spinetta confirmed hints he'd been making that he would not see out the rest of his contract which runs to April 2014 and will step down as head of Air France-KLM in the summer on 1 July.

Similar to the manner in which his beloved French rugby team turned to a trusted pair of hands by returning the captaincy to Thierry Dusautoir while in a desperate predicament in this year's Six Nations rugby tournament, so Spinetta resumed the job he had left in 2009.

©Rex

Along with fellow Air France-KLM founding father, former KLM CEO Leo van Wijk, Spinetta returned as chief executive to put in place a restructuring plan which aims to reduce the group's net debt by €2 billion ($2.6 billion) by 2015.

Yet now with the plan in place and showing signs of success, to continue the rugby metaphor, he has offloaded the ball to compatriot Alexandre de Juniac who is seen as the man most capable of driving the team towards the try-line.

De Juniac's career in aviation stretches back to the mid-90s with roles including general manager for Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America at Thales. He left the industry in 2009 to become French finance ministry chief of staff under former French cabinet minister Christine Lagarde, but returned as head of Air France in 2011 following the resignation of Pierre-Henri Gourgeon.

His elevation to the top role at the Air France-KLM group comes as reward for his success in pushing through difficult cost-saving measures at Air France, with staff signing revised labour agreements without resorting to industrial action.

What's New York doing in Atlantic City?

2013-03-22T13:30:28Z

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) has turned its sights south to the New Jersey beach resort and gambling mecca of Atlantic City for the region's future air transport needs.

The authority approved a long-term lease to operate and maintain Atlantic City International airport from 1 July, at its meeting on 20 March. It cited the need to both expand its core airports - John F. Kennedy (JFK), LaGuardia and Newark - as well as shift demand to outlying airports - Newburgh Stewart and now Atlantic City - in the region behind the move to lease the facility with the option to buy it in the future.

South Jersey Transportation Authority

Atlantic City is an odd choice. The southern New Jersey airport is about 193km (120 miles) from the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel in New York City, according to Google Maps, while Stewart is only about 104km (65 miles) from the tunnel. It serves a population that is more closely connected to Philadelphia than the hustle and bustle of New York.

For example, train service from Atlantic City goes to the Philadelphia's 30th Street station while that from the Newburgh area goes to Hoboken Terminal across the Hudson River from midtown Manhattan. There are frequent buses between Atlantic City and New York catering to gamblers, however.

Of course the population of the New York City metropolitan region is growing and there are bound to be increasing ties between the city and southern New Jersey, which I am sure that the PANYNJ has taken note of.

Still, the authority might want work on building up the reliever airport that it already owns rather than acquiring a new one. Passenger traffic at Stewart has declined by more than half to 368,972 in 2012 since 2008, according to the authority's records. It bought the airport in November 2007.

PANYNJ/South Jersey Transportation Authority

Susan Baer, aviation director at the authority, called Stewart a "release valve" for the region sometime in the future, during an interview with Airline Business last year. Perhaps she and her staff should work more on releasing that valve if they are in the market for more airports.

Political motivations are likely. The PANYNJ is allowed to operate one airport in New York (Stewart) and one airport in New Jersey outside its district, which is anything within 40km (25 miles) of the Statue of Liberty. New Jersey politicians may very well be driving the move to take over the Atlantic City facility.

Who knows though, maybe the authority wants to get in early on New Jersey's up and coming outer coastal plain viticultural region centred around Atlantic City. Anything is possible.

Much ado about the American-US Airways west

2013-03-20T20:55:53Z

What if the new American Airlines cut connections at its Los Angeles (LAX) hub to focus on origin and destination (O&D) traffic, while boosting capacity through Phoenix? Maybe good network sense, finds a Flightglobal Pro analysis.

While cutting LAX is near blasphemy today as the airport is American's only toehold on the US west coast, the addition of US Airways' Phoenix hub following the proposed merger would likely allow it to funnel connecting passengers east-west as well as some north-south more efficiently than through the southern California airport.

American has 13 gates in terminal four and an additional 10 in a remote terminal for its regional operations, while US Airways has preferential use of four gates in terminal one at LAX. American mainline currently runs about 7.1 turns per gate on peak days, which could jump to 8.4 turns if US Airways operations are consolidated into terminal four.

This would be just above the maximum of between six to eight turns per gate that is recommended by the US National Transportation Research Board.

By reducing connecting flights and flows at LAX, American could accommodate additional flights to high yield business destinations in gates currently occupied by feeder flights from, for example Fresno or San Diego, and reduce ramp congestion as it shuttles passengers between terminals.

"There is a lot of opportunity for American to streamline its operations at Los Angeles," says Henry Harteveldt, a travel industry analyst for Hudson Crossing. "It's simply a matter of logistics. There is only so much ramp space and there are only so many gates."

All network changes at the merged American-US Airways are conjecture for now but service to LAX is likely to get interesting as it jockeys with the other big four carriers - Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines - for an ever greater share this lucrative market.

Delta at LAX - tell me something I didn't know

2013-03-08T15:28:09Z

So Delta Air Lines is expanding at Los Angeles. What else is new?

The Atlanta-based SkyTeam alliance member has been dribbling out the expansion since December when it loaded flights between Los Angeles and Seattle (from 8 April). Flights to Nashville (from 8 April) were added in January, Anchorage (from 21 June), Bozeman (from 22 June), San Jose, California (from 1 July) and Spokane (from 10 June) in February. It will also begin flights to San Jose, Costa Rica, from 1 July.

Delta will boost frequency to Guadalajara, New Orleans, Oakland, Phoenix, Puerto Vallarta, Sacramento and San Francisco as well, it says.

Flickr user InSapphoWeTrust

Stephen Hedden, team leader for network planning at Delta who focuses on the US west coast, said that the airline is taking advantage of "opportune flying" on aircraft that have down time at either Los Angeles or outstations with its new flights, on the sidelines of the Network USA 2013 forum in San Antonio on 4 March.

Delta is testing markets to see where best to allocate its aircraft out west beyond its third quarter schedule, he added.

Even with the expansion, Delta will still be third fiddle to United Airlines and American Airlines in terms of available seat kilometres (ASKs) out of Los Angeles in July, according to Innovata FlightMap Analytics. United will have a 14.1% market share with 1.9 million ASKs, American a 12.7% share with 1.7 million ASKs and Delta a 10.3% share with nearly 1.4 million ASKs.

While it may be third, Delta benefits from a large network of partner airlines at the airport. Its strategic partners Alaska Airlines, Air France-KLM and Virgin Australia, and codeshare partners Aeromexico, China Airlines, China Eastern, China Southern, Hawaiian Airlines, Korean Air and WestJet all serve Los Angeles.

It will be interesting to watch what routes Delta sticks with and what it does not as it tests out markets Los Angeles, especially as the competitive landscape changes with the American-US Airways merger.

Virgin pair and Baltic Miles take the plaudits at 2013 Loyalty Awards

2013-02-28T08:57:18Z

Baltic Miles, Virgin America and Virgin Australia have all been recognised for frequent flyer programme initiatives in the Loyalty Innovation Awards, presented during this week's Airline Business/Global Flight-organised Loyalty 2013 forum in Dubai.

Here's a picture of the winners (the ones with the awards from left to right are Virgin America's Phil Seward, Virgin Australia's Phil Gunter and Baltic Miles' Annika Davidsone), together with the judges, myself and Baltic Miles CEO Gabi Kool.

Virgin Australia led the way in the loyalty management category after dynamically developing its Velocity Frequent Flyer programme to exploit an opportunity in the market to win new premium members. A strong marketing push and customer friendly innovations helped the Velocity programme more than double status members and profits during 2012.

"We delivered an aggressive promotional campaign which highlighted the key advantages of Velocity, increased engagement with the programme and most importantly attracted new premium passengers to Virgin Australia," says Velocity Frequent Flyer general manager Phil Gunter.

Its the second year in a row the airline has been recognised in the Loyalty Innovation awards.

In the customer experience management category the judges picked out Virgin America's #myVXexperience multimedia campaign. During its launch, flyers were able to send their tweets and Instagram photos to the Nasdaq and Reuters digital billboards in New York's Times Square. More than 400 pictures and tweets were featured in September 2012.

"Even six months after its launch, the #myVXexperience continues to drive word of mouth and social sharing by both loyal repeat guests and dazzled first-time Virgin America flyers," says Phil Seward, Virgin America's director guest loyalty.

Read more on the Virgin America initiative here

The BalticMiles programme was recognised in the technology category for the launch of its crowdsourcing platform, selecting the best customer created ideas and follow up personalisation initiative via targeted video messages.

"At launch the personalisation campaign invitations got a record newsletter opening rate covering 25% of all recipients, including a stunning 53% of our most active customers," says Baltic Miles marketing director Annika Davidsone. "The campaign results are a great beginning for future programme enhancements by incorporating the voice of the customer."

The awards, judged by a panel of leading loyalty management specialists, are presented every year at the Loyalty event. Now in its fifth year, the Airline Business/Global Flight -organised Loyalty event is the leading airline travel loyalty management conference and forum. For more information and news releases from the event visit www.loyalty-conference.com

Kingdom's prince gives up Airbus's queen

2013-02-17T14:14:25Z

If Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal has truly sold his VIP Airbus A380, ordered in late 2007, it won't come as a surprise to anyone paying close attention at last year's Farnborough air show.

Because Airbus's demonstrator aircraft, MSN4, arrived at the show with a subtle amendment to the customer list on its fuselage - a white space where the logo of Kingdom Holding, the prince's investment company, had previously been slapped.

Kingdom Holding didn't respond when Flightglobal inquired, a few weeks back, about the situation with its A380 - the Trent 900-powered MSN2 - but this story appears to confirm what had been suspected. The company, whose investments include the social network Twitter, doesn't seem to have mentioned the buyer or the reason for the sale, but presumably prince Alwaleed will have to slum it in his private 747-400 for the foreseeable.

Of course, if his royal highness has sold the real A380, perhaps he'll also consider putting his model version on eBay. Which he part-owns as well. So keep your eyes open.

Does AA-US Airways deal signal final piece of US merger jigsaw?

2013-02-14T15:17:58Z

In Dallas today American Airlines and US Airways are unveiling plans for a merger. It follows the combination of first Delta Air Lines with Northwest and United Airlines with Continental Airlines as the six US major slim down to three. This consolidation, as the latest round of US airlines results predominantly illustrate, has helped to keep capacity in check and lift US carriers into solid profitability (or as solid as the airline industry usually allows).

So where does a merged American Airlines-US Airways sit on the global stage? Well second only to Lufthansa by revenues, based on data from the 2011 Airline Business World Airline Rankings - find out more here. Combined revenues of $37.3 billion would have put the airline just ahead of United-Continental which had revenues of $37.1 billion in 2011.

US carrier revenues for 2012 would still place a combined American-US Airways at $38.7 billion in sales above United-Continental with $37.2 billion and Delta Air Lines with $36.7 billion.

In terms of how the merged company will look, American and US Airways have put together this cool interactive route map.

You can read much about this, further analysis and coverage from today's American-US Airways conference on our premium news site, Flightglobal Pro across today.

Ironically Airline Business was with US Airways chief executive Doug Parker when news broke of American Airlines Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing a little over a year ago. That day the subject was US Airways - check out our cover interview here for more about that. Over the coming weeks it looks like its all going to be about American.