EasyJet is moving further away from the pure no-frills model with an initiative to enable passengers to pay an extra fee for early boarding.
Dubbed the "Speedy boarding" initiative, the first 20 passengers making an online booking are given the option of paying between ｣2.50 ($4.90) and ｣7.50 to board the aircraft ahead of other passengers, whatever time they arrive at check-in.
EasyJet tested the concept on several routes out of London Luton Airport earlier this year and has now announced it is extending the initiative, although it says the option is not available from all airports.
It also points out that where passengers are bussed to the aircraft, it cannot guarantee that passengers who have opted to take up the initiative will be first off the bus - conjuring up images of infuriated "Speedy Boarders" pushing old ladies out of the way in their haste to take up their rightful places in the choicest seats. "Where bussing is frequent on a particular route, this is reflected in the Speedy Boarding price you pay," says the carrier.
The price will also vary depending on the length of the flight.
Concepts like this, as well as online check-in, which was first introduced in February, and the Early Bird transfer of passengers who arrive in time to catch an earlier departure are clearly aimed at the business traveller and it is here that easyJet sees a way to help boost profitability.
"Business travellers tend to pay more because they book later," says Andrew Harrison, easyJet chief executive, "so we don't need to shift the mix very much to have an impact on profitability.
Europe: November 2006 Archives
Looking none the worse for recent heart surgery, Airbus chief salesman John Leahy was in London today (22 November) launching the European manufacturer's Global Market Forecast, it's first for two years.
Just as our recent blog with Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al Baker showed, Leahy is a quote machine. So here are the highlights from his packed press conference, which did, as my colleague from Flight International Max Kingsley-Jones observed, start 20 minutes late. Typical Airbus we commented dryly.
1. Leahy didn't shy away from the obvious: Airbus has had a bad year. Or has it really been that bad? Leahy observed that despite the "absolute mess Airbus is in in 2006", it will still end up being its second best ever sales performance. Current sales stand at 619 aircraft, compared to the record-setting level of 1,111 in 2005. "This surprised a lot of people in Toulouse when I mentioned it...It has been one of the best of years as well as one of the worst of years," he said.
2. Market share. Leahy's target in order terms is to keep in the 40-60% band. This year after five ahead of Boeing, Airbus will most likely fall behind again. It has 43% of the year's orders now, in unit, terms, and around 35-37% of orders by value. "In terms of deliveries it is our best ever year - we will deliver 425 aircraft."
3. A380 compensation. Asked (by me actually) if Airbus was setting an industry record for airline compensation levels on a single programme with the A380 Leahy had a straight reply: "I wouldn't know if we are setting new records. What I do know is the compensation is reasonable in many cases," he said, adding that in most cases it is capped.
4. A380 cancellations. Despite three delays to the A380, Leahy does not expect any more cancellations after FedEx chopped its A380 freigher order. Customers "get mad, but they don't talk about cancellations, they are talking about compensation...all the others are staying with us". And, in fact, carriers like Qantas, Singapore Airlines and others are talking about how many more they are buying, he said.
5. Low-cost A380. After evacuation tests that got 853 people and 20 crew off the A380, Leahy is only half-joking about the super jumbo as a real people-mover. The success of the test means "I've got to update my brochures," he said, when asked if low-cost carriers might be interested in the aircraft. Leahy revealed he was talking to a carrier interested in the A330 that afternoon that had also asked for a idea of the A380 in a low-cost configuration.
6. A350 launch. Wait for the EADS board meeting, said Leahy. But: "I've been pleasantly surprised by the fact of how many of our customers are willing to wait for it (the A350). It has slowed sales for our competitor," he said, referring of course to Boeing's 787.
7. Salesmanship. Asked if sorting out the A380 issues was taking up most of his time, Leahy replied "too much!" He is currently spending about 50% of his energy on the A380 and the rest on new aircraft sales. However, the A380 talks have had some spin-off benefits: "Part of sorting out the A380's problems is producing new sales."
British Airways chose the centre of one of its main customer bases - London's Docklands close to the financial heartland of the UK - as the venue to launch its new Club World business class.
BA is following hard on the heels of Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific in unveiling its next generation business class flat bed. For chief executive Willie Walsh, five years after the carrier "revolutionized" the industry with the first flat bed, "now is the time for BA to take a decisive step forward".
The ｣100 million ($190 million) investment sees BA keeping its patented "ying yang" arrangement where half the seats face backwards. The bed is 25% wider and there is a new privacy screen and on-demand in-flight entertainment system.
The roll-out of the new Club World will take 18 months with the first aircraft in service at the end of November. Only Boeing 777s and 747-400s are slated to receive the upgraded beds for now.
As part of the roll-out BA is increasing the number of business class seats from the 38 today to 52 in 31 of its 747-400s. This will produce an extra 8% more business class capacity.
KLM is celebrating 70 years of the Douglas DC-3 Dakota and has launched a new website which looks back at aviation pioneers to mark the occasion. On 13 November 1936, KLM operated the DC-3 on its first scheduled service. The website celebrates this aeronautical milestone with pictures of Amsterdam Schiphol Airport as it was in the 1930s.
In addition to the Pioneers in Aviation website, celebrations include a re-enactment of the inaugural flight on 13 November to Le Bourget - Paris' main airport in the 1930s. The Salon Aeronautique - now known as the Paris Air Show - was being held in Le Bourget that week.
KLM was the first airline outside of the USA to deploy the Dakota. KLM placed its first order for eight DC-3s in August 1936, to operate flights to the Dutch colonies in the East Indies and on busier European routes.
The co-operation agreement signed back in July by the UK's bmi and Russia's Transaero to operate a daily codeshare service between London Heathrow and Moscow Domodedovo took off on 29 October.
It has been nine years since bmi first attempted to gain a foothold in the Russian market - the previous attempt ended in failure in 2000. "We've been banging on the Russian door for almost as long as we've been banging on the Open Skies door," says chief executive Nigel Turner.
This is bmi's first foray into the medium-haul market and sees the introduction of a new business-class product on the carrier's Airbus A320, with a 41in seat pitch and improved in-flight service. Transaero will use Boeing 737 aircraft on the route.
Turner says he anticipates the service appealing particularly to business-class passengers, and those working in the energy sector.
This will strike a chord with Transaero, which boasts of operating the world's longest domestic route - 11 hours' duration to Anadyr, capital of the Chukotka region in the far north east of Russia, a rich source of gold, diamonds, gas and oil, and whose governor is Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich.
Maxjet, the year-old all-business class carrier that plies its trade across the atlantic, launched its latest service - between London Stansted and
And none other than the King himself was tempted to turn out and endorse the new service.
Maxjet's twice-weekly Boeing 767 service will compete with Virgin Atlantic for travellers wishing to travel directly between
When journalists get invited on inaugural flights to new destinations, they can usually pack shorts and suncream. This week's new route for bmi was a departure in more ways than one - to the chilly city of Moscow.
Although Moscow is in many aspects just like other major cities, full of teenagers walking the streets with mobile phones clamped to their ears, it felt distinctly alien to me, on my first visit to Russia. The fact that signs everywhere are in the Cyrillic script, which means that you can't even hazard a guess as to what they are saying, all adds to the mystique.
The high spot of the flying visit (no pun intended) for me was walking through Red Square on the way back from dinner in the first snow of the Moscow winter. With the Kremlin on one side, with its red stars glowing on top of its towers, the GUM department store covered in lights like a giant Christmas tree on the other side, and St Basil's Cathedral in front, it was a magical experience.
Although we didn't have the time to visit Lenin in his mausoleum, we did manage a tour of the Kremlin, including the Armoury Museum, with its stunning display of pre-revolution royal clothes, coaches, weaponry, gold and silverware and Fabergé eggs.
The mystique of a foreign language worked in reverse while we were being taken round by an English-speaking tour guide, as a number of teenage locals decided to attach themselves to our group, rather than their own familiar Russian-speaking one.
The fact that the Inter Milan football team, in town to play Spartak Moscow in the Champions League, was staying in our hotel, added to the excitement, and having experienced for ourselves the appalling traffic jams Muscovites endure each day, it was amusing to read the next day that the local team coach was stuck in a jam so lengthy that the players and staff were forced to abandon it and sprint for the metro in order to make the kick off.
A press event with Ryanair's Michael O'Leary (above) always promises to be interesting, and yesterday's event in London was no exception. Wearing his everyman check shirt and at times trying extremely hard not to swear ("ffffffffflipping security"), O'Leary rapidly got down to business.
Although O'Leary refused to talk about Ryanair's proposed takeover of Aer Lingus, he did reveal plans to introduce in-flight gaming on all of its flights. In what O'Leary calls "a logical development", Ryanair has joined forces with UK online gaming website jackpotjoy and plans to provide the world's first in-flight online gaming.
Passengers using the service can play Bingo and instant-win games with the chance of winning a cash jackpot. They could also play to win back the price of their flight.
But despite all the hoo-ha of yesterday's "launch", the scheme is still theoretical. While passengers can sign up and play online at home, the technology has not yet been ironed out for in-flight access.
That, apparently, is hinging on Ryanair's first priority: in-flight mobile telephony. Passengers will use their mobiles to access the online gaming. But in-flight telephony is still months away, as mobile phone providers seek approval from the FAA and other regulatory bodies. In fact in-flight mobile phone use won't be rolled out before June or July 2007 and online gambling is expected a couple of months later.
When asked why Ryanair had chosen to launch the scheme now when the technology isn't even approved, O'Leary was typically frank: "The technology is already decided and we decided to give ourselves a 9-12 month run at it with the website to develop a degree of expertise."
For those that don't own a mobile phone, there is the possibility of handing out handsets on each flight.
Ancillary revenue is obviously a key area for Ryanair: with ancillary revenue growth at 16% it outstrips passenger revenue growth. O'Leary expects this figure to grow to 20% in the next five years.
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