Europe: March 2009 Archives

I've been doing some serious walking in the past two days. You see I've been through the new Terminal 4 at Madrid's Barajas Airport.

It's big, bold and involves a lot of footwork from kerb to gate, or vice versa. In fact, when I arrived on Monday afternoon I lost count of the number of escalators I took from leaving the BA flight from Heathrow to the taxi rank, via the train that connects the satellite to the main terminal, but it was into double figures.

And leaving on Tuesday with Iberia I was relieved that my gates - H - were only an 8 minute trek. Thank the lucky stars I didn't have gates U or R, that would have needed a slug of something frisky to cope with a 22 minute hike!

Sorry AENA but this is not a friendly airport. Yes it's a big statement. But the wayfinding experts weren't all that expert. It's confusing.

Security needs looking at too. You fill your plastic trays with laptop, liquids, jackets etc - that often means 2 of them - and then carry them to the X-ray. There's no roller tables, you struggle with the trays, dragging your hand luggage behind you.

In fact so unfriendly is this airport that some of the people I met in Madrid say they deliberately avoid this terminal, especially if travelling with children.

But I can report something special about Terminal 4: the announcement on the transfer train.

It's an English accent, and I puzzled who it sounds like because it was strangely familiar.

Then I got it: a striking resemblence to the dulcet tones of Mark Dunkerlery, the excellent CEO of Hawaiian Airlines!

Doing a spot of moonlighting Mark?

To close the blog I penned the other day, it appears it was Aer Lingus that was behind the "get naked for a free flight" publicity stunt and not Ryanair.

According to this article, hundreds of people stripped off to publicise the launch of eight new Aer Lingus routes from London Gatwick. The airline had advertised for 999 volunteers, using the offer of free return flights to one of its new European destinations as an incentive, but it appears only half that number actually turned up for the event.

I had suspected the stunt might have been a joke by Ryanair as it didn't sound like something Aer Lingus would partake in, but it turns out I was wrong.

Whether the publicity drive will have had any impact remains to be seen.

Our good friend, occasional Airline Business video interviewer and generally high-class airline exec Peter Davies is already stirring things up down in the south-west of England.

Five weeks ago the former DHL, Brussels Airlines and Caribbean Airlines boss took on the job of running little known UK regional airline Air Southwest. It operates a fleet of five Bombardier Dash 8 Q300s on routes mainly within the UK from Newquay and Plymouth.

After five weeks and what Peter describes as "my usual airline diagnostic", which resulted in a seven-page report for the private owners of the airline on the best business and strategic options for the carrier, today saw the first fruits of his labours: the announcement of a new route between Plymouth (with an extra hop to Newquay) to London City Airport. It opens on 20 April.

This route is the first to London City for Air Southwest. It will fly the route twice daily allowing virtually a full business day in London giving the train a run for its money.

Now I can remember reporting on the opening of London City back in the late 1980s and this route was one of those started by Brymon Airways, but perhaps stopped later when BA bought the carrier.

Can anyone dredge back in their memories and illuminate us? Or share any photos? 

Well, judging by the 50+ comments on the route announcement story in the local Plymouth paper, this is a big deal for the region. Most comments are favourable, although some wonder if the cheap lead-in fares will be easy to get.

Peter says the Plymouth route is aimed at business passengers while the Newquay "tag" brings in the leisure market.

Air Southwest will continue operating its four times daily service to London Gatwick, says Peter. This route has new competition in the face of large UK regional Flybe, which began service between Plymouth and Gatwick in February.

Peter also has his eyes on other routes but is keeping these ideas to himself for the moment.

Good luck!

A strange article on The Times' website today says the paper has received an email telling it that an unnamed airline wants 999 people to take their clothes off to publicise a new airline launching in the UK.

The email apparently included a link to this website, which says 999 members of the public will be given two free flights to one of eight European destinations from London Gatwick if they take part in the nude-fest.

The Times rightly points out that Aer Lingus is about to launch service to eight destinations from Gatwick. The carrier announced in December that it would open a Gatwick base in April with flights to Munich, Zurich, Vienna, Malaga, Faro, Nice, Knock and Dublin.

But the newspaper also points out that this could all be a stunt by Ryanair to try and undermine its bitter rival's attempt to open a European base outside Ireland. It certainly has the hallmarks of a Ryanair publicity stunt, and doesn't sound like something you'd typically associate with Aer Lingus.

I guess it will all become clear soon. I just have two questions: If it is a stunt by Ryanair, does the airline really not have anything better to do with its time than this? And are there really 999 people willing to strip off in public, in winter, just for a crumby free flight to Europe?

"It was a stupid investment." A typically frank assessment then from Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary on the airline's acquisition of a 29% stake in Irish rival Aer Lingus, reported in the Irish Independent following a press conference in Dublin yesterday.

Ryanair built up the stake to support two failed attempts to takeover Aer Lingus. After giving up on its second attempt to take over the carrier earlier this year, O'Leary described as an "optimistic assumption" that it would make a third move for the carrier. He reiterated this yesterday by describing such a move as "very unlikely".

"It was a stupid investment," he is reported as saying during yesterday's media conference. "At the time, it was the right strategy to go for one combined airline but it [the investment] has now proven to be a disaster."

Aer Lingus shares hit a low last month and ended trading yesterday at €0.76 on the Irish stock exchange.

For more on Aer Lingus, see for our recent article:  What does the future hold for Aer Lingus?

If you haven't seen it yet - or if you just want to see it again - take a look at this video on Sky News of someone throwing green custard in the face of UK business secretary Peter Mandelson to protest the government's approval of a third runway for London Heathrow.

And just in case you want to see it again in slow motion:

Plane Stupid protestor Leila Deen attacked Lord Mandelson with a cup of green slime this morning, and she says unrepentantly: "The only thing green about Peter Mandelson is the slime coursing through his veins.

"That Mandelson is today trying to make political capital out of climate change just days after reports that he met BAA's top lobbyist several times in the run-up to the Heathrow decision is an insult to our intelligence and to our whole generation that will suffer from climate change."

And while we're on the subject of politicians having stuff hurled at them, what an opportune moment to once again watch former UK deputy prime minister John Prescott responding to having an egg thrown at him by smacking a member of the public in the mouth.

Not aviation-related, I admit, but heck it's Friday and it's one of those clips you never tire of watching!

In a strongly-worded press release sent out this morning, easyJet has made clear its disgust at what it calls "a few legacy airlines appealing for state aid through the back door".

Explaining what's got its hackles up, easyJet says: "Some legacy network airlines, led by their self-serving, wholly-unrepresentative club, the Association of European Airlines, are asking the European Commission to consider a suspension of the rules governing slot usage at Europe's major airports - particularly to prevent other European airlines from using scarce slots that would be freed-up by the cutbacks expected this year."

So to get the other side of the story (which, after all, is what I'm paid to do), I went to the AEA's website and found this press release, which has a different take on the matter in its headline: "Airlines say no to state aid, but seek relief on infrastructure costs." As a journalist, it's always interesting to see how two different sides can manipulate the same words to set out their opposing stances on the same issue.

In the AEA press release, LOT Polish Airlines president Dariusz Nowak points out that LOT has reduced its winter capacity by 10% due to the economic downturn, but under current European Union rules it could not get those slots back once the market recovers. His argument, therefore, is that airlines should be able to "make capacity cuts with confidence that they would not be penalised by slot confiscation".

Quite what the EU will make of this argument remains to be seen. What is clear is that easyJet will not take this lying down - nor, I suspect, will Ryanair, which loves nothing more than writing letters of complaint to the EU. 

Further signs of how tough it is right now in the premium traffic sector as British Airways today disclosed its premium traffic was down a fifth in February compared to the same month last year. Direct comparison though is distorted due to the impact of heavy snow in the UK south east last month causing several flight cancellations and by 2008 being a leap year, meaning an additional day in February last year (worth around 3.5%).

Overall the fall in passenger traffic of 8.3% was in line with the 9% reduced capacity in February, meaning its passenger load factor was fractionally higher than the same month last year at 72%. But notably while non-premium traffic was down 5.5% in RPKs, BA's key premium traffic fell 20.2% compared to February 08.

No let-up on cargo either. December and January saw heavy drops in air-freight figures across the industry. For BA, cargo, measured in CTKs, was down more than a fifth. This compared to a near 17% fall for the carrier in January.

BA says market conditions remain "challenging but broadly in line with previous expectations". It comes after BA chief Willie Walsh yesterday issued a stark warning on the likely impact of the recession.

Other early reporting European traffic stats for the month out today come from Ryanair. It reported a 7% increase in passenger numbers for February to 4.13 million - rare single-digit growth for the Irish carrier given its usual double-digit monthly growth rate. This reflects the carrier's relatively scaled back capacity growth this winter - monthly passengers numbers have been growing around 11% in recent months after it grounded aircraft predominantly at Stansted and Dublin compared to 18% for 2008 overall - together with February having one less day this year and the snow impact. Ryanair load factor for the month though was up three points in February to 78%

If you feel you haven't heard quite enough bad recession-related news and you're looking for a bit more, check out this article in London's Evening Standard about British Airways.

Quoting BA chief executive Willie Walsh's (pictured) comments in the airline's in-house newspaper, the article says BA faces two years of losses and shouldn't expect any bailout from taxpayers.

The article goes as far as to quote an analyst who says BA is "in danger of taking on the attributes of Royal Bank of Scotland, with wings".

In case you've been living in a cave for the last couple of weeks, Royal Bank of Scotland recently recorded the largest annual loss in UK corporate history while its shameless former boss Sir Fred Goodwin retired from the bank at the age of 50 and is refusing to give up any of his hefty £650,000 a year pension.

Does this comparison strike any of you as being a slight exaggeration, or could things really be this dire for BA?