So which blockhead managed to write an inadvertent howler in the opening line of this Germanwings story, only for some wise-guy to submit it to a BBC radio show?
(Listen to the clip here, if you must)
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Spanish low-cost carrier Vueling - or as its chief executive Alex Cruz describes it, an airline that happens to have low operating costs - held a futuristic event at Barcelona's Museum of Contemporary Art in a room mocked up as an aircraft cabin to outline its future growth plans. Flightglobal's Miquel Ros was among those watching the show:
While the economic crisis continues to dominate the headlines coming out of Spain, at least one airline seems to be thriving, while pursuing, unabated, ambitious growth plans.
The challenging economic environment and the strong presence of Ryanair and Easyjet in its home market has not deterred Vueling, that is expected to deliver positive financial results this year, from it plans to add nine additional new A320-family aircraft to its fleet and roll out 28 new routes out of Barcelona next spring. With this expansion Vueling's network out of the Catalan capital will reach a hundred destinations.
At a news conference yesterday, Vueling's chief executive Alex Cruz, who defines the airline not as a low cost carrier but as an airline with low operating costs, outlined the company's growth strategy, that involves increasing the number of passengers on connection flights (already 20% of its traffic) and new services that will take the carrier further away from its original no-frills model.
New business class
A key novelty is that Vueling is rolling out a proper business class, that will be called "Excellence". To be fair, Vueling had already launched a number of services aimed at frequent fliers and the corporate market, such as "Vueling Pass", that gives access to a set of premium services for an annual fee. The new business class, however, is a qualitative step forward, since it will get its own dedicated space in the cabin.
Vueling also plans to roll out wi-fi across its fleet, starting with a limited number of aircraft.
Network expanded
When it comes to new routes, Germany takes centre stage, with six new destinations being added (Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Dortmund, Dresden, Hannover and Stuttgart). Vueling is also going to increase significantly its presence in Italy (Bologna, Bari, Catania, Turin), the Nordics (Bergen, Helsinki, Gothenburg, Oslo) and Morocco (Casablanca, Fes, Nador, Tangiers).
Among the most eye-catching flights are the new twice daily flights between Barcelona and London Gatwick. Although Vueling already flies between London Heathrow and a number of smaller Spanish cities, it was until nowthe only major European capital left out of its Barcelona network.
This network expansion includes domestic services to Valladolid, Pamplona and Valladolid as well as new routes to Rennes (France), Rhodes and Kos (Greece), Banjul (the Gambia), Sofia (Bulgaria) and Luxembourg.
If you are unfamiliar with the Vueling story, check out the Airline Business cover interview with Alex Cruz from May 2010 here.
Columbus Day 2014 will be an exciting day at Southwest Airlines. That Monday, 14 October, the Wright Amendment will be repealed and the carrier will be able to launch flights from its home base at Dallas Love Field airport to anywhere in the USA for the first time since 1974.
Where those flights will go is still up in the air.
"We have a vision of what routes we want to undertake [from Love Field] in 2014, but it doesn't make sense to lock that down," said Gary Kelly, chief executive of Southwest, recently. He said that the airline needs to gain a clearer idea of its fleet size and economic environment before it will make the final decision.
I took a look at US Department of Transportation data for the top markets from Dallas-Fort Worth International during the 12 months ending in June, and it offers some insight into where Southwest may go.
Source: DOT
Flights to Atlanta (number 3), Chicago (2), Denver (4), Las Vegas (10), Los Angeles (1), New York (5, though not including John F. Kennedy or Newark airports) and Phoenix (9) are probably at the top of Southwest's list, considering how much traffic the markets already generate from the Dallas area and the airline's large existing operations in each of the cities except New York. I am not including Oakland or San Francisco because I think the airline may continue to route travellers to the Bay Area on one-stops through places like Las Vegas or Phoenix due to limited room to expand at Love Field.
Baltimore, Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando are also likely high priority markets for new flights from Love Field. Southwest has large operations at each of these airports, which provide significant connecting opportunities elsewhere in its network.
Source: Southwest Airlines
Chicago Midway, Las Vegas, Baltimore, Phoenix, Denver, Houston Hobby, Love Field, Los Angeles, Oakland and Orlando are Southwest's largest markets in terms of the number of flights.
Flights from Love Field are restricted by the Wright Amendment to Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas on any aircraft, or to anywhere in the USA on aircraft with up to 56 seats. Terminal capacity at the airport is capped at 20 gates once the restrictions are lifted.
Newport News-Williamsburg International Airport must really want JetBlue Airways.
A four-tier cake arrived at the low-cost carrier's New York headquarters from the Virginia airport decorated with JetBlue aircraft and New York icons, including the Empire State Building and Statue of Liberty, a few days ago.
JetBlue says that it has no plans to launch service to Newport News. It announced new service between Charleston, South Carolina, and Boston and New York's John F. Kennedy airport earlier this month.
Newport News has been scrambling for new service since Southwest Airlines-subsidiary AirTran Airways, the airport's largest airline, ended service in March after 17 years. AirTran flew to Atlanta, Boston, New York's LaGuardia airport and Orlando at the time.
Following the announcement, Allegiant launched twice-weekly service between Newport News and Orlando Sanford.
Start-up People Express announced plans to launch service from Newport News with flights initially to Orlando and Pittsburgh on Boeing 737-400 classics earlier this year. However, the launch date has already been pushed to at least early 2013 from mid-2012 due to paperwork and certification delays.
Newport News likely wants to hedge its bets with JetBlue as People Express is far from a sure thing. The LCC could gain a foothold in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area, which also includes Norfolk and Virginia Beach, with flights to the airport much like AirTran did when it served the city.
JetBlue's strategy is its own for now but one thing is clear - it will take more than a (awesome) cake to woo the airline.
Okay apologies for the Bay City Rollers reference in the headline, but for an airline that has always had a sense of fun and is itself branded on a Ronettes song pun I think it seems fitting.
Bmibaby operated its last flight yesterday evening, ending just over a decade of flights by the UK low-cost carrier. Its fate had been sealed after Lufthansa could not find buyers for the unit it had inherited from its acquisition of BMI and which IAG had no appetite to take on.
BMI established the airline in March 2002 operating out of its East Midlands airport home, one of a series of budget carriers European network operators launched to counter or exploit the rise of low-cost travel. While outlasting most of these such carriers - names like Go, Buzz, Snowflake and Centralwings all disappeared in the last decade - Bmibaby has now followed a similar fate.
Indeed of the low-cost carriers launched by European network carriers in the last decade, it is only Germanwings and Vueling that remain standing. Germanwings is itself subject to a wider decision by Lufthansa - expected in the spring - on its future branding as it ponders how to restructure its intra-European network and to merge its in-house narrowbody operations with Germanwings. That could leave Vueling as the last of these names standing - though ironically Iberia began with the Clickair name and brand when it launched its low-cost unit and only later changed when the carrier merged with Vueling. I asked Vueling chief executive Alex Cruz earlier this year why he thought his carrier had stayed the course. His answer: independence. "The starting point was we are going to let the people go and do it, and that was a big leap of faith," he says.
While a sad day for Bmibaby and its employees, the airline can take some satisfaction from having played its part in the extraordinary rise of low-cost travel in Europe over the last decade.
Competition continues to step up in the big growth market in Indonesia as AirAsia today announced plans, in co-operation its Indonesian partners, is acquiring local carrier Batavia. It strengthens AirAsia's presence in a market where it is already present through Indonesia AirAsia - in which it holds a 49% stake. Indonesia AirAsia currently operates 20 aircraft carrying 5 million passengers in 2011. Batavia operates 33 aircraft - a mix of Boeing 737s, Airbus A320s and A330s. AirAsia says combined the airlines will fly 14 million passengers.
Indonesia has been the centre of rapid growth in the low-cost segment, driven by fast-growing Lion Air but which also sees Mandala Airlines - which resumed flights in April and is part-owned by Tiger Airways - and Citlink, which this month received its own AOC as the Garuda Indonesia unit takes steps to operate as an independent entity, battling for a piece of the pie.
It is just one of several markets in Asia which has seen a string of dynamic activity in the low-cost segment. For a quick and easy catch-up on recent event, see our recent guide to Asia market developments we did in this year's Airline Business interactive low-cost carrier special.
Some change at the top of the two of the most established low-cost carriers, which will see new chief executives at Malaysia's AirAsia and Brazilian carrier Gol taking on the airlines created by budget operator pioneers Tony Fernandes and Constantino de Oliveira Jr respectively.
At AirAsia, the airline's regional head of corporate finance Aireen Omar becomes chief executive of the Malaysian budget operator - see the story here. The move sees Fernandes relocate to AirAsia's new Asean office in Jakarta to focus on growth opportunities in the region. AirAsia has already developed a number of affiliate operations in Indonesia and Thailand, and will launch AirAsia Japan in association with ANA later this year.
Brazilian carrier Gol meanwhile has appointed Volkswagen Group's president of Audi Brazil, Paulo Kakinoff as its new chief executive - read the story here. De Oliviera, who has been chief executive since the airline's launch at the start of the last decade, will become chairman of the board.
You can read much more about Fernandes and de Oliveira in our recent interactive profile of some of the leading low-cost carrier pioneers, also including a look at Herb Kelleher, Michael O'Leary, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, David Neeleman and Adel Ali - check it out here.
Its been another year of growth and expansion for low-cost carriers. 2011 saw double-digit revenue growth almost across the board. Southwest Airlines completed its acquisition of AirTran to underline its position as the biggest budget carrier by a distance, while organic growth remains strong among other low-cost carriers. And while high fuel prices took the edge of low-cost carrier profits, the sector largely remained profitable for the year.
All this and more is discussed and illustrated in the second Airline Business low-cost carrier interactive special, which is now published and can be downloaded for free here.
You can find out who were the ten biggest low-cost carriers by revenues in 2011, read our profiles of the airlines and analysis of some recent developments and challenges they face. Check it out here.
Our interactive edition is packed full of content, but let me draw your attention to our special interactive map charting a decade of dynamic growth across Europe's budget sector. We've charted the rise of low-cost carriers across the continent by tracking of budget airline bases in Europe since 2001 - when Ryanair signalled it intentions to be a pan-European operator with the launch of its Brussels Charleroi base.
Along the way it tells the story of dynamic growth, with a few false starts on the journey, and of how the sector came to redraw the map of short-haul air travel in Europe. Click here for more.
I've witnessed an interesting juxtaposition today between the UK's two leading airlines. One is working hard to shake off its old image as it moves up market while the other is proudly showing off its heritage with a revival of brandings from bygone eras.
This morning I was at the World Low Cost Airlines Congress where EasyJet CEO Carolyn McCall underlined EasyJet's ambition to be "Europe's preferred short-haul airline" (above). She talked about her push to grow revenue from business passengers and unveiled a new service guarantee which will provide free flights to compensate premimum passengers for delays (below). There was even the admission that an orange FFP could materialise "if it could be done in an EasyJet way".
For that read "cost-effective" or "thrifty" - but there's no denying the airline is shifting towards the middle ground as it matures through its teenage years. That said, Carolyn is adamant she's not abandoning the airline's low-cost roots where anything that adds to operational complexity is taboo.
Then this afternoon I was in the glamorous surroundings of BAFTA at its headquarters on Piccadilly. Here, British Airways CEO Keith Williams unveiled the launch of the airline's biggest marketing campaign for a decade, which it says "backs the £5 billion being spent on customer products and services over the next five years".
While not a rebranding per se, the high profile marketing campaign centres upon a re-enforcement of BA's heritage as a full-service, global and pioneering flag carrier, so it's no surprise that there is a return of the old coat of arms. This dates back to the early days of BA but was brought to the fore in the halcyon days of Lord King in the so-called "Landor scheme" era that began in the mid-1980s. And with the crest comes a revival of the slogan: "To Fly. To Serve."
The centrepiece of the campaign is a retro-style television advert, "Aviators", which incorporates elements from nine decades of history of the airline and its predecessors. The 90 second production includes iconic aircraft such as the Douglas DC-3, de Havilland Dragon Rapide (below), Vickers VC10 (bottom) and of course Concorde, as well as a DH51 pretending to be an AT&T DH9A from 1919. Heritage brands the like of BEA and BOAC are much in evidence, as is BA's now very fashionable original red-tail "Negus & Negus" scheme of the 1970s.
The new TV ad is a wonderful piece of cinematography - albeit with the odd historical anachronism (see if you can spot any!). BA tells me it was filmed at Heathrow, Duxford, Brooklands and the Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden. Some of it was created using real metal and some by CGI.
The TV ad will run alongside a print campaign, and will debut at 11:00 on 21 September on Facebook and then on Channel 4 later that day. The coat of arms logo will be applied to the fuselages of all BA's aircraft but sadly the airline says that there are currently no plans for a repeat of retro style paint jobs like the one used last year to mark the end of Boeing 757 operations.
So while BA's mood goes all reflective, EasyJet is looking to its next evolution. Well let's face it, there's little chance at this juncture of the orange brigade reviving images of their original icon - Mr Haji-Ioannou - for a bit of nostalgic advertising!
Click here to watch the new Aviators ad in full.
If Singapore Airlines isn't naming some new airline company 'Scoot' then a lot of effort is going into throwing nosey hacks off the scent.
Not only is there apparently a Scoot-related website domain registration linked to SIA, but a trawl through the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore's trademark database turns up the following entry, listed on 20 June, under 'transport':
The application has been put forward on behalf of a company named 'New Aviation' but which gives an address which matches the location of Singapore Airlines' headquarters at Changi International Airport.
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