Brazilian low-fare upstart Gol is making it very clear that its deal to buy "New Varig" is in no way exposing it to any of the nastiness connected (big losses mainly) with "Old Varig".
"It is extremely important to note that VRG is in no way associated with the old Varig," says a breathless press release. This week Gol announced it had agreed with the owners of VRG Linhas Aereas to buy New Varig for $320 million.
Stephen Nelson's new broom at the top of BAA is busily sweeping away years of what felt like institutional disregard for its airline customers. Listen, this is a different BAA. He actually rings up airline chief executives on a friday afternoon to discuss issues, problems and opportunities.
"We have top-to-top meetings with a number of our major customers, which are progressing," says Nelson, who was promoted to the hot seat at BAA in mid-July last year. This includes chats with British Airways boss Willie Walsh. These can be firey. "We've said that we agree on things 80% of the time and violently disagree 20% of the time. We know that and now we can get down to doing business," says Nelson.
Several days exposed to the US investor community has not phased AirAsia founder Tony Fernandes one bit. In fact, when Airline Business caught up with the Malaysian low-cost carrier pioneer last week, he enjoyed the experience.
"It's refreshing," he says, sporting his trademark red AirAsia cap ("it's free advertising"). "American investors really do understand the low-cost model. Asian analysts are still grappling with it."
There are only two facts you need to confirm about today's Open Skies agreement between the EU and US.
One: The UK has managed to delay implementation from October 2007 to March 2008. It bowed to pressure from British Airways to the delay so BA could be in the new London Heathrow Terminal 5.
Two: If the second stage of the deal is not signed by the end of 2010, EU states will have to right to reimpose market access restrictions. This was another UK demand. In effect, this means that if the US does not allow the lifting of ownership and control limits on its carriers by then access to Heathrow could be restricted once again.
All the rest of the package has been well flagged.
For reactions to the deal, and announcements on what several carriers intend to do, a simple Google search will give you a blizzard of results.
For the full text of the of the announcement from the UK's Department of Transport and the EC see below.
The full-page advert has a wispy cloud in the shape of a huge two-fingered V-sign - a British handsign that means either victory of something rather ruder. A pair of jetliners zoom into the sky from the tips of each digit. The colour ad in Monday's Guardian newspaper (one of the UK's serious dailies) apes those of British Airways promoting its New York services.
So what's happening here? What's happening is that environmental lobbyists and activists Greenpeace are having a pop at BA's new service being launched from London to the southern English seaside resort of Newquay. Their message: Take the train instead, it's greener than flying.
Skip Barnette, the chief executive of Caribbean Star, has responded in detail to comments made by Peter Davies, the chief executive of Caribbean Airlines, at last week's Network route planning conference about the need for a single Caribbean carrier to represent the region.
The comments from Davies are to be found on the Airline Business blog, while Skip's are printed in full below.
Other news about Caribbean Star sees the carrier finalising its merger with Antigua-based Liat, whose own chief executive Mark Darby has been talking about life as a Caribbean airline CEO in the pages of Airline Business.
Now not all of the 39,000 plus hits on Google when you type Randy Baseler into its search box are of the Boeing variety, but I'm guessing most of them are. For Mr Baseler has been a Boeing quote fixture for years. We reporters always turn to Randy for comments on almost anything regarding Boeing aircraft programmes, and of course good old-fashioned rival bashing. Nothing nasty mind you, Randy is far too much of a gent for a fist-fight, but he'll make his point, backed up with some tasty stats.
The news here is that Randy is retiring as Boeing's marketing guru. His weblog spells out his reasons. It's been a good read over the past year or two. Check it out, not least for his intriguing links, in which Elton John features heavily. As does a sombre bloke carrying a pitchfork.
Randy will be hard to replace. He's been an ever-present through Boeing's thick and thin. Most recently through its hard period, where Boeing had almost as many models as Airbus does now, some just as irrelevant. It also had plenty of false starts with potential models, something it is better at than Airbus.
But Randy now has a cool marketing story to tell, and goes out telling it at the top. Boeing's product range has a coherent feel, spanning sizes and ranges in sensible steps. It also has the 787 - everyone raves about this aircraft.
So, sad to hear you're leaving Randy. It has been a pleasure working with you. Good luck....
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