Mark Pilling: February 2008 Archives

Ryanair's planned three-day shutdown of its entire reservations system over this weekend turned into just two days, the carrier says.

As we commented in our March issue, it had incredibly taken the decision to close itself for bookings while it transferred from its Navitaire Open Skies res system to the all-singing all-dancing New Skies one.

Most remarkable of all is Ryanair's plea for customers: "We expect to be dealing with some small bedding down issues over the next few days and we would ask passengers to please bear with us as we iron them out."

Hang on, you want customers to cut you some slack. That's rich coming from the airline that is as black and white about customer service as it gets.

At it's Annual General Meeting last year, IATA head Giovanni Bisignani stunned his audience of airline bosses by declaring that in his view the industry should aim for a "zero" emissions future within 50 years.

Uh? How can an industry which relies on fossil fuels for its basic propulsion achieve this? Surely not even Giovanni's fierce will power could pull this one off?

But in addition to some fine words, IATA is trying to back its grand vision, which we applauded back then, with action. It has signed a partnership deal with the Solar Impulse project to help this aircraft on its planned journey around the world.

As my colleagues at Flight reported last year, the Solar Impulse is an aircraft that will fly around the world with no fuel and zero emissions.

AirAsia founder and CEO Tony Fernandes is an upbeat man, so when he says the number of new airline entrants will grind to a halt this year you should pay attention.

That's what he told the FT this weekend, in as pessimistic assessment of the prospects for the Asian market as he's probably ever given.

As he readily concedes, he started AirAsia at the right time and in the right place. That's an important ingredient in business as in any walk of life.

Today's market conditions look like they would definitely make him think twice about doing it all again.

For other recent blogs about AirAsia and Tony check out:

* Tony with the Red Arrows
* Tony seals Vietnamese deal
* Tony gets together with Richard Branson

I'm a sucker for nice snaps and this is one of them. And after my colleague Brendan Sobie interviewed Royal Jordanian CEO Samer Majali for our February cover issue frankly I just noticed the story.

And, as an airline writer who rarely ventures outside commercial air transport stories it's not surprising I never knew Jordan had its own air display unit - the Royal Jordanian Falcons, which in fact have been flying for over 30 years.

A regular date for the Falcons is a Friday outing to please the crowds aboard this cruise ship, the Thomson Celebration, as its crosses the Red Sea.

As one of the shrewest airline bosses around, it comes as no surprise to see ACE Aviation Holdings chairman Robert Milton taking advantage of merger and consolidation mania across the border by talking up the prospects of a sale of ACE's greatest asset - Air Canada.

Globe and Mail reporter Brett Jang was spot on describing Robert's words to a conference call as "putting a for sale sign on Air Canada".

"In my view, as I watch the U.S. airlines scurrying around to merge, anybody that actually ties up with Air Canada gets a unique piece of geography relative to the way the US guys would split it up," Milton said, according to the Globe report.

Gone, it seems, are the days when the French government only supported its own.

None other than French Minister for tourism and consumption, Luc Chatel, was on hand at easyJet's bash in downtown Paris to launch its new base at Charles de Gaulle Airport.

Here is M. Chatel (right) cutting a ribbon with M. Harrison, the easyJet CEO.

What have heavy rock group Iron Maiden and UK charter carrier Astraeus got in common?

Aerosexuals among you will know the answer straight away - Maiden lead singer Bruce Dickinson is a pilot for the airline, flying its Boeing 757s.

Only natural therefore that Bruce should pilot one of the airline's 757s on Maiden's world tour which started rocking in Mumbai, India on 1 Feb. And by all accounts the "veteran" rockers worked up a storm.

Now for the aviation link - independent UK-based airline Astraeus has created the world's only Boeing 757 Combi to cart the band and all their kit on their global trip.

The Germans - I gather - are keen on naturist (aka nude) holidays. Don't ask me why, ask a German?

Anyhow, from today a German travel agency is taking bookings for a nude holiday flight from Erfurt to the Baltic Sea.