Mark Pilling: June 2008 Archives

Honestly? I didn't.

So, the news that British Airways is selling its 10.5% share in Air Mauritius was a surprise, mainly because I'd forgotten they even had it.

It's no surprise BA is selling it. Not because of the cash riches it will release - it's only worth £3.2 million - but because it is meaningless and frankly not worth the management hassle. I'd like to know why BA took the stake in the first place (it dates back to 1973). Something about helping a start-up get going I've read.

VJ Mallya has been captured by the BBC talking about his plans for launching Kingfisher Airlines onto the international stage.

He says that the first services kick off at the end of August/early September with a service either from Bombay or Bangalore to London.

The FT reports that Kingfisher is in talks with KLM to grab a pair of its spare slots at London Heathrow to add to the pair it has obtained (for free) from the limited slot pool at the airport. As a start-up it has the ability to gain slots from this pool.

The interview ranges over which drinks brand his UB Group could buy next and the performance of his Indian Premium League Cricket Club.

Airline Business Asia-Pacific editor Nicholas Ionides did this cover interview with the great man in 2006.

Unfortunately for anyone thinking Boeing has been able to accelerate on the quiet the long-delayed delivery schedule of its 787 Dreamliner, the headline on this blog is deliberately misleading.

The aircraft in question is about 1/50^th the size of the real thing because it's a model. It was on display on the second deck of the HQS Wellington vessel (seen below at her mooring on the River Thames in London) at the Commercial Aviation Inside Air Finance event held on 18^th June in London. For more on the Wellington's Second World War history, which included North Atlantic convoy duty look here.

Managing director of Monarch Airlines, Tim Jeans (seen below), the keynote speaker at the event, spotted the model: "I hope I'm going to win the model of 787 as it's the closest we're going to get to a 787 for the next five years."

Now might be one of the worse times ever to launch a new airline, but Korean Air's plans to bring Jini out of the bottle in mid-July are ploughing on. Here's what Korean Air said about its new baby.

The airline unveiled its livery the other day at a party in downtown Seoul. After initially being touted as a low-cost domestic player, Jini is now billed as a "premium short-haul carrier". Which puzzles and worries me somewhat. Surely, this thinking goes contrary to every new domestic launch in the past decade.

At any rate we'll look forward to more news from Jini on its pricing soon.

Flight Group's very own Victoria Moores handed over a framed copy of the May issue of Airline Business to the cover "star" easyJet chief executive Andrew Harrison yesterday.

Victoria, who was at easyJet's London Luton Airport headquarters yesterday (11 June) at an event co-hosted by the carrier and engine manufacturer CFM International, is a senior reporter for Air Transport Intelligence, Flight International and Flightglobal.com, and also a regular contributor to Airline Business.

Watch the video interview I did with Andy shot during the interview for the cover story here.

Read the full interview from the May issue of Airline Business here.

Anyone out there lost a Boeing 727?

Perhaps you've misplaced it at Vietnam's Hanoi International Airport? Which looks a rather smart facility as this website and accompanying shots illustrate.

Anyhow, I couldn't resist linking to this story from the BBC website which tells of a 727 that flew into Hanoi in late 2007. It arrived from Siem Reap in neighbouring Cambodia, the crew departed and no-one has come back since.

Anyone got any clues on this one?

In one of the most aggressive statements I've seen so far on the potential use of biofuels by carriers, Air New Zealand is aiming for 10% of its "total annual needs coming from environmentally sustainable fuels by 2013".

It is predicting it will use one million barrels of such fuel annually by 2013.

Air New Zealand is one of the latest carriers to announce flight tests of jet fuel-biofuel mixtures. A Rolls-Royce powered Boeing 747-400 test flight is expected to take place in Auckland in the last quarter of this year subject to final regulatory approvals and fuel testing by the engine manufacturer.

It says it will be the world's first flight test on a large passenger aircraft using fuel sourced from the plant jatropha.

Airlines tend not to make much PR fuss about asking the airframers for their best offers when preparing an order.

So I note this press release from Nigeria's Bellview Airlines with interest.

It already operates a few Boeing 737s and 767s and wants more - a lot more: narrowbodies, widebodies and 70-seat regional jets.

As the release, which I print in full below, states, the ultimate order could be for up to 58 aircraft.

The Airline Business and Flightglobal team has assembled some remarkable video interviews from this week's International Air Transport Association Annual General Meeting.

You can listen to immediate reaction from the world's largest gathering of airline bosses, with ex-airline CEO himself Peter Davies getting some fantastic interviews with among others:

* Willie Walsh, BA

* Fernando Conte, Iberia,

* Naresh Goyal, Jet Airways

* Mark Dunkerley, Hawaiian Airlines.