Recently in Personalities Category

IATA held its annual global media day yesterday in Geneva, its first under the leadership of former Cathay Pacific boss Tony Tyler. There has been a shfit in tone at IATA since long-time director general Giovanni Bisignani stepped down in the summer. Bisginani did much to transfrom IATA and in the process became known for "shouting politely" at governments, regulators and suppliers as he pressed airlines' case. But Tyler, evident in recent addresses to airports and regional airline bodies, is keen to stress the importance of co-operation.

"In the spirit of looking at the industry from a holistic perspective, you might have noticed that I have been emphasising the need for co-operation among industry players," he said in his opening address at the global media day. "I plan to keep up our good co-operation with the regional airline associations and to enhance our co-operation with those representing our partners in the value chain.

"This is not a new concept. Co-operation is behind the industry's superb record on safety and it is guiding our approach to climate change as well. I will certainly be a forceful advocate for airlines when that is needed - with our partners in the value chain and with governments."

You can read much more about the changing tone at IATA with this interview Airline Business did with the IATA director general during ALTA Airline Leaders forum last month. Read it here.

But for something less scientific, but a bit more colouful, judge the change in tone for yourself with these two word-clouds - one representing Tyler's speech to journalists yesterday and the other from Giovanni Bisignani to the same audience a year ago. Aptly enough, while co-operation may not be the biggest of the words, it is pretty much centre stage in Tyler's word-cloud - but absent (as far as I can tell) from the word-cloud of Bisignani's speech a year ago.

Tony Tyler speech: 7 December 2011

Giovanni Bisignani speech: 14 December 2010

Talking to more airline chief executives at the Airline Business World Air Forum it emerged that Nico Bezuidenhout of Mango and Peter Davies of Air Malta are also keen followers of the oval ball game. During his playing days as a number 8 for Twickenham rugby club, Davies even lined up against the All-Blacks!

In another rugby-aviation connection, Etihad has received a marketing boost by the start to the season made by its sponsored-team Harlequins, who have won all ten of their competitive games so far and are runaway leaders of the English rugby Premiership.

In return three of this year's mightiest Quins, captain Chris Robshaw, Nick Evans and Mark Lambert have been pulling their considerable weight in helping promote Etihad at the World Travel Market in London.

Interesting deployment of dual brand management now low-cost carrier guru Tony Fernandes has a foot in both airline camps following the ground-breaking tie-up between AirAsia and network carrier Malaysian Airlines.

The AirAsia name has made regular sponsorship appearances within sport in the past, including the shirt sleeves of the ever-popular English Premiership referees. And with Fernandes newly-acquired Queens Park Rangers being shirt sponsor-less after its deal with Gulf Air ended this summer, there was an obvious opportunity. But what name to put on the shirt? AirAsia or Malaysia Airlines...

...the answer of course is both. Malaysia Airlines for the home kit, AirAsia for the away kits. You can see the look in the picture below (QPR manager Neil Warnock, centre left, ponders which of the new signings to play in midfield with Joey Barton on Saturday)

I can't think of another example of different home/away sponsorship - but could this set a new trend? Could we see Arsenal playing away from the Emirates with FlyDubai adorned across their shirts?

And why stop there. With airlines operating premium and low-cost airlines, and football clubs spending varying transfer fees on different players, why not tailor the airline sponsor's name for each player to their individual transfer fee? Though I guess you would know if you come in one day and find you suddenly have Ryanair on your shirt that your dream multi-million pound move to Barcelona isn't happening. 

Fresh from his company's high profile link-up with Malaysia Airlines, AirAsia founder, Lotus F1 team principle and all-round entreprenur Tony Fernandes has joined the English football premiership jet-set by today formally completing a deal to buy west London football club Queens Park Rangers. Fernandes has taken a 66% stake in the club, which returned to the top tier of English football (at least for now) after a 15-year absence last week - with a less than encouraging 4-0 home defeat to Bolton.

Undeterred (and maybe having knocked a pound or two off the purchase price after that result), Fernandes completed the deal for the majority stake in the club today. Here he is enjoying manager Neil Warnock's autobiography and with his new QPR shirt hanging in the background - we'll ignore the fact that number one should really have been the goalkeeper's shirt.

Keen followers of Fernandes might be surprised to see him turn up at Loftus Road rather than his beloved West Ham - who he was previously linked to buying. "Everyone knows I've followed West Ham all my life," he says, "but I've always had a soft spot for QPR."

The deal keeps up the airline connection at QPR - Gulf Air having only just ended its three-year shirt sponsorship of the club - indeed QPR kicked off the new season without a shirt sponsor.

It joins a string of airline connections with English football clubs - ranging from Etihad at free-spending Manchester City, the Emirates name for Arsenal's home ground to EasyJet's sponsorship of English conference league team Luton Town.

It remains to be seen whether Fernandes has as much success guiding QPR - whom he describes as a raw diamond -  to success as he has AirAsia. 

Even for a man who has made a habit of being an industry trend-setter, today's coming together between Tony Fernandes' AirAsia and Malaysia Airlines marks something of another first for this industry. The proposed co-operation between AirAsia, its long-haul unit AirAsia X and Malaysia Airlines, including minority cross-shareholdings, could bring network carrier and low-cost rivals together in a way seldom seen in this industry before.

Exactly how the partnership unfolds between Malaysia's biggest airlines remains to be seen. It will initially focus on initial synergies between the two with limited impact on each party's operations, but envisages deeper co-operation once an anti-trust review is completed by the companies. Certainly the aim appears to be to enable Malaysia Airlines to focus on its network business, and the AirAsia units to grow in the low-cost sector - a move evident in the intention to reposition MAS' low-cost unit Firefly as a full-service regional operation.

Co-operation between network and low-cost carriers within Asia has become increasingly prominent - note for example ANA's move to work with AirAsia on its Japanese low-cost operation and Thai Airways turning to Tiger Airways to develop a low-fares presence. 

Similarly a dual approach operating model is not new. Indeed the positioning of Malaysia Airlines and AirAsia as partners in some ways mirrors the combination at Qantas with its Jetstar short and long-haul operations (a further twist is provided here as Malaysia Airlines is a new partner of Qantas having recently opted to join it in Oneworld, while AirAsia struck a loose partnership with JetStar last year).

But there are few examples poacher and game-keeper coming together. In Belgium, Brussels Airlines was born out of a merger between SN Brussels and low-fares carrier Virgin Express - though the latter had already moved towards the business middle ground by then - while Brazilian low-cost giant GOL's acquisition of national icon Varig out of administration was pretty much in name only.

One interesting comparison is with Ireland. Malaysia Airline has, like Aer Lingus, had to grow up with one of the region's dominant low-cost operators on its doorstep. Both have had to do so with larger than life leaders, Fernandes at AirAsia and Micheal O'Leary at Ryanair, driving their rivals forward. And, once the planned share swap is completed, Malaysia Airlines will like Aer Lingus find itself minority-owned by its low-cost rival.

The similarities though end there. Aer Lingus, the Irish government, Irish unions and European regulators continue to resist a future life as part of Ryanair. But with Tony Fernandes joining the Malaysia Airlines board as non-executive, non-independent director, and part of the team overseeing management of the company, the low-cost innovator is set to be embraced by the establishment.

For more on AirAsia and Tony Fernandes, read the Airline Business cover interview with him from May 2009 here.

Emirates Airline president Tim Clark was presented with the 2011 Airline Business Achievement Award at the magazine's annual Airline Strategy Awards on Sunday night.

From left to right: Max Kingsley-Jones (Aug 2010-present); Tim Clark; Mark Pilling (July 2005-Aug 2010; Kevin O'Toole (1998-July 2005).

Airline Business editor Max Kingsley-Jones outlined the reasons why the three editors of the magazine over the past decade had chosen Tim as the most influential airline head over that decade.

His citation is in full here.

The full list of the Airline Strategy Award winners and photos from the night is found here. 

Aer Lingus has just celebrated its 75th anniversary, and after the difficult last couple of years, is in relatively good spirits as chief executive Christoph Mueller has helped guide the airline off the critical list and into profit.

Plenty of challenges though remain - keeping labour on side during the existing restructuring efforts; dealing with the high fuel cost and Ireland's continued weak economy which mean further cost savings may yet be necessary; how to grow the airline outside of its relatively small home market and how to position the airline for relevence in the fiercely competiive market. And all this is set against a complex ownership background which sees low-cost rival Ryanair - which has two hostile takeover attempts under its belt - as its largest shareholder with a 29% stakeholder and its second largest shareholder, the Irish Government, as possibly ready to divest its 25% stake given its added stimulas of needing to raise case.

All of which made it a fascinating time to interview Mueller for the cover interview of our July issue of Airline Business. His approach has been a mix of stemming its losses and repositioning the carrier - after its move into the low-cost carrier terriotory - back up towards a hybrid model to provide an Irish alternative to Ryanair, helping to keep revenues stable despite cutting capacity.

"We are looking for ways where we can tackle our scale problem without giving up the independence of Aer Lingus," Mueller told me in Dublin, just days before the carrier marked its 75th anniversary celebrations in Dublin last month. "Independence for us is not just independence to wave our own flag. I believe it is very important to our survival. But we need parterns to fulfil our mission to connect Ireland with the world. We are too small to do it on ourselves."

The move back towards network carrier ground also sees the airline looking again at alliance membership - Aer Lingus was a one-time member of oneworld before quitting the alliance in 2007 as part of its low-fares, point-to-point repositioning. All three alliances - given its existing partnership with various oneworld, SkyTeam and Star Alliance members - are possibles, as is remaining independent - a decision seems likely by the year end.

"We are too small to become religious on alliances," he says. "We really have to extract money from an alliance. We are currently evaluating whether the benefit of joining one of the alliances is larger than the costs associated with joining one of the alliances."

You can read much more about Mueller's strategy for Aer Lingus by reading the full article here.

Mueller is also one of the confirmed speaker's at this year's Airline Business-organised World Air Forum conference in Amsterdam this October.

All pictures Billypix

Warning: This is long. Only read if you want to hear my observations about a truly remarkable 2011 IATA AGM.

If that's not your bag, return to Flightglobal for news etc

 

Wow, that was some IATA annual general meeting. In fact it was like no other AGM I've been too.

The Airline Business Daily headline on Tuesday morning, reporting on a furious series of interventions from the floor of this normally placid affair, said simply: "Arab carriers speak out." We could have had: "Time for change", "Arab ambush" or "Arab spring."

All were suggested, some even went on page, only to be discarded for reasons you'll need to talk to myself or Airline Business editor Max Kingsley-Jones about if you know us well enough.

Read the digital edition of the paper, and those from Days 1 & 2 here.

For Airline Business, naturally, the IATA AGM is an important affair as CEOs who represent 93% of world traffic go there. We like it so much, back at 2007's AGM in Vancouver we decided to publish a daily paper at the show. Airline Business, part of the Flightglobal publishing empire (OK perhaps empire is a bit strong), can do dailies because many of us have experience doing the Flight Daily News series some of you will know from big air shows like Paris or Farnborough.

On Monday morning at our hasty news meeting - most had to rush into the Oneworld press conference at 0745 - we highlighted possible lead stories and talking points that would go into the Tuesday morning paper.

Bisignani with his wife Elena shortly after the AGM finishes.

We knew of course that the set-piece state of the nation speech from outgoing IATA director general Giovanni Bisignani's would provide some big headlines and quotes. His "basta" blasts at monopoly suppliers and governments have become legendary and given us plenty of headline fodder over the years.

You can watch the whole thing via IATA's website.

We also had word that there might be something else afoot: Something out of the ordinary: a surprise from the floor perhaps?

We were on high alert. So was the IATA hierarchy, for behind the scenes a revolution was rumbling and they were prepared for trouble.

As you can imagine there are many twists and turns, some dating back years, as to why this "Arab spring" came to a head in Singapore and I'd need another series of interviews and 100s more words to explain it all in detail, but simply put Middle East carriers felt under-represented at IATA, they felt IATA was too "big network carrier" - centric, and perhaps the autocratic style of its leader Bisignani was putting their backs up as well.

So what would they do about it? Prior to the meeting they were ready to agitate, but had decided, for the sake of a united industry front at Bisignani's swansong AGM, to keep quiet. It is not the done thing to air grievances in public - and this is a very public forum.

That ended on Sunday afternoon when decisions taken in the IATA committee (which met on the Sunday) that nominates who sits on the 30-strong IATA board of governors - the most powerful IATA leaders - caused a firestorm among Middle East carrier chiefs.

A series of hasty phone calls later and a big brick was about to be flung into the normally placid waters of the IATA AGM.

Now, as a point of order, I need to try and briefly explain how the AGM works for those who weren't there or don't understand the procedure: this is effectively a public annual general meeting at which recommendations (resolutions) from the company board are tabled, discussed and decided.

Now I don't know the exact procedures - refer to IATA's website for that arcane detail - but in my understanding each IATA airline member can have their say and vote upon resolutions.
The airline delegates sit in United Nations style rows behind desks in specific places each with their own microphone. They can have their say at any point in the proceedings.

Most say nothing. They are usually more interested in the discussions and networking that take place in and around the AGM.

Yes the director general's speech is a must-see and the CEO debate in the afternoon can throw up some good verbal punch-ups, but the AGM bit is a gavel-bashing, orchestrated swift round-up of business.

Under Bisignani the gavel-bashing part has been compressed, and rightly so. It had been a tedious, largely irrelevant, run through IATA procedures.

The only upset I can recall to this smooth running was in Washington DC in 2003 when Jaime Bautista, the cheery head of Philippine Airlines piped up. I can't remember what he was complaining about, but it certainly stirred things up. He's been quiet ever since though.

But the events of Monday 6 June, explained in the Airline Business story in our Tuesday paper at the show, caused more ructions at IATA.

See also this Qatar Airways press release that it issued on Tuesday 7 June - plenty of borrowing from our story. It also uses our photo of Al Baker waving his notes at the time!

I was actually sitting in the press room preparing pages when I heard on the TV feed the voice of Qatar Airways head Akbar Al Baker. His tone said it all - as I am sure all of you at the AGM knew right away.

He had some comments and misgivings about IATA's financial statements and about its auditors. Now this doesn't happen. Let's be honest, how many CEOs even read the papers they get outlining IATA's finances? I'd wager hardly any.

Al Baker was the spearhead for Middle East complaints. He was backed up from the floor by Middle East Airlines chairman Mohamad El-Hout.

From left field the Middle East carriers received support from Air Niugini head Wasantha Kumarasiri. My information is that Kumarasiri's input was not part of any scheme, he simply spoke out at what he heard (Wasantha, if you do happen to read this drop me a line at mark.pilling@flightglobal.com and tell me your part of the story).

Again, read the Airline Business story for the details.

Now this was awkward for the man running the show (traditionally the AGM host carrier does this job) the shiny new CEO of Singapore Airlines Goh Choon Phong. Poor sod. He's been in the hot seat at SIA less than a year and now, because the Egyptian revolution meant moving the AGM from Cairo to Singapore with just three months notice, he has to host the world's biggest airline meeting (as an aside, Mr Goh was praised by IAG chief executive Willie Walsh for his adroit handling of the situation - well said Willie).

The discomfort on the podium was clear as Tom Windmuller, the AGM secretary, and Mr Goh handled the growing unrest.

Sharply made points from Al Baker, accompanied now with points made by the ever-eloquent boss of Emirates Tim Clark, rained in.

A vote was going to be taken, initially suggested as a show of hands by Windmuller. No thanks, said Clark, and it became a secret ballot. That would happen in the afternoon.

Throughout these proceedings, most sat there bemused, what was going on? Clearly the Middle East carriers are unhappy at IATA, but why?

It took at least an hour for all this excitement to unfold. Please correct me if I am wrong, but to my mind the only voice I recall offering a pause for thought on the Middle East intervention was Air New Zealand head Rob Fyfe, himself on the IATA board of governors.

In the afternoon the ballot result was announced, and it was close, only being narrowly defeated. The tight result in itself is a major story, showing clearly the unease that many CEOs have in IATA's governance.

As Toronto Star scribe Bert Archer tweeted: #IATAAGM Ballot results: 43 in favour of proposal, 48 against, 5 absentions, 22 blanks, 1 ineligible. Very divided #IATA, it seems.

Overnight the IATA team pondered next moves: would any objections be raised about the appointment of director general designate Tony Tyler. The former head of Cathay Pacific was IATA's nomination and a man seen by all as a brilliant choice.

But there was to be no further AGM disruptions. International Airlines Group chief executive Willie Walsh told the AGM that "Tony's track record in the industry is second to none" and that IATA was "fortunate" to have a man of his standing lined up to take it forward.

However, he did allude to Monday's events. "It has been a difficult AGM, but in my mind one of the most positive AGMs in recent times," he said. Tyler won the AGM's support, and took to the podium as Bisignani's successor. Many stood and applauded.

Here Tony Tyler swaps cards with a gaggle of journos after the Tuesday press conference.

Tyler made reference to Monday's events as well: "Yesterday was an interesting day wasn't it." But, like Walsh, he was encouraged. "It shows how relevant and important IATA is to you...that's a good thing.

"My priority now is to ask questions and then to listen and to learn," he said.

So what have we learnt from this most remarkable of IATA AGMs?

Firstly, Tony Tyler has been handed a bit of a hot potato to deal with. He officially begins work on 1 July and one of his first tasks will be to mollify the Middle East carriers and get them back on board.

The Middle East carriers respect and admire Tyler so he has a good chance of achieving that.

Secondly, there will be some soul-searching at IATA about whether it is properly transparent and has balanced its representation of big and small alike. "I heard your message about greater member involvement and transparency," said Tyler on Tuesday. He must wonder just what he's sailed into.

Thirdly, there is no doubt this was not the leaving ceremony Giovanni Bisignani envisaged. For me, and I expressed my views about Bisignani's leadership of IATA in the June issue of Airline Business, these events did overshadow his departure.

But the Middle East rumblings and arrival of Tyler should not detract from Bisignani's undoubted achievements with IATA over the past decade.

For me as a journalist Bisignani has been brilliant. And on a personal level I have really enjoyed dealing with him and I've got immense respect for him. Of course he's not perfect and clearly he's made enemies as well as friends.

But I do regret that his goodbye this week did not include a standing ovation, which I think is rather churlish of the IATA members.

Overall quite simply it has been an amazing few days that have been a privilege to cover.

Our Airline Business team have been out in Singapore for the IATA annual general meeting and we were looking for a cool picture for a front cover image to mark director general Giovanni Bisignani tenth and last annual generat meeting - and here's what we came up with.

Its a great picture (courtesy of our snapper Billypix) though the shirt looks a bit large to me!!!

Check out our interview with Bisignani from the first Airline Business IATA daily paper here and look out for much more from Giovanni as he addresses the AGM tomorrow.