Runway Girl

A friend of mine who flies as a commercial pilot has some interesting insight into the scope issue facing BA's OpenSkies. I've covered the issue of US pilot scope clauses on this side of the pond many times (this 2006 piece has nearly everything but the kitchen sink), but the issue is now hot-button with my British counterparts. Is my pilot friend dead on or dead wrong? You decide.

"I told you that British Airways wasn't going to stop with ONE airplane in their OpenSkies endeavour. So it come as no surprise to me at all, that BA is acquiring French carrier L'Avion and suddenly tripling the size of their 757 fleet.

"True, still only 3 airplanes, but offering 3 round-trips per day between New York and Paris amounts to about 1440 block hours per month. In pilot terms that comes to 3 days on, 3 days off, and 5 round trips ORY-JFK-ORY per month...80 hours block time...20 bidlines...5 reserve Captains, 5 reserve First Officers...50 pilot jobs that have already been outsourced from BA to OpenSkies.

"Now let's say you're a senior First Officer at BA. You'd be looking for a Captain upgrade bid. Here's 25 Captain jobs that have gone to the outsource garbage-dump...a third of them are an actual reduction in Captain bids at BA because one airplane went away.  So now instead of looking at Captain upgrade, you're actually further away from the left seat....and at the bottom of the list, instead of hiring 50 new-hires, we'd be talking possible layoffs.

"I hope this illustrates in real terms why scope is important to pilots."

(Pic from British Airways)

Aircell has replied to my request for comment about last week's trial of its Gogo connectivity service onboard a couple of American Airlines 767-200 flights.

"In terms of the public test last week, we were very pleased with the response from passengers and the usability insights we gained from the first 'real world' test of Gogo.  I hope to have more to say about it in the coming weeks," says a company spokesman.

Aircell  also addressed the departure of long-time VP of sales and marketing Bill Peltola. "We won't be releasing a statement since we don't comment on the specifics of any personnel or organization changes.  Aircell is, of course, grateful for Bill's many years of service and wishes him all the best in his future endeavors."

I'm thankful for Aircell's response. But, okay, we're not much more clued in than before, are we?

On a separate note, for the Boingo lovers among us, the firm is conducting an Independence Day promotion whereby users can enjoy free WiFi, including at the more than 500 airports where service is available.

Go to www.boingo.com/freedom and get online this weekend to blog, chat, upload pics, and more.

Bombardier's CSeries family, the new specifications of which were revealed here, is poised to become a serious threat to the Boeing 737-700. So says analyst Jacques Kavafian, who, after recently attending a China tour organized by Bombardier, rather famously predicted that China Southern Airlines will help launch the programme with a 50-strong order at the Farnborough air show.

Kavafian has backed away from that launch prediction somewhat. He now says: "The timing for the CSeries could not get any better and we believe that the aircraft will be launched this year; it may or may not be at Farnborough this July."

Howevver, in his latest research note, Kavafian says soaring fuel prices "make the CSeries very compelling to the extent that we believe it now seriously threatens the Boeing 737-700 as a viable product". The potential market, he estimates, may exceed the 6,000 that Bombardier has estimated over the next 20 years.

Kavafian argues that the CSeries will have a minimum $3.1 million per year operating cost advantage over the newest product such as the Boeing 737-700 and over $6 million cost advantage over older aircraft models such as MD-80s and Boeing 737 Classics.

The largest advantage of the CSeries, he says, is that, according to Bombardier's estimates, the aircraft has a 21% to 29% block fuel advantage over the 737 "having similar seating capacity and passenger range".

He adds: "The economics are more compelling for the 130-seat version, but even the 110-seat version of the aircraft has cost savings over the Boeing 737-700. The main competing aircraft of the CSeries will be the Boeing 737-600, 737-700, Airbus A318 and A319."

I recently had a very interesting conversation with Henri Courpron, a former Airbus procurement chief who now heads the aerospace division at consultancy Seabury. Courpron believes "the door was left open by Airbus and Boeing" in the 100-class sector, a void that several manufacturers are now seeking to fill with large regional jets.

"From the large guys' perspective, I think it's fair to say that Airbus and Boeing's venture into the 100-seater has not been at all a success. The A318 had very limited sales and the 737-600 was not exactly a rock star either," says Courpron.

Airbus and Boeing continue to delay decisions on when they will develop successors to their highly-popular A320 and 737NG models. The two airframers are willing to take the chance that Bombardier and others will gain a portion of the small narrowbody market, says Courpron.

"For them there is a lot more at stake than just trying to play defence with what might happen with new entrants in the 100-seater market because what they need to decide for the future is what happens in the 125- to 250-seat segment. And this is where the major battle will take place. It is not around 100 seats."

At its highest density, the CSeries 130, 130ER and new 130XT variants can seat 145 passengers.

American Airlines received loads of press last week when it opted to do a soft launch of Aircell's Gogo air-to-ground connectivity service onboard a couple of Boeing 767-200 flights. So how did the system perform during the 25 June test? That's a bloody good question, but don't be looking to American for the answer, and don't expect anymore freebee Gogo playtime if you're a passenger.

An American spokesman tells me: "At his point American is not releasing any feedback they have received on the test. Passengers will not have access to the service again until it officially launches in the coming weeks. As of yet there isn't an exact launch date."

What the heck? Aircell has been equally quiet over the last week. On 24 June, an Aircell spokesman said the news that was emerging about the soft launch was driven by American. "Other than the comments you have seen today, Aircell does not intend to comment on tomorrow's 'dress rehearsal'," he said.

I've put a post-test comment request to them, regardless.

Meanwhile (and talk about timing), Aircell's long-time VP of sales and marketing Bill Peltola has confirmed he is leaving the company. No reason, as yet, has been given. On an aside, I'll miss Bill. He has been truly helpful to me over the years.

But as a journalist who has covered Aircell for several years, I don't recall the Colorado-based firm ever being so, well, tight-lipped. I understand they have a lot at stake here. A stamp of approval from US giant American could see fast adoption from other carriers. A thumbs down would not be pretty.

Aircell has already proven its technology works. In fact, it did so as far back as 2005.  And Walt Mossberg, the Wall Street Journal's personal technology columnist who recently snagged a private test of Gogo - the only journalist invited to do so - seemed generally pleased. (By the way, if you sign up for a Gogo account, you will receive complimentary in-flight access to the Wall Street Journal Online.) 

But how will the service perform when, say, a sizeable portion of a 767 plane-load of passengers use it? I guess we're going to have to wait to find out.

While Bombardier is moving fast and furious to get its CSeries specs in sweet order, the company is also making strides on another CSeries-related front - it is getting its support network for the now five-variant family into shape.

Discussions with Bombardier's owned service centres and authorized service facilities "are just happening now" but the airframer is expected to take a much more comprehensive - and integrated - approach with the CSeries MRO programme than it has with past commercial products, says Mike Kanaley, VP and general manager of fleet management and service programmes for Bombardier's services division, who was kind enough to chat with me about the Canadian airframer's MRO activities for a new Flight feature.

He says the company is looking at who will be the likely CSeries MRO service providers, as well as "working intimately with our suppliers manufacturing the aircraft to ensure overhaul capabilities are in place, and support of the aircraft from start to finish".

Boeing, of course, has already been developing its GoldCare programme to give a single contact point for 787 customers. Boeing's vice president, 787 services and support for the 787 programme, Robert Avery says he would not be surprised if Bombardier or Embraer offer similar programmes to GoldCare. "I think it can be and probably will be adapted for regionals."

The most integrated maintenance contract ever brokered between an airframer and an airline involved Airbus and now-defunct Skybus Airlines. Skybus asked Airbus and Boeing to proffer packages that would combine the purchase of new aircraft with cost-per-hour maintenance services well in advance of the carrier's mid-2007 launch. Skybus ultimately awarded Airbus a contract for 65 A319s that included integrated maintenance services. While Airbus took responsibility for the airline's maintenance, the airframer tapped Singapore Technologies Aerospace's (ST Aero) US division, Mobile Aerospace (MAE) to perform the work.

Bombardier would be prepared to offer a similar total support programme agreed between Airbus and Skybus should the need arise. "[Whether] another Skybus comes along and wants that capability in our new product [such as the CSeries] remains to be seen. But, if so, it's our obligation to find a way to make that work for both Bombardier and the customer," says Kanaley. "We also don't pretend that it's all going to be performed by Bombardier. We'd leverage our supplier networks and our leverage these, and if that works for the customer, that works for us."

In many ways, however, this more integrated business model is what Bombardier intends to pursue aggressively with its future products. And once you've aligned the supply chain and service delivery network, "it has the potential to be back-fitted into certainly the existing product lines", says Kanaley.

Photo above from the Solid Gold Dance Connection gallary at http://www.sgdanceconnection.com/gallery.html