TRADITIONAL AIRLINES HAVE LONG SOUGHT to gain competitive advantages through their cabin interiors. Many marketing departments within these airline organizations seek to create an ambiance to lure customers away from competitors. But does the airline economy class customer care? A 2008 study entitled "Passengers Speak Up About What's Worth Paying For" surveyed 735 airline passengers.
THERE IS NO WAY AROUND IT: Avionics performance is an exact science. The margin for error is nonexistent, the need for accuracy and reliability pressing. If an electronic display is supposed to beep, it ought to beep. If it's designed to blip, it had better blip. And no matter what, the beeps and blips must happen at precisely the correct moment. It's all a very meticulous, inside-the-box discipline.
Southwest Airlines is moving full speed ahead to improve its Required Navigation Performance capabilities. In December, the carrier selected Boeing to integrate RNP components in the cockpits of both 737 Classics and 737NGs and selected GE Aviation to provide large area display suites for the Classics.
Susan Black's assessment of the opportunities for travel start-ups to obtain outside investment is blunt: "It's dismal." Black, a travel industry veteran who serves as senior adviser for the industry at Chimney Rock Capital Partners, said venture capital and private equity firms that already have invested in travel start-ups are currently vetting their portfolios and "deciding who shall live and who shall die." The money hasn't completely dried up, but it most likely will go toward building on existing investments, Black said. For new businesses, "there's generally nothing."
SHENZHEN WAS JUST A SMALL, REMOTE city in Guangdong Province in 1979 when then-Chinese Premier Deng Xiaoping decided to make it the country's first special economic zone as part of China's economic reformation. At the time, Deng couldn't even find Shenzhen on a map. Thirty years later, it is a major international metropolis and "Shenzhen speed" has become a catchphrase for rapid growth and transformation.
Whether an airline is using its own facilities or those of a third-party provider, keeping aircraft parts and components in ready supply can mean a lot of paperwork. Help is on the way, however, thanks to a recent joint effort by the Air Transport Assn. and US FAA. The collaborative initiative has advanced the application of an electronic document likely to make aircraft parts distribution more efficient.
OEM Product Services Institute Principal Ron Giuntini spoke with Airline Procurement about how airlines can enhance their maintenance processes by configuring a parts-based and performance-priced program with their suppliers. (Edited for clarity and length.) AP: Do you think airlines are rethinking their parts programs given the current climate of the global economy?
"It is better to be uncertain of where you are and know it than to be certain of where you are not." The famous navigator's saying rapidly is becoming a thing of the past owing to the pioneering work done by this year's Aviation Technology Achievement Award winner, Kent, Wash.-based Naverus, which truly is unlocking the value trapped in today's airspace system through Required Navigation Performance.
At a time of dramatically shrinking budgets, relentless public scrutiny and a succession of economic crises, the task of airline public relations never has been more demanding and thankless. Add to this the massive job of rebuilding the image and morale of an airline that faced bankruptcy in 2001 and quite simply you have a mountain that few could hope to climb with any measure of success.
IATA called on governments, air navigation service providers and aviation groups urgently to address air traffic inefficiencies that are jeopardizing the sustainability of Middle East aviation. "The Middle East is one of the most dynamic aviation markets in the world expanding, from 5% of international traffic to 10% in the past seven years. But we are not immune to the global recession," said Majdi Sabri, IATA Regional VP-Middle East/North Africa. "Airlines in this region will lose $200 million in 2009 as traffic growth slows dramatically.
IT IS OBVIOUS WE ARE FIGHTING FOR THE AIR FRANCE GROUP. BUT IN actual fact, we are also fighting for France." Former Air France Chairman Christian Blanc's 1996 expression of an inextricable link between France's soul and its national airline may belong to a vanishing mindset in Europe, but it is very much the kind of thinking that shapes the view of
British Airways announced an environmental target of halving net CO2 emissions by 2050. The target, one of the most ambitious by an airline, was announced last month in Hyderabad by CEO Willie Walsh. He said, "While some people say that in economic times as desperately tough as these we can afford to put climate change issues on one side, I could not disagree more. Halving CO2 by 2050 is an extremely challenging target. But it is one I am sure we can achieve."
WestJet has chosen SabreSonic Customer Sales and Service as its new reservations system, bringing an end to a search that began with its 2003 decision to replace Navitaire's Open Skies and included a two-year detour with aiRES. WS Executive VP-Commercial Distribution Hugh Dunleavy said SabreSonic's scalability--"We've been growing very quickly"--and its bidirectional marketing and operational capabilities for codeshare agreements were among the features that sealed the deal.
European Commission accepted measures taken by France to end the differentiation in passenger charges between domestic flights and those from/to Schengen countries.
Delta Air Lines signed an MOU with the Air Line Pilots Assn. and US FAA "to reinstate the airline's Aviation Safety Action Program covering pre-merger Delta pilots. The revised program mirrors an existing Northwest Airlines pilot ASAP program." ASAPs encourage flight crews to submit reports identifying safety-related concerns and incidents without fear of punishment.
Lufthansa supervisory board Chairman Juergen Weber told Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that "if the conditions are right, SAS will become interesting for us" as an acquisition target.
Fraport plans to sell its 65% stake in loss-making subsidiary Frankfurt-Hahn next month, CEO Stefan Schulte said during a German Luftfahrt Presse Club event.
Sun Country Airlines reported a $21.4 million loss in 2008, narrowed from a $35 million deficit the year before. Chairman and CEO Stan Gadek called the result "a significant improvement based upon the successful turnaround" of the company. "Based on current booking and revenue trends, we expect to be profitable in first quarter and full-year 2009," he claimed. Fourth-quarter net profit of $955,000 compared to an $18 million loss in the year-ago period and was SY's first profitable fourth quarter in five years.
SR Technics reached a three-year deal with Spanair to provide MRO on wheels, brakes and tires for 48 717s, A320s, A321s and MD-80s. Work will take place at SR Technics' shops in Palma de Mallorca and Madrid.
Lufthansa canceled 80 flights Wednesday owing to a 6-hr. strike by the UFO cabin crew union at Frankfurt, Berlin Tegel and Berlin Schoenefeld. UFO now has staged two strikes in four days and is pushing for a 15% wage increase for its 16,000 members. LH has lifted its offer to 10%.
Alliant Techsystems yesterday announced it won a contract with Rolls-Royce to produce composite aft fan cases for the Trent XWB that will power the A350. Contract is valued at more than $200 million and includes integration of additional components to support Rolls' assembly. Fan case delivery is slated to begin later this year. Trent XWB ground testing is expected in 2010.
Ryanair yesterday announced the formal withdrawal of its €748 million ($987.4 million) cash offer for Aer Lingus, which followed the Irish government's refusal to sell its stake to the LCC. "Ryanair acknowledges that its offer cannot now be successful," it said. The carrier also announced the launch of a daily London Gatwick-Marseille service, its seventh route from LGW, on March 30.
Boeing's 2008 net profit plunged 34% to $2.7 billion from $4.1 billion in the prior year owing to the now-settled machinists' strike, lower aircraft deliveries and development delays in aircraft programs, leading the company to announce yesterday that it will cut 5,500 additional jobs this year. The manufacturer, which posted a rare quarterly net loss in the fourth quarter of $56 million compared to a $1.03 billion profit in the year-ago quarter, already had said it would cut 4,500 workers in 2009, bringing total planned cuts to 10,000.
Frontier Airlines Holdings reported a $1.1 million net profit in the December quarter and an operating profit of $5.6 million. Excluding special items, it was $7.7 million in the black on a net basis. Special items included $8.7 million in mark-to-market fuel hedge losses and $2.7 million in gains on reorganization activities that included the sale of four A319s. Its December net profit was $18.7 million. Fourth-quarter mainline passenger unit revenue rose 7.2% year-over-year against a 4.2% fall in unit cost excluding fuel to 6.2 cents.
