Full-year 2008 traffic figures released by IATA confirmed that passenger demand growth is slowing considerably while cargo traffic is contracting significantly. Passenger traffic grew just 1.6% in 2008, a major slowdown compared to 7.4% growth in 2007. Capacity rose 3.5% and load factor was 75.9%, down 1.4 points from a year earlier. Passenger demand fell 4.6% year-over-year in December.
British Airways Chairman Martin Broughton indicated the airline soon will decide whether to proceed with its planned merger with Iberia "I would be very concerned if we weren't able to make a call at least in the first [fiscal] quarter" starting April 1, Broughton told The Wall Street Journal.
Airbus inked an agreement with a group of Chinese industrial partners Friday to establish a joint venture in Harbin to produce composite material parts and components for A350 XWBs and A320s ( ATWOnline, Nov. 27, 2007). The contract was signed in Madrid, where Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero were conducting talks.
Lufthansa Technik signed a 10-year Total Technical Support contract with AeroLogic to provide maintenance services on 11 777 freighters. TTS includes LHT's Technical Operations Management product and covers MRO, component logistics and planning activities. Delivery to AeroLogic is scheduled to begin in May.
Spirit Airlines management angered cabin staff and the Assn. of Flight Attendants-CWA with a series of advertisements and proposed inflight attire that the union called "demeaning." AFA International President Patricia Friend said she felt "as though I've entered a time warp," claiming the LCC's innuendo-laced advertising campaign is offensive "not just [to] the female population of this country but the male members of humanity who admire and respect women." Aprons adorned with an alcoholic beverage logo also have drawn the union's ire.
Lufthansa Cargo reached an agreement with labor representatives to reduce hours for 2,600 employees in Germany. A final deal will be signed "as soon as possible," the company said. "After scaling back our freighter capacities, flexible adjustment of staffing capacities has become inevitable in the company's present situation. We are nevertheless confident that we will be able to safeguard all jobs at Lufthansa Cargo," Chairman Carsten Spohr said. December tonnage fell 21.4% year-over-year and this year will be "challenging," he admitted.
Japan Airlines Friday conducted the latest biofuel test flight, operating a 747-300 partially powered by fuel derived primarily from the camelina plant. The 90-min. flight from Tokyo Haneda followed recent biofuel demonstration flights conducted by Air New Zealand and Continental Airlines ( ATWOnline, Jan. 8). A 50/50 blend of traditional jet fuel and camelina-based biofuel powered one of the aircraft's four Pratt & Whitney JT9Ds. It was the first biofuel test flight using Pratt engines.
Southwest Airlines Senior Director-Flight Operations Jeff Martin, Natural Resources Defense Council Senior Attorney Liz Barrett-Brown, Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative Executive Director Richard Altman and Rolls-Royce Strategic Marketing Manager-Future Programs Jonathan Hart are among the featured presenters at the Second Annual Eco-Aviation conference organized by ATW and Leeham Co. May 26-28 in Washington, DC.
ICAO is moving ahead with plans for an international carbon emissions cap-and-trade scheme despite a growing number of rival regional schemes. Speaking in Tokyo on Jan. 15, Roberto Gonzalez, president of the ICAO Council, told delegates to the Ministerial Conference on Global Environment and Energy in Transport that EU moves to include aviation in its regional emissions trading scheme will not derail ICAO's plans to build a framework that could underpin a global scheme.
The U.S. Travel Association (formerly Travel industry Association) unveiled new "accountability standards" on business meetings, events and incentive travel for companies receiving federal bailout funds. The standards are designed to convince Congress and the Obama administration that corporate America can police itself, despite widely publicized events labeled as wasteful corporate junkets held by bailout recipients. Key points of the standards are:
UPS made a critical decision in 1987 that would forever change the delivery companyand the air cargo business. After five years of using contract cargo airlines to provide next-day delivery in the domestic US market, it decided it needed more control over its operations and began laying the groundwork to establish its own air carrier. On Feb. 1, 1988, UPS Airlines was launched with two DC-8 freighter flights from Louisville to Chicago and Milwaukee.
When Norwegian Air Shuttle decided to end life as a provider of contract lift in 2002 and reinvent itself as a low-cost carrier, most observers estimated the likelihood of its survival as low to very low. The market was in turmoil following 9/11 and Norway was dominated by flag carrier SAS, which then was in the process of digesting Norwegian's former customer, Braathens. Switching from supplier to competitor and from F50 turboprops to 737s was considered unwise if not foolhardy.
AAR named Dave Cann VP-regulatory compliance. Aerospace Industries Assn. welcomed Brian McDermott as VP-supplier management, Robert Young as asst. VP-civil aviation and Lisa Goldberg as dir.-environment, safety & health. Air Berlin selected Matthias von Randow as dir.-global traffic rights & political affairs. Airclaims appointed Tan Soon Kent as a surveyor in its Singapore office and Garrick Andrews to a similar position in its New Zealand office. A J Walter Aviation tapped Tomas Cano as sales dir.-Spain.
"Clearly the pension issue is foremost in our minds," AC President and CEO Montie Brewer recently told analysts and reporters. "Pension rules in Canada are not aligned with the US. . .The rules have to be realigned."
While today's ever-shifting procurement skyscape is certainly all about cost, it's not necessarily predicated on price. That's the strong consensus of several respected procurement professionals. "Supply chain management has evolved. In the past, it's been more transactional based and reactive," says Jim Renaud, a Certified Purchasing Manager.
Safe, reliable, trustworthy services are the fundamental building blocks upon which success in the airline industry must be constructed. But sustaining success in this always evolving and highly competitive business usually takes more:
To spend your life doing something you love and to do it so well that you achieve enormous respect, success and financial reward is a common enough dream, but for most people it remains just that. Steven Udvar-Hazy is an exception. As a child he began a love affair with aviation that continues to this day and he was able to convert that passion into a business that has brought him success beyond his imagining.
The Partnership for AiR Transportation Noise and Emissions Reduction, a group led by MIT and funded by US FAA, NASA, DOD, DOT and Transport Canada, says it has developed a new procedure that could save 1 billion gal. of aviation fuel a year, a 6% reduction based on estimated 2009 fuel use. Through En Route Traffic Optimization, the theory is that air traffic controllers armed with new algorithms can route aircraft at the most efficient flight levels and via the most direct paths.
The UK's so-called "environment czar" has raised the possibility of rationing air travel, limiting UK citizens to just a few vacation trips abroad by air per year in order to reduce the impact of carbon dioxide emissions.
What makes a great airline? Perhaps it is industry-leading operating metrics, or customer service on the ground and in the air that consistently earns the highest accolades from experienced international travelers. Perhaps it is flight attendants giving their time to learn sleight-of-hand tricks to entertain young travelers, or staff spending their weekends helping with humanitarian projects across the globe. In the case of Asiana Airlines, ATW's 2009 Airline of the Year, it is these things and much more.
Smart airframe maintenance is seldom subject to big changes. Rather it requires careful choices and small tradeoffs, weighing in-house against outsource options, balancing downtime costs with favorable rates, seeking efficiency through long-term contracts or exploiting inexpensive short-term deals. These kinds of balances can be different for each airline and, of course, are constantly changing.
Japan Airlines joined the exclusive biofuel club on Jan. 30 when one of its Pratt & Whitney JT9D-powered 747-300s took off from Tokyo Haneda with one engine powered by a 50/50 biofuel/jet fuel blend. The biofuel was a cocktail of camelina (84%), jatropha (16%) and algae (less than 1%). JAL reported that the 90-min. flight went off without a hitch. As with other biofuel test flights, "no modifications to the aircraft or engine were required," the airline said in a statement. Capt. Keiji Kobayashi said, "Everything went smoothly.
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.
