Archive for October, 2007
October 23, 2007 – Unions representing cabin crew at Air France have called a five-day strike to press management to review salary and working conditions, trade union sources said.
“There is a strike notice from October 25 to October 29 included. All unions are taking part in it, which is a first at Air France,” a union source said.
The sources said unions were trying to pressure management into renegotiating an agreement on salaries and working conditions that will expire at the end of 2007.
“Talks are about salaries and working time. Air France has so far refused unions’ demands,” the first source said.
“People are very motivated because some salaries have been frozen for 10 years, and working conditions have been affected to help the company recover. The company is now doing extremely well and we do not see the benefits of that,” she added.
A spokeswoman for Air France-KLM, the world’s largest airline by revenue, said a meeting between management and union representatives started on Monday, but she declined to say what they were discussing.
It was not immediately clear what proportion of Air France’s cabin crew staff would effectively go on strike, sources said.
Disruption at Air France would follow a nationwide strike over pensions which crippled train, metro and bus transport in France last week.
Separately, Air France flights from Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport were delayed on Monday morning because of a strike by staff responsible for loading bags on planes.
(Reuters)
October 20, 2007
An American woman was briefly detained in Bolivia after arriving on an American Airlines flight from Miami with 500 bullets in her luggage, the state news agency reported.
News agency ABI said the woman, who it identified as Din Dona Thin, 20, had become nervous when taken to have her bags searched on arrival late on Wednesday, telling staff she was only carrying cheese.
“Last night at El Alto Airport, a US citizen was intercepted, coming from Miami, on an American Airlines plane, carrying five boxes of bullets, each one containing 100 .45-caliber bullets,” ABI quoted national immigrations director Magaly Zegarra as saying.
A Bolivian judge told reporters the American woman had been released on Thursday because no offense had been committed under the country’s laws.
Citing the tight security at US airports, Zegarra said it was “incredible that she was able to pass through with luggage containing five boxes of bullets,” ABI reported. It said the official had asked the airline for an explanation.
A US Embassy spokeswoman confirmed in a statement that an American woman had been detained. “There was a lack of knowledge about current customs regulations in Bolivia,” the statement said.
(Reuters)
October 18, 2007
British Airways is looking at merger opportunities that could create a trans-Atlantic super-carrier in response to a joint venture between Delta and Air France, a British newspaper said.
The Times said on Thursday that aviation sources believed British Airways (BA) was in talks with Michael Bishop, the controlling shareholder of bmi, about buying the British carrier.
It also said that BA was considering a renewed attempt to merge with American Airlines, despite two previous attempts being struck down by competition regulators.
“American Airlines is a key partner for us and in the long term we would like a closer relationship with them,” a BA spokesman said.
“We have never said that we are in talks with bmi,” he added.
(Reuters)
| Wednesday, October 17 2007 |
This Wednesday at Roissy, Air France and Delta Air Lines will sign a joint venture agreement to share revenues and costs on certain trans-Atlantic routes.
The agreement will expand the two airlines’ existing immunized partnership that has delivered new routes and choices to customers on both sides of the Atlantic since its inception in the late 1990s. The joint venture will be implemented in April 2008. It will first apply to all trans-Atlantic flights between the Air France and Delta hubs, as well as all flights operated by either carrier between London-Heathrow and the U.S. These flights will be sold by the non operating carrier on a codeshare basis.
Starting in 2010, numerous flights to all destinations between Europe, the Mediterranean and North America will be part of the joint venture.
The revenues encompassed by the first phase of this joint venture is estimated at approximately US$1.5 billion per year, and more than US$8 billion per year for the second phase.
“This agreement marks an unprecedented move to offer our customers a greater choice of routes and schedules,” announced Jean-Cyril Spinetta, Chairman and CEO of the Air France KLM Group, and Richard Anderson, Chief Executive Officer of Delta Air Lines.
“Together, we will be able to provide our customers with an outstanding transatlantic service, both in terms of routes, capacity, frequencies and quality of service.”
Mr. Spinetta and Mr. Anderson will provide more details on the agreement during a press conference in Roissy at 10:30 a.m. CEST (4:30 a.m. EST) today. The press conference will webcast live at airfrance.com/corporate and delta.com. The event will be recorded and made available online at the same URL about one hour after the press conference.
Tuesday October 16 2007—Antigua Sun
Caribbean Star will no longer hop the islands of the region as of the middle of next month.
The date of 15 Nov., has been set as the day that the last flight of the carrier, which is on the verge of entering into a merger agreement with LIAT, will take off.
“As a result, all staff will be released on Nov. 15, 2007, except a handful of people who will complete the remaining closure tasks,” according to Caribbean Airlines Manager of Corporate Communications Laura Cotton, Caribbean Star’s official spokesperson.
“Caribbean Star will begin to transfer to LIAT the remaining five aircraft in our fleet beginning the last week of this month. Our goal is to accomplish the final shut down of Caribbean Star Airlines by the end of November,” Cotton further explained.
She has assured travellers that the overall customer experience will not be affected as aircraft from Caribbean Star will simply be transferred to LIAT in a seamless movement that will have “little or no affect on the flight schedule.”
In this connection, she explained that the only difference after 15 Nov., will be an absence of crew members, engineers or agents wearing Caribbean Star uniforms.
“We have been very proud of our staff for maintaining the daily operation with dignity and professionalism throughout a very challenging period and are confident they will continue to provide excellent service to the travelling public until it’s time to say goodbye,” Cotton noted.
October 16, 2007
An industry-wide air fare increase initiated last week by American Airlines faltered over the weekend, but remained mostly intact on Monday, a sign that the trend toward higher fares still has some momentum.
American said its USD$10 round-trip fare increase on domestic routes was still in place.
Its largest US rival, United Airlines, said it matched the increase last week, rescinded on Sunday and reinstated it on Monday.
“I believe the American Airlines initiated USD$10 round-trip increase will, for the most part, end up successful,” said Rick Seaney, chief executive at fare tracker FareCompare.
The airline industry, recovering from a years-long downturn, has been clawing its way out of the slump with help from capacity cuts and a series of revenue-booking fare increases that started last year.
The trend toward higher fares continued in 2007 but with less gusto as various price increases initiated by individual carriers failed to win matches.
Other carriers that matched the American Airlines fare rise include Delta Air Lines, Continental Airlines and Northwest Airlines. The increased fares often did not apply to routes where major carriers face competition from low-cost rivals.
Calyon Securities airline analyst Ray Neidl linked the sector decline to concerns that the fare increase will not last. Other pressure on the stocks came from a spike in the price of NYMEX crude oil futures to a record high, he said.
Oil, which is directly linked to the price of jet fuel rose USD$1.31 to USD$85 a barrel in morning trading.
(Reuters)
|
|
||
| The International Air Transport Association has condemned the Dutch Government’s plans to impose further taxes on air passengers.
The government is planning to tax passengers departing the Netherlands by air as much as €45 citing environmental reasons. “This passenger tax is ineffective, inappropriate and it breaches international obligations. It is a thinly disguised tax grab that does nothing for the environment. If anything, it is counter productive as it limits airlines’ ability to buy newer, more fuel-efficient aircraft,” said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA Director General and CEO. “Airlines are making great strides to improve their environmental performance. Last year we saved 6 million tonnes of CO2 by shortening 350 routes globally. We have improved fuel efficiency 70% over the past 40 years and forecast a further 25% improvement by 2020. The Dutch Government should be looking at what it can do to help airlines limit emissions. It can start by working with other EU governments to implement a Single European Sky that would save 12 million tonnes of CO2 each year. It should also look at tax credits as an incentive to improve environmental performance rather than counterproductive taxes,” added Bisignani. The passenger tax also breaches resolutions of the International Civil Organisation (ICAO) and Article 15 of the Chicago Convention on International Civil Aviation. “I am surprised that the Netherlands, as an ICAO Contracting State, chooses to ignore its obligations and trample over international agreements,” Bisignani commented. “We are seeing a worrying trend across Europe with governments cynically taxing air passengers for environmental reasons then failing to use the revenues for environmental purposes. These taxes are blunt instruments that just damage tourism and impact the competitiveness of European businesses. We urge the Dutch Government to rethink this ineffective, inappropriate and misguided proposal,” concluded Bisignani. |
|
|
||
 An investigation has been launched after two planes collided while taxiing to take-off at London’s Heathrow Airport.The planes involved were a British Airways, Boeing 747 and a SriLankan Airlines Airbus A340. They collided at 10.20 pm on Monday. No-one was injured according to press reports after the two planes just clipped each other.
“There was no fire, no injuries, no damage,” a fire brigade spokesman told reporters. Engineers are inspecting the aircraft to ascertain the damage. The passengers were offloaded and returned to the terminal building. |
||
October 15, 2007
Airbus on Monday handed over the first A380 plane to Singapore Airlines after two years of setbacks and speculation of further delays.
Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper reported on Sunday that Airbus remained worried about deliveries and had launched new measures last month to avert further delays.
“There are no delays; that is a misunderstanding,” Airbus sales chief John Leahy told reporters at a ceremony to mark the long-awaited first delivery of the world’s largest airliner.
Asked if Airbus was reaffirming its 2008 delivery target of 13 aircraft, Leahy said, “That is our plan and we are on target. We have said it is a challenge, of course, but we are on track.”
Problems over the installation of the 500 km of wiring on the double-decker A380 planes toppled Airbus management, pushed the planemaker into loss and layed Europe’s biggest industrial project by two years.
“The A380 is not a luxury, it is a necessity. That’s why increasing A380 production to meet demand remains our biggest challenge for the next two years”, Airbus chief executive Tom Enders told Airbus staff, suppliers, journalists, and other guests.
“Everything we have accomplished so far gives us the confidence, the courage and the means to face the big ramp-up in 2008 and 2009,” he said.
The first aircraft was delivered to Singapore Airlines 18 months later than planned at a ceremony at Airbus’s headquarters in Toulouse, which featured pounding music and a high-tech light show against a curtain which was drawn back to allow gathered guests to see the massive plane nosing into a parking stand.
The plane will enter service between Singapore and Sydney with a flight raising money for charity on October 25. Full service will begin on October 28.
Seen as an industry standard-bearer for on-board comforts, the airline unveiled a cabin interior with 471 seats, compared with the plane’s original standard of 555 seats, now reduced to 525 seats to accommodate new seat designs.
The Singapore Airlines version will have 12 self-contained suites on the main deck in what the airline calls a “cabin class beyond First”.
“From today, there is a new queen of the skies for air travel,” said Singapore Airlines CEO Chew Choon Seng, dismissing the rival 747 as a plane which “belongs to the past”.
On-board entertainment will include 100 movies, more than 180 TV programs, 700 CDs and over 22 radio channels. The same entertainment box will include a word processor and 3D games.
Airbus’s Leahy said he did not rule out further sales of A380s this year after securing orders or commitments for around 30 in 2007.
“I think we probably could do more A380s this year,” he said.
Airbus has 165 A380s on its firm order book but recent deals with British Airways and Grupo Marsans have brought commitments for the USD$319.2 million jet to 189 planes spread among 16 airlines. It expects to sell around 800 planes in 20 years.
Rival Boeing says demand for 500-plus seaters is a niche market compared with thousands for future mid-sized jets.
With two passenger decks and room for a bar and shops, the A380 claims 50 percent more floor space than the 747 and its designers boast it will introduce a new era of airborne luxury.
British entrepreneur Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic promises double beds and casinos at 30,000 feet.
The delivery is a big milestone for Airbus after it battled successfully to stave off cancellations of the mammoth passenger plane, though two buyers did cancel commitments for its all-cargo sister model.
Plans call for 13 deliveries in 2008 and 25 in 2009, with the first two dozen aircraft being wired by hand while a new system is prepared to bring output to 45 a year from 2010.
Airbus officials said they expected to deliver a revised cargo version from 2014 or 2015 after studying the designs again around 2009.
(Reuters)