Archive for November, 2007
November 19, 2007 in Airline Industry
(Forimmediaterelease.net) United Becomes the First Major U.S. Airline to Offer Lie-Flat Beds in Business Class with Today’s Flight 952 Washington to Frankfurt
United Airlines’ first international aircraft to complete the company’s multi-million dollar product enhancement will take flight today from Washington Dulles to Frankfurt. With the inaugural flight, United becomes the first U.S. airline to offer 180-degree, lie-flat beds in business class on overseas flights.
“I look forward to spending time with our guests and hearing first-hand how much they are enjoying our fine dining, top-notch entertainment and most importantly, getting a good night’s rest in our new flat-bed seats,” says Graham Atkinson, United executive vice president and Chief Customer Officer, who will be on United Flight 952.
“I am excited to be on this inaugural flight and experience United’s new international business class service,” says Gene Fowler, a frequent United customer who has 1K Mileage Plus status and booked this trip to Frankfurt merely to be on the inaugural flight. “A truly lie-flat business class seat is clearly what a road warrior like me wants most when traveling overseas.”
Business class customers on United Flight 952 will dine on an appetizer of orange and ginger duck leg confit and soba noodle salad. Morel mushroom risotto and herb-rubbed chicken breast will be one of the many dinner choices created by Chef Charlie Trotter, a world-famous and legendary Chicago Restaurateur.
First class customers will begin with an appetizer of Chef Trotter’s crispy short rib wontons with organic Thai barbecue sauce and sweet and sour cucumber relish. Apricot curry braised lamb medallion is one of the main entrée courses featured on the menu.
To complement the meals in first and business class, Doug Frost, one of only three people in the world to hold both the title of Master Sommelier and Master of Wine, has selected almost a dozen wines that will be available on United Flight 952.
Following the meal, customers will enjoy a choice of more than 150 hours of on-demand entertainment from a personal 15.4” screen, including movies such as Spiderman 3, Fracture, Waitress, Shooter, Next, Wild Hogs and Catch and Release. First and business class customers will have a selection of 30 movies in all.
As part of United’s international widebody aircraft investment, United Flight 952 will also have a new First Suite, refreshed premium cabin restrooms, and new seat cushions, carpeting, digital inflight entertainment servers and LCD screens in economy.
The new international premium cabins are part of United’s strategy of providing customers with distinct products and services that they expect and value, with a particular focus on serving more frequent business travelers. United is the first and only U.S. airline to offer customers 180-degree, lie-flat seats in its first and business class cabins on its international widebody aircraft and a choice of four different seating sections – United First, United Business, Economy Plus and Economy.
About United
United Airlines (NASDAQ: UAUA) operates more than 3,600* flights a day on United, United Express and Ted to more than 200 U.S. domestic and international destinations from its hubs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Chicago and Washington, D.C. With key global air rights in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and Latin America, United is one of the largest international carriers based in the United States. United also is a founding member of Star Alliance, which provides connections for our customers to 855 destinations in 155 countries worldwide. United’s 55,000 employees reside in every U.S. state and in many countries around the world. News releases and other information about United can be found at the company’s Web site at united.com.
*Based on the flight schedule between Jan. 1, 2007 and Dec. 31, 2007.For media inquiries only, please send a detailed e-mail1313131313131313131313131313131313131313 to media.relations@united.com
November 19, 2007
Air France KLM wants to be a consolidator of the airline industry but will do so only if this does not hurt its medium-term financial performance, the Franco-Dutch carrier’s deputy head said.
Asked whether Air France KLM was still interested in an alliance with troubled Italian carrier Alitalia, Air France-KLM Deputy Chief Executive Pierre-Henri Gourgeon said: “Of course we are still ready to talk with Alitalia… But however interesting the matter is, we will go ahead with the project only if we have a clear vision that they will not hurt our medium-term performance.”
“If we can’t see the possibility of continuing on the path of profitability at a three-year horizon, then too bad, we will not be able to pursue this (project),” he added, in a speech at shareholders trade fair Actionaria in Paris.
Alitalia seeks a buyer for the Italian Treasury’s 49.9 percent stake in the loss-making Italian flag carrier after an auction for it collapsed in July.
Air France KLM did not take part in the original auction, citing unattractive conditions set by the Italian government, but was later named by Alitalia management as a potential buyer.
Gourgeon also repeated that Air France KLM was looking at Iberia but he declined to say whether it would join a bid battle for the Spanish carrier.
“Iberia is looking for something that could guarantee its future. They have the feeling that they need to merge with one of the big players,” he said.
“We are ready to move along with the consolidation process… After that, it is like a dance and it takes some time for the couples to form.”
Sources close to Air France have not ruled out a bid for Iberia but say any such bid would be a financial deal rather than an industrial partnership because the two airlines compete heavily on routes to Latin America.
British Airways has already expressed interest in Iberia, while Lufthansa has for months said the Spanish airline was too expensive.
On Thursday, a group of Spanish billionaires along with Spanish bank BBK made a takeover approach that values Iberia at up to EUR3.7 billion euros (USD$5.4 billion).
Gourgeon downplayed risks that surging oil prices and a weakening of the dollar could affect Air France KLM’s profitability.
He said its fuel hedging policy had been “efficient” to reduce the impact of rising oil prices and added that fuel taxes on tickets had allowed the airline to match the gradual rise in oil prices with the gradual rise in ticket prices.
The weakening of the dollar was not negative for the airline, Gourgeon said.
“When the dollar goes down, we are benefiting from it since we have more dollar costs than dollar revenues,” he said.
“But if the euro goes up against all other currencies, then this is a different matter because then it is our yen revenues and our yuan revenues that are falling.”
(Reuters)
November 16, 2007
The US government will temporarily clear military airspace for commercial use to help reduce airline congestion during holiday travel, President George W Bush said on Thursday.
The modest change is among the measures the Bush administration is taking to try and ease flight delays, especially in the eastern United States where congestion ripples through the system and grounds planes elsewhere.
Delays have worsened this year due to exploding demand and more flights stressing an aging air traffic control system.
In many cases, runways, gate services and other airport facilities have been unable to efficiently handle passenger loads during busy periods.
“Airports are very crowded, travelers are being stranded and flights are being delayed, sometimes with a full load of passengers sitting on the runway for hours. These failures carry some real costs for the country,” Bush said at the White House.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the Defense Department will open coastal air space from Florida to Maine over the busiest five days of Thanksgiving holiday travel, between Wednesday and Sunday.
The step gives air traffic controllers an automatic option for routing flights, most likely in case of bad weather. Usually, the Federal Aviation Administration must negotiate clearance with the military to use its air space on a case-by-case basis.
Thanksgiving is the busiest US travel period of the year. Airlines expect to fly some 27 million people over a 12 day period beginning on Friday — 4 percent more than last year.
Carriers are scheduling more flights at higher fares due to record fuel prices. But they also are freeing up seats and adding extra staff and planes to ensure they are not caught short if aircraft are delayed and passengers inconvenienced by weather, mechanical or other problems.
Responding to criticism of airline service, Bush proposed doubling the amount of compensation passengers receive when involuntarily bumped off flights due to overbooking. He also wants to require that airlines create legally binding contingency plans for instances when flights face long ground delays.
These changes must go through the federal rule-making process and would not take effect for several months at least, if at all.
Richard Anderson, chief executive of Delta Air Lines, told House lawmakers that airlines will do everything they can to ensure efficient travel — especially over the crowded holiday period — but are only partly responsible for the industry’s chronic congestion problem.
“The most significant contributors to customer frustration and inconvenience — systematic delays and congestion, especially in the New York area — are very much outside our control,” Anderson said.
Among other steps, he urged the Federal Aviation Administration, the Transportation Department and Congress to modernize the air traffic system to improve efficiency.
Bush urged Congress to approve legislation that would fund modernization changes but a decision on the bill is not expected until next year.
(Reuters)
November 16, 2007
US airlines, hoping to ease the pain of winter weather delays, are beefing up services, staffing and flight schedules as part of a concerted effort to avoid the operational meltdowns that made last winter especially messy for some carriers.
Unpredictable winter weather is a yearly nuisance for airlines. But major delays and strandings for passengers at JetBlue Airways and American Airlines last winter revealed shortcomings in an airline industry that is flying packed planes with little margin for error built into schedules.
With pressure from unhappy passengers finding some backing in Washington, and holiday air traffic likely to surpass last year’s, carriers are moving to minimize weather-related delays and ease the strain for affected travelers.
“I think everybody is a little bit more attuned to all the mistakes that were made last year,” said airline consultant Darryl Jenkins. “There is absolutely no slack in the systems,” he said.
In February, JetBlue suffered a major service disruption and public relations nightmare when an ice storm prompted the cancellation of more than 1,000 flights and stranded passengers for days. A similar incident in December stranded American Airlines passengers on the tarmac for hours.
Despite economic weakness, rising ticket prices and the well-publicized debacles of last winter, airlines see no let-up in travel demand this season.
In fact, the Air Transport Association said on Monday it expects a 4 percent year-over-year increase in the number of passengers traveling globally on US carriers during the Thanksgiving holiday.
Major carriers are promoting the steps they are taking to ensure smooth travel year round. But they acknowledge that this year is shaping up to be the worst in memory for flight delays and are urging travelers to be prepared.
“If you always expect the worst and you don’t have the worst then your frame of mind will be more positive,” said Jim May, president of the industry’s leading trade group, the Air Transport Association.
Northwest Airlines last week announced several initiatives to blunt the impact of storm delays. The airline said it would waive rebooking fees for customers delayed by weather and mechanical problems.
The carrier, which has been criticized for insufficient staffing, said it increased the number of reserve pilots by 30 percent. Northwest also said it has increased staffing of flight attendants and reservations agents.
American Airlines has said it is reserving seats in key markets on peak travel days for use by passengers whose flights have been canceled or delayed due to weather.
Other initiatives at American include providing customers with earlier weather information and invoking storm policies earlier to accommodate passengers whose flights have been affected by hurricanes.
United Airlines has invested in self-service technology to keep inconvenienced travelers informed about their delays and to help them rebook quickly.
Barbara Higgins, United’s vice president in charge of customer experience, said it improves the image of the entire airline industry if carriers attempt to head off problems.
“We certainly don’t take delight in any other carrier not performing well,” Higgins said. “We believe that any positive service is good for the industry, regardless of who the carrier is.”
Carriers this year also are scheduling more flights to accommodate demand. Industry scheduling practices, however, have been criticized by regulators, some congressional lawmakers and passenger advocates for aggravating congestion and delays at big airports.
Airlines are working with the Federal Aviation Administration to minimize delays nationwide, but the agency has said it is prepared to cut flight schedules at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport, the worst for long delays. Congestion and delays in New York often ripple through the system and ground flights elsewhere.
Carriers blame the outdated air traffic control system for much of their problems and say their scheduling practices only reflect demand.
(Reuters)
November 16, 2007
European Union airports should make more efficient use of take-off and landing slots for airlines and make it easier for new carriers to get space at congested terminals, the European Commission said.
Airports have become better at managing tight capacity but “there is still some room for improvement, especially where it concerns market access and efficient use of slots”, the EU executive said in a statement.
Slots are essentially rights that carriers have to take off or land at specific times.
The Commission cited concerns about the neutrality and independence of coordinators who determine which airlines get which slots at which times and said an EU regulation on the matter had failed to spur competition.
“The provisions that aim to encourage new entrants to get a foothold at congested airports seem to have had only a limited effect on competition and on the best use of scarce capacity,” it said.
It said it would study potential improvements in the rules. “A more structured approach under the regulation to market-based slot allocation could contribute to tackling the scarcity problem,” it said.
(Reuters)
OSLO, Norway (November 16, 2007) – Without a rational “Aerial Highways” system lifting tourists in and flying goods and services out to global markets, the world’s poorer countries will be “sentenced to abject poverty,” said the head of a development agency.
Speaking this week to European aviation chiefs assembled in Oslo , Lelei LeLaulu, president of Counterpart International, observed terrestrial highways, roads and bridges are recognised as essential components of infrastructure responsible for turning new frontiers into thriving communities as goods and commodities were transported to markets.
Noting infrastructure “was basically a means of spreading the wealth,” LeLaulu urged international donors like the World Bank and IMF, which fund large infrastructural programs, to look at developing world airlines, “not as money-losing ventures but as an integral part of the infrastructure of poorer countries.” Adding, “no one ever questions whether a highway or a causeway is going to make money.”
He also asserted tourism, the world’s biggest and fastest growing industry, represented “the largest voluntary transfer of resources from the rich to the poor in history, and for those of us in the development community – tourism is the most potent anti-poverty tool ever.”
A rational aerial highways system would enable stakeholders in destinations to determine how many tourists needed to be brought in to enhance their health, education, wealth, environment and culture, said LeLaulu, whose organization is a partner in National Geographic Society’s Geotourism initiative.
Without a rational aerial highways system – flying tourists into the developing world and lifting goods and services out to the global markets – ”the poorer countries of the world would be stagnant backwaters of the thriving global economy and its people sentenced to abject poverty,” he warned.
Responding to groups trying to halt air travel because of the carbon emissions of aircraft, LeLaulu – a speaker last month at the special Davos meeting on Climate Change and Tourism – said “they have the best intentions but they should remember that airplanes are responsible for barely 2% of carbon emitted. So, I would urge them to leave their buildings and cars – which emit far more carbon – and take a plane to the Pacific, which, according to the Royal Aeronautical Society if it makes two stops will reduce carbon output by 60% versus a non-stop.”
Referring to the need to use carbon offsets to benefit destinations in the poorer countries, LeLaulu, who hails from the Pacific island of Samoa, suggested “once there, they should chill in a fale (Polynesian grass hut without walls or electricity) and take the occasional break from the beach to plant trees with their carbon offsets which they will, of course as sensitive environmentalists, purchase locally.”
He also pointed out that 49 of the world’s poorest countries rely on tourism as their major foreign currency earner.
Speaking to the 60th anniversary of Avinor, the company which operates Norway ‘s aviation systems and 46 airports, LeLaulu challenged the highly efficient and profitable company to select an African country and “go in there with Avinor volunteers and lift that country’s aviation systems up to your standards. By so doing you will create peace through prosperity.” Furthermore, he said they should urge the Norwegian aid agencies to strengthen that same country’s airlines.
Speaking to reporters, LeLaulu – a founding director with Brazil ‘s Institute of Hospitality of the World Tourism Forum for Peace and Sustainable Development – mused, ” Norway confers the most important Nobel prize, so wouldn’t it be nice if, on its 70th anniversary, Avinor, after doing great work in Africa and elsewhere, received the Peace Prize?”
LeLaulu is an advisor to the Mundo Maya Sustainable Tourism Project of the Inter-American Development Bank, Mexico and four Central American Governments, and founding director of the Caribbean Media Exchange on Sustainable Tourism (CMEx). Counterpart International is a member of the Carbon Poverty Reduction Initiative and of the Global Sustainable Tourism Alliance recently set up by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to use tourism as a development tool.
Counterpart International, founded in 1965, gives people a voice in their own future through smart partnerships, offering options and access to tools for sustained social, economic and environmental development. Operating on five continents, Counterpart is supported by the generosity of its corporate and individual donors, foundations, host countries, multilateral institutions and several U.S. government agencies.
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, November 15, 2007 – The seven-year-old Caribbean Star will operate its final flight today, marking a takeover by competitor LIAT, in a buyout that Chairman, Jean Holder describes as “of the most significant business deals in the history of the Caribbean”. Late last month, the two carriers finalised and executed an agreement that facilitated the transfer of Caribbean Star’s assets to LIAT. That asset purchase agreement did not include the remaining five aircraft leased by Caribbean Star which are expected to be transferred to LIAT in a separate transaction expected to coincide with today’s closure of the carrier, owned by Antigua-based Texan billionaire Sir Allen Stanford. The LIAT Chairman said the carrier was very pleased to have completed the buy-out “while preserving the heritage of an important regional icon in the process.” Holder added that LIAT was looking forward to moving ahead as a commercial entity that will best serve the Caribbean people. President and CEO of Caribbean Star Airlines, Skip Barnette has also assured travellers that it will also be a smooth transition for them. “Customers should experience no interruption of their travel itineraries as a result of the transfer of aircraft and closure of Caribbean Star,” he said. “The flight schedule will continue as published, and LIAT will operate the flights formerly flown by Caribbean Star equipment and crews.” LIAT’s buy-out of Caribbean Star marks the end of discussions that began between the two airlines last October, and was made possible through a US$60 million loan provided to LIAT by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and the airline’s shareholder governments. That package takes the form of three loans in the amounts of US$21.8 million, US$32.7 million and US$5.4 million to the governments of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados and St. Vincent and the Grenadines respectively. The Barbados-based CDB also indicated it would give a US$500,000 grant to go directly to the airline to restructure its operations, with a view to enhancing the commercial viability of the airline. Holder recently indicated that the regional carrier is now climbing out of debt, although it recorded EC$61 million (US$22.7 million) in losses last year. “We have made arrangements to free ourselves of debt and reduce losses within a whisk of having made a profit in 2007,” he said late last month. Apart from the financial hurdle it had to overcome to purchase the Caribbean Star assets, LIAT was also held back as a result of its rival’s legal troubles. In July the Industrial Court in Antigua where LIAT is based, issued an order effectively putting the negotiations between the two carriers on hold, following an application by seven former Caribbean Star pilots who alleged unfair dismissal by the company. The injunction restrained Caribbean Star Airlines from conducting any further talks, discussions, or any form of communication with LIAT or any other party. It also restrained Caribbean Star from leasing or selling any of its assets to LIAT or any other party until further order from the court. The ruling was handed down on the basis that by the time the unfair dismissal order came to be heard, Caribbean Star would no longer be operational and the employees would no have received any compensation due to them. However, the court later reversed its ruling and ordered Caribbean Star to establish an EC$3 million (US$1.1 million) bond as security for any damages awarded to the former pilots. |
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By Vernon Khelawan (TRINIDAD GUARDIAN)
Regional carrier Liat will regain the upper hand in regional air transportation from tomorrow.
Caribbean Star, Liat’s major competitor in Caribbean skies over the last seven years, operates its farewell flight today as its completes the shutdown of its operations.
Caribbean Star stopped competing with Liat some eight months ago, but the airline continued to fly under a commercial agreement with Liat using its own aircraft and crews to operate flights according to Liat’s schedule.
The arrangement was made to accommodate the long drawn out negotiations between the two airlines as they tried to reach agreement on the transfer of the leases for seven Caribbean Star Dash-8-300 aircraft to the Liat fleet.
What began as a merger of the two carriers in October 2006, will finally end today as an asset purchase agreement with Liat acquiring the assets of Caribbean Star, exclusive of the seven aircraft. Liat is also taking over rented premises in Antigua, which housed Caribbean Star’s head office and reservations and operations offices.
Three weeks ago Caribbean Star officials announced that it would operate its last flight on November 15 and sever all remaining employees, including cockpit and cabin crews. However, Liat has been forced to recall some of Caribbean Star’s flight attendants and cockpit crews on short-term contracts because Liat did not have enough of its own personnel to staff its flight schedule.
According to sources in Antigua and Port-of-Spain, many of Caribbean Star’s flight attendants did not exercise their options to take up positions with Liat and moved on to other flying jobs or switched careers.
Many of the laid off pilots have foregone their severance packages to take up lucrative positions in the Middle East, India, China, Africa and Canada.
Liat’s winter schedule is expected to go into effect tomorrow, but already its flights are running with high load factors and regular travellers on certain routes are becoming worried about what to expect during the upcoming peak holiday season.
A shortage of seats at such a critical time would be a source of worry for Liat reminiscent of the problems it encountered during the annual Carnival celebrations in St Vincent several weeks ago.
While the Liat’s board and executive management are optimistic of the airline’s chances of survival in these challenging times, several Caricom governments are not taking any chances. For example, St Lucia has contracted Puerto Rico-based American Eagle to operate scheduled services between Castries and Bridgetown to ensure that visitor arrivals are maintained. Dominica and St Kitts/Nevis have also made arrangements with American Eagle to increase its services to their destinations.
In addition, Caribbean Airlines is said to be preparing to begin intra-island services in the southern Caribbean, having recently acquired the assets of Tobago Express, including its five 50-seat Dash-8 aircraft.
November 14, 2007–
Airlines flying in and out of the European Union should join the bloc’s emissions trading system in 2011 and submit to strict caps on their output of greenhouse gases, the European Parliament has voted on Tuesday.
The EU assembly, in its first reading on a bill that has drawn ire from the United States and other nations, voted to set a tighter limit on aviation’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions than first proposed by the European Commission.
It also set one date, 2011, for inclusion of internal EU and intercontinental flights and increased the number of carbon permits — certificates that essentially assign rights to pollute — that airlines would have to buy up front from EU governments instead of getting them for free.
The trading scheme is the 27 nation EU’s key instrument to fight global warming. It sets limits on the amount of CO2 that industry may emit. Companies buy or sell permits based on whether they overshoot or undershoot their targets.
Airlines are not currently included and the EU wants to add them, to show world leadership on climate change and help meet an internal goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 percent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels.
“We are ten years late,” in tackling emissions from international aviation, said Peter Liese, the German conservative deputy who steered the bill through the assembly. “I don’t think it’s over ambitious. It’s high time to do something.”
Airlines attacked the vote as damaging to economic growth while environmentalists said it did not go far enough to fight climate change.
The Association of European Airlines, which represents carriers such as British Airways and Lufthansa, said it was “a massive blow to the viability and competitiveness of the European airline industry (and) a barely measurable step for the environment.”
But environmental group WWF said the parliament “missed the opportunity to really curb the emissions of the fastest growing sector in Europe in terms of greenhouse gases.”
The plan must now go to EU governments for potential changes. It must be approved by parliament and EU ministers before it can become law.
The parliament tightened the Commission’s proposals across the board, though EU governments are unlikely to support many of the new requirements.
Lawmakers voted to increase the amount of permits that airlines must buy upfront at auction to 25 percent from 2011 and said the sector’s cap should be set at 90 percent of average emissions from the period 2004-2006, tighter than the 100 percent proposed by Brussels.
The parliament set limits on the amount of permits airlines could buy from other sectors in the trading scheme and under the Kyoto Protocol while adding a “multiplier” that would take into account the effects of gases other than CO2.
It also voted to include government flights in the scheme while excluding all military flights.
Lawmakers rejected the Commission’s proposal that intra-EU flights join the scheme in 2011 and all intercontinental flights from 2012, saying that adopting one date would ensure no airlines were at a competitive disadvantage.
Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas had said the Commission believed a two-step approach would help convince other nations that the EU scheme was workable.
(Reuters)
The Antigua and Barbuda Tourist Office has reported further increases in UK visitor numbers to the twin island nation.
September, traditionally a low season month in the Caribbean, saw a staggering 18% increase on last year’s UK visitor figures, up from a total number of 4,531 in 2006 to 5,357 in 2007. The September rise represents the seventh consecutive increase in 2007. July and August also recorded increases with July seeing 13% and August, 5%. A 20% rise in June remains the largest monthly increase in 2007 to date.
70,117 people from the UK have visited Antigua and Barbuda over the period January – September 2007 and the UK remains the largest provider of tourism followed by USA and the Caribbean.
Carol Hay, Director of Tourism UK & Europe comments; “We developed an aggressive marketing strategy early in the year, which was targeted at working with our partners to address the down months. This growth is beyond our wildest expectations for September, but none the less, we are pleased that through the work with our partners we were able to meet our goal and increase business. Of course, we can never rest on our laurels, and therefore we are already looking at our programme for 2008 and beyond.”