Archive for 2009
Wednesday, July 08, 2009–Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA) plans to launch chartered flights between Kingston and Atlanta in an effort to capitalise on the closure of Air Jamaica’s Atlanta route.
The carrier is now in the final stages of its application, which makes an allowance for public objections.
“If there are no objections then they will get the permit to operate from September 11 to December 13,” said
Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) spokesperson Jennifer McDonald.
Million Air was the first airline since January this year to offer direct charter flights from Atlanta to Kingston and Montego Bay. The CAA had issued 62 charter permits to 45 carriers worldwide since January to offer service to
the island.
Air Jamaica pulled out of its loss-making Atlanta route last year, arguing that the company could use the aircraft on a more productive route like New York. Air Jamaica operated one daily flight from Atlanta, but could not fill its planes. The airline said if it had more connections to more US cities it could feed traffic into Jamaica from Atlanta. ASA, meanwhile, connects to 113 airports in 31 US states, the District of Columbia, Bahamas and Canada.
“I got petitions and received all manner of complaints, but there just weren’t enough Jamaicans in Atlanta to warrant the route,” Nobles said in a recent Business Observer interview.
ASA started operations 30 years ago. ASA was 20 per cent held by Delta Airlines until the major carrier acquired ASA outright in 1999 before selling it to SkyWest in 2005. SkyWest made US$9.3 million in net income in the first quarter of this year, a 67 per cent decline in profit over the same period last year. SkyWest stated that it has significant long-term lease obligations not reflected as liabilities on SkyWest’s consolidated balance sheet. At a 6.2 per cent discount rate, the value of these lease obligations was approximately US$2.1 billion as of March 31, 2009.
ASA plans to fly a CRJ-900 plane on the Kingston route, with a 76-passenger capacity.
AIRPORT June 30, 2009 — PJIAE is making good on its reputation of being the Catalyst of Activity in the Simpson Bay area. In a move that should entice people to come and experience the uniqueness of its Food Court, the airport company is launching a Sizzlin’ Summer Special with attractive deals for customers.
“It’s a scorching 30 degrees out there this summer, and here we have a comfortably air-conditioned building with unique food establishments that many locals do not really know much about. We hope to be able to take advantage of the slow months ahead of us to change this,” said Mrs. Lucrecia Lynch-Matinburgh, PJIAE’s Marketing and Communications Manager.
While the Sizzlin’ Summer campaign was initially designed to draw traffic to the airport, PJIAE and the companies that operate inside the Food Court intend to use the opportunity to express gratitude to the St. Maarten community for its continued patronage. “We know a lot of families will not travel abroad this summer, so we are pleased to offer them an alternative,” said PJIAE President, drs Holiday.
JOINT EFFORT
The campaign will feature a weekly Friday evening party dubbed the Friday Summer Cool Down, a coloring contest for children under 12, and a weekly raffle among Food Court patrons which will peak at the end of September with the drawing of a monetary contribution toward a child’s school-fees. This prize -NAf 1,100- is a joint effort by PJIAE and the concessionaires, as a combined show of commitment toward education.
To win, customers must purchase from at least three of the Food Court units during the campaign, collect stamps from them, with which they enter not only for the weekly raffle, but for the grand drawing as well.
The businesses are also offering other special treats. “This is a wonderful idea from PJIAE Management to increase traffic into our establishments,” said one of the business owners.
All agreed that for the duration of the summer campaign -which begins next week and runs till September 30-, each child accompanied by an adult will eat for free at any food establishment on the ground floor of the airport building. “One of the units on the ground floor will be fitted with a bouncer and there will be other daily games, and snacks and ice cream at discount prices in the Food court,” said Mrs. Lynch.
SO MUCH MORE
The Sizzlin’s Summer Campaign fits well into the airport’s efforts to further institutionalizing its So Much More retail brand that was launched a few months ago.
The catalyst of development in St. Maarten, PJIA now has a diverse offering of services in its terminal building, ranging from parking, to taxis and limos, to tour busses and beauty salon, banking and Wi-Fi, as well as conference rooms, to food and beverage and shopping. “Name it and you can most likely find it; if not, we are working on it,” PJIAE President drs. Eugene Holiday said. “Every business that is represented at our AeroCity was carefully selected. Everyone living in St. Maarten should come down to PJIA, whether you’re traveling or not- and experience St. Maarten’s AeroCity. An experience that undoubtedly lead you to conclude that PJIA is “So Much More.”
ONLINE
PJIAE is taking this special to the world wide web. A special web-page has been created on www.pjiae.com and on the airport’s retail web-page which is also accessible through www.somuchmoresxm.com. And, in an unprecedented move, regular updates on the Food Court special are be available on facebook. “We are utilizing all tools at hand to get the message out that the airport is the place to be this summer,” said Marketing and Communications Manager Lynch. “Stay tuned online; there will be prizes there too.”
July 9, 2009
Australian airline Virgin Blue plans a code sharing tie-up with US carrier Delta Air Lines to allow the two carriers to compete better on routes between the US, Australia and the South Pacific, Virgin said on Thursday.
In advance of their joint venture, the carriers are moving to implement code sharing, frequent flyer programme reciprocity and lounge exchange privileges, the Virgin statement said.
The two will file antitrust immunity applications with the US Department of Transportation and with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
(Reuters)
July 9, 2009
Air Canada is finding some support from lenders as it struggles to solve its financial Rubik’s Cube, the cash-strapped airline’s chief executive said on Wednesday.
Tight credit markets have complicated discussions with the lenders that Canada’s largest airline has approached for short-term financing, CEO Calin Rovinescu told reporters.
“There is a certain level of support. We have some very specific targets of what we need to raise as far as capital. We continue to be confident, but the discussions are ongoing,” he said.
The airline was also able to offer some “clarifications” in weekend talks with its largest union, which recently voted down a tentative contract deal, but is scheduled to hold another vote next week, Rovinescu said.
Rovinescu declined to give specifics on the union talks, citing the ongoing ratification vote. Members of the 12,300-member machinists union narrowly rejected a tentative deal last week amid fears about job security.
Labour peace at the airline is critical to it securing government approval of a moratorium on payments into its pension fund and a deal with the lenders — a situation Rovinescu compared to a Rubik’s Cube puzzle.
“To get the colours all lined up you’ve got to turn it around and occasionally move backward and forwards to get the right outcome,” he said.
He also sounded an upbeat note on the status of Air Canada’s talks on getting pension relief from the federal government before the carrier is scheduled to make large funding payments at the end of July and in early August.
“We’ve had very good discussions with Ottawa about that. This is a process that has to be done at the same time (as getting union agreements and new financing),” he told reporters on at Vancouver Airport on Wednesday.
Rovinescu was at the airport to help unveil a new Boeing 777 aircraft painted to advertise the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, of which Air Canada is a major sponsor.
Wednesday’s Olympic event, held inside a hanger with athletes, acrobats and a man walking around in an inflatable aircraft costume, offered a colourful contrast to recent news surrounding the airline’s financial struggles.
Rovinescu and organisers of the Winter Olympics said they were confident Air Canada would be able to meet its sponsorship obligations — such as providing air travel to Games officials — even as it struggles to reorganise its finances and stay out of bankruptcy protection.
“What you’re seeing here is that Air Canada sees the Olympics as a vital part of their own business,” said John Furlong, chief executive of the Vancouver Organising Committee.
Neither Air Canada nor VANOC have released financial details of the sponsorship deal. The plane unveiled on Wednesday will be used primarily on international flights to Europe and Asia, officials said.
(Reuters)
July 9, 2009 –Foreign capital limits in Brazilian airline companies could rise to 49 percent from a present cap of 20 percent, according to a draft bill that the Civil Aviation Advisory Council said on Wednesday it is sending to the government.
The bill, which will have to be approved by Congress, could raise competition for local airline operators, such as TAM and Gol.
The council, an advisory agency for the presidency on the airline sector, also recommended a shift away from the current concessionary model for operators of domestic routes in favour of companies’ applying for authorisation.
Brazil’s commercial aviation sector, for decades under-funded, has been struggling to overcome serious capacity shortfalls at major airports in the face of robust growth in Latin America’s largest economy over the past several years.
(Reuters)
July 8, 2009 –The speed of the world’s biggest jets was no match against the slow and steady pace of a group of turtles that delayed flights at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport on Wednesday morning.
A runway that juts out into a bay was closed for 35 minutes while 78 diamondback terrapin turtles, each weighing 2-3 pounds (1-2 kg), were removed, said a spokesman for airport operator The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
“They came up out of the water,” the spokesman said. “It happens, but it doesn’t happen a lot.”
The closure caused delays of 1-1/2 hours at the airport, which caters to about 48 million passengers a year. The turtles were taken away and released back into the wild — away from the airport.
(Reuters)
Jul 09, 2009 –London could lose its place as a main gateway to Europe if the UK government goes ahead with plans to increase Air Passenger Duty (APD) next November. The warning comes from ETOA, which represents inbound European tour operators.
The Netherlands and Belgian governments have this month abolished departure taxes in an effort to give a stimulus to tourism through their international airports, raising concerns amongst European tour operators that Amsterdam and Brussels may be more attractive and economically efficient start and end ports for inbound tour groups from overseas.
The cost of ADP, when added to other government charges such as visa fees, is making the UK an expensive destination for the start and end of group tours to Europe, according to ETOA’s Executive Director, Tom Jenkins. With the UK standing outside the Schengen Agreement on a common visa for travel to Europe, the country is looking increasingly like an optional add-on than a key element of a visit to Europe for many in-bound long-haul travelers.
“What Dutch have done is sensible and this will boost inbound tourism. They have realized that inbound market has a choice and this move will attract inbound traffic,” said Jenkins.
“London is losing its gateway status. Scheduled tours used to start and finish in London now more and more start and finish on the continent. It used to be the automatic entry point and it is now becoming a bolt on extra. London is seen as optional rather than central.
“This has been exacerbated by the decision to stay outside Schengen, by very high visa fees and by the hike in APD. This blanket charge punishes people for choosing to come here. Whatever this does for the treasury; it is a stinging tax on exports.”
Under the proposals APD will be charged on international departures from the UK on a new four-level scale related to the distance from London to the capital city of the destination country. The increases are due to take effect from November 2009 with a further rise set for November 2010.
From 1 November the new APD starts at £11 on tickets to destinations within 2,000 miles of London, £45 on flights up to 4,000 miles, £50 on flights up to 6,000 miles and £55 on flights over 6,000 miles. From November 2010, the charges are £12, £60, £75 and £85. All these sums are doubled on premium class tickets, including premium economy where it is available.
This means that for visitors to the UK returning home to key long-haul market countries including Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and travelers to the Caribbean, the departure tax will be more than double the £40 charged at present. Tourism ministers have protested to the UK government. A delegation of ministers and officials from several Caribbean countries was in London recently to lobby the Government and MPs for a change of heart and warned them that the APD rises could harm their economies which were more than ever reliant on tourism.
No other countries operate such a method of charging departure taxes in geographical tiers. Australia has just increased its departure tax from AU$9 to AU$47 across all departures and New Zealand has moved its single departure tax from a cash payment at Auckland airport onto airlines to charge through ticket prices. Hong Kong also operates a flat rate tax of HK$120 on all departing passengers over 12 years old.
UKinbound Chief Executive, Mary Rance, said the rises in APD would harm Britain’s appeal to visitors from key long-haul markets. “Inbound tourism has the potential to help bring the UK out of recession. Overseas visitors spent £16.4 billion here in 2008 and with the current exchange rates and the potential to attract even more tourists, that figure could be higher in 2009.
“However the move to increase APD, as well as the massive visa costs levied against overseas visitors, will weaken our international competitiveness and deter travelers from visiting the UK.”
It’s estimated that APD will raise £2.46 billion in revenue for the UK Treasury, but this is without taking full account of a drop in demand for air travel as a result of the increased cost and the economic downturn which has hit long-haul premium class travel worse than leisure economy. Nor does it allow for the losses that arise from cuts in routes and jobs by airlines operating at UK airports straining under other pressures from the economic downturn, or from outbound travelers hopping to other European hubs such as Amsterdam for long-haul flights.
The Netherlands abandoned a new departure tax recently when it was found that while it raised an extra €312 million in tax receipts, the overall cost to the economy was over €1 billion in lost revenue.
APD was introduced in 1994 by the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, as a “green tax” but there has never been any coherent accounting of how the revenue generated has been used by the Treasury to offset the effects of carbon emissions.
“I want to know where the money will go. How many trees will the chancellor be planting with GBP 2.5 billion?” said Giovanni Bisignani, Director General of IATA. “Padding the UK budget at the expense of holiday-makers, business travelers or exporters is not sound environmental policy. Instead of inventing new taxes with convoluted calculation methods, governments must support investment in basic green technology research, assist air navigation service providers to straighten out routes and allow airlines to operate as fuel efficiently as possible. And when it comes to economic measures, let’s focus on a global emissions trading scheme,” he said.
Environmentalists say the increase in APD is too small to stem the growth in aviation emissions and would not change the behavior of intending passengers – the added cost on tickets would be absorbed by people determined to fly.
This is disputed by consumer groups and aviation lobbyists, who predict that as many as 1.5 million people will be forced to change their holiday plans next year because of the higher cost of flying.
In October 2007 the government announced proposals to replace APD with a ‘per plane’ tax from November 2009 – a plan that had the environmental advantage of giving airlines an incentive to be more fuel-efficient – but this was changed after consultations with the industry. The Chancellor said the per plane proposal could harm the aviation industry at a time when it is facing huge problems. It was in effect, a triumph in effective lobbying, notably by the freight air transport sector, which would have been brought in to the scheme to levy “green” taxes on flights.
MPs on the Environmental Audit Committee in their latest report said they were surprised and disappointed that the change from passenger duty to a flight tax would not now take place. “We are unconvinced by the reasoning behind the Government’s decision not to go ahead with a ‘per plane’ charge, the arguments for which the Treasury had formerly accepted.
“We are extremely concerned that the government is abandoning a proposal that by its own admission would send better environmental signals and would better represent the environmental costs. The decision to backtrack on this commitment means that air freight will continue to be entirely untaxed – in direct conflict with the Treasury’s endorsement of the ‘polluter pays’ principle. We recommend that the Treasury reinstates its plan to reform Air Passenger Duty into a per plane tax.”
A new Early Day Motion in the House of Commons is gathering signatures from MPs of all parties criticizing the banding structure and calling for APD to be replaced by a tax on flights rather than passengers – an option rejected by Chancellor Alistair Darling recently. “Replacing the air passenger duty with a per plane tax would be fairer for passengers flying on busy routes,” say the MPs, and the motion calls on the Government “to abolish the air passenger duty and replace it with a per plane aviation duty based on the actual distance travelled.” The MPs focus on a glaring anomaly in the banding structure of APD, which puts Caribbean destinations at a higher charge than the United States.
The head of the aviation industry body, IATA, has been scathing in his attack on the British Government’s proposals to raise APD. “Instead of using airlines to drive growth, many governments see us as a cash cow,” said Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s Director General. “It is shockingly disappointing that the UK Chancellor is continuing with plans to raise the Air Passenger Duty in the middle of this economic crisis. When the government should be doing everything possible to stimulate the economy, it makes no sense to dampen demand for air travel with increased taxation.”
Roger Wiltshire, Secretary General of the British Air Transport Association said no other country imposed such a high level of taxation on people simply for flying. “It’s in effect an economic barrier for investment, trade, tourism and travel in and out of the UK and the Chancellor has just made it taller. As we enter a recession it is nonsensical for the Government to take more money out of a productive and vital part of our economy through increased taxation.”
The Airport Operators Association, which represents 72 airports, has warned the Transport Secretary that the APD rises added to the effects of the recession, threaten the survival of some regional airports in the UK, as airlines and charter companies cut costs and services.
The European Low Fares Airline Association (ELFAA) welcomed what it called the enlightened decision of the Dutch government to scrap departure taxes from the beginning of this month, and urged the UK, Italy and Ireland to follow the Netherlands’ lead. Operators including Ryanair, easyJet and Flybe echoed the sentiment. “Ryanair has campaigned against high airport taxes and so-called ‘eco’-taxes, which deter visitors and has cost the Dutch tourism industry millions in lost revenue,” said a spokesman.
“As Ryanair has repeatedly shown, the tourism industry can only grow and thrive if it has lower access costs and not idiotic regressive taxation which hits the poorest, most price-sensitive passengers, and makes UK tourism an increasingly unattractive option,” said Ryanair’s Michael Cawley. “While the UK keeps taxing tourists Ryanair will switch its growth to other EU countries where low cost airports are growing and where governments are welcoming tourists not taxing them.”
British Airways said the rise in APD was highly regrettable and came at a time when the air travel industry was reeling from the combined effects of rising costs of security measures and falling demand in the economic downturn. “Air passenger duty is an extremely blunt instrument that provides the Treasury with extra funds for general public expenditure without any benefit to the environment whatsoever,” said a BA statement.
“Further taxing hard-working families and British businesses is not the way to address climate change. Unlike other transport sectors, UK aviation pays for all its own infrastructure and security.”
The travel agents body, ABTA, said it was disappointed the government had ignored the travel industry and decided to go ahead with the rise in APD, an unfair tax. “This holiday tax represents a heavy and growing burden on families at a time when they are being forced to reconsider whether they can afford to take a well-earned break,” said ABTA’s Mark Tanzer. “
As one of the few successful sectors in the UK economy, the government has targeted the travel industry to plunder, without regard to the damaging impact to jobs. We will continue to challenge the increases and the anomalies.”
Source: European Tour Operators Association
Low-cost Irish carrier Ryanair is hoping to duplicate a concept first introduced by Spring Airlines of China for standing-room aeroplane flights.
Media reports in Britain and North America say Ryanair is awaiting the go-ahead from the Irish Aviation Authority to press ahead with the project.
The standing passengers would be anchored to what are referred to as ‘bar stools’ , which Ryanair would turn to Boeing to build.
The airline estimates the transformation would boost passenger capacity by 50 per cent and cut costs by 20 per cent, the reports said, quoting airline Chief Executive Michael O’Leary.
Ryanair hopes to grow passenger to 67 million this year, or by about 13 per cent, compared with 15 per cent growth in 2008.
The increase in loads, notwithstanding, the budget carrier end the year with a loss of some US$145 million, its first in 20 years, Reuters reported.
In the month of June the airline’s passengers numbers grew 13 per cent to 5.84 million, giving Ryanair a one-point boost in load factor to 85 per cent.
The company flies mainly to Europe and North Africa.
July 6, 2009–Cabin crew union members at British Airways on Monday rejected the company’s proposals to reduce costs, including pay freezes, new contracts for cabin crew and 3,700 job cuts, Unite union said.
“There was an overwhelming rejection of BA’s proposals, including a new rate for starters, a pay freeze and changes to crewing patterns that are quite profound,” a union spokesperson said.
More than 2,000 of the union’s 27,000 BA members were meeting at Kempton Park Racecourse in Middlesex.
They backed a union plan, which the union spokesperson said would save the troubled airline up to GBP130 million pounds (USD$212 million).
The next step would be to return to the table for talks, mediated by conciliation service ACAS, on Wednesday, she said.
British Airways reiterated its view, stated after talks with the union broke down on July 1, that it wanted ACAS to facilitate future meetings.
Chief executive Willie Walsh has been trying to drive through cost cuts at the airline in what he has described to staff as a battle for survival.
It has cut planned spending by 20 percent in the current year, including deferring orders for 12 Airbus A380 aircraft, and is cutting 3,700 jobs on top of 2,500 lost in the year to end-March.
(Reuters)
July 7, 2009–Brazilian aircraft maker Embraer said on Tuesday it delivered 56 planes in the second quarter, bringing the total for the first six months of the year to 96.
That marked a slight increase over the 52 planes that Embraer delivered in the second quarter of 2008, before its new Phenom 100 business jet took to the skies.
The company said in a statement it delivered 19 business jets in the second quarter — 13 of them Phenom 100s, which cost about USD$3 million each and can seat up to eight people.
Embraer delivered 35 commercial jets in the second quarter, most of them from its E-Jet family of regional jets in the 70- to 100-seat niche.
The company finished the second quarter with a firm order backlog of USD$19.8 billion, almost unchanged from the end of March but down from USD$20.7 billion a year ago.
Embraer’s statement did not mention its year-end delivery forecast. But a spokesman for the company said it stood by its forecast of 242 aircraft for 2009.
(Reuters)