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AIR & BUSINESS TRAVEL NEWS

A WEEKLY NEWS REVIEW PUBLISHED EVERY MONDAY
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In conjunction with The Times business travel on line
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/businesstravel

18 SEPTEMBER 2006

VERY LATE BREAKING (and surprising) NEWS from the ROUTES
airlines/airports conference in Dubai Sunday afternoon is that
Pakistan?s second airline Shaheen Air is to introduce a four times
weekly service from Robin Hood Doncaster Airport to Dubai ?later this
year?. The airline will use a two-class Boeing 767 for the operation,
and also plans to continue the flight on to Toronto in 2007. Mohammed
Jalil, operations director, Shaheen Air, explained that the airline,
established in 1991, is profitable and has now only a small government
holding. It currently flies to five domestic and six international
destinations in The Gulf and carried 0.5m passengers in 2005. Neil
Pakey, CEO of Doncaster owner Peel Airports, said that the £120m
project has been a great success with 840,000 passengers in the first
year. http://www.shaheenair.com http://www.robinhoodairport.com

BREAKING NEWS is that Air France is to show a graphic video on child
prostitution on all its long haul flights from next month. The aim is
to raise awareness of the often hidden problem and to target
passengers who may be using its aircraft to fly to vulnerable
countries. The 90-second video shows young girls in discos, on streets
and in hotels, with graphics displaying their ages. To the sound of
handcuffs clicking shut, the video then shows a middle-aged man, a
censor bar across his eyes reading '10 years'. The video will be
played on the airline's 94 long haul aircraft and be seen by up to
46,000 passengers a day. UNICEF says about one million children are
exploited every year in the multi-billion-dollar industry. UK
scheduled and charter carriers have been targeted for a number of
years by charities fighting child exploitation.
http://www.airfrance.com

AER LINGUS ? sell-off warming up
AEROFLOT ? huge order looming
AIRBUS ? more A380 delivery problems?
ALL NIPPON AIRWAYS ? joining the budget market
BAA ? traffic holds up
BERLIN ? a reprieve?
BUSINESS TRAVELLER ? hands out the gongs
BWIA ? flying into the sunset
DELTA AIR LINES ? Chapter 11 exit hopes
EASYJET ? security measures hitting demand
EUROSTAR ? all change
LUFTHANSA ? million-dollar settlement
OAG ? busiest routes top ten
PRIVATE JET ? booming business
ROLLS-ROYCE ? Chinese orders flying high
RYANAIR ? French cuts
SPANISH ? airport incident
STANSTED ? Another North American link
SWALLOW HOTELS ? in administration
UK GOVERNMENT ? draconian restrictions reviewed

ON TOUR: Low Cost Airlines Conference
INCIDENTALLY: Happy Talk

COMMENT: Airlines could learn from trains

It is not often that you will hear ABTN praising the train companies.

Too many times have all of us stood on a drafty platform staring
desperately at a flickering monitor hoping that the scheduled train
may at least show signs it is coming, let alone on time. And all the
while clutching a £150 supersaver, saver plus, non-apex, away day,
special ticket.

But credit, where credit is due.

Last Thursday, London?s Paddington Station was gridlocked with
passengers after a fatality on the line at Hayes and Harlington in
west London. Nothing was coming in and nothing was going out at 1700,
start of the peak time.

First Great Western was under a lot of pressure to sooth the frayed
tempers of passengers, many of which are old hands at dealing with
service delays and most cynical about excuses and pathetic
compensation offers.

However, the train operator handled the situation very admirably. All
passengers who had special needs, such as disabled people, families
with small children and pregnant women, were looked after in a special
room, given drinks, and kept informed as best as possible as to when
their train would depart. Other passengers were given drinks and food
on the platforms and also updated well.

Those who needed urgently to take the train were given priority when
the services started rolling again and there was free food and drink
on trains to help placate the customers.

All, in all, the train company and its partners at Paddington coped as
well as can be expected.

Compare this with what happens at the airports when there is a delay.

Last month, at Heathrow for instance, passengers were stuffed into the
terminals, kept waiting in uninformed never-ending queues and expected
to cope for themselves. We stand to be corrected, but are not aware
that there are special measures for those that are pregnant, disabled
and travelling with small children.

At security, parents have had to lay their children on the floor,
while they are searched, pregnant women having to stand without any
signs of help, and minimum assistance offered for special needs
travellers.

The airports have considerably more room than train stations ? or they
would if they didn?t insist on cramming shops into every available
nook and cranny ? and could do a lot more to ease the now tortuous
checking in process.

Easyjet warns elsewhere in this edition that passengers may shun the
airlines due to the airport experience and those that run Heathrow,
Gatwick, Manchester etc should heed its warning.

For too long, airports have treated passengers as commodities to spend
money in their shops, rather than human beings wanting as hassle-free
an experience as possible.

Let?s hope the worm doesn?t turn.

___________________________________________________________________________

AER LINGUS? initial public offering is expected to raise about E660m
giving the airline a market value of about E1.1bn, reports suggest as
the carrier prepares to go to market. As part of the IPO in London and
Dublin later next week, Aer Lingus will issue 200m new shares while
the Irish government will sell 75m shares. It was the first flotation
of an airline on the London Stock Exchange since Easyjet six years
ago. Aer Lingus expects to raise about E500m, with additional revenue
coming from the government sale of its stake. Fleet expansion has been
earmarked for the cash. http://www.aerlingus.com

AEROFLOT may double its planned $3bn purchase of 22 long-range
airliners, it has said. Aeroflot's board has discussed offers for the
Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the Airbus A350 XWB model. Aeroflot's fleet
of 90 passenger aircraft, much of which is made up of ageing
Soviet-designed models, is in serious need of renewal, putting the
company under pressure to make up its mind after sitting on the order
for a year. The carrier could split the order between the two
manufacturers. http://www.aeroflot.ru/eng

AIRBUS has again had to defend its A380 delivery timings after the
head of partner BAe Systems warned of more delays. Mike Turner issued
the warning just a week after BAe agreed to sell its 20% stake in the
aircraft business. However, majority owner EADS denied the claims,
saying it was still carrying out an internal audit into the delays.
The ongoing row over deliveries has already claimed the jobs of a
number of senior executives. EADS, which is buying BAE's 20% stake to
give it full control of Airbus, said no-one could know whether the
A380 would face further hurdles. http://www.airbus.com

ALL NIPPON AIRWAYS is reported to be planning the launch of two
low-cost carriers, one for international services and one for
domestic. The unveiling of the airlines is expected to take place next
year and go someway to helping ANA fend off competition from other
budget carriers. The new carriers would be subsidiaries of ANA and
would be able to charge lower fares by cutting the costs of inflight
services. The airlines will be based at the expanding Tokyo Haneda
Airport. http://www.anaskyweb.com

BAA reports traffic at its seven UK airports still grew last month,
despite the disruption caused by tighter security measures. Numbers
were up a modest 0.3% year-on-year to 14.3m, with the company saying
fewer than 2% of the 116,000 flights scheduled to operate from its
airports during the month were cancelled. However, the disruption did
cost BAA £13m. UK domestic traffic was most affected, where passenger
numbers declined by 7.6% from August 2005 to 2.2m. European scheduled
and long haul, excluding the North Atlantic, were the only markets to
improve, with increases of 4.5% and 8.8% to 5.9m and 2.2m
respectively. http://www.baa.co.uk

BERLIN Tempelhof Airport, which is scheduled to shut next year, may be
saved through a deal with Germany?s national rail system Deutsche
Bahn. The railway company is proposing to use the facility for private
jets and make use of the existing runway. It is also reported that
German chancellor Angela Merkel also wants to save Tempelhof. Berlin
has three airports but Tempelhof and Tegel are both closing in favour
of a new E2bn facility, which is being constructed on the site of
Schoenefeld and will be known as Berlin-Brandenburg International.
Tempelhof has a chequered history and was built by the Nazis in 1923
as the world?s first commercial airport and its 1,000-metre long
terminal was once the world?s biggest building.
http://www.berlin-airport.de

BUSINESS TRAVELLER magazine has held its annual awards, with astronaut
Buzz Aldrin on hand to make the presentations. The winners at the
lunch, held at London Hilton Hotel on Park Lane, were British Airways
as chief executive Willie Walsh collected Best Airline, Best Short
Haul Airline, Best Long Haul Airline, Best Frequent Flyer Programme,
Best Economy Class and Best First Class. Rival Virgin Atlantic took
home the awards for Best Premium Economy Class and Best Business
Class, while Best Low Cost Airline was Easyjet. Hilton was hailed as
Best Business Hotel Chain in the UK and also Europe, while Marriott,
Jumeirah and Shangri-La won Best Hotel Chains in North America, Middle
East and Asia Pacific respectively. http://www.businesstraveller.com

BWIA is set to slide into the history books when the state-owned
carrier is renamed Caribbean Airlines next year. The Trinidad and
Tobago government has put £133m into the airline and set up a
taskforce led by the airline?s chief executive Peter Davies to
investigate its restructuring options. BWIA staff will be given the
opportunity to apply for jobs with Caribbean, but must accept new
packages ?competitive within the current airline market?, the company
said in a statement. Routes and aircraft type must also be reassessed
under the new business plan. http://www.bwee.com

DELTA AIR LINES and Northwest Airlines are still reducing costs and
seeking ways to exit Chapter 11, a year after filing for protection.
They followed United Airlines and the former US Airways, which also
have been in bankruptcy in recent years. With the industry seeing
signs of a turnaround, the airlines are eager to resume normal
operations. Delta plans to file its reorganisation plan later this
year and emerge from bankruptcy in the first half of 2007 and
Northwest has said it too plans to come out of bankruptcy early next
year. http://www.delta.com http://www.nwa.com

EASYJET has warned that ongoing security measures at UK airports are
likely to hit future demand as passengers seek alternative transport.
The airline said its forward bookings had returned to normal after
last month?s crisis but it was worried tighter security arrangements
at UK airports would eventually affect demand. Easyjet, cancelled 469
flights in August after the security alert and lost £4m, but the
legacy of the situation could linger it says. http://www.easyjet.com

EUROSTAR is drastically cutting service at Ashford International when
a new station in north Kent opens next year. Ashford will retain some
Paris services, but lose Brussels trains when the new £100m Ebbsfleet
opens in October 2007. Eurostar said Ashford would retain some peak
daily services to Paris and weekly trains to France, while also
running high-speed domestic services from 2009. Situated close to the
M25 between Dartford and Gravesend, Ebbsfleet will offer access to
continental Europe for more than 10m potential travellers across
southern England, claimed Eurostar. http://www.eurostar.com

LUFTHANSA has agreed to pay $85m to settle US class-action lawsuits
stemming from alleged cargo price-fixing and has received conditional
immunity from antitrust investigators. Lufthansa also said it had
applied for leniency to the US Department of Justice, the European
Union Commission and other authorities and had received conditional
immunity from all of them, reducing the risk of further penalties.
Lufthansa had said in February it would co-operate with a probe being
carried out by US and European officials into possible price-fixing of
freight shipments by passenger and cargo airlines. American Airlines
and United Airlines have both confirmed they received inquiries as
part of the probe and have agreed to settle lawsuits, without paying
out to plaintiffs. SAS revealed it had been raided by the European
Commission, while British Airways, Air France/KLM and freight airline
Cargolux said they had also been questioned. http://www.lufthansa.com

OAG has named Barcelona to Madrid as the world?s busiest route by
total flight arrivals and departures. The Spanish route swaps places
with the previous busiest between Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. In
third is Melbourne - Sydney, ahead of Jakarta - Surabaya and Mumbai -
Delhi. Based on flights operated by low-cost carriers only, the table
is very different. Seven of the top 10 are domestic US routes, with
Dallas/Fort Worth Love Field-Houston retaining its number one
position, ahead of Melbourne-Sydney. OAG commented that there was much
greater year-on-year movement in the low-cost table than overall.
http://www.oag.com

PRIVATE JET business is growing so fast it could double by 2011 to
more than 5,000 aircraft in the US, the National Business Aviation
Association has said. Companies in the US, where an estimated 70% of
the business is located, are reporting a sharp rise in demand since
the terrorist alert last month in London. NetJets controls about half
of the estimated $2.6bn private jet market, according to the National
Air Transportation Association, while Delta AirElite, a subsidiary of
Delta Airlines, reported a 70% increase in interest in the two weeks
after the London terrorist scare. http://www.nbaa.org

ROLLS-ROYCE has agreed to supply aircraft engines to Chinese carrier
Hainan Airlines in a deal which could be worth more than £265m. The
manufacturer will supply 100 engines for use in aircraft built by
Embraer from next year, while it already has a contract to supply
engines to Hainan for use in seven Airbus A330 ordered in July. Its
engines are currently used by ten Chinese airlines and further demand
is expected as air travel increases across that huge country. The
Asian aviation market is set to underpin Rolls-Royce's overall growth
over the next 20 years, with global demand for 6,500 engines forecast
by 2026. http://www.rolls-royce.com

RYANAIR is suspending four routes to France due to poor performance in
terms of advance bookings. The services are Luton ? Brest, Stansted ?
Deauville, Nottingham EMA ? Nimes and Shannon ? Nantes. However,
Ryanair said that the routes will restart next February. The
cancellations free up one plane which has been earmarked for route
development. Within the next four weeks the carrier will announce a
new European base and a number of new routes from existing bases.
http://www.ryanair.com

SPANISH investigators are studying why a roof of a building at Mahon
airport on the Spanish island of Menorca collapsed. Two people were
injured in the incident, as the building was apparently undergoing
construction work. Initial reports said up to 20 people were trapped
in the rubble, but these were later discounted. Passengers faced some
disruption at the airport but domestic and holiday flights were
largely unaffected in the accident last week. http://www.aena.es

STANSTED is the up and coming airport for North America, so it seems.
With Eos and Maxjet established to the USA, Flyglobespan, the Scottish
airline, part of the highly successful Globespan group, is to
introduce daily Toronto flights next May. In theory at any rate
Flyglobespan will be aiming at a different sector of the market,
emphasizing its cheap fares from £99 one way including tax, but the
airline also offers Economy Premier and business class. Boeing 767-300
aircraft will be used. http://www.flyglobespan.com

SWALLOW HOTELS? parent company has brought in the administrators after
admitting to struggling for some time in the face of heavy losses.
Swallow is the largest hotel chain in Scotland with around 40
properties, while its English portfolio consists of around another
100. Maidstone-based London & Swallow Group?s administration order
covers 671 sites with over 7,000 employees. As recently as this March
it spent £20m on six golf hotels in Scotland. Its chief executive
Peter Gray left the business in August. http://www.swallow-hotels.com

UK GOVERNMENT baggage restrictions are expected to be reduced this
week as a review of airline security is finalised. Reports suggest it
is likely an easing of air travel rules will come into effect with the
ban on liquids in hand luggage and smaller limits on the size of
carry-on bags reviewed. Travellers are hoping larger, wheely, bags may
be permitted and some types of liquid, like contact lens solution,
permitted. A meeting of government and airline industry officials is
set for today (18 September). http://www.dti.gov.uk

FORTHCOMING EVENTS THAT MIGHT BE OF INTEREST TO READERS:

The Aviation Club of the UK is now into its winter programme. This
Wednesday (20 September), Cessna Aircraft Company chairman, president
and chief executive Jack Pelton is the speaker, whilst on 19 October,
Paul Barron, chief executive, NATS will discuss this vital industry
service and be open for questions. http://www.aviationclub.org.uk

ABTN sadly reports the passing of a great ?total aviation man?,
Raymond Baxter (84) OBE, raw RAF recruit and Spitfire pilot, part of
the Viscount crew that won the (handicap) great air race to Sydney in
1953 (with John Profumo), BBC commentator of note, technology
presenter, and a very nice guy. Probably Ray?s last public appearance
was at the memorial service of another 20th century British aviation
icon, Sir Peter Masefield just a few weeks ago.
___________________________________________________________________________

ON TOUR: Low Cost Airlines Conference

Our roving reviewer and industry guru Alison Chambers has been on her
travels again, but this time only to central London. She was ably
assisted by Eryl Crump, who also took the picture on the web site.
alison (AT) emeraldmedia (DOT) co.uk ecrump (AT) btinternet (DOT) com

New Generation Airlines is how the young low cost carriers in Europe
and Asia see themselves, delegates at the annual World Low Cost
Airlines Congress in London heard last week. ?Maybe we will redefine
the sector,? summed up Patrick Murphy, chairman of Aviation
Performance and principal MOC of the event, highlighting how the
market is indeed blurring as legacy carriers downgrade their service
levels while LCCs adopt the operating practices of the traditional
airlines. Many offer free drinks and snacks and seat assignment. They
are moving toward inflight mobile telephones and offer frequent flyer
programmes and special incentives to target corporate travellers. Even
Air Southwest, the pioneering granddaddy, is looking at seat
assignment.

?Charging $2 for a can of coke is not going to make a lot of
difference in an industry with high oil prices, asserted Udom
Tantoprasongchai, CEO of Thailand?s low cost carrier OneTwoGo, who
describes his airline as an NGA. OneTwoGo?s innovative, simplified
fare structure, where passengers pay for fares in ?zones? ? rather
like the London Underground ? has won respect. A one hour trip is a
set price, a two hour trip a higher amount, and so on. We have
competition in the marketplace so this is an important strategy for
us. Everything is transparent. ?We don?t believe in selling a camera
without a battery,? he says.

?One size definitely does not fit all,? echoed Maunu von Lueders,
president of FlyNordic. ?In Scandinavia business travellers are used
to a certain standard of service and while they are price sensitive,
they are not willing to give up a lot of service features in exchange
for a lower fare.? ?Paying less should not be synonymous with lowering
standards,? adds Vueling Airlines, whose CEO Carlos Munoz asserts it
too is a ?New Generation Airline.?

The term NGA was actually first coined by Jim French when he drew up
the blueprint for Flybe. Interesting that of late then, Flybe, as it
has got bigger, has adopted some of the more hard-core LCC principles
such as charging for baggage in the hold. COO Mike Rutter quipped at
the conference that when he saw the size of the toilet area aboard its
new Embraer 195 he wondered if it could accommodate a slot machine ?
so passengers could spend a penny!

The facts are that the LCC market ? frills or no frills ? remains the
fastest growth sector in the industry. These players will account for
220m passengers by 2012, up from the 132m at present. Not only are
they revolutionising travel, they are influencing aircraft design,
said Wolfgang Kurth, LCC Congress chairman. This is evidenced by
easyJet requiring a second overwing exit on the A319 so its passengers
can disembark quicker, while Boeing has Ryanair, Brazil?s Gol and
Southwest on its study group as it researches a successor to the 737.
This influential group is also challenging airports to get their act
together. They don?t want expensive Taj Mahal terminals and UK
airlines, led by Mike Rutter and easyJet?s new boss Andrew Harrison,
want to break the monopoly that is BAA. ?There should be a definitive
intervention that if an airport is within an hour or two hours? drive
of a second airport, it should not have the same owner,? said Rutter.

Delegates heard that Asia is an emerging market for low cost or NGA
operators. Leading the development is Tiger Air of Singapore, headed
by Tony Davies, one time of bmi. With a domestic market of just four
million the airline is focusing on a much wider Asian market. It is
very different because Asia is not a single market like Europe. Land
transport is often not viable and aviation therefore becomes the most
practical form of transport. Liberalisation has not happened as it has
in Europe and as a result less than 5% of passengers fly on low fare
airlines.

Davis noted that for every country Tiger serves it must have a
different OAC. ?With four operating certificates, that is a
challenge.? Tiger has just won rights to fly to the Philippines and
wants to fly to Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur to Singapore has more bus
services than air services. If we could fly there we would fly up to
ten times a day, he said. He also called for improved infrastructure,
which could include making civil use of several underused military
airports in Asia.

Kulula.com is South Africa?s first low cost carrier. Owned by Comair,
a British Airways franchise carrier, it gets away with selling low
fare tickets on a web-based low fare website, for services operated by
BA. There is a lot of cross utilisation said CEO Gidon Novick,
acknowledging that Kulula is studying 50-70 seat turboprop aircraft to
start serving routes that are not big enough to support its Boeing 737
services. The airline is interested in acquiring SA Express, itself a
Bombardier Q400 operator, which is up for sale.

The Middle East LCC market continues to make progress. Air Arabia
marks its third anniversary in six weeks? time. ?We broke even in the
first year, made a profit in year two and will carry 2m passengers
this year,? said Adel Abdulla Ali, CEO. He highlighted that the
airline was also the first into Alexandria, initially with three
flights a week, now flying three a day. ?Qatar Airways and Emirates
have followed us,? he said. Air Arabia will soon be joined by Sama,
meaning to ?fly high?. Sama plans to start domestic routes initially
with four leased B737-300 aircraft (from GECAS and Oasis), operating
from Riyadh Airport. Backed by senior members of the Saudi Royal
Family, Sama is looking to realise the opportunities that are expected
when Saudi Arabian Airlines is privatised, noted CEO Andrew Cowen. He
highlighted that Riyadh ? Dubai is currently served three or four
times daily, compared with London ? Paris which boasts up to 34 daily
services.

The last word goes to Patee Sarasin, CEO of Nok Air, whose bright pink
aircraft with painted yellow ?beaks? have quite a following in
Thailand. Focusing on the brand ? a dedicated music channel, a good
distribution, including ticket sales at Seven 11 and DVD stores ? has
significantly raised the profile. ?We are an LCC ? meaning lovable,
charming and cuddly,? he said.

Over 40 low cost carriers will be represented at Routes in Dubai this
week.
http://www.lowcostairlinesworld.com

INCIDENTIALLY: Happy Talk

Mobile phones may the coming thing with Ryanair (see ABTN 4 September)
but the idea has not gone down well with Monarch passengers. In a
recent online survey conducted by the airline, 67% of travellers
claimed that using a cell phone during a flight and having to listen
to other people's annoying ring tones would be one of the most
disturbing in-flight experiences for them. Over 1,500 Monarch
passengers responded to the survey, in which they were asked to
identify the three things that would annoy them the most during a
flight. Top of the table with 78% was the person sitting behind them
knocking their seat, with this being closely followed by the person in
front of them reclining their seat (69%). Despite the use of mobile
phones not currently being permitted on flights, passengers clearly
believe that their use would be a huge irritant and voted it into
third place (67%), beating having to sit next to a smelly type (53%).
http://www.flymonarch.com

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Jim Mason · Guest

In article <MPG.1f785d233d4c7493989cf1 (AT) news (DOT) individual.net>,
jim.mason (AT) spamtrappedukonline (DOT) co.uk says...