Category: Monday Briefing

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Welcome to London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing for the week beginning 20 April 2020.

With the UK’s lockdown set to continue for at least another three weeks and there being absolutely no sign of international air travel restrictions being lifted, this is little for airports and airlines to do than simply wait.

Here’s a précis of the latest operational news for airlines in the UK:

Today, Beijing Capital Airlines, Finnair, Qantas and Qatar Airways will transfer operations to London Heathrow Terminal 2. They follow Cathay Pacific, Emirates Iran Air, Japan Airlines and Pakistan International Airlines who have also moved to Terminal 2.

British Airways has extended the cancellation of all flights at London City and London Gatwick until Friday 22 May 2020 at the earliest. In all likelihood, this will be extended further.

easyJet has no firm plans to resume scheduled flights and is likely to give at least two weeks’ notice before doing so.

As if the airline didn’t have enough to contend with, its implacable founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou is now seeking to oust the airline’s Chairman John Barton and Chief Executive Johan Lundgren. This is due to the ongoing dispute over an order for Airbus aircraft.

Loganair has confirmed that it is in discussions with the Department for Transport on a state support package. In contrast to Virgin Atlantic, the Treasury does not appear to be leading negotiations.

On Friday evening, comments were “leaked” to the Financial Times that the Treasury was “unimpressed” with Virgin Atlantic’s initial bid for £500m of state support.

Specifically, the Treasury had concerns that Virgin had not done enough to secure additional funding from the private sector. It had not also considered in its 2-5 year business plan reduced demand for air travel.

As anyone who has seen the Treasury at work will know, it is not surprising to seek details of discussions leak and for the Treasury to be seen to calling the shots.

One question Virgin will have to answer is what competitive role it will play in the marketplace over the next few years. Its plan to be a “Second Flag Carrier” is increasingly implausible – Virgin has already suspended London Heathrow – Sao Paulo before launch.

Norwegian has reportedly not paid the April salaries of UK crews who operate for Norwegian Air UK. This is due to the fact that they agency responsible for their employment has not received sufficient funds from Norwegian.

This week the UK Government will operate 31 charter flights from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan to enable British nationals to return home. Full details of these are available from the Foreign Office.

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London Air Travel » Monday Briefing » Page 12

Welcome to London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing for the week beginning 13 April 2020.

This should have been one of the busiest travel weekends of the year.

Today, at London Heathrow, excluding cargo only and charter flights, BA will operate just 3 UK domestic, 7 short-haul and 4 transatlantic flights. There are around 35 flights from 23 other airlines over a period of around 12 hours.

There’s no shortage of think-pieces on what the long term impact of COVID-19 will be. The honest answer is that nobody knows.

Lufthansa is one of the first airlines to announce firm fleet reduction plans.

It will retire 6 out of 14 Airbus A380 aircraft, 7 out of 17 Airbus A340-600 aircraft, 3 out of 17 Airbus A340-300 aircraft and 5 out of 13 Boeing 747-400 aircraft. Short-haul aircraft will also be reduced.

Other Lufthansa Group airlines will also reduce their fleets. Lufthansa expect demand to remain subdued into 2021 and will not recover to 2019 levels until 2023.

This is, perhaps, not quite as dramatic as it first sounds. These aircraft were due to be retired in any event. Lufthansa has not yet said anything about deferring deliveries of new long-haul aircraft, of which the group has nearly 70 on order.

Norwegian has, unsurprisingly, delayed its plan to restart flights at Gatwick until 1 June 2020.

Norwegian is also pursuing another financial restructuring which involves a debt-for-equity swap. This is in order to secure further financial support of up to NOK270 million (~£21 million) from the Norwegian Government. The official announcement alludes to a “new Norwegian” which suggests further changes are forthcoming.

The first weekly Qantas service from Melbourne, via Perth, arrived at London Heathrow this morning.

Only economy tickets are on sale with many seats in the economy cabin blocked off. Though looking at seat maps some premium economy seats seem open for selection. Flights operate with limited food and beverage and no in-flight entertainment. The return to Perth will depart London Heathrow on Wednesday morning.

On a related note, this is a good primer from Qantas on what is involved in preparing aircraft for storage.

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London Air Travel » Monday Briefing » Page 12

Welcome to London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing for the week beginning 6 April 2020.

As scheduled air travel all but grinds to halt, the UK Government is now enlisting airlines to operate charter flights to bring British nations back home.

The first charter flights from India were announced yesterday and registration for these flights is now open. Special charter flights will operate from Goa, Mumbai and New Delhi this week. More details are available from the British High Commission India.

Repatriation flights will also operate from Cape Town and Johannesburg this week.

In terms of scheduled airline operations:

Heathrow confirmed last week that it intends to temporarily close Terminals 3 and 4, with flights consolidated in Terminals 2 and 5. However, the airport is yet to confirm which airlines are moving where. Heathrow will also begin single runway operations from today.

International Airlines Group also confirmed that its airlines will continue to reduce capacity by 90% up until the end of May. Though, BA has not yet processed any substantial cancellations from 1 May 2020.

American Airlines has set out tentative plans to reinstate its network from London Heathrow, which is currently limited to Dallas / Fort Worth. American plans to resume flights to London Heathrow from Chicago O’Hare, Los Angeles, New York JFK, Philadelphia and Raleigh-Durham on 4 June 2020. Charlotte will resume on 7 July. Phoenix will resume on 7 October. American’s inaugural flight from Boston to London Heathrow is delayed until 25 October.

Virgin Atlantic & Virgin Australia Seek State Support

Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Australia, the last two Virgin branded airlines in existence, are both actively seeking state support.

Virgin Australia has formally asked the Australian Federal Government for support of AU$1.4 billion.

Virgin Atlantic is reported to be in talks for UK Government support of £500m which would include loans to cover operating expenses and credit guarantees to prevent credit card companies.

There are parallels in both requests in that there is a history of corporate and personal animosity between both Virgin airlines and their main incumbent competitors.

Virgin Australia’s request prompted a response from Qantas that should Virgin’s request be authorised (there are no signs yet that it will), Qantas should receive a proportionally larger bail out to “level the playing field”. Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has also given warning against state support for businesses that have been “badly managed”.

According to ABC Australia Credit Suisse has estimated that Virgin Australia could burn through its remaining cash reserves by the end of June.

The Sunday Times estimates that Virgin Atlantic is burning approximately £20 million of cash a week. IAG’s reported cash balance fell from €7.35 billion to €7.2 billion between 12 and 27 March.

There are appears to be no prospect of any of Virgin Australia’s shareholders which include Etihad and Singapore Airlines, contributing to a recapitalisation of the airline. In the UK there is an expectation that Virgin Atlantic’s shareholders, Delta and Virgin Group, should foot the bill.

At a UK Government press conference yesterday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock declined to answer a question from Jim Pickard of the Financial Times as to whether Virgin Atlantic should receive a bailout because its majority shareholder is not tax resident in the UK and has previously sued the National Health Service.

Whatever the economic and competitive merits of state support for Virgin Atlantic, “optics” and politics are unavoidable. The Treasury will, as it always does in Government, call the shots. Virgin Group will have to be seen to pay a price.

Continue reading “London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing – 6 April 2020”

London Air Travel » Monday Briefing » Page 12

Welcome to London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing for the week beginning 30 March 2020.

Cash Is King

With airlines now facing a minimum of six months’ disruption, their overwhelming priority is the preservation and raising of additional cash.

Some airlines have already taken steps to raise additional capital:

Norwegian has completed the first step to meet the criteria to obtain a loan guarantee of NOK300 million (~£23 million) from the Norwegian Government by securing a contribution of 10% from financial institutions. Up to NOK3 billion (~£230 million) is available to Norwegian in loan guarantees. However, the criterion for these is considerably more stringent.

Qantas has raised AU$1.05 billion (~£507 million) in additional liquidity, secured against 7 Boeing 787-9 aircraft.

Qatar Airways has warned that it only has enough cash to sustain operations for a “very short period” and “We will surely go to our government eventually.” (Reuters)

Singapore Airlines plans to raise S$5.3 billion (~£3 billion) in new equity from its shareholders and up to S$9.7 billion (~£9.7 billion) through Mandatory Convertible Bonds, which will be progressively raised in the coming months.

Tui has secured an €1.8 billion loan from the German Government.

Virgin Atlantic is reported to be close to formally asking the UK Government for a package of loans and guarantees in the sum of hundreds of millions pounds.

Last week in a letter to airlines, no doubt written in the knowledge it would enter the public domain, the Government said it would not introduce sector specific measures to support the aviation industry. This does not preclude Government support. However, airlines are expected to pursue all available means from lenders and shareholders first.

In the case of Virgin Atlantic, this inevitably places focus on Sir Richard Branson. Additional support from Delta, a 49% shareholder is unlikely, given it has reached its maximum shareholding and it and other US airlines are receiving direct financial support from the US Government.

Operational Updates

Airport Coordination Ltd, which oversees the allocation of slots at London airports, has granted an extended waiver of “use it lose it” rules until the end of October 2020. It had, just two weeks ago, granted a waiver until 30 June 2020. This was originally due to be reviewed in May.

The Civil Aviation Authority has published traffic data for domestic and international routes for February 2020. Unsurprisingly, traffic on routes between Heathrow and mainland China fell by 70-100%. Traffic between Heathrow and Hong Kong fell by 40%.

Gatwick Airport is to close the North Terminal from Wednesday 1 April 2020. All remaining flights will operate from the South Terminal. The airport’s sole runway will also only be operational for scheduled flights between 14:00 and 22:00. Virgin Atlantic has already transferred what few flights remain operating to London Heathrow.

London City Airport has closed for scheduled flights until the end of April earliest. BA has temporarily transferred its route to the Isle of Man (operated by Loganair) to London Heathrow.

Finnair has confirmed it will continue to operate a skeleton schedule until 30 June at the earliest. This will include two flights a day between London Heathrow and Helsinki, operated with an Airbus 319 aircraft. Finnair’s sole intercontinental route will be Tokyo Haneda. Full details are available from Finnair.

KLM will, until 3 May, serve 25 intercontinental destinations and 32 destinations in Europe with 69 return flights a week. This represents a capacity cut of around 90%. Most intercontinental destinations will have 2-3 flights a week, with only New York JFK being served with a daily flight.

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London Air Travel » Monday Briefing » Page 12

Welcome to London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing for the week beginning 23 March 2020.

“We have no incoming bookings any more, hardly any.”

Carsten Sphor, Chief Executive, Lufthansa

At the time of a global crisis, it’s easy to catastrophise. Many in the immediate aftermath of 11 September 2001 thought aviation would never recover. However, the situation with Coronavirus is moving so quickly that the plans of airlines just seven days ago now seem hopelessly optimistic.

On both sides of the Atlantic, Governments are contemplating state support for airlines.

In the US, airlines have acted in concert and issued a plea for support of up to $60 billion. This includes payroll grants and loan guarantees. At the time of “going to press” a bill is unsurprisingly caught up in political wrangling between Democrat & Republican politicians.

In the UK, there is no consensus amongst the industry on what the Government should do.

The Government has appointed Rothschild to look at measures to support the industry. Some measures reportedly include a moratorium on EC261 compensation, waiving Air Traffic Control charges and temporarily suspending Air Passenger Duty.

Some reports have suggested that measures such as loan guarantees will not be enough and the Government will have to take an equity stake in UK airlines.

Last week, Virgin Atlantic issued an outright request for Government credit facilities of up to £7.5 billion for the industry. Virgin is clearly nervous that credit card providers will hold back funds as they have done to Flybe and Norwegian.

Yesterday, Sir Richard Branson also committed $250m of funds to his Virgin businesses which have all been impacted by Coronavirus (Virgin).

IAG has been keen to emphasise its resilience with cash of €7.35 billion and undrawn facilities of €1.9 billion. This may sound like a lot of money but UBS estimated last week that IAG could burn through €1.15 billion of cash a month.

A “senior IAG source” also briefed BBC News last week that there are better uses of taxpayer funds than a bailout for Virgin Atlantic.

(It’s also worth recalling there is a lot of history between Sir Richard Branson and Willie Walsh from the last financial crisis. When BA was reeling from the collapse of Lehman Brothers, in very public fashion due its status as a listed company, Sir Richard raised the question of the need for state support of BA. This triggered a fall in BA’s share price, and Sir Richard said of BA that “we should wait for its demise.”)

There are of course inherent conflicts in the Government taking equity stakes in different UK airlines where it would effectively have competing financial investments.

IAG has long been against Government investment in airlines and is likely to only accept an equity stake as an absolute last resort. The UK Government would only have interest in investing in BA. Ditto for the Spanish Government and Iberia. IAG has always wanted full control of all its airlines and is unlikely to be willing to cede minority interests in any of its subsidiaries, not least when there’s the potential for political interference.

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London Air Travel » Monday Briefing » Page 12

Welcome to London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing for the week beginning 16 March 2020.

“To be honest we’ve gone through all of this before. We’ve all seen it before.”

“We know what to do in a time like this. We know how to respond.”

The comments of IAG CEO Wille Walsh a little over two weeks ago.

Last Friday, British Airways CEO Alex Cruz sent a video message, ostensibly to employees only, which referred to BA as being in “a fight for survival”.

There is a kernel of truth that many airlines have been at pains to emphasise they have learned the lessons of 11 September 2001 and the 2008 financial crisis. Some airlines have claimed they could now be profitable in perpetuity, no matter what.

Arguably, no-one could have anticipated that many airlines could now be close to shutting down all international operations for a minimum of two months.

This is the most unprecedented situation for civil aviation since the Second World War.

Some of the tools airlines such as BA have used to get through downturns in the past, such as aggressive marketing activity in certain geographic markets or passenger segments, are simply not available now.

The “known unknown” is whether this is a period of significantly reduced demand for a few months which will soon rebound, or a fundamental reordering of global aviation.

The scale of capacity cuts and route suspensions is unprecedented:

airBaltic is to suspend all scheduled flights from 17 March to 14 April 2020, save for potential repatriation flights.

Air New Zealand is to cut long-haul capacity by 85%. London Heathrow – Los Angeles is suspended from 21 March to 30 June. Other suspended long-haul routes are Chicago O’Hare, San Francisco, Houston, Buenos Aires, Vancouver, Tokyo Narita, Honolulu, Denpasar and Taipei 

Alitalia has asked all passengers to wear masks on board its aircraft in case passengers cannot be kept one metre apart.

American Airlines is to suspend virtually all long-haul flights outside of Central & North America. The airline will operate a skeleton service of one flight a day from London Heathrow to Dallas / Fort Worth and Miami and three flights a week between Dallas / Fort Worth and Tokyo Narita.

Delta is to suspend virtually all transatlantic flights. This is save for one daily flight to Atlanta from London Heathrow, Amsterdam and Paris Charles de Gaulle; one flight from Amsterdam to Detroit; and flight from London Heathrow to New York JFK.

Lufthansa now expects its group airlines to reduce capacity by up to 70%. The airline has drawn additional credit facilities of €600m. The group is also looking to secure financing against its aircraft which it claims have a book value of €10 billion.

Norwegian has issued an outright plea for state support and has admitted it will not be able to raise funds through conventional means. Even before the extension of the US travel ban to the UK & Ireland, the airline had announced it was to ground 40% of its long-haul fleet and cancel 4,000 flights to the end of May.

Qantas has made substantial cuts to its international network, including the grounding of all part two Airbus A380 aircraft until September.

SAS Scandinavian Airlines is to suspend almost all operations from today.

Singapore Airlines has suspended services from Barcelona, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Milan, Munich, Paris and Rome to Singapore until the end of May.

Shai Weiz, CEO of Virgin Atlantic and Peter Norris, Chairman of Virgin Group, a 51% shareholder in Virgin Atlantic, are reported to be writing to UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson this week to ask for liquidity support of up to £7.5bn for the entire industry.

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London Air Travel » Monday Briefing » Page 12

Welcome to London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing for the week beginning 9 March 2020.

It’s easy when reporting on aviation to descend into hyperbole.

However, it is no exaggeration to say that the industry is now facing what is arguably its biggest ever crisis.

In a very short space of time demand for air travel has simply collapsed. There is very little airlines can do about it. And it is not know whether the current situation will continue for weeks or months.

It was reported last week that Virgin Atlantic’s forward bookings have fallen by 50%. Lufthansa plans to cut capacity by 50% and may also temporarily ground its fleet of 14 Airbus A380 aircraft.

Norwegian’s share price has fallen to 12.24 NOK, compared to a high of 221.24 NOK at little under five years ago. City analysts widely expect the airline to have to raise new funds (again) to avoid breaching banking covenants.

IATA has made a request that regulators grant an alleviation on airport slot rules so airlines have much more flexibility to cancel flights.

Airport Co-ordination Ltd (“ACL”) which oversees slot allocation at Gatwick and Heathrow advised last week that it has granted an alleviation over slots used for mainland China and Hong Kong flights up until the end of May 2020.

However, ACL has advised that it cannot grant a broader alleviation for UK and EU airports unless the European Commission proposes a specific regulation. It has previously done so after industry crises such as 11 September 2001 and the 2008 financial crisis.

Should such an alleviation be granted then it is likely we will see BA and Virgin Atlantic implement substantial capacity cuts for the coming weeks.

Update: The European Airport Coordinators Association has today published a paper urging the European Commission to immediately relax EU Slot Regulations which would allow slot coordinators to waive “use it or lose it” airport slot rules until the end of June at the earliest. The full paper can be read here.

Flybe

So farewell then Flybe.

Once again the closure of a UK airline was the undignified sight of its last flights being cancelled at short notice and aircraft being impounded by airports over unpaid fees before entering into administration in the middle of the night.

Flybe’s ultimately unsuccessful case for state support was that 88 of its 120 routes were not flown by any other airline and would not be replaced after its failure.

That is true, up to a point. However, in the immediate aftermath of its collapse its franchise partners Blue Islands and Eastern Airways, as well as Aurigny and Loganair have wasted little time in announcing around 20 new routes to replace Flybe.

Note that Blue Islands and Eastern Airways have different advice for passengers who have made bookings through Flybe. Blue Islands is unable to honour bookings for travel from Tuesday 10 March due to the funds being withheld by Flybe’s card acquirers.

Update: Flybe’s Heathrow slots, equivalent to 12 daily return flights, have been returned to British Airways for the summer 2020 season.

Whilst BA will welcome the return of the slots this could not be more ill-timed.  BA will have to seek a dispensation to avoid forfeiting them.

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London Air Travel » Monday Briefing » Page 12

Welcome to London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing for the week beginning 2 March 2020.

To borrow a well-worn political phrase, a week is a long time in aviation. This time last week, most airlines thought the impact of Coronavirus was contained to operations in Asia.

It is now clear that the impact of the virus on aviation is very uncertain. Airlines are facing weeks, if not months, of reduced demand. “No show” rates are up. Forward bookings are down. Many events, including the travel trade show ITB Berlin, have also been cancelled.

Airlines are seeking a dispensation from the “80/20” rule on slots at airports such as London Heathrow which would result in significantly higher tactical cancellations.

Whilst airlines are now not giving any guidance on the financial impact of Coronavirus, some such as IAG which announced its annual results last week are keen to emphasise their resilience.

Should this evolve in to a crisis for the industry close to the scale of 11 September 2001 or the 2008 financial crash, here are some indications based on precedent, as to what might happen.

If there’s one positive that may come from this is that aviation won’t be seen as an expendable luxury as it has been in climate change debate.

Flybe Pleads For State Support

The Chancellor Of The Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, is due to give his first budget next week, Wednesday 11 March 2020.

This will no doubt be selectively leaked to the papers this coming Sunday. There has been a conspicuous silence from the Treasury about Flybe’s attempts to secure a reduction in Air Passenger Duty and a Government backed “commercial” loan.

The latter appears to have stalled over how the Government should rank above other Flybe creditors should the airline collapse.

Sky News has obtained a “leaked” letter from Flybe to the business secretary Alok Sharma in which Flybe pleads for reform to APD with a new lower band of the duty for domestic flights. Flybe also calls for more UK domestic routes to be designated Public Service Obligation routes with public subsidy.

Willie Walsh, in characteristically blunt fashion, said of Flybe last week that its business model “does not work” and its shareholders “have copped on to the fact they’ve bought a dog”.

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London Air Travel » Monday Briefing » Page 12

Welcome to London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing for the week beginning 24 February 2020.

Coronavirus

Two months into the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, we are beginning to see its impact on airlines outside of regions immediately affected by the virus.

Last week, Singapore Airlines announced network wide tactical cancellations up to 31 May 2020. This includes 23 return trips from London Heathrow to Singapore.

Air France-KLM estimates the outbreak will cost the group €150m -€200m up to April 2020. Approximately 5% of the group’s capacity is to mainland China. Long-haul forward bookings load factors for March 2020 are down 5 percentage points year-on year.

Air New Zealand estimates a cost of NZ$35m – NZ$75m with weaker forward bookings on domestic and Tasman routes. It is also temporarily suspending its route to Seoul from 7 March 2020 to the end of June 2020

Qantas estimates a cost of AUD$100m – AUD$150m due to Coronavirus in the first half this year. Whilst UK and US markets are considered to be largely unaffected, in addition to weakening demand from Asia, corporate and leisure domestic demand in Australia is also softening.

Closer to home, British Airways currently plans to tentatively resume flights to mainland China from mid-April 2020. However, London Heathrow – Hong Kong will remain at one flight a day until June 2020. BA has also taken the Airbus A380 off its terminating service from London Heathrow to Singapore during April and May. More details here.

Whilst BA does have a relatively small exposure to Asia compared to Air France-KLM and Lufthansa, with a much higher long-haul premium seat capacity, it is very exposed to marginal falls in premium demand.

History has shown one of the earliest indications of softening long-haul premium demand is BA turning on the taps of Club World reward seat availability, which now seems to be happening.

Many global events have also been cancelled. Due to the cancellation of Mobile World Conference in Barcelona, which was due to start today, you can buy an economy return from Heathrow to Barcelona on BA this week for less than £100. A similar fare next week will cost in excess of £300.

International Airlines Group Full Year Results

Staying with BA, its parent company IAG announces its annual financial results this coming Friday, 28 February 2020.

IAG has made much of its resilience and its preparedness to deal with any industry crisis. We should at least learn of the impact of Coronavirus on its plans for capacity growth for this year. At its Capital Markets Day last year, IAG had already cut its annual growth plans to 3.2% for 2020, with 3% growth at BA.

It is also Willie Walsh’s last results announcement as CEO. Never short of an opinion, Willie may well have a few things to get off his chest, particularly regarding Flybe and possible state support. We will report any announcements of note on Friday morning.

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Welcome to London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing for the week beginning 17 February 2020.

Another weekend. Another UK winter storm. There are some continued delays and cancellations at London Heathrow this morning due to Storm Dennis and yesterday’s IT failure at the airport.

British Airways has extended its flexible rebooking policy. Passengers due to fly on short-haul flights to / from Heathrow today can rebook up to Thursday 20 February 2020. The latest guidance on the Heathrow IT issue is available from BA.

Qantas Project Sunrise

Qantas’ self-imposed deadline of 31 March 2020 to place an order for Airbus A350-1000 aircraft capable of flying from London to Sydney non-stop is not far away.

Two hurdles remain.

The first is regulatory approval from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority in Australia.

The second is negotiating an agreement with the Australian & International Pilots Association.

Negotiations appear to hinge on securing productivity and efficiency gains to make these ultra long-haul flights economically viable. These are now at an impasse.

In an e-mail to Qantas pilots from CEO of Qantas International Tino La Spina, which has been widely circulated, Qantas has threatened to create a separate pool of pilots to operate ultra long-haul flights:

“We will be left with no viable alternative but to have Sunrise flying performed by a new employment entity that can provide the cost base we need for this important business opportunity

“To be absolutely clear, this is not our preferred option. And we know that flagging this will not be well received by many of you. But we want to make sure you have all relevant information when you are weighing a decision.”

This would be a highly contentious move. It will be seen by pilots as a Trojan Horse to undermine the entire principle of collective bargaining.

Qantas does of course have form on playing hardball with its unions. CEO Alan Joyce famously shut down the airline at no notice to secure an end to a long running industrial dispute.

PriestmanGoode Rebrands Aegean Airlines

London is often seen as lagging behind other major cities in aviation.

Other hub airports have more runways and their growth is not impeded by public policy.

However, one area where London does lead is the number of agencies it plays host to who design the cabins and brand identities for many airlines around the world.

These include Factory Design, Tangerine, and PriestmanGoode. The latter’s latest project is a new brand identity and cabin interior for Aegean Airlines which was unveiled last week:

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