Category: Monday Briefing

London Air Travel » Monday Briefing » Page 23

Hello and welcome to our weekly aviation business briefing for the week beginning Monday 20 November 2017.

Is BA going to order more Airbus A380s?

Interest in the future of the Airbus A380 was piqued this week following a claim in FlightGlobal that BA, as well as other airlines, were in talks about acquiring Airbus A380s that Singapore Airlines has returned to its lessor.

IAG CEO Willie Walsh is a fan of the Airbus A380: “It’s a great aircraft when you can fill it.” It clearly serves BA well on trunk routes such as Johannesburg and major US gateways such as Los Angeles and Miami. BA currently has 12 Airbus A380s in service, with options to acquire a further 7 from Airbus. However, Willie Walsh has declared the cost buying new aircraft as too expensive. Willie has expressed an interest in leasing second-hand Airbus A380s so the story, whatever the intentions of the source, is at least plausible. However, technical differences between BA and Singapore Airlines aircraft may prohibit a deal, unless it is at a very good price.

BA and IAG (which ultimately controls the purse strings) is clearly looking for a solution that gives flexibility to adjust capacity in a downturn. BA does not want to have to park 20+ A380s in the desert during the next recession.

The airline most closely associated with the Airbus A380 is of course Emirates which currently has some 100 of them in service. The airline was expected to announce a deal to acquire more at the Dubai Air Show, but it failed to materialise. Bloomberg has the story.
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London Air Travel » Monday Briefing » Page 23

Hello and welcome to our Monday Briefing for the week beginning Monday 13 November 2017.

BA CEO Alex Cruz addresses the World Travel Market London

BA CEO Alex Cruz addressed the World Travel Market last week. Alex gave a 20 minute speech, followed by a 40 minute interview with aviation consultant John Strickland.

As BA is part of a publicly listed company (IAG) it is bound by Stock Exchange rules on the release of market sensitive information. This means that CEOs cannot give away too much in media interviews. This is why the vast majority of what was said was announced at IAG’s Capital Markets Day in early November.

One thing of note in Alex’s speech is the reference to BA as the UK’s national carrier. This is of course how many in the UK see it. But not its parent company which is, in its own words, “brand agnostic”. And herein lies the rub. Media commentators and large swathes of the travelling public see BA as having a special status, whereas as far as its parent company is concerned, it must compete with other airlines in the group all over Europe for investment, based on profitability alone.

In other BA news last week it announced the addition of Corsica to its portfolio of Heathrow summer leisure routes. BA also unveiled its revamped Concorde room at London Heathrow Terminal 5.
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London Air Travel » Monday Briefing » Page 23

Hello and welcome to our weekly Monday Briefing for the week beginning Monday 6 November 2017.

International Airlines Group Capital Markets Day

Let’s start with IAG’s annual festival of Powerpoint Capital Markets Day which was held last Friday.  We’ve summarised the main BA announcements from Friday and you can download the full deck from the IAG website.

Taking the opportunity to review again the presentations and compare notes to previous year what emerges is often these events are more interesting for what wasn’t said.

For BA, there was an underlying degree of contrition. Last year, there were plenty of suggestions that BA would trial an unbundled World Traveller fare as Aer Lingus has implemented and Alez Cruz has intimated BA would consider introducing a fare without free meals.   However, there is now a promise of improved long-haul economy catering from next year and BA being “premium for everyone”.  By IAG’s own admission, pitching a brand with four different classes of travel on long-haul isn’t easy, and introducing effectively a fifth class of travel is perhaps a step too far.

Continue reading “London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing – 6 November 2017”

London Air Travel » Monday Briefing » Page 23

Hello and welcome to our weekly aviation business briefing for the week beginning Monday 30 October 2017.

Ben Sandilands

First of all, we were very saddened to learn that Ben Sandilands, author of the Plane Talking Blog has passed away.

Australian aviation has long been a source of very strong corporate and personal rivalries between airlines and their senior executives. Ben offered consistently robust and reliable industry commentary.
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London Air Travel » Monday Briefing » Page 23

Welcome to our weekly aviation business briefing for the week beginning Monday 23 October 2017.

Air Berlin & Alitalia

The fallout from the collapse into administration of Air Berlin, Alitalia and Monarch continues.

Oneworld has confirmed that Air Berlin will cease to be a part of the alliance from Saturday 28 October 2017.

Therefore, Oneworld member airlines will cease reciprocal recognition of Air Berlin frequent flyers from this date. Reuters reports that Air Berlin may seek damages from Etihad. Lufthansa Group airlines are to also operate widebody aircraft on select domestic routes in Germany in response to high demand.

easyJet and Lufthansa have both confirmed they have expressed an interest in buying parts of Alitalia.

Note that both are at pains to emphasise their interest is in a restrutured airline, something that has eluded Alitalia to date.

Qantas Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner

Qantas took delivery of its first Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner last week.

This will operate non-stop flights between London and Perth. CNN Travel takes a look back at the evolution of London to Australia flights with a nice archive gallery of BOAC/Qantas flights to Australia.

Continue reading “London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing: 23 October 2017”

London Air Travel » Monday Briefing » Page 23

Welcome to our weekly aviation business briefing for the week beginning Monday 16 October 2017.

Air Berlin

Air Berlin confirmed last week that it is to suspend operations from Saturday 28 October 2017. The airline has already suspended long-haul operations. Its frequent flyer programme TopBonus, which operated as a separate legal entity, had also closed. Flights operated by NIKI will continue. easyJet announced late on Friday afternoon that negotiations are still underway for it to acquire a substantial part of Air Berlin’s operation at Berlin Tegel airport. Lufthansa is due to acquire a substantial number of Air Berlin aircraft and its subsidiaries Niki and LG Walter. It is now something of a given that the Air Berlin brand will not survive. Oneworld has yet to announce when Air Berlin will leave the alliance. For legal reasons, it may not officially leave the alliance until some time after it has suspended operations (this was the case with former member Mexicana).
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London Air Travel » Monday Briefing » Page 23

The big story last week was of course the collapse of Monarch (Financial Times) which now joins bmi British Midland, Flyglobespan, XL Airways, and Zoom in the great airline graveyard in the sky. The Civil Aviation Authority fielded an impressive rescue to operation to bring passengers back to the UK. As of Saturday 7 October 56,000 Monarch customers have returned to the UK.

It now falls on KPMG to complete the administrative process. As no buyer could be found, it is near certain that the Monarch brand will not take to the skies again.

One asset that will be of interest to buyers will be Monarch’s slot portfolio at London Gatwick. easyJet will be keen to solidify its market leading position at the airport. BA parent company International Airlines Group will also be keen to stop this happening. Both bid for Flybe’s London Gatwick holding of 25 slot pairs in 2013. easyJet won and was able to significantly increase capacity at the airport as a consequence. However, according to the Financial Times doubts have been raised as to whether the administrator can sell the slots or has to forfeit them.
Continue reading “London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing: 9 October 2017”

London Air Travel » Monday Briefing » Page 23

Here’s the first of our weekly round-up of aviation business news, published every Monday at 07:00 UK time.

A major theme in European aviation this year has been another wave of consolidation in Europe. This time it has been forced by Air Berlin, Alitalia and Monarch entering into administration procedures.  easyJet, International Airlines Group, Norwegian and WizzAir have all been identified as potential buyers for Monarch’s short-haul business. However, the main value to these airlines will be its slot portfolio at London Gatwick.  Full details of the Civil Aviation Authority’s plans to bring stranded passengers back to the UK are on its website.

It’s been another bad week for Ryanair. The airline has announced the cancellation of some 18,000 flights over the winter season. These include the suspension of London Gatwick – Belfast and London Stansted – Edinburgh & Glasgow from Wednesday 1 November 2017 to Saturday 24 March 2018.
Continue reading “London Air Travel’s Monday Briefing: 2 October 2017”