The Web's Had an Impact - Yes Really Here's Proof.

Has the internet changed our lives?

Yes

Any questions?

What - you still don't believe. Where have you been hiding? Under some rock in the Gobi desert I would think.

OK but to what extent has the web changed our lives, our enterprises, our future and that of our kids?

In a very detailed and actually quite compelling piece of reading - McKinsey has done a nice piece on this. Entitled Its quite long 70 Pages but worth the read. I have skimmed through it and on one of the next flights I take I will try and labour through the whole document. In the mean time - I recommend that you read it and reflect.The report titled Internet Matters can be downloaded for free after signing up. Click the link and follow the instructions.

Now about that Betamax machine everyone has been talking about.

Cheers

737 Option for 1/2 point upgrade

It seems that Boeing is making noises to prepare the market for a re-engined 737 NG rather than the entirely new plane that has been mooted.

The logic is inescapable. The majority of users are the new low cost category who are using A320s and 737NGs. Therefore the cost of acquisition plays a big role. But with oil stubbornly stuck in the $100pbl and above - the case for fuel efficiency is decidedly there.

With both the C Series and the A320NEO now on firm path for delivery in 2015 (actually most of the 2016 slots are sold out already) Boeing needs to stop the rot.

With the new aircraft not having an EIS of 2020 or later - this is too much of a gap for the Chicago based firm

So Boeing makes noises to try and stop people defecting.

Well it will be interesting

Cheers

Is EasyJet becoming just like JetBlue - A Legacy Airline

Well it just might be...

Now that jetBlue is to all intents and purposes a full service network/legacy like carrier, why not the other hybrid airlines.

JetBlue now full participates in all GDSs and as a result of its agreement with new hosting vendor Sabre - pretty much everything it does makes it looks like a duck.
(as in if walks like and quacks like - it must be one!)

So when Easyjet announced that it would participate in GDS - it said it would come with a GDS fee - effectively making it free for the airline. Just like Gol and Norwegian do, (and many other airlines wish they could do also!) it got a lot of grumbles from the local Corporate agents.

More work for less pay!

Well now it seems that the airline is considering abandoning the fee pass through to the agents. In ABTN I noticed an article that said they were thinking just that.

It currently charges £3.30 per segment, but in its bid to increase bookings, with travel management companies in particular, this fee could be removed, Easyjet's CEO Carolyn McCall told the website.

The move is likely to be popular with business travel hookers, McCall acknowledged, but will only be made if the figures add up.

“We will run the numbers and see whether we can do it. If we can’t, we won’t and if we can we will,” she said, adding that a decision is likely by September.

Well we know the answer. The numbers don't add up. Especially when the per ticket charge from the alternative channels are just much lower. But the agents are still resisting booking, they want to hang onto those precious incentives as long as they can. If the market was free and the agents could actually book via the U2 website easily - this would not be a contest. But since that is not the case - the dilemma exists.

I wonder if someone at the European Commission is thinking the same thing I am?

Cheers

Who Is the Ancillaries Champ?

Well it depends how you ask the question...

So according to the latest IdeaWorks/Amadeus study there are actually three champs.
By total revenue from Ancillaries


By amount collected from each pax


By percentage per passenger


Now interestingly the US Dept of Transportation decided to take a look at yet another metric which the reverse. IE how much revenue the airlines make from just purely carrying a passenger and charging for the ticket.

That number is also very interesting.

So for your edification I provide all of these elements. So think about how the model has changed.



There is a clear message here - Ancillaries matter to an airline. The message that the GDSs perhaps were not listening to a few years ago. But as you can see this is not a new phenomenon. Ironically it is indeed Amadeus who is sponsoring the study from IdeaWorks. Is there a message here?

This is a trend that has been going for a while.

Happy thinking

Cheers

Oops ANZ Has To Fix The Boat Anchors

I was very criical of the Air New Zealand boat anchors - aka the new Skycouch seats

It seems I might have been just a tad prescient about them.

Responding to criticism that the leg room sucked - they have decided to take out one row of the new Skycouches and then give a little more leg room in there.

I pointed out earlier that the seats didn't look at all comfortable - even the delightful Mary Kirby had to drape her long legs out into the aisle. Yes - you have to click on the older article to see her picture to see what I mean.

It seems that the airline thinks that a "tall person" was anyone higher than say a Sheep according to ABTN's Alex McWhirter someone taller than 5 foot 7 inches. And that these people had trouble getting in and out of the seat.

The airline was quite sanguine about it, forgetting that the majority of passengers who fly on the airline are more likely to be Homo Sapiens rather than the Bovine genus that most airlines think we passengers belong to.

The airline said In a prepared statement,“Air New Zealand’s innovative new B777-300ER interiors have been receiving excellent feedback since they were launched eight weeks ago on April 1. As innovation requires constant improvement we have actively asked for feedback from customers on every flight.

"Some of the feedback has been around the amount of leg room for tall people in some of the premium economy Spaceseats. Therefore Air New Zealand will be removing one row of premium economy seating from the aircraft to provide passengers with up to six inches more legroom."

I wonder what a typical Maori or Tonga based passenger would have to say about that.

Of course now is an even bigger problem, as Alex concludes in his article "But removing a single row will cost ANZ over 10 per cent of premium economy capacity. So will the carrier have to raise fares to compensate for the revenue shortfall? Only time will tell."

Of course one of the earliest criticisms from the trade was the price being charged - now they will likely have to charge even more.

Hmmm can you imagine there must be some red faces in Fanshawe Street.

This is rather sad because I think there is tremendous opportunity to do a better job in coach for the masses (and yes I am one - I fly Y/M class on more flights than I do in F or C).

Cheers

Should We Judge The Pilots of AF447 Yet?

Like many people I have read a lot of the reports on AF447's activity before the plane went into the ocean.

The behaviour of the pilot in command is not fully logical. It is easy to judge that the guy made a mistake and was doing something out and out wrong by pulling the plane into a nose up attitude.

However after reading the report from the French Investigators I am not so sure.

It is clear that the the instruments were not providing consistent and reliable information. Even in the best of weathers the Airbus is inherently a plane that needs software to fly it. The A330 is a fine plane. I have confidence in it and have flown and will continue to fly it. In the dark in a storm with little or no spatial awareness possible and confronted with conflicting and non-existing information - the pilots were making safe decisions, conservative decisions. Or at least that is what they thought.

The BEA Report available in English and in French was correctly released to curb speculation. I don't think it gives any definitive answer as to what happened. I opined earlier that this was another example of the pilot away from the cockpit. That was wrong. It was set correctly and he did the hand over correctly.

This one will be tricky to unravel.

Cheers

Facing Tough Choices - Boeing Many Need To Go for 737 1/2R

Boeing's CEO was pretty adamant that there will be no public pronouncements of a next gen 737 at the upcoming Paris Air Show next week. However Bernstein Research is reporting that Boeing may have to go for a 737 point upgrade which I am calling the 747 1/2R - to be competitive in the coming few years.

This is not a trivial matter. AS I have written previously the 737 is too low on the ground and will need some major rework to accommodate the much wider chord next gen engines. Thus the cost upgrade to a 737 will be significant and still may not yield an aircraft in a near enough time frame. Airbus has advanced the A320NEO EIS date to 2015. For Boeing to do such a half job - it will need to work hard to meet that date with a 737NEO type project.

There will be some triggers to this - Boeing probably wont like to gave to compete with two players and it continues to offer an older model product. Surprisingly the number of mixed Boeing/Airbus fleets has grown in recent years so there is little brand allegiance. We have many fleets which have A330s and 777s. We also have fleets with mixed 737/A320s in them.

Boeing has recently made a big deal over the Sky Interior with the special lighting. Something that Virgin America and other A320 operators have known about for years. And as a personal note - having flown on both - they really do calm you down. The experience is well worth the extra 100K per aircraft that I believe Boeing is charging.

Of course allowing me to speculate - what if Mr O'Leary really does do the dead and buys one of the new planes. It could really hurt Boeing's business not just for the size of the order (reportedly in the 300 plane number) but also in the halo effect. With Airbus reportedly having won the Delta narrow body fleet replacement battle. There must be a lot of midnight oil burning going on in Chicago and Renton

A story that will run for a bit I suspect.

Cheers

Battle Lines Drawn - Jetstar Partners with Priceline

The unexpected announcement in the first quarter of a blockbuster deal between Air Asia and Expedia was not going to go unanswered for long.

Now its out - Jetstar for the whole franchise has partnered with Priceline's Agoda subsidiary to provide accommodation services across the airline's network in Asia.

This will significantly enhance the product and let Jetstar compete as many other airlines do as a Travel Portal rather than just an airline product service.

Expect that Jetstar will now start linking to more partners to provide additional value added services on the site.

Strangely enough this will cause a bit of a realignment. As with many JVs or partnerships - there is always a degree of reaction. Expedia may find itself pitted against a number of other entities that do not wish to do business with the Beelevue WA based Travel Mega player. This will help Priceline's position. As to who will ultimately win? At the moment, (in my view) - the Asia Pacific coverage by Agoda is better than Expedia.

Still this will be an interesting cat fight. May mean that the famous Jetstar/Air Asia partnership that was announced at the beginning of 2010 may not produce anything other than some nice plane designs.

Cheers


With thanks to the Cranky Flyer for the cute image!