Amadeus - their finger on the pulse again

The new Amadeus future traveller study

Study doesn't address the reality - in my humble opinion. Why not?
Today we have essentially 3 classes of traveller: Leisure, Business, VFR. In Europe and Asia the emergence of the cost conscious traveller has fuelled the spectacular growth. The power of the unmanaged traveller too has dramatically changed the travel market. We believe that this is driven more by the opportunity than the consumer push. Either way there is no denying the success of the LCC model. Segmentation of the markets will continue and therefore to pick just 4 "tribes" seems to buck the underlying trend of the market fragmentation we have seen in all consumer categories, not just air tickets. Sorry - I don't buy the conclusion.

But dont take my word for it... here is where to get the whole report:

http://www.amadeus.com/amadeus/travellertribes.html

And now the other shoe drops as BA charges for bags at LHR

Having successfully outsourced the bags at LHR - now BA is going to make money from it. Presumeably the passengers are now funding BA's years of inadequate pension funding through a hidden bag "tax".

Way to go Willie. You tell those Non-Irish Navvies.

Gerry! Gerry! Gerry!

Returning to his hideaway far from the madding crowds of the east coast – Gerald Grinstein, Delta Chairman and CEO was met with a loyal group of fans when he touched down on Friday night.

Best of luck to Gerry and the Delta staffers:

Does Oz need another airline... you bet!

The cozy duopoly that has permeated Australian aviation for decades may be coming to an end. If the Ryan Family+SQ JV Tiger Airways has its way it will deploy at least 3 possibly 5 A320s into the market. Returning the Airbus single aisle to at least a footprint there.

So will this shake up that cosy duopoly? Probably not. But it could easily be enough to get QF and little Blue to rethink some of their upwardly mobile pricing strategies.

Australia as a market should have more competitive pricing. Its price per mile ranks above average compared to other markets. Qantas makes great profits and potential for more is what drew TPG and Macquarie to make their successful bid.

Good luck Tony Davis. But you will need more than 5 planes to do this.