Crackberry President

Thank the lord for those wonderful security service personnel who have finally devised a crackberry fit for the PreZ.

Obama now can keep his 'berry in the White House, it was agreed on Thursday

And good for him. So for all those corporates who had to give up their preference for crackberry and even those who have iPhones (you are of course the devil incarnate), all of you can now rest assured that there is a way to come up with a secure phone.

For Obama - he is very happy.

"He believes it's a way of keeping in touch with folks, a way of doing it outside of getting stuck in a bubble," Gibbs said at his first White House press briefing.

So have hope.

We have a crackberry presidency, and we are all looking forward to that growing out to the rest of the world. Too bad it was a Canadian invention.

But if we can have the PED (personal electronic device) be from a Canadian company - can Air Force One from Airbus be that far behind?

Cheers

New US DoT Secretary

So the new broom is sweeping clean in a couple of places.

One of the early appointments is the Secretary of Transportation. Former Rep. Ray LaHood, R-Ill., won unanimous Senate confirmation on Thursday to head President Barack Obama's Department of Transportation. The 63-year-old LaHood called the Cabinet post "the capstone of my public service career," and said "it shows the whole idea of bipartisanship and working with people across party lines was not just a political slogan." In his confirmation hearings, LaHood vowed openness and fairness in overseeing the flood of public money expected for transportation projects under the president's stimulus plan.

For Airlines this means a long awaited fix (we hope) to the ATC system. Of course this will require some money - this part of the "Stimulus" package. However with airlines cutting capacity and travelers staying away in droves - the Feds may need to look to new revenue sources for paying for this new system upgrade.

Lets wish LaHood well. He has a tough road ahead. Let's also hope that he recognizes the value of air transportation and allows the system to grow as it will need to do. During the down year of 2009 - if there is a swift implementation - we can see better performance within the system. It isn't just technology that will make this work but better processes and procedures. Challenge everything. We sure need to.

Cheers

Traffic Worldwide December 2008

More doom and gloom news I am afraid.

December's traffic worldwide was down. The only real bright spots were Latam and Africa.

LATEST DECEMBER INTERNATIONAL DATA
The December international actuals clearly point the way the market will move in 2009.
% change December


Asia/Pacific (28.5)
Europe (7.6)
Latin America 11.0
Total (11.4)

The Asia/Pacific data is biased by the results from Bangkok but elsewhere traffic volumes give great cause for concern.
The trend is now very strongly downward confirming the view that the 2009 forecasts will need further and substantial reduction.

"$5000 for your immediate needs" - US Airways

This is a bit of a humerous note here and I hope no one takes any offense.

But...

US Airways is paying all the passengers $5000 for their immediate needs.

Passengers on the US Airways jet Flight 1549 that landed in the Hudson River last week are receiving $5,000 each from the carrier. The money is meant to assist the passengers with their "immediate needs," according to a letter to the passengers. USA TODAY (1/21)

So next time an airline bumps you or gets your feet wet - you know what to ask for...

Cheers

Timothy

Great Biz Jet Market Story

So how bad is it if you have a Biz Jet... apparently not good at all. The market y/y is down with 62% more jets for sale than a year ago in November.

The Economist recently did a study on the state of the market. Interesting perspective and well worth a listen (its Audio).

Go here:

http://audiovideo.economist.com/

And search for "Suddenly Deeply Uncool"

Cheers

One perfect shot... US1549

I just could not resist this frame.

Amazing Video of US1549

OK I missed all the excitement - but this is a very cool video - its on YouTube somewhere... but watch this one.

http://www.inquisitr.com/15530/video-of-us-airways-a320-crash-landing-in-the-hudson-river/

From this video you can see the aircraft coming down. Having always been very skeptical of the survival of a water landing - I am definitely changing my opinion. Let's just hope that the FAA and all authorities associated with air travel take these lessons to hard and teach this back in the simulator.

Kudos to US Airways - perhaps I shouldnt call it scareways any more.

Cheers

Big 4 to Consolidate?

OK - I got your attention.

The big 4 I am talking about are the Travel Management (aka Corp Travel) agencies. The driving force is the ownership by Emirates Airlines sister company DNATA Travel and BCD in HR Group. DNATA Travel based in Dubai recently disclosed that it raised to 20.15 percent from 19.99 percent its ownership of HR Group (the former Hogg Robinson) shares, following by the disclosure of a 3 percentage point increase in ownership by BCD Travel, the privately held Dutch owned TMC, to more than 19 percent.

Interesting I would say. Not a huge increase and still could be just a happenstance - but still fun to speculate on.

Cheers

Alitalia Starts Cutbacks

The “new” Alitalia has already started its rationalization. Gone is service to 30 cities including 6 European Capitals. Most will be replaced with partner service via AF/KL under code share.

Ouch

Cheers

So you couldn't sleep on that Jumbo? How about this one

Take off for Jumbo hostel

from Professor Tony:

Jan 14 - For the travellers who love planes and want to stay close to the airport, there is now a hostel built especially for them - The Jumbo Jet hostel.
The hostel is a refurbished Boeing-747 which opens this week near Stockholm's Arlanda airport.
The 450 seats have been removed and there are now 25 bedrooms and a honeymoon suite in the cockpit.
The wedding theme doesn't stop there. Couples who want to get married can tie-the-knot on one of the wings.
Here's a video for you....

http://uk.reuters.com/news/video?videoId=97116&videoChannel=76

Reuters Reports.

MAS goes with SITA

Bucking the trend of Amadeus winning everything, Malaysian Airlines System has gone with SITA’s revamped Horizon product for PSS, DCS etc. Saudi Arabian Airlines however stayed with the mob and went to Altea. In both cases they previously had their own res system. MAS is currently a user of the old Atraxis system aka Swissair’s TPF or ALCS. This week saw the end of Iris – Varig’s old Atraxis host. This leaves very few customers – TAP and Brussels along with Swiss and Emirates.

Cheers.

Pax Rights Back on

The new Congress will take up a new bill from Senators Boxer, and Snowe, that aims to protect airline passengers stuck on grounded airplanes. The legislation would require carriers "to offer passengers the option of safely deplaning once they have sat on the ground for three hours after the plane door has closed," said FlyersRights.org, formerly the Coalition for Airline Passenger Bill of Rights. Frankly I don’t think the legislation will go far enough for the required protection of things like ticket abuse etc. The US model will likely be far less toothy than the European one.

Cheers

Ryanair record falls

Despite the doom and gloom Ryanair continues to confound the world. With a significant reduction in capacity – FR is still able to make good sales.
The Irish carrier recorded it best ever week 9-15 January 2009, with over 1.5m seats sold. Monday 12 January, with 350,000 seats sold, was its best ever day. However when I flew them this week on flight was less than 50% full. So expect to see falling load factors in the coming weeks.

If it kept up that torrid pace it would exceed its 2008 total pax. However I suspect that the airline will indeed break the record again this year and looks to record another record breaker. On average the airline is now lifting 1 million pax a week (58 million a year). There are now very few airlines on the planet left who book as many as Michael O’Leary’s team.

So if they go long haul (correction WHEN they go long haul) this will open up an entire new set of options for them.

Interestingly for people who have never flown the carrier – their self service checkin product at STN and other major hubs is working pretty darn well. Its so simple!

Cheers

LHR 3rd Runaway Approved by Brown Administration

More details to come - but the project is GBP 9 billion and includes Terminal 6

Cheers

T

Just you and 839 of your closest friends

I hope that they have good personal hygiene habits....

Air Austral signs for two A380s
Air Austral, the La Reunion-based airline, has signed with Airbus for the purchase of two A380s in a single-class configuration. The aircraft will seat around 840 passengers in the widest economy class seats. Air Austral plans to operate the A380 through one of its subsidiaries on its high-density route from La Reunion to Paris, France. No engine choice has been made at this stage. Airbus' total firm orders for the aircraft stand at 198 from 16 customers.

Worst PR release 2009

For the worst PR release I have seen in ages - just check out the headline on this announcement:


Online travel pioneer Alex Zoghlin “moves” inro Real Estate industry
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Named CEO of Real Estate Media/Marketing company, VHT, Inc

VHT, Inc., a leading full service provider of Visual Marketing Services designed for the Real Estate Industry, announced the addition of Alex Zoghlin, 38, founder and CTO of Orbitz.com and founder of multiple other successful start-ups, to the company’s management team as Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

Cheers

Perhaps I shouldn't Look at the Bad News

The numbers are still coming in - and they are still bad.

I wont bother re-hashing the details but we are seeing continued bad news from all sectors and all geographies.

December it seems was particularly bad in Europe and Asia. Cathy Pacific said it that its premium traffic is tanking and that Cargo - "is even worse". Surprisingly bad numbers from LHR. down nearly 3 % and a whopping 13% drop at Stansted UK base for Ryanair.

Campaigners against LHR's 3rd runway are very happy as it bolsters their claim that it isn't necessary. However with traffic set to resume growth in 2010 I think that is unlikely to happen. Some good news perhaps?

Cheers

A New Air Force One?

With Bush having already taken his final official flight on AF1, the US Air Force is looking at replacing the aging 747-200Bs. And right up there are Airbus and Boeing. Discussions start next week according to Flight

Hmmm the chances of an A380 transporting the US president would be somewhat of a stunner - but well the new Helos are European designs so why not the new big mother.

At least the Press Corps could be housed in the same plane...

Cheers

Alitalia Opera hits a high note

So bar the shouting it looks like Air France Group will be the right dancing partner for the Italian damsel in distress.
The final price is quite a bit higher than originally thought. The original offer price for the 25% shares was Euro 250 million. The final price is likely to be 300 million Euros and could even could top 325 million if the full incentive kicks in. Of course if history is anything to go by that wont necessarily happen…

Cheers

Spanish Fly Anyone?

Consolidation comes to Spain.

The formula which is somewhat complex is.. Vueling + Clickair = Nueva Vueling which then becomes IB2 or Iberia’s LCC.
The EU has approved the merger on certain undertakings from Iberia. Which will mean that there is open access to the Spanish Market (if such a thing really exists).
Iberia will in time assume control of the airline once the merger has taken place. Effectively this closes the market for the mainline markets. Of course the incursions by LCC giants Ryanair, Easyjet and even (in Palma) Air Berlin will continue. Anyone want to buy Spanair? This is a limited time option before the carrier either finds a new way to operate or it may itself be swallowed into the Nueva Vueling combine. And then of course there is the BAABI story....

Cheers