On the morning of Thursday May 3rd, 2012, Denmark’s regional airline Cimber Sterling filed for bankruptcy after its owners pulled financial support from the company. The carrier had 19 international and six domestic destinations. Four of its six domestic routes were monopoly routes. Sun-Air of Scandinavia, Danish Air Transport (DAT), Norwegian and Skyways have all taken over routes very quickly. I have never flown them but I was interested for two reasons. The first is how many airlines have gone this year. We are up to ten with some big names (Malev, Air Zimbabwe, and Spanair). Three went in January, four…
Airline News (Friday)
Category Archives for Airline News (Friday).
An American -US Air merger- closer [updated]
American Airlines has bowed to pressure from creditors and is exploring merger options, having previously vowed to go it alone. This consideration makes the possibility much more real. Especially with the AA unions being so keen on a merger. Lots of logic for the move. It would create the second-largest airline in the United States in terms of operating revenue. US Airways plans to adopt the American Airlines name. The unions feel it would protect them. Not sure what it will do to customer service at the airline. I personally think AA has the worst in the USA (Business Insider said in 2011 that American Airlines is…
Bye bye BMI
I have always been a huge fan of British Midland. Yet, sadly, they are yet another example of “A great airline but a lousy business”. British Midland Airways were born the year I was: 1964. They operated out of Manchester. In 2001 they became BMIBritish Midland and then just BMI in 2003. Ownership of the airline has always been vexed. SAS, BMI Chairman Michael Bishop and Lufthansa have all had involvements. Lufthansa has been full owner since November, 2009 and has lost a chunk of money on BMI (eg 285m euros of losses and disposal fees in 2011). In…
Zimbabwe gets domestic flights back
In my April blog post, I thought Air Zimbabwe maybe was gone for good. I did foreshadow though that: the Government formed a new State-owned company, Air Zimbabwe Pvt Ltd, dissolving Air Zimbabwe Holdings i the Transport Minister announced that they had leased an A320 for use on regional routes staff had begun re training Now we know. Air Zimbabwe have announced that they will be flying between Harare, the capital and Bulawayo, the country’s second biggest city and Victoria Falls, probably, the country’s top tourist destination. Four days a week. And they need a…
ANA 787 Biofuels Flight
787 launch customer All Nippon Airlines (ANA) received their newest 787 this week. It completed a transpacific biofuel flight from Boeing’s Delivery Center in Everett, Washington to Tokyo Haneda Airport. The plane was powered by a mix of regular aviation fuel and used cooking oil! ANA currently have five 787s; four are flying domestically and one is flying Tokyo-Frankfurt. They will begin flying Tokyo to Seattle from July 25 with a 777 , and some time in the year, will switch to a 787. The ANA 787 has 158 seats (46 Business arranged 2/2/2 and 112 Economy arranged 2/4/2). The airline itself, announced a record…
The Vanishing Colours of Europe’s Tails
As a kid, I first started plane spotting when I flew through the airports of in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. I became expert by the age of six at picking out all of the different tails of airlines. The bright colours of Braniff, the dignified blue of Pan Am, the proud speedbird of BOAC, the Kangaroo of Qantas and the blue and white S of Sabena all were recognisable instantly. Fast forward forty years, and most of those airlines are gone. As an adult, I still like looking at those tails and dream both about the carrier and it…
Austrian re organises
Friday has become my day to blog about major changes to airlines. So far, this year, there has been a lot to write about vis a vis airline bankruptcies (Cirrus, Spanair, US3000, Air Australia, Malev, Air Zimbabwe, Direct Air, Red Jet, GMG) or near bankruptcies ( Armavia, Kingfisher, Pinnacle). Kingfisher is still flying despite being borderline insolvent. Its has gone from being India’s largest airline to its smallest in just over six months! Pinnacle are re organising. Armavia seem to be still flying. Austrian Air’s CEO has said their situation is “critical”. One of my fellow Boarding Area Bloggers has a great post on Austrian’s re-organisation. The airline has…
Qantas the Fading Star?
Somewhat concerned to see the Australian national carrier described by Smarter Travel as a “fading star” in this article about Virgin Australia. The full sentence reads: “the fading star of Qantas in that part of the world.” Has someone told the Qantas board this? Certainly many passengers think its true.
Pinnacle Air Reorganised
There have been so many airline bankruptcies this year that I am struggling to keep up! These bankruptcies mean a lot of disruption, a lot of passenger inconvenience and many staff job losses. It is concerning that so many have gone this year, already. Of course, India’s Kingfisher is teetering and may not last much longer. The poor economy and rising oil prices are squeezing airlines further. Some collapses also reflect poor managerial decisions. Now to April. On the 2nd, Pinnacle airlines filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection. In Chapter 11, the debtor remains in control of its business operations and…
Air Zimbabwe Going going gone?
In 1996, I spent a glorious ten days in Zimbabwe. Many say that was the last good year for the country. Since then sanctions, corruption, seizure of farms, mines and businesses have made Zimbabwe a no go zone for tourism and business. These same conditions have reduced Air Zimbabwe passenger numbers from 1 million in 1999 to 23,000 in 2005 due to suspension of many of its flights and suspension from the international financial and booking system by IATA over unpaid fees. The airline kept flying from 2005 to 2011 and even launched a new service from Harare to Kuala Lumpur. Last year, however, was a…
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