My friend Leanne has been planning her Italian holiday for 18 months. She was flying out tomorrow with Qantas. Not anymore. In a move thats bizarre, risky and inexplicable, Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce told a news conference in Sydney, Saturday: “We have decided to ground the Qantas international and domestic fleets immediately,” Joyce said. How often does an airline shut down all of its operations? 108 planes grounded. Those in the air landed at their destinations. The rest are not going anywhere. On Monday the entire staff will be stood down without pay. There are seventeen…
Airline News (Friday)
Category Archives for Airline News (Friday).
Who gets BMI?
I have always liked British Midland (BMI) and its various incarnations. Owned by Lufthansa since 2009, the loss making BMI is now up for sale. I really hoped Virgin Atlantic would be the buyer of BMI or a Virgin/ Etihad combo would hop in with an offer. Vigin have had an interest in BMI off and on since 1999. The Virgin and BMI route networks would mesh well. Etihad are clearly looking for expansion by takeover. The major issue is that BMI is losing a lot of money. Virgin and its 49% owner Singapore, would not be keen to…
Delta & Korean -When an Upgrade means Downgrade
Skyteam* allow members of one airline’s Frequent Flyer program to use Miles from that airline to upgrade from Economy to Business Class on international flight itineraries of most of the other airlines in the alliance. I thought I would test this out travelling from Seoul, Korea to Los Angeles on Korean Air‘s A380. I wanted to do it in Business Class- without paying Business Fare! I planned to use my hard earned Delta Skymiles to get the upgrade. The catch is that to be eligible for an upgrade, my ticket would have to be a certain fare code.…
Qantas-Anyone worried?
As a Qantas very frequent flyer, I am watching Qantas in disputes with three unions. There is the classic “blame the management” by the unions and the classic “blame the unions” by Qantas spokespeople. For passengers, there’s inconvenience of cancelled flights. For the tourist industry, theres a fear of loss of passengers at this crucial time. For Qantas there is presumably the economic impact of revenue losses. I am interested that Virgin Australia is adding capacity to cope and advertising special fares. Since their conversion from discount to full service carrier, they have apparently snared 13 per cent of the Australian…
British Airways & Iberia PLUS American?
This week saw the first anniversary of a joint business agreement between American, Iberia and British. Under this agreement, the airlines agreed to co-operate commercially on flights between the United States, Mexico, Canada, the European Union, Switzerland and Norway. The agreement was backed up by anti trust immunity from US and European authorities. Shortly, after the agreement was signed, in January, 2011, Iberia and BA merged into a new company called IAG (international Airlines Group), Europe’s third largest airline group and the sixth largest in the world by revenue. The airlines have combined the strong BA Asian connections with Iberia’s…
British Airways and Ipads –I like it
If you have ever sat near the front of an aeroplane, you would know that when the cabin door is about to close, the crew are handed a long scrolled up piece of paper with all customer details. In the 21st Century! It looks so primitive. BA is testing Ipads with 100 cabin staff with the aim of rolling them out to all senior crew members in the next few months. Loaded on them are timetables, safety manuals and customer service updates. More importantly from a customer service point of view, when the doors are about to close,…
Wild about travel has moved!
As foreshadowed, Boardingarea.com is our new home. Thanks for inviting us aboard! I am Wild about Travel. I love it. Both the journey and the destination. I want to share about my experiences with both. Thoughts and observations from where I have been and how I have got there. Expect cities, nature, planes, trains, advice, hassles and good times. I have flown 786 times (as of now) for a total of 1,785,449km (1,109,427 miles) to six continents with 78 airlines. I have experienced boat travel and train travel on or between five continents and buses plus cars…
American Airlines Bankruptcy?
I am interested in what is happening over at American Airlines. Their shares fell 33 per cent yesterday as people expected the worst after a 62 percent drop so far this year. This last fall came amid fears that the airline could be forced into bankruptcy. Unlike most of the major airlines in the USA, American Airlines has avoided bankruptcy. This may change. Currently, they are one of the airlines I dread flying. Despite being a One World airline, the difference between Cathay, Qantas, Lan and even British Airways is palpable. They have very high debt levels ($17 billion), a higher cost base than other…
History Repeats?: Air New Zealand’s Aussie Investment
Air New Zealand took its stake in Virgin Blue(owners of V Australia and Virgin Australia) to 19.9% as a result of a fairly low share prices.The last time they took an interest in an Australian airline (Ansett), it almost bankrupted Air New Zealand and the Australia’s longest running domestic carrier Ansett ceased to exist. Ten years later, Air New Zealand are hopefully wiser and Virgin are a better business than Ansett Australia were. Former chief executive Rod Eddington “described Ansett publicly and internally as a great airline, but a poor business”. It makes huge sense for Air NZ to have a strong…
New Names for Qantas Asia
Picture from The Age is a digitally altered plane. The fairfax Press (Sydney Morning Herald and The Age newspapers) are suggesting RedQ or RedQ Executive Express is emerging as the most likely name for Qantas Asia ahead of RedSky and OneAsia. The new 49% venture will be 49% owned by Qantas and is one part of Qantas restructuring. Alan Joyce CEO of Qantas said that the move would create a “newer and stronger Qantas,” by tapping into the major growth that is occurring in Asia. I hate the sound of RedQ. It doesn’t sound enticing. It definitely…
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