Airline Nation

Gulf Air is seeking takers for its Airbus A340s as its newly appointed chief executive begins a “comprehensive review” of the loss-making Bahraini flag carrier.

Aircraft trading and placement company Avinco has been handed a remarketing mandate for the five A340-300s that Gulf Air owns. The airline also has a further four A340-300s on lease.

Gulf Air has long intended to phase out its A340s, originally in favour of leasing Boeing 777-300ERs from Jet Airways. But the carrier, having flown the 777s for a few months, opted not to take the aircraft for the long-term dry-lease it had been considering.

British Airways says 800 workers have volunteered to work for nothing for up to a month, following its request to cut costs.

[From 800 BA workers set to work unpaid]

Malaysian long-haul low-cost carrier AirAsia X is considering destinations in North America and new destinations in Europe, possibly using Airbus A340-300s.

AirAsia X says the North American schedule is at least 1-2 years away once they can lease enough Airbus A340s.

The world’s airlines will lose $9 billion this year after shedding $10.4 billion in 2008, IATA DG and CEO Giovanni Bisignani said Monday.

Addressing delegates at the 65th IATA Annual General Meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Bisignani said, “There is no modern precedent for today’s economic meltdown” and expressed doubt that growth will resume by year end, making the case instead for an “L-shaped” recovery. “I am a realist. I don’t see facts to support optimism,” he said.

IATA expects annual airline revenues will fall by $80 billion this year to $448 billion from $528 billion in 2008. Bisignani also warned that “whether this crisis is short or long, the world is changing. . .It will not be business as usual.” He cited, for example, the growth of videoconferencing during the downturn, which is now “a stronger competitor” to air travel.

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If you are flying first class on Emirates you get to take a shower on board!

Ryanair on May 20 will begin phasing out its airport check-in desks and from Oct. 1 will require all customers to check in online in an effort to lower its cost base.

The low-cost carrier also has stopped taking bookings for unaccompanied minors and now requires passengers flying within a single country and all infants to hold a valid passport or national identity card.

With the move to online check-in, Ryanair will no longer charge its 10 pounds/10 euros ($15.12/$13.60) check-in fee but will institute a 5 pound/5 euro online check-in fee for each passenger and each non-promotional flight. A 40 pound/40 euro “boarding card re-issue fee” also will be introduced to “encourage all passengers to arrive at the airport with their pre-printed Web check-in boarding card,” said the carrier.

“Passengers traveling without checked-in bags have already embraced our online check-in service, and the extension of this service to all passengers, including those with hold luggage and those traveling with infants will allow all passengers to forever avoid check-in queues,” continued Ryanair, noting, “This will also allow Ryanair to lower our airport and handling costs and pass these savings to all passengers in the form of even lower air fares next winter.”

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Etihad new first class suite

Seat features:

• 82 inch long private suite with a 80.5 inches fully flat bed, with bed width of 29.75 inches

• Each suite with Arabic styled sliding privacy doors

• 23 inch personal TV/video screen, with in-flight entertainment system that allows customers to pause, stop, fast-forward or rewind up to 600 hours of films, TV and radio programmes, and play games

• Personal mini bar

• Illuminated wardrobe with a personal mirror

• In-seat massager, lumbar support and adjustable headrest

• Spacious compartment areas where customers can stow their belongings

• Poltrona Frau leather upholstery

• Extra large (24 inches by 25 inches) wood finished meal table

• In-seat power sockets for PCs, iPod connector, USB ports, Ethernet port and audio jack

• Luxury changing room with full length mirror, raised wash basin and leather fold-down seat

• Luxurious soft furnishings and designer amenity kits

The first aircraft with the new first class cabin – a brand new Airbus A340-600 – is due to enter service at the end of August 2009. The full roll-out of the new first class suites in the airline’s fleet is expected to be completed by the end of 2010.

Today Virgin Blue’s new long-haul carrier, V Australia, is due to formally launch operations with an inaugural departure from Sydney bound for Los Angeles.

On board the inaugural flight will be the airline Group’s co-founders, Sir Richard Branson and Brett Godfrey, as well as some special Australian celebrity Guests, including singer Marcia Hines, Getaway presenter Catriona Rowntree and Australian rock band, the Potbelleez.

The historic launch of V Australia flights was made possible following the signing of an open skies agreementconcluded between theFederal Governments of Australia and the United States of America 12 months ago.

V Australia lobbied for permission to operate trans-Pacific flights in order to open up travel between the two countries and provide an innovative, affordable and high quality flying option, in the same way Virgin Blue has done domestically in Australia and Pacific Blue has done on the trans-Tasman and domestically in New Zealand.

V Australia will initially offer thrice-weekly services between Sydney and Los Angeles but will boost the route to daily on 21 March. Thrice-weekly Brisbane-Los Angeles flights are due to join V Australia’s network on 8 April and a thrice-weekly Melbourne-Los Angeles service will follow on 15 September. Five weekly Sydney-Johannesburg flights are next in line and are due for launch in October.

V Australia Boeing 777 ER

Singapore Airlines  has unveiled capacity cuts across much of its passenger network as it copes with a drop in demand amid the global economic downturn.

The Star Alliance carrier said earlier this week that it will now be decommissioning 17 aircraft in the financial year starting 1 April, rather than four aircraft as previously planned. It said this would amount to an 11% reduction in capacity.

SIA says now that the 11% capacity reduction will come from service cuts across much of its network, on all its key route regions.

Asiana Airlines was named Airline of the Year for 2009 by Air Transport World, the magazine affiliate of this website announced yesterday.

Other winners of ATW’s 35th annual industry achievement awards include Flybe, which was named Regional Airline of the Year, and ILFC Chairman and CEO Steven Udvar-Hazy, who received the Joseph S. Murphy Industry Service Award. UPS Airlines was named Cargo Airline of the Year, Naverus received the Aviation Technology Achievement Award, Norwegian was named winner of the Market Leadership Award and Air New Zealand received the Public Relations Award.

In choosing Asiana, ATW editors cited its superb commitment to passenger safety and operational excellence as reflected in industry-leading dispatch reliability and engine inflight shutdown rates, as well as the excellence of its customer service. Editors also took into account Asiana’s financial performance, with aggregate earnings of $542 million between 2004 and 2007.

Exeter, UK-based Flybe, the Regional winner, “is an industry trendsetter that has demonstrated innovation, adaptation and a willingness to take calculated business risks over its 30-year history as it has grown organically and through acquisition to become Europe’s largest regional airline,” ATW said.

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