Aviation Report

Among all the marketing concepts that have arisen in the airline industry, perhaps none has created more buzz than ancillary revenues. But for all the attention it has received, some airlines still do not have a clear strategy, according to David Stoyle of Amadeus Airline Consulting. In a presentation to delegates to the recent Amadeus Airline eCommerce Conference in Cannes, France, Stoyle quoted Sun Tzu, author of the ancient "Art of War": "Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat." "High-value airlines are making a lot of money with ancillary revenues," Stoyle said. The $20 billion worldwide that airlines took in last year in ancillary revenues has taken pressure off base fares and in many cases is subject to lower taxes or no taxes.  But ancillary revenue projects can fail if an airline lacks clear overall objectives and priorities or if their "bundling" and "a la carte" efforts are going in two different directions, h...

Zehst is the supersonic airplane that will be revealed by EADS at the Bourget Air Show tomorrow. It will be twice as fast as the Concorde and will put Paris at only 2h30 from Tokyo when current jetliners take 11h for the same trip. The plane will fly at 4 800 km/h. It's cruise will take it above the atmosphere. Zehst means 'Zero Emission Hypersonic transportation'. The main asset of the plane is that it will not use kerozene. It should start as a normal plane with biofuels then rely on rocket technology for the cruise part of the flight. Oxygen and hydrogen will mix to produce water and propel the Airplane. First flight tests should take place in 2030 and the first commercial flight is planned for 2050. There should be 60 to 100 seats in the plane.

African Airlines Assn. reiterated its strong criticism of the EU's "continued unilateral practice of blacklisting of mainly African states and airlines with no visible benefits in enhancing safety on the continent" and called on African governments, the African Union and the African Civil Aviation Commission to not "allow this state of affairs to continue as the continent's air transport industry is being progressively destroyed." The statement follows the European Commission's April decision to prohibit all carriers certified in Mozambique and two Air Madagascar 767s from operating to EU airports. The EC cited "significant safety deficiencies requiring decisive action in both cases" (ATW Daily News, April 20 ). Mozambique is the 14th African state to be subject to a blanket ban; an additional four African states are subject to either a partial ban or have an individual carrier that has been restricted from operating to the EU. In a statement...

A study by icelander and danish scientists in nano particles (cited in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 26 April 2011) shows that the Civil Aviation Authority's decision to stop all flights in Europe during the awakening of the Eyjafjallajökul Volcano was justified. In april 2010 this ban on flights had been attacked by some aviation specialists. The reason for it were fears that ashes were hazardous for aircrafts. The interruption in air traffic was the longest that ever happent since World War II : almost 100 000 flights were canceled in 11 european countries leaving 10 millions passengers stranded. Net loss for airlines was estimated around 1.5  and 2.5 billion euros. According to the scientists, 'the first ash particles sent in the air by the explosion were very thin, hard and as sharp as splinters from a crushed glass bottle. Later volcanic ashes had a higher granularity but were also dangerous'. They have estimated that if a plane ever crossed such...

An executive of Boeing Co (BA.N), the world's second-largest commercial plane maker, said on Tuesday the company could set out plans to overhaul its popular 737 aircraft line by the middle of this year. "We are doing a flight test program to test improvements to the airframe and the engine to improve the efficiency of the airplane," Randy Tinseth, marketing vice president for Boeing's commercial aircraft division, said of the 737 line. "What we have been thinking is that we may be prepared to announce our plans in the middle of the year, but there is not a hard, firm deadline," he said in Mexico City. A Boeing spokesman told Reuters later on Tuesday that the executive meant the company would be able to provide "more clarity on where we see things" regarding the future of 737 around mid-year. Boeing is evaluating whether to build an all-new 737 or add a fuel-efficient engine to the existing line as it seeks to leapfrog rival Airbus's (EAD.PA...

Norwegian Air Shuttle said its free inflight Wi-Fi is a “hit” with its passengers and that on some routes—such as Oslo Gardermoen-Geneva—between 40% and 50% of all passengers logged on. Other popular Wi-Fi routes include OSL-London Gatwick, OSL-Dubai, OSL-Alicante, Stockholm Arlanda-LGW and ARL-Las Palmas. The LCC noted its wireless system set a record on the April 14 OSL-ALC flight when 87 passengers were logged on at 30,000 ft. “We’re overwhelmed by the response among our passengers and are gradually installing Wi-Fi on all of our new aircraft,” said Norwegian Director of IT and Business Development Hans-Petter Aanby. “This is a product that no other airline in Europe is currently offering, which gives us a huge competitive advantage. Our passengers will soon be able to see in the booking process whether the aircraft has Wi-Fi.” Norwegian launched high-speed broadband service in February with technology provided by US-based Row 44 (ATW Daily News, Feb. 10). Starting in May, Norwegi...

Lufthansa said that "too many problems remain unresolved" regarding implementation of airlines' inclusion in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, leaving open the prospect that the initiative will become a "fiasco" when it goes into effect at the beginning of next year (ATW Daily News, Oct. 12, 2010). "All of the scheduled deadlines have so far been missed and numerous legal and technical questions remain unanswered—just as 2012 tickets are beginning to go on sale and only eight months before the 'official kick-off'," LH stated in its latest "policy brief" issued Monday. "The aviation industry therefore still has no way of knowing what the major economic parameters will be." The EU directive mandating airlines' inclusion in the ETS was supposed to be enacted into law by each of the body's member nations by February 2010 (ATW Daily News, Nov. 25, 2010). "Yet most governments have so far failed to do so owing to the...