It was a year with plenty of surprises, such as the US-Europe Open Skies breakthrough, while merger and acquisition activity reached fever pitch. The predicted downturn never materialised and many made healthy profits despite fuel prices rising to new highs.
Leonard's legacy
Joe Leonard's year probably wasn't the career climax the mild-mannered Georgian had in mind after his landmark achievement in turning around AirTran Airways. The old ValuJet was a mess when he took over, but after Leonard's makeover it was a low-fares powerhouse he could be proud of.
All AirTran needed was geographical scope, and Leonard, a former number two at Eastern Airlines, tried to do this with bids for ATA Airlines and more recently for Midwest Airlines. Others (Southwest, then Northwest Airlines) blocked his attempts to move out of AirTran's eastern home territory.
Joe has now yielded his chief executive duties to heir apparent Bob Fornaro. The two say they can grow AirTran on its own, but Joe will be an observer more than the master and commander of the ship he made stormworthy.
David Field
Alitalia's search for a suitor
For much of this year, Alitalia looked in danger of becoming an old spinster: plenty of suitors but ultimately left on the shelf. In late 2006, Italy's government announced it would sell at least 30.1% of Alitalia. Since then it has been a roller coaster ride of investors expressing their interest and then retreating.
Alitalia began 2007 with 11 expressions of interest and has barely been out of the headlines since. And the excitement of this year shows no sign of abating, with three parties, including Air France-KLM and Italy's Air One, having submitted non-binding expressions of interest.
It will be fascinating to see which of these knights in shining armour is gallant enough to rescue the ailing carrier from spinsterhood.
Kerry Ezard
Green agenda moves centre stage
The environment and aviation's impact on it took centre stage in 2007. IATA in June moved the issue to the top of its agenda at its annual general meeting in Vancouver, when its director general, Giovanni Bisignani, laid down the gauntlet for air transport to become a "zero emissions" industry (advertisement pictured).
The European Union stirred up controversy when it decided to press ahead with plans to include all airlines in its own emissions trading scheme, despite opposition voiced by a majority of countries during ICAO's 36th Assembly in September.
And the biggest opponent of EU ETS, the USA, is beginning to see environmental pressure on aviation building up in its own ranks, with the filing in December of a petition to the Environmental Protection Agency by officials from various states and cities, seeking federal standards on emissions from commercial aircraft.
Kerry Ezard
Dixon has the key
What do you do as chief executive after your chairman is forced to resign following a failed private equity bid that kept management occupied for months? If you are Geoff Dixon of Qantas Airways, you waste no time presenting plans for a wide-ranging corporate restructuring.
Dixon did just that, moving quickly to lay out a restructuring blueprint for Australia's Qantas following the failure of the takeover bid in May. Some of the ideas may appear borrowed from the pages of private equity handbooks, but they have been generally well supported.
Changes will see main operations split into standalone businesses, in which minority stakes may be sold. They are intended to "unlock value" at Qantas, and so far investors appear to like what they see.
Nicholas Ionides
Neeleman's nemesis
David Neeleman probably doesn't much like wintry storms. Most airline executives see a silver lining in blizzards since they tend to fill up planes with sun seekers, but Neeleman's career at JetBlue Airways, the low-fares carrier he founded eight years ago, ended in ice and snow.
An ice storm on Valentine's Day 2007 followed by one on Saint Patrick's Day stranded thousands on JetBlue planes stuck on runways at its New York JFK hub. The twin debacles helped push JetBlue into deeper fiscal woes while reviving public and congressional support for sweeping passenger-rights legislation that has the airline industry running real scared.
By spring, David had yielded day-to-day control of JetBlue to Dave Barger, an operations man in the hard-nosed mould. Neeleman is board chairman, but spends much of his time writing his autobiography and doing motivational speaking.
David Field
Opening the skies
One of this year's most surprising stories was a transatlantic affair, as a team of US and European negotiators found the key to years of deadlock to agree the US-Europe Open Skies deal. On the US side, John Byerly of the State Department and Jeff Shane of the Transportation Department patiently continued talks even as their constituencies - the US flag carriers and Congress - tugged away at them in various directions.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the European Commission's team of Daniel Calleja, air transport director, and vice-president for transport Jacques Barrot kept at it despite frequent criticisms that they were giving away too much.
Byerly and Calleja face the ongoing and unenviable task of completing the stage-two negotiations that start in 2008 to resolve issues left open. This step in the process will require all of the inborn optimism that both men have shown so far, but both vow it will be done.
David Field
Hunold's healthy appetite
Having snapped up dba and LTU in short order, and made a move on Condor, Air Berlin's sharp chief executive Joachim Hunold could be forgiven a little indigestion at the moment. And that is just what leisure carrier LTU is giving Germany's emerging second airline force, behind the mighty Lufthansa, as it struggles to integrate the loss-making carrier into its hybrid low-cost/leisure strategy.
The move may have depressed Air Berlin's profits in 2007, but Hunold says these will recover in 2008. For the time being his achievement is to almost single-handedly consolidate Germany's airline scene around two large groups. And keep an eye on this well-connected native of Dusseldorf, who knows the country's airline business inside out, for who knows what his next target might be?
Mark Pilling
Gulf air crisis
The Gulf region is not only about success stories. While Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways continue to chalk up the world's highest growth rates, Gulf Air had a rocky 2007 to say the least.
The Bahrain-based carrier had a controversial ownership change, a major restructuring and two chief executive changes. Gulf Air, which in its hey day was owned by four Gulf states and was the region's leading carrier, is now 100% owned by the Bahraini government. The Omani government in April reduced its stake from 50% to 20% and subsequently sold the remaining bit. A restructuring in April included slashing several routes, reducing its fleet and dropping its Oman hub.
Besides competing with Emirates, Etihad and Qatar, Gulf Air now has to compete with a rejuvenated Oman Air and start-up Bahrain Air. Andre Dose, who arrived in April to restructure Gulf Air, resigned suddenly in July. Bjorn Naf is now acting chief executive until a permanent chief is announced.
Brendan Sobie
Indian revolution
Indian civil aviation ministers have traditionally been cautious about pursuing major change.
Not Praful Patel. Since becoming minister in May 2004 he has pushed through liberalisation measures that allowed new airlines to be established and more foreign carriers to serve India, privatised the two main gateway airports and got approval for upgrades of many others, and pushed through long-delayed fleet modernisations at Air India and Indian Airlines.
In 2007 he managed to firm up his boldest initiative - the merger of state-owned Air India and Indian to help them better compete with private carriers.
There is now plenty of work to do before the real benefits of the merger are seen, but Patel's gutsy moves have left him a legacy that will far outlast his tenure as minister.
Nicholas Ionides
Brazilian gamble
Not content with turning his country's air transport market upside down with the invention of Latin America's most successful low-cost carrier Gol, Constantino de Oliveira Junior took the gamble of buying Varig for some $275 million in March.
Constantino's powerful family, which has made its fortune in buses in Brazil, is positioning itself to jointly dominate the country's booming air travel market along with rival TAM. Constantino knows he is taking a big risk with Varig, which had virtually ceased flying by the time Gol came into the frame. But it is a calculated one for Constantino, who has created one of the world's most profitable carriers in just six years.
A risk that is harder to judge is that offered by Brazil's congested and fragile airport and airways system. He will be lobbying hard for improvements there as he restores Varig's name to the airways.
Mark Pilling
Source: Airline Business
