All Strategy articles – Page 1019
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Third Party Pressure
The third party maintenance, repair and overhaul business will consolidate further as the dominant companies seek greater economies of scale and airlines turn their attention back to improving costs. If you were asked to name the landmarks of the aircraft maintenance and overhaul industry over the past year, you ...
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US yields spoil the party
Despite a solid set of 1998 results, the US majors are nagged by doubts over yields. After all the pessimism, and the damage of the Northwest Airlines strike, the year-end figures from the US majors held little to complain about. That little something, however, was an overall fall in yields. ...
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Licking its wounds
Northwest Airlines had less to celebrate at the end of last year than most of its US competitors. Jane Levere examines the potential impact of last year's battles on this year's performance. For Northwest Airlines, 1998 will go down as the year it would rather forget. The effects of the ...
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Majors play the mating game
US carriers are again testing the water with a series of new acquisition proposals. Perhaps it has something to do with the season, but it is almost exactly a year since they last indulged in a frenzy of mating activity and the US majors are at it again. Only this ...
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Managing or flying?
It may be desirable to include pilots in airline management, but how far is it economic? Organisation of cockpit crews must rank among the airline industry's most sensitive management issues. And central to that debate is the question over the extent to which pilots themselves should be involved in ...
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Japan's majors face loss of slots
Low-cost start-up carriers appear to be having more of an impact on Japan's "big three" than expected and new rules are on the way that could erode their dominance on busy domestic routes. The "big three" - All Nippon Airways, Japan Airlines and Japan Air System - are ...
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Foreign ownership debate heats up
The debate in the USA over foreign ownership and control of airlines has come under a spotlight early in 1999 with airline and government officials discussing how a relaxation of the rules may occur. US Secretary of Transportation Rodney Slater stirred the controversy last year when he said the ...
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Swissair/Delta could win SAA deal
Lufthansa, long considered the front runner in the race for a 30% stake in South African Airways (SAA), now appears to be facing a determined combined challenge from Swissair/Delta Air Lines. The German carrier launched an aggressive public relations exercise weeks ago announcing that, if successful, it would ...
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Guyana sets sell-off date
The government of Guyana is hoping to have handed over control of Guyana Airways Corporation (GAC) by the end of April. The government's privatisation unit says it had set a deadline of 16 February for would-be purchasers to submit proposals and then it was hoping to complete the sale within ...
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Carrier of controversy
Jet Airways has surmounted every obstacle to become India's dominant private carrier and pose a serious challenge to rival Indian Airlines. But its rise has been dogged by political controversy. When India opened competition in the domestic airline market about eight years ago, local entrepreneurs rushed to launch airlines. ...
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Low cost or bust
Europe's low-cost experiment is in full flow, but are there casualties waiting? Ever since the low-cost formula began to take root in Europe a couple of years ago, industry observers have been waiting keenly for the first start-up to fail. Even the low-cost pioneers themselves have expressed surprise that ...
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News in Brief
EasyJet seeks listing - UK low-cost carrier easyJet has announced that it intends to seek a listing on the London stock exchange and the US Nasdaq market early next year, to finance the purchase of the new aircraft it has on order. A spokesman also said that easyJet would drop ...
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Beijing tightens its belt
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) may have escaped Beijing's directive that requires other agencies to divest their interests in the industries that they regulate, but aviation is not entirely unscathed by the latest belt tightening aimed at boosting China's weak economy and currency. Heading the list ...
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Back to the future for Olympic
The encouraging noises that emanated from the management of Olympic Airways little more than 10 weeks ago have again faded as the the Greek carrier lost another managing director. The official line is that Theodore Tsakiridis resigned, but the speed of his departure bore the hallmarks of the political manoeuvring ...
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Ansett greets Star with fleet upgrade
Ansett Australia is upgrading its fleet to include Boeing 747-400s as it prepares for its entry on 28 March into the Star Alliance. In a surprise move, Australia's second carrier says it will lease two 747-400s for five years from new partner Singapore Airlines (SIA), when leases on two ...
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Iberia joins oneworld alliance
Iberia is finally cleared to join the oneworld alliance, having tied up agreement with American Airlines and British Airways on their acquisition of small minority stakes in the Spanish flag-carrier. Iberia also now appears to be on course to finish off the year with its long-awaited privatisation. Iberia's ...
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Sir Harry cites bad health as he resigns from Air Afrique
Sir Harry Tirvengadum has resigned as chairman of Cote d'Ivoire-based Air Afrique, citing health reasons, but amid claims that political pressure was brought to bear. Tirvengadum asked to be released from his contract as chairman of the troubled multinational carrier on 29 January, after just two years in ...
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American plans Aeroperu bid
In a move that could transform the alliance landscape in Latin America, American Airlines is studying whether to take control of AeroPeru. American is exploiting the vacuum created when Delta and Cintra, the holding company for Aeromexico and Mexicana, refused to inject more cash into unprofitable Aeroperu. Delta ...
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Life starts at 50
SITA may just have turned 50, but its gaze remains firmly fix on the future. Kevin O'Toole talks to chairman John Watson. "People try to categorise SITA but it's just a phenomenon," says its chairman John Watson. The fact that it exists at all is thanks to the foresight of ...
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Europe's BIG 3
Lufthansa, Air France and Swissair have built their repair and overhaul facilities into some of the most competitive in the world, but profit margins remain slim. Europe cannot claim to be a world leader in many sectors, but when it comes to commercial aircraft and engine maintenance, it is ...