Strategy – Page 1001

  • News

    SAA gets competitive

    1998-11-01T00:00:00Z

    South African Airways (SAA), now under its new chief executive Coleman Andrews, has laid out plans to give British Airways much stronger competition on the lucrative London routes and may be seeking closer ties with Virgin Atlantic to help achieve its goal. SAA recently poached Virgin's general manager for ...

  • News

    Sun Air seeks a listing

    1998-11-01T00:00:00Z

    A second South African carrier, Sun Air, is planning to seek a listing on the Johannesburg stock exchange. Comair, which operates under a franchise agreement with British Airways, listed in July and Sun Air now plans to follow suit in around 2000. Managing director Johan Borstlap says that he ...

  • News

    Current outlook

    1998-11-01T00:00:00Z

    There are still some glimmers despite the gloom, it seems. Although there is little doubt that the world is poised for downturn, the latest projections coming out for the airline industry, if not exactly buoyant, are at least cautiously optimistic. The new passenger forecasts from the International Air Transport ...

  • News

    Why slots maynot be enough

    1998-11-01T00:00:00Z

    Airline competition authorities may be looking in the wrong direction with demands for slot surrender to tame the global alliances. As the champions of competition continue to do battle over transatlantic airline alliances, it may be worth taking time out to reflect on exactly what they hope to achieve and ...

  • News

    Air France faces domestic challenge

    1998-11-01T00:00:00Z

    The going promises to get tough for Air France as European competitors take up positions in its home market, snapping up some key French regional carriers. In the latest deal, Swissair has stepped in to acquire a 44% stake in Air Littoral. The partnership now gives Swissair a ...

  • News

    Balkan and Malev face sale

    1998-11-01T00:00:00Z

    The Bulgarian Government is on the verge of selling a controlling stake in its national carrier, Balkan Bulgarian. The buyer is a locally based consortium, calling itself Balkan Air, made up of management, local financiers and a US institutional investor. The original offer is understood to be a straight ...

  • News

    Mega-merger cooks up charter consolidation

    1998-11-01T00:00:00Z

    Consolidation in the UK holiday market has created a third vertically integrated giant, with the announcement that Thomas Cook is to grow again through a merger with the Carlson Leisure Group. Thomas Cook, which has only just swallowed Sunworld and Flying Colours, will now emerge as a $40 billion travel ...

  • News

    ROUTES

    1998-11-01T00:00:00Z

    Rotterdam revival Transavia is developing Rotterdam as a second hub. Two Boeing 737-300s will be based at the airport from the 1999 summer season, operating to Alicante, Faro, Malaga and Las Palmas. German wings German regional Eurowings continues to expand out of the UK with ...

  • News

    Fresh start for Virgin Express

    1998-11-01T00:00:00Z

    The move by Virgin Express to establish a new Irish subsidiary in Shannon will, alongside its fledgling French operation, give the carrier the resources and cost structure it needs to pursue growth. Gus Carbonell, director of marketing and planning at the Brussels-based carrier, says the heavy social charges attached ...

  • News

    CARGO chasing the value chain

    1998-11-01T00:00:00Z

    The cargo business may once have languished as the Cinderella of the airline industry, perpetually under the shadow of its more glittering cousins in the passenger business. But those days have long since passed. Not only is air cargo now recognised as a lucrative market in its own right, ...

  • News

    POLAR steering a new course

    1998-11-01T00:00:00Z

    Good navigators, whether in cockpits or corner offices, sense when it is time to change course. The navigators for Long Beach-based Polar Air Cargo think that the time is now. But knowing when to change is only part of their challenge; they also must know what to change and what ...

  • News

    Stormy weather?

    1998-11-01T00:00:00Z

    This year's hurricane season has been unkind to the Caribbean, with Georges cutting a particularly devastating swathe through many of the region's islands. But for the local airlines, hurricanes are the least of their worries. Just ask Conrad Aleong, who stepped in this year to take the helm of ...

  • News

    Identity crisis

    1998-11-01T00:00:00Z

    Europe's regional airline executives could be excused for feeling pleased with themselves as they gathered in Hanover for the annual meeting of the European Regions Airline Association (ERA). The industry is again heading for double digit growth this year, expanding at around twice the speed of the majors. Load ...

  • News

    Routes 98

    1998-11-01T00:00:00Z

    Not so long ago, the idea of airport marketing may well have sounded like a contradiction in terms to the jaded airline route planner. Airport operators looked more like immovable institutions, to be worked around rather than with. But if airports were late to the art of marketing, then ...

  • News

    Gaining an edge

    1998-11-01T00:00:00Z

    Managers may dream of introducing the ground-breaking innovation that reshapes the industry. Or of the revolution that launches their airline to new heights of sustained performance. But in today's real world of increasingly competitive marketplace, victories tend to be smaller, more fleeting and harder to win. Welcome to the age ...

  • News

    Brussels has slots issue on hold

    1998-11-01T00:00:00Z

    While Europe's major airlines continue to do battle with the competition authorities in Brussels over transatlantic alliances, it appears that the tussle has quietly claimed another victim - the long-promised European Commission (EC)rules on slot distribution. The EC's transport directorate (DGVII), under Neil Kinnock, started working on a new ...

  • News

    A Renaissance hub

    1998-11-01T00:00:00Z

    With the opening of the new Malpensa airport, northern Italy may at last achieve its ambition of challenging northern Europe's major hubs. On the face of it, the transfer of international flights to Milan's shiny new airport at Malpensa should hardly have caused much of a fuss. Yet fuss ...

  • News

    DAT brings in Brasilia

    1998-10-28T00:00:00Z

    Danish Air Transport (DAT) has added a refurbished 28-seat Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia to its fleet. The Vamdrup, Denmark-based charter carrier is offering the aircraft for operations from a base in Esbjerg. The airline's fleet includes a Cessna CitationJet, Raytheon Beech 1900s and King Airs and Shorts Skyvans. A deal was ...

  • News

    Fokker 100s enable Gill Airways to expand Air France franchise

    1998-10-28T00:00:00Z

    Gill Airways has agreed with Air France to a major expansion of its franchise programme next year, following its deal to acquire its first jet fleet with the lease of three Fokker 100s. The independent UK regional airline, based in Newcastle, has signed a deal with debis AirFinance, arranged ...

  • News

    Kendell picks Canadair Regional Jet to take over Ansett routes

    1998-10-28T00:00:00Z

    Paul Phelan/CAIRNS Australian regional airline Kendell has selected the Bombardier Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ) over Embraer's RJ-145 and placed an order for up to 24 aircraft. Meanwhile, Adelaide-based National Jet Systems (NJS) is about to introduce the first of up to four ERJ-145s. The Ansett-owned regional has placed firm orders ...