Strategy – Page 970
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SAA will keep Qualiflyer options open
Roger Makings JOHANNESBURG Although South African Airways (SAA) has chosen Swissair as its strategic equity partner, the airline says it is in no rush to join the European Qualiflyer alliance or any other grouping. SAA chief executive Coleman Andrews says the airline will keep its options open for as long ...
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Ground handling goes acquisition crazy
Tom Gill LONDON SAirGroup's move to buy Dynair, a major US ground handler, accelerates the market's rapid consolidation. SAirGroup's Swissport International, which claims to have become the world's largest ground handler as a result of the acquisition, also absorbed Amsterdam Schiphol-based Dutchport and the operations of France's Air Littoral ...
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JetBlue takes on Big Apple
Carol Shifrin NEW YORK The largest metropolis of the USA - New York City - is about to gain its first low-fare, home-town airline in more than a dozen years. JetBlue Airways, the best-financed of any start-up since US airline deregulation, plans an early 2000 launch from New York's underused ...
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Airlines check out from Galileo ties
Jane Levere NEW YORK Ties between Galileo and its major airline owners have unravelled further, as four carriers have reduced or entirely eliminated their ownership in the global distribution system (GDS). United Airlines, its largest shareholder, began a search for a new vendor to act as its host and potentially ...
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Agency incentives fines may go further than BA
Alan George BRUSSELS Lois Jones LONDON British Airways may not be the only European carrier to be punished over travel agent incentives by the outgoing European Commission (EC). EC competition authorities have begun an investigation into commission payments to travel agents by eight European flag carriers - Air France, ...
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SIA inspires Airbus wrath with A340 sale to Boeing
Singapore Airlines (SIA) sparked a storm of controversy in late June with the surprise announcement that it was not only firming up options on 10 Boeing 777-200IGWs, but trading in its Airbus widebody fleet to do so. While the 777 order was straightforward enough, SIA revealed that Boeing had ...
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Sydney's second airport moves closer
David Knibb BRISBANE A decision could come as early as August on whether to build Sydney's second airport after the project was cleared by an environmental report. The Badgery's Creek project, which has been stalled for years by long debates, made a breakthrough in July when a second audit of ...
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Australian ownership rules criticised
Australia's new limits on airline foreign ownership have come under fire due to the special treatment of Qantas. British Airways chairman Lord Marshall claims the new limits discriminate against the foreign owners of Qantas, particularly BA. In June, Australia's government announced, as part of a package of ...
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Cool head in a hot seat
The glass must always look half full to Fernando Pinto. The first thing that Varig's president and chief executive officer wants to point out is that his airline is in a better position today than it was three years ago. It would be easy to overlook this piece of ...
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Australia's road to privatisation
David Knibb MELBOURNE Two years after privatising its airports, Australia may provide some lessons for the rest of the world. two years after Australia privatised its major airports, some effects of that process are starting to emerge. It is too early for conclusions, but the way Australia faced a ...
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Virgin truce puts Irish operation on hold
Simon Montlake ATI LONDON Virgin boss Richard Branson has brokered a truce between disgruntled pilots and managers at Virgin Express, the Brussels-based low-cost carrier. But the agreement, signed by Branson and staff representatives, has only put off the day of reckoning for Virgin Express Ireland, the new subsidiary at ...
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Speedwing tackles Olympic problems
Tom Gill/Lois Jones LONDON Next month Speedwing will reveal a rescue plan for Olympic Airways, as the initial phase of the 30-month management contract it won in June. Olympic remains tightlipped about its future and Speedwing says it is too early to say what changes will have to be ...
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Arkia move sparks Arab backlash
Peter Bennett VIENNA Israeli group Arkia says it will invest up to $100 million in loss-making flag carrier Balkan Bulgarian after it won the rights to buy a majority stake. But problems with some of Balkan's Arab routes have set in, with some countries objecting to dealing with an Israeli-owned ...
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EasyJet goes for Gatwick
EasyJet will begin flying out of London Gatwick to Geneva this autumn in a move that departs substantially from its use of lower-cost airports such as London Luton and Liverpool. The no-frills airline has also applied for slots at Heathrow, but says that its fares will remain "affordable". Source: ...
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New dawn for Sun Air?
Roger Makings JOHANNESBURG South African Airways (SAA) is poised to move in on its ailing domestic competitor, Sun Air, after securing an exclusive three-month agreement with shareholders to work out a commercial relationship. Sun Air, in desperate need of a cash injection following the eight-month price war on South ...
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Qualiflying seamless service
With its new joint sales initiatives, the Qualiflyer grouping could be stealing a march in the alliance stakes. The promise of seamless customer service from the global alliances may seem a little distant, but progress appears to be under way. At the forefront has been a series of announcements from ...
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Playing your cards right
Jackie Gallacher LONDON Frequent flier co-operation is reaching new levels of sophistication within the global alliances, threatening to leave others out in the cold. Not so long ago, an alliance based only on links between frequent-flier programmes (FFP) would have seemed hopelessly optimistic. Yet the real force of the global ...
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Playing it safe at KAL
Nicholas Ionides SEOUL A big management shake-up at Korean Air has produced a new president and chief executive, Shim Yi-taek. His main task is to improve KAL's safety. Each day at noon, thousands of Korean Air (KAL) employees working at the carrier's Kimpo Airport headquarters building in Seoul make ...
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IT Trends Survey
Kevin O'Toole GENEVA Joint industry research conducted by Airline Business and SITA attempts to establish how far the airline industry is keeping pace with the new wave of information technology and the dawn of the Internet age. Is the airline industry keeping step with information technology? Less than a decade ...
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Netting a bargain
Now in their third year, sales of discount fares via the Internet appear to be a rousing success for US carriers. Is this a glimpse of the future? American Airlines started it all three years ago. Other US majors were quick to follow. Now, Internet discount fares are beginning ...