Systems & interiors – Page 833
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Hub fever
In many industries, concentration forces have led to a few large mass producers with a global reach, each striving to achieve the lowest unit costs through increased efficiencies and higher production volumes. In the airline industry, global alliances are being created to achieve similar goals. However, the individual airline operators ...
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Hitch for BA and Qantas
Alliance partners planning extended codesharing between Europe and Australia have had their strategies thrown into disarray by the Australian government's route rights authority. In a draft ruling the Canberra-based International Air Services Commission (IASC) shocked Qantas and British Airways by saying it will refuse them permission for a wide-ranging ...
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BA in pursuit of leisure
British Airways' much-hyped plans to launch a low-cost point-to-point carrier may herald a larger push into the European leisure market, including a standalone charter operation. BA has already come under fire for considering its own no-frills carrier to limit the advance in the UK market of low-cost players like ...
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Hangover cure
Karen Walker 'Swire prince' are words often whispered in the wake of David Turnbull, an acknowledgement of his rapid rise through the management strata of the Swire Group. His 21 years of experience at Swire have been tested severely over the last 12 months, however, since he inherited one ...
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Shanghai shangrila
Lois Jones Any visitor to Shanghai is easily charmed by its bewildering mix of old and new. Neon lights bejewel 1920s façades, and rickshaws vie for space with resplendent new Volkswagens in the city's ever-widening roads. It's fitting that as the main carrier serving China's eastern gateway, China ...
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Chinese revolution?
What gets bigger must get smaller. An unlikely paradox? Not for the Civil Aviation Administration of China. In its eyes, domestic traffic growth makes only one conclusion possible - the number of airlines must fall. Most airline CEOs would be positively drooling. A population of 1.224 billion is set ...
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Southern belle
Lois Jones Chairman Mao would not have approved. If, as Mao alleged, western-style commercialism and capitalism are corrupt, then China Southern Airlines is rotten to the core. As China closes the book on socialist economic dogma and emancipates its state-owned enterprises, China Southern is one of the first ...
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Sabena lures City Bird
Sabena has stepped up the defence of its Brussels base by taking an option to buy up to 25 per cent of City Bird, the low-cost Belgian long-haul start-up. However, the deal threatens to send out confusing signals to Sabena's alliance partners and passengers who are already struggling with ...
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Autumn break is big turning point
The severe turbulence seen in global equity markets this autumn will have a lasting impact on the climate in which publicly-quoted corporations operate. In purely economic terms it almost certainly signals an end to the exceptional growth seen around the world over the last few years. But its financial impact ...
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Garvey/Slater: great team work
In her first major public speech as the US Federal Aviation Administrator, Jane Garvey may not have set the industry on fire, but the underlying message - coupled with recent announcements made by the Department of Transportation - was unmistakeable. Garvey is putting the FAA back on the straight and ...
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Alliances: decision time approaches
There can be few more important commercial issues for airlines than the future shape of their alliances. A series of regulatory decisions about major alliances is about to be made. The outcome will determine the shape of the airline business, for the next several years at least. At the ...
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Nine cry foul over Milan
The complaint by nine major operators at Milan/Linate airport to the European Commission about next year's transfer to the new Malpensa airport reflects their concern over the threat that Malpensa poses to their own hubs. While Alitalia could not develop Malpensa into a hub alone, the Italian flag carrier ...
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A pan-European hubbing pioneer
As its chairman and chief executive officer, Franco Mancassola makes no apology for his personification of Debonair's brand image. And with a penchant for designer clothes, expensive cars and the more upmarket passenger, nor does he make any attempt to disguise his disdain for some more downmarket, no-frills rivals. ...
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Easy does it
Easy come, easy go. Hopefully EasyJet's use of this slogan to depict its ticketless booking and rapid check-in and boarding procedures will never apply to its presence in the European airline industry. Few think it will. The airline's charismatic chairman, Stelios Haji-Ioannou, has made sure his startup uses technology ...
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A tale of two startups
Jackie Gallacher Two startup carriers, two philosophies. Ironically, while EasyJet and Debonair have a lot in common, their differences are at the root of the strong rivalry between their chairmen, respectively Stelios Haji-Ioannou - the young and wealthy owner of a Greek shipping company - and Franco Mancassola, an ...
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Mexican spat over codes
Mexico and Washington are coming to blows over codesharing, prompting calls for changes in their bilateral. Discussions were set to resume in December but, according to one Washington source, 'they're talking, but they don't seem to be getting anywhere'. The current US-Mexico bilateral makes no provision for codesharing ...
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737-700 undergoes preparation for last JAA test
Boeing is preparing the Next Generation 737-700 for its final test for the European Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA), with certification now anticipated by the end of December. The aircraft has also had a boost from a major deal with Argentina's LAPA. Boeing says that the aircraft passed the ...
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Unions approve United Express jet operations
United Airlines' pilot unions have cleared the way for Atlantic Coast Airlines (ACA) to launch United Express services with its Bombardier Canadair Regional Jets (CRJ). The regional airline began a United Express regional-jet service between Washington's Dulles International to two Florida points, Nashville and Raleigh-Durham, in late November. ...
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Airlines may link on African ATC problems
Long-haul carriers could soon become involved in modernising Africa's dilapidated air-traffic-control (ATC) infrastructure, following a call by South African Airways (SAA) for airlines regularly flying in African airspace to take a more pro-active safety role. At the same time, South Africa has reported success in improving ground communications ...
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No frills
No sooner had British Airways announced plans to set up its own low-cost operation at London Stansted, than the howls of protest began from the existing no-frills carriers. Their complaint (writ large in whole page newspaper advertisements) is that the BA intends to put them out of business by fair ...