TRAVEL

Singapore Airlines Cuts Capacity

Airbus set to win back sales crown from Boeing

IATA confirms more accidents but fewer fatalities in 2008

Ryanair to Cut Costs

UK environment czar looking at limiting holiday trips to save CO2 

Oneworld Future Hangs On Upcoming Airline Agreements 

Bosses of airlines in the Oneworld alliance celebrated its 10th birthday recently knowing the future of the 10-carrier grouping may hang on the fate of two agreements which could fly or fail within months.  Already the smallest of the three global airline alliances, analysts say Oneworld is being left behind on trans-Atlantic competition by the 18-member Star Alliance and by the Air France-Delta led Skyteam.  The biggest members from both those rival alliances have stretched their advantage over Oneworld by winning US antitrust immunity on North Atlantic routes -- allowing them to coordinate prices and schedules.

That means if a third attempt by Oneworld members British Airways, American Airlines and Iberia to gain similar approval is rebuffed in the next few months, smaller alliance partners could defect to rivals, analysts say.  "If BA-AA doesn't get antitrust immunity that would present a huge difficulty for Oneworld," said one London-based analyst.  "It puts the alliance at a significant disadvantage. The airlines may cling to each other, but the temptation to look for other options elsewhere would be there."

Previous efforts foundered on a US condition that they relinquish slots at London's Heathrow Airport. But analysts say this time around the EU-US Open Skies pact, a trade in airport slots and the dominant position of their bigger rivals should mean it is offered better terms.  Alliance airlines now account for some 70 percent of global traffic since they began in the early 1990s as a tool for carriers to offer more routes, but also to compensate for regulatory hurdles that still block many cross-border and cross-regional mergers and acquisitions.  

[Source: Reuters]

Singapore Airlines Cuts Capacity

The global recession has forced Singapore Airlines to drop Canada as one of its destinations.  After more than 20 years of flying to Canada, Singapore Airlines is indefinitely suspending flights to this country effective April 25th.  The carrier flies to Vancouver three times a week through Seoul, South Korea. 

Last month, Singapore Airlines announced it was trimming flights to the U-S, Europe, and Asia due to declining passenger demand.  

The 11% reduction in capacity announced by Singapore Airlines for the period April 2009 – March 2010 will mean suspensions of flights on a range of routes, and use of smaller aircraft on others.

The drop in demand owing to the global economic slowdown is the driver of the reduction in capacity. Going forward, Singapore Airlines will continue to monitor demand patterns and will make changes to its network when necessary.

A number of changes have already been announced and some effected, including the withdrawal of service to Amritsar (from Feb 09) and Vancouver (from Apr 09), lower frequency of flights to India, as well as a cutback on the non-stop flights between Singapore and the USA, reduction of frequency to Rome, Manchester, Australia, Seoul, Japan, China, West Asia, and reduction in capacity on London flights.

In the course of the year, 17 aircraft will be decommissioned from the operating fleet. Before recession hit major markets, the plan was for only four aircraft to be phased out – one for conversion to a freighter, and three to be returned to lessors at completion of lease contracts.

Singapore Airlines Chief Executive Officer, Chew Choon Seng, said, “The drop in air transportation has been sharp and swift. Given the falls of over 20 per cent that we have seen recently in air cargo shipments, and the tradition of demand for air travel following closely behind trends on the cargo side of the business, we have to face the reality that 2009 is going to be a very difficult year.

“Singapore Airlines does not have a domestic operation to soften the blow from the slump in international air traffic, and we have to act decisively to address the situation. We have determined the capacity to be operated that will enable the Airline to remain viable in a shrinking market."

The world's biggest airline by market value said only filled 63 percent of the space available on its planes for passengers and cargo in January, down from 68 percent a year ago, as global airlines suffer from the financial crisis.  Singapore is facing its worst recession since it split from Malaysia 44 years ago.  

Singapore Airlines (SIA) said it will indefinitely suspend its thrice weekly service to Vancouver which has been "badly affected" by the global economic crisis.

The last flight will be on April 25, the airline said in a statement. The Singapore-Vancouver service passes through Seoul.

SIA said it would continue to serve Canada through its existing schedule of 42 weekly flights between Singapore and its gateways in the United States.

The airline also offers codeshare services on Air Canada to Toronto and Montreal from its European gateways.

"The decision to suspend service is most regrettable, as Singapore Airlines has served Canada for over 20 years," the carrier said.

"However, the economic conditions and performance on the route has been badly affected by the global economic downturn."

SIA reported a 42.8 per cent fall in net profit in the third quarter to December from the year before as it carried fewer passengers and cargo. It also forecast a bleak outlook for this year.

The airline announced late last month the suspension of some international flights to India, Southeast Asia, the United States and Europe.

The airline said it was also reducing its all-business-class service to New York and Los Angeles.

[Sources:  Agencies and Singapore Airlines]

Airbus set to win back sales crown from Boeing

Barring any last-minute deals, Airbus has won back the hotly contested race for annual orders from rival Boeing.

Neither company is likely to celebrate, however, as overall sales are down sharply from last year's record, and the year ahead looks bleak as the global recession puts the squeeze on airlines’ demand for new planes.

According to its online order book, Airbus had 756 firm orders at the end of November, not counting cancellations and other changes. On the same basis, Boeing had orders for only 662 planes last week. For 2008, the two companies' combined order tally looks like it will hit 1,500 or so, which historically is high, but marks a steep drop-off from last year's industry record of 2,754 orders.

Boeing, which is set to publish its final annual sales tally early in the New Year, is unlikely to pull past Airbus in the final week of the year, even if it firms up a recent agreement by American Airlines to buy 42 of its 787 Dreamliners.  

[Source: Reuters]

IATA confirms more accidents but fewer fatalities in 2008

Airlines suffered 109 accidents in 2008, up from 100 in 2007, while the number of fatal accidents increased from 20 to 23 between the two years, IATA reported.

However, fatalities dropped from 692 in 2007 to 502 in 2008. This translated into a 56% improvement in the fatality rate from 0.23 fatalities per million passengers in 2007 to 0.13 per million last year.

According to IATA, the global accident rate (measured in hull losses per million flights of Western-built jet aircraft) stood at 0.81--or one accident for every 1.2 million flights--slightly worse than in 2007 when the rate was 0.75 or one accident for every 1.3 million flights. IATA member airlines "significantly outperformed the industry in safety." With 33 accidents, their accident rate fell from 0.68 in 2007 to 0.52 in 2008.

Runway excursions accounted for 25% of all accidents in 2008. IATA is launching a Runway Safety Toolkit in 2009, which it has developed with Flight Safety Foundation. The toolkit will "also be incorporated with IATA's broad-ranging safety data tools in the IATA Global Safety Information Centre to be launched later this year," the organization said. Ground damage accounted for 17% of all accidents. 

[Source: Air Transport World]

Ryanair to Cut Costs

Europe's largest low-fare airline Ryanair said it planned to save costs by closing all its airport check-in desks by the end of the year and have passengers check in online instead. "All we will have is a bag drop where passengers can drop off their luggage, otherwise everything will be done online," Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary told the Daily Telegraph. He said the savings would be passed on to passengers in the form of lower fares.

Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara said that 75 percent of the airline's passengers already used its online check-in services. "We are trying to encourage the remaining 25 percent to do the same. Hopefully by the end of the year we will have bag drop-in areas instead, which will be manned." The airline would continue to have staff running ticket desks at airports, he said. [Source: Reuters]

UK environment czar looking at limiting holiday trips to save CO2. 

The UK's so-called "environment czar" last week raised the possibility of rationing air travel, limiting UK citizens to just a few vacation trips abroad by air per year in order to reduce the impact of carbon dioxide emissions. Adair Turner, chairman of the independent Committee on Climate Change that advises UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, made the proposal before Parliament's Environmental Audit Select Committee on Feb. 5. In remarks widely reported by UK media, Turner said, "We will have to constrain demand in an absolute sense with people not allowed to make as many journeys as they could in an unconstrained manner."

The proposal was strongly condemned by FlyingMatters, a UK-based coalition of airlines, airports, aerospace manufacturers and other aviation- and tourism-related groups. "One always suspects with these half-baked proposals that the people who put them forward really intend them to apply to ordinary people, many of whom have only recently gained access to air travel, rather than to themselves," the organization said in a statement.

Turner's remarks came as a report from the TaxPayers' Alliance revealed that the UK government spent £18.5 million ($26.9 million) on flights last year, a figure that does not include travel by the Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence, according the Daily Mirror. [Source: Air Transport World]