Interesting visual, but what does it mean?

Carriers and governments around the world seem to be getting increasingly hostile towards Emirates. Skirmishes in Canada and Germany are well documented but they are not the only fronts. In the background, there have been other smaller exchanges in Australia, India, France (really the whole EU) and South Africa to name but a few. In an effort to proliferate its views, the airline recently released a document detailing the things it feels global aviation stakeholders and travelers need to know. The PDF can be found here. Truth be told, I’m not so sure how useful this exercise has been. A cursory look at the web attention it has received seems to show that it has served only to force people to dig their heels further into the positions they already held. A few things about this document have left me perplexed:

1) I’m not sure who this document is aimed at. Consumers? Governments? Bored web surfers and bloggers? While there is interesting material in the document, it is a very disjointed read. Switching between things of interest to consumers and governments (and their oppositions I would imagine) at will. I can’t help but feel this would have been more effective if it were broken up into two targeted documents. One document aimed at consumers and one at governments and regulators. If the aim behind this was to spread its positions, I have serious doubts as to whether the average Joe is going to read 27 pages.

2) It looks like Emirates have decided on a militant us versus them stance. I say this because the document is written in such a way that unfavorable things attached to one carrier seem to bleed over into discussions about others – in particular the masked narrative that the big alliances are in fact monoliths with evil geniuses at the helm – particularly in Frankfurt. This is perhaps a little rich considering page 15 states that “it fits the objectives of some to classify the carriers in the Gulf as one unit – as if policies, governments, businesses and individuals are all alike across this diverse region.” I think in common aviation vernacular the term “Gulf carriers” has become attached to the Etihad, Qatar Airways and Emirates – my apologies to the smaller carriers of the region. I don’t think anyone can demonstrate too much diversity between these three entities.

3) On page 21 (and 6 other places) we are told “Open competition and free markets lay at the heart of Dubai’s status as a trading hub. Every day, Emirates goes head to head with more than 150 rival airlines serving Dubai International Airport.” It was my assumption then that the airplane created out of carrier names found on this page was comprised of these 150. As it turns out that was not the case. A quick scan of the names revealed only 145 carriers – this includes Emirates and its Dubai Inc cousin Fly Dubai. So down to 143 the number went. While it’s completely plausible that there are other carriers that were omitted I thought the list of carriers that did make the list was interesting enough to look at a little further. When you subtract out the cargo carriers (21 of them including Atlas, which I believe still flies for Emirates SkyCargo), bus services (to Sharjah and Abu Dhabi), defunct airlines and other anomalies the list starts to look rather more slender at 103 carriers. Still a very impressive number, just one behind the figure attributed to Paris, Charles de Gaulle. Of course, this 103 number would dip further if airlines banned in the EU were filtered out. I didn’t bother doing this because I don’t think it’s fair to punish Emirates because the UAE does not impose EU-style bans on Iranian and certain central Asian carriers. To be totally fair to Emirates, page 20 does state that the 150 does “include cargo and charter operators” – just not how many. An Excel file with filter can be found here.

4) The table on page 20 is a lot to digest. There are some oddities in the table:

• If Singapore Airlines operates 35% of flights out of SIN, how come Star Alliance’s share of that market is 30%?
• If Malaysia Airlines operates 28% of flights out of KUL, how come SkyTeam’s share of that market is only 5%? [Please ignore this. This was written before my morning coffee. :)]
  

Am I missing something here? If I am, please set me right in the comments section and I will make corrections/clarifications.

While frequencies matter (especially in congested/slot-restricted airports), ultimately market share is determined by seats. A seat count of the home carrier’s capacity in each market is conspicuously absent. Emirates’ smallest plane (in terms of passenger capacity) is its 3-class A330-200 which carries 237 passengers. The smallest plane likely to operate an international flight for any of the other carriers is probably about half that – around 120. This holds true even for Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific – though both are also all-wide body carriers like Emirates, they both have subsidiaries that operate narrow bodies and Emirates seems to want to count those operations too.

After a challenging few years that saw the carrier lose privileges to fly into the EU things now look to be on the right track at Garuda. To accommodate the growing domestic scene as well as demand to and from Indonesia Garuda have elected to sign up for an additional eleven A330-300′s. Assuming that these birds are configured like their current crop of A330-300′s they will carry 257 passenger in a 42/215 split between business and economy classes.

The A330 is a natural fit at Garuda. It provides additional lift and range the carrier needs while not adding too much operating cost since it already operates the type – presumably profitably. What remains to be seen is where this extra capacity and range will be used. Europe seems to be off the cards; the A330-300 does not have the range to fly to Europe directly from any major center in Indonesia and the only European nation with a strong tie to Indonesia – the Netherlands – is already well served both directly by KLM (serving both Jakarta and Denpasar) and with a Jakarta – Dubai – Amsterdam service operated by Garuda. The likelier candidates to see the new birds are the GCC nations where scores of Indonesians live, as well as services to northern Asia and Australasia, both major sources of tourists to the country. It is worth noting that Garuda have ordered A330′s before and then gone on to change and postpone delivery.

This deal was to be publicly announced by British Prime Minister, David Cameron who is on a tour of Asia promoting European and British business interests and products. Amusingly he’s travelling on a Boeing.

A sleepy late afternoon scene at AEP. Mad dogs galore.

For many years the MD80 formed the backbone of the Austral fleet. In fact the longest serving MD80 ever built retired last month as LV-WFN. I had the pleasure of flying a few sectors on some of these birds a couple of years ago including a hop on one of the oddball Aeromexico hybrid liveried ones. The highlight for me was deplaning and boarding from the rear in Mendoza. The MD80 has been replaced by the very capable Embraer 190. At 20 strong the 190 now forms the backbone of the Austral fleet.

AC002, NRT-YYZ, has been cancelled but I’m told this is for an unrelated reason. So far the only cancellations of international AC ops has been YYZ-HKG (AC015) and YYZ-MBJ (AC982). Beyond this there are seven delays: with Basseterre, Bridgetown, Grand Cayman, Kingston, and London all feeling the brunt of this illegal action.

Turkish Airlines FA's pose in front of their new logojet

Despite all of this frantic activity it seems that the powers that be at THY have not forgotten the most important piece of their puzzle, their employees. To pay tribute to them and their hard work this logojet was conceived and rolled out this week. It bears the faces of employees hidden in the scheme. A nice tribute to a workforce firing on all cylinders.

Images courtesy of http://www.airporthaber.com/:

An Air Canada 777 waiting for its next rotation

Things look to be getting very tense at Air Canada. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) that represents  the airline’s mechanics, baggage handlers and cargo agents in Canada has announced that it intends to begin labour action starting at 12:01 A.M. ET on Monday March 12, 2012.

As if that wasn’t enough negotiations with its pilots union appears to have also hit a snag. To that end Air Canada released a statement today signalling its intent to lock out pilots also starting at  12:01 A.M. ET on Monday March 12, 2012.

Recent strikes at the airline have been averted by political pressure and actions from the federal government. It remains to be seen what, if anything, Ottawa will do in this situation. What is known is that Air Canada employees and sympathetic members of the public are becoming increasingly frustrated with what they call political meddling.

Q400 NextGen Airliner Heads to Calgary for WestJet Visit

A couple of years ago I blogged about a dilemma that WestJet faced; it was running out of city pairs that could be viably served by its 737-only fleet. That post sparked some interesting conversation with connections on Twitter and even a little bit of heckling would you believe. As it turns out, I wasn’t far off the mark. In the time that has passed WestJet has struck up a lease arrangement introducing 757 service from western Canada to Hawaii. Things got really interesting in January when it emerged that a more significant change was on the cards – the possible creation of a subsidiary/regional operation. Once this idea was met with approval from WestJet personnel it really got legs. Although it’s not abundantly clear what types are under consideration at this time, it seems that the folks at Bombardier aren’t holding back. Just yesterday they dispatched a Q400 in WestJet colours to Calgary to demonstrate what the aircraft has to offer to the powers that be.

There are those that want the Q400 to slot in because it would make for a warm and fuzzy, made in Canada story. There are others that think that the Q400 is a shoe-in because WestJet have on more than one occasion reused pieces of the Alaska Airlines playbook. I think when the dust settles the Q400 will be selected but purely on the basis of its capabilities and economics. Cue the WestJet to acquire Proter rumours in 3, 2, 1…

Delivery flight of Qatar Amiri Flight's first 747-800

Although Boeing have been very accommodating in hiding the identities of its 747-800 BBJ buyers, the simple reality is that you can’t hide forever. Last week a gleaming new 747-800 left the US on its delivery flight to its new owner, the Government of Qatar – though likely destined for the emir himself. It is the 13th widebody in the Qatar Amiri Flight fleet.

Some have speculated that the all white livery is a security precaution. While that is plausible I think it’s just be a matter of time before this bird is sent to Dublin to be painted into the Qatar Airways scheme. This is what happened to its fellow fleet member A7-AAH only recently. I must congratulate the emir on his choice of aircraft. A truly impressive fleet.

More pictures of this beauty can in AirlineReporter.com’s Flickr photo stream.

Lufthansa 747-400 D-ABVA withdrawn from service

22 years and 7 months after entering service ship D-ABVA is being decommissioned and will soon be sent to the scrapyard. During its tenure the aircraft has amassed just over 112,000 hours of flight time and 15,724 cycles. What’s surprising is that she looks as good today as she did on day one – a testament to Lufthansa’s excellent maintenance practices. The ship bears the name Berlin, a name that will be passed onto the next A380 to be added to the Lufthy fleet.