Archive for June, 2011
Thursday, June 30th, 2011
Airlines in Australia are counting the cost of the raft of natural disasters which have affected schedules this year. This week, Qantas said the ash cloud which hovered above New Zealand and the south of the country has already cost the carrier A$21 million. The earthquakes which hit New Zealand and Japan, cyclones, local flooding and snowstorms in the UK have also cost the flag-carrier around A$185 million.
Alan Joyce, chief executive of Qantas, said that the airline had been hit by events on every continent this year. He added that the rising cost of jet fuel and increased competition from airlines in the Middle East and across Asia will continue to have an impact on business. Joyce went on to say that the carrier’s international arm would lose around A$200 million this financial year.
According to chairman of Strategic Aviation Solutions, Neil Hansford, airlines still have to pay around 80 per cent of their costs whether they fly or not. Grounded fleets only save on a few airport charges and fuel. The latest problems with the Chilean ash cloud will also damage carriers because they lost out on lucrative mid-week business travel. Hansford estimated that the Australian airline industry was losing as much as A$30 million every day.
The tourism industry is also falling foul of natural events and a strong dollar. More people are now leaving Australia for a holiday than are entering the country, according to Tourism and Transport Forum head, John Lee. He estimated that the industry was losing around A$10 million each day.
Tags: airlines, Alan Joyce, ash cloud, holiday, Qantas, Strategic Aviation Solutions, tourism
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Wednesday, June 29th, 2011
A terrorist attack on the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul has resulted in the death of at least 10 civilians, according to Afghan officials. The attack took place at the luxury hotel on Tuesday night. Officials say the number of dead does not include at least six gunmen and suicide bombers who were either killed by security forces or blew themselves up.
Spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry, Siddiq Siddigi, declared an end to the five-hour siege early on Wednesday morning. Ambulances and security vehicles then moved in to remove the injured and dead. The authorities have warned that the death toll could rise.
Three of the militants apparently took up positions on the roof of the hotel. A NATO spokesman said two of its helicopters had been called in and had opened fire on the gunmen killing them.
Responsibility for the attack has been claimed by the Taliban. It said it was intentionally targeting foreign guests.
The US State Department has issued a statement in which it condemns the terrorists for their disregard of human life. Washington confirmed that all diplomatic staff from the US were safe and extended condolences to the victims’ families.
The attack on the Intercontinental happened on the eve of a conference which was to be held to discuss the transferral of responsibility to Afghan security forces from the International Security Assistance Force led by NATO.
Gen Mohammad Ayub Salangi, Kabul’s chief of police, said the hotel had been searched and confirmed the safety of the guests.
Tags: hotel, Intercontinental Hotel, Kabul, NATO, security forces, suicide bombers, Taliban, terrorist attack
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Tuesday, June 28th, 2011
In a move to increase its travel offering, Kelkoo has teamed up with three well known travel brands. Partnerships with Alpharooms.com, Airflights.co.uk and Lasminute.com will give customers a wider range of choice on hotels, holidays and flights. The move will also help to boost the Kelkoo travel brand.
Holidaymakers will be able to take advantage of deals being offered by Airflights.co.uk until at least August this year when the service will review customer feedback and possibly extend its offering into next year. The deal has been signed by Lastminute.com until next April and with Alpharooms.com until next July.
Commenting on the move, travel managing director at Kelkoo, Chris Nixon, said: “The new partnerships with Airflights.co.uk, Alpharooms.com and Lastminute.com are extremely exciting and a real testament to the work being done to regenerate the Kelkoo Travel proposition. Offering customers access to greater choice from these three leading travel brands underlines our continued commitment to re-building our travel proposition across Europe, which has been my main focus since joining the team last year. This is the latest of many new and exciting developments we are looking to make at Kelkoo Travel over the coming year.”
Marketing director of Alpharooms.com, Daniel Morley, added: “Alpharooms.com are keen to support Kelkoo Travel and we will be working closely with them to offer their users an extensive range of budget to luxury worldwide accommodation.”
Sales manager of Airflights.co.uk, Colin Gill, commented: “As one of the UK’s busiest travel websites Airflights.co.uk is pleased to enter into this partnership with Kelkoo. Airflights bring a real choice of airlines, small niche tour operators and travel related products to the Kelkoo audience, whilst simultaneously increasing the Airflights brand awareness amongst the increasingly discerning UK traveller.”
Tags: Airflights.co.uk, airlines, Alpharooms.com, flights, holidays, hotels, Kelkoo, Lastminute.com, travel
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Monday, June 27th, 2011
A pilot with British Airways is being investigated for allegedly tossing a mobile phone from the window of a cockpit as he prepared for take-off at Edinburgh Airport. According to reports, the captain became irritated when he was told he would have to delay his flight by returning to the airport gate to hand the mobile in.
Although the action was meant to speed up the aircraft’s departure it had the opposite effect and the flight was held back by three hours. It had already been delayed because the Red Arrows had been putting on an aerial display to celebrate Armed Forces Day.
The pilot had reportedly asked air traffic controllers if he could simply drop the unclaimed phone from the window of the Boeing 737-400. He was then told that this was not allowed, but threw the phone out anyway. The police were then called and the pilot and his crew had to leave the plane. The pilot was then taken away by the authorities for questioning.
Although he was taken away by the police he was not placed under arrest for the incident. Enquiries are ongoing and it is still to be established whether or not the captain was in breach of air-safety rules.
According to a spokeswoman for British Airways the airline is looking into the incident and trying to establish what exactly happened. She said that there was no reason under safety regulations that the pilot had to get the unclaimed mobile off his plane in the first place.
Tags: air-safety, airport, boeing, British Airways, Edinburgh Airport, pilot, police, Red Arrows
Posted in UK News | Comments Off
Friday, June 24th, 2011
The sale of the RAC motoring organisation to an American equity firm has caused concern for members, employees and the trade unions. Aviva yesterday concluded a deal with US giant the Carlyle Group for £1 billion. The Washington-based group owns a worldwide portfolio of businesses including Dunkin’ Donuts and the car rental company Hertz.
Paul Maloney, the GMB’s national secretary, said the takeover would not be good for the breakdown service. He pointed out that following the 2004 takeover of the Automobile Association by Permira in partnership with CVC Partners 3,000 jobs were lost and debts of £5.8 billion led to the demise of the AA’s 24-hour patrols.
Mr Maloney said he was concerned that politicians and City regulators had done nothing to prevent the sale to what he called ‘casino capitalists’. The unions are already blaming the problems faced by Southern Cross, a care home firm, on Blackstone in the US, an equity firm which formerly owned the company.
RAC managing director, Angela Seymour-Jackson, said she realised that the change of hands would cause employees and members to become nervous. However, she added that at the present time there were no talks of any job losses or changes that would mean cutting the services the RAC would provide to is customers. She went on to say that AA and the RAC were very different organisations.
The RAC currently employs around 4,000 people and was originally founded by the Royal Automobile Club which was established in 1897. The breakdown service became a separate entity in 1978.
Tags: AA, Aviva, car rental, Carlyle Group, GMB, Hertz, RAC
Posted in Finance and Business | Comments Off
Thursday, June 23rd, 2011
British Airways passengers will be relieved by the news that cabin crew have voted almost unanimously in favour of a peace deal offered by the airline. The agreement was struck between BA and trade union Unite in May and then went for approval by staff. Unite’s leader, Len McCluskey, called the deal honourable, adding that the union always believed a settlement could be reached through the process of negotiation.
A positive vote by 92 per cent of the carrier’s cabin crew comes after nearly two years of bitter wrangling. The fight began over pay issues and staffing cuts but has more recently centred on the issue of travel privileges. BA has agreed to up to a four per cent pay increase this year with an additional 3.5 per cent in 2012.
The airline also said it would return travel perks to staff who had them confiscated because of the industrial action last year. In all, there have been 22 days of walkouts which it is estimated cost the carrier £150 million in lost revenue.
The threat of further strikes has also done little for the airlines image. It is widely believed that the removal of former chief executive Willie Walsh and his hard-line approach has done much to help ease tensions between BA and Unite.
Mr Walsh, who is now head of International Airlines Group, BA’s parent company, was replaced by Keith Williams who made it clear from the start that he wanted a better working relationship with his staff.
Tags: BA, British Airways, cabin crew, Keith Williams, Len McCluskey, strikes, Unite, willie walsh
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Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011
A recent report by motoring organisation RAC has shown that many drivers in the UK are finding it difficult to make their usual journeys because of the spiralling cost of fuel. The RAC polled 1,000 people and asked them about their habits.
The survey showed that 35 per cent were making fewer short journeys than they normally would, and 30 per cent had cut back on longer trips. Just under 40 per cent admitted to planning their journeys so that they could combine several trips into one.
The study also shows that many are being forced to reduce the number of times they venture out to visit friends or take their children to activities held after school. Motoring strategist for the RAC, Adrian Tink, said the situation meant that many people are no longer able to perform simple tasks, such as visiting members of their family.
He points out that drivers in the UK are already being forced to pay Europe’s highest rate of tax and duty on fuel, adding that the government needs to take action. He went on to say that, at the very least, inflationary rises should be abandoned and fuel duty frozen.
According to the survey, if the price of fuel continues to escalate, 65 per cent of motorists will have to seriously cut back on their car use, and 58 per cent admitted that getting behind the wheel would become a luxury.
The average price of a litre of diesel currently stands at £1.42, and a litre of unleaded petrol costs £1.37.
Tags: deisel, fuel, fuel duty, motoring, petrol, RAC, tax
Posted in UK News | Comments Off
Tuesday, June 21st, 2011
Middle Eastern airline Emirates has said it will be introducing services to the Iraqi capital Baghdad starting 13 November. It is the latest carrier to announce flights to Baghdad as the economy and security in the country continues to improve. Iraq has been trying to encourage airlines to return after embargoes were introduced in 1990 following the country’s invasion of Kuwait.
Emirates Airline chairman and chief executive, Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, said Baghdad would be strategically important because of its location and because there were still only a few carriers flying to the airport. Iraq’s government is trying to encourage investment to make improvements to the city’s airport.
Last year, Emirates began serving Basra. The airline expects its customers to come from growing sectors of industry including telecoms, oil and construction as well as government personnel. The airline’s boss said that he looked forward to introducing Baghdad’s residents to Emirates’ global network.
EgyptAir, based in Cairo, has also announced plans to fly to and from Iraq commencing 15 July. According to the airline’s chairman, Hussein Massoud, there will be four flights to Baghdad and a further three services to Irbil in the north. Massoud said that Iraq and Egypt had cultural and commercial ties and that Iraq was a fertile ground for investment.
Airlines already taking advantage of improved conditions in Iraq include Royal Jordanian, Etihad Airways and Turkish Airlines. Austrian Airlines was the first major carrier from the west to resume services on a regular basis to Baghdad since 1990. The airline resumed flights earlier this month.
Tags: airlines, Austrian Airlines, EgyptAir, Emirates, Etihad Airways, Irbil, Royal Jordanian, Turkish Airlines
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Monday, June 20th, 2011
Lifeboat volunteers are warning visitors to Holy Island in Northumberland to pay attention to signs which warn them that it is not safe to drive onto the causeway which links the island to the mainland after the tide is coming in. Last week, and Australian couple had to be rescued as their rental car was cut off by the sea.
According to Ian Clayton, who is a member of Seahouses RNLI, the rescue is the eighth from the causeway this year. He said it was odd that so many people think they can get away with driving their cars into the sea.
Mr Clayton said such incidents were preventable and that it was never a local finding themselves in difficulty, always a visitor who has ignored the warning signs on both sides of the causeway. Mr Clayton added that most couldn’t even bring themselves to admit that they were at fault.
He described how one man who was warned not to cross the causeway replied that the locals were just trying to scare him. He then had to be rescued from the roof of his vehicle as his wife held onto their children in water which was already up to chest height.
Mr Clayton said that once the seawater enters the engine of a car the salt is likely to leave it written off. He added that he recently rescued a man from a brand new BMW and was left wondering what exactly he was going to tell his insurance company.
Tags: bmw, Holy Island, insurance, lifeboat, rental car, RNLI
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Friday, June 17th, 2011
Forensic experts in Paris are preparing for the task of identifying the remains of the victims of an Air France crash. The bodies of 104 people who died in the 2009 tragedy have arrived in the port of Bayonne along with aircraft debris. The harbour was shut as a mark of respect for the victims’ families.
Flight 447 went down into the Atlantic after leaving Rio de Janeiro for Paris. Although accident investigators have not yet released a full report, it is believed that the Airbus A330 went into a stall after encountering an electrical storm. The pilots then failed to regain control and the plane plunged into the ocean.
Part of the blame for the accident is being placed on the air speed indicators. An electronic signal sent from the aircraft moments before it went down shows that the pilots were being fed inaccurate information about the aircraft’s speed. Although there have been some doubts raised about how the pilots reacted to the stall warnings that went off in the cabin, Air France has said all the evidence shows that they acted professionally.
Immediately following the accident, debris and 50 bodies were recovered from the surface of the sea. Several attempts were then made to find the rest of the wreckage. The remains of flight 447 were located in July when salvagers managed to bring the planes data and flight recorders to the surface.
The investigation is ongoing, but the BEA is due to issue a detailed report next month.
Tags: air france, airbus, aircraft, flight 447
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