Aviation

Australia agrees to more flights with China

Australia and China on Sunday agreed to increase the number of flights between the countries as they move towards talks on an “open skies” accord, Transport Minister Anthony Albanese said.

Under a new air services agreement, the number of seats available on flights will increase by 70 percent by the end of the year, he said. “This announcement is a significant breakthrough, reinforcing the importance of our economic relationship with China, now Australia’s largest trading partner,” Albanese said in a statement.

“It will allow the airlines of both sides to better compete within the rapidly growing Asia-Pacific region and it positions the Australian aviation industry at the forefront of the rapidly developing Chinese market.” Under the agreement, the national airlines of both countries can now offer up to 10,500 seats per week between Australia and China, 2,000 more than previously. They will be able to offer a further 4,000 seats from November.

“The latest agreement contains a shared commitment to commencing negotiations aimed at concluding an ‘open skies’ agreement, an outcome that would remove most — if not all — of the existing limitations on Australian and Chinese airlines operating between our two countries,” Albanese said.

The Asia-Pacific has overtaken North America as the world’s largest air travel market, with 647 million passengers taking commercial flights in 2009, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said this month.

Albanese said last year close to 1.4 million people travelled between Australia and China, with growth on routes between the countries averaging 16.9 percent over the past five years.

AFP

Jet Airways market share 25.2 percent

Jet Airways is performing exceptionally well. The Airline has proved itself as a market leader in India as evident by the company’s 25.2 percent market share in the month of January. The Airline carried 1.28 million passengers out of 4.08 million passengers carried by the whole Indian Airlines industry.

Kingfisher Airlines stood at the second place with 22.2 percent market share followed by Air India which has a market share of 18 percent. Jet Airways has competitors like Spice Jet, Go Air and Indigo and competing effectively.

However, Jet Airways ranked fifth on the basis of on-time performance of the airlines during the month of January. Paramount Airlines topped this ranking with 87.3 percent punctuality of its flights operating on time followed by Kingfisher Airlines. Air India was at the last position in the ranking. The overall on-time performance of scheduled domestic airlines for January was 71.3 percent.

Kapil Kaul, Chief Executive Officer, for Asia Pacific Aviation said that he felt that while the traffic growth was sharper than expected, yields continue to be soft. “We expect profitable growth from the first quarter of next fiscal for most carriers”.

Stock watch

Baggage campaign comes to Exeter Airport

Passengers at Exeter Airport and other airports across the UK and Europe were asked to pack less in their bags to prevent the high levels of injuries to baggage handlers who lift the equivalent weight of an elephant every day.

The Unite union’s ‘pack less’ campaign is calling on airlines to introduce a maximum individual bag weight of 23kg, a call backed by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) Aviation Industry Committee and the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The current limit is 32 kg per bag.

Martin Pearce, Unite regional officer, said: “Passengers across the UK and Europe are being asked to pack less in their bags.

“Most people think that baggage handling is fully automated, while the reality is that a bag can be manually lifted up to a dozen times on its journey.

“Baggage handlers lift the weight of an elephant every day. They are five times more likely than any other worker to suffer serious injuries - that unfortunately can lead to permanent disability - because they are forced to handle very heavy bags in often cramped conditions.”

Unite is also calling on the government and the HSE to do more to protect baggage handlers.

The European Commission is currently looking into introducing regulations to reduce the amount of muscular skeletal injuries suffered by workers across Europe. Unite will be putting pressure on the government to ensure that the safety of ground handling staff is addressed at a European level. The ‘pack less’ day of action is supported by the European Transport Workers’ Federation which is pushing for European wide regulation.

The event at Exeter Airport on the European day of action saw representatives from Unite leafleting passengers. There were also events at every major hub in Europe including Heathrow, Paris, Frankfurt, Madrid, Rome, Amsterdam and Copenhagen. Unite has had some success in getting airline industry to introduce the new lighter weight.

middevonstar.co.uk

AirAsia to set up Vietnamese branch

AirAsia will begin operating from a fourth national base this year after agreeing to buy into and rebrand a Vietnamese airline, even as the local affiliate of rival Jetstar struggles with a barrage of difficulties with the government in Hanoi.

The move strengthens AirAsia’s lead in Southeast Asia over Jetstar and Tiger Airways as the three Asia-Pacific, no-frills groups race to set up multinational franchise chains. For the first time, two of them will have franchised affiliates in the same country.

Malaysia’s AirAsia Bhd., the central company in the group, will buy 30 percent of VietJet Aviation Joint Stock Co., which has been licensed as the country’s first entirely private airline but is not yet flying.

The new company will take to the skies between April and June as VietJet AirAsia, joining a franchise chain comprising Thai AirAsia and Indonesia AirAsia, long-haul operator AirAsia X and AirAsia Bhd.

Conglomerate Sovico and its chairman, Thanh Hung, will hold 51 percent and 19 percent, respectively, of Vietjet AirAsia, ensuring that the company remains Vietnamese under the ownership-and-control provisions of international air service agreements and, presumably, that it retains the local connections necessary for success. AirAsia bought its stake from Sovico and another shareholder, Nguyen Thanh Hung.

This is AirAsia’s second attempt at setting up a Vietnamese affiliate. In 2007, it signed a letter of intent with shipbuilder Vinashin to establish an airline. Jetstar owner Qantas then swooped on Pacific Airlines, turning it into Jetstar Pacific.

aviationweek.com

Airlines scale back capacity addition

Wiser after their experience of last year, when an economic downturn rendered large capacity additions redundant, Indian airlines have significantly scaled back increases in both fleet size and seats for the next fiscal year. Domestic airlines are expected to add just 12-15 planes to the existing 240 in 2010-11, and add 5-6 percent more seats, against the 15-20 percent seat additions so far in this fiscal year.

The airlines have deferred taking delivery of other planes they had ordered earlier. Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, the second largest carrier in the country, will only add a couple of planes. “Between January to March 2011, there will be two additions-one ATR (turboprop plane) and one A320 plane,” said Prakash Mirpuri, vice- president (corporate communications) at UB Group, the parent company.

On Wednesday, Kingfisher’s chairman and chief executive Vijay Mallya, announcing a revival of the airlines’ overseas expansion, said it may add more planes sooner than planned to take advantage of an improving economy.

India’s largest airline by passengers carried, Jet Airways (India) Ltd, is not planning any major additions and all new purchases or leases will be only to replace ageing aircraft, two executives said. They declined to be named as they are not official spokespersons for the firm. State-run National Aviation Co. of India Ltd, which operates Air India, inducted 29 aircraft in 2009, also primarily to replace its old planes.

The frugal increases for next fiscal year are a reflection of the industry’s struggles. Estimates suggest India’s $14 billion (Rs65,240 crore) airline industry is only now retreating from the crisis-proportion losses it totted up in 2008-09, when domestic carriers collectively lost Rs. 8,557.37 crore.

livemint.com