Posts Tagged ‘British Airways’
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012
Thousands of customers of some of the largest airlines on the planet have had their travel plans disrupted by a computer glitch which meant that they could not buy tickets, reserve seats or check in over the internet. Among the airlines affected were Qantas, Cathay Pacific, British Airways and Iberia.
The meltdown happened for around three hours on Monday with the Amadeus system. There are four main booking systems used by the airline industry and when one breaks down it causes havoc at a time when carriers expect passengers to streamline their travel itinerary over the internet.
The breakdown has also affected travel agents who have not been able to access tickets on behalf of their clients. Amadeus has not yet given a reason for the failure of its systems, but has told customers that it is sorry if they experienced any undue disruption. It has also apologised to those airlines which have been affected.
Similar systems run by Galileo and Worldspan were not affected by the glitch.
Industry experts have said that it was fortunate that the problem happened during a relatively quiet travel period and that the situation would have been far more serious during a bank holiday, or over the summer.
Tags: Amadeus, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Iberia, Qantas
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Wednesday, January 25th, 2012
British Airways is to once again fly to Libya after it suspended services last February when the country descended into civil war. The decision has been made despite the fact that the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office remains adamant that all but the most essential travel to the country be avoided.
Since the fighting ended in October, a flight ban over the North African country has been lifted by NATO. BA will now join a number of other European airlines which have decided that it is once again safe to carry passengers to Tripoli. Alitalia has already resumed services, and Air France said that it will begin to fly to the capital once again on 27 March.
Keith Williams, chief executive of BA, said that he was extremely pleased to be able to announce that services were to resume. He added that the airline was proud of its history of providing a vital economic link to the country. BA has been examining the security risks in Libya since the cessation of hostilities.
When war broke out, tour companies were forced to cancel bookings to the region. Operators such as Abercrombie and Kent, Exodus and Responsible Travel had previously offered travellers the opportunity of exploring the country including its many ancient ruins.
Responsible Travel said that it was unlikely that operations would return to normal in Libya until the FCO changed its advice on visiting the country. BA said that it would be operating three services to Tripoli every week.
Tags: Air France, Alitalia, BA, British Airways, FCO, Libya, NATO, Resposible Travel
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Friday, January 6th, 2012
International Airlines Group, the airline formed by the merger of Iberia and British Airways at the beginning of last year, said that it has recorded a 7.2 per cent rise in passenger traffic. Traffic on British Airways rose by 10.6 per cent, which offset the 0.1 per cent gain by Iberia.
Through 2011, IAG carried 51.7 million customers, which was a 2.1 per cent increase on 2010. IAG is currently the third-largest carrier in Europe behind Air France-KLM and Lufthansa. During the year, British Airways achieved an increase in capacity of 9.8 per cent, where Iberia only pushed up its capacity by 1.2 per cent.
Europe’s number-one budget carrier Ryanair managed to increase its passenger total by five per cent in 2011 compared to a year earlier. The Dublin-based airline sold 76.4 million seats compared to 72.7 million in 2010. However, its load factor remained at 82 per cent.
In December, Ryanair’s passenger numbers dropped by five per cent to 4.8 million because the airline decided that it would take 80 jets out of service for the winter season. The carrier did so because the high price of jet fuel meant that some routes were failing to turn a profit.
IAG is currently valued at £2.7 billion, and Ryanair has a 5.41 billion euros market value. Although many airlines have performed slightly better than expected over the past 12 months, the International Air Transport Association has said that 2012 is expected to be more difficult against still high oil prices and a backdrop of economic uncertainty.
Tags: Air France KLM, British Airways, IAG, Iberia, Lufthansa, Ryanair
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Friday, December 23rd, 2011
British Airways parent International Airlines Group looks set to increase its dominance at Heathrow Airport after Lufthansa agrees a £172.5 million deal to sell BMI to the airline. The takeover will now be subject to an examination by the competition regulators, but if allowed, the deal will see IAG acquire an additional 56 landing slots at one of the world’s busiest airports.
Sir Richard Branson, boss of Virgin, has said that he will attempt to block the deal going ahead. Virgin had also signed an agreement with Lufthansa to bid for the troubled airline. Branson said that if IAG were to increase its monopoly at Heathrow it would be damaging, not only to the airline industry and consumer choice, but to the UK as a whole.
IAG chief, Willie Walsh, said that he intends to drastically restructure the airline over the next three years. He added that this would inevitably lead to some of BMI’s 3,600 workers becoming redundant.
Since acquiring BMI, Lufthansa has failed to turn a profit from the Castle Donington-based carrier, and said that in 2010 the airline made a loss of £153 million. Both AIG and Lufthansa are hoping that the tie-up will be completed in the first quarter of next year.
Although the competition authorities in Europe have blocked airline mergers in the past, they have usually done so because there is a potential loss of competition on routes, rather than an increased presence for a carrier at a particular airport. IAG will see its slot allocation rise well above 50 per cent at Heathrow if the deal goes ahead.
Tags: BMI, British Airways, Heathrow, IAG, Lufthansa, Richard Branson, virgin, Willie Walsh
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Wednesday, December 14th, 2011
A British-based airline seat manufacturer could soon be owned by France’s Zodiac Aerospace SA if approval for a deal is sanctioned by competition regulators. Contour Aerospace Ltd, based in Cwmbran, is expecting contracts to be signed at some point in early 2012. The company employs 1,000 people in Cwmbran, and has a base in Surrey, which has a further 250 staff.
Contour bosses have said that any agreement with the French should have no impact on its British staff. Ian Plummer, the firm’s joint managing director, said although it was very much business as usual at the moment, a deal with Zodiac would deliver a number of advantages.
Contour wishes to be the prime developer of airline seats for the premium sector, and Mr Plummer explained that under Zodiac, the company would have greater access to resources and a more extensive aerospace group.
He added that Contour would continue to work on developing the concepts and designs on which had already built an impressive reputation. Contour was the company which developed and supplied British Airways with its first lie-flat seats. Zodiac’s seat division has been in direct competition with Contour for airline contracts.
Zodiac Aerospace employs 23,000 staff around the world and last year published revenues of £2.3 billion. Chief executive, Olivier Zarrouati, said that Zodiac had been impressed by the capabilities which Contour was showing. He added that he was looking forward to combining the relative strengths of both firms, and developing the obvious potential of Contour.
Tags: airline, British Airways, Contour, lie-flat seats, Zodiac
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Wednesday, December 7th, 2011
As the government announces that Air Passenger Duty will go up by 8 per cent from next April, British Airways has said it will be cutting the number of staff it will be taking on in 2012 from 800 to 400. IAG, the parent company of BA, said that the cuts were a direct result of the Chancellor’s decision.
An unprecedented alliance between four of the UK’s largest carriers is calling for the controversial tax to be scrapped. IAG head Willie Walsh, and the bosses of easyJet, Ryanair and Virgin Atlantic are calling on the government to initiate an independent review into the economic impact of APD.
Mr Walsh said that he believed the negative impact of APD on the economy would far outweigh any benefits for the Treasury. Many other airlines are also supporting an abolition of the charge.
A spokesman for the Treasury defended the tax, saying that the airline industry had to do its bit to help the recovery of the UK economy. A spokesman for the prime minister said Downing Street was disappointed that BA would be cutting the number of new jobs it would be creating, adding that APD had brought in around £2.5 billion which was an important contribution to battling the financial deficit.
The government has also pointed out that aviation fuel and domestic flights were not subject to VAT. It also said that a reduction in corporation tax would benefit airlines. As of next year, APD will also apply to those travelling in private jets.
Tags: air passenger duty, BA, British Airways, Easyjet, IAG, Ryanair, Virgin Atlantic, Willie Walsh
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Friday, December 2nd, 2011
An investigation is underway into why an Air France passenger jet was missing 30 screws in one of its protective panels, after it had undergone a thorough investigation in China. According to a spokesman for the airline, jets go through the process of a full service once every six years. The examination takes around a month to complete, and costs the company millions of dollars.
Taeco is a Xiamen-based firm which services jets belonging to airlines including British Airways, Lufthansa, American Airlines, Emirates and JAL. Alexandre de Juniac, the flag-carrier’s chief executive, said that the company would not be using Taeco again until the investigation into the missing screws was completed.
Taeco has announced that it will be conducting its own investigation into the situation. The process is expected to last a few days. The firm has been looking after Boeing 747s for Air France for around four years now, according to Juniac. He added that this represented around 10 per cent of the carrier’s long-haul fleet.
The problem was discovered on the second Airbus 340 to be sent to China for a service. In a previous statement, Air France said that it sent fewer than five planes a year to Taeco, that figure has now been changed to between five and seven aircraft.
In 2010, an Air France passenger plane was found to have been repainted in some areas with a paint which could potentially catch fire. The problem was uncovered after it had been in service for three weeks.
Tags: Air France, American Airlines, Boeing, British Airways, Emirates, JAL, Lufthansa, Taeco
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Friday, November 18th, 2011
A group of airlines in the UK and Ireland have come together to ask the government to abolish Air Passenger Duty. The tax was first added to tickets in 1994 as a way of offsetting the carbon emitted by jet engines. What was between £5 and £40 added to the price of a ticket is now between £24 and £170 depending on the destination and the class which is being flown.
Ryanair, easyJet, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic are all saying that the charge is extremely damaging and needs to be scrapped. They say that holidaymakers in the UK are being unfairly penalised, and that the country has become far less attractive to overseas visitors.
The Treasury, which stands to make around £2 billion from APD this year, has defended the tax. A spokesperson said that UK travellers were not required to pay VAT for their flights, unlike people in a number of other European countries.
Conservation groups have also defended APD, saying that it is necessary for combating the damage done by aircraft engines. Although the Chancellor made the decision not to raise the price of APD this year, many expect that it will be hiked next year by around 10 per cent.
Willie Walsh, boss of International Airlines Group and former head of British Airways, said he had contacted George Osborne to ask him to rethink APD. The Treasury said that it had already examined a number of ways of simplifying the tax and that announcements would be made in the coming weeks.
Tags: airlines, APD, British Airways, Easyjet, Ryanair, Virgin Atlantic
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Wednesday, November 16th, 2011
A last minute agreement between Britain and Nigeria means that British Airways will continue to run flights, on a daily basis, between the two countries until at least the end of 2011. A dispute involving ticket pricing and landing slots meant that services between Lagos and London on BA could have been reduced to just three per week.
Princess Stella Oduah, Nigeria’s minister for aviation, told the British government and bosses at BA that they would be given until Tuesday to sort out the problems the two countries were having over the Bilateral Air Services Agreement.
Aviation ministry press officer, Joel Obi, told Reuters that although negotiations were ongoing, BA would be permitted to continue its seven weekly services to Lagos until at least December. Last month, Heathrow Airport stopped allowing flights between the Nigerian capital Abuja and London for Arik Air, the countries flag carrier.
Arik had its 12 weekly slots at Heathrow cut in half, which Nigeria said was not only unfair, but contrary to BASA. The agreement also gives 21 return flights between Nigeria and Britain, which are presently being used by BA and Virgin Atlantic. The Ministry of Aviation has also taken issue with the fact that a flight from London to Lagos with BA is more expensive than a flight of the same distance from London to Nigeria’s neighbour Ghana.
A spokesman for the British High Commission pointed out that the UK government had nothing to do with BA’s policy on ticket pricing, but added that discussions to come up with a solution were continuing.
Tags: Arik Air, BA, BASA, British Airways, Heathrow Airport, Virgin Atlantic
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Monday, October 17th, 2011
Former British Airways boss, and current CEO of International Airlines Group, Willie Walsh, has accused Prime Minister David Cameron of appointing new Transport Secretary Justine Greening as a fireguard against an aviation policy which is detrimental to the British economy. Ms Greening has taken over the top transport position after Philip Hammond filled that vacancy of Defence Secretary left by Liam Fox on Friday.
According to sources at IAG, Mr Walsh is concerned that the MP for Putney will have a conflict of interests. The south-west London constituency is on the flight path to Heathrow. Ms Greening has been a campaigner against any expansion at the UK hub.
Mr Walsh wants to see capacity increased at Heathrow through the construction of a third runway. However, the government, which is presently examining aviation policy, has said that there will be no expansion. The transport department is looking into creating a high-speed rail link between Gatwick and Heathrow which it claims will create a virtual hub.
Mr Walsh recently spoke out against the proposed scheme saying that it would be too expensive and could take years to complete. He has always said that expansion at Heathrow would be funded by airlines, not the tax payer.
Separately, IAG said that Mr Walsh was planning to contact Ms Greening to ask her to do away with air passenger duty. The controversial tax has been blamed for a fall off in tourist numbers and is also said to be damaging business in the UK.
Tags: air passenger duty, British Airways, Gatwick, Heathrow, IAG, Justine Greening, Liam Fox, Willie Walsh
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