Boeing, South African Airways launch sustainable aviation biofuel effort in Southern Africa

By BA Staff

Boeing and South African Airways (SAA) announced that they will work together to develop and implement a sustainable aviation biofuel supply chain in Southern Africa, a first for the continent.

Courtesy of Boeing

The companies signed a Memorandum of Understanding for sustainable aviation biofuel supply chain development at The Corporate Council on Africa's 9th Biennial U.S.-Africa Business, attended by executives from leading U.S. and African firms and government representatives from several countries.

This collaboration between Boeing and SAA is part of the companies' broader efforts to support environmental sustainability for the airline's operations and the commercial aviation industry overall, in addition to advancing South Africa's social and economic development.

Ian Cruickshank, SAA Head of Group Environmental Affairs said: 

 "South African Airways is taking the lead in Africa on sustainable aviation fuels and, by setting a best practice example, can positively shape aviation biofuel efforts in the region. By working with Boeing's sustainable aviation biofuel team, which has a history of successful partnerships to move lower-carbon biofuels closer to commercialization, we will apply the best global technology to meet the unique conditions of Southern Africa, diversify our energy sources and create new opportunities for the people of South Africa."

Boeing has collaborated extensively with airlines, research institutions, governments and other stakeholders to develop road maps for biofuel supply chains in several countries and regions, including the United States, China, Australia and Brazil. The aerospace company's plan to work with SAA is the first such project in Africa.

Julie Felgar, managing director of Environmental Strategy and Integration, Boeing Commercial Airplanes said:

 "Sustainable aviation biofuel will play a central role in reducing commercial aviation's carbon emissions over the long term, and we see tremendous potential for these fuels in Africa. Boeing and South African Airways are committed to investigating feedstocks and pathways that comply with strict sustainability guidelines and can have a positive impact on South Africa's development."

Flight tests show that biofuel, which is derived from organic sources such as plants or algae, performs as well as or better than petroleum-based jet fuel. When produced in sustainable ways, biofuel contributes far less to global climate change than traditional fuels because carbon dioxide (CO2) is pulled out of the atmosphere by a growing plant-based feedstock.

Boeing and SAA believe that new developments in technology will enable the conversion of biomass into jet fuel in a more sustainable manner without competing with other sectors for food and water resources. The World Wildlife Fund-South Africa will monitor and ensure compliance to sustainability principles that would ensure that fuel is sustainable and would lead to genuine carbon reductions.

Aviation biofuel refined to required standards has been approved for a blend of up to 50 percent with traditional jet fuel. Globally, more than 1,500 passenger flights using biofuel have been flown since the fuel was approved.

Read more »

Jetstar receives Australia's first Boeing 787 Dreamliner

by BA Staff

Boeing (NYSE: BA) delivered to Jetstar Airways of Australia the carrier's first 787 today, which is also the first Dreamliner for the nation of Australia.

Jetstar Australia Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner VH-VKA

Jetstar, is the Qantas Group's low-cost brand. Like every other airline which has taken delivery of this new type of aircraft, Jetstar too will introduce the 787 Dreamliner first on domestic routes, to ensure its pilots achieve the required number of landings, its cabin and ground crews get familiar with the aircraft, and then move the Dreamliners to its international network. The airline has a total of 14 787 Dreamliners on order and expects to fly an all-787 long-haul fleet by 2015.

Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce said

"Today is a historic milestone for the Qantas Group and Jetstar as we welcome the most advanced passenger aircraft ever constructed to the fleet," "In just 10 short years, Jetstar has grown to be the largest low fares carrier in the Asia Pacific, carrying more than 100 million passengers. The 787 will set up the airline for another decade of growth."

The aircraft departed Monday morning local time from Boeing's Everett, Washington state delivery centre for Melbourne, Australia where it will be greeted by airline employees and special guests.

Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Ray Conner said "

We're proud to deliver the revolutionary 787 Dreamliner to our partners at Jetstar," "The 787s unmatched fuel efficiency will give Jetstar an advantage in the marketplace and its passengers will travel with the world's most advanced in-flight experience."

"Jetstar customers will have the chance to fly in a larger and more spacious cabin, enjoy gate to gate in-flight entertainment and arrive at their destination more refreshed thanks to a lower cabin altitude to reduce the impact of jet lag," said Jetstar Group CEO Jayne Hrdlicka. "The entire Jetstar team is very excited to have the 787 take to Australia skies."

Boeing Aerostructures Australia manufactures the movable trailing edge on the wing of every Dreamliner.

Read more »

Analysis: Qantas more than doubles full year profit as rival Virgin Australia loses money

by Vinay Bhaskara

Image Credit: Paul Spijkers

Australian airline group Qantas Group has reported an underlying pre-tax profit of AUD 192 million (US $171.5 million) for the year ended 30th June 2013, more than doubling from AUD 95 million for the year ending 30th June 2012.

Broken up by segment, profit for Qantas mainline domestic fell 21% year-over-year (YOY) to AUD 365 million thanks to a fare war with Australia's second largest airline, Virgin Australia. Profits also fell 20% YOY at Qantas freight on Asian demand weakness to AUD 36 million, while Jetstar Group saw a deep 32% YOY decline in profit to AUD 132 million thanks to the start up costs of Jetstar Japan and Jetstar Hong Kong. Profits at the loyalty (frequent flyer) division remained strong, rising 13% YOY to AUD 260 million, but the biggest improvement came from the reduction in losses at Qantas' international division, with losses halving to AUD 246 million from AUD 484 million YOY.

Group operating revenues rose 1% to AUD 15.9 billion while operating costs remained essentially flat thanks to a 2% reduction in fuel costs. This contributed to a 5% reduction year over year in unit costs excluding fuel (cost per available seat kilometer - CASK ex. fuel), which was partly offset by a 2% decline in yields.

For the year, capacity as measured by available seat kilometers (ASKs) was essentially flat YOY, while passenger traffic in revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs) was down around 1%. However, passengers carried actually grew 3% YOY to 48.3 million as the Group re-balanced capacity towards shorter haul routes.

For Qantas, the strong improvement in its international results was a partial validation of the turnaround plan announced last year with an eye towards returning the international division to profitability by fiscal year 2015. The biggest part of that turnaround plan, a tie-up with Emirates, has also been partially validated, as it contributed to the results via a doubling of bookings onto code share services to Europe (versus the previous partnership with British Airways). And the partnership's contribution should continue to improve into FY14 as much of the partnership has not been fully implemented and FY13 had to deal with the start-up costs of launching operations in Dubai.

Moreover, the cost-base on international operations improved 5% thanks to reduction of loss-making routes, aircraft retirements, and the reconfiguration of 9 Boeing 747s and 12 A380s improving fleet economics. Qantas International has certainly paid the price for poor strategic vision in the sense of not taking advantage of the rise of Asia over the past decade. But the decision to join hands with Emirates and cut loss-making routes from the international network was the right decision. Bigger is not always better. By reducing some of the lower yielding destinations like Frankfurt and Buenos Aires, Qantas has cut its way towards profitability.

And the turnaround domestically has allowed Qantas to re-focus efforts on the group's primary profit center; Domestic. As Qantas struggled to re-make its international operations over the past few years, Australia's second largest carrier, Virgin Australia evolved from a low cost nuisance into a true full service rival. Having reconfigured its short haul fleet of Boeing 737s and Embraer E190s with a business class cabin, Virgin Australia even took a major shot across Qantas' bow by introducing Airbus A330-200 aircraft with lie-flat business class seats on lucrative transcontinental routes from Perth in 2011.

New Qantas A330-200 business class - Image Credit: Qantas

But Qantas now has the funds and shareholder confidence to fight back. Earlier this month, they announced a new updated product on its own fleet of 10 transcontinental A330s with lie-flat suites aimed at clawing back market share from Virgin Australia. Qantas also announced a new premium product for five Boeing 717-200s, to be flown by subsidiart QantasLink in competition with Virgin Australia Embraer E190s out of Australia's capital Canberra.

Even as Qantas is revving up for a fight, Virgin Australia continues to struggle. With a jumbled strategy of acquisitions aimed at modeling Virgin Australia Holdings after Qantas Group (including the transformation of regional provider Skywest into Virgin Australia Regional and the purchase of a 60% stake in ultra low cost carrier [ULCC] Tigerair Australia) weighing on results, Virgin Australia reported a post-tax loss of AUD 98.1 million for FY13. The competitive tide in the Australian market, for the moment, appears to have shifted back in Qantas' favor.

Read more »

Air India to commence Australia service with 787 Dreamliner in late August

by Devesh Agarwal

After many a false start, it appears national carrier Air India is scheduled to commence its Australia service at the end of August. The airline will use its Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners to operate the route.

A schedule for a triangular service between Delhi, Sydney and Melbourne has been loaded in to global distribution systems, but inexplicably, the airline has not loaded the schedule in to its own website reservation system.

It also appears the airline will not offer a London to Sydney "Kangaroo Route" service. While there is a connection from the London to Delhi 777-300ER flight which arrives around 10:40 in the morning, on the return the last flight from Delhi to London departs at 14:05 about four hours before the Australia flights arrive. The next flight to London is only at 05:00 the next morning.

The flight duration to Sydney will be about 12h15m while Melbourne will be about 12 hours. The return flights would be about 30 minutes longer.

Effective 29 August 2013

• AI312 departs Delhi 13:45 on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday Saturday, arrives Sydney 06:30 next morning.
• AI311 departs Sydney 08:00 on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, arrives Melbourne 09:35. Departs Melbourne 10:50 arrives Delhi 18:35

• AI312 departs Delhi 13:00 on Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, arrives Melbourne 05:30 next morning.
• AI311 departs Melbourne 07:00 on Monday, Thursday, Saturday, arrives Sydney 08:30. Departs Sydney 10:00 arrives Delhi 18:10

These schedules are subject to government approvals.

As per website Airlineroute.net

Air India last operated service to Sydney in January 1991 with 1 weekly Delhi – Singapore – Sydney on board Boeing 747; Melbourne last served in April 1981. Perth was served until June 1997.

Read more »

AirAsia X to increase services from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne, Taipei and Chengdu

AirAsiaX the long distance arm of Malaysian low cost carrier AirAsia will increase its frequencies from its Kuala Lumpur hub to Melbourne, Australia, Taipei, Taiwan, and Chengdu, China from next year.

Melbourne services will see frequencies increase from the current daily flights to nine flights weekly by May 1, 2013 and to twelve flights weekly by July 1.

Taipei will go from daily flights to ten weekly flights from May 1, and double daily from July 1.

Chengdu will go from the current five flights weekly to six flights weekly by May 1, and daily flights by July 1.

Read more »

Exclusive interview: G.M. Toh, General Manager India, Singapore Airlines

Singapore Airlines (SQ) is one of the most respected airlines in the world. Bangalore Aviation was honoured to have an exclusive one-on-one with Mr. G.M. Toh, the airline's head in India.

Q. Please give us an overview of the trends you’ve seen in the Indian market over the past 6 months? What do you see in the next 6 months? 12 months? 24 months?

The air travel as a whole is dependent on the world economy. While a lot of air travel is essential, there is a high component of discretionary travel as well, and when there is a slow down, both corporations and individuals cut back on air travel. So yes, there has been an impact on Singapore Airlines.

In India, travel was good till end last year. The Indian domestic market was recording double digit growth. The growth slowed down by the start of the fiscal to single digits, and in the last few months we are seeing a contraction. It is a shocking slowdown, especially considering the Indian economy is growing at 5%~5.5% and normally air travel growth is 2x the economic growth. Clearly there are some other factors at play. This is purely my personal view, it is possible that the current economic growth is being driven by rural India where air travel is not significant. The increases in air fares could also be a factor, but I feel there is a softening of demand.

On Singapore Airlines itself, we are a listed company so we are not allowed to disclose information that is not already published and available to public. At a macro level, if you see the last published resulted for the fiscal year ended March 2012, our performance has been impacted considerably, especially in the last fiscal quarter i.e. January to March 2012. In the quarter one of fiscal 2013 i.e. April to June, 2012, the results were better than expected, but the overall results are not as good. While we are still reporting profits, margins are slim and not at previous levels.

Our growth has moderated. Long haul flights are very challenging for us, given the high fuel prices. We have had to cut back on longer haul flights like Houston, but growth this year is focussed on Asia. We have added services to China, Indonesia, a little bit to Australia, and to India.

At Mumbai, we are growing from 14 services a week from Mumbai to 21 from November, a 50% growth. At Hyderabad we are increasing Silkair services from a daily, to nine a week. We have announced new SilkAir services to Vishakhapatanam (Vizag). In total we will grow from about 79~80 fights a week in July 2011, to 93, a growth of 14 flights, which is good considering these depressed times. 50% of this growth has been in Mumbai were we have traffic rights. As you know our traffic rights to the top five cities of India are very constrained, so we add where we can.

Q. A lot of growth is on SilkAir (MI) rather than Singapore Airlines. Is this growth, a brand driven exercise, or an aircraft driven one, considering Singapore Airlines has only wide body aircraft, while SilkAir has only narrow body (A320 family) aircraft?

It is a little complicated. By and large it is aircraft driven. A lot of the newer destinations like Vizag and Coimbatore, cannot handle larger aircraft. There are also factors like traffic rights. We are unable to expand to the larger Indian cities due to constrained traffic rights. The newer destinations are smaller cities and we operate narrow bodies due to traffic capacities and economic reasons.

Q. How do the forward bookings for Indian travel look given the economic slowdown here and continuing economic woes in the rest of the world?

There is no doubt there is a softening of demand across domestic and international travel, but due to our added services and destination we are overall okay compared to last year, but I am sorry I cannot give specifics.

Q. How is competition from the MEB3 (Middle East Big 3 Three - Emirates, Qatar, Etihad) affecting Singapore Airlines, especially on the India to US routes?

We do not compete too much with MEB3. Their main markets from India are the middle east, Africa, Europe and to a lesser extent the United States. To the US east coast, frankly, they [MEB3] compete with the European carriers. To the west coast, which is a far smaller market than the east coast, from the south and east of India we compete well. From the west and north, the routing does not favour us as much. We operate two flights a day each to San Francisco and Los Angeles. Most of our traffic from India is to the east i.e. Asia and Australia / New Zealand, and there the MEB3 routing does not afford them to compete with us.

Q. Singapore Airlines currently operates its 777-300ER with the 1-2-1 ultra-premium business class product on the red-eye flights from Delhi and Mumbai, but does not on its remaining Indian sectors, especially Bangalore. Please give us insight as to why this is?

There are two factors. The 777-300ER is space intensive cabin, specifically meant for long distance flights. Our business class is an ultra-wide 1-2-1, 4 abreast configuration compared to the 2-2-2, 6 abreast of our competitors. Even our economy we have a nine abreast economy cabin, while some of the big middle east carriers are flying ten across. [Editor's note: Emirates and Etihad, and now Jet Airways have this 10 abreast ultra-narrow configuration].

So our 777-300ER has only 276 seats compared to 330~340 seats of our competitor. We have put in fewer seats recognising that long haul flights require more comfort for our passengers. Mumbai and New Delhi are like Shanghai and Beijing in China. One is the commercial capital, one is the national capital, and in recognition of the commercial importance of these markets, we limit operations of the 777-300ERs to these cities, both in India and China.

The second factor. You will observe world-wide airlines are cutting back on the traditional three class aircraft of First, Business and Economy. First class is a very limited product and very few routes can remuneratively sustain First class, on a regular basis. You will observe we offer a First class only to Mumbai and Delhi in India, Shanghai and Beijing in China, Sydney and Melbourne in Australia, Auckland in New Zealand, and Tokyo in Japan.

In response to your question, why not Bangalore. Bangalore has good corporate demand and good business class traffic, but it does not have a sustainable First class demand. Across the world for markets similar to Bangalore, most carriers, including Singapore Airlines operate a two class aircraft. So we do not operate our 777-300ER which has a First class cabin due to market matching.

Q. How does the financial performance look on the secondary Indian routes by Silkair to airports like Coimbatore, Kochi, and Trivandrum ?

It is no secret that Singapore Airlines and Silkair are aggressively cutting back non-performing routes. We left Amritsar in 2009 for example. Coming to these secondary routes, we started Trivandrum (Thiruvananthapuram) in 1991, Kochi in 2001, Coimbatore in 2007, and the fact that we are still operating these routes, suggest they are doing okay. Two factors work for us. First is the immigration to Singapore and Malaysia from southern states of India, especially Tamil Nadu and Kerala, which leads to a natural demand for the family driven traffic, and the needs of travelers from these cities to connect to the world which we provide from our Singapore hub. [Editor's note: Singapore Airlines is a handful of carriers belonging to the "six continents club" i.e. offering flights to all six populated continents of the world].

Q. How are the LCCs like AirAsia, IndiGo and Tiger Airways competing with you in India? We have seen a lot of churn with AirAsia withdrawing from many stations?

Devesh, you are very knowledgeable about the industry, and you know Singapore is the epicentre of low cost carriers in Asia. These are purely my own thinking. There are two reasons why low cost carriers have done so well at Singapore.

First, we have a very liberal, business friendly attitude and policies in Singapore. JetStar Asia is very big in Singapore, and even though it is 51% owned by a Singapore business house, it is effectively run by Qantas who owns 49%. So, from about 2003, when LCCs started operating in Singapore, their traffic share has gone from single digits to over 26% today on a base of about 45 million passengers annually.

Secondly, Singapore is a strong yielding market. Our strong economy and strong currency, it allows LCCs to price lower than full service carriers, but yet make their operations viable.

India is a challenging market for anyone, but especially for low cost carriers. Indian LCCs who dominate the domestic market, now enjoy operational efficiencies which makes it very hard for foreign low cost carriers to compete against them. Another aspect to consider is that India is a low yielding market compared to many destinations in the Gulf or ASEAN region. So foreign LCCs choose to deploy capacities to higher yielding markets, especially in these tough times.

Q. How much scope for expansion does Singapore Airlines see for more Indian service, whether that be capacity/frequency increases, or new routes?

Traffic rights still remain the constraining factor. If we get additional rights, I leave it to your educated guess to where we would like to expand. [Editor's note: It would be New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai]. Last year, in Chennai, we were forced to reduce our SilkAir services in favour of Tiger Airways. So we are facing a further dilution of traffic rights.

Q. Given that Tiger Airways is making a resurgence in India, as a knowledgeable industry professional, what are your thoughts about Scoot in India?

If you see Scoot is expanding in to those countries where we have open skies or very liberal third and fourth freedom rights. Australia, China, Thailand, Taiwan and Japan. I think Scoot is focussed on economic returns and since they have modified their 777-200's to 400+ seats, they are only looking at high volume routes. There are some cities in India which are high volume enough to sustain Scoot, but traffic rights are the constraint.

Q. Is there a scenario wherein Singapore Airlines would operate the A380 to India, and is it already allowed to?

We have ordered 19 A380's all of which have been delivered. They are deployed on long distance, high volume, high yielding routes. London Heathrow is THE airport the A380 was built for. As present we have no plans for bringing the A380 in India. If you observe, we operate the A380 to Hong Kong which is 3.5 hours, but then we operate seven flights a day one of which is the A380. I am not sure any destination in India will justify it, at least for now. For the future, I look forward to India growing and generating these levels of traffic.

Q. What has been the effect of the wing rib cracks on the A380?

When this matter showed up, there was some initial juggling of the schedules and I think the initial issues have been settled, but I am not an expert on this matter.

Q. Can you share any insight into the business/leisure breakdown of Singapore Airlines proper’s Indian operation (i.e how much of the traffic is business traffic and how much is leisure) ?

We do have a good mix of both, but I cannot share more information than that.

Q. Can you share what percentage of Singapore Airlines’ Indian traffic is origin and destination (O and D) and what percentage is connecting onwards through Singapore (6th freedom)?

Devesh you are already well informed. But for those who want greater detail, I recommend your readers see the CAG report. If you see the top ten airlines, most of them are in the 70%~80% range [connecting vs. O and D]. Lufthansa was around 87%. Clearly these airlines are carrying Indian passengers to the world not to their countries. Singapore Airlines was one of the lowest with a very healthy mix of about 50% passengers flying to Singapore and 50% going beyond. Which is not surprising considering the historical ethnic links and the over 300,000 Indian permanent residents in Singapore, and 900,000 visitors from India in Singapore. Unfortunately we get clubbed with the other airlines and our traffic rights are constrained.

Q. What does SQ/MI look forward to, from the Indian government, in terms of aviation policy? What in your opinion should be some initiatives the Indian government must take in the civil aviation sector? Comments on Indian airports, charges, facilities? What does SQ/MI look to from airports in the future? In current stations? In future stations?

To be fair to the airport operators, they moved from the old airports terminals to these spanking new facilities. This costs a lot of money, and we recognise someone has to pay for it. Our issue is how the payment burden is structured. To have such a huge increase, implemented all in one go, and in some cases, almost retrospectively, is not the way business should be done. As an example, at Delhi, just the passenger fee increases represents a double-digit percentage increase in total fare outgo by the passenger. Even the increases on landing and parking charges for us is over seven digits and we operate only two flights a day. It is not fair.

As a comparison, Singapore Changi airport, after many many years, is increasing the passenger fee by S$6. This is effective April 1, 2013, and this increase was announced two months ago, giving the airlines a lead time of over six months, and is valid only on tickets sold after November 1, 2012. Indian airports need to do fare increases in an orderly, planned and gradual manner, giving all the stake-holders time to adjust and to enable passengers to make their ticket purchases with their eyes wide open on the total costs. The suddenness and quantum of the increase is having its impact on marginal airlines.

I have been in India now for 22 months and I have seen 17 airports. I must admit, I am very impressed by some of the new airport terminals coming up. For example Chandigarh, Amritsar, or Vizag. We recognise there is a cost to be paid for these new terminals, what industry needs is for the power that is, to recognise that we all want better facilities, but we all need to find better ways of managing costs and distributing them in a fair and equitable manner.

One fundamental issue that has come up from the Delhi airport saga, is that, while PPP [Public Private Partnership] is good, but if you have AAI taking such a large chunk of the revenue collected, as its share, makes the job very challenging for the operator, and is a key reason why charges have gone up by some much.

Thank you Mr. Toh. Its been a pleasure.

Read more »

Can Air India beat Qatar Airways with the first 787 service to London Heathrow? An all 787 Kangaroo service?

National carrier Air India can expect to take delivery of up to three or four Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners as early as next week, as a Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by home minister P. Chidambaram, approved a compensation demand for an almost four year delay in delivery, made by the carrier on the airframer.

After the GoM meeting, India's civil aviation minister Ajit Singh indicated the proposal will now examined by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) which is meeting today. The exact amount of the compensation has not been publicly disclosed on the grounds of confidentiality. A few years ago former Air India Chairman and Managing Director Mr. Arvind Jadhav, deposing before a parliamentary committee, had indicated a claim amount of $710 million which the airframer strongly opposed.

At present four Dreamliners are sitting on the flight line at Charleston. VT-AND and VT-ANH built at Boeing's Everett, Washington plant, and VT-ANI and VT-ANJ built at the new Charleston, South Carolina facility. VT-ANJ may not be ready for delivery since it appears to be partially painted, but that was a couple of weeks ago.

Air India 787 first to London Heathrow?

Doha based Qatar Airways has announced its intention to be the first airline to operate a 787 service in to London Heathrow, but has still to take final delivery of its first aircraft.

Air India has a definite plan for operating a Dreamliner on the Delhi London Heathrow route, and has been training and certifying pilots for the 787 for some time. Depending on the CCEA decision and its time-frame, the carrier can take delivery of at least three aircraft as early as this week.

The issue will be overall preparedness. Both airlines need to achieve a certain minimum number of landings in order to build up experience of the crews, cockpit, cabin, ground, etc., and will utilise their first 787s on short haul routes to achieve this goal. Qatar Airways on intra-gulf routes, while Air India on domestic routes.

If Air India girds up, is it possible for them to beat Qatar Airways and be the first airline to offer a 787 service to London Heathrow? Share your thoughts via a comment.

A Dreamliner Kangaroo route

Air India is expected to commence a 787 based service from Delhi to Sydney and Melbourne. Air India sources confirmed this service is expected to operate from the September or October time frame. By this time, Air India will have at least four Dreamliner in its fleet, and by synchronising their New Delhi London service to the Delhi Sydney-Melbourne service, can be the first airline to offer a complete 787 service on the Kangaroo Route, London to Australia.

It will be a tremendous PR coup, one that can reap the carrier significant commercial benefits.

Share your thoughts via a comment.

Read more »

Singapore Airlines to introduce fourth daily flight to London Heathrow

Singapore Airlines (SIA) will introduce a fourth flight between Singapore Changi and London Heathrow from September 9th onwards.

The fourth flight will be operated by a Boeing 777-300ER which features the ultra-luxurious Raffles business class, along with the latest cabin product of the airline which has a state of the art in-flight entertainment (IFE) system with full AVOD (Audio-Video On Demand).

The schedule is:
SQ306 departing Singapore at 00:45 arriving 06:55 at London Heathrow
SQ305 departing London Heathrow 15:15 LHR arriving at 11:55 the next morning at Singapore.

This flight will ease some of the seat availability pressures for the airline's passengers in the Australia-New Zealand area.

For some time now, Singapore Airlines has been feeling the capacity constraint, and watching its passengers migrate to the Gulf carriers led by Emirates airline and Qatar Airways who offer significantly higher capacities and therefore lower fares on the London route.

Singapore Airlines' Boeing 777-300ERs feature the most luxurious business class with only 4 abreast seating.

Singapore Airlines’ Executive Vice President Commercial, Mr Mak Swee Wah told Bangalore Aviation

“We have been looking for opportunities to increase our London flights for many years and are pleased that we can now do so, to provide even more travel options to our customers,”

Singapore Airlines last increased flights at London in 1998. Industry experts opine that the airline has been trying for years to increase flights, but has not been able to buy slots at an acceptable price. This time around, the airline seems to have found the right slot at the right price.

SIA currently operates three daily flights per day between the two airports, all with Airbus A380s. The fourth flight will start off as a four times a week, and become a daily from October 21st. There are no plans in the immediate future to upgrade this 777-300ER service to an A380.

Read more »

I Had My First Pat-Down Search and I'm Fine With It.

Over the past few years here in the US, there has been a severe backlash surrounding the usage of full body scanners and the resultant pat-down searches; for passengers who opt out of the body scan. Supporters of the body scans claim that they are necessary to weed out terrorists who might have dangerous materials such as plastic explosives that can't be detected by the traditional metal detectors strapped to their body. Opponents counter that both the body scans, and the pat-down searches are both violations of privacy and of civil liberties (citing the preclusion of search & seizure without due process in the US Constitution).

Lending credence to the latter viewpoint are the spate of incidents in which the TSA patted down "8-year old girls" and "old grandmothers in diapers," robbed passengers of thousands of dollars worth of equipment, and used the body scan images (which show the "private parts of passengers") inappropriately. So it was under this backdrop that I received my first pat-down search at Munich Airport while on my way back to the States from Switzerland earlier this year.

In the United States, passengers are typically given the option of either passing through the invasive body scanners mentioned above, or receiving a pat down search. However, in Munich, passengers connecting to US flights must pass through a special second security checkpoint at the entrance to the US section of Hall H on the top level of Lufthansa's Terminal 2. It was at this second security checkpoint that I received my very first pat-down search, ostensibly because Munich still lacks body scanners.

The security agent, in an admittedly stark contrast to the typical TSA agent, was courteous and professional, asking me the purpose of my visit (visiting family) and a few other questions such as citizenship and the like, before beginning to pat me down. He explained what he was doing at the beginning of the search, which put my (very slight) unease to rest, and then he actually patted me down. Beyond a little discomfort when he was searching my groin area, the actual search itself wasn't too bad; I had experienced worse before when entering a federal building.

After me came my younger brother, and the agent was once again very kind, explaining in even more detail what he was doing (my brother is 12 for comparison's sake). He went through almost the same routine for the actual search, but didn't touch my little brother's groin area, as he was a young(er) child.

And that was it; we collected our bags and went on our way. To be honest, I can't really see what was so bad. Of course the trademark European "customer service" and professionalism, as well as the civilized manner with which they treated my brother had something to do with my apathy. I'm sure if a surly TSA agent did a truly full body pat-down on my little brother, or even on my 76 year old grandmother, I'd be a good sight angrier.

I see the validity of the arguments about violations of privacy, but ultimately this is something that needs to be done for safety reasons. The TSA is really stuck between a rock and a hard place on this one; they are criticized for the invasive pat-downs and body scanners, but what happens if they withdraw these tools and some terrorist uses the opportunity to sneak plastic explosives onto a flight and blow a plane out of the sky? My guess is that the TSA would be criticized even more than they are right now.

My experience is particularly relevant because Australia appears to be adding full body scanners to its airport experience without the pat-down opt out. Would the pat-down search as I described it serve as a more humane alternative?

Readers, what are your thoughts on body-scanners and pat-down searches? Have you experienced the body scanners yet? Please do let us know via a comment.

Read more »