Aug
30

Wind map

I captured this image today from Wind map. As a bit of a weather nerd, meteorology was my favourite theory subject when I was doing my flying training. This image in particular demonstrates the effect a major cyclone storm system has on continental wind patterns. You can clearly still the area of still air in the trough local between Hurricane Isaac and the low pressure system in the northern US, and how the high pressure systems on either side feed into the storm cell. Fascinating.

Aug
30

Fifties aircraft safety, a glamourous affair.

Today’s treat is this amazing Qantas retro relic, a safety procedures card from a Qantas Lockheed L1049 Super Constellation. Given to me by an elderly family friend, it harks back to the fabulous fifties when flying was still just that little bit glamorous. Canapés anyone?

Qantas’ first Super Constellation entered service in 1954 transforming the carrier’s international operations. Operated by a crew of ten to twelve, the L1049′s endurance allowed Qantas to commence previously impossible long over-water sectors. Seating 60 in First and Tourist class, the “Super Connies” delighted passengers with a pressurised cabin and fast flying speeds (539 kph). Flying time between Australia and the UK was slashed from 63 hours to 33, however services were subject to turbulent weather with the piston engines limiting cruising altitude to 20,000 feet (6,096m).

On the January 14, 1958 Qantas became the second airline in the world to launch round the world services. The service operated eight times weekly, beginning and terminating at Melbourne’s Essendon Airport. One aircraft departed west along the “Kangaroo Route” to Perth, Djakarta, Singapore, Bangkok, Calcutta, Karachi, Bahrain, Athens,  Rome, London and on, while the other flew east along the “Southern Cross” route to Sydney, Nadi, Honolulu, San Francisco, New York and London and back.

Qantas eventually operated 16 Super Constellations before the aircraft lost out to the jet age, replaced by the revolutionary turbofan Boeing 707 in the 1960s.

Qantas Lockheed L1049 Super Constellation

Aug
28

Game on as Virgin Australia’s profit soars.

Year two of its three-year game change programme, and a transformed Virgin Australia has shown it is the antithesis of Qantas. The airline today posted an after tax profit of $22.8 million, and a full year underlying profit before tax of $82.5 million, an improvement of $149.1 million from the last financial year.

Virgin’s results are admirable given a continued tough operating environment, a loss from fuel hedging and the need to absorb costs associated with the transformation.

The airline has experienced strong revenue growth over the year up 19.8% to a total of $3.9 billion.

Two years into its game change programme and a year ahead of schedule Virgin Australia has achieved a 20 per cent share of the Australian corporate and government market. High yield revenue is up 113 per cent and John Borghetti believes the airline has achieved the “tipping point in realising a new competitive norm in Australia”.

CEO John Borghetti attributes the result to the “tireless dedication of our people, their drive to make a real difference for customers, and their unwavering determination to deliver on strategy”.

The Game Change transformation may be complete, but the game is only just starting for Virgin.

Starting October, Virgin will roll out its WiFi streaming IFE product. The system developed by Lufthansa Systems’ will stream content directly to Samsung Android tablets. From early 2013, the airline will implement a new Sabre reservations system allowing the airline to use a single VA airline designator for all services.

Virgin is reaping the benefits of being the world’s largest virtual network carrier. International operations are now extremely profitable, “the best part is we did this without buying one aircraft” says Borghetti. Codeshare and interline revenue from its international partners is up 158 per cent. New international destinations and virtual network partners are also on the horizon as Virgin targets an additional $150 million in revenue from its virtual networks by 2015.

The Airbus A330-200 fleet will also see international services sooner rather than later. Given the benefits of its virtual network, Virgin’s own international network will continue grow in an extensive but complementary fashion.

One aircraft will be delivered in 2013 and by June 2016 the airline will have eight of the type. Its widebody transcontinental services require five aircraft, and the remaining three will likely be used to complement Etihad’s eventual Perth to Abu Dhabi services, and launch services from the east coast to new destinations in Asia.

Virgin Australia is currently evaluating both the Airbus A350 or Boeing 787 and will place an order for unspecified number by June 2013 for delivery from 2017. Borghetti noting “its a holistic view of our long-haul and medium-haul operations” as the 777s will need to be replaced around that time. It also provides Virgin the opportunity to mature its own international network and presence to better leverage the capability of its next generation narrowbody Boeing 737 MAX 8 and widebody aircraft for expansion post 2017.

Closing his press conference, John Borghetti took a jab at the competition, “I’ve been around a long time, probably a lot longer than some would like”. With everything at Virgin looking up, he’s going to be around a lot longer yet.

Virgin Australia’s full results presentation to the ASX can be found here and breakdown here.

Aug
26

Too little, too late for Perth Airport’s lacklustre redevelopment?

This article is a supplement to last month’s Perth Airport, best in airport design? Unlikely.

Perth Airport’s $750 million redevelopment is resonating well with a public that laments current facilities, but will the terminal redevelopment actually provide ample space to handle growth?

Westralia Airports Corporation (WAC) Perth Airport’s is known for underestimating traffic forecasts. Master planning is based on a prediction of 3.5 per cent compound annual growth, with total passenger traffic of 18.9 million per annum by 2028-29. Unsurprisingly redevelopment plans provide no terminal passenger capacity forecast, stating only that the consolidated development will ensure the already under-capacity terminal is capable of handling passenger growth to 2020.

Australian Government BITRE statistics show between FY1991 and FY2011 Perth Airport recorded:

  • 20-year compound growth rate of 7.6 per cent p.a.; and
  • an increase in aircraft movements of 260 per cent.
  • Passenger growth between FY2006 and FY2011 was 9.2 per cent p.a.

In FY2012 passenger traffic will pass the 12 million mark for the first time. If growth continues at current rates passenger traffic will reach 24.8 million to 40.7 million passengers p.a. by 2028/29.

My math tells me it’s unlikely.

Perth Airport’s current international terminal. Royal Brunei no longer serves Perth. Image: Stuart Sevastos

Is airline resistance to blame?

When WAC reduced its commitment from a ‘world-class’ facility, its main reason for not investing more was “any attempt to design to a higher standard would be met with resistance by airlines, reflected in a refusal to support resulting investment plans”. Perth’s smallest international operator Qatar Airways is ‘the world’s best airline’, and the majority of Perth’s largest international operators are based at airports designed to IATA Level of Service (LOS) A standard, and others such as China Southern, Virgin Australia and Garuda are moving upmarket. Wouldn’t these carriers want facilities at a standard higher than simply average?

Further proselytizing its decision, WAC ‘recognised’ “that lower airport operating costs relative to other airports enhances the viability of air services to Perth and therefore increases the prospect of attracting new services”. True for all airports, particularly those in high competition areas, but Perth Airport’s nearest major competitors are Adelaide, South Australia; Darwin, Northern Territory; and Denpasar, Bali, all over 2,000km away.

What about new operators and LCC traffic?

  • Air China will likely be the next Chinese airline serving Beijing and/or Shanghai, China Eastern focused on growing North American services;
  • Vietnam Airlines to Ho Chi Minh City is a possibility given Perth’s growing Vietnamese population and outbound Australian tourism;
  • Etihad and Virgin Australia to Abu Dhabi;
  • Kenya Airways has confirmed Boeing 787 services to Nairobi from 2016; and
  • Long-term potentials: Korean Air (KE) to Seoul, and Hawaiian Airlines (HA) to Honolulu. HA has made significant strides in developing HNL into a Pacific hub. KE is aggressively targeting in-transit traffic and serves many small-low traffic cities with less than weekly frequency using convenient connections to high-frequency heavy traffic destinations to attract custom.

Air Asia’s largest Australian operation is to Perth with 31 return services a week from KUL and DPS.

In 2007, Low-Cost Carriers (LCCs) accounted for just four per cent of Perth’s international seats. By 2010 they accounted for 27 per cent. While LCCs have increased the ratio of outbound trips per person, frustratingly WAC believes this is over as “there is a limit to the number of outbound trips from residents that can occur”. Pardon? Correct me if I’m wrong, but LCCs:

  • do actually carry inbound passenger traffic;
  • have a substantial stimulation effect on markets; and
  • operators serving Perth will increase. Batavia Air and Lion Air may serve Perth from Indonesia. Jetstar may introduce new Asian destinations, including perhaps resuming QF Group services to Tokyo. Not to mention IndiGo in India, and more services by Air Asia.

WAC highlighted the differentiated basic service needs of LCCs noting only “some LCCs are unlikely to support the redevelopment…because it will increase airport charges”. If it was only ‘some’ LCCs that opposed a ‘world-class’ terminal, why didn’t WAC plan a fully independent LCC terminal allowing the airport to offer diversified services through distinct airline products? Dedicated terminals only enhance an airports value proposition for both LCCs and full service carriers.

Is this development too little, too late? Perth Airport doesn’t think so, but it’s not going to take the public long to realise they weren’t given the best in airport design.

Aug
24

Perth Airport, best in airport design? Unlikely.

Part 1

Who remembers the glamour era of air travel when travel was fabulous and happened on a 747 or Concorde? People living, visiting and doing business in Perth are reminded everyday as they travel through Perth Airport’s International Terminal, circa 1984.

Undertaking its first substantial redevelopment since 1984, the Airport has now made available artists’ impressions, of the expected interior of the completed international terminal and Virgin Australia’s new domestic pier at the airport. Some analysts have even labelled the redevelopment as providing Western Australia with the ‘best in airport design’.

Original plans promised a “world-class” 3 pier, 40-gate redevelopment that would be “one of the best in Asia” akin to Hong Kong or Seoul’s Incheon. These were subsequently reduced to:

  • a new domestic pier;
  • the construction of Terminal WA for intrastate services;
  • one upgraded and one new international gate;
  • expanded international customs and security facilities;

All built to unexceptional IATA service C standard as extensions to the substandard circa 1984 terminal. Best in Airport design indeed.

Overview of T1 redevelopment. International terminal left, domestic pier centre, terminal WA right. Image: Perth Airport

Virgin Australia’s domestic pier does look snazzy and it will be the first airport terminal in Australia specially designed for the airline. The terminal will feature definitive Virgin elements passengers including a signature lounge “which will be the best that Western Australia has seen” says John Borghetti.

Virgin Australia’s new domestic pier. Image: Perth Airport

Gate 51 will become Perth Airport’s first Airbus A380 capable gate. Image: Perth Airport

From March 2013, Emirates will fly 3 times daily to Perth. Images of the redeveloped Gate 51 are heavy with Emirates branding. Will this become a dedicated Emirates gate given the location adjacent to the Emirates lounge? Quite possibly. WAC redevelopment priorities see the redevelopment of Gate 51 to an A380 capable stand expediting for completion in 2013 to meet Emirates requirements. Perth will likely become Emirates third Australian A380 destination.

These developments aside passengers travelling internationally will still be required to go from the ground floor up to the level three departure lounge, before walking down stairs to aerobridges on level two. In addition, our measurements on the scale plans put the unaided walking distance between check-in and the furthest international gate beyond both 265m or 300m, industry guidelines for an airport serving 20 mppa or 25 mppa respectively. Figures Perth Airport may surpass by the end of the decade if growth continues at current rates.

CEO Brad Geatches says “our vision is to ensure all customers and visitors…enjoy a superior customer experience”. I doubt that. At an airport with exponential traffic growth, superior service in a facility designed for ‘good service’, does not deliver the ‘best in airport design’.

A further supplement to this article can be found here.

Aug
23

Qantas, the little airline that couldn’t.

When I was young I wanted to be a Qantas pilot. Growing up I was granted the privileged opportunity of being invited into the cockpit for landing in various Qantas aircraft at various airports around Australia. The dedication and enthusiasm with which staff undertook their jobs was an inspiration to me.

20 years later, and I don’t know how I feel about Qantas. Today’s Qantas just goes through the motions. The timid annual result announcement is a reflection of the diminishing presence Qantas is playing in the lives of Australians. It is also a reinforcement of the distinct strategy which Qantas has chosen to follow.

The annual results also show a distinct change in Qantas rhetoric. Gone are the battle cries of a “65% line in the sand”, replaced by “The Group aims to maintain a profit-maximising 65 per cent domestic market share”. Brave faced Qantas executives are worried.

Where once an airline was highly respected and always the object of choice, Qantas today is increasingly the bane of our lives, unable to provide the services Australians want. Its big foray into social media attracted 60,000 responses, yet the airline has 7 million frequent flyers. An airline shouldn’t need to give 91 reasons to passengers to board a Qantas plane, they should only need one ‘we are the best’ or a variation thereof.

Yes, Qantas International has suffered from some serious structural issues and needs reform. Virgin Australia does with 6,500 people what Qantas needs 30,000 to do, and Australia’s operational environment is fiercely competitive. But, Qantas’ adoption of American style bankruptcy strategy to cut deep, shrink and grow later in an Australia with extensive open skies agreements and an economy increasingly intertwined with Asia seems inappropriate and uncompetitive.

In the 2000s, Air New Zealand suffered from similar structural problems and undertook major structural reform but continued to grow and expand as it cut. ANZ realised new opportunities and became a leader in industry innovation. Since the 1980s Qantas has avoided innovation like the plague. Qantas has had the money, but why has it been so scared?

Qantas today cancelled its firm commitments for Boeing 787-9s, pushing its firm options to 2016. It’s worrying that Qantas can’t afford its Boeing 787 capital expenditure even with the heavy discounts offered during purchase, and the substantial delay compensation the airline received from Boeing. Qantas A380s are substantially cheaper to operate and return yields up to 3% better than its 747 aircraft yet they have also been deferred until 2016, indicating Qantas no longer believes efficient aircraft are a viable short-term fix for its operations.

Tomorrow is a long time in aviation. Yet with these moves Qantas has hand delivered the impetus, opportunity, and four years, for Virgin and premium international carriers with arguably better product to fill the Qantas void and reinforcing their market positions with once loyal Qantas passengers. What does Qantas International do in the meantime?

As Qantas shrinks Jetstar continues to be given growth priority. But why is a low-cost brand being given brand new 787s and the premium parent being returned close to eleven year Airbus A330s? Alan Joyce sings efficiency, but isn’t really trying hard to achieve it with aircraft. Qantas management seems unwilling to realise the flying public doesn’t want to be forcibly reduced to flying Jetstar, but increasingly have little option.  Perhaps Qantas’ return to Coolangatta this month was a wake-up call to this.

Qantas management isn’t only to blame. Unions that represent the airline need to realise, the airline industry has fundamentally changed and we no longer live in the 1960′s when people had a ‘job for life’. They play an important role, but having union officials standing in-front of the media bellowing that passengers shouldn’t fly the carrier only hurts Qantas potential and members’ jobs further.

I hope that in 20 years time Qantas is still there for the aspiring pilots of today who stand with their noses pressed against the airport windows watching planes, as I was 20 years ago. Unfortunately, if current trends are anything to go by I doubt there will be anything left to watch. Qantas needs to become the little airline that can.

Aug
22

Has connectivity changed the way you travel?

 

Infographics are great, and even better when they mix planes and travel together.

As a lead in to the main event below, this graph from Amadeus’ provides an insight into the use of social media for travel related purposes by country. Unsurprisingly, China is on top with a 92% involvement. An increasing number of mainland Chinese are travelling abroad, and the majority of internet users, more than half a billion, use a blog or Weibo.

Social media use for travel related purposes by country. Source: 2010 JD Power’s ‘Global Airline Traveller Survey’ commissioned by Amadeus

Today’s China interacts via social media using the general population to deliver suggestions and advice people wouldn’t trust large companies or the government to provide. Chinese travel companies that harness this, such as DaoDao (到到), whose tagline “get the truth, then go” leverages this divide, are reaping the benefits as people gain trust in their services.

Amadeus missed Australia. Perhaps we don’t travel enough or we aren’t connected? Given Tourism Australia research into the influence of social media on our travel, and the emphasis Australia’s airlines place on mobile self services and connectivity through social media, one would assume we’re likely located somewhere between the UK and Canada.

Comparatively in the United States only 59% of respondents used social media for travel related purposes. This is what makes the infographic by MDG Advertising below intriguing. Why does travel connectivity in the home of social media rank in comparison to, or below developing countries?

While slightly America-centric, the infographic provides a thoughtful insight into how connectivity is influencing our travel behaviour. Specific airline data remains commercial in confidence, but several key figures demonstrate the increasing inter-reliance of personal connectivity for airline travel:

  • 26% of people checked airfare prices, and 18% of people booked flights using mobile devices;
  • 50% of travellers now use a mobile device to check flight status, up from 30% in 2011;
  • 30% of travellers use a mobile device to check-in for their flight, up from 17% in 2011.

How connected are you when you travel?

Vacationing The Social Media Way [infographic by MDG Advertising]

Go back to top