Curtains' for American Airlines?

Japan Airlines Corp (JAL) is likely to choose Delta Airlines as its overseas partner, ending its ties with American Airlines and the Oneworld alliance. JAL Asia's largest airlines by revenue has denied this it seems.

"We are still in discussions with JAL and we continue to maintain that American Airlines' offer is superior to that of any other rival," said Carlo Niederberger, a public relations official representing American Airlines in Japan.

Looks like the Delta spokeswoman denied to comment on this issue.

If JAL prefers Delta over American, this is adding salt to the wound for the crippled airliner.

AI Flying low

At least seven out of ten flights that the beleaguered state-owned carrier National Aviation Company of India Limited (NACIL) operated from April to October 2009 made cash losses, as per figures released by the civil aviation ministry. The carrier has accumulated losses up to Rs 7,200 crore as of March 2009 and is awaiting government bailout to come out of the red. During this period, the carrier operated 192 flights, of which 133 made cash losses and only 59 were able to achieve operation break even, according to the provisional figures provided by civil aviation minister Praful Patel in the Lok Sabha on Thursday. On these loss-making routes — accounting for almost 60-65 per cent of total routes operated by the carrier — Air India lost Rs 1,924 crore in 2007-08.

In 2008-09, these shot up to Rs 3,214 crore as loss-making routes accounted for 70-75 per cent of total routes. For the period April to October 2009, these routes resulted in losses of Rs 1,522 crore. This figure may come down as compared with the previous year as load factors have improved considerably, said a senior ministry official. The Delhi-New York and Mumbai-New York route figures on the list of loss-making routes, official added. Having embarked on a turnaround plan, the carrier will be undertaking route rationalisation and fleet rationalisation. The carrier will be trimming its fleet from 146 at present to 105 by March 2011, Patel informed the Lok Sabha. The fleet rationalisation will result in reduction of future requirement of pilots, cabin crew and engineers, Patel added. The airline, with employee to aircraft ratio of 203 employees per aircraft, has been trying to come out of the red by undertaking various cost-cutting measures including wage restructuring. Some of the other international airlines that have high employees to aircraft ratio include Air France (408:1), Thai Airways (306:1) and Lufthansa (202:1).