Air India in trouble

The government is being forced to, once again, look at India’s troubled national carrier. It has accumulated losses of over Rs 5,500 crore; Public Enterprises Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh said on Thursday after meeting Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel that they both agreed the airline needed to approach the Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises. This is on top of the Rs 1,200 crore equity infusion the airline has asked for from the government.The airline might have begun to look like a money sink. If it has, then the government cannot escape the blame. Air India has been made to take on more loans than it should have, since the government was party to its buying $11 bn worth of planes instead of the politically difficult decision to shut it down. While reform of its wage bill which the civil aviation ministry accepts has made “little progress” thanks to “the probability of industrial unrest” remains necessary, given its balance sheet, even a tweak of the 17 per cent of its operating costs that are wages and salaries will not be sufficient. The government will need to take much larger steps than it appears comfortable doing. Air India has huge debts and a minuscule equity even if the airline was run like the world’s best, it has no hope of servicing the debt with its equity base.It remains this newspaper’s conviction that a decision about Air India’s future should be taken rationally, with minimal emotion. This is not the 1970s. National carriers serve little public purpose; the mushrooming of private sector airlines, together with some minimal, light regulation of tariffs and routes, has ensured that India’s citizens, regardless of location, are far better connected by air than they ever were earlier. Nor do we need Air India to be a visible, iconic brand internationally. India’s soft power rests on the inventiveness and efficiency of its private sector; we can leave the branding exercise to them. As the government sits down to decide what to do with Air India, a drearily familiar exercise, it should not fool itself that some tinkering will be enough. The only real choices are big, big steps: fix what you ruined, or shut it down.

Korean Air's A380 to have fewer seats

Korean Air is to configure its Airbus A380 aircraft with just 407 seats, the lowest-density layout for the type of any carrier so far. The airline has disclosed details of its seating arrangement for the twin-deck aircraft, which will include an all-business upper deck. Korean Air says this deck will have 94 lie-flat sleeper seats, with 74in pitch.

This will give business passengers a sense of "exclusivity", says passenger business division chief Walter Cho.
Travellers on the upper deck will be able to feel "like they're travelling in their own private jet", he adds.
On the lower deck there will be 12 first-class and 301 economy-class seats. Korean Air is to put the aircraft into service in May 2011, initially on short-haul routes to Japan and eastern Asia.

These initial routes will be followed by longer A380 services to the USA and Europe in August.
It has 10 of the type on order, and five will arrive by the end of next year.
Cho says the aircraft's layout will have a level of comfort that will "provide us with a competitive edge".
Five other carriers operate the A380, with Air France's jets fitted with the highest-density layout of 538 seats.

The weather spoils holiday travel in US

Hundreds of people were stuck Monday morning at the three major New York City-area airports. Airlines announced more than 1,000 cancelled flights for Monday. Once the airports reopen, passengers will have a hard time finding open seats on later flights. Seats are already scarce because of the busy holiday season, and airlines are operating fewer flights than they did before the recession.  Airlines move planes away from the path of big storms to prevent them from being stranded. Now the airlines have to get those planes back to the Northeast before they can fly stranded passengers home. They may also have to ferry pilots and flight attendants into the affected areas.

By midmorning, American cancelled 236 flights for Monday and sister carrier American Eagle scratched another 175. Delta Air Lines cancelled 700 flights, US Airways cancelled 550 including regional flights, and Southwest dropped 188. United and Continental were updating their figures but had already announced nearly 300 cancellations.

Boeing delivered its 200th aircraft to Air France

Boeing and Air France celebrated on Wednesday the 200th direct delivery of a Boeing jetliner – a 777-300ER (extended range) – to the Paris-based carrier.
The 777 is the backbone of the long-haul fleet. This new aircraft will support Air France's projected growth on long-haul destinations and confirm the Air France-KLM Group's European leadership position on the international network. With this latest delivery, Air France continues to upgrade its fleet, one of the youngest in Europe, and launches its new business class.
For the 2011 summer season, Air France will be operating a total of 61 777s making it one of the largest 777 passenger fleets in the world. The airline also operates two 777 Freighters and 12 747s. Boeing is scheduled to deliver to Air France one 777 Freighter in 2011 and 11 additional 777-300ERs through 2015. In addition to their direct purchase of Boeing airplanes, Air France has successfully operated many other Boeing airplanes on lease for many years.The 777-300ER is 19 percent lighter than its closest competitor, greatly reducing its fuel requirement. It produces 22 percent less carbon dioxide per seat and costs 20 percent less to operate per seat. The airplane has a maximum range of 7,930 nautical miles (14,685 km). The 777 family is the world's most successful twin-engine, twin-aisle airplane. Sixty-one customers around the world have ordered more than 1,100 777s.