White Papers & Speeches
- Aloha enters Chapter - again
March 28, 2008
Ted Reed, airlines reporter for TheStreet.com, and George Hamlin, MD at ACA Associates, discuss the news that an long established and much loved airline in Hawaii has entered bankruptcy - again.
Is the Hawaii market inherently too small for three carriers? Does Aloha even fly the right plane for its intra-island business? High fuel prices are blamed along with the entry of Mesa's operation by Aloha. In the end Hawaii does not benefit from this disruption and the industry does not have a solution to make things any better.
- Aviation Deregulation: A Work in Progress
- Beyond Isolated Innovation: The Power of Collaboration
February 29, 2008
Join us for this informative 12 minute podcast where SITA and Air Transport World discuss the opportunities and challenges new technologies bring, and how airlines can work together to innovate and pioneer developments that benefit the community as a whole. Addison Schonland sits down with Greg Ouillon, Head of Development & Innovation for Communication Services for SITA. - Changing Airline Culture
Addressing the Behavioral Side of Change, by Joseph E. Shackford - Delta's Operation Clockwork: Transforming the Fundamentals of an Airline
A decade-long commoditization trend has firmly established the operating cost structure as the real battlefield for competitive advantage. In the end, everyone will be striving for the same objective, that is, to create the lowest cost business model that will achieve the highest efficiency while growing revenues. Optimizing network design is no longer sufficient; survival in todays airline industry literally depends on excellence in network design and consistent rigor in day-to-day execution. - Divided we stand, United we fall!
May 6, 2008
The IAG team does a quick review of the possible merger between United and US Airways and it looks nasty. As the table clearly illustrates United is the industry's weakest link. As stated in the podcast, the bear only has to catch the weakest - but there is more than one carnivore doing the chasing, so nobody is really safe.
Download the chart here.
That said, United and US Airways can clearly be bled to death by Southwest. The weakest are up against the strongest and the situation is dire. Merging the two weakest adds not one bit to a more secure future. Indeed, US Airways should reject United's overtures forthwith as the bear will catch United first. US Airways may be able to escape if the industry's fortunes turn within the year. For United, all things remaining the same, the year looks like being lunch.
- Guns on the flight deck
April 11, 2008
We have a discussion with a captain at a major US airline. He is what they call an FFDO (Federal Flight Deck Officer, or a pilot carrying a gun). As he points out this was not something he liked at first. But after checking out the TSA program he decided to join it.
What is interesting is that this pilot realizes that his gun is by far the last resort. There are numerous things that will happen before a threat can get to the flight deck door, much less enter it.
- How to Reach New Heights of Success
Kaye Shackford - a 30 year aviation veteran and author of the book Charting A Wiser Course: How Aviation Can Address the Human Side of Change - led one of the education sessions at the recent Women in Aviation International Conference. She advised the audience members to achieve multi-dimensional career success by giving themselves permission to do what they love to do and by aligning their own objectives and behaviors with their organization's strategic objectives. And then she showed them how to do so. Air Transport World thinks this message rings true for both men and women in aviation. - Meet Aviation Partners' CEO Joe Clark
June 26, 2008
From the moment he starts speaking, you immediately pick up Joe Clark's infectious love for the business. He tells us how he got started in the winglet business, how Southwest really turned the industry on to their solutions and where they are going next - spiroids (a new word we need to learn), the coming plans for the 777 and the fact he can't talk about working with Airbus - but he shares his thoughts on how neat an A380 with winglets might be. Joe Clark may be the only person outside the oil industry who likes high fuel prices. These reaffirm the value of winglets which can now be amortized in two years.
- MRO: Doing More With Less
Aligning Your People's Behaviors with Your Organization's Objectives, by Kaye M. Shackford - Pilot fatigue - Part 1
March 20, 2008
This is the first of a two part podcast on pilots and fatigue. The timing on this podcast is auspicious - this being Sleep Awareness Week. Fatigue is subtle and pilots don't like admitting to it. Tired people make mistakes - and being a tired pilot is not a good thing. As one pilot said, its the little things that happen (or don't happen) when you're tired.
Fatigue creeps up on pilots and this is an issue that needs more attention. A lot more. Indeed, take a look at these two links to see how one pilot views the matter.
- Pilot fatigue - Part 2
March 20, 2008
This is part 2 of the series on pilot fatigue. In part 1 we got the view from pilots about the lifestyle - being tired is a part of the job. In part 2 we speak with a sleep expert who explains what a pilot (and anyone else) can do to fix the problem of fatigue.
Oddly it seems the FAA does not have rules about pilots and fatigue - a call to the FAA about this was not responded to. If this is not the case, and FAA has rules, we'd like to hear about it.
- Supply Chain Visibility Solutions Pave the Way for Continual Performance Improvement
- The challenging time facing the tourism industry
June 19, 2008
Daily we are bombarded with news of how bad it is. Airlines are laying off people by the thousand, they are parking planes and the industry losing billions of dollars. Following this, we discover America's new hot word - the "Staycation".
Associate Professor Jim Petrick at Texas A&M shares his views on what is likely to become a self fulfilling prophecy. Yes its bad - no doubt - but we should also see that travel demand is changing to deal with the environment and not grinding to a halt. Yet...
Jim's presentation is here
- The Juxtaposition of M&A vs. Bankruptcy for the US airlines
March 25, 2008
George Hamlin is the managing director of ACA Associates, A New York-based aviation and aerospace consulting firm. George has been in the business for over 30 years. There is nothing about the current industry malaise he is not familiar with. He points out that the industry cannot seem to decide what it can sell for a reasonable rate of return. Furthermore the industry cannot benefit unless stricter laws of nature are applied the weak need to leave the industry. Its been that way before and its time the laws of nature allow the system to self correct.
- The rise and rise of US air fares
April 8, 2008
Rick Seaney is CEO of Farecompare.com and probably now one of the leading thinkers on US air fares. Everybody wants to hear what he has to say about air fares.
Americans have been spoiled for years with low fares. But times have changed radically in the past year. With an airline sector in crisis and no sign of any calming of the stormy skies, what should travelers do? Rick says book early. But, we think, beware who you book on - the airline may not be around later this year.
- Update on the Airbus A350XWB
March 1, 2008
Alan Pardoe, Head of Product Marketing for the Airbus A330/A340/A350 programs, provides an update on the XWB. He explains where the company is in terms of definition, the speed of the design process and the care they are taking with the plane. (The lessons from the A380 and 787 have been learned)
With some 3,000 people worldwide working on the program, its getting a lot of attention. Alan mentions that the 787-3 is likely to not be immune to previous niche programs like the VC10 or folding wing 777. Indeed he feels that modifying Japan's airports would be the better solution to enable larger planes to be used.
Alan also updates us on the A330's bright future and the A340.
- US airlines - do you reconfigure or reregulate?
March 26, 2008
Professor Victor Cook is a senior faculty member at Tulane University - he is the Freeman Professor of Doctoral Studies and Research. Recently Professor Cook wrote a piece on SeekingAlpha.com that is an eye opener. If you ever thought about investing in the airline industry, read his post first. Then think again.
This is a fascinating podcast and we look forward to more chats with the Professor.
- Wither BMI
May 2, 2008
Erkan Pinar, head of AirlineStrategy.com in Munich and Timothy O'Neil-Dunne, Managing Partner at T2Impact LLC discuss the future of UK-based airline, BMI.
The story in interesting because it pits all sorts of big names against each other; Lufthansa has a big stake, SAS is trying to sell their stake and Sir Michael Bishop - who has 50% plus 1 share - may be trying to sell out.
The question is who does he sell to? How can he extract the most value for his stake when so much of the airline is already owned by Lufthansa? Does Lufthansa buy out SAS - if they do, how does this impact the value of the remaining stake?
ATW Media Group
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