Tag Archives: Airbus

PlaneBusiness Banter Now Posted!

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Good evening everyone! This week’s issue of PlaneBusiness Banter is now posted. We are a bit long this week, but not surprising. There is a lot of stuff going on, including the continued operational issues at American Airlines.

Then again, the American story took another turn over the last week, after the airline suffered at least three incidents in which seats on an American 757 came loose while in-flight.

We talk at length this week about how the airline botched the handling of the story, how the airline continues to get beaten up in the press, and why all of this just validates what we already knew –the management team at the airline needs to change.

I’m not sure how much longer all of this is going to continue, but apparently Tom Horton has dug in his heels and is committed to walking away with what some folks have estimated could be as much as $60 million in bankruptcy exit payouts.

Ridiculous.

Meanwhile, United Airlines has quietly rolled out is new easy-peasy customer service GUI that alleviates the need to go back to the green screen. Everything we hear about the switch has been positive. Would have helped if the airline had done this six months ago, but what the hey.

Speaking of United, CEO Jeff Smisek was on CNBC last week talking about the airline’s new 787s, er, the “game-changer.” I have officially banned the use of that word again. I think it’s become a parody. I don’t want any United execs to use it again.

Time to come up with a new marketing tag. That one has gone stale. Causes acute rolling of the eyes of customers and employees alike.

Delta, United, and US Airways all updated their September PRASM numbers and their 3Q results over the last week. US Airways and Delta should still post a small uptick in PRASM for September, but the increase is going to be less than forecast. As for United Airlines, the airline looks like it continued to underperform its peers by a significant margin in September — and it looks like the airline will do the same for the quarter.

Meanwhile, analyst 3Q estimates for US Airways were raised substantially today as the airline forecast lower fuel prices and lower maintenance costs than expected.

We answer a number of subscriber questions this week on AMR — subscribers can send us any question they want to have answered. We’ll try and print as many as we can each week.

Some labor news from the last week: We’ll talk about both the flight attendants and the pilots at US Airways.

We also run down the 3Q airline sector stock performance results this week — as well as our normal weekly look at which stocks fared well last week and which ones took a vacation.

All this and more in this week’s issue of PlaneBusiness Banter.

PlaneBusiness Banter is Back!

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Hello everyone. It’s time once again to jump into the fray. Our Holiday Hiatus is over. Time to close out the story on 2011 and start the story of 2012.

The first issue of PlaneBusiness Banter for 2012 is now posted.

This week we talk a lot about airline stocks. We look at how they performed for the last week, the last month, the last quarter and the last year.

The good news? The sector posted a huge fourth quarter. Not so good news — yearly stock performance numbers were horrible. But hey, the quarterly numbers are much more important.

In addition, contrary to a number of wire service and financial news site headlined “end of year” airline stock stories that are floating about the Internet — we tell you which airline stock really posted the best return to investors in 2011.

And no, it’s not Alaska Air Group — as many stories say was the case.

We also update subscribers this week on the American Airlines bankruptcy. The airline is starting to announce route changes, and has announced some fleet news. But, as Deutsche Bank analyst Michael Linenberg reminded investors in a note last week, timing for the airline’s Section 1110 filing the end of this month means that we should hear a lot more from the airline in the next 2 1/2 weeks concerning which aircraft the airline wants to keep, which ones it wants to walk away from, and which ones it wants to renegotiate with lessors.

On the traffic front, December RASM estimates from those airlines that supply such things are coming in mixed. We tell you who has reported better than expected RASM performance, and who has disappointed.

Following up on traffic — a reminder. Airline earnings reports for the fourth quarter and year-end will begin to roll out in a little over a week.

Both JAL and Hong Kong Airlines are talking about potential IPOs in 2012, while Lufthansa was apparently just pulling Virgin Atlantic’s strings over bmi. The German airline finalized a deal with IAG, parent of British Airways for the airline, er, slots over the Christmas holiday. Not surprisingly Sir Richard says he is going to continue the fight to keep BA from getting its hands on bmi’s slots.

Unfortunately I don’t think his screams are going to matter to UK regulators.

On this side of the Atlantic, flight attendants for AirTran and Southwest announced a seniority agreement right before Christmas — good news for the airline.

Did Boeing meet its 2011 delivery goal? No.

How many more aircraft did Airbus deliver in 2011 than Boeing?

Are those “tiny” hairline cracks that have been found in the wing assembly of the A380s really a safety issue?

All of this, and a lot more in our first issue of the year.

If you aren’t yet a subscriber to PlaneBusiness Banter — why not? Find out how you can become one here.

PlaneBusiness Banter Now Posted!

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Okay all you hungry people. This week’s issue of PlaneBusiness Banter is now posted.

Whew.

This is the last earnings issue for the quarter, and that is a good thing.

Next week we can get back to our normal format and usual publishing schedule. Right before we embark on our Turkey day extravaganza.

But — before then — this week we have our hand’s full.

First, we have an update on the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine failure involving the Qantas A380. All the Qantas A380s remain grounded. Rolls still isn’t saying a lot. But everyone else sure is. Engines are apparently being taken off the A380 production line, Singapore Airlines has swapped out three engines already, and, well, this is a very serious situation.

It is going to make for a very serious dent in Rolls-Royce’s net profits as well, as you can bet all these airlines are keeping tabs on their expenses incurred and Rolls is going to receive the final bill.

Not to be left out, Boeing had its own problem last week with one of its 787s — as it was forced to land after a fire broke out in an aft electrical panel.

When we’re not talking aircraft and engines, we’re talking TSA.

As someone who is now faced with the prospect of having to go through an “extended pat down” every time I fly as a result of having a big piece of titanium in my hip, I am not happy about the new “group and grab” procedures.

Funny thing though — we received a number of notes this week from airline crew members. It appears that the TSA has pulled back on insisting on either the AIT scanner or the “extended pat down” for crew members. Not in all locations though.

No, the TSA has not issued an official backdown. But I’ve received enough notes to tell me that there has been a relaxation in the previous directives.

We also wrap up third quarter earnings coverage this week with our own “extended” look at Republic and Pinnacle.

If you took a look at the stocks of either airline and how they performed for the last week — you might have some questions.

In the case of Pinnacle, shares soared.

In the case of Republic, they did just the opposite.

We’ll tell you why.

We also go over the September DOT Airline Consumer Travel Report. And the September tarmac and cancellation numbers. Very interesting “rounding” of numbers going on here. We talk about all that as well.

There was a rather bizarre Airbus A380 order announced last week, the DOT and FAA sought to assure air travelers that they are working to make sure older aircraft are safe — only problem is that the efforts won’t take effect for years — and hey, the future King of England’s wife-to-be has two parents who met while working for British Airways.

We only talk about the important things here at PlaneBusiness Banter.

Subscribers can access this week’s issue here.

Air France Flight Declares “Mayday” Over Atlantic Because of Severe Turbulence

Scary news just posted on The Aviation Herald website. Simon reports that an Airbus A330-220 was flying from Rio de Janeiro to Charles de Gaulle in Paris when the crew issued a Mayday alert on the international emergency frequency, indicating the aircraft had encountered severe turbulence over the Atlantic.

According to Simon, “The Mayday call was relayed by the crew of a TAM Airbus A330-200.”

This aircraft appears to be AF Flight 445 GIG-CDG and the route the aircraft was following is very close to that which AF Flight 447 was on when it disappeared.

Thanks much to PBB subscriber Brian Rynott for this head’s up.

Airbus Ditch Button

Okay, if you are a pilot, you already know this.

But I didn’t know that the Airbus aircraft apparently have a “ditch” button in the cockpit that automatically closes any vent, air outlet, opening, whatever, to the outside, in preparation for a potential water landing.

Just listening to Greg Fieth, former NTSB investigator, on NBC talking about how this works.

Pretty interesting. I was not aware of this. Clearly today that might have been helpful, as the aircraft stayed above water long enough for everyone to get off.

All you Boeing fans out there — do they have something similar on Boeing aircraft?

Airbus Leaked Document Skewers Boeing 787 Program

Score another one for Jon Ostower, better known as Flightblogger.

Jon, who in my opinion is the source for all things Boeing, published a document this afternoon that appears to be a copy of a legitimate Airbus presentation entitled, “Boeing 787 Lessons Learnt.”

The 46-page document says that it was presented by Burkhard Domke, Head of Engineering Intelligence for Airbus and it has a date on it of October 2008. You can download a copy by clicking here.

The report outlines a list of problems that Boeing has had and continues to have with the 787 production process under a number of headings:

• Design Issues

• Weight Issues

• Engine Issues

• Certification Issues

• Production Issues

• Schedule Issues

Makes for some interesting reading.