Hello all. A rather short review of this week’s issue this week, as yours truly is off to an event that is part of this year’s The Beat Live Conference in Nashville.
Long and the short? This week’s issue is now published!
Subscribers can access this week’s issue of PlaneBusiness Banter here!
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.
It seems that we have news of a merger a minute these days — but nothing U.S. based. Yet.
This morning, hot on the heels of the news that Ryanair was once again mounting a hostile attempt to take over the 70% of Aer Lingus it does not currently control (a move which, not surprisingly the Aer Lingus management team quickly denounced) today we have news of an attempt at a true blockbuster link-up.
British Airways and Qantas are apparently in discussions to do the dastardly deed.
According to Bloomberg,
“The airlines are discussing a combination after the Australian government said today in a policy paper that it might ax a rule barring individual foreign holdings of more than 25 percent and total foreign airline holdings of more than 35 percent. Still, there are no plans to abandon the so-called “Qantas Sale Act” that says the carrier must remain 51 percent locally owned.
‘Any transaction would also comply fully with Qantas’s Sale Act and Australia’s international Air Services Agreements,’ Qantas said separately.
Negotiations on a merger are “advanced,” the Australian Financial Review said earlier. British Airways, Europe’s third-biggest carrier after Air France-KLM group and Deutsche Lufthansa, said it issued today’s statement in response to “media speculation.”
A merger of the two airlines would create an entity with annual sales of about $23 billion.
What a coincidence.AMR, parent of American Airlines also generates about $23 million in annual revenue.
And yes, you’d have to a blind person not to see why it is that the American Airlines-British Airways anti-trust piece of the pie is so important to this oneworld concept of world domination.
According to various reports out this morning, both airlines would retain their own brands. Sounds like another Air France/KLM type of set-up that is being proposed.