Airlines are concerned that Amazon’s quiet launch of domestic plane ticket sales in India last month is only the start of a global trend and the beginning of a battle for control of valuable traveller data. For years, airlines have found it difficult to compete with online travel agencies like Expedia and corporate travel agents that control a large number of customers, Travelport CE Gordon Wilson said. “They have nothing left if Google is in that position, or Amazon,” he said this month. “I think the airlines are being very watchful over this.” Some carriers, like AirAsia and Easyjet are building digital travel businesses to help boost profits and keep passengers loyal beyond flying. AirAsia’s website and app offers an all-in-one travel and lifestyle marketplace selling flights, hotels, activities and retail products. It has launched a digital wallet business called BigPay. “The volume that we generate from our ticket sales is huge - bigger than a lot of other travel agents would sell. So we might as well do it ourselves, and probably sell a lot more,” AirAsia Executive Chairman Kamarudin Meranun said. Europe’s easyJet is signing direct booking contracts with hotels to give it more flexibility in pricing packaged holidays on its website. The easyJet Holidays product should be available for summer 2020 bookings by the end of the year, the airline said in a results presentation last month. But companies like Amazon and Alphabet’s Google have the upper hand because their broader knowledge of purchasing habits might give them an edge over airlines in presenting attractive offers, travel industry executives said. In India, Amazon has teamed up with local online travel agency Cleartrip to offer domestic airline bookings, with bigger discounts for members of its loyalty club Prime. “They have an edge in that booking flights is, for most people, a low frequency purchase but most other products on Amazon are purchased with higher frequency,” said Seth Borko, a senior research analyst at Skift.<br/>
general
The Netherlands and France are trying to convince fellow European nations at a conference in The Hague to end tax exemptions on jet fuel and plane tickets, as part of a drive to make the EU carbon neutral by 2050. In the first major initiative on air travel tax in years, the conference on Thursday and Friday - which will be attended by about 29 countries - will discuss ticket taxes, kerosene levies and value-added tax (VAT) on air travel. The Netherlands wants to agree on steps towards ending the near complete lack of taxation on air travel and France is also pushing for an end to tax breaks on jet fuel, as European leaders discuss carbon neutrality at a separate summit in Brussels.. "The new president of the commission will have to present plans for the fight against climate change in Europe. It is a no-brainer that the possible contribution of the aviation sector will be put on his agenda in the first week in office," Dutch deputy finance minister Menno Snel said. The conference will be attended by EU economics commissioner Pierre Moscovici and finance and environment ministers. The goal is to present conclusions to the new EC, which will be sworn in this autumn. If no EU deal is found, the Netherlands plans to introduce a 7.50 euro ticket tax for departing passengers from 2021. Friends of the Earth estimates that between 1990 and 2016, aviation emissions more than doubled, while overall emissions fell by 43%. A combination of low aviation taxes, a proliferation of budget airlines and the rise of Airbnb have led to a boom in intra-European city-trips.<br/>
Battery-powered planes, solar planes, hydrogen planes — jet makers are working on myriad ways to make flying less damaging to the planet. Yet clean flying on a mass scale remains decades away. That's despite growing pressure from regulators and from a blossoming environmental movement to shun air travel altogether. The problem, argue aviation powerhouses gathered this week at the Paris Air Show, is that growing world populations and economies mean that the number of planes in the sky could double in the next 20 years. And today's clean-aviation technologies aren't ready to keep up. Story covers some options already out there, and what's on the horizon.<br/>
It's still at the conceptual stage, but a new supersonic airplane design unveiled this week by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics could be the clearest indication yet that we're on the brink of a new golden age of super-fast air travel. The Quiet Supersonic Technology Airliner, a sleek twin-engined jet plane that will carry up to 40 passengers at speeds of Mach 1.8, was revealed on Wednesday at an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics conference in Dallas. Though still a ways off being built, the design leverages Lockheed Martin's work with NASA to create the X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology X-plane -- a supersonic jet that does not create the intense sonic boom typically associated with aircraft breaching the sound barrier. The loud noise created by Concorde when it crossed the Mach 1 speed threshold prevented the aircraft from operating over-land routes, greatly reducing its economic viability. Lockheed Martin says, because there are tests underway on X-59 that could pave the way for a rethinking of regulations that prevent overland supersonic flight, it wanted to be ready with a commercial aircraft that could capitalize on newly opened routes.But Mike Buonanno, the LM aerospace engineer who briefed AIAA on the concept, says the technology is pretty much in place to go ahead once the concept is proved from NASA's X-59 program. The QSTA isn't the only new commercial supersonic passenger jet on the drawing table. US startup Boom Supersonic has attracted a $10m investment from JAL and reportedly dozens of pre-orders for its envisioned 55-seat jet capable of Mach 2.2. <br/>
ATR is continuing to explore hybrid aircraft technologies and biofuels, but in the nearer term CEO Stefano Bortoli believes higher fuel prices could trigger more aircraft orders. “In a scenario of growing fuel prices, our aircraft regain their competitive edge,” Bortoli said. ATR announced commitments for 75 aircraft at the airshow—including 17 for a new short takeoff and landing (STOL) version of the ATR 42-600—and said the company is “well on track” to achieve its 2019 order targets. In addition to lower operating costs, Bortoli said ATRs have a 40% CO2 advantage on their rivals, which is becoming more relevant with aviation coming under increased environmental scrutiny. ATR has commissioned an independent study to prove the environmental credentials of its aircraft, which will help customers access “green financing.” The company is also aiming to become carbon neutral by 2030. Turning to sustainable aircraft technologies, ATR is exploring hybrid aircraft innovations with Air NZ. Bortoli said ATR is currently looking to get an in-depth, behind-the-scenes understanding of the work that has been done in this area. “This is a future we don’t know yet,” he said. “At the moment, we are considering the hybrid studies with our shareholders. We haven’t started any one-on-one with engine manufacturers.”<br/>