general

Airlines are shedding fees, giving away free stuff, and being extra nice to their customers. Has the world gone mad? "That's what I've been asking myself," said Gail Clark, who complained to American Airlines after a recent flight delay and received a lightning-fast response, including a personal apology and 7,500 frequent flier miles deposited to her account. Clark, a retired CEO from Bluffton, South Carolina, said she's used to foot-dragging and canned apologies. She said something felt wrong. Sébastien Long has seen it with Southwest Airlines. The flight attendants keep pouring him free drinks whenever something is less than perfect on the plane. And when they do, they dismiss it in their Southwest way, with an, "Oh, I forgot to charge you, and we're about to land." "Honestly, it's almost too nice," said Long, who runs an apartment rental company in Houston. "I feel like someone's going to get in trouble for not charging me." The niceness is contagious. Last month, Spirit Airlines eliminated its unpopular flight change and cancellation fees. Frontier Airlines did the same. JetBlue announced that all customers – even those with a "basic" economy class ticket – will get a free carry-on bag in addition to one small personal item. "After the pandemic and the bad press the airline industry was getting this past spring, it seems natural that they would put more emphasis on smoothing nerves and garnering more trust from passengers," said Anthony Radchenko, CEO of AirAdvisor.<br/>

Was it the Parisians who bluntly told travelers “do not come” to Paris during the Summer Games? Or did sky-high prices for hotel rooms, house rentals and event tickets turn travelers away? For a multitude of reasons, many people — including residents — avoided Paris in the build-up to the Olympic Games, despite prognostications that a travel boom was all but assured. Forecasts often focus on the number of people expected to attend the Games, while ignoring the number of travelers who are turned off by them. It’s a common misconception that host cities see an explosion of travelers around the Olympic Games, said John Grant, chief analyst at the aviation intelligence company OAG. “The phenomena of the Olympics is that the local market doesn’t travel,” he said. Plus “the regular business traveler who would normally be traveling during that moment in time, stops [and] stays at home.” London, Athens and Atlanta all saw a drop in summer visitors when they hosted the Summer Games, said Grant. “It just never quite achieves and delivers what’s expected,” he said. AirFrance-KLM on Thursday announced the company is anticipating a third-quarter hit to its unit revenues of E150-170m because of lackluster demand to visit Paris this summer. Air France flagged problems earlier this month, announcing on July 1 that traffic to and from Paris was lagging behind other major European cities. Not only was interest down, but “international markets show a significant avoidance of Paris,” the company stated. Similarly, Delta Air Lines is also projecting a big hit — upwards of $100m in revenue — because of a drop in travel volume to France as a direct result of the Summer Games. “Unless you’re going to the Olympics, people aren’t going to Paris,” CEO Ed Bastian told CNBC.<br/>

Airlines showcased new business class seats at one of the world’s biggest air shows this week, as corporate travel demand is forecast to rise in 2024 in a new report. Qatar Airways displayed its business class upgrade at Farnborough Airshow near London. The most talked-about new feature was the in-flight entertainment monitors that fully swivel to the side, allowing passengers facing sitting in pairs and even groups of four to create a bigger shared space. The product updates the Middle Eastern carrier’s existing “Qsuite” business class product, which was launched in 2017 with the unique seat configuration that allows a group to create an open-top “room” with sliding privacy doors in the middle of the cabin. Folding screens also allow a group to view the same monitor and create a shared table space. In its existing form, Qatar Airways reserves the four-person QSuite seats for group bookings. Single, twin and double seats are also available, with two-person “companion seats” that face each other also set to get foldable screens, creating a dining table between them. Rolling out new business class seats across an airline’s fleet is usually a lengthy process spanning years, as upgrades are installed in new aircraft and retrofitted onto planes already in service. Qatar Airways said the new seats would arrive next year on its Boeing B777-9 jets — the U.S. manufacturer’s new wide-body, long-haul model that has experienced lengthy delivery delays. Qatar Airways announced an order for 20 additional B777-9s at Farnborough, taking its total orders for B777X jets to nearly 100.<br/>

Germany's Lilium Jet has a queue of young engineers and students waiting to board thanks to the interest of a five-year-old boy. The futuristic flying taxi is one of many high-tech projects on display as the Farnborough Airshow turns its attention to the aerospace industry's urgent recruitment problem. "We weren't intending to open up the cabin today but a five-year-old boy came along and said 'this takes off vertically and why can't I get on board' and since then we have had a queue of visitors," said talent acquisition head Alex Jordan. For the young boy, a job in aviation remains a distant dream, but the industry is hungry for skilled recruits to meet demand. "Aerospace is always the high frontier... you see things flying and you want to work for them," said Jeet Makadia, 27, a recent engineering graduate working on a project at Rolls-Royce. Visitors to the exhibition which ended on Friday will not immediately solve aerospace's problem in replacing workers lost during the pandemic. But the threat from labour shortages to current production and future growth plans casts a long shadow over the show. "There are very few people studying aerospace so there is a people shortage" said Tushar Subhash Dhulasawant, 26, a recently graduated engineer interested in control systems and UAV design. Aerospace's pitch to potential recruits includes visionary ambitions like space projects that few other industries can match. But aerospace giants like Boeing and Airbus face competition from nimble sectors like artificial intelligence that deploy many of the same engineering skills.<br/>

Gategroup Holding AG’s gategourmet unit reached a tentative collective bargaining agreement with a coalition of unions representing its workers, averting a threatened strike, the company and unions said Saturday. The agreement, after years of negotiation, includes an improved health-care plan and wage increases, gategourmet said in a statement. The parties are working on final contract language so the unions can seek ratification from their members. The Teamsters union, part of the gategourmet coalition, said in a post on X that the agreement is a “fair offer” for more than 8,000 workers at 30 US airports. “We look forward to a renewed partnership and long-term stability under this agreement,” gategroup North America President Jens Kuhlen said in the company’s statement. The company provides catering and food logistics to airlines around the world. <br/>

Aerospace giants have been accused of putting profits ahead of safety as officials consider cutting the minimum number of pilots required on commercial flight decks from two to one. The move, which is currently being evaluated by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), would weaken standards to the “lowest common denominator”, the world’s largest union of airline pilots has warned. “This threat is not something that is 10, 15, 20 years away,” Capt James Ambrosi, president of the Air Line Pilots Association, which represents more than 78,000 pilots in the US and Canada, said. “It’s something that, quietly, Airbus, has been working on. It’s not what they are marketing it to be. The US has the safest aviation record in the world. We need to improve the standard for everybody, not just go to the lowest common denominator.” EASA is looking at the safety of extended minimum crew operations (eMCO), where one pilot would leave the flight deck to rest during long flights, leaving one pilot at the helm. While many long-haul flights currently staff three pilots on the flight deck, so that pilots can alternate rest, eMCO would eliminate this standard. The reduction was proposed by aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Dassault. EASA is also investigating the safety of single-pilot operation for cargo flights. “Technologically, it is feasible,” Christian Scherer, CEO of the commercial aircraft business at Airbus, said in a February interview with the Sunday Times of London. “And bear in mind, if you go to a one-man cockpit, you might as well go to a zero-man cockpit. Because it all needs to cater for the eventuality that this one guy just ate a bad oyster and is incapacitated and the aeroplane has to take over. So one pilot or zero pilot is effectively the same thing.”<br/>

Airlines in the Asia-Pacific are enjoying strong summer international travel demand, while also getting a cargo boost from e-commerce activity and security issues affecting Red Sea shipping. June saw the region’s international passenger carriage jump 21% to 28.9m, with RPKs rising 23.8% and capacity as measured by ASKs rising 23.8%. Passenger load factors slipped a marginal 0.2 percentage points to 82%. “Asian airlines are seeing robust traffic growth, in tandem with expansion in global economic activity and improvements to connectivity within the region and globally,” says AAPA director general Subhas Menon. “In summary, during the first half of the year, the region’s airlines carried a combined total of 173m international passengers, a 40% increase compared to the same period last year.” International air cargo also did well in June, with FTKs jumping 16.4% and FATKs 12.6%. International freight load factors rose two percentage points to 62.8%. Menon observes that higher exports and the security situation in the Red Sea, which has complicated a key shipping route, have helped air freight volumes. “International air passenger and cargo markets are poised for further growth in the latter half of the year, driven by sustained positive momentum in the global economy, despite some uncertainties in the geopolitical landscape,” says Menon. “Increased services to new and existing destinations will further boost travel demand, with traffic volumes expected to recover to pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year. Meanwhile, the region’s carriers remain focused on safe and sustainable operations, whilst maintaining cost efficiency.”<br/>

Boeing is asking suppliers to disclose records on Chinese titanium since 2014, according to a letter seen by Reuters, as the U.S. planemaker widens checks for false paperwork used to authenticate the metal used in commercial jets. Regulators said in June they were investigating whether false or incorrect documents were used to identify the authenticity of titanium used for parts in some Boeing and Airbus jets. Airbus said it is collaborating with authorities and investigating the lack of proper traceability affecting a small number of titanium parts from suppliers to programs like the A220, A320 and A350. Reports of forged documentation initially raised concerns about the structural integrity of some aircraft, but planemakers and suppliers say the correct titanium alloy was used and their products are safe. Paper trails are critical in aviation, where regulators insist on clear documentation for even minor production changes to assure planes are safe. "In the interest of full compliance, we are now broadening the scope of our request," Boeing wrote in the letter sent in mid-July to suppliers that asks for details by Aug. 9. It's not clear why Boeing is asking suppliers to provide records for Chinese titanium purchases dating back a decade. While the impact of the industry-wide issue is extremely limited for Boeing, the company said it is "continuing to work with our suppliers to ensure that every titanium part is properly documented."<br/>

The top internal candidate to become Boeing Co.’s next chief executive officer made the rounds at the Farnborough International Airshow this week, raising her profile at the embattled planemaker as its board weighs a pivotal leadership decision. Stephanie Pope, who runs Boeing’s commercial airplane unit, was the company’s senior-most official in attendance at the trade expo, meeting with customers as she builds the case that she belongs on aviation’s biggest stage. Outgoing CEO Dave Calhoun, who has said he’ll step down by year-end as Boeing reels from crisis, wasn’t present, making Pope the standard bearer and public face of the company. “Leadership is all about meeting the moment,” Pope told reporters on Sunday, her first press event as chief of Boeing’s commercial business. Little is known of Boeing’s selection process, which is heating up and is overseen by Chairman Steve Mollenknopf — also a newcomer to his post. The job comes with significant challenges: whoever takes over must stem the financial bleeding, rebuild trust with the flying public and with regulators, and rally a dispirited workforce after Boeing lurched from one crisis to the next in recent years. At the same time, a successful turnaround would help any CEO burnish their credentials by pulling one of the most iconic US manufacturers from the brink and restoring Boeing’s standing alongside Airbus SE in the global plane making duopoly. Pope, 52, has spent months in Seattle, working to stabilize the planemaker’s factory operations. A mid-flight blowout of a fuselage panel in January threw the company into crisis and triggered a cascade of scrutiny by customers and regulators over manufacturing quality. <br/>