Emirates President Tim Clark faulted Airbus Group SE for lacking a coherent strategy on its biggest airliners, saying the planemaker should focus on an upgrade of its A380 superjumbo rather than spend resources on yet another variant of its new A350 twin-engine model. Airbus’s thinking has become increasingly hard to read and talk of further extending the stretched A350-1000 makes little sense, Clark said Thursday at the ITB travel fair in Berlin, adding that he’s not sure the manufacturer could afford to fund that project alongside the upgraded A380 he’s keen to buy. “There seems to be a certain amount of cloudiness,” Clark said. “They’ve got the A380neo and then bingo, out pops the new A350-1000. I’m not quite sure how that’s going to pan out.” As the world’s leading wide-body operator, Emirates exerts enormous influence over the models that Airbus and Boeing develop. The Dubai-based carrier has made the A380 the centerpiece of its fleet, adding flourishes such as bars and showers, and is eager to buy as many as 200 upgraded planes even as a lack of orders from other carriers puts the model’s future in doubt. Clark is evidently running out of patience after John Leahy, Airbus’s sales chief, said on March 1 that there’s “nothing imminent” about the A380 re-engining plan and that even if the Neo were available, Emirates is “not in a position to go ahead” until the mid-2020s because of a lack of airport space. Clark said that’s wrong and that the Gulf carrier would be happy to take the aircraft from 2021 if Airbus builds it. The manufacturer said it couldn’t immediately comment.<br/>
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Emirates airline will show “significantly higher” 2015/16 annual profits, but some business has evaporated due to the recent slump in oil prices, its president Tim Clark said Thursday. The Dubai carrier is considering downgrading A380 services to Houston because of falling demand from the oil industry, which overall represents its biggest corporate customer, Clark told reporters during the ITB tourism exhibition in Berlin. “On the one hand you save on the operating costs, but your yield starts to fall because your corporate business is disappearing so it’s a double-edged sword,” Clark said. “On balance, the airline community is doing better as a result of the lower oil price.” The remarks echo cautionary comments by the head of Qatar Airways, who said on Wednesday that premium-cabin yields were falling because of reduced spending by oil-producing countries and weaker business sentiment. Clark said Emirates is still interested in an upgraded version of the Airbus A380 superjumbo, known as the A380neo, a project shelved for the time being by the European plane maker as it focuses on a potential bigger version of its A350 model. Clark questioned Airbus’s proposal to add to the A350 family and contrasted the clarity of its wide-body decisions unfavourably with that of its US competitor Boeing. “There seems to be a certain amount of cloudiness down there. One minute they are quite keen — I don’t know if they can afford to do the A380neo and the (new) A350,” he said. “Airbus have got to rationalise a few things,” he added.<br/>
A group of Indian banks, seeking to recover more than US$1b in loans from Kingfisher Airlines, has taken possession of nine trademarks related to the defunct carrier as the mystery over the whereabouts of its chief, Vijay Mallya, deepens. Mallya, who built his fortune with Kingfisher Beer and is a guarantor to the debt, left the country last week, a lawyer for the lenders told the Indian Supreme Court on Wednesday. The banks have asked the court to demand his return and to impound his passport. The latest twist in Mallya's fortunes has come at a time when authorities have pledged to clean up bank balance sheets, with the industry saddled by an estimated US$120b in bad and troubled loans. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told parliament on Thursday that the lenders will take every possible action to recover the debt from Mallya and other defaulters. "As far as the government is concerned the clear instructions are that the banks must go all out to take every possible action," he said, adding there were some cases of "wilful default even bordering (on) fraud".<br/>
A disagreement got physical on Spirit Airlines on Wednesday, when two women started playing loud music on their portable speaker after landing. Spirit Flight 141 from Baltimore had just landed at Los Angeles International Airport and was taxiing to the gate when the incident began. "Two customers, who appeared to be intoxicated, were playing loud music on (a) portable speaker," Spirit Airlines spokesman Paul Berry wrote in an email. "Several other customers asked them if they could turn down their music," he said. "The first two ladies refused to do so and stated 'What are you going to do?' "Then to provoke the other customers, they were holding their speaker in the air taunting the customers who had asked to have the music turned down. This prompted the second group of customers to approach the first group and a fight broke out." Five women were involved in the brawl. Other passengers captured the scene on their smartphones.<br/>
Ben Baldanza, the former CE of Spirit Airlines, has been appointed to the board of Icelandic low-cost carrier WOW Air. Without specifying the role that Baldanza will take on at the five-year-old airline, WOW says he will bring “specific expertise in the realm of ultra-low-cost carriers” (ULCCs). Baldanza stepped down as CE of Spirit in January, precipitating a shift by the US carrier away from some of its more objectionable cost-cutting practices. His decade-long tenure cemented the company’s transformation into a radical ULCC that prioritizes rock-bottom airfares above all else – including positive publicity and customer satisfaction. One of his most controversial moments came in 2012, when he publicly refused to issue a refund to a dying US veteran. WOW has steered well clear of such controversies during its short history, seeking to strike a balance between cheap airfares and comfortable – if frugal – on-board service. Despite adopting an avowedly ULCC model, the airline last year liberalized its carry-on baggage restrictions and boosted the legroom on its Airbus A321s.<br/>
Kuwait Airways' overhaul may be management's last chance to save it, as the drop in oil prices means the government cannot go on funding its losses at a time when it is struggling even to pay public sector salaries, industry experts say. Once a prominent symbol of Kuwait's prosperity, the airline is now under real pressure to turn a profit, the 61-year old flag carrier having lost money in each year bar one since Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. And to some the airline's plight is indicative of the wider challenges faced by one of the world's richest countries per head of population as it now struggles to live within its means as low oil prices cause the government to run a budget deficit. And a habit of relying on the state for jobs and cradle-to-grave welfare means Kuwait faces an uphill task in convincing citizens that the state urgently needs to reduce spending, speed up asset sales and encourage the private sector. "The government can't go on for very long continuing to fund the airline," said Kuwait economist Jassim Al Sadoun, head of the Al Shall consultancy. "With low oil prices, it might take them a year or two to realise they don't have enough funds, especially because of their involvement in regional conflict," he said, referring to Kuwait's involvement in Saudi-led operations in Yemen. Which means securing a lasting future for the airline is now a much more urgent challenge for the management, led by chairwoman and former CE Rasha al-Roumi.<br/>