CAAC issued (22-Jan-2020) notifications to airports regarding containment of the coronavirus, requiring airports, local health and quarantine departments to conduct body temperature checks on passengers. The instruction is a reaction to the outbreak of the coronavirus in China, centred around Wuhan. [more - original PR - Chinese]
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While it is the case that airlines do sometimes build and operate new airport terminals, and very occasionally airports, the suggestion coming out of Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, transcends anything that has gone before it.
It looks as if Ethiopian Airlines’ CEO Tewolde GebreMariam has committed the airline to building a brand new USD5 billion airport at Bishoftu, 40km south of Addis Ababa, to make the city the continent’s leading hub. The 35sqkm airport would have a design capacity for 100 million passengers per annum, which would put it among the five largest airports in the world as things stand, and Mr GebreMariam has claimed that it will be Ethiopian Airlines’ growth that will fill that airport in a few years’ time.
By comparison, the current airport at Bole has a capacity of less than 20 million ppa; Ethiopian Airlines has 93.4% of the seat capacity and 98% of aircraft movements at Bole Airport (week commencing 20-Jan-2020) .
Ethiopia would have to become a major destination for both business and leisure and the primary destination in Africa in the way that the big Middle Eastern airlines capitalise on their hub cities.
Reading between the lines, the project at Bishoftu would be the biggest commitment by an airline to operating an airport, anywhere.
In Australia, it seems "it never rains, but...". The widespread bushfires ravaging much of Australia's south and east coasts follow years of drought, rendering the usual expression incongruous.
For Australia's aviation (and tourism) the damage had already started in 2019, as a slowing economy and reduced competition hobbled air travel growth, both domestically and internationally.
Then the widely publicised fires across many hundreds of thousands of hectares of bushland, right into many popular tourism destinations, caused a sudden and much steeper drop; international tourists stayed away and many domestic travellers changed plans, right at the height of the domestic holiday season.
Now, with memories of 2003's catastrophic SARS impact almost faded from memory, the threat of an animal-originated pandemic rears its head again – just as the massive Chinese New Year holidays begin. China is Australia's largest international inbound tourism market, and as many Chinese now call Australia home, the two way flow has increased the overall volume of traffic.
Headlines
ACI Europe: Industry needs to complement CO2 reduction targets with long-term net-zero ambitions
SAS GM Americas: US market has not 'really seen an impact' from flight shaming
Rolls-Royce CEO: Public believes aviation industry's emissions are 10 times worse than reality
Rolls-Royce CEO warns electrification of aviation is 'not a panacea on its own'
Newcastle International Airport aiming for net zero emissions by 2035
Royal NLR launches EU funded IMOTHEP project
Schiphol Cargo to increase focus on sustainability in 2020
Brussels Charleroi Airport commissions new solar panel system on T2 rooftop
Munich Airport awarded 'A-' climate protection rating from Carbon Disclosure Project
Nice Cote d'Azur Airport advocates for incentive based taxation performance levers
Gdansk Airport performs full 'eco-service' on Wizz Air rotation using all electric equipment
As scrutiny and criticism of the global aviation industry continues to grow, JetBlue Airways’ recent declaration that its US domestic flights will be carbon neutral in 2020 is the latest declaration by an airline that it is taking climate change seriously.
Airlines need to continue their work to reduce their carbon footprints, including operating newer, fuel efficient aircraft, using more fuel efficient navigation techniques, and eliminating single use plastics from their operations. Airlines also need to stay at the forefront of biofuel development.
But the pledges by JetBlue and others to become carbon neutral or decrease their carbon footprints result in questions arising over accountability and costs to airlines of their environmental programmes. Those questions will rise in importance as the industry works to demonstrate its commitment to battling climate change.
In 2019 Ryanair Group regained from Lufthansa Group the title of Europe's biggest airline group by passenger numbers, with a 9.5% increase to 152 million passengers. Lufthansa Group slipped to second place, with 145 million.
IAG remained third, growing by 4.7% to 118.3 million passengers. Air France-KLM was fourth, growing by 2.7% to 104 million.
The next three groups – easyJet (97 million passengers, up 5.9%), Turkish Airlines (74 million, down 1.1%), Aeroflot Group (estimated 61 million, up 9.2%) – also held their 2018 positions.
Wizz Air enjoyed the fastest growth in the top 20, growing by 17.7% to almost 40 million passengers, and jumped over Norwegian (36 million, a fall of 2.8%) into eighth place. Pegasus Airlines entered the top 10 for the first time in spite of shrinking its passenger numbers by 0.3%, to just under 30 million. SAS shrank by 1.0% to slightly further below 30 million, and fell out of the top 10 for the first time.
The collapse of Thomas Cook Group allowed SunExpress and LOT Polish to enter the 2019 ranking in equal 20th place, both on just over 10 million passengers.
This report ranks Europe's top 20 airline groups by passenger numbers in 2019 and also includes a ranking of the top 20 individual airline brands.
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American Airlines Group reported (23-Jan-2020) improvements in its operational performance in 4Q2019, reaching record results for on time departures and arrivals and completion factors during this period. American Airlines Group president Robert Isom said the carrier is "very pleased with the trajectory of our operation and are well on our way to delivering operational excellence", adding the carrier will "continue to strengthen" its operations in the future and anticipates "continued improvements" in reliability metrics. [more - original PR]
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24-Jan-2020 11:41 AM
Southwest Airlines reports healthy pax bookings and revenue trends in current environment
Southwest Airlines reported (23-Jan-2020) healthy passenger bookings and revenue trends, with total operating revenues up 0.4% year-on-year in 4Q2019 and FY2019 total operating revenue up 2.1%, despite less capacity as a result of the Boeing 737 MAX grounding. RASM grew 1.3% in 4Q2019, primarily due to a strong performance from Southwest's Rapid Rewards loyalty programme and passenger revenue yield growth of 1.5%, which was offset by a load factor decline of 0.4pp. RASM for this period was as per the carrier's expectations, benefitting from the 737 MAX grounding by a few points but also suffering from the adverse effects of adjusting its previously published flight schedule. Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly said the RASM was up 3.7% in FY2019, pushed along by a "stable domestic economy and revenue environment" and a "strong performance" from its Rapid Rewards loyalty programme, as well as lower capacity as a result of the 737 MAX groundings. The carrier also accrued USD667 million in profit sharing for employees in 2019, including USD97 million in 4Q2019. [more - original PR]
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24-Jan-2020 10:06 AM
ANA expects cargo growth in medium to long term, to enhance cooperation with other airlines
All Nippon Airways (ANA) reported (23-Jan-2020) the following outlook for cargo operations:
- Air cargo demand is expected to stagnate in the short term due to the US-China trade issues, but ANA anticipates expansion in the medium to long term. The carrier's freighter operations will be adjusted to balance supply and demand to steadily improve profitability;
- ANA plans to capture more demand by enhancing synergies with other airlines while flexibly using charters, codeshares and other arrangements, in addition to expanding its passenger network;
- ANA will maintain and improve the network at its Okinawa Naha Airport logistics hub through methods including codeshares with other airlines. [more - original PR]
Thailand's Ministry of Tourism and Sports reported (23-Jan-2020) visitor arrivals to Thailand for the 12 months ended Dec-2019. Details include:
- Visitor arrivals: 39.8 million, +4.2% year-on-year;
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- China: 11.0 million, +4.4%;
- Malaysia: 4.2 million, +3.6%;
- India: 2.0 million, +24.9%;
- South Korea: 1.9 million, +5.1%;
- Laos: 1.8 million, +10.9%;
- Japan: 1.8 million, +9.1%;
- Russia: 1.5 million, +0.7%;
- US: 1.2 million, +4.1%;
- Singapore: 1.1 million, -1.2%;
- Hong Kong: 1.0 million, +2.9%;
- Vietnam: 1.0 million, +1.9%;
- UK: 994,018, +0.7%;
- Cambodia: 907,506, -4.4%;
- Taiwan: 789,923, +14.9%;
- Australia: 768,668, -4.1%;
- Tourism spending: THB1933 billion (USD63.4 billion), +3.1%. [more - original PR]
Garuda Indonesia confirmed (23-Jan-2020) the appointment of Irfan Setiaputra as CEO, replacing Ari Askhara. [more - original PR]
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