… and what’s new?

Well, ACAS are trying to rally the two together, and Unite is on the verge of going back to the staff within the next two weeks to ballot.

Oh wonderful.

But it’s still he said/she said territory, with neither side seeming want a resolution. Which isn’t pretty if you’re a traveller.

Nothing new really.

Now I’ve dealt with the annoyance that is the BA Strike, it’s time to look at the problems at Air Southwest

No. Not Southwest Airlines of USA fame, but a small little carrier in the South west of the United Kingdom.

But little Air Southwest is to be sold after operating profits drops by £600,00 in 2009.

In turn, this now brings the question the pull of Newquay Airport which Air Southwest provides 50% of the flights there.

Air Southwest has been through a bit of a bad time, with the rescission and of course the ash causing the London City service to be pulled.

Air Southwest was formed to fill in the hole that BA created when it pulled out originally from Newquay airport and a connection to London. Since then its gone on to create a regional network hubbing out of Newquay and Plymouth Airports, operated by five Dash8 300 series aircraft.

However, no companies have been mentioned in who might take over Air Southwest.

It seems the smaller carriers are being squeezed further and further, no matter where they are in the world.

News today comes from Tripoli with the announcement of the preliminary enquiry of the crash of Flight 711 from Johannesburg to Tripoli.

According to the enquiry, there was not mechanical fault, there was enough fuel onboard, and there was no request for help.

Neji Dhaou, head of the Libyan commission investigating the crash, said the causes remained unknown and indicated it could be some time before his conclusions were ready.

The A330 had 104 people aboard, with just one survivor – a 9 year old Dutch boy. Multiple nationalities were aboard the plane, where as the plane itself was only 8 months old with 1,600 hours flight time and around 420 takeoff and landing cycles.

It’ll be interesting to see the results of the investigation, as this is heading towards pilot error now…

Sources: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/10195452.stm
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2010/05/30/342578/no-evidence-of-technical-problem-before-afriqiyah-a330.html

There’s not much more to say other than that is there?

It’s another 5 day strike, which started on Sunday and will finish on Thursday.

….Before they walk out again on the Sunday after.

BA and Unite are of course pushing at each other, but is there a case of oversimplifying the issues at stake – least of all the re-instatement of travel rights – for the public.

And striking on a Half-term weekend is just a blinder way to bring people on-side….

It’s Sunday again, so it’s time for some airplane p0rn.

This week, its an Air China Airbus A330-200, parked up in the morning sunshine at Frankfurt Airport.

More of course next week!

Well, as if things aren’t as bad enough in Television land, David Walliams and Matt Lucas (of Little Britain fame) are writing and staring in a new comedy called “Come Fly With Me”, which allegedly is going to be based in an airport.

Six parts of comedy… or six parts of way too close to the home? Guess we’ll find out after the six episodes which are due later this year.

So how bad could it possibly be? Apart from the DocuRamas (Airline and Airport), there have been two shows that come to mind – Sky’s Mile High and BBC’s Comedy “The High Life”

With “Mile High”, it’s defiantly a case of Low Cost Carrier meets Drama meets dripping sex. And that’s just the boys – let alone the girls…

Meanwhile, “The High Life” was a) very 80′s and b).. well.. this YouTube clips really says it all…

(although keep an eye out for all the older airline references!)

Well… we’ll see….

So once again, the odd couple head back to the negotiating table to try and reach a settlement. 

Again Willie Walsh will meet Unite’s joint leaders Tony Woodley and Derek Simpson

Thanks to the Socialist Workers entering the negotiating centre last time, the talks have been moved to a secret location

Of course, if BA and Unite can’t knock their heads together, we’ve got two more rounds of strike action head, commencing on the 30/05/10 and 05/06/10 (Both Sunday starts).

It goes without saying of course that this round of strikes will be heading into the Half-Term Holiday in the United Kingdom.

Way to go to bring the public on-side Unite….

… and guess what’s to blame? Of course, it’s our old friend, Eyjafjallajökull the Icelandic Volcano.

Traffic is down 2.4% in April on international traffic, whilst European traffic is down 11.7% (From a 6.2% increase).

IATA’s director general and CEO Giovanni Bisignani knocked out these quotes:

“The ash crisis knocked back the global recovery – impacting carriers in all regions. Last month, we were within 1 percent of pre-crisis traffic levels in 2008. In April, that was pushed back to 7 percent,”

“European carriers bore the worst of the volcano’s impact. Their 11.7 percent drop in passenger traffic could not have come at a worse time. Europe’s slow recovery from the global financial crisis and its currency crisis are already a huge burden on the profitability of its airlines,” he said.

“The uncoordinated and excessive cancellations and unfairly onerous passenger care requirements rubbed salt into the European industry’s wounds”

Well it may had been uncoordinated, but it’s safety first – ok – the rules have changed as there has been more experience and knowledge gained through it.

After all, operators wouldn’t want to put profits ahead of lives… would they?

Oh dear. It seems that American Airlines is running into some of the same issues that it’s OneWorld partner British Airways has, and is heading towards a Flight Attendant (not cabin crew) strike by the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA).

It’s got to the point where American is doing what BA did – and are getting other people trained up “for your safety”

To quote:

“To assist with necessary flying, the company is seeking volunteer American Airlines management employees who are willing to complete flight attendant training to temporarily staff flight operations. Though we hope and expect that we will not have to implement our contingency operation, this sort of planning is the responsible and unfortunately necessary thing to do to protect our customers and the company.”

Sound familiar?

Whilst a strike notice needs 30 days leaving time to negotiate, American is laying down it’s planning already…. 

Well it seems the government has confirmed it will be junking the National ID Card project within 100 days, along with the National Identity Register (and on top of that – the next-generation Biometric Passport).

For those 15000 fools citizens people victims registraints of the ID card, yes, you have a non refundable £30 lump of plastic that might be a collectors item one day.Or to quote Theresa May, said ID card holders would at least have a “souvenir” of the scheme

For travel purposes, with the the withdrawal of the scheme means one simple thing: your card will NOT be a valid form of identity to travel in and out of the country.

UK Border and Airport officials will still accept them, however when the abolition date of them is confirmed, it’ll be confirmed in writing.

It’s important to note whilst the National ID Card Scheme is coming to an end, the scheme operated by UK Borders (The Biometric Resident Permit)will be continue to expand covering areas such as have migrant workers, foreign students and family members from outside the European Economic Area. . 

GhettoIFE.com will keep you posted on when the cards finally are deemed “invalid for travel”

Yup. This ongoing palava messup bitch fight disagreement is still go ongoing, and for now have been adjourned until Friday after mroe talks today.

Both sides are making nosies that it won’t be easy, with concession fighting still going on.

Meanwhile, BA has updated it’s site to cover next weeks operations – important for quite a few people as next week is the Half Term holiday in the United Kingdom.

See www.ba.com/strike for details.

Personally, I hope a solution is reached soon. This strike doing neither side any favours, and it is getting to the point where both sides are shouting “Mum did evil and I’m telling on you”. 

Which for neither side, is attractive.