I have flown 842 times. In that time, one child has kept me irritated for an entire flight. As he bounced up and down the seats with his oblivious mother staring at her video screen, an exasperated fellow passenger asked if she had brought anything for her child to do. She looked up and shrugged her shoulders, saying “No” and went back to watching  her screen. A few babies have disturbed my takeoffs and landings but not enough for me to want children removed from my aeroplane. Most I have met on board have been well behaved or in awe or both. On the other hand, adult passengers that talk loudly on night flights, recline their seats, pack the luggage racks badly, keep the light on on night flights, abuse the flight attendants, dirty the lavatories, or step on my feet when walking across the emergency exits, annoy me more. Besides, for the first 15 flights of my life,  I was a child under 12.

So I was very interested in Malaysian Airline’s announcement  last Wednesday that children and infants under the age of 12 will be banned from the upper decks of their new Airbus A380 as well as the plane’s First Class.

The announcement overshadowed almost every other detail of the new Airbus services. The first plane due for delivery in June will start flying Kuala Lumpur daily into London in July. The second one will double the London capacity. KL- Sydney will follow from 25 September, 2012 as flights MH123/122 replacing the Boeing 747-400 aircraft currently serving the route. This means four airlines will be flying A380s into Sydney  and four into London (Emirates, Qantas, Singapore currently operate the plane at those two airports).

The Malaysian A380  has a brand new livery of blue and metal colours (pictured). No decision has been made as to whether the colours will be rolled out to the whole fleet. I really like the livery. The colour represents a new era as they join One World and fight to keep their five star Skytrax rating which is “under review”. (If Skytrax downgrades them, then that means with the loss of Kingfisher’s status, there will be five carrying the 5 star moniker compared with seven last year).

Malaysian’s Airbus A380 will have 494 seats compared with:

• Korean: 407  (my report here)
• Qantas: 450 (not reviewed)
• Singapore: 409/471 (not reviewed)
• Emirates: 489/517 (Three airlines A380s compared)
• China Southern: 506 (not flown yet)
• Air France: 516/538 (Reviewed January, 2012)
• Lufthansa: 526 (Review posted October last year)

There was talk of having four classes with a seat count of 503. Instead, Malaysian has dropped premium Economy and  increased the business cabin on the upper deck.  Seven of the seats are reserved for crew giving the plane 487 seats. 420 of these seats are economy, Business and First Class. On the lower deck are 350 Economy seats and the  eight kid free First class seats. The child proofed upper deck will have 66 Business and 70 economy seats.

First-class pitch will be 85 inches. The seats will flatten out to a full 87-inches. In flight entertainment screens are  23-inch. Business class: 74-inch pitch and full flat bed seats each measuring 72 inches in length  with individual 17-inch IFE screens. Economy-class seats will have a 32 inch pitch and an 18 inch seat width with 10.6-inch individual screens. Every seat on board will have a USB port.  AC electrical outlets Ports will be installed at every Business and First seat and shared with every two seats in Economy.

Now for the child ban. Malaysian have instructed travel agents that their booking system will not allow passengers under 12 in First class, or the upper deck. This is hot on the heels of a 2010 US survey identified that nearly 60% of travellers want airlines to create a family-only section on flights. This was a consequence of a confidential settlement between Qantas and a 67-year-old American passenger who sued the airline after a 3-year-old screamed on her flight. Further,  most  survey respondents said they wished to sit as far away from young children as possible. Those who support banning kids, point out that the chance of a small child or baby being disruptive is far greater than that of any other traveller. Those against point out that children likely to fly Business are usually behaved. plus it means all parents seeking to fly Malaysian will have to fly Economy.

So is this policy Wacky or Wise.? What do you think?

Ever locked your keys in the car or lost them?

I had some friends lose my house keys recently. They tore apart their car looking for the keys (turned out they had been dropped behind a tree in the garden!).

Imagine finding you had locked everyone’s luggage in a Boeing 747 and could not get it out?!

This happened to Virgin Atlantic last week. Flight VS029, arrived from London into Barbados with 288 passengers. On the ground,staff tried everything (and failed) to open the rear hold door of the plane. Eventually. it was decided to take the plane back to Gatwick, leaving approximately 200 of the passengers without  bags.

A Virgin spokesman stated: “We would like to sincerely apologise to all customers affected. Every effort was made to open the luggage door manually in Barbados following a technical issue..The fault has now been rectified and passengers have now been reunited with their luggage.”

Another reason why I never check luggage in.

It has been over a decade since I last flew Gulf Air.  Australia was a Gulf Air destination in those days. James Hogan (now at Etihad) was CEO  and the airline had new A330s and new uniforms. It was in the middle of a major transformation.  Its crews were very international and the airline felt like it was going places. A lot has happened to Gulf since with its major shareholders all setting up rival carriers including Etihad.

Booking- 10 out of 10

I cannot fault the Gulf Air booking webpage. Worked quickly and logically with a minimum of clicks and page scrolls. I like that! A quick glance at prices showed Gulf are undercutting their competitors on every sector including Etihad -who I find normally seem to be a loss leader. Clearly Gulf are trying to get passengers or cash or both.  Knowing their cash position is precarious that would make sense.

Check In – 5 out of 10

I loved the Gulf Air check in. It worked very smoothly. I also loved the fact I was offered a mobile boarding pass. I also printed a boarding pass so I had both.

The love continued until I got to the airport. At the security checkpoint, I was gruffly informed that I could not use the mobile boarding pass as it was not accepted at that airport. I smiled and handed the security guard, my home printed boarding pass. He refused that as well! Why does Gulf air offer an option at its hub airport that is not accepted? It even says on their website that Bahrain is one of the airports that allows the home printed boarding passes.

I trekked over to the check in counter. The scene there was of chaos with people everywhere. It was hard to know who was in line where. I got waved up very quickly by a friendly agent who didn’t want to see my existing check in documentation. I was given a standard airline boarding card which allowed me through security. The agent could not explain to me why they issued but did not accept web check in boarding passes at Bahrain airport. I assumed it was because of the security  situation in Bahrain.

The airport itself had more security outside but inside things seemed very normal.

Boarding- 6 out of 10

A bus took us from the gate to the aeroplane; An Embraer E170 where we climbed stairs onto the craft. It was a stunningly beautiful outside with stars and the moon shining over us. I love boarding planes via the tarmac but am conscious it does not suit families with children, the elderly or disabled.

We were greeted individually  by two friendly flight attendants in Arabic, English or both if they were not sure!  There was  a third flight attendant who was Surly and made a  point of ignoring us. He disappeared immediately after take off for the whole flight.

On Board- 8 out of 10

There were a mere 17 passengers on the Embraer 170 (a 67 seat  plane).16 were in the 60 seat economy cabin and one was in the seven seat business (known as Falcon Gold Class). The business class passenger was a Gulf  Air Flight attendant on staff travel. Not exactly a good revenue situation.It was an early morning flight out of Bahrain in the middle of a troubled time in the kingdom – I wonder if this was the reason for the very low load on the plane. Interestingly, I had flown into Bahrain in a near empty Etihad 777, a week earlier. so my arrival and departure experiences were similar in that regard.

The Embraer 170 is a twin-engine, jet airliner produced by a Brazilian company.  Gulf Air has two E170s and two E190s. They moved in the regional jet direction in 2010 as part of a strategy to revive the struggling carrier. The aim is to use the Embraers as a cost effective means of getting service into as many middle eastern cities as possible.

I am a fan of the Embraers and this one felt great. The cabin on this one looks very spacious and clean. Seating in Business class was 1/2 and in Economy 2/2. Seat width is 20″ in both cabins. Economy seat pitch is 31″ and Business is 36″.  I was in the bulkhead row so I had even more leg room. Each seat is leather upholstered. Mine was  very comfortable.

Safety Briefing- 3 out of 10

Mr Surly stood at the front of the main cabin looked and acted as if he didn’t care. Wearing a crumpled shirt with a packet of cigarettes prominent in it, he kept interrupting the presentation to shout at the Flight attendant who was doing the briefing in the business class cabin. As I don’t speak Arabic, I could not tell if it was  a friendly or angry discussion! Whatever it was, it was unprofessional and off putting. In an emergency, I wondered what use he would have been? This was not a reassuring thought.

He also ignored the couple with the bag between the  legs in the bulkhead row. The male passenger of the couple was also using his mobile phone through the safety briefing, long after the door had closer, long after the announcement not to use electronics had been made and long after the no electronic items light had been illuminated.

Meal – 5 out of 10

We were offered a “cheese sandwich” in a very attractive box.  The box included chocolate bar and water. An extra water was served by the crew.    If the sandwich was cheese, then I need new tastebuds.  I have no idea what was inside as it looked like a light curried egg but was tasteless. The bread roll was dry. After the meal, the crew disappeared. Reading Skytrax, this seems to be a common complaint.

Flight – 10 out of 10

A four minute taxi had us on the runway. Then the pilot really gunned us out of there. We accelerated very very quickly and took off into the morning sky. Not sure why there was such an urgency as it is a long runway and traffic didn’t appear to be heavy.   The flight was very short, and we soon started our descent early into Abu Dhabi. There was some slight turbulence as we came in for landing.

Entertainment – 6 out of 10

Each seat has an individual entertainment unit. This was not in use. Not sure whether it was a once off or r a regular occurrence  on this  short flight . We saw a screening of Just for Laughs, the Canadian TV show which seems t be broadcast in almost every airline I have been on. It probably was enough for this early morning flight.

The Verdict

My rating: 63% (3 out of 5).

Skytrax rating:  3 star airline

Positives:   Two thirds of Cabin crew, Roomy plane

Negatives: Check in, Safety briefing, meal

Would I fly them again?  Not in a hurry. Okay performance but not enticing.

My last Trip Report: March 6: Etihad’s Wireless Internet

This week is mostly centred on the US East Coast starting in NYC, heading down to Philadelphia to see family, up to Boston and down to Pittsburgh.

Any advice on what is hot in Boston this week?

This week, I get to fly Jetblue from Boston to Pittsburgh, one of my favourite US airlines on an Embraer, one of my favourite aeroplanes. Hopefully this will be a twin delight. Watch for future blog post! Blogging tomorrow about my recent Gulf Air flight.

Thanks for following along.

The Indian air market is estimated to be the ninth largest in the world but with the population size the country has, the Indian government believes it will  become the world’s third largest market by 202o. 87 foreign and five Indian airlines fly to and from India to 40 countries. Approximately five million Indians fly every month domestically. Domestic traffic more than doubled between Jul-2006 and July 2011, with growth of 101%. One reason for the growth was the deregulation of Indian domestic aviation in 2003- 2004 followed by international deregulation in 2007-2008

Today, India’s airlines have some of the youngest fleets in the world and new airport facilities have blossomed across the country. For example Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) was awarded the fourth best airport award in the world. When I flew there prior to the rebuilding of the airport, it was an awful airport.

India has three full service airlines Air India, Jet Airways, Kingfisher Airlines and four Low cost carriers:  GoAir, IndiGo, JetLite (owned by Jet airways), and SpiceJet. Kingfosher also had a discount version: Kingfisher Red known formerly as Simplifly Deccan and before that  Air Deccan. I have only flown Jet, preferring to travel through India on their amazing railway system but that’s another story. Market share from September, 2011 is shown below.

The industry, however is not making money. Indian airlines will lose up to $3 billion in the fiscal year that ends this month, according to CAPA, with state-owned Air India accounting for the bulk of the losses. Three of those airlines are in severe financial trouble: Air India, Jet, and Kingfisher:

• Air India has received a series of government bailouts.
• Jet who were profitable for the first years of their expansion  are looking for  credit.
• Kingfisher has never made a profit in its six year history and after a period of massive expansion has grounded more than half of its planes as it struggles to pay staff and creditors and scrambles to find investors. It seems only a matter of when, not if, Kingfisher Airlines will go.

Indians know the Kingfisher name as it is the country’s most popular beer accounting for a third of domestic beer consumption. Owned by United Breweries, the beer was launched in 1987 and enjoyed phenomenal growth. The logic that anything with the Kingfisher name can grow in the same way seems to have propelled an insane airline expansion. For example, in 2008 it was stated: UB group has become the market leader in each core business it has ventured into.

Kingfisher Airlines began operations on 9 May 2005 with an inaugural flight from Mumbai to Delhi. A month later (June 15, 2005,) it ordered  five A380s, five Airbus A350s aircraft and five Airbus A330s. It seems staggering that an airline a month old could order the world’s biggest plane in an untested market. They went international in 2008, less than four years ago. In May 2009, they became India’s largest airline by passenger numbers.

Kingfisher aimed to offer a premium service on all of its flights. Dr. Vijay Mallya, the Chairman of Kingfisher Airlines Limited said: I intend to make Kingfisher Airlines the best in the world and pursue this goal seriously… I have always aimed at delighting you and giving you nothing but the best.

It aimed to see customers as guests not passengers. As a result  Kingfisher could boast it was one of the only seven airlines awarded the coveted 5-star rating by Skytrax. This put it in the same category as  Cathay Pacific, Qatar Airways, Asiana Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines, and Hainan Airlines. It gave every guest a free welcome on board kit including pen, facial tissue and headphone to use with their entertainment system.  They had the greatest leg room with a 34 inch pitch (distance between seats) and won accolades for their best economy class seat. Kingfisher was the first of India;’s airlines to install an interactive entertainment system and made a deal with Dish TV to provide live TV entertainment to passengers. Passengers are served meals on most flights and bottled lemonade (not beer!) before take-off.

Kingfisher grew their fleet size to 68 aircraft with 90 on order ncluding those A380s mentioned previusly. The average age of its fleet was just 2.3 years. The carrier was flying to 63 domestic destinations and eight international destinations across Asia and Europe. It had code share agreements with American Airlines, British Airways and Philippines. They were also accepted into the One World Alliance.

Fast forward to the last year and Kingfisher have moved from flying high to the verge of bankruptcy. The crisis unfolded as:

• 31 Aug 2011 – Kingfisher delayed salaries for its staff and continued to delay salary payments. They have also failed to pay income tax payments diretly to tax authroties
• 15 Nov 2011 – Dr. Vijay Mallya, Chairman, vowed the airline will keep flying
• 8 Dec 2011 – Kingfisher Pilots start making this in-flight announcement: “It is their sense of duty towards the guest that is making them fly despite not being paid salaries for the past two months”
• 8 Dec 2011 –  Kingfisher reports Tax authorities froze 60 of their bank accounts. This has hampered their ability to pay salaries and dues
  
• 19 Dec 2011 – Kingfisher grounds 15 planes as it was unable to meet the maintenance and overhaul expenses.
• 20 Jan 2012 – Plane manufacturer ATR cancelled Kingfisher Airlines’s order for 38 ATR-72 turboprop planes
• 23 Feb 2012 – Kingfisher flight cancellations began in earnest with 4o planes grounded
• 3 Mar 2012 – Kingfisher pilots threaten to stop flying unless salaries are paid by 12 Mar 2012
• 6 Mar 2012 –  the International Air Transport Association (IATA) suspended Kingfisher from its Geneva-based clearing house (ICH) due to non-payment of dues
• 7 Mar 2012 – One world deferred entry into their alliance
• 7 Mar 2012 – State-owned Hindustan petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL) stopped jet fuel supplies. Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited continued to sell fuel to the airlines on a cash-and-carry basis at some airports. HPCL resumed some supplies to allow skeletal services the next day

Kingfisher Airlines is now down to fifth largest airline in India as their passengers desert them (do you blame them?).

I am just disappointed I never got to try Kingfisher (and get my free pen) and I don’t think I will ever fly them. I give Kingfisher airlines a month to survive unless a very wealthy benefactor buys them out. It won’t be Air India, Jet air or any existing Indian airline, though. Nor will it be the Indian government or the State Bank ofm India.Nor will it be a foreign carrier as currently, India bans foreign airlines from investing directly or indirectly in domestic airlines. If that were lifted in the next week (unlikely), I wonder how many foreign airlines would beat a path to buy a substantial stake in Kingfisher?  Has Etihad got 1.2 billion spare and an interest in India?

According to Anant Rangaswami where Kingfisher went wrong was that while their planes were veyr  comfortable, their punctuality was very poor. Anant notes  ” when it comes to short-haul, domestic flights, the most fundamental needs are pricing and punctuality. The ‘luxuries’ such as great food, more comfortable seating, extra leg-room and in-flight entertainment come into play only AFTER these two needs are met. How much of a premium will a passenger pay for extra leg-room for a 90 minute flight? How often, in a domestic flight, can one see an entire movie?”

Once upon a time there was a USA airline that I really liked.   Texas based Continental Airlines flew to 140 cities with an attitude to service I really liked. Between 1991 and 2001, I flew Continental the equivalent of two trips around the world. I ranked them consistently the best US “legacy” airline for a while

In the same story was Continental’s beau- United airlines.  I have long had a love hate relationship with them. Flew United a lot but don’t ever feel I really bonded – especially when they served me up some of the worst flights I have been on. I have travelled 103,586 miles (166,705 kilometres) with United, the equivalent of four times around the planet.

After two years, tomorrow at 1am, Saturday March 1, 2012, the two airlines stories are finally and totally entwined as the last steps of the merger take place. What will change this weekend:

Branding

This weekend, the Continental name will finally disappear forever from flight numbers,  airports and the web. Interestingly, some of the better elements of the of Continental will survive. As we have seen over the last two years,  the new United  keeps  Continental’s trademark blue sphere logo, their colours and fonts. All of which I liked better!

Websites

Continental.com will disappear in favour of  United.com.  However United.com is like the old Continental site in layout in both appearance and functionality, looking at this mock up of the site.  I always preferred the Continental site so that is a good thing in my books.

Reservations

The most significant and potentially  most risky parts  of the merger will be the transfer of the United and Continental reservations systems  into a new SHARES system, the same system Continental has been using.  Apparently 10 000 employees have been involved in the cutover process and there has been four dress rehearsals leading up to this week.  United plans to have additional staff members on the phones and in airports this weekend.

This could mean you will have a new reservation number but the system will accept both old and new res numbers. (phew). The big question is what will happen Saturday? In the best case scenario, passengers will make bookings, log in and fly as normal. In the worst case, reservations agents and passengers won’t be able to retrieve reservations and the airline will be a sea of chaos. The reality will be somewhere between the two, I think. Even so I won’t be contacting res or flying this weekend with United.

My next flight is Tuesday with them so an hoping all bedded down by then!

Frequent Flyer Programs: MileagePlus and One Pass

Continental’s One Pass name will vanish in preference for into United’s MileagePlus . However, the program will  be using Continental’s membership numbers and not United’s. For Continental One Pass Customers, this means no change. United Mileage Plus Customers- will be assigned a new frequent flyer  membership number.  Customers of both United and Continental who linked their accounts (as I did) will use their existing Continental number. Customers of both United and Continental who have not linked their numbers will of course have two numbers.

Because MileagePlus and OnePass each use different methods for earning lifetime status, United are using a one-time mileage calculation to bring MileagePlus members into the new Million Miler program status levels.My lifetime miles are 250 000!

So good bye to Continental name, Hello to a  Continental influenced United. Heres hoping for a successful marriage!

This is the fourth time I have flown British Airways on this sector- and my last. BA will cease flying this route from this Friday March 3rd.  Qantas will terminate its Bangkok to London services on March 26th and its planes will turn around in Bangkok. Instead both airlines will “swap” passengers at Bangkok. The same thing is happening with their Hong Kong flights. Both airlines will maintain their services via Singapore (the “Kangaroo Route”). This shorter “hop” will be where all through Australia-London passengers will be fed. Passengers going via Hong K and Bangkok will be choosing to stop. I have some disquiet about how these reductions in service will help “sell” Qantas as a carrier which I have blogged about previously.

Competitors on the non stop Bangkok to Sydney sector are now Thai and Emirates. Air Asia, Malaysian, Singapore all offer one stop service.

This was the 22nd British Airways flight in my life.  I also flew their predecessors BEA and BOAC a lot. I have flown them in total enough miles to go around the world four times.

Booking: 10 out of 10

The British Airways website is very clear and very easy to use, It loads quickly. Booking and paying is a breeze.  Entering my frequent flyer number, and choosing my seat was simple. I chose an exit row aisle seat. Love it!

Check In: 10 out of 10

I checked in online and was really disappointed to find that I had lost my emergency exit seat. Worse I now had a middle seat almost at the back of the plane. I looked for seats near the front of the cabin and could not see anything that a 185cm 6’1 frequent flyer would find comfortable so row 51 it was.

On arrival at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport, I made my way to the clearly signposted British Airways Gold/Business Check in counter where a very friendly check in attendant greeted me.  I mentioned politely to her how disappointed I was to have been relegated from exit row to back. She said “Let me have a look. Well sir, the plane is very full. We have moved you to  another class of srevice. You are in row 18.” In other words, the magic words: “you have an upgrade”. Row 18 on this 747 is in British Airways call “Club World” *Business Class) . Thank you BA!

Lounge: 8 out of 10

Bangkok Airport’s British Airways/ Qantas Business lounge is airy, pleasant and comfortable. The showers were very nice. Food included little mini lamingtons  which made this Australian  very happy.  The lounge could not be faulted.  

Boarding: 8 out of 10

Finding a gate at Bangkok airport always seems a challenge for me. I have been there so many times and I still manage to lose Boarding gates! So I arrived a little stressed at the gate. After that, Boarding was pretty smooth but on the plane itself, the pace felt very frantic. It was a clearly a fully laden flight and passengers and crew seemed to be everywhere. I was glad to be offered a welcome drink! I asked for Sparkling wine but was told I could have champagne instead. (When I last flew Business with Air New Zealand, I asked for a champagne but was told on the ground they could only serve me Sparkling Wine!).

Unlike Business Class on Air New Zealand, Virgin and Qantas, no cabin crew member welcomed passengers on board individually. Crew on these carriers show passengers the ins and outs of the cabin. Not sure if BA don’t do it or if the heavy passenger load precluded it.

On Board: 8 out of 10

The 747 felt old. The interior fittings in Club World (Business) looked dated. My seat was great, however. There were a total of 52 seats in the Club World cabins, all 180-degree fully flat sleeper seats. The window seats all face the rear, as do the E & F seats. The seat has a 20″ width and 73″ pitch. On Qantas 747 on the same route you get 21.5″ and 60″ . Thai gives you 20″ and 55″ on their 747.

I chatted to my seat neighbour, before we raised the privacy screens. He was not convinced about flying backwards.

I initially found the BA service a little out of character. I could not place my finger on what i found jarring about the crew attitude. They won me over when I asked for a sparkling water, however. The cabin attendant leaned forward and said “we don’t have any.  It looks like they drank us out of it from London. It was a very full flight.” He said “I have looked“  Ten minutes later, he was back with a bottle from First Class. Very nice!

Safety: 10 out of 10

I feel I have seen the BA safety video many times now. Is it memorable or dated? Crew took safety briefing and checks carefully. 

Meals: 9 out of 10

Following my doctor’s noting my iron levels are low, I chose steak or my main course, Again, there was the slight jarring of service. Bizarrely, my flight attendant could nt recommend  a wine to accompany it. and even when prompted did not know the difference between the wines on this trolley. The steak with a  nice French red was perfect.

I found out later that British Airways have snacks available for club world passengers including sandwiches, smoothies and chocolates for access through the flight.  They didn’t mention it and I regret I didn’t check it out.

Entertainment: 8 out of 10

British Airways has  ”HighLife Entertainment’s Audio and Video On Demand (AVOD)”. In ClubWorld the flat TV screen is  26cm (10.4 inches). It rotates out in front of you and allowed lots of room to adjust it. noise canceling headphones are, of course, provided.  The 100 movies and TV programmes included lots of Downton Abbey, an excellent Mockmentray about Monty Python’s Life of Brian but one episode only of Mike and Molly, one of Modern family, one of Big Bang and one of Parks and Recreation! There were also 50 music CDs and audio books and 20 games which I didn’t play.

The Verdict:

My rating: 91% (5 out of 5)

Positives:   Meals, Lounge, Check in, Seat

Negatives:  Boarding, lack of Personal welcome

Would I fly them again?  Yes, especially if you upgrade me again- but alas it won’t  be on British Airways on this sector for a while

My last Trip Report: February 14: Malev – Rome (ROM to Budapest (BUD) Boeing 737

So how was last week?

This week I am back with Etihad up to the Middle East.  Am wondering what they will do with my Platinum card (last time I flew them I was Gold). In Melbourne (where I am starting my journey from), they use the Air New Zealand lounge which is a very nice one.

Safe travels to you!

In response to an 83 per cent fall in its first-half net profit to $A42 million to December 31 and as a part of a half a billion dollar cost cutting measure. Qantas is pulling out of two more routes in May and cutting 500 jobs in catering, engineering and heavy maintenance. The sectors being lost are:

• Auckland, New Zealand (AKL) to Los Angeles, USA (LAX) QF25 and 26
• Singapore (SIN) to Mumbai (India) (BOM) QF 50 and 51

These cuts are in addition to the previously announced withdrawals in March from the Hong Kong-London and Bangkok-London routes.

The Singapore to Mumbai cancellation is not a total surprise. This route has had a checkered history over the last decade. Qantas planes used to fly non stop to Bombay.Then the Singapore stopover was added.

Then the flight went back to non-stop.

In 2009, the stop in Singapore was added again.The stop meant Qantas could pick up Indian passengers who fly between Singapore and India. The biggest disadvantage of the service was the passenger unfriendly 2am arrival time.

I suspect Jetstar will take up this route soon.

The Auckland to Los Angeles axing is more of a surprise. Qantas have been flying this sector for many decades.I have flown on this route ten times, evenly split between Qantas and Air New Zealand. Up to 2009, the service was operated by a 747 which started in Melbourne, flew to Auckland and then onto Los Angeles.

The 747 was phased out and the route was split into two parts. Today, the time table looks like this:

• QF 25 Dep MEL: 06:00am Arr: AKL 11:40am Boeing 737 (168 pax in 2 classes)
• QF 25 Dep AKL: 03:05pm Arr; LAX 06:40am (same day): Airbus 330 (307 pax in 2 classes)
• QF 26 Dep LAX 11:25pm Arr: AKL 09:55am (2 days later): A330
• QF 26 Dep MEL: 12:45pm Arr: AKL 2:45pm B737

The two aircraft basically turn around so the 737 is shuttling between Melbourne and Auckland and the 330 between Auckland and Los Angeles. There is now a more significant wait in Auckland than there used to be when the same aircraft went all the way through. Passengers can also fly from Sydney to Auckland on QF 55 which arrives at 2;25pm and connect on to the LAX bound A330.

The biggest advantage to me of this service was it allowed me to stop over in New Zealand on the way to or from the USA. This meant I could combine business in two markets in a time efficient cost effective way. I have also noticed that Qantas consistently prices flights on the MEL to lAX via AKL more cheaply than the direct MEL- LAX flights.

I have four concerns with the announced changes:

1. Market Loss

Qantas is effectively removing itself from potential travellers coming from North America, who may wish to combine Australia and New Zealand without backtracking and Australians who may want to combine the USA and New Zealand. I am not sure how big the market is or will be and I know Qantas can re enter the route.

2. Air New Zealand gains Monopoly status

I don’t believe Air New Zealand will go too crazy with fare increases but we will see some reduction in the number of discounted seats available. Air New Zealand still has to price the route at a rate the market will bear and one which is low enough to entice people to fly that distance. In addition Air NZ are still competing with Qantas on LA-SYD and must bear Qantas pricing in mind

3. One World Alliance impacted

There is now a gap for One World round the world tickets. Passengers wanting to include Nee Zealand in a one world round the world itinerary will have to go via Australia to fly a one word carrier to or from North America. We also lose the option of earning One world points on this sector. Every reduction in One world earning capacity pushes me further toward Virgin Australia and  partners and Star Alliance (Air New Zealand belongs to Star).

4. The Joyce Grand Plan

As I have blogged before, I am not a big fan of Alan Joyce’s (pictured) new plan for Qantas. The plan consists of trimming Qantas to a few key routes which feed int One World partner routes at key points (e.g. Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Dallas, London), the creation of a Premium Qantas Asian carrier and the expansion of low cost carrier Jetstar. I fear the trimming of Qantas will reach a point where Qantas is almost a skeleton only. It reminds me of the Uk railway system under Lord Beeching in the 1960s. He reduced the rail system to a few trunk lines by closing as many rural branches as possible. It was only a few years later that people realised that successful main lines gained their passengers from these branch lines. Chopping the branches pushed people into motor vehicles and they by passed the trains altogether. This is now being reversed in the 21st century but the damage to rail lasted almost five decades.

 Reaction

The announced changes have not been greeted with excitement by passengers or employees. Qantas is currently,  the subject of an Australian Parliamentary inquiry as a result of the grounding of the whole airline last October by Mr Joyce. The relationship with the Unions is already at the lowest ebb. That seems to have got even worse with the Transport Workers Union head Tony Sheldon today saying”. “It’s clear the Australian people have got one foul liar running a company and destroying the company,” Sheldon said of Joyce. “It’s become clearer and clearer from both statements within Qantas management privately, and from our politicians in Canberra on both sides of the house, that Qantas intends to strip the flying kangaroo and Jetstar in an operation to maximise profits for the executives.” He went on to demand Qantas be prosecuted as the union felt the job cuts violated Fair Work Australia’s requirements.

The skies will remain turbulent for the Australian Flag Carrier especially as it seeks to avoid a demise like Malev, the Hungarian Flag carrier.

In the meantime, thanks to the crews who have looked after me on the Auckland service. May see you one more time in April!

When I blogged about Australia’s newest airline in January,  I was not convinced it was a viable proposition. So many start ups have tried in Australia and failed/disappeared (East-West, Compass I, Compass II, Impulse, for example). More recently, we have seen Tiger Airways Australia in trouble.

Australia is a tough aviation market in a tough aviation world. Already in 2012, three airlines have collapsed including Malev that I blogged about last week. Air Australia is the world’s fourth airline to be grounded this year.

On the morning of February 17, Air Australia, after less than three months of operations, ran out of cash. The airline could not even pay for the fuel to get a jet back to Australia from Phuket. Most if not all of their staff were stood down immediately. 4000 passengers were stranded in Bali, Phuket and Honolulu.

Their Twitter account was closed and Facebook page deactivated immediately. Phones stopped being answered and on the website appeared the following message: ”On February 17 2012, the Director of the Air Australia group of companies appointed John Park and Mark Korda of KordaMentha as voluntary administrators,” Korda Mentha, of course, started as a result of the Ansett Australia collapse in 2001 Passengers waiting at airports including a plane-load of Australians who had checked in at Phuket airport were handed the attached information from KordaMentha.

Virgin Australia Airlines has announced it will assist passengers stranded in Bali  with a special fare of USD $199 one-way  to Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne.  Qantas is developing a rescue plan. In the meantime, they have said that passengers with a ticket for travel on Air Australia today are to report to the Qantas Sales Desks at their departure airport.

Passengers who have paid with Credit Cards have found they may have protection from loss. Passengers may see the value of their tickets are credited back. Paying by bank transfer and cash do not seem to have the same protections. This is also a good time to check on the level of travel insurance. Will your travel insurance company cover your replacement flights. In this climate this may be coverage that you might need.

In the meantime, my thoughts are with the lovely crew members from Air Australia, I encountered on my first (and last) flight with them in January.