Corporate Travel Analysis Reports For The Americas

A growth in connectivity in and out of the Canary Islands, mainly driven by expansion of low-cost carriers, is helping boost foreign visitor arrivals into the likes of Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, La Palma, Lanzarote and Tenerife. After what was seen as a strong first quarter where arrivals grew 6.7% year-on-year (+7.5% in January, +6.5% in February and +6.1% in March), foreign visitors grew a massive 18.8% year-on-year in April, with rises across all of the popular holiday islands.

Air Canada recently announced (04-May-2017) the expansion of its international network with the introduction of a seasonal Vancouver-Melbourne service, the first ever direct, nonstop service from Canada to Melbourne. The service will operate four times weekly between 01-Dec-2017 and 04-Feb-2018 with Boeing 787-9 aircraft, and is timed to optimise connectivity to Air Canada's network across North America, as well as internationally from Vancouver.

Can smaller capacity regional airliners be the solution to Malta's connectivity challenges, and to balance out schedules due to seasonal peaks and troughs? 'Regional Connectivity and Second Tier Operators' was the main theme of the sixth edition of the BOV Aviation Outlook held at Bank of Valletta's head office in Santa Venera and featuring the most influential players in the Maltese aviation industry. The conference was hosted by Bank of Valletta CEO Mario Mallia. Hon Joe Mizzi, Minister for Transport and Infrastructure was also present.

SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) has secured a lot of publicity from the launch of its new weekly winter flight between Stockholm and Miami, its fourth US route from Arlanda Airport in the Swedish capital after New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. The carrier already serves Miami from Oslo and Copenhagen, so this growth was not unexpected and is actually being facilitated by the reduction of its existing Stockholm - Los Angeles route from six to five times weekly from the end of October 2017 so there is no real growth in terms of its capacity in and out of the US. So why the big interest?

This month the Blue Swan Daily road tested the US based ultra-LCC, Spirit Airlines, on two sectors - Newark-Orlando and Orlando-Houston. For those travelling to the US and needing to get around domestically, or to/from Latin America, Spirit can be a good (and inexpensive) option, as the carrier offers a surprisingly extensive network.

The CAPA-ACTE 2017 Melbourne Aviation & Corporate Travel Summit is just around the corner, scheduled for 30-May-2017. Let's take some time to learn about some of the incredible speakers scheduled for the event.

For years the Big 3 US carriers have failed to keep Emirates out of the US, even after spending over USD50 million on lobbying, but in two quick poorly judged moves President Trump and the US security organisation pulled it off in just a few short weeks.

As Qantas now looks to expand its own services westbound towards Europe - with the recent announcement of Perth to London direct 787-9 Dreamliner services scheduled to commence in early 2018 - looking east Christmas was almost ruined following the blow dealt to Australian's largest carrier as a result of the US Department of Transport's (DoT) rejection of a proposed joint venture with American Airlines (AA) across the Pacific. This, despite Australia's Competition and Consumer Commission and New Zealand's Ministry of Transport approving the proposed venture earlier this year.

United's 3Q2012 financial results reflect management's declaration that the quarter was one of the toughest of the merger integration with Continental Airlines. The challenges were reflected in its modest USD6 million profit, and the carrier's continuing lacklusture unit revenue performance. But the carrier pledges that the challenges it faced with an IT systems cutover and aircraft redeployment that fuelled its weak performance have been met, and it expects customer sentiment to improve now that operational disruptions have abated.

The carrier's USD6 million profit was a 99% slide year-over-year. Excluding special items, the carrier recorded a profit of USD520 million. United also saw a significant 79% slide in operating income to USD200 million as expenses grew 5% to USD9.7 billion while total operating revenues fell 2.6% to USD9.9 billion.

A 91% hike in profits during 3Q2012 at Delta Air Lines was somewhat overshadowed by rising unit costs that have challenged the carrier for most of 2012. Carrier management pledges that a two-year scheme designed to remove USD1 billion in costs will allow Delta to consistently meet its return on invested capital targets of 10% to 12% and continue to produce revenue premiums to the industry.

But accompanying those declarations is a warning that unit cost pressure will continue into 1H2013 as Delta cautions the structural changes ushered in by its cost pairing plan will take some time to implement and take effect. As the carrier works on its long-term strategy of cost containment, its outlook for the remainder of 2012 remains favourable as strong corporate demand is driving the carrier's ability to sustain revenue and yield growth.