Corporate Travel News For Europe/MEA

Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal stated Etihad Airways has no plans to exit its three year old equity partnership with Jet Airways, adding that Jet Airways has no plans for another partner (PTI/The Hindu Business Line, 12-Sep-2017). "We have no plans to sell the stake to another investor. Also, our partner Etihad has no intention to exit their investment in Jet Airways", Mr Goyal said. He added: "Our three-year-young strategic partnership with Etihad Airways continues to to deliver synergies across all areas, including network growth, revenue enhancement, operational efficiencies and cost improvement, to the mutual benefit of both airlines... For another year running, Jet Airways, together with Etihad Airways, carried more passengers between India and the Gulf than any other airline". The synergies enabled one million passengers to connect between India and North America, Europe, Africa and West Asia over Abu Dhabi, Mr Goyal added. In the recent months there have been reports of exploratory discussions between Jet Airways and Delta Air Lines for a stake sale. Jet has also appointed JP Morgan to consider ways to raise funds to reduce debt levels and support continued fleet expansion at the airline.

airberlin announced (11-Sep-2017) plans to suspend Caribbean services from Dusseldorf Airport. According to an 11-Sep-2017 GDS and inventory timetable display, details include:

• Duesseldorf-Cancun: Suspend twice weekly service from 23-Sep-2017;
• Duesseldorf-Curacao: Suspend weekly service from 19-Sep-2017;
• Duesseldorf-Havana: Suspend twice weekly service from 23-Sep-2017;
• Duesseldorf-Puerto Plata: Suspend twice weekly service from 21-Sep-2017;
• Duesseldorf-Punta Cana: Suspend three times weekly service;
• Duesseldorf-Varadero: Suspend twice weekly service from 22-Sep-2017.

airberlin plans to reimburse any tickets on the sectors purchased after the filing for insolvency proceedings on 15-Aug-2017. Tickets that were issued before the filing for insolvency proceedings will not be reimbursed due to insolvency law regulations. [more - original PR - English/German]

Qantas senior executive VP the Americas, New Zealand, Pacific Islands & Japan Stephen Thompson, speaking at CAPA's 2017 Latin America Aviation Summit, stated (11-Sep-2017) the airline is hopeful its proposed JV with oneworld partner American Airlines will get approval. "Right from day one it made a lot of sense", said Mr Thompson. US authorities rejected the proposed tie-up in late 2016, citing concerns about the combined market share in the US-Australia market. Qantas and American are ensuring they explain all of the consumer benefits of the proposed partnership, Mr Thompson explained.

Emirates president Tim Clark said the airline is considering adding 'budget economy' and 'economy plus' tiers to its standard economy product, with the 'budget' version offering lower fares, narrower seats and fewer features than standard economy (Skift, 08-Sep-2017). Sir Tim said: "There is a whole stream of new market segments coming in that are budget conscious" and added: "I think we can adapt what we do to be able to accommodate not all of it, but some of it". Sir Tim stated: "We have some very big airplanes. We have the capability of slicing and dicing our product offering, and technology allows us to put in all processes to make that work. Is it doable? It's doable now - if I wanted to".

Saudia is among the state owned companies being considered for privatisation under the Saudi Government's 'Vision 2030' economic diversification programme, according to the National Centre for Privatisation (NCP) (Arab News, 09-Sep-2017). The privatisation programme is expected to increase the private sector's contribution to GDP from 40% to 65% over several years. NCP director general strategic communication and marketing Hani Alsaigh said: "The NCP is working hard with other partners to oversee the efficient and strategic transfer of the Kingdom's government assets to the private sector".

ACI EUROPE DG Olivier Jankovec stated (Sep-2017) there is a "paradox" in European airport regulation, concerning State aid rules and airport charges. He said if the Commission considers that State aid should be ruled out for airports with more than five million passengers p/a because these airports compete with each other, then "why would these same airports need to be systematically regulated ex-ante when it comes to their charges?". He said: "The current evaluation of the EU Airport Charges Directive should certainly look at addressing this paradox". [more - original PR]

ACI EUROPE DG Olivier Jankovec stated (Sep-2017) airlines "routinely" call on airports of all sizes to "make their best offers" for the launch of new routes. Mr Jankovec said a "major airline" believes the calls "give all of the airports in our network the opportunity to secure the best outcome" from their route planning. Mr Jankovec criticised the scheme, stating: "This is clearly nothing more than airport competition at play, orchestrated by powerful, dominant and profitable European airlines". Citing route liberalisation and airport privatisation, Mr Jankovec emphasised competition between European airports continues to grow. He reported that major European airports compete for point-to-point and transfer traffic "in order to expand both their route/airline portfolio and reduce their dependence on established hub carriers", while small regional airports "have also become accustomed to market pressures, as they compete for no-frills and regional services". [more - original PR]

Pegasus Airlines CCO Guliz Ozturk stated (08-Sep-2017) the carrier's focus on CASK, cash and capacity contributed to recovery in 2017. Ms Ozturk said: "With a focus on our 3Cs business strategy this year to streamline Cask, Cash and Capacity we have been able to weather the market conditions and remain as Turkey's fastest growing airline. A strong domestic market in Turkey and growing traffic from all the regions we connect via our hub and spoke model... has meant we're on track to meet and exceed the targets for 2017". [more - original PR]

CAPA - Centre for Aviation, in a report entitled: 'Qantas' New York & London nonstops need long range aircraft, but secret ingredient is Qantas' brand', stated (10-Sep-2017) domestic strength and brand are key considerations for Qantas as it looks to ultra long-haul operations. While it will be a technical achievement for Airbus and Boeing to engineer variants of their A350 and 777X to allow service from Australia's east coast to London and New York, the real accomplishment will be for these services to achieve commercial sustainability. With the right aircraft, Qantas has a promising recipe of brand, loyalty and a home domestic market to create a customer loyalty base that should support the new services. [more - CAPA Analysis]

Court of Justice of the European Union ruled (07-Sep-2017) on compensation payable to passengers in the event of cancellation or long delay of a connecting service. The Court stated compensation "must be calculated according to the radial distance between the departure and arrival airports". The Court stated the fact that the distance actually covered by such a flight is, as a result of the connection, greater than the distance between the departure and arrival airports has no impact on the calculation of compensation. The Court considers that the nature of the flight (direct flight or connecting flight) has no impact on the extent of the inconvenience suffered by the passengers. [more - original PR]