Air Canada - Never Fair....

(Credit: Senohrabek via Shutterstock)

We’re still fresh into a new year, which makes this an excellent time to join us here in the 21st century. Welcome to it, Air Canada!

In a speedy reversal after a very public episode of Twitter shaming, the airline hinted this week it would now amend its policy on allowing spouses to transfer travel vouchers to each other. Going forward, even married people who don’t share a last name might be able to get in on the voucher transfer. Even them. The enlightenment stems from what happened when Calgary author Chris Turner had a ticket voucher for a flight to New York that he wanted to give to his wife, photographer Ashley Bristowe. He politely tweeted, “Hey @AirCanada — your (very helpful) phone rep tells me I can’t transfer a voucher to my wife pre-flight BECAUSE SHE KEPT HER NAME. Really?” The airline responded, “Hi Chris, vouchers can only be transferred to another family member before travel if they have the same family name” and explained, “This is to prevent fraudulent activity while using vouchers.”

Wanting to prevent fraud is understandable, and Air Canada did note that “Our travel vouchers are transferable, but when cust. wishes to exchange with someone who has a different last name the request is handled post travel with our refund department due to past cases of fraud.” In other words, Turner could transfer his ticket; he’d just have to purchase a $400 ticket for his wife first, and then apply for a refund.

Having a selectively inconvenient system at the expense of one type of family isn’t the brightest institutional policy. It especially doesn’t even make sense for a Canadian business – as Twitter users pointed out, under Quebec law, both men and women keep their birth names after marriage, and they have since 1981. Further highlighting the absurdity of the policy, Turner’s wife observed that “Turner can transfer the voucher to our NEIGHBOUR Kelly who has the same last name, but not his WIFE. Gotcha.”  Meanwhile, as other Twitter onlookers added, married same-sex couples who don’t share a same last name would also be excluded by the airline’s “anti fraud” measures.

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Air Canada continue to upset passengers.

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Turner himself kept at the airline about it, repeatedly noting the professionalism and courtesy of the staff but asking, “You can see how this institutionalizes a lower quality of service to women who kept their maiden names, though, yes?” And WestJet promptly jumped opportunistically into the fray, alerting would-be travelers that “Credits with us are transferable to anyone of your choosing.” 

Soon, the airline was promising to make an exception for Turner and his wife, but Turner told the Star, “It doesn’t change the fact that they are offering an inferior level of service on the basis of the fact that my wife didn’t change her name … They’d dealt with it before, they knew that people found it kind of ridiculous and outrageous — and hadn’t done anything, as far as I could tell anyway, to change it.” But the power of #SurnameGate, as it will forever be known in the annals of Twitter disputes, had not finished working its magic. On Wednesday, Turner tweeted that in addition to making an exception for his family, “they’re planning on changing the policy …replacing the voucher system with another.” 

A vast majority of women still shed their maiden names when they wed, and fewer women are keeping their names now than a generation ago. The negative perceptions around women who retain their names persist – when my family bought a home in 2006, our realtor said we would face opposition from the co-op board because my spouse and I had different names. In New York City. In 2006. A 2009 study revealed a stunning 71 percent of respondents favored women taking their husband’s names.

Yet it’s a big, bright new world of options out there. Being married no longer means just a woman pledging herself to a man and becoming somebody’s missus. For professional and personal reasons, believe it or not, some of them retain their names. Men, meanwhile, marry men, and women marry women, and names don’t always follow a clear-cut protocol. Spouses have different last names from each other; kids have different last names from their parents. For an airline to not get it might seem like a little thing – a small inconvenience – but it’s not. Turner’s fight for his right to transfer his travel voucher was about recognition. It was about respect. It was about acknowledging that you shouldn’t be forced to jump through an extra set of hoops because of your name. Family is not defined by nomenclature – and you can’t be a business, in this day and age, with a family policy if you don’t understand what family means today. You can’t have a set of rules that apply to one kind of family and not others. Well, you can, but you’ll be challenged and, worse, laughed at in public for it. And then maybe if you’re smart, you’ll have to change.

Ryanair Finds Being Nices Wins

For many tourists who've experienced the more brusque side of flying with Ryanair - huge fees for printing off boarding passes, for example, it may well be too little too late.

However, Ryanair would beg to differ; the airline has connected a leap of 4 per cent year on year for passenger figures in December directly to its new softer approach to customer service. 

Gently does it: Ryanair has toned down its previously brash website

The carrier flew 4.8million passengers in December 2012 rising to 5million for the same month in 2013. In total, Ryanair carried 81.4million flyers last year.

Ryanair’s Robin Kiely said: 'Ryanair carried a new record of over 5m customers in December, thanks to the success of our lower fares, easier-to-use website and customer service improvements.

Further service improvements are due to be rolled out over the coming weeks and months as Ryanair  continues to lower prices and improve our industry leading customer service in 2014.'

Flying high: The airline saw a 4% increase in passengers in December 2013

The budget airline, which was recently voted worst brand for customer service by Which? magazine readers, has revamped its website to make it more transparent.

The site, which used to be a garish affair with its bright yellow and blue design, has been simplified to a more corporate-looking blue-and-white colour scheme with customers able to book a flight using less than half the number of clicks previously needed.

The company has also improved the booking process by eliminating many of the options that customers have to manually decline, including priority boarding, car hire and airport transfers.

At its worst, the website would automatically sign customers up to eight extra paid-for services which they had to opt out of and it would take around 17 clicks to book a flight. Now it takes just five.

CEO Michael O'Leary last year apologised to shareholders and admitted that the airline should 'try to eliminate things that unnecessarily p*** people off'.

The latest figures will be a relief for the carrier, which issued its second profit warning in two months last November, a move which caused an 11.5 per cent drop in share prices.

New Wake Up Call For Poilots

Under new rules, scheduling must factor in flights when pilots report for work late at night or early in the morning, because of possible fatigue. Associated Press

U.S. passenger airlines are bracing for the start of new federal regulations on Saturday that will guarantee their pilots more rest time and restrict the hours they can put in behind the cockpit controls.

The new regulations are the biggest rewrite of pilot flight, duty and rest rules since the advent of the jet age. Airlines, which have prepared for nearly two years, say they hope the changes don't force new delays or cancellations. But some in the industry fear the tighter limits will exacerbate disruptions that already occur for reasons like bad weather.

"Delays incurred tomorrow will have an even greater impact than today," Marisa Von Wieding, JetBlue Airways Corp, vice president of systems operations control, wrote in a memo to pilots this week. "Everything we know about planning for and operating in winter storms, de-ice events, spring thunderstorms, summer rolling [air-traffic control delay] programs and hurricane season will change on some level."

The Federal Aviation Administration's rules for the first time demand that scheduling factor in when pilots report for work late at night or early in the morning, because such flying inherently is more fatiguing. Schedules also will depend on how many takeoffs and landings are included, and whether pilots have changed one or more time zones before reporting for duty. And airlines will need to more rigorously ensure that pilots have uninterrupted rest time before flights.

In preparation, airlines have added pilots, expanded rosters of reserve pilots on call to fill vacancies in the schedule, and revamped computer programs for pilot scheduling and crew tracking.

United Continental Holdings Inc. said it is hiring 60 to 100 pilots a month to prepare for the new duty rules and to cope with an increase in retirements. It plans to establish a desk devoted to the rest rules in its network operations center during storms and other irregular operations. All of its nearly 12,000 pilots have received training on the new regulations.

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Which? Airline Report - Aurigny Scoops Top Acalaid

A new survey by Which? has revealed the best and worst airlines to fly with and a little-known airline has beaten the big names to win the top spot in the short-haul category.

Guernsey-based Aurigny Air Services was awarded four stars for things like boarding process, legroom and punctuality.

Flying high: Aurigny Air Services scored an impressive 87 per cent overall

The company has been operating flights since 1968 and flies passengers from Bristol, Manchester, East Midlands, Southampton, London Gatwick and Stansted to Guernsey, Jersey and Alderney.

It scored an impressive 87 per cent overall thanks to perks such as the fact that a 20kg hold luggage allowance is included in the ticket price and its in-flight service includes complimentary soft drinks.

Swiss International Air Lines (82 per cent), Norwegian Air Shuttle ASA (79 per cent) and Turkish Airlines (75 per cent) completed the top four in the consumer watchdog’s poll.

 

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Pilot Deliberately Crashed Aircraft

The pilot of a Mozambique Airlines flight that crashed killing all 33 people onboard brought it down deliberately, aviation officials said.

Flight recorders showed flight TM470 went down on November 29 while Captain Herminio dos Santos Fernandes manipulated the autopilot in a way which “denotes a clear intention” to bring the plane down, said Mozambican Civil Aviation Institute (IACM) head Joao Abreu.

The plane was heading for Angola, but went down in torrential rains in the swamps of Namibia’s Bwabwata National Park on November 29, killing its six crew and 27 passengers, including 10 Mozambican, nine Angolans, five Portuguese, and one citizen each from France, Brazil and China

Mr Abreu told a news conference that Dos Santos Fernandes locked himself inside the cockpit, ignored warning signals and did not allow his co-pilot back in moments before the Embraer 190 hit the ground.

“During these actions you can hear low and high-intensity alarm signals and repeated beating against the door with demands to come into the cockpit,” he said.

Indonesian Official Blocks Runaway After Airline Refuses To Sell Him A Seat!

An outraged Indonesian official ordered the runway blocked to prevent a Merpati Nusantara from landing after the airline refused to sell him a ticket.

An Indonesian district chief got revenge on an airline that refused to let him board a full flight by sending officials to block the runway and stop the plane landing, authorities said Monday.
Marianus Sae, head of Ngada district in the eastern island of Flores, wanted to get home quickly to Ngada from the city of Kupang on Timor island so that he could attend a meeting.
But state-owned Merpati Nusantara airlines refused to sell him a ticket for a flight to Turelelo Soa airport early on Saturday because it was full.
"It is outrageous," Sae was quoted as saying by the Jakarta Globe newspaper.
"I begged for a ticket for five hours to fly to Ngada and their answer was: 'The flight is full'."
In an act of revenge, the infuriated district chief ordered public order officers -- who have more limited powers than police and come under the authority of local governments -- to drive cars onto the runway and stop the plane landing, media reports said.
The handful of staff at the airport could not stop the blockade and the airport remained shut for several hours, officials said.
Merpati spokesman Riswanto Chendra Putra confirmed the plane was forced to turn back due to the blockade.
However he added that two of the plane's 56 seats had become available at the last minute -- but by then Sae had already bought a ticket to travel with another airline.
Transport ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan said the district chief had "tarnished the reputation of the aviation industry".
But he said the ministry had no plans to take legal action, adding such matters were the responsibility of the police.

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Etihad's Global Reach Expands

Etihad CEO James Hogan, right, shakes hands with Darwin Airlines chief Maurizio Merlo after signing a deal. Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

Abu Dhabi's Etihad Airways PJSC is attempting a feat that many airlines have tried and none has managed to achieve: building a global travel network through investments in foreign carriers.

Etihad has snapped up stakes in seven airlines from Australia to Ireland over the past two years. It is currently assessing whether to invest in Italy's troubled Alitalia SpA, according to people familiar with the talks. Etihad's goal is to quickly boost traffic and cut costs on its own network without buying hundreds of planes and expanding globally, company officials say.

European airlines including British Airways and Scandinavia's SAS AB tried similar expansions in the 1990s but later exited their unsuccessful investments. Swissair gobbled up European airlines, then collapsed under the weight of its deals and was liquidated in 2001. Last year, Singapore Airlines Ltd. sold its 49% stake in Britain's Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd. at a loss after a 14-year partnership.

Etihad Chief Executive James Hogan insists his approach is different. "What we are doing is investing in airlines with strong management," Mr. Hogan said. "We expect them to run their own business model, and we will achieve the top-line and bottom-line benefits."

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Those investments cross the spectrum. Etihad recently took a 24% stake in Jet Airways (India) Ltd.  one of the biggest airlines in the Indian market, and in 2011 bought 29.2% of Air Berlin Inc. Germany's No. 2 airline.

It also holds 3% of Aer Lingus Group PLC, the national airline of Ireland. Last month it bought 33.3% of Swiss regional carrier Darwin Airline and announced plans to rebrand it as Etihad Regional, the first time it has put its name on an investment. At least two of its investments, in Air Seychelles and Air Serbia, were initiated by the Abu Dhabi government, company officials say.

Thanks in part to its airline investments, state-owned Etihad carried 8.6 million passengers through September this year, up from 7.6 million in the same period last year. In the third quarter, partnerships provided 23% of passenger revenue, or $247 million, Etihad said. Its revenue rose to $4.8 billion last year, from $2.5 billion in 2008. It doesn't release profit figures or audited financial results.

The newest and smallest of the Persian Gulf's three global players, Etihad is playing catch-up. Emirates Airline of Dubai has nearly 20 years on Etihad and is larger. Qatar Airways is also bigger.

Mr. Hogan's acquisitions differentiate Etihad's expansion strategy from those of Emirates, which is building the world's largest fleet of giant jetliners and aims to serve almost every large city around the globe, and Qatar Airways, which is linking to foreign carriers through membership in the Oneworld airline marketing alliance.

"This is a smarter way in my opinion of building the network," Mr. Hogan said. He described the method as "working with like-minded carriers, covering countries and regions where we would never have the depth to cover their domestic network."

Mr. Hogan said one of the big benefits of Etihad's approach is greater scale in joint purchasing of planes and spare parts, training and maintenance services. With Air Berlin, for example, Mr. Hogan said Etihad has made back its $95 million investment through savings and increased passenger traffic.

"We do a lot together in procurement," said Aer Lingus Chief Executive Christoph Mueller, who said cooperation is expanding from basics to engines, planes and information-technology systems.

John McCullogh, who ran the Oneworld alliance for eight years until 2011, said Etihad's alliance has "a strong chance of working" because the carriers involved "can cherry pick what actually works and ignore the rest." Mr. McCullough, now a senior principal at aviation investment bank Seabury Group, said his alliance days involved "countless wasted hours trying to bring simple concepts of cooperation to fruition" when members' priorities varied. The benefit of aligned interests among CEOs in Etihad's group "cannot be underestimated," he said.

Others are less optimistic. Hubert Horan, who worked at Swissair before it collapsed and previously in other airline alliances, said he sees "no coherent pattern" in Etihad's investments.

From afar, he said, "it's unclear if Etihad is pursuing a similar expand-through-deals strategy, or whether these are all opportunistic moves to solve short-term tactical issues" like entering a market.

Mr. Hogan countered that Swissair's strategy "was totally flawed" and rejects the comparison. "They tried to pan-Europeanize the management group," while Etihad is focused on intercontinental operations, he said. Limiting Etihad's deals to minority stakes also reduces its financial exposure, which Swissair failed to do, he added.

Skeptics note that Etihad's strategy follows Abu Dhabi's political priorities. The oil-rich desert state aims to diversify its economy away from hydrocarbons into sectors such as manufacturing, aviation, tourism and agriculture. Etihad is a promotional vehicle and occasionally a foreign policy tool.

After Abu Dhabi contributed more than $100 million in aid in the Seychelles, Etihad bought a 40% stake in the island nation's carrier for $20 million. In Serbia, Abu Dhabi also has invested in a range of businesses as part of a Western-backed effort to integrate the once war-torn country in the global economy. In October, Etihad bought 49% of Air Serbia for $40 million.

Etihad executives said government officials introduced the airlines but Mr. Hogan says his strategy is commercial.

"If an opportunity like Seychelles or Serbia appears, and we're asked to look at it, we look at it," said Mr. Hogan. "Unless it makes sense commercially, we don't step into it."

The Least Safe Aircraft......

The website AirlineRatings.com urged travellers to steer clear of four models in particular - the LET410, the Antonov AN-12, the Ilyushin Il-76, and the CASA C-212.

The LET410, for example, has been involved in at least 20 fatal crashes since 2003, according to its research, while the Ilyushin Il-76 and the Antonov AN-12 have each been involved in 17.

The LET410 – introduced in 1970 – is still used by around a dozen airlines, including four in Brazil, three in Honduras, two in the Philippines, two in Russia, and two in Hungary. Citywing, based in the Isle of Man, also uses four LET410s, leased from the Czech carrier Van Air Europe.

The Antonov AN-12 is currently used by Egyptair, Iraqi Airways, and Russia's Aeroflot, among others.

Not So 'Happy Christmas' For Brindabella Staff

A Brindabella Airlines plane at Sydney Airport. Photograph: AAP/James Morgan, Ian Bird

Nearly all staff at troubled regional carrier Brindabella Airlines have been told they're out of a job just two days before Christmas.

The 140 workers at the Canberra-based airline were told on Monday that 128 of them had lost their jobs.

Staff were told the airline could no longer be sold after it lost most of its licences and the majority of its planes were returned to their owners.

All but a dozen staff at the cash-strapped airline will be retrenched, as the receiver, KordaMentha, tries to sell the company's remaining assets, mainly four J-41 aircraft.

A KordaMentha spokesman, Michael Smith, said the receivers did not want to dangle false hope in front of the workers once it became clear there wasn't anything left to sell.

"It's a terrible time of year for this to happen," he said on Monday. "But the receivers thought it was better to be upfront with the workers as soon as the worst had been realised, to give them every possible chance to use the holiday period to look for work."

First UK Airline To Apply New Rules on Electronic Devices.

Small electronic devices, including tablets, smartphones and e-readers, can now be used on British Airways flights during take off and landing. Photograph: High Level/Rex Features

Last week, British Airways  become the first UK airline to take advantage of the new European rules allowing in-flight use of electronic devices during all phases of flight.

The agreement with the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), which lifted previous restrictions after an European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) ruling in November, allows passengers on BA flights to use their phones, tablets, e-readers and music players set to “airplane mode” throughout their entire journey, including take off and landing.

“We know that our customers want to use their handheld electronic devices more, so this will be very welcome news for them," said BA flight training manager Captain Ian Pringle.

Russian Airline Grounded

A Tatarstan Airlines Boeing 737 crashed and exploded at the airport in the Tatarstan region's capital Kazan last month, killing all 44 passengers  Photo: AP

By Reuters

Russia's airline regulator said it was grounding the regional carrier last week following a crash on November 17 that killed 50 people.

A Tatarstan Airlines Boeing 737 crashed and exploded at the airport in the Tatarstan region's capital Kazan last month, killing all 44 passengers - including a son of the oil-producing Russia province's leader - and six crew.

The crash highlighted the poor safety record of regional airlines that ply internal routes in Russia.

The regulator Rosaviatsia said it will cancel the airline's license from December 31 after inspections revealed "violations in established flight norms, working hours and rest periods for the flight crew and qualification standards of the crew."

UK Air Traffic Control - Problem Fixed After Day Of Mass Disruption

Technical problems that caused delays and cancellations at airports across the UK and Ireland have been resolved, the National Air Traffic Service (Nats) has said.

Airline passengers suffered a day of delays and frustration as a telephone system glitch at air traffic control caused major disruption. Hundreds of flights were cancelled or delayed after the problem arose at the Nats centre in Swanwick, Hampshire. Thousands of people were caught up in the chaos, which hit major airports including Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick. Passengers are also expected to be affected as knock-on effects hit flights on Sunday.

Nats' night-time operating system, which combines sectors of airspace for when it is less busy, did not properly switch over to the daytime system, causing a communication problem with the centre's internal telephones. They stressed that safety was not at risk at any time. At 7.30pm tonight, a Nats spokesman said: "The problem that arose this morning with the ground communications system in the area control operations room at Nats Swanwick has now been resolved and operations are returning to normal.

"The technical and operational contingency measures we have had in place all day have enabled us to deliver more than 80% of our normal operation. "The reduction in capacity has had a disproportionate effect on southern England because it is extremely complex and busy airspace and we sincerely regret inconvenience to our airline customers and their passengers.

Jetstar to blame for Qantas Troubles.

Qantas staff have reacted angrily to news the company will shed 1000 jobs, blaming the company's heavy investment in Jetstar for redundancies they first heard about in the media.

Australia's national carrier today announced it would axe at least 1000 jobs over the next year and warned that it would slump to a loss of up to $300 million in the first half, blaming a market deterioration in trading conditions and weaker return on fares.

If you ask the majority of the staff they’ll say Jetstar has ruined us. They’ve bled us dry. 

‘‘The first I heard of it was on the radio,’’ one Qantas international engineer told Fairfax Media on Thursday. ‘‘I’ve got a gut feeling it’s not good for us. Engineers will definitely be asked to go.’’

Qantas. Photo: Getty Images

Qantas Junk

Qantas has struggled domestically and on long-haul air routes

Qantas woe's just keep on coming.

The credit standing of embattled Australian airline Qantas has been downgraded by a leading rating agency to "junk" status.  Standard & Poor's reassessment of the world's second oldest airline comes after the carrier issued a shock profit warning and slashed jobs on Thursday.   Qantas revealed a half-year loss of £165m and said it would axe 1,000 jobs as it struggles under the weight of record fuel costs, fierce competition from subsidised rivals and a strong Australian dollar.

Wideroe Sale Complete

SAS Scandinavian Airlines has completed the previously announced sale of 80% of regional carrier Widerøe to a Norwegian investor group, netting about SEK2 billion ($311 million), which includes aircraft-related transactions. The investor group comprises Torghatten ASA, Fjord1 AS and Nordland Fylkeskommune.

The sale, which was announced in May, is part of the carrier’s survival strategy.

SAS Group president and CEO Rickard Gustafson said recently the carrier had to make “some big movements and steps” during the restructuring process. “The sale of Widerøe was one of these.”

The proceeds from the transaction are expected to reduce SAS’ net debt by a corresponding amount, the airline said in a statement.

Approximately half of the proceeds will strengthen SAS’ cash and cash equivalent position. In addition, the transaction will reduce the previously announced negative effect on SAS shareholders’ equity from amended reporting rules for pensions by approximately SEK1 billion.

SAS will divest the remaining shares in Widerøe during 2016.