In The News...
The Association of European Airlines says the
European air transport industry has lost 95,000
jobs in the past year as a result of the global economic recession. AEA Chairman and CEO of
Croatia Airlines Dr. Ivan Misetic said his members will
post a collective operating loss of $4.3 billion in
2009 - 50 percent higher than in 2001 following the U.S. World Trade Center bombing. “The
dimensions of this downturn are unprecedented,”
he said. “In the past 35 years we have not seen
such devastation of value. And we will not return
to ‘normal’ again; the consumers are changing
their expectations, and this will continue.” Commenting on the increase in expenses outside the
airlines’ control he noted, “We have been ripped
off for years and the airports and air navigation
service providers, still acting as uncontrolled monopolists in our competitive market, continue to
push up their prices. He added, ‘We do not believe
that the EU Commission fully realizes the importance of the mobility that the AEA network airlines
bring to the EU economy, its cohesion and its administration. No other aviation model can replicate
the connectivity that the network airlines deliver,
linking all parts of the Community, internally and
externally with the rest of the world.”...UPS has
become the latest member of the Transported
Asset Protection Association (TAPA). Other
new members this year include Electrolux, Procter & Gamble, Samsung Electronics and Sony
Ericsson. According to the European Union, the
theft of high value, high risk products moving in
supply chains in Europe costs businesses in excess
of $12.25 billion a year. TAPA EMEA members
reported 525 incidents of crime with a total loss
value of € 12. 2 million during the second quarter
of 2009. TAPA unites global manufacturers, logistics providers, freight carriers, law enforcement
agencies, and other stakeholders with the common aim of reducing losses from international
supply chains...Kuehne + Nagel has retained its
place on the latest A. T. Kearney Top 25 Global
Champions survey. In 23rd place, it is the only
logistics company on the list. The 25 “
Champions” were picked from the world’s 2,500 largest
companies operating internationally. The winners
outperformed their peers during the five years
that ended with the financial crisis last year with
nearly 15 percent annual growth between 2004
and 2008. In the same period, the average for the
entire sample was an eight percent loss. To identify the Top 25, A. T. Kearney considered companies
with 2008 sales greater than $10 billion and at
“We do not believe that
the EU Commission fully
realizes the importance of
the mobility that the AEA
network airlines bring to
the EU economy.”
least 25 percent of sales derived from outside their
home region. In addition to having positive value
growth, the companies on the list also had above
average (median) sales growth...Finnair said “the
bottom has been reached” as its cargo traffic
grew more than one percent overall in September
compared with the previous year. Meanwhile the
Association of European Airlines (AEA) said
August traffic was “another negative figure” and
September will be worse. AEA Secretary General
Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus declared, “Now we are
well into the second full year of this downturn,
year-on-year growth figures are much less useful
in telling us how things are going. If we compare
where we are now with where we would have
been if the crisis had not intervened, the AEA
airlines are transporting, on aggregate, about
four million passengers less per month, and that
is a figure which is simply not getting any better right now.” The AEA wants the EU to continue
the Summer slot waiver for the Winter period to
allow airlines to trim capacity and save costs without losing airport access. Schulte-Strathaus noted
that the Polish move demonstrates the need for a
Single European Sky, “The navigation service providers know that change is coming and the more
enlightened ones are already starting to thing
along commercial and customer-oriented lines. It
is unfortunate that others, such as PANSA, cling
to outmoded and discredited practices.”... Bri-
AFRICA
AMERICAS
tish Airways CEO Willie Walsh said merger talks
with Madrid-based Iberia Airlines could lead to an
announcement “in the weeks ahead” about an
deal between the two members of the oneworld
alliance, according to a U.S. press report. During
an International Aviation Club gathering in
Washington, Walsh said a merger would be “a
good step forward” and also signaled the carrier’s
interest in British Midlands (bmi), according to
the report. Walsh said BA is “clearly interested” in
acquiring part or all of bmi if Lufthansa chooses
to sell it, according to the press report. Deutsche
Lufthansa AG, which completed its acquisition
of Austrian Airlines this summer, has basically
put bmi up for auction. Walsh also called for parity
among transatlantic global alliances by granting
the oneworld alliance the anti-trust immunity that
its rival Star and Skyteam alliances enjoy. The US
Department of Transportation is expected to
rule on the oneworld antitrust immunity application by the end of October...As Lufthansa Cargo
awaits a final ruling on night-time flying at Frankfurt, it is expanding services at Leipzig-Halle
airport with Hamburg-based Otto Group, the
largest mail order group in the world. In August
the airline began handling all inbound shipments
for Hermes Transport Logistics a wholly owned
subsidiary of the Otto Group. Lufthansa is also
managing distribution to the company’s centralized logistics center in Haldensleben, some 90
miles from Leipzig. Next year the Aerologic joint
venture with DHL will provide sufficient capacity
for direct flights from Asia to Leipzig rather than
trucking from Frankfurt. The Otto Group imports
14,000 tonnes of airfreight into Germany annually. Founded in 1949, the Otto Group employs
50,000 people in 20 countries. Otto Group revenue for the fiscal year ending in February 2009
was $15 billion. It is second only to Amazon.com
as the world’s largest BtC online trader... ACW
