Archive for ‘Amsterdam’

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29/04/2020

Cathay Pacific looks to increase passenger flights in late June if coronavirus travel restrictions are eased

  • Carrier targets return of daily services to major Asian cities and more frequent long-haul services
  • Airline to monitor global situation and adjustments may be made ‘as necessary’
A Cathay Pacific employee stands near the check-in desks at a virtually deserted Hong Kong International Airport. Photo: Sam Tsang
A Cathay Pacific employee stands near the check-in desks at a virtually deserted Hong Kong International Airport. Photo: Sam Tsang
Cathay Pacific Airways has signalled its intent to start reversing its near-total grounding of aircraft because of the coronavirus pandemic, and plans to start increasing its number of passenger flights in the last week of June.
The airline said it hoped to add more long-haul destinations, make flights more frequent, and reinstate some major Asian cities to its daily schedule for the first time in several months, “subject to government travel restrictions”.
Cathay scaled its operations back to a skeleton schedule of 3 per cent of services in early April, and that was extended until June 20. The newly announced increases would take that up to 5 per cent.
The global airline industry has been rocked by the pandemic, which triggered a collapse in air travel demand amid severe travel restrictions and tough quarantine measures.
Tracking the massive impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the world’s airline industry in early 2020 Singapore Airlines, another of Asia’s major carriers, said last week it would maintain a 96 per cent reduction in flights until the end of June.
Cathay, which has 236 aircraft, currently operates long-haul flights to London Heathrow, Los Angeles, Vancouver and Sydney twice a week, but will increase that to five times a week.

On top of that, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, San Francisco and Melbourne are among the long-haul destinations set to return three times a week.

With regional routes currently operating three times a week, including Tokyo Narita, Taipei, Beijing and Singapore, Asian routes will increase to a daily service. Osaka and Seoul would also return to the network, too.

“We will continue to monitor the developing situation and further adjustments may be made as necessary,” the airline said.

Coronavirus: ban on non-residents leaves Hong Kong airport virtually deserted
Earlier this month, Cathay’s budget unit HK Express extended its total grounding until June 18, having been on hiatus since March 23.

Meanwhile, Boeing has added to warnings of a very slow recovery in air travel, with Dave Calhoun, its CEO, saying demand may not return to 2019 levels for two to three years.

Cathay Pacific’s daily passenger volume has collapsed from regular previous peaks of 100,000 to less than 1,000 in April. Over the past two months, the company has been running more than 250 extra pairs of cargo-only passenger flights to maintain air freight capacity, much of which is accounted for by passenger services.

In a bid to cut costs, most of the Cathay Pacific Group’s 34,200 staff have taken three weeks of unpaid leave. Also, 433 cabin crew in the US and Canada were told they would be laid off, while about 200 pilots in the UK, Australia have been furloughed.

The International Air Transport Association, which revised down pandemic-related revenue losses for the global sector to US$314 billion (HK$2.4 trillion) two weeks ago, said last week the Hong Kong aviation market would take a US$7.5 billion hit this year, a 27 per cent increase on the previous estimate. That equates to a 59 per cent decline in air travel demand, or a loss of almost 31 million passengers, in 2020.

BOCOM International, a financial services company, forecast in a report on Monday that the city’s aviation sector would lose HK$65.2 billion in revenue in 2020, yet Cathay Pacific could emerge as a winner if it survived largely unscathed, given the weakness of rivals at home and in the region plus its dominant position in Hong Kong.

“Hong Kong aviation is at the most critical juncture in its history. Though calamitous, Covid-19 is set to reshape Hong Kong’s aviation industry for the years, possibly decades, to come,” said transportation analyst Luya You.

“Covid-19’s sweeping blows now offer a blank slate for remaining players to regain lost leadership or gain new markets. If [Cathay Pacific] can survive intact from Covid, the carrier could enjoy winner-takes-all growth trajectory in the years following [2020].”

Source: SCMP

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13/04/2019

Jet Airways halts all international flights

Jet Airways planed parked at Chattrapati Shivaji International Airport in Mumbai on 25 March 2019Image copyrightGETTY IMAGES

Passengers are stranded in India and around the world after Jet Airways suspended all international flights.

Flights from London, Paris and Amsterdam are among those grounded amid fears about the survival of India’s largest private airline.

The airline cancelled all international flights until Monday when, according to reports, it will meet its lenders again to try to secure funding.

Jet Airways is saddled with more than $1bn (£765m) of debt.

It is seeking a financial lifeline to avoid collapse and, on Thursday, grounded 10 planes over unpaid fees to leasing firms .

These were the latest flights to be grounded and it was not clear how many of its fleet of more than 100 planes was still in operation. Local reports suggested that it was barely a dozen.

The airline flies on 600 domestic and 380 international routes – but carriers in India must maintain a fleet of least 20 aircraft to continue to operate international services.

From London, the airline initially confirmed it had cancelled its flights between London, Paris and Amsterdam and India for 12 April, but later said that all international flights would be cancelled between 12 and 15 April.

It said it “regrets the inconvenience caused” to its passengers and was “working to minimise guest inconvenience”.

“In parallel, the airline’s management and its key stakeholders including its consortium of lenders, continue to work closely towards resolving the current situation,” it said.

There was no statement about the status of domestic flights.

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Wedding party delay

Sandeep Kooner and her three children had been expecting to be on a flight from London to India on Friday evening to attend her niece’s wedding in Punjab.

But the 40 year-old who lives in Walsall will now miss the first few days of the week-long celebrations after her Jet Airways flight was cancelled.

“I had just sat down in the nail salon when I got a text message to say my flight had been cancelled,” she told the BBC.

She has now arranged to fly with Air India, but that will be days later and to Delhi – an eight hour drive to her destination – rather than a local one.

“I’m not 100% sure my problem is 100% sorted,” she says.

‘Necessary steps’

Television channels in India reported that the prime minister’s office had called for an urgent meeting to discuss the airline.

They also reported remarks by government officials saying Jet Airways only had funds to operate six to seven aircraft over the weekend.

India’s Aviation Minister, Suresh Prabhu, had tweeted that his ministry would “review issues related to Jet Airways” and “take necessary steps to minimise passenger inconvenience and ensure their safety”.

The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority said it was aware flights had been suspended.

Jet Airways owes money to employees and suppliers and in recent weeks it has grounded aircraft and cancelled thousands of flights as its financial strains worsened.

The pilots union in India is planning a protest on Saturday and has written to the airline demanding that employees are paid. Staff of the airline were pictured by Priyanka Iyer of Business Television India marching to the company’s headquarters in Mumbai.

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Rare intervention

By Sameer Hashmi, India business correspondent

In March, when the crisis at Jet Airways led to thousands of flights being cancelled, the government immediately stepped in and asked public sector banks to rescue the private carrier.

It was a rare move. With India holding a national election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government did not want the airline to be grounded as that would have affected 23,000 jobs.

The lenders which took control of the airline have only released a fraction of the amount they had promised so the airline has not been able to pay aircraft leasing companies. This means its fleet has shrunk further from the 100-plus it had at the start of the year.

The lenders have started accepting bids from potential investors, but that process will take a couple of months to complete. And many analysts fear that Jet Airways will not survive even a week if immediate cash is not provided to keep the operations running.

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Investment sought

The airline was founded by Naresh Goyal more than 25 years ago and he and his family currently own 52% of the airline, although that majority stake is expected to be lost as lenders’ restructure the debt.

A consortium of investors led by the State Bank of India (SBI) took control of the airline in March.

The group is searching for a new investor to acquire a stake of up to 75% in Jet Airways. The deadline for bids had been extended to Friday, according to reports.

Ellis Taylor, deputy Asia editor of Flight Global, told the BBC the airline was in a “precarious position”.

“The interim lifeline that the carrier talked about two weeks ago looks like it won’t materialise any time soon, and that really leaves its future looking bleak,” he said.

There were reports in local media that India’s aviation ministry might review the regulations setting the fleet cap, which could allow the airline to resume international services.

Source: The BBC

Posted in Air India, Amsterdam, aviation ministry, Business Television India, civil aviation authority, deputy Asia editor, Ellis Taylor, Flight Global, halts, India alert, India's Aviation Minister, international flights, Jet Airways, London, Naresh Goyal, Paris, pilots union, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Priyanka Iyer, Sandeep Kooner, State Bank of India (SBI), Suresh Prabhu, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

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