Aviation with Style

Singapore Airlines (SIA) has established a “transformation office” to conduct a review of the business after reporting a near halving of full year net profit for fiscal 2017. The airline group posted net profit for the 12 months to March 31 2017 of S$441.9 million (A$427.1 million), down 48.1 per cent from S$851.8 million in the prior corresponding period. The full year result was hurt by a fourth quarter loss of S$126 million, compared with net profit of S$234 million a year earlier. “ Intense competition arising from excess capacity in major markets, alongside geopolitical and economic uncertainty, continue to exert pressure on yields ,” SIA said in its full year results released on the Singapore stock exchange on Thursday evening. Singapore Airlines, and others, have battled the rapid international expansion of Chinese airlines and the ongoing rise of Middle East carriers offering long-haul to long-haul connections through their hubs, which have bitten into previously lu...

A TIGERAIR flight narrowly avoided overrunning the runway at Cairns Airport after receiving clearance for takeoff from an intersection that was 403-metres short of where it needed to be. An Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigation released today, revealed the A320’s captain was distracted by another aircraft and the cabin crew’s pre-flight preparations in the January 21 incident. As a result the Brisbane-bound flight, taxied to intersection B4 instead of B5, as it awaited clearance for takeoff. Air Traffic Controllers issued the clearance, but then quickly advised the captain the plane was at the wrong intersection. The ATSB investigation found if the A320 had left from the B4 intersection, a rejected takeoff would have resulted in a potentially disastrous runway overrun. In the US, runway overruns contributed to 680 fatalities between 1995 and 2007. After the flight the captain contacted the ATC tower to thank the controller for intervening. The...

An Asian airline that serves the UAE market is implementing some job cuts that will affect at least 600 personnel in its main headquarters .   The move, said to be the biggest staff shake-up at the Hong Kong flag carrier in nearly 20 years, followed after the company announced that it had incurred some $74 million in financial losses for 2016, the first since the global recession. “ We have had to make tough but necessary decisions for the future of our business and customers. Changes in people’s travel habits and what they expect from us, evolving competition and a challenging business outlook have created the need for significant change ,” said Rupert Hogg, chief executive officer at Cathay Pacific. The major restructuring will displace 190 employees holding managerial roles and 400 more who are holding non-managerial positions. The staff cuts represent 25 per cent of management and 18 per ccent of non-managerial positions, respectively. The airline assured, however, ...

Gold smuggling racketeers have once again commenced using Flight Attendants of   SriLankan Airlines   as mules to smuggle gold into the country. A 27 year old former Mihin Lanka Flight Steward Meewala Arachchige Chanuka, who recently joined SriLankan Airlines after the airlines merged, confessed to Custom Officers when he was apprehended a few days ago, that he was promised a sum of Rs 40, 000 for carrying the 6.5 kilo grams of gold valued at Rs 35 million. This reported apprehension is now been taken very seriously by Customs Officers as in the past certain Flight Attendants of the national carrier were used as mules to assist gold smugglers in various ways to traffic gold into the country. The smuggling syndicates had previously roped in many staff by offering then hefty sums as rewards, especially those that had access to the aircraft. Several staff including Flight Attendants, Catering staff, Cleaning staff and the ramp Bus Drivers were all part of a mafia sty...

Air Transat, Icelandair and Norwegian Air Shuttle are the least punctual airlines in Britain, research from Which? has found. The consumer group analysed landing times for 850,000 flights at 25 UK airports and found that on average only 75% of all flights arrived on time. Dutch airline KLM was the most punctual carrier, followed by Qatar Airways. Air Transat was the most tardy, with only 55% of flights landing within 15 minutes of their planned arrival time. Icelandair and Norwegian were not much better, with on-time performance rates of 56% and 60%, respectively. A spokesperson for Montreal-based Air Transat said it was not wholly responsible for its low punctuality ranking. "The statistics in this report do not take into account the delays caused by factors beyond our control such as weather and air traffic control. "When these factors are excluded, our punctuality rate is in fact 78%." Icelandair also blamed issues such as air traffic strikes as we...