Air New Zealand

Sydney Airport divides terminals along alliance lines but risks alienating new carriers

Sydney Airport will narrow its competitive disadvantage of having separate domestic and international terminals with a plan to split its terminals by 2019 into two alliance-based precincts: one for Qantas and its partners and one for Virgin Australia and its partners. The two groupings will account for 81% of all movements. Leftover international carriers will in most cases use the Virgin terminal while a plan is underway to address leftover domestic and regional airlines, notably Tiger Airways and Regional Express. While the plan may placate the two big airline groupings in Australia, Sydney airport may face a shortfall of placement options for new carriers looking to offer their passengers onward domestic connections.

Sydney airport expects to formally begin stakeholder consulting with the aim of including the proposal in its 2014 master plan, which will be drafted in late 2013. Qantas and Virgin Australia, Sydney's two largest occupants based on movements and seats, have already given their support with the signing of a non-binding memorandum of understanding. The proposal will critically increase gates but not change slot restrictions, the airport's curfew or noise regulations.

Europe shut out as Jetstar uses 787s to open Asia and bring economics to existing network

Timing, they say, is everything. Jetstar's announcement that it will deploy the B787 Dreamliner on its Singapore-Auckland route comes as competitor Air New Zealand, the launch customer for the B787-9, is gearing up for a demonstration B787 to arrive in Auckland on 12-Nov-2011 for a high-profile visit. Competition is fair, but Jetstar's announcement could hardly be considered news since it has long been evident the budget off-shoot of Qantas will use the aircraft not to open new routes to Asia as previously planned but replace A330s on the carrier's few long-haul routes, which include Singapore-Auckland.

Virgin Australia responds to Qantas grounding; looking to bring in foreign aircraft domestically

Virgin Australia has quickly responded to the grounding of Qantas' mainline domestic and long-haul flights that went into affect at 5pm on 29-Oct-2011 in a bold move to make three of Qantas' unions settle ongoing wage and job security disputes.

In a nearly globally unprecedented occurrence, Virgin Australia is liaising with the Australian government to allow its alliance partners – Air New Zealand, Delta, Etihad and Singapore Airlines – to operate their foreign-registered aircraft domestically in Australia to help clear the impending backlog of Qantas customers. Qantas says it carrier 68,000 domestic and international passengers a day.

Qantas throws gauntlet to unions by grounding fleet and locking out union employees

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce has thrown down the gauntlet on union strikes by grounding 108 domestic and long-haul aircraft effective at 5pm on 29-Oct-2011.

"I'm taking an unbelievable decision to ground this airline," Mr Joyce said in Sydney. He says Qantas is forced to ground its fleet after locking out employees members of the ALAEA, TWU, and AIPA unions from 8pm 31-Oct-2011. These unions fly and maintain Qantas aircraft. "This is a very tense environment. Individual reactions to this lock-put may be unpredictable," Mr Joyce said at a press briefing in Sydney. Mr Joyce said the grounding, an extreme scare tactic, would go on for as long as it takes for unions come to terms – but expectations are the unions will quickly settle.

"This course of action has been forced upon us by the extreme and damaging course chosen by the leaders of the three unions. It is now over to them. The ball is in their court. They must decide just how badly they want to hurt Qantas," Mr Joyce said.

The remarkable step is almost unprecedented in Australian aviation history - the previous wholescale dispute, when Australia's pilots withdrew their services, occurred some 22 years ago, resulting in the closure of all large scale commercial operations for an extended period. At that time, military transport aircraft and foreign airlines were used to maintain a skeletal system in a dispute that lasted for weeks and resulted in almost a halving of the number of pilots eventually re-hired by the airlines.

A mixed day for Boeing: B787 Dreamliner inaugural but more delays and costs, to no surprise

The first revenue flight of the Boeing B787, onboard an All Nippon Airways (ANA) charter from Tokyo to Hong Kong on 26-Oct-2011, has become overshadowed by news on the same day of downward, but expected, announcements of further B787 and B747-8 delays and cost increases.

After ordering ATR72-600s, Air New Zealand looks for synergies with Virgin Australia

Having ordered, subject to contract finalisation, seven ATR72-600s with options on an additional five in order to fuel significant domestic regional expansion, Air New Zealand is now considering what synergies it can achieve with fellow ATR operator Virgin Australia, who it has a 20% stake in.

"We are the largest ATR operator in the region so it does give us the opportunity to clearly propose to other operators opportunities where they could leverage or benefit from our scale and infrastructure. We'll certainly be exploring those alongside ATR, who also has been very helpful in assisting to facilitate those conversations and relationships," ANZ CEO Rob Fyfe says in Auckland.