Royal Jordanian

As Royal Jordanian grows revenue and passengers but lags in profit, CEO Hussein Dabbas to depart

Royal Jordanian Airlines CEO Hussein Dabbas is on his way out of the Jordanian carrier after two and a half years in its top position. Mr Dabbas has led the Jordanian airline since Aug-2009 after spending more than 30 years at the carrier in various positions. He will leave Royal Jordanian at the end of Jun-2012, making way for “new ideas to develop the company”, the carrier said.

He will move to IATA as the industry body’s Middle East and North Africa representative. Mr Dabbas takes over from Dr Majdi Sabri, who will retire from IATA after the leading the association in the Middle East and North Africa region since 2001.

Abdul Rahman Al-Khatib will be the interim CEO while the company seeks a permanent replacement for Mr Dabbas.

British Airways plans two phases to bring bmi, and its London Heathrow slots, to profitability

International Airlines Group (IAG) is targeting winter 2012/13 as its first opportunity to fully incorporate the 42 daily London Heathrow slots it will acquire as part of its purchase of bmi from Lufthansa, now approved by regulators with only minor concessions. The initial integration will look to bring the predominantly short-haul bmi operation to breakeven by increasing seat capacity on each slot pair, making network changes and leveraging IAG's marketing and distribution power on the inherited bmi network. The medium-term integration will see the short-haul bmi slots allocated for services on IAG carrier British Airways' (BA) long-haul operation, which is smaller than its major European rivals. BA will target emerging markets including Asia, Africa and Latin America.

This new and large increase in Heathrow capacity will require significant fleet adjustments, and already BA plans to delay retirement of Boeing 747 aircraft as well as to re-examine its purchase options, which it holds on 787 and Airbus A380 aircraft. It will also seek clarity from Boeing on its 777 successor programme.

airberlin makes no apologies for Etihad alliance after joining oneworld

airberlin this week proclaimed it would “take off for a shared future” with oneworld, but the carrier’s medium-term future is not with the global alliance but rather its new strategic partner Etihad Airways.

In the driver’s seat is airberlin CEO Hartmut Mehdorn, who after the carrier’s joining event in Berlin this week gave a frank assessment of the situation. “Of course,” Mr Mehdorn said of British Airways preferring to receive airberlin’s feed instead of Etihad. But conversely, few oneworld carriers serve airberlin’s namesake hub. “And we would prefer a flight to Berlin. It’s a give and it’s a take.”

airberlin can extract from oneworld only as much as member airlines fly to Berlin, which the majority do not do. The Berlin Government is working to incentivise companies to make Germany’s largest and capital city their home. From there more flights can flow, but this ambition has a long lead time. It is not irrelevant to ask if airberlin, knowing an Etihad alliance would eventuate, would have proceeded with oneworld membership.

Largest loss ever puts damper on Royal Jordanian’s continued traffic growth

2011 was not an easy year for Royal Jordanian. After its net profit dropped by two thirds in 2010, the airline had been anticipating a year of modest profit in 2011. However, the regional unrest across the Middle East and North Africa, as well as the European economic downturn and the increasing price of fuel, struck the carrier a hard blow in the year.

Over the year, the carrier suffered four consecutive quarterly losses. It reported a full year loss of JOD57.8 million (USD81.4 million). This is its heaviest ever annual loss, more than wiping out the profits Royal Jordanian managed to make in 2009 and 2010.

The airline temporarily halted services to Libya, Iraq, Iran and Egypt during the early months of 2011, although the unrest cut revenues by just 2% according to CEO Hussein Dabbas. European traffic was affected given the continent’s general economic weakness.

Middle East fleet outlook: widebody popularity increases, Airbus to grow market share

The 163 aircraft ordered at last week's Dubai Airshow will keep the Middle East region with almost as many aircraft on order as in service. While the show was marked by Emirates' order for 50 B777s, adding to the carrier's all-widebody fleet, widebody aircraft currently comprise just over half the region's fleet but are set to grow. Widebodies comprise more than 70% of aircraft on order in the region.

Boeing and Airbus will see their market share increase, but Airbus more so, eventually accounting for more than half of all aircraft in the region and Boeing accounting for just over a third. These latest aircraft orders add to an already substantial order backlog by airlines in the region. Most of the orders are concentrated in the hands of the Gulf region’s three largest sixth-freedom airlines: Etihad Airways, Qatar Airways and Emirates. The 163 orders from the show were from airlines and leasing companies and had a combined total value at list prices of just under USD32 billion.