BTJ 3/2008 - Baltic Transport Journal

What’s new?
Aviation
During the first three months of 2008,
Lufthansa carried a record number of passengers.
Its passenger numbers rose by 5.5%
to 13m in the first quarter. Revenue seat-kilometres
climbed 5.9%, lifting the passenger
load factor by 0.2% to 77.2%. Passenger numbers
were up in all traffic regions. Lufthansa
Cargo also improved its performance in terms
of cargo volume and capacity utilisation in
the first quarter. The Lufthansa subsidiary
transported 429,000 tons of freight and mail,
0.4% more than in the same period last year.
The cargo load factor rose to 69.5%.
The Boeing Co. announced another delay
involving its 787 jetliner, pushing back
its expected debut in commercial service
to the third quarter of 2009. It’s the fourth
time Boeing has had to revise the schedule
for the top-selling plane which has been
plagued by supply-chain problems. The first
global network airline in Europe operating
Boeing 787 will be LOT Polish Airlines.
The European concern Airbus announced
a rise in prices across its range of aircraft,
blaming rising metals prices and the weakness
of the US dollar. The list prices of singleaisle
planes rose EUR 2m while wide-body,
long range, and A380 aircraft increased by
EUR 2.5m. The average price for an A380 is
EUR 210m while an A320 is EUR 50m.
The first Russian air taxi Dexter obtained
an official permit for international transportation
and from June 2008 will start to carry
out flights to Finland, the Baltic countries,
and to a number of the CIS states. Dexter is
planning to use Swiss Pilatus aircraft which
have eight seats and can cover a distance
of up to 2,000 kilometres at a speed of
450km/h. By the end of the year the company’s
aircraft park will expectedly have 13
Pilatus aircraft and 3 Russian M-101 T aircraft
that have 4-5 seats. Officially the company
is based in Bykovo airport in Moscow.
A EUR 200m investment is planned for the
development of Riga International Airport.
In the first stage the plan is to prepare the airport
to handle 12m passengers per year. The
second stage foresees demolishing the existing
buildings in the southerly direction to construct
new space for the airport. This will allow
an even more increased passenger flow – up
to 20m per year. The first stage is to be completed
by year 2011. The number of passengers
handled by Riga Airport last year was 3.6m.
12 | Baltic Transport Journal | 3/2008
Growing fuel costs hit airlines
Europe’s second-largest airline, Lufthansa, maintained its financial outlook for 2008 but warned
that operating costs in the first quarter of 2008 rose sharply, driven mainly by soaring fuel prices.
“The challenges posed by increased prices, particularly the price of fuel, as well as uncertain economic
development, will increase for Lufthansa. For this reason, all of the group companies are
keeping their focus on cost management,” the Germany-based airline said in a statement.
The company spent EUR 1.07 billion on fuel in the first quarter of 2008, up 42% from the previous
year. However, positive EUR/USD currency effects and fuel hedging helped to offset some
of the increases. These factors lowered the additional fuel costs by EUR 97m and fuel hedging by
EUR 131m in the first three months of 2008. This year, the company will probably spend EUR
5.26 billion on fuel, up 36% from last year – more than the March forecast of EUR 4.9 billion. To
sustain earnings, Lufthansa decided to impose fuel surcharges on its ticket prices. The company
levied a EUR 77 fee on long-haul flights and EUR 17 on European services.
Another airline tries to stand up against high fuel costs. Belgium’s Brussels Airlines is looking
at nearly 100 ways of cutting fuel use, including more efficient fuel use and reducing the
weight on its planes. The company also announced it is slowing speeds and reducing the weight
on some of its airplanes. The airline said that slowing planes by about 10km/h would cut its
annual fuel bill by EUR 1m and only adds a minute or two to flight times. Brussels Airlines is
also trying to force through changes in the air system. The current system often forces planes
to fly a zigzag route over Europe as they pass over different countries’ airspaces. The situation
in the European airline industry can get worse over the next months when airlines’ oil hedging
ends and they will have to pay the full oil market rate.
The EU has approved in-flight mobile calls
The European Commission opened the way for
airlines to introduce technology that would allow
passengers to use their mobile phones throughout
Europe’s airspace. The decision will enable calls, text
messaging, and emails by GSM technology. The final
decision to introduce in-flight mobile calls will
be left to individual airlines. Some of them launched
a trial of in-flight mobile phone services on Euro-
pean routes. British Midland Airways, Portugal’s
TAP, and the low-cost airline Ryanair are planning
to offer services later this year. However, not all
airlines support the EU’s plans. Lufthansa said in
a statement that it is not interested in introducing
the service because a majority of its customers see
no need for phone calls during flights. Virgin also
expressed reservations over the idea. EU officials say
the cost of calls will be set by operators and the European
Commission will keep a close eye to ensure
that pricing is transparent. Passengers will be able to
make and receive calls using a base station within the
airplane. They will be allowed to turn their phones
on after the plane reaches 3,000 meters, when other
electronic devices such as laptops are permitted. The
phone services will not be available during takeoff,
landing or during turbulence, and the captain or
crew of the plane can control when they want to
switch off the onboard network.