British Airways
 

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakin...65&n=194044236

(excerpt)
Dip in BA passenger numbers - but more in first class

British Airways revealed today that it carried 0.2% fewer passengers in December after demand for flights to the UK and Europe fell compared with a year ago.

The airline said a 3.1% dip in passengers travelling on routes to the UK and the continent offset growth elsewhere in the world, meaning it handled 2.728 million people in December.

But revenues per passenger kilometres flown were 4.7% higher as the number of people travelling in first and business class rose by 9.3%.

Re: British Airways
 

Not so X - I am a reasonably happy BA FFer.

In fact the rest of the numbers look not too bad - yield up and load factor up (later in article). Dip in nos. probably due to BACX cutbacks I guess since LH capacity is about the same as last year. However, Danny doesn't like full articles posted so best to click on the link for the full gen.

BA offices raided by EC
 

Breaking BBC Business News.
Europe-USA cartel probe hits BA
British Airways has come under the microscope as part of a European and US anti-trust investigation.
The UK airline said on Tuesday that it had received requests for information from both the European Commission and the US Department of Justice.
The request concerns allegations of cartel activity involving a number of airlines and cargo operators including BA, the airline said.
BA said it would assist the EC and the DoJ in their investigation.
"British Airways' policy is to conduct its business in full compliance with all the applicable competition laws," it said in a statement.

Just like it did when it put Fred Laker out of business and then tried to do the same with Richard Branson!

JW411 dive in, it also involves other European airlines as well it's just that the media can spell BA.
http://www.rte.ie/business/2006/0214/ba.html

http://europa.eu.int/comm/competitio.../art81_en.html

Well not really, for although BA were well ahead of the others when it came to playing dirty tricks, Swissair, SABENA, PanAm and many other members of the cartel were in there with their sabots.

JW411,
Did Freddy really expect that airlines which had developed lucrative routes would stand by an let him cherry pick their business? That ain't how it works in the big world.
As you know very well Laker, by trying to play the FX market, were, in part, architects of their own downfall.
Laker and Virgin are both innovative and competitive companies which have their place in British aviation history but Virgin suceeded as much by debt control and financial structure as by willingness to sue and, in any case, had Laker survived there would probably have been no place for Virgin.

BA offices raided by EC
 

According to C4 Teletext (p.502), BA's offices have been raided by EC officials looking for evidence of price-fixing. Offices of Lufthansa, Air France & KLM have 'enjoyed' the same treatment.

I work in Cargo so there is far more to this than the rags are reporting.

We all work to the same cargo tariff rule book.

The whole thing needs explaining properly, but that is above the media tossers in this country.

There`s the ground, then the service pipes, then below that the sewers, then below all of that the UK media

CV aswell in multiple offices at a time this whole thing looks like someone on another continent wants to revive it's cargo industry to me

Speed5
"We all work to the same cargo tariff rule book."

It's a commodity market, mate. If there IS a tariff rule book, no-one's used it since the early 70's (in the UK, at least).

What the major European carriers are probably doing (either independently or in cooperation) is defining a floor price - if the US belly mob and other intellectually-challenged carriers (AZ and their ilk) want to flog their limited capacity at below cost, then let them get on with it.
It's pretty much like comparing stuff that's fallen off a lorry with a RRP. What's the true market price? As long as the bloke in the pub car park has got stuff to sell, that's the market price. As soon as he's sold out, it's the cheapest regular retailer. Unless you place value on service, reliability and guarantee, of course, in which case you stay in the High St in the first place....

Price-dumping might be a more fruitful area of investigation for the EU and their US mates....

Can't say I'm au fait with what's going on here, but FYI the beancounters hit Asian offices during the European night. This was on Reuters about an hour ago.


Global air cargo probe widens to Asia
By Sachi Izumi
TOKYO, Feb 15 (Reuters) - A global probe into possible price-fixing in the air cargo industry widened to Asia on Wednesday as authorities searched for information at offices of Japanese, South Korean and Hong Kong airlines.
The investigation started on Tuesday when the European Union's executive arm and the U.S. Justice Department raided a number of air cargo carriers on both sides of the Atlantic, while other airlines were asked for information related to the probe.
The case could threaten to put a brake on recent growth in the global air cargo market, which U.S. aircraft maker Boeing Co. <BA.N> has estimated will expand at an average annual rate of 6.2 percent in the next two decades, exceeding the expected growth rates of passenger traffic and the world economy.
Scandinavian airline SAS <SAS.ST> said it had been raided and authorities were investigating whether airlines had illegally cooperated to limit competition in European and other routes.
The alleged activity, mainly involving various surcharges such as for fuel and for security measures imposed after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States using hijacked airliners, has supposedly been carried out since 2000, SAS said.
War-risk surcharges that were applied after the U.S-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 were also involved, it said.
The European Commission said in a statement, "The Commission has reason to believe that the companies concerned may have violated (a European Union) treaty, which prohibits practices such as price fixing." It declined to name the targets.
Asia's biggest airline, Japan Airlines Corp. <9205.T>, said European authorities had searched its Frankfurt offices, while two South Korean airlines, Korean Air Co. <003490.KS> and Asiana Airlines Inc. <020560.KQ>, said they were raided by the local antitrust watchdog.
Boeing said in September that brisk traffic in the Asian markets would lead the expansion of the global air cargo market, adding that the freighter fleet would nearly double over the next 20 years to 3,530 airplanes.

JAL RAIDED
A JAL spokesman declined to comment on alleged cartel activity but said, "We are fully cooperating with the probe."
The cargo business, supported by strong exports from Japanese companies, has been a bright and growing segment for struggling JAL, which expects a net loss this business year due to high fuel prices and a series of safety problems.
Korean Air spokesman Lee Hyoung-woo said South Korea's Fair Trade Commission officials interviewed the company's executives in charge of cargo businesses and removed documents. He added its offices in Europe and the United States were not raided.
Among airlines, Korean Air is the world's top cargo carrier, based on 2004 data, although it ranks behind specialist carrier FedEx Corp. <FDX.N> in total volume flown.
South Korea's FTC declined to comment, citing standard policy on investigations.
An Asiana official who declined to be named said cartel team officials from the FTC came to the airline's office and conducted an investigation, initiated by a request from abroad, in relation to fuel surcharges and price-fixing practices.
Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific Airways <0293.HK> said EC and U.S. Justice Department officials had visited the company's offices in Frankfurt, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
The world's leading carriers also acknowledged they had been contacted by authorities.
British Airways Plc <BAY.L>, Air France KLM <AIRF.PA> and freight airline Cargolux [CLUX.UL] had said they were asked for information related to alleged cartel activity, and American Airlines <AMR.N> and United Airlines <UAUA.O> both said they had received inquiries as part of the probe.
All Nippon Airways Co. <9202.T>, Japan's No. 2 airline, said it outsources cargo operations in Frankfurt to unlisted Nippon Cargo Airlines Co., which said it had not been raided.
A spokeswoman said ANA's offices, including ones in Paris and London, had not been searched.
Although shares in JAL closed down 0.6 percent, other Asian airlines rose, including Cathay Pacific, Korean Air and Asiana, as oil prices slipped below $60 to their lowest level this year after heavy losses a day earlier as dealers anticipated a big jump in already healthy U.S. oil inventories.
(Additional reporting by Cheon Jong-woo in Seoul, Alison Leung and Donny Kwok in Hong Kong)

"Price-dumping might be a more fruitful area of investigation for the EU and their US mates...."

IMHO, the EU is certainly guilty of that outside its self-inflated trade bubble. The EU is going to be a very interesting place to watch just how permeable that bubble is when China really starts to bite. A lot of politicians & bureaucrats have their heads firmly in the ground. Good for them. :hmm:

EG:ok:

I'm sorry mate, but no carrier in the world sticks to TACT rates.

Appears that the investigation is focussing on fuel surcharges. LH Cargo won't have a problem - they've indexed their fuel surcharge to an average of 5 key spot markets, factor in some volatility damping and adjust the surcharge - either up or down - accordingly. Absolutely transparent.
If other carriers decide to tag along? Well, there's no law against applying Best Practice....

Edited to include hyperlink

My understanding is though that that isn't the LH fuel surcharge index, it is the IATA fuel surcharge index, agreed by airlines & forwarders together.

Yes, it is sensible, transparent & fair. Obviously the EU and US must get rid of it at once!

Can you imagine the UK/EU regulators raiding the offices of any of the Chapter 11 US ailing airlines and claiming that it was unfair that they were still in business and able to flood the market with cheap transatlantic seats ! There seems to be a rule for one and a different one for another. Just depends what side of the Atlantic you are on!

Level playing field - pull the other one!

indiction
 

CV now indicted in the US will post more as soon as i have details

BA to replace CFM56 320s?
 

the Jethros website reports some order conversions and add ons to replace the BCal 320s (5 -100, 5 -200) with 7x320, 3x321. A google search only turned up an airliners.net post.

Can anyone confirm this?