Rumour - Unpaid Leave for CX Groundstaff
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Airline industry in ‘intensive care’
By Kevin Done, Aerospace Correspondent
Published: March 24 2009 13:59 | Last updated: March 24 2009 13:59
Airline industry losses this year are expected to be nearly double the level forecast in December, as carriers are hit by steeply falling demand from premium passengers and by record falls in cargo traffic.
“The state of the airline industry today is grim. Demand has deteriorated much more rapidly with the economic slowdown than could have been anticipated even a few months ago,” said Giovanni Bisignani, director general of Iata, the airline industry trade association on Tuesday.
Relief from lower fuel prices had been “overshadowed” by falling demand and plummeting revenues, he said. “The industry is in intensive care.”
Net losses are forecast to reach $4.7bn this year, up from the $2.5bn forecast in December, as global economic conditions rapidly deteriorate.
Iata also revised its estimate for airline industry net losses for last year from $5bn to $8.5bn, as carriers were hit by the sudden and sharp fall in demand from lucrative premium passengers, where most network carriers generate the bulk of their profits, and from cargo.
Premium passenger numbers fell by almost 17 per cent in January year-on-year, while cargo traffic fell by 23 per cent.
Airline passenger traffic volumes are forecast to fall this year by 5.7 per cent with cargo demand dropping by 13 per cent, as the aviation sector suffers a much bigger slump than forecast as recently as December.
Airlines are facing one of the biggest ever annual falls in revenues in 2009 with a drop of $62bn or 12 per cent to $467bn. By comparison, industry revenues fell by only 7 per cent in the two years after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US.
Mr Bisignani said the industry’s continuing deep losses combined with the airlines’ total debt of $170bn meant that the pressure on their balance sheets was “extreme.”
Consumers are benefiting from the plunge in demand for air travel, as airlines are forced to cut fares in order to try to stimulate traffic and to bring in cash. Iata said yields or average fare levels were expected to fall by 4.3 per cent this year.
The industry is shrinking in response to the slump in demand with capacity forecast to fall by 6 per cent this year, but actions to cut flights and ground aircraft are still not keeping pace with the fall in demand.
Iata said airlines in the US were the only region to have been able to shrink capacity in line with the fall in demand, and they were forecast to turn large 2008 losses into a small 2009 profit. However, airlines in all other regions would find the deep recession causing significant net losses, with Asia Pacific carriers the hardest hit with forecast net losses of $1.7bn.
Mr Bisignani said weak consumer and business confidence was expected to keep spending and demand for air transport low.
“The prospects for airlines are dependent on economic recovery. There is little to indicate an early end to the downturn. It will be a grim 2009. And while prospects may improve towards the end of the year, expecting a significant recovery in 2010 would require more optimism than realism,” he said.
As airlines are forced by the recession to defer and even cancel orders for new aircraft, the makers of commercial jets, Airbus and Boeing, would suffer a sharp drop in production, said Iata, with deliveries set to fall by around 30 per cent by 2011.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
By Kevin Done, Aerospace Correspondent
Published: March 24 2009 13:59 | Last updated: March 24 2009 13:59
Airline industry losses this year are expected to be nearly double the level forecast in December, as carriers are hit by steeply falling demand from premium passengers and by record falls in cargo traffic.
“The state of the airline industry today is grim. Demand has deteriorated much more rapidly with the economic slowdown than could have been anticipated even a few months ago,” said Giovanni Bisignani, director general of Iata, the airline industry trade association on Tuesday.
Relief from lower fuel prices had been “overshadowed” by falling demand and plummeting revenues, he said. “The industry is in intensive care.”
Net losses are forecast to reach $4.7bn this year, up from the $2.5bn forecast in December, as global economic conditions rapidly deteriorate.
Iata also revised its estimate for airline industry net losses for last year from $5bn to $8.5bn, as carriers were hit by the sudden and sharp fall in demand from lucrative premium passengers, where most network carriers generate the bulk of their profits, and from cargo.
Premium passenger numbers fell by almost 17 per cent in January year-on-year, while cargo traffic fell by 23 per cent.
Airline passenger traffic volumes are forecast to fall this year by 5.7 per cent with cargo demand dropping by 13 per cent, as the aviation sector suffers a much bigger slump than forecast as recently as December.
Airlines are facing one of the biggest ever annual falls in revenues in 2009 with a drop of $62bn or 12 per cent to $467bn. By comparison, industry revenues fell by only 7 per cent in the two years after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US.
Mr Bisignani said the industry’s continuing deep losses combined with the airlines’ total debt of $170bn meant that the pressure on their balance sheets was “extreme.”
Consumers are benefiting from the plunge in demand for air travel, as airlines are forced to cut fares in order to try to stimulate traffic and to bring in cash. Iata said yields or average fare levels were expected to fall by 4.3 per cent this year.
The industry is shrinking in response to the slump in demand with capacity forecast to fall by 6 per cent this year, but actions to cut flights and ground aircraft are still not keeping pace with the fall in demand.
Iata said airlines in the US were the only region to have been able to shrink capacity in line with the fall in demand, and they were forecast to turn large 2008 losses into a small 2009 profit. However, airlines in all other regions would find the deep recession causing significant net losses, with Asia Pacific carriers the hardest hit with forecast net losses of $1.7bn.
Mr Bisignani said weak consumer and business confidence was expected to keep spending and demand for air transport low.
“The prospects for airlines are dependent on economic recovery. There is little to indicate an early end to the downturn. It will be a grim 2009. And while prospects may improve towards the end of the year, expecting a significant recovery in 2010 would require more optimism than realism,” he said.
As airlines are forced by the recession to defer and even cancel orders for new aircraft, the makers of commercial jets, Airbus and Boeing, would suffer a sharp drop in production, said Iata, with deliveries set to fall by around 30 per cent by 2011.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
blah blah blah
I'm not convinced CX is THAT bad we need to take unpaid leave.
I mean, how much extra time does 1 month's pay accross all of CX save the company? BUGGER ALL in the scheme of things.
Our monthly wage bill is a drop in the bucket.
If things are that desperate then we need more than a pay cut to save our sorry souls.
I'm not convinced CX is THAT bad we need to take unpaid leave.
I mean, how much extra time does 1 month's pay accross all of CX save the company? BUGGER ALL in the scheme of things.
Our monthly wage bill is a drop in the bucket.
If things are that desperate then we need more than a pay cut to save our sorry souls.
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Trevfly, you are really a little gem of a psycho are you not? You are KA, and spend your whole time on this site trying to stir things in CX. Have I not advised you before to seek assistance with your resentment and anger issues?
As I said to you on the other thread. You yourself will pasted on beneath the CX list very soon, so be careful what you are wishing for.
You must be a pleasure to fly with!
As I said to you on the other thread. You yourself will pasted on beneath the CX list very soon, so be careful what you are wishing for.
You must be a pleasure to fly with!
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The sky IS falling........
Airline traffic falls steeply
By Kevin Done
Published: March 26 2009 23:11 | Last updated: March 26 2009 23:11
Global airlines reported on Thursday a 10.1 per cent year-on-year fall in passenger traffic in February, as the industry slides into deepening recession.
The year-on-year decline was exacerbated by February having one day less than in the leap year of 2008, but the drop still reflected a further deterioration in trading in the airline sector and followed a decline of 5.6 per cent year-on-year in January.
Air cargo volumes, a leading early economic indicator, were 22.1 per cent lower in February than in the same month a year ago.
Giovanni Bisignani, chief executive of Iata, the international airline trade association, said, “gloom continues. The sharp drop in February passenger traffic shows the broadening scope of the crisis. Freight traffic, which began its decline in June 2008 before passenger markets were hit, has now had three consecutive months in the minus 22 to minus 23 per cent range.
“We may have found a bottom to the freight decline, but the magnitude of the drop means that it will take time to recover.”
Mr Bisignani said airlines had made their most aggressive cut in capacity in February since the crisis began with a reduction of 5.9 per cent, but this could still not keep pace with the fall in demand resulting in 30.1 per cent of seats flying empty.
Passenger traffic volumes declined by 12.8 per cent year-on-year in the Asia Pacific region in February, by 12 per cent in North America and by 10.1 per cent in Europe.
Iata said Europe’s long-haul markets to the US and Asia had been particularly hard hit reflecting negative economic sentiment including in Germany, where business confidence hit new lows in both February and again this month.
The collapse in international trade in goods and much lower shipments of components by manufacturers had led to “extremely weak” demand in all air cargo markets.
The priority for airlines around the world was “survival – conserving cash and adjusting capacity to match demand,” said Mr Bisignani.
“This means resizing and reshaping the industry to deal with the $62bn fall in revenues expected this year – a drop of 12 per cent. Airlines will be making some tough decisions to stay afloat as we head for industry losses of $4.7bn in 2009,” he said.
He called on governments to repeal the $6.9bn in new taxes put on the airline industry in 2009 to help pay for banking bailouts.
Governments “must replace the mindset of taxing aviation as a luxury or a sin with a strategic approach that recognises and fosters the industry’s critical economic role in connecting people to business and products to markets,” he said.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
By Kevin Done
Published: March 26 2009 23:11 | Last updated: March 26 2009 23:11
Global airlines reported on Thursday a 10.1 per cent year-on-year fall in passenger traffic in February, as the industry slides into deepening recession.
The year-on-year decline was exacerbated by February having one day less than in the leap year of 2008, but the drop still reflected a further deterioration in trading in the airline sector and followed a decline of 5.6 per cent year-on-year in January.
Air cargo volumes, a leading early economic indicator, were 22.1 per cent lower in February than in the same month a year ago.
Giovanni Bisignani, chief executive of Iata, the international airline trade association, said, “gloom continues. The sharp drop in February passenger traffic shows the broadening scope of the crisis. Freight traffic, which began its decline in June 2008 before passenger markets were hit, has now had three consecutive months in the minus 22 to minus 23 per cent range.
“We may have found a bottom to the freight decline, but the magnitude of the drop means that it will take time to recover.”
Mr Bisignani said airlines had made their most aggressive cut in capacity in February since the crisis began with a reduction of 5.9 per cent, but this could still not keep pace with the fall in demand resulting in 30.1 per cent of seats flying empty.
Passenger traffic volumes declined by 12.8 per cent year-on-year in the Asia Pacific region in February, by 12 per cent in North America and by 10.1 per cent in Europe.
Iata said Europe’s long-haul markets to the US and Asia had been particularly hard hit reflecting negative economic sentiment including in Germany, where business confidence hit new lows in both February and again this month.
The collapse in international trade in goods and much lower shipments of components by manufacturers had led to “extremely weak” demand in all air cargo markets.
The priority for airlines around the world was “survival – conserving cash and adjusting capacity to match demand,” said Mr Bisignani.
“This means resizing and reshaping the industry to deal with the $62bn fall in revenues expected this year – a drop of 12 per cent. Airlines will be making some tough decisions to stay afloat as we head for industry losses of $4.7bn in 2009,” he said.
He called on governments to repeal the $6.9bn in new taxes put on the airline industry in 2009 to help pay for banking bailouts.
Governments “must replace the mindset of taxing aviation as a luxury or a sin with a strategic approach that recognises and fosters the industry’s critical economic role in connecting people to business and products to markets,” he said.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
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Any truth to the rumour that the managers accepted their bonuses recently ?? (Sorry if its already been stated)
Good luck getting me to volunteer for UPL if thats the case....
Good luck getting me to volunteer for UPL if thats the case....
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As difficult as things will be (for my family) if we have to make financial concessions, I will go along with it if it can be proven that it's necessary - it would be nice if we could all keep our jobs.
If the managers have indeed taken their bonuses, then I am truly insulted that they would even suggest financial concessions from us.
"The bonus is part of my package" rhetoric doesn't cut it, I'm afraid. If that's the case, then full 13th month is part of my package.
Lead by example please gentlemen.
If the managers have indeed taken their bonuses, then I am truly insulted that they would even suggest financial concessions from us.
"The bonus is part of my package" rhetoric doesn't cut it, I'm afraid. If that's the case, then full 13th month is part of my package.
Lead by example please gentlemen.
I just heard from an AOA GC insider that the company are spreading the rumour amoungst the ground staff of LWOP PLUS a PAY CUT.
They must be taking the piss, surely?
They must be taking the piss, surely?
