IAG's Spanish problem, Iberia Express and Vueling

The future does not look bright for Iberia. IAG latest financial results showed that the Spanish flag carrier has become a drag on the the group's financial performance. IAG's CEO, Willie Walsh has already warned that tough measures must be taken...

And what now seems inevitable is that Iberia's short and medium haul network will be progressively taken over by Iberia Express, the vehicle that IAG has chosen to get rid of the existing labour relations framework at Iberia. For Iberia's customers the change to Iberia Express should not be a big change...for now...because, Iberia Express might have been helpful in taming some structural cost issues within the company (Iberia Express is already profitable), however, it can do little against the huge exogenous pressures currently affecting the Spanish air travel market, like the deep economic crisis and the strong competition from other low cost carriers (among the major European markets, is possibly the one where LCCs enjoy a larger marjet share).

So it is not unlikely that, while keeping some network carrier features, most important of all, feeding Iberia's long-haul network, or what's left of it, Iberia Express, and the rest of the airline, might have to undergo a process of "low-costization".

Curiosly enough Iberia is the major shareholder of another Spanish low cost, and one that is profitable: Vueling. The Barcelona-based carrier is actually on an opposite path: whereas Iberia might end up trading-down, Vueling is trading-up and offering more and more extras to its passengers, in a drive to attract business customers.

Will Vueling and Iberia (Express) end up occupying the same market space?

If this happens, will the two brands be kept? In theory, there is no need to, despite its shareholding Vueling is an independent company and it has its hub at Barcelona, whereas Iberia Express is based at Madrid. However, it is not unthinkable that Vueling becomes more operationally entangled with Oneworld's operations in Spain as it starts to codeshare more and more, take on feeding operations, etc. Will there be a temptation to consolidate Vueling and what's left of Iberia in a big low cost operation? Who would then have the strongest brand? and right structure and "mind-set" to operate as a low cost?  an strengthened Vueling or a "downgraded" Iberia?

Of course, the most likely outcome is that nothing of this might actually end up happening, but "what if" scenarios are always entertaining...

A list of really cool sites for frequent fliers

From time to time I like to share some aviation-related sites or apps I have come across...and, while the jury is still out as to the success of social seating apps that some airlines hve been launching recently, other startups are focusing on sorting other types of problems, such as refining flight search results...

Yes, I know this is hardly new, there are tons of flight searching engines out there, however most search result pages remain incredibly dull...

Hipmunk has devised a very visual flight search results page and has also included the concept of "agony search" to the mix, that means that their algortithms take into account the inconvenience caused by stopovers and total travel time and has wrapped this up in a fresh, visually-appealing interface.

With this system you can get the equivalent of a flight options "visual map" and even hide or display several flight combinations from the same airline. I must say, I have not tested whether the effectiveness of Hipmunk's system when it comes to finding the best prices, I really hope it matches its user-friendliness!

A snapshot of Hipmunk's visual flight search, here showing results for a London to Melbourne flight

Not all flights are equal and often it is the small details that make all the difference, but flight search engines do not provide much in depth information about the sort of amenities you can expect in a flight. This is precisely what Routehappy is aiming to fix. This startup, whose site is currently in beta, gives you flight options based on a rating of passenger experience. It not only integrates reviews from fellow passengers but it also provides information about amenities such as in-flight wi-fi or meals, an information that I am sure many passengers would find useful when comparing between different flight options.

Last but not least, another cool airline-related site that I have discovered and that I am sure many frequent fliers and aviation enthusiasts (I am counting myself in!) will enjoy. The idea of having a flight log where you keep track of all your flying is not exactly new, but what I really liked of Flightdiary is its cool, map-based interface that integrates all sort of statistics about your travel activity. Great design that makes of Flightdiary an extremely user-friendly and enjoyable site.

Unhappy Ryanair passenger becomes social media rockstar...but does it matter? (post with a bonus: a video of Air India's first Boeing 787!)

If there is an airline with a seemingly infinite capacity to produce headlines, this is Ryanair. I mentioned some of its past stunts in this blog, however at some point I lost my interest in this sort of stories...everyone has a personal Ryanair horror story!... I went, myself, from being a loyal and happy customer to not flying with them anymore after I had a bitter "disagreement" with one of their ground staff about the best way to re-pack hand-luggage items, she might have got her commission, they lost me as a client, but this is a story for another post...)

This time the "hero" of Ryanair's critics is Suzy McLeod, a Ryanair passenger from Alicante to Bristol, who was charged €300 for not having printed her family's boarding passes beforehand. Suzy went to Ryanair unofficial page on Facebook and posted the following comment:  

“I had previously checked in online but because I hadn't printed out the boarding passes, Ryanair charged me €60 per person! Meaning I had to pay €300 for them to print out a piece of paper! Please ‘like’ if you think that's unfair.” 

The response was huge: nearly 400,000 likes and over 18,000 comments for a single post. Quite a feat!

And an even a greater feat to draw the attention of Michael O'Leary himself, that did not miss the chance to express his thoughts about her and this whole affair... in his own syle, of course!

But does this matter? Despite many airlines making a genuine effort to get into social media (in this blog I sometimes highlighted some of the social media stars of the airline industry) the answer is far from straightforward. Or at least, it might not matter if you are Ryanair...the Irish airline has consistently outperformed its industry peers, despite having no social media activity, a horrible (sometimes buggy) website in terms of usability and tons of bad PR every day. Social media might actually be less important for the success of an airline than, we, hyper-connected people tend to think...or this is what this analysis points out.

(oh! I forgot to say: there is now a Ryanair iPhone and iPad app, you need to pay for it, of course!)

Enough of Ryanair for now...on another totally separate note, Boeing continues with its stream of Dreamliner deliveries, and has set up this cool-looking website so that you can track all the deliveries. Today it has has been the turn of Air India, and to celebrate the occasion, Boeing has put together this interesting video about the making of Air India's first 787. Enjoy!

Jet! When Britain Ruled the Skies: a great BBC documentary about the start of the commercial jet era

I hope you will enjoy this documentary as much as I did. "Jet! When Britian Ruled the Skies", recently aired on the BBC, tells the story of post-war commercial aviation in Britain and the development of the first jet airliners. An era that was full of hope and promise for the British aviation industry...Absolutely recommended!

(Note: the BBC iPlayer is not available in all countries outside the UK, but luckily, someone has already uploaded it on Youtube so you can enjoy it wherever you are)

Best aviation and airline books for the summer

Many of us take advantage of the summer holidays to slow down a bit and catch up with readings. Although it is not the most prolific literary genre out there, I thought it would be a good idea to put together a short list of books about the airline business that I have enjoyed and can recommend.

I actually have a longer list of aviation and airline books I would like to read as soon as I find the time, so hopefully I will be able to update this list soon. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this one!

 
1) Flying Off Course: Airline economics and marketing, 4th Edition
by Rigas Doganis

This is the latest, updated, edition of what is, by all accounts, the book I would recommend for anyone willing to understand the basics of the airline business. If you know of any other book that fulfills this mission better, please let me know!

Ryanair: How a Small Irish Airline Conquered Europe
by Siobhan Creaton

This is a short book that explains the roots of Ryanair, the role of Michael O'Leary in completely revamping the business model of what used to be a struggling small Irish airline to make it Europe's low cost champion. Besides the purely airline-related part of the story, it also provides a vivid picture of the personality of the Irish airline's larger-than-life CEO.

EasyJet: The Story of Britain's Biggest Low-cost Airline
by Lois Jones

This book is similar to the previous one, although maybe less focused on the caracther of Stelios than the Ryanair book is about O'Leary. It makes an interesting read not only for aviation enthusiasts but also for anyone interested in reading case studies of how marketing and operational innovation can disrupt industries.

Overall I must say that, although these books are a nice read, I was expecting to find many more high quality books about such a fascinating industry. If you have any suggestions, do not hesitate to share them here!

The Olympics from the air: an airship comeback

A privileged view of the Olympic Park

A few days ago I mentioned in this blog how surprised I had been to see over the skies of London an aircraft that looks like from another era: an airship.

Well, I saw it again, and this time, of all places, it was hovering over the Olympic stadium before and during the closing ceremony. If you watched it on TV, some of the footage might have come from this airship!

By the way, if you would like to learn more about how aerial footage of the Olympic Games events has been delivered, do not miss this report on Flightglobal about the helicopters of the Olympics: "How the Olympics were filmed from above".

And if you are interested in airships, there is also this other blog entry for you: "Remembering the history of Airships"!

Some aviation video recommendations for the summer

It's been a while since I last published a video-post, so I thought that it would be a good time to put together some aviation-related footage to enjoy during the summer holidays.

First of all it's a BBC documentary that I found really fascinating: it shows the whole revision and refitting of a British Airways' Boeing 747, from the time it arrives at BA's maintenance facilities in Cardiff to the time it leaves to get back to service.



Also of interest is this footage of LAN's first Boeing 787 taking off for the first time from Boeing's Paine Field, near Seattle, WA, that Marcelo De Biasi just posted on Twitter.



It is going to be a season of "firsts" for the 787 as Boeing rolls out Dreamliners out of the production line to hand them over to the first airlines that pruchased the type.

Also recently we were able to see via live streaming the unveiling of United's first Boeing 787.



And in case you wondered how a Boeing 787 looks in the inside, do not miss this cool video of Flightglobal's editors Mike Targett and Graham Dunn touring Qatar Airways's Dreamliner at the latest edition of the Farnborough Air Show.