Why I like Amsterdam Schiphol airport so much?

I have been fortunate enough to live in The Netherlands for over a year at one point in my life and I know Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS) very well...I recently had the chance to visit it again after a long absence...and I still think is one of the best airports in the World, and possibly the best in Europe for plane spotters!

Is not only modern, clean, convenient and perfectly connected with regular and frequent ground transportation (it sits on a main railway trunk line), it's got great shopping, restaurants, even an art museum!...it is the small details that end up delighting the aviation enthusiast and planespotter! Here is a sample:


Aviation shop: all sort of memorabilia, aircraft models and other aviation-related stuff can be bought here. the shop is conveniently shaped as a KLM aircraft!


While walking along Schiphol's corridors you will find these indicators whose aim is to help the public recognise the different types of airplanes that are visible across the glass


Panoramic Terrace, although this photo contains only KLM aircraft, a very diverse mix of airlines from all over the World fly to AMS, which makes for a very interesting plane spotting opportunity!


The panoramic terrace is great for plane spotting!

Highlights of the annual Airneth conference (II): analyzing the Delta-Norwest merger

As I anticipated in my previous post, the annual Airneth conference was a very interesting opportunity to listen to major airline industry experts and learn first-hand how they envisage the future of the airline business. The following is not an exhaustive account of the conference, but only some highlights I picked up that I hope will be of interest to readers of this blog, that I assume share with me their interest and passion for the commercial aviation industry.

Shortly after the usual introductory words, the conference kicked-off with Perry Cantarutti, senior VP at Delta airlines, explaining his experience of the recent merger between Delta (DAL) and Northwest Airlines (NWA).

He highlighted how DAL and NWA could extract significant value out of their very complementary networks and fleets: Delta had a strong network in the South and East of the US as well as a large transatlantic presence, whereas Northwest was strong in the upper-Midwest and the Pacific. Similarly, NWA had a fleet with lots of small (and I would add quite old too!) aircraft, such as DC-9s and also very large ones (B747s), whereas DAL had many mid-sized aircraft (B737s and B767s). So, the merger allowed them to rationalize fleet use and frequencies, for example deploying A320s at SLC to fly routes to the East coast, whereas shorter-range MD-90s are used at MSP to fly shorter sectors.

The resulting airline is now #1 (in average seat miles capacity) domestically in the US and in the US to Europe, Africa and Asia and #2 in the US to Latin America market. Although, when analyzing the competitive situation on transatlantic routes, it might be more accurate to consider capacity by alliances rather than individual airlines, and here DAL-NWA benefit from an increasing cooperation with AF-KLM and Alitalia, to the point that Skyteam now has a share of 27% of transatlantic capacity, just 1% below the largest alliance (Star Alliance).

Skyteam partners have already achieved a significant amount of integration in areas such as joint revenue management on transatlantic routes and we can deduct, from Mr.Cantarutti's words, that we are going to see increasing integration within Skyteam, for example, by looking for more commonalities in aircraft cabins.

Highlights of the annual Airneth Conference in The Hague (I): Consolidation and new business models in the air transport industry

The Hague: an excellent choice to host the annual Airneth conference

Last week I had the opportunity to attend what is possibly one of the most interesting aviation-related events in Europe right now: the annual Airneth conference in The Hague, The Netherlands.

The line-up of speakers sounded impressive beforehand, it included professionals of the caliber of Rigas Doganis, of "Flying-off Course" fame, but after attending most of the sessions I can just say that the conference totally exceeded my expectations. In addition to the quality of the debate that went on in the conference room, I must congratulate the organizers for the perfect set up (as well as the choice of city!).

Given that the conference was being held in The Netherlands, the case of Schiphol airport deserved some special attention, with its symbiotic relationship with KLM, of outmost importance for the Dutch economy. I could detect some concern among the attendees about the survival of Schiphol as a major hub in the constantly-changing airline industry scene, something of particular relevance now, with KLM as a junior member of the Air France group, the industry's centre of gravity shifting eastwards and a growing market share for low cost carriers...

In coming blog posts I will try to summarize my impressions of the conference and outline some of the major topics that centered the discussion, some of which are much in line with what I have usually been writing about in this blog: the future of competition between network airlines and low cost carriers, evolving business models in the airline industry, airport de-hubbing and re-hubbing, airline alliances and route development.

Watch this space!