Air France Auctioning Off Seats On Its First A380 Flights
Starting today, the French airline began auctioning off seats on the jet’s two inaugural flights from Paris to New York on Nov. 20 and from New York to Paris on Nov. 21. The auction, on eBay, goes through Oct. 21. Air France said the opening bid “in most cases” will be $380 for Voyageur (economy) class and $1,380 in Affaires (business) class, but that it may change during the auction. (The auction includes a return ticket on a regular Air France flight.) Proceeds go to charities in France, India and South Africa.
Is this trip worth it? It’s up to you how much you want to pay, but I can say that riding this super-wide-bodied jet is an amazing experience. On a short demonstration flight out of LAX two years ago, I was impressed by how quiet it is, despite its size and power.
For full details and links to the auction, which will involve 380 seats on each flight, visit the airline’s A380 mini-site. How’s your French? If it’s pretty good, you can track the auction on Twitter, @AFEncheresA380.
Air France A380s will begin regular commercial operation on the Paris-New York route on Nov. 23. Routes to open later include Paris-Dubai and Paris-Tokyo. The airline has ordered 12 of the giant jets, each able to carry up to 538 passengers (449 economy, 80 business, 9 first class) over a maximum distance of 8,078 miles.
Other airlines that have purchased A380s include Singapore, Qantas and Emirates.
American Airlines Traffic Reported Traffic Fell 8.2 Percent in December
American Airlines said Monday that traffic fell 8.2 percent in December compared with the year-earlier month, with both domestic and international business slowing. The airline also operated fewer flights, as it decided in the summer to reduce capacity because of then-high fuel prices, resulting in occupancy levels slightly higher than a year ago.
American, a unit of Fort Worth-based AMR Corp., said domestic traffic fell 9.6 percent while international declined 5.7 percent compared with a year earlier. The sharpest decline in international travel was trans-Atlantic, off 8 percent, compared with a decline of 5.2 percent to Latin America and 0.5 percent in the Pacific region.
Traffic is measured in miles flown by paying customers. The airline carried 7.3 million passengers, down from 7.9 million a year earlier.
Capacity shrank 8.6 percent from the year before, and the average flight had 79.2 percent of seats sold, an increase of 0.4 percentage points from December 2007. Capacity was reduced most sharply in the United States.
For the full year, traffic fell 4.8 percent – 7.3 percent in the U.S., and a 0.2 percent decline on international routes. Capacity was trimmed 3.8 percent, with nearly all the cuts occurring in the last few months.
American said it carried 92.8 million passengers in 2008, down from 98.2 million in 2007.
Airlines Industry, Boeing investigates after Pa. plant shutdown
A Boeing plant in suburban Philadelphia remained shut down Saturday while officials investigated how a foreign object ended up inside an aircraft that was under production.
Boeing spokesman Damien Mills said he could not predict how long it would take before production could resume at the Ridley Park plant, which shut down Friday afternoon. He said employees are instructed to show up for work as usual.
“There are other tasks the workers can participate in while production is halted,” Mills said. Those tasks vary, but include things like generating ideas to prevent similar problems from developing in the future, he said.
Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., said Friday he was told by a Boeing executive that a plastic cap was found in the fuel line of a V-22 Osprey fuselage and that Boeing could not immediately rule it out as a willful act. Mills said Saturday that he had read Sestak’s comments in news reports but could not confirm them.
The same factory was shut down in May when a disgruntled employee used his work-issued wire cutters to sever about 70 electrical wires in a nearly finished military helicopter. The man pleaded guilty in September to one count of destroying property under contract to the government.
apan temporarily detains American Airlines passengers over flu scare
Japanese health officials detained more than three dozen American Airlines Inc. passengers and two flight attendants Monday while officials tested a passenger for the H1N1 virus.
Authorities later released the 38 passengers and the two attendants after the tests indicated the woman did not have swine flu.
American spokesman Tim Wagner said Japanese officials who were screening the arriving passengers on the flight from Los Angeles decided to test one woman returning from a Las Vegas vacation.
They also held for observation the 37 passengers who were seated near the woman, as well as the two flight attendants that served that area of the airplane, Wagner said.
“We’ve been in contact with the flight attendants, and they’re fine,” Wagner said.
Wagner said he doesn’t know what prompted the Japanese officials to decide to test the one passenger. Scott Shankland, spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, said the union had heard that the passenger had a fever.
Flight 169 departed Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon and arrived Monday afternoon at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport, Wagner said. The passengers and crew were held at a hotel near the airport before being released.
Japanese medical personnel are boarding every flight arriving from the U.S., Mexico and Canada to screen passengers and crew for the H1N1 virus.
Jet Airways, Air India announce fare cuts
India’s leading private air carrier, Jet Airways, and state-owned operator Air India Monday announced fare cuts. While Jet will reduce the fares on its domestic routes by up to 40 percent with immediate effect, Air India is expected to announce the quantum Tuesday.
In a statement, Jet said the economy class base fare will now be Rs.2,000 on its Mumbai-Delhi flight, Rs.4,065 on the Mumbai-Kolkata route, Rs.1,220 on the Bangalore-Mumbai sector, and Mumbai-Ahmedabad for as low as Rs.500.
The fares are exclusive of taxes, which average about Rs.3,500 on every economy ticket.
Earlier in the day, Air India confirmed to IANS it too would slash fares from Jan 1.
Kingfisher Airlines Sunday announced fare cut from January 1.
‘In view of the slackening demand in post-peak season and continued decline in fuel prices, Air India will be adjusting domestic fares downwards on various sectors shortly,’ an Air India spokesperson said here.
The spokesperson, however, did not divulge the quantum of fare cut, saying it was still being worked out. ‘We would be able to come with reduced fares by January 1,’ he told IANS.
Kingfisher chairman Vijaya Mallya said in a statement Sunday that the airline would begin the New Year on an aggressive note by slashing fares. But he did not quantify the reduction either.
Low cost carriers are also expected to follow suit, said an industry official.
Despite the fall in fuel prices, Indian air operators have been unwilling to cut fares, demanding that aviation turbine fuel (ATF) be brought under the ‘declared goods’ category, which would bring down sales tax from an average of 32 percent at various airports to a uniform 4 percent.
The proposal is now before parliament.
Sales tax varies from 4 percent to 32 percent, and accounts for over 35 percent of operational costs of airlines.
Last month, Jet Airways chairman Naresh Goyal said at a function here that he did not favour fare cuts as long as the aviation fuel was not classified as a declared good.
However, air operators started cutting fares following pressure from the government, especially as aviation fuel costs have been slashed, with civil aviation minister Praful Patel urging air carriers to pass on the benefit to travellers.
The lean season ahead also forced the issue for operators.
State governments are likely to oppose the uniform taxation policy as it would lead to revenue loss due to lower sales tax collection.
Over the past four months, there has been a sharp decline in aviation fuel prices. While some air carriers earlier this month reduced the fuel surcharge on the ticket price by Rs.200 to Rs.400, they did not touch the base fare.
Oil companies have reduced aviation fuel prices seven times since September. The fuel is now sold at Rs.32,691.28 per kilolitre in Delhi after prices were slashed by Rs.4,208.37 in the first week of December.
