The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has welcomed France’s adoption of a One-Stop Security system. With the new system in place, passengers that have already been screened at a European airport will no longer need to be screened a second time when making flight connections.
With this decision, France is joining the majority of the EU countries that already allow One-Stop Security for passengers arriving from another EU airport.
In France, One-Stop Security for passengers and their hand luggage will be applied to individual airports this year, starting with Lyon and selected terminals at Paris Charles de Gaulle. IATA estimates that this will impact 6 million passengers and save US$30 million a year with no compromise on the quality of security being applied.
Giovanni Bisignani, IATA’s director general and CEO, says: “It is a waste of time, effort and resources to ask passengers to stand again at security if they have already been checked by a competent screening authority a few hours earlier. This frustrates passengers and drains scarce security resources. The business case for One-Stop Security is clear: faster, hassle-free connections for passengers and lower security costs for everyone involved. There is no compromise on quality. I urge other states - particularly the UK and Ireland - to come on board quickly.”
The next step, IATA claims, is to integrate One-Stop Security into the global system. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is working on developing the concept of One-Stop Security to promote it on a global scale.
“The key is common recognition of standards. We need more governments to exchange information with each other and conclude security agreements that recognise their security measures as equivalent,’ Bisignani says. ‘This is a global industry with a great track record on safety because of global standards and international cooperation including industry and governments. We must approach security with the same mindset. This is no time for complacency.”
Global airline capacity and traffic volumes continue to decline
This is the latest prediction from OAG (www.oagaviation.com): Nearly 5 percent fewer flights forecast in 2009 and a commensurate 3 percent drop in seat capacity.
Less crowded airports may mean less hassle on the ground; but not much hope of emptier planes, as airlines cut capacity.
The world’s airlines scheduled 4.9% fewer flights for March 2009 compared with the same month last year, with a 3.3% drop in seat capacity, according to the latest statistics from OAG (www.oagaviation.com).
This is the eighth successive month of decline, and represents a reduction of more than 122,000 flights and 9.8 million seats year on year. The total number of flights scheduled to operate worldwide in March is 2.38 million, offering 289.8 million seats to travelers around the globe. Global airline schedules for the first quarter 2009 have dropped by 6.7%, or 491,000 fewer flights. This is the first time we have seen a downturn in Q1 figures since 2002, when the industry was absorbing the double impact of 9/11 terrorist attacks on the U.S. and an economic meltdown from the burst of the dot.com bubble. Capacity for this quarter also has fallen by 4.4%, representing a reduction of 38.6 million seats. Within the United States this month, domestic airline flight activity has dropped 9.2% overall, or 76,164 fewer flights, resulting in 6.5 million fewer seats. The U.S. low cost sector is showing a year-on-year decrease for the month of just over 9% for both frequencies and capacity. David Beckerman, vice president market intelligence at OAG, says: ‘OAG figures for March reveal a continuing slowdown in the global figures and on the key long-haul routes between North America and hubs in Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America. Asia is holding up much better with a marginal decline in frequencies and slight growth in intra-regional capacity, while the Middle East is bucking the global trend with comparatively healthy growth, especially for international operations. Europe continues to see sharp cutbacks on routes to, from and within the region, while Africa remains fairly stable compared with this time last year.’ OAG FACTS uses interactive graphs to display a visual trend of the performance of a specific airport, route, country or region from 2001 onwards, sourced from OAG’s consolidated database of global airline schedules. For a fuller review of this month’s OAG FACTS statistics, please visit http://www.oagaviation.com/aviation-reports/reports-f-and-c-trends.htm.
According to a report by EUROCONTROL in Brussels, the decline in air traffic will affect all sectors.
‘Even the low-cost market is not immune – in November 2008 it saw its first 12-month decline in 15 years and in February saw 5% fewer flights than February 2008 (even allowing for the leap year). The business aviation market is also declining – down by 21% in February 2009 compared to February 2008. The weak trans-Atlantic traffic caused by the economic and financial crisis has wiped out any benefits of the EU-US Open Skies agreement which came into effect last spring.
The economic crisis is affecting air traffic on three fronts: reduced output and incomes means fewer goods to ship and lower demand for air travel; secondly, credit difficulties have hindered restructuring and investment by aircraft operators and contributed to bankruptcies; and finally recent migration flows within Europe, which had brought an increase in air travel, now appear to be reversing.
“As passengers look for cheaper ticket options, yields are falling and load factors remain weak despite airlines cutting capacity in the winter,” said David Marsh, Head of Forecasting at EUROCONTROL. “All of these factors suggest that this decrease will not be short-lived and the recovery in traffic growth is not expected before the end of 2009 with, at best, weak growth in 2010.”
Here is a welcome new ‘a la carte’ initiative will help travelers tame the hostile airport.
United’s new Premier Line service provides priority access to three types of specially reserved lines that offer travelers priority at check-in, security and boarding, including boarding for connecting flights. Prices start at $25.
‘When we asked people what travel services are most important to them, they told us that access to airport priority lines was something they value highly,’ says Dennis Cary, senior vice president and chief marketing and customer officer. ‘Premier Lione provides convenient access to fast-track lanes and is another choice for our customers to customize their travel experience.’
Premier Line is available in the U.S. at United’s five hub airports – Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington Dulles – and at 9 other airports, including Boston, New York LaGuardia, and Seattle. You can purchase the service at www.united.com when booking a ticket, while checking in online, or anytime through the ‘My Itineraries’ page at united.com. The option is also coming available at United’s airport kiosks.
United’s Premier Line service is offered to a limited number of passengers each hour based on time of departure. Elite Mileage Plus members continue to enjoy complimentary access to priority lines as they have in the past.
My New Year predictions are even less likely to be fulfilled than my New Year resolutions (which include traveling less in 2009). But, as the man said, optimism is okay as long as you don’t inhale. So do not expect too much from my crystal ball. More sapient soothsayers than me have more questions than answers.
Expect the unexpected. Will international business travel return to 2000 levels? How important is the ‘hassle factor,’ a result of more onerous and stringent security, in keeping the road warrior off the road? What role will state-of-the-art videoconferencing play as a prime substitute for business ‘interactions’? Not a lot in my view.
Let the bad times roll! You don’t have to be a professional cynic to believe that what is bad for the travel trade is good for the traveler; depending on the fine balance between supply and demand - the difference between a buyers’ and sellers’ market.
The late author, Anthony Samson, once said that there are only two types of planes, empty planes and full planes. And the challenge for the traveler is to find a flight with plenty of empty seats.
Amid the doom and gloom, I am getting mixed signals.
IATA has forecasted $4.1 billion losses for airlines this year, even with oil prices falling; more than 30 airlines have gone bust in the last 12 months; carriers are supposed to be cutting capacity in an attempt to meet slowing demand.
And yet I am getting mixed signals from a pick of recent headlines: while some airlines are cutting back, others are adding new services.
‘Emirates double flights between Dubai and Milan;’ ‘Boeing sees strong Asia-Pacific market with ample investor opportunities;’ ‘KLM returns to Liverpool after 70 years..’
‘Virgin Atlantic flying high…11 percent more business travelers in 2008;’ ‘BA cuts capacity as profit crashes 92 percent.’
And what’s this? Air Asia X, Asia’s biggest no-frills carriers, is launching the first long-haul budget service between Kuala Lumpur and London-Stansted on March 11, 2009.
‘Credit-crunch’ is now vying with ‘war on terror’ as the mantra of the decade; but the impact on travelers is likely to be far less onerous. The post-9/11 ‘war on terror’ contributed much to the delays, indignities and the misery of air travel - harassment by over-zealous immigration and security officials and baggage restrictions. But the ‘credit-crunch’ and the crazy unpredictable (can economists predict anything - except what has already happened!) swings in the price of oil may perversely turn out to be good news for travelers.
Travelers complain that the price of tickets can just about double when it comes to the final amount charged, thanks to a raft of taxes, fuel surcharges, and airline charges for almost everything, from checked baggage to onboard beverages, even soft drinks and water, to changing tickets.
The airlines believe that “à la carte,” pay-for-all-the-extras pricing is the magic bullet for restoring profitability. À la carte pricing will work for both airlines and travelers provided it is “transparent” and offers customer choice; after all, why pay for a meal and beverages, or baggage services that you don’t need? American Airlines, for example, has announced it will fully implement à la carte pricing next year. There are likely to be a few basic fares, giving travelers the option of paying for additional services.
Air Canada has an exemplary à la carte pricing model: travelers can choose from four basic fare levels. The top tickets, Latitude and Executive Class, are all refundable and come with priority check-in, food, drinks and all the frills. The cheapest fare, Tango, requires extra fees for meals, advance seat selection, flight changes and airport lounge access; Tango passengers can save $3 if they forgo frequent flier miles, or do not check a bag.
Speculating on the scope for a la carte options with the Airbus A380 Super Jumbo some time ago, I envisaged one of the airline alliances, such as Star Alliance or Oneworld, operating the ‘flying village’ for member airlines, who might share the same plane on certain routes, with their own fares, flight attendants, in-flight cuisine, and style of service. Franchises would be sold for wining and dining and other amenities.
Even the airport experience promises to be less of a terminal nightmare thanks to growing use of self-service options.
The next stage to printing out the boarding card at home will be to check in with your cell phone, or use it as a postbox for a Web check-in. Check in the night before and send it to your mobile. According to IATA, ten airlines enable mobile phone check-in with bar-coded boarding passes.
Cell phones will lessen the misery of hanging around the airport waiting for a delayed flight.
Mobile technology will enable airlines to send a message to you saying, ‘don’t turn up at the airport at two o’clock but at four; and by the way, here’s your new boarding pass. You will also be able to use your mobile device as a boarding pass. Airports in Japan, Scandinavia and Germany are even installing self-boarding gates. Travelers present their boarding pass either as a piece of paper or mobile with a bar code.
Look out too for unmanned baggage drop facilities. If your bags don’t make it to the other end, instead of standing in line for an agent, you will fill in the data at a kiosk, or an Internet work station, in the baggage hall, print a receipt, and leave without seeing anyone.
I was quite pleased to read that the third YOTEL (the Japanese inspired ‘capsule’ hotel) has launched its third ‘airside’ site at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. (You can find my original YOTEL story through the search engine here on RogerandRandy.) The new YOTEL is located in the secure transit area on the second floor of Lounge 2, close to Pier D.
YOTEL opened its first hotel inside London Gatwick’s South Terminal opposite international arrivals in July 2007; the second at Heathrow (on the mezzanine level inside Terminal 4) in December 2007.
I have not yet stayed at a YOTEL. But they promise to be a refuge for travelers who want a cheap and cheerful place to lay their head for a few hours at any time of the day or night. Ideal if you have an early flight, or you have a hefty wait in transit or time to kill before a meeting.
YOTEL ‘cabins’ come with all the facilities you would expect from a comfortable hotel room. Both ‘premium’ and ‘standard’ cabins come with en suite bathrooms, and 24-hour room service. Each cabins is equipped with a desk, free Wi Fi, wired Internet access, and ‘techno-wall’ entertainment system.
Prices for a standard cabin range from £25 (35 euros) for four hours and around £56 overnight, while a premium cabin costs £40 for four hours, and around £82 overnight. Cabins can be booked on line at www.yotel.com
The diplomatic row some time ago issuing from Russia’s refusal to extradite to Britain former KGB agent Andrei Lugovoy, who allegedly murdered fellow Russian Alexander Litvinenko with a dose of polonium-210 in London in November, 2006, leaving a lethal radioactive trail in restaurants, hotels and planes, recalls to mind a letter I received from a reader, a ‘nuclear inspector’ with the European Commission in Luxembourg, who claims his baggage had received ‘dangerous levels’ of X-rays during a connection at Paris Charles-de-Gaulle Airport.
Peter (not his real name) writes: ‘My flight from Marseille to Luxembourg (via Paris CDG) arrived with no baggage, despite a three-hour layover in Paris. When it finally caught up with me, I found that my Nuclear Electronic Dosimeter inside was emitting an alarm tone. When it was electronically read at my office, it transpired that the baggage had received an X-ray does of 0.326 mSv (milli Sievert) - very high when you consider that a person is normally allowed a maximum 2mSv a year! X-ray machines also produce doses of “radio activity.”‘
‘I don’t know what the security people did with my baggage in Paris,’ Peter adds, ‘but it is important to advise other travelers that such high doses of radiation will destroy unexposed film or other sensitive materials and may even cause trouble for electronic circuits, and flash cards, or memory sticks. My bags are never locked so they can be opened and checked by security, who clearly refer to use electronic X-ray systems to the maximum. Airports should do more to control security staff who, in my case, must have left the machine on for an inordinate amount of time.’
A disturbing new angle in surviving the airport experience.