The End Of An Era

Boeing has recently announced that production on the final 717 has commenced. There are two reasons that I feel this is the end of an era.
The first is that this jet, which is to be delivered to Airtran, will be the final aircraft to ever be produced at Boeing's Long Beach, CA facility. This facility has produced many aircraft which have changed the aviation world forever, such as one of the most important aircraft of all time, the DC-3. Other aircraft that were produced at the Long Beach facility include the DC-9, DC-10, MD-11, and the MD-80.
The second reason that I feel this is the end of an era is that this aircraft will be the last aircraft related to the DC-9 ever sold. The DC-9, MD-80, and the 717 are aircraft that are very important aircraft in the fleets of many airlines, even though they are aging. Northwest Airlines operates a very large fleet of DC-9's. American Airlines has over 233 MD-80's in its fleet. Delta Airlines operates 136 MD-80's and MD-90's. Airtran operates 84 717's currently, with 4 more on order. Hopefully these great aircraft will continue to serve airlines for many years to come.
So, to McDonnell Douglas, all the wonderful employees at Long Beach, the DC-9, and the Boeing 717, I say:

So long, and thanks for all the planes!

~MD-11

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Surprise, Surprise: US Airways Orders A350

The newly merged US Airways will buy 20 A350-800s, becoming the first airline to do so, and deliveries will start in 2011 and go until 2014. The plane is capable of seating 253 in a standard three-class seat layout.

According to Airbus, the airline's A330 pilots won't need to undergo additional training to fly the new airplane. The deal is worth €3.42 billion, or $4.03 billion, at list prices. Keep in mind that Airbus will most likely cut a deal with the airline so that it pays significantly less for the aircraft.

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Air Canada Says Goodbye and Adieu to Jazz

ACE, the parent of Air Canada, said today it will spin off Jazz into an income trust. AC will get the proceeds of the deal, as well as majority control of Jazz. From the Globe and Mail of Toronto:

ACE plans to market Jazz as a source of stable income because it effectively serves as a charter airline booked by Air Canada for regional flights. Jazz incurs costs for pilots and planes, but it receives a steady stream of revenue from Air Canada, even if a flight is half empty.

Jazz began charging Air Canada an hourly flying rate on Sept. 30, 2004, when Air Canada emerged from bankruptcy protection.

“Jazz doesn't have to worry about fluctuations in passenger loads. If Jazz runs on a Monday and it's half empty, it's the same fee as if it's full. It has a guarantee of revenue because of a capacity purchase agreement,” an industry source told the Globe and Mail. As part of that pact, Jazz pumps jet fuel into its planes but Air Canada pays those fuel bills.

Jazz had capacity last month of 358 million available seat miles (ASMs), or 40 per cent of WestJet Airlines Ltd.'s capacity of 905 million ASMs. But as a trust, Jazz's $1-billion value on the stock market would be two-thirds the size of WestJet's $1.5-billion valuation of common shares.

Halifax-based Jazz has its roots spread across Canada. In 2002, Jazz emerged as the new name for the merger two years earlier of four regional carriers: Air BC, Canadian Regional Airlines, Air Ontario and Air Nova.

Jazz has 3,700 employees and 119 aircraft, which seat 37 to 75 people. The carrier has been growing rapidly, with its passenger traffic in October up 77.8 per cent from the same month last year.

Jazz CEO Joseph Randell, in a corporate presentation, wrote that Air Canada effectively “buys or rents the capacity flown by the regional carrier.”

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Northwest Goes Down The Toilet - Literally

For those that don't believe me, check out http://cgi.ebay.com/NORTHWEST-AIRLINES-model-going-down-the-toilet_W0QQitemZ6581964642QQcategoryZ10771QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Since this link might not be around for much longer, I'll post the contents of the page here.

Please note that I did not write the remainder of this post, so don't get mad at me for these rather radical views.

With wage cuts, layoffs, and replacement workers…

parking airplanes and cutting service…

The Airline is shrinking!

If the Northwest airline model gets much smaller it will slide right down the toilet.

Just look at the picture.

This Minnesota based Northwest Airlines plastic A320 model is falling to pieces and close to going down the drain.

Time is running out! This may be your last chance to salvage the Northwest airline model.

Bid Now, before it’s too late!

Or, just Watch and see what happens.

Getting the Northwest airline model out of the toilet would make a wonderful holiday gift for anyone who may be further impacted if it goes all the way down the tube.

Gift wrapping is available upon request.

One-way economy shipping from MSP would have cost only $158.51 if you had bid over a month ago. It might have cost you $255.51 a couple of weeks ago. By the end of this auction, the shipping will cost $1112.51 plus all applicable taxes and fees… however, to remain competitive in this dynamic market, we supposedly have no choice but to give away the farm. Shipping is now FREE.

"The Airline" refers to the airline industry as a whole, and all other airline references are descriptive only of the plastic airplane model pictured in the toilet.

EXECUTIVE BONUSES...

I can’t explain how we continue to operate without any profits. Our executive compensation plan is another important component of our strategy of giving away the farm. In order to retain the talented executives with the knowledge and skills necessary to get the airline model out of the toilet, we supposedly have no choice but to give huge executive bonuses in addition to some of the highest executive pay in the industry.

The first bidder is receiving the keys to a 1999 BMW 5-series with remote keyless entry. Yes, that’s right, I am giving this bidder the keys to a BMW just for bidding!

There will be more bonuses given as we continue to strive toward our goal of getting the Northwest airline model out of the toilet.

Do your part to get the Northwest airline model out of the toilet, Bid Now!

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Champagne Flows in Chicago Thanks to the Chinese

Just when the folks over in Chicago and Seattle couldn't have thought it possible t get muchhappier after the big Emirates order (see last post), they can now. Eight Chinese airlines placed an order yesterday - when President Bush was in town - for 70 737-700s and -800s worth about $4 billion. They will be delievered between next year and 2008.

No specifics were given, but the planes will go to Air China, China Eastern, and China Southern. And it seems now that for the first time in five years, Boeing might outsell Airbus - it has 659 orders now compared to Airbus' 494.

Boeing has traditionally been pretty strong in the Asia-Pacific market, even as Airbus has eroded its market share in other regions.

And President Bush has to be happy - he's been doing a lot of complaining lately about the United States' huge trade deficit with China. This order should help cut some of that.

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Singapore: No Merger with Qantas

Excerpts from an article by the AP:

SINGAPORE (AP) -- Singapore Airlines on Friday dismissed talk of a potential merger with Qantas, saying the issue could only be considered if the Australian government allows greater competition on the prized trans-Pacific route to the United States.

On Thursday, Australian Prime Minister John Howard threw his weight behind the idea of a merger between two of Asia's biggest -- and most profitable -- airlines after a meeting with counterpart Lee Hsien Loong on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea.

"This issue has already been discussed and debated extensively in recent months," Singapore Airlines spokesman Stephen Forshaw said. "We've said all along that for mergers to happen, there needs to be considerable regulatory liberalization. It is an idea ahead of its time."

Interesting. First of all, Singapore and Qantas both are bastions of their respective alliances - SQ is a big Star player, and Qantas was a founding member of oneworld. So if they did merge, which alliance would win out? The problem with this is that Qantas is partly owned by British Airways - another oneworld member. And Singapore owns 49% of Virgin Atlantic - BA's archrival.

But the issue that's the focus point isn't alliances; it's a route: Los Angeles - Sydney, which is only flown by United and Qantas as of now. According to the AP article, Qantas has about 75% of the market share on that route, which also constitutes 15% of its total profit. Singapore wants in on the route, so it can pick up passengers on the Singapore-Australia-Los Angeles circuit.

I believe that Singapore, which will only allow a merger if the Australian government is more allowing of competition on the trans-Pacific routes, is playing hard-to-get. If the Australian prime minister is backing the merger, then they will probably do some things to appease Singapore.

Both airlines are world-class nonetheless. Singapore is known for its fantastic service (think Raffles class) and Qantas is known for its profitability and safety record.

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Olympic Airlines Is Gone.... Or Is It?

It seems that Greek flag-carrier Olympic Airlines will be replaced by a new airline company with a different name. Olympic Airlines was created by the Greek government back in 2003 to replace the old Olympic - Olympic Airways. The government has tried time and time again to privatize it, and with the latest attempt unsuccessful, it seems that they're going to shut it down and relaunch it.

Details are still sketchy, but the new entity will apparently have the word 'Olympic' in its new name. Some possibilities as of now are Olympic Air or Air Olympic.

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Air Canada 767s Go Silver

In an effort to save cash, Air Canada is testing out the polished à-la-American look on its Boeing 767 fleet. The whole process shaves off 360 pounds of weight on each plane, which means AC will save about $24,000 per year on fuel costs. Not all 767s will be polished, and of course, Airbus crafts can't be polished because of the material they're made out of (no idea what it is, though).

Personally, I think the new 'toothpaste tube' paint job is OK, but it just doesn't go with polished aluminum. American's scheme is a classic, and Northwest did a decent job with their new paint job too. But the fuselage looks like it's been sanded with 120 grit sandpaper by a woodworking class.

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Delta, Air France - KLM, and Northwest

In this day and age, there are a lot airlines allinces, but none stronger than one existing within SkyTeam. Delta and Air France have, for years, had very strong ties. Northwest and KLM are considered, by many, to be one airline, especially with their profit sharing. Now that Air France and KLM are one airline, the image has almost come full circle. The one missing peice is the joining of Delta and Northwest, to create the biggest airline, ever. Together, could emerge from Chapter 11, and be the face of the all new American aviation industry. One of the main barriers is that there are no aircraft that the two airlines have in common, except for the 757-200, but even those have different engines! One of the best things that the two airlines have that is different is their route structure. Northwest has a very extensive Pacific route network, and Delta has a pretty large European route structure, which has expansion in store. The presence over the Atlantic could be incresed using the Northwest 757-200's, like Continental (The Delta 757-200's have non-ETOPS engines). Sure, some aircraft would have to go, such as the DC-9, the DC-10, the 737-200, the 737-300, and the 747-200, but that is okay. The most important thing is to have most of the legacy carriers out of bankrupcy. It is possible that this new carrier may cause troubles for some of the other legacy carriers, but I do not think that we will see any of them going away any time soon.

Just my two cents...

~MD-11

Be sure to check back tomorrow for my opinions on today's aviation related stories.

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Delta: Pilots Strike Would Be 'Murder-Suicide'

Yesterday, Delta Air Lines said that if their pilots were to go on strike, it would be'murder-suicide' for the third largest airline in the U.S. That's right, folks - we're looking at a very distinct possibility that come next week, Delta may not exist anymore.

Sure, we've heard it all before - United was going to fail back in '02. It was going to be curtains for American back in '03. And just how many times has everyone - myself included - stuck a fork in US Airways, pronouncing them dead? The most recent time was during last December. But now US Airways has a relatively promising future ahead of them, with the merger with America West and all that. In short, since 9/11 and the resulting industry tailspin, we have yet to see a major US legacy carrier bite the dust. Everyone knows that it will take just one carrier to collapse for the situation to improve drastically for everyone else. So it's been a game of chicken so far - and although all those airlines have filed for Chapter 11 or warned about Chapter 7 - nobody's actually gone under yet.

So could a strike by the pilots really kill Delta? Well, first we'd have to see whether the pilots are really going to strike or not. Delta wants $325 million more out of their payroll - on top of the $1 billion they conceded last year. If the pilot's contract is rejected in bankruptcy court, the ALPA has warned, the 6000 pilots at Delta will walk off the job. And according to the company, that would be illegal, saying that the Railway Labor Act would prevent such a thing. The RLA basically makes the would-be strikers resort to bargaining, mediation, arbitration, etc. instead of actually striking.

What's the company saying about this? They're basically dismissing it as a hollow threat. I believe that the top brass at Delta think that the pilots won't really strike. After all, a pilots strike by Eastern Airlines pilots in 1989 virtually killed the company. But it's definately a news item worth watching. Delta may believe that its pilots are just blowing smoke, but if you reported a $1.13 billion quarterly loss just a few days ago, wouldn't you be worried?

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Hello! from MD-11

Hi, I am MD-11 and I will be posting my opinions on current events in the aviation world! Today I am going to start off with the newly announced Boeing 747-8, so here it goes:

Today, Boeing FINALLY announced their plan to release a new 747!

But, they had to screw it up, by calling it the 747-8 Intercontinental, what's up with that? Why the heck don't they just call it the 747-800, or, even better, the 747-5, or, my personal favorite, the 747-500!

How long did it take for Boeing to finally realize that they might actually be able to undercut Airbus on this one, for once! I mean, they already had the main design from 40 years ago, all that they had to do was to strengthen the fuselage and extend the freaking upper deck, how hard would that be to do!

At least, Boeing says that it will have less wake vortex than the WhaleJet, one good thing!

An unfortunate thing that has come up with the 747-8 is that there are no orders for the passenger version, but these orders will hopefully come, especially with JAL's recent announcement to retire its 747-200's and its 747-300's.

~MD-11

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New Member Onboard

I've decided to let my friend MD-11 join the blog. He'll post his various rants, raves, etc. - not as often as I will, but it's still nice to have an opposing viewpoint now and then.

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New Boeing 747 Model Launched

Big - literally - big news. Today Boeing launched its biggest aircraft ever, the 747-8, which will enter service sometime in late 2009. Already it (well, the cargo version, at least) has gotten 5 billion dollars in orders from Luxembourg's Carolux and Japan's Nippon Cargo Airlines. Boeing says that its new plane will bridge the gap between current aircraft on the market and the mammoth A380, produced by archrival Airbus.

According to Boeing, there's also going to be a passenger version that's capable of seating 450 - about 105 smaller than the A380. So far, however, no airline has ordered the pax version, which has been dubbed the Boeing 747-8 Intercontinental. Most airlines who are interested in the 747 already have various models of it, the most numerous of which is the -400. But Boeing is bragging that the Intercontinental won't need to have upgraded airport facilities to handle it like the A380 will.

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