Ben Richardson, CEO at SulNOx, confident they can cost-effectively decarbonise commercial shipping. Watch the video here.
Might the jump in the SP today be indicative of shorts closing their position? Or something else? Either way congrats to all holders (I have a small holding). Hope to see this sort of SP movement with IAG soon. ATB.
Totally agree with your thoughts. Market manipulation perhaps? Would be good to see the level of shorts reduce. Am confident that patience will be regarded here at some point in the future. Been a rough few years for the travel industry, but the tide is turning. LTH. GLA.
Cont'd
"It would be disappointing if instead of working together, any airline would want to put profit ahead of a safe and reliable passenger journey.”
British Airways, whose executives regularly clash with Mr Holland-Kaye, sided with the airport and attacked the approach taken by Emirates, which is based in Dubai and less exposed to the problems at Heathrow.
A British Airways spokesman said Emirates action was “incredibly disappointing news for our customers”
“We’ve already taken responsible action to reduce our summer schedule to slim our programme further, utilising slot alleviation to minimise disruption, provide certainty for travellers and help airports manage their resources.”
Pressure on Mr Holland-Kaye has been mounting as pandemic travel restrictions have receded.
The heads of British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have attacked Mr Holland-Kaye for standing by the demands despite the airport paying its predominantly overseas shareholders £4bn in dividends in the years before Covid hit.
Heathrow has sought to increase customer landing charges to recoup losses racked up during Covid travel restrictions.
Tensions boiled over earlier this year when The Telegraph revealed that Mr Holland-Kaye was part of a panel selecting the Department for Transport’s next director general of aviation — one of the two senior officials to have now written to him demanding action.
The Heathrow boss stepped down from the process following protests from airlines.
Heathrow’s capacity cuts are just the latest attempt to reduce the strain on the airport, which says it only has 70pc of the staff it needs.
British Airways last week announced it would cancel nearly 12,000 flights between July and October after Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, relaxed rules that force airlines to operate a minimum number of services from popular airports like Heathrow whether or not they are full. '
An update from the earlier story
'The chief executive of Heathrow is facing an official ultimatum to resolve the disruption at the understaffed airport, as the world’s biggest international airline openly defies his order to cancel flights.
In a joint letter from the Department for Transport’s (DfT) director general for aviation, maritime and security and chief executive of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), John Holland-Kaye has been given until noon on Friday to assure them that the airport has enough staff for security screening and to assist disabled passengers.
In addition, he was ordered to report back with a “credible and resilient capacity recovery plan for the next six months”, according to the letter seen by The Telegraph.
Rannia Leontaridi of the DfT and Richard Moriarty of the CAA wrote: “Heathrow and the airlines that use your airport must be assured, and be able to assure us, that you have in place a plan that can deliver a positive passenger experience through allowing as many people as possible to travel, without too much disruption and queues, and in particular to avoid significant numbers of short-notice and on-the-day cancellations.
“The Government and the CAA are concerned that current resourcing plans are not delivering this outcome.”
Earlier in the day Emirates, which operates a dozen flights per day from Heathrow terminal three, attacked the “incompetence and non-action” that had left the airport in an “airmageddon” situation.
It spoke out after Heathrow this week asked airlines to help it cope by cancelling 1,000 flights over summer and cap the number of passengers departing at 100,000 per day.
Emirates led a rebellion by foreign airlines, complaining that the airport “gave us 36 hours to comply with capacity cuts, of a figure that appears to be plucked from thin air".
"Their communications not only dictated the specific flights on which we should throw out paying passengers, but also threatened legal action for non-compliance.
"Until further notice, Emirates plans to operate as scheduled to and from Heathrow"
Industry data showed that Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines have also so far declined to cancel flights from Heathrow.
Under siege, Mr Holland-Kaye defended the airport, rejecting criticism over the airport's preparation for the reopening of borders this summer.
Heathrow claimed Emirates was putting “profit before safety". A spokesman said: “For months we have asked airlines to help come up with a plan to solve their resourcing challenges, but no clear plans were forthcoming and with each passing day the problem got worse.
"We had no choice but to take the difficult decision to impose a capacity cap designed to give passengers a better, more reliable journey and to keep everyone working at the airport safe. We have tried to be as supportive as possible to airlines.'
Excerpt below from DT portal. Will other airlines comply with the suggested cap? What will Heathrow do?
'Emirates is refusing to comply with an order from Heathrow to cancel flights to comply with a cap on passenger numbers.
Emirates said it would not cut services from the UK’s busiest airport in a row that risks rebellions by rival airlines serving Heathrow.
The Dubai carrier said demands to cap passenger numbers – and therefore force flight cancellations – “were entirely unreasonable and unacceptable, and we reject these demands”.
Heathrow announced on Tuesday that it would limit the number of passengers it welcomes to 100,000 a day over the summer to avoid worsening travel chaos.
The move would effectively force airlines to cancel more than 1,000 flights over the crucial summer holiday period.
But Emirates, run by British executive Sir Tim Clark, this morning hit back in a statement: “[London Heathrow] last evening gave us 36 hours to comply with capacity cuts, of a figure that appears to be plucked from thin air.
“Their communications not only dictated the specific flights on which we should throw out paying passengers, but also threatened legal action for non-compliance.
“Until further notice, Emirates plans to operate as scheduled to and from Heathrow.”
Heathrow has been contacted for comment.'
Reported on the DT portal this morning. What we already knew.
"London's airports are jam-packed with more passengers every week despite thousands of flight cancellations.
That's according to Bloomberg's Pret Index, which shows sales at Pret a Manger stores in Heathrow, Gatwick, City and Luton airports are now more than 40pc higher than before the pandemic.
The numbers suggest demand for travel isn't abating despite staff shortages, IT meltdowns and strikes sparking delays and cancellations for major airlines including British Airways, easyJet and Wizz Air."
But with the problems that we are experiencing here in the UK, I think summer is not going to be easy.”
He is convinced, however, that BA’s slew of cancellations decided upon in April will not increase.
For Inga Schrade, 34, waiting at Terminal 5 for her flight back to Hamburg, that will be cold comfort. She had been forced to cut a day off her London minibreak when BA last month cancelled her return flight and put her on one 24 hours earlier. “I’ve been having such a nice time, it’s a pity to be going home so soon,” she said.
Gallego and Sean Doyle, the former Aer Lingus chief he appointed as head of British Airways, have been criticised for cutting too many staff during the pandemic; BA shed 10,000 workers. Unions such as Unite have declared that this poor treatment has made it harder for the airline to recruit workers again now demand from customers has returned.
However, Gallego stood by the decision: “Did we go too far? To be honest, no. When you are in a situation where you cannot fly, all your aircraft are grounded, you have huge fixed costs and you are losing a lot of money every day, you need to find a way to survive.
The main shortage now is in ground handlers. BA directly employs a larger proportion of the teams that load and unload baggage than other airlines, and recently agreed with Unite to offer those at Gatwick a 10 per cent pay rise. Unite is currently balloting BA check-in staff at Heathrow over pay.
Gallego said inflation in wages is making hiring tough, but he primarily blamed Britain’s exit from the EU for BA’s difficulties in recruitment. “Whether you like Brexit or not, the fact is that people who could work here before cannot work any more, so we are competing for a reduced pool of people.”
EasyJet has been careful not to blame Brexit, but aviation sources say it is suffering similarly.
Britain’s departure from the EU has also made it far more complicated for UK airlines to lease aircraft complete with crew, maintenance and insurance (ACMI). Known as “wet leases”, these ACMI deals are commonly used to help ramp up capacity quickly.
Gallego and his fellow UK airline bosses want the government to allow EU aviation workers onto the UK visa list and relax the 100-day process that it takes to carry out security vetting on potential employees. At present, airport staff must obtain five years of continuous employment history, which is particularly difficult given that many of these people lost jobs or moved between multiple roles during the pandemic.
The IAG chief also wants the government to ease regulations on the use by airlines of their slots at airports. Under UK rules, if they do not operate 70 per cent of their slots, they can be stripped of them. This in effect forces airlines to run at that capacity even if they do not have the staff to operate the flights, or the passengers to fill them. In Europe, the minimum is 64 per cent.
On Tuesday, airline executives will be hauled in front of MPs on the business, energy and industrial strategy select committee for a likely mauling over the flights chaos. Airlines will doubtless be chastised for the misery suffered by so many families.
MPs will want to know whether the summer holiday season will be better for passengers than the May half-term.
Heathrow’s chief executive John Holland-Kaye has warned that the industry could take 18 months to recover. Gallego is looking shorter term. Of the summer holidays, he said: “We want to improve for sure, and BA is putting in a lot of effort.
Gallego recalls how the famous “traffic light” system that dictated which countries Britain would accept travellers from “changed, like, ten or 11 times in a few months ... Then, before Easter, we left all restrictions suddenly, without any co-ordination.”
Airlines — and the ecosystem of tens of thousands of airport staff, air traffic controllers and ground handlers — cannot be turned on and off at the flick of a switch, he said. All areas have staff shortages.
With regard to Shapps’s attacks on the industry, he added: “We were surprised and we want to explain what is happening, because it is not fair to tell the public that this is all caused by the airlines.
“Can we do it better? For sure. Do we have our own problems? For sure. But everybody needs to understand they can do things better.”
That includes the British government, in Gallego’s reckoning.
IAG, which also owns Aer Lingus in Ireland and Iberia and Vueling in Spain, can be seen as something of a litmus test for how various governments have enabled their airline industries to get back on their feet. The evidence does not reflect well on Boris Johnson.
The most recent monthly data — for April — at IAG’s operations shows that in Spain, Vueling had nearly 97 per cent of 2019 capacity up and running, with punctuality at 89 per cent. Meanwhile, Iberia was at 88 per cent capacity and 90 per cent punctuality.
In Ireland, Aer Lingus was operating at 84 per cent capacity, with punctuality at nearly 80 per cent. In the UK, British Airways was operating at 67 per cent capacity and 68 per cent punctuality.
It could, of course, be that BA is uniquely badly run within the IAG group. It does have a reputation for poor IT systems hobbled by underinvestment. But Gallego puts his UK operation’s poor performance down largely to the unique way in which the British government dealt with the pandemic.
Britain, he said, did less to support airlines than most other countries. “In Spain, the furlough scheme offered more money for employees and lasted right through until March. The British scheme ended in September 2021, even before Omicron hit.”
He added: “The Irish government put on more restrictions than others, so we needed to cut employment there, but now the recovery is going smoother than it is in the UK.”
The American government covered airlines’ payrolls so fewer staff were fired, while Lufthansa, Air France and others got big state handouts. “In Britain, the vaccination programme was very good, but all the changes in [Covid] policies — traffic lights, the various other restrictions — were a nightmare.” It is not just Gallego and the airline industry saying that. The transport select committee of MPs found that the government’s travel rules had been inconsistent, leaving the industry and customers confused.
The jubilee holiday may be receding into the country’s memory, but the chaos at Britain’s airports that marked that fateful week will be here for a long time yet.
Last Wednesday — days after the half-term vacation rush — Heathrow’s Terminal 3 was plunged once more into turmoil. Queues snaked from the departure gates on the top floor, down the escalators (which had to be switched off), into the check-in hall below and out through the doors to the concourse.
Said one airport worker on a quieter morning a couple of days later: “It was just crazy. It’s fine now, but the afternoon shift might be a nightmare — there are so many cancellations, you just can’t tell.”
Over at Terminal 5, Neil and Valerie Sharp, both 62, were waiting for their flight to Vancouver with British Airways for their 25th wedding anniversary. “We’ve had a few sleepless nights after seeing on the telly what was happening last week,” said Valerie. “BA cancelled our return flights but they transferred us to another pretty smoothly, and they told us about it a month ago.”
They are far from alone. Realising it did not have enough staff to cope with scheduled bookings, BA decided two months ago to cancel about 10 per cent of its flights for the summer, moving customers to other slots where possible.
EasyJet, some insiders at the airline now quietly admit, took too long to make a similar decision, and its customers suffered more chaos than those of most other airlines during the jubilee holiday.
Now transport secretary Grant Shapps has rounded on the industry, suggesting its incompetence led to it “overbooking” — selling tickets and holidays that it knew it could never provide.
The industry hit back, with Willie Walsh, former chief executive of the IAG group, owner of BA, last week condemning “idiot” politicians telling airlines they should have ramped up their operations sooner. Walsh, now director-general of the International Air Transport Association, said airlines would have gone bust had they followed Shapps’s advice, because the government kept restricting travel due to Covid.
As it was, IAG lost €3 billion (£2.5 billion) last year, and in the first quarter of this year alone lost a further €731 million.
Walsh’s replacement, Real Madrid fanatic Luis Gallego, is not as hot-headed as his former mentor — but, sitting in his open-plan office near Terminal 5, he is clearly not happy with the transport secretary’s noisy posturing.
“The government has to take some accountability for all this and work with us in a constructive way,” he said.
“They have said the problem was that we overbooked and didn’t forecast demand, but forecasting demand is one thing we as airlines know how to do ... The more difficult thing has been to forecast what the government is going to do.”
Sorry for the bad link.
US covid test for airports was embarrassing. Have been reading about people travelling to Canada & Mexico from Europe with covid in order to get back into the US via the land border (no test required). Hopefully this policy is now resigned to the history books.
GLA.
Heapy says jet2 anticipated the recovery in air travel & during autumn 2021 began hiring staff. Other airlines have waited to hire. Also says there have been NO cancellations thus far, only delays due to other airlines clogging the system. Link below.
https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/air/jet2-chief-says-travel-issues-will-improve-as-staff-shortages-addressed
Jet2 chief executive Steve Heapy has insisted issues causing travel delays “will improve” as the industry addresses staff shortages and said the current situation is “as bad as it will get”.
https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/air/jet2-chief-says-travel-issues-will-improve-as-staff-shortages-addressed
196.9 with a traffic light system in place for Intl travel. Now in the 120's, both bonkers.
Still waiting for the US to remove the pre departure covid test for air travel. No test needed for land travel at US Mexico & Canada borders, also bonkers.
LTH, GLA.