IAGblog Podcasts

India has the world's fastest growing air travel sector - yes faster than the Gulf. Year on year growth was 17%. Imagine that in the EU or North America? The airlines would be doing back flips of joy. But in India you have near total financial chaos. Air India is a political plaything that has no business being a business. Keeping it afloat is hurting the other airlines; Jet and Kingfisher are hurting - the latter badly. There is one shining star in IndiGo. The Bangalore Aviation team explain the impact of political support for Air India and the punitive state fuel taxes are making the industry nonviable in the long run. The squandered opportunity is a shame.

Yes its true. The Obama Administration’s proposed tripling of the passenger security tax is on the table. Will Congress go along? After all there is a real need to cut the deficit. As one can imagine this new tax is not going over well - the ATA is reacting by speaking to one and all. As ATA VP Communications Steve Lott explains, ATA is busy with an education process. He shares some simple numbers that are very interesting. Many would be surprised to find out how much of an airline ticket is taxation. And it is going to get worse. Government has learned over the years that they can keep taxing air travel and it keeps growing. But the airlines are truly burdened at this stage and consumers are running into sticker shock.

Although flights are at record load factors, airlines are producing awful returns on capital. Which means the industry is ever more a risky bet for the financial industry. Without an industry business model that provides a reasonable rate of return there will be a smaller tax base to exploit.The tax base is huge - from the aerospace industry through to the tourism industry. It is a tax base to nurture not needle.

Public policy cannot assume that air travel has an inelastic demand curve, because it does not. The airline industry has laid off thousands of people - and it shows on every trip you take. The industry employees are exhausted and ill tempered. Which is not great for an service industry.

If you would like to join ATA in its education mission, visit http://www.stopairtaxnow.com/.

Our conversation with Gueric Dechavanne (VP at Collateral Verifications) covers the views from leasing firms and valuation firms of the next generation of single-aisle airplanes. As the re-engine programs have gained momentum, we hear much less about current fleet values. Gueric explains how he sees this change - and discusses long term values. We cover a lot of the issues and dwell some on the 757.

Another of our growing programs on the vibrant Indian aviation scene. Today we discuss tough times at Kingfisher - especially the Red mess with implications for the ATR fleet. We also discuss a polar opposite - success at IndiGo, rising profits and its international expansion plans. Finally we look at SpiceJet's success looking inwards using Q400s to great effect.

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Teal Group's Richard Aboulafia took an unusual way of looking back at 9/11. Richard describes how the impact of 9/11 has played out. His view is that the sad day did not create the long term impact one might have expected. Yes, it was a horrible day. But looking back, the damage to the economy and aviation industry was not as bad as many expected.

If you're a very frequent flyer this story is for you. Ed Pizzarello is co-founder of Star Megado and runs a site called Milepoint.com. Go to the site and sign up as you listen to how much fun a travel geek can have.

The second in our now monthly review of Indian and other sub-continent aviation news with Bangalore Aviation. We talk about Air India and the 787, Kingfisher's financial pressure and Spicejet's brand new Q-400.

Yesterday Boeing unveiled the 737 MAX - a name that is likely to be the name it bears among industry analysts and airline people alike.  Getting to yesterday was a long and sometime tortuous road.  After debating for years it seems, and being pushed by Airbus’ neo decision, MAX was born rather quickly in the end.  Discussing this with us is Scott Hamilton and Jon Ostrower. The remind us of the many steps it took to see MAX for the first time.  Of course MAX is not done yet, there may be some more changes but these are expected to be subtle.

We spoke with CAPA's Will Horton today about the Qantas results which were announced today. They were pretty good and although these were as guidance had indicated, it was great to see the company come though a pretty nasty period and make a profit. We go on to discuss Jetstar Japan, the as yet unnamed Asian-based premium airline and end off talking about Tiger and the restarting of that airline.

David Kaminski-Morrow, Air Transport Editor at FlightGlobal, published two interesting stories on the AF447 aftermath which now is best described as acrimonious phase. Now its pilots and airline vs. Airbus. On a visit to Airbus last year we were told the company felt that, regardless of what the investigation found out, Airbus was compelled to pay for the continued search for the black boxes. They felt they simply have to know what happened - if there is something to fix, they need to know what it is. The black boxes were found, data recovered and analyzed. Here we are now, as David explains, we know what happened. But why did it happen?

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