IAGblog Podcasts

The EU was famous for its splendid aerospace - Fokker, BAe, SAAB, Aerospatiale, CASA, Dornier. Any enthusiast knows these names. So what happened over the last decade? These fabulous names and great products disappeared. What happened to the technologies, people and creativity?

Fokker invented the regional jet concept decades ago. SAAB made an awesome turboprop - best in class. Dornier had a winner in its 728 - its the design now seen in SuperJet and CSeries. BAe's RJ was also ahead of its time.

Erkan Pinar and Jonathan Norris work in the industry and share their thoughts on this fantastic heritage and we lament on what was and might have been. Myopia killed a lot of great talent - talent now scattered around the world. And, without question, its the EU's loss.

To give a quick review of today's tanker briefing we assembled Richard Aboulafia, Scott Hamilton and Ernie Arvai. The consensus view is that the approach is more transparent than before, suiting both vendors. But the political interference is already on the table. The process is likely to be as messy as before.

This is the plane that started it all - the original Jumbo Jet. For those who have seen it up close, its something you don't forget. Telling us how the program is going (very, very well, thank you), is Jeff Armentrout, Lockheed Martin's C-5 Business Development Manager.

Jeff explains how the M is exceeding expectations - they set out to break over 30 records on a recent flight and managed over 40! The airframe has 70% of its life left and therefore can go to 2040. Truly a testament to remarkable engineering. About 75% of the better performance comes from the GE CF-6 engines.

Jeff then goes on to share thoughts about what might come next; composites, more avionics improvements, and improved fuel burn from better drag and, maybe, winglets! Yes, think about how big those would have to be on that wing. This is a great briefing for any fan of older planes that still do their job very well.

The concept is great - minimize dead time in flight by going online. Straightforward, right? For a passenger maybe. But for firms in this space - both vendors and airlines, the business models are unsettled. David Friedman and Arman Afsar are both industry veterans. They share their thoughts on the industry and its challenges with pricing, access, content and that bugbear - in seat power. In the end, we agree the industry remains uncertain - exploring for a revenue recipe that works for vendors, airlines and of course passengers.

Now that Japan Airlines is in play, a tectonic plate shift is occurring in the airline industry. Ted Reed, airline correspondent at TheStreet.com, broke a story this week that describes these events. Ted explains what the stakes are for OneWorld and Sky Team alliances. OneWorld and its members cannot afford to lose JAL. Sky Team on the other hand can play a disruptive hand here, forcing OneWorld to pay more than it wants to keep JAL. Fascinating times.

Yesterday Boeing shared some new thinking and images of its
tankers. Now there's a family and as the image above shows, the 767 has seemingly undergone a new look with winglets. Bill Barksdale, Boeing's Director of Communication for Global Mobility Systems shares the company's thinking on costs, new flight decks and Boeing's ability to try out maneuver its competitor. Boeing's tankers even have their own website now - www.unitedstatestanker.com.

Say what you will about the competition, one thing is sure, Boeing has worked to develop a much better offering. Competition has already performed its task. The other side has no doubt also been revising and refining its plans.

This week the Brazilian president sort of let the cat out of the bag - he preempted the formal decision about a big fighter decision. So the French look like they have won an export order (at last) for the Rafale. But the deal includes France teaching the Brazilians how to build nuclear submarines and also helping the Brazilians market their increasingly interesting KC-390 freighter/tanker.

In the conversation we have Michel Merluzeau from G2 Solutions and Graham Warwick from Aviation Week to discuss the various aspects of the deal. The conversation winds though a lot of Rafale and Gripen insight as well.

Today we published a report in conjunction with CAPA and TheTravelStrategist.com all about airlines and their use of social media. In this discussion we have Peter Harbison, chairman of CAPA and Steven Frischling, founder of the TheTravelStrategist.com, discussing the report's main findings.

Today we spoke with ATW's Editorial Director Perry Flint about passenger rights - in light on the flights that seem to imprison people for hours on end. Perry explains that it looks like the industry will end up facing regulation on this because it appears airlines cannot seem to fix this. We then briefly spoke about the WTO findings - while few people have seen the 1,000 page document, it seems time has moved on and it is probably a Pyrrhic victory.

Southwest Airlines has just created a new ancillary revenue fee. Timothy O'Neil-Dunne thinks its a silly fee and says so in plain language. Then we took a look at the new Travel Guide on the airline's site and he skewered this too! Whereas we see this feature as very useful for many people, the discussion got a bit heated. We didn't agree on most of the call, but we agree that Southwest should be cheered for trying.

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