Qantas Stimulating Demand for Travel, Launches Two-For-One Ticket Sale

Qantas Airways

As a step to stimulate demand for international travel, Qantas has launched a two-for-one ticket sale. The airline said there had been a strong response to the offer, which allows a second passenger to fly for the cost of taxes and charges, reports The Australian.

September traffic figures revealed a 9.3 per cent fall in Qantas mainline international passenger numbers. The Association for Asia-Pacific Airlines also warned over the weekend that the global economic crisis had seriously affected passenger demand and the industry was facing “severe turbulence”.

“The September figures indicated a weakness in traffic,” said Mr. Alan Joyce, incoming Qantas chief executive. He added “Cathay’s seeing a weakness, Singapore’s seeing a weakness and International demand is trading down and we are seeing a bit of trade down at the moment.”

The traffic figures appear patchy, with CEO Geoff Dixon saying Jetstar and Qantas had experienced a good week prior to the latest sale.

However, Mr. Dixon did not believe this was a trend. Mr. Joyce said fuel hedging would help Qantas. Unlike some other carriers, the airline took out options that protected it if fuel prices dropped or increased.

“We’re 93 per cent hedged on a worst-case scenario of $US106 and we’re 75 per cent participating at the moment,” Mr. Joyce said. “So we do have a benefit in our fuel coming down … but it has been offset by some of the demand weaknesses that we’ve experienced.”

Asked about analysts’ predictions that the airline would cut more capacity, Mr. Joyce said Qantas continually reviewed its capacity and had been adjusting it, both up and down. He said it would continue to manage capacity aggressively “in both directions”.

Read more in The Australian.

Aer Lingus August Passenger Traffic Up 8.8%, Loads Drop

Aer Lingus Group Plc, Ireland’s second-largest airline, said passenger traffic rose 8.8 percent in August after the carrier added aircraft and routes. The airline said its load factor was 80.5 percent in August, compared with 81.7 percent a year ago.

Passenger traffic, measured in revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs), rose 8.8 percent from the same period in 2007, the airline said in a statement.

On short-haul routes the load factor rose to 83.0 percent from 82.9 percent a year earlier, while RPKs were 15.6 percent higher. On long-haul flights, the load factor fell to 77.5 percent from 80.3 percent last year, with RPKs up 0.8 percent.

Snake Found on Air India Aircraft

An Indian police official stands next to an Air India Aircraft on the runway

A snake coiled up under a seat was discovered by crew on an Air India passenger Jet. The snake was disturbed during routine check on the Air India A319 aircraft, which had landed at Delhi airport after a domestic flight from Srinagar. “We were unable to catch it as it slithered around the plane” the airline said on Thursday.

The snake escaped by slipping into an air vent and could not be found even when staff unscrewed panels inside the fuselage, opened all the doors and fumigated the plane. “There was commotion which scared the snake and it went further inside,” an airport official was quoted as saying by the Hindustan Times.

An airline official denied to the reports that the snake was a venomous cobra. “The aircraft was parked at Delhi airport for maintenance purposes. There was a snake but not a cobra,” he told AFP. “We have no details of what kind of a snake it was, or where it is now. We have taken up this matter with Delhi airport authorities.” He also denied reports that the snake had caused the plane to be grounded or that its next flight, to Mumbai, had been delayed.