African airlines in historic profit drop

African airlines recorded a 6.8 per cent decline in the number of passengers in 2009, but prospects looked good for the month of D ecember, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said in a report Wed n esday.

The African airlines recorded lower than average performance in passengers, main ly worsened by the weak profits that most airlines within the continent recorded

in 2009.

??In terms of demand, 2009 goes in history books as the worst year the industry has ever seen,?? AITA Chief Executive Giovanni Bisignani said.

African airlines, which provide a major link to international travelers within t he continent, showed signs of profit recovery in December, 2009. During the mont h , the airlines recorded impressive number of passengers, with volumes 3.1 per ce n t higher.

African carriers have been victims of the wildcat oil price hikes. They were als o affected by the effects of the global economic down-turn. This affected carrie r s which partly supplement their profits with cargo volumes.

??We have permanently lost 2.5 years of growth in passenger markets and 3.5 yea rs of growth in the freight business,?? said Bisignani.

International passenger capacity fell 0.7% in December 2009 while freight capaci ty grew 0.6% above December 2008 levels.

Yields have started to improve with tighter supply-demand conditions in recent m onths, but they remained 5-10% down on 2008 levels.

??Revenue improvements will be at a much slower pace than the demand growth tha t we are starting to see. Profitability will be even slower to recover and airli n es will lose an expected US$ 5.6 billion in 2010,?? said Bisignani.

Seasonally adjusted demand figures for December compared to November 2009 indica te a 1.6% rise in passenger traffic. Freight volumes, however, remained weak.

Most airlines were able to fly more passengers on every flight, with the average industry figures showing an impressive 77 per cent passenger load on every flig h t.

Industry figures also show that the cargo market may be getting much better. Acc ording to AITA, the latest figures show the amount of new freight orders may be a t a 44-month high.

The December 2009 freight demand showed a 24.4% improvement on December 2008 wit h a load factor of 54.1%. This improvement is exaggerated by the exceptionally w e ak performance in December 2008 which was the low point.

Freight demand is still 7% lower than the peak in early 2008.

However, optimism is returning to the industry as purchasing managers survey ind icators reached a 44-month high in December pointing towards increased freight v o lumes in the coming months.

Asia-Pacific carriers accounted for over 60% of the increase in international ai r freight markets over the past 12 months - outperforming their 45% market share .
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA)

Ethiopian crash jet flight recorders found off Lebanon

The "black box" flight recorders from a passenger jet which crashed off the coast of Lebanon two days ago have been found, officials say.

A search team located the recorders from the Ethiopian Airlines flight just over 1.3km (0.8 miles) underwater, 10km west of the capital, Beirut.

The search team is now trying to retrieve them, Lebanese security officials said.

All 90 people on board the flight are presumed dead following the crash.

At least 24 bodies have been pulled from the sea so far.

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409, bound for Addis Ababa, crashed into the Mediterranean minutes after take-off from Beirut at 0237 (0037 GMT) during a severe thunderstorm on Monday.

Witnesses said they saw the plane plummet into the sea in flames.

The international search operation has included Lebanese navy troops and the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) as well as US navy destroyer USS Ramage and a civilian vessel from Cyprus with sonar equipment.

The cause of the crash is not yet known, however Lebanese officials have said the jet did not fly in the direction instructed by the Beirut control tower.

The officials said the pilot had been asked to correct his course, but turned in the opposite direction.

Seven crew and 83 passengers were on board the Boeing 737-800. Most were Lebanese or Ethiopian.

Marla Pietton, the wife of the French ambassador in Beirut, was among those on board.

SOURCE: BBC

Ethiopian plane crash should not sully success story

When news of the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash broke this morning my heart sank at the thought of covering yet another negative story about Ethiopia.

It?s particularly galling for Ethiopians that the airline is one of the few international success stories for a country known mostly for famine and war.

When the news emerged I also immediately knew how hard the company?s staff would take it. I?ve been to the sprawling campus that serves as headquarters to Africa?s arguably flagship airline many times. The last time was just last week to interview CEO Girma Wake and I left with a gift of Ethiopian coffee and the impression that I?d rarely seen people so passionate or proud about their work and what it does for their country.

Ethiopian Airlines is a company that Ethiopians are proud of. It has consistently expanded and remained profitable through tough times for other airlines and all manner of global economic strife. It has prioritized safety in a continent with a lamentable record and it is aggressively expanding into China and India.

It had an impressive safety record before today, last suffering a disaster in 1996 when Somali hijackers demanded to be flown to Australia, causing the plane to run out of fuel and ditch off the Comoros, killing 123 of its 175 passengers.

Ethiopians I spoke to this morning said they didn?t think people outside of the country would be surprised that an Ethiopian Airlines plane had crashed, so negative are foreign perceptions of the country. But the fact is: it is a surprise.

The airline is a symbol of hope for Ethiopia. And Ethiopia is a truly unique and propitious country of 80 million people ? albeit with a desperate history.

Democracy is now ? debatably ? slowly emerging, a middle class has appeared, the economy is growing, more Ethiopians than ever before are being educated, and ambitious and fiercely patriotic Ethiopians are taking control of the future of one of Africa?s most exciting prospects. Ethiopia is not just bad news anymore.

The cause of the crash is still unknown. But it would be a shame if this one incident damages perceptions of an emerging airline and a promising country.

REUTERS AFRICA NEWS BLOG

Market Outlook: Positive signs but it is still early days

By Chris Tarry

Although there are signs of a recovery underway in most markets, at least in volume terms, if anything there is an even greater need to focus on activity levels and compare these with the 2007-08 peak, rather than getting too excited about rates of change over the last 12 months.

For many airlines "an improvement" may mark the first steps on the path to restoring previous levels. But the extent of the decline means that there is a long way to go, while the nature of the recovery will begin to highlight where the change has been structural rather than just cyclical.

Of course, individual airlines will have different experiences. Just as the nature and effects of the downturn were non-homogeneous, so too will be the recovery. There will be major differences geographically as well as between long- and short-haul airlines.

There are undoubtedly a number of airline managers who share this view. "The market continues to be unpredictable and the uncertainty regarding the timing of the recovery is considerable," says SAS in its December traffic release.

In this respect, it is not only the timing of the restoration of previous levels of traffic, but also the structure or the mix of traffic between economy and premium.

Past experience demonstrates there is always a lag in the recovery in premium traffic, while the share of premium traffic - particularly on short-haul routes - has been in almost continuous decline since the early 1990s.

This time around there has been a structural and negative shift in short-haul premium traffic and the prospect of any meaningful recovery is close to zero.

IATA's latest premium monitor data adds weight to this view. Year-to-date figures for October show intra-European down some 27% and intra-North American 21%. This comes on top of similar falls in September.

At the same time as SAS management expressed its concerns over the nature and timing of the recovery, others saw encouragement from an improvement in long-haul premium during December.

British Airways says long-haul premium continued "to show signs of improvement", while Air France says unit revenues in December continued their recovery thanks to "a more marked improvement" in long-haul premium traffic.

Indeed BA has begun to break out changes in its short- and long-haul premium traffic, although not on a consistent basis.

Its short-haul premium was down 20% in November, compared with an a 1.5% long-haul premium increase, and a 1.7% decline in total premium traffic.


Similarly, December long-haul premium was up 1.6% compared with the same month in 2008, while short-haul premium was some 10% lower with a total premium decline of 0.7%.

Given that the reference point for recovery should be 2007, it is worth recalling that in the year to November 2008, BA's premium traffic fell 10.8%, and by 12.1% for the year to December 2008.

Perhaps the best that can be said is that the turning point has been reached, but there is a long way yet to go before volumes and values recover to previous levels.

This is equally clear at an industry level. Here the decline in total premium traffic in October was 9.3% year-on-year, and 18% for the year to date. This was marginally better than the near-14% fall in the year to September, and 19% for the year to date.

However it is again important to look at the reduction on a two-year basis, both in terms of volume and revenue. In this respect, overall premium traffic in October 2009 was almost 20% lower than October 2007, while revenue from premium passengers appears to be about a third lower than it was in October 2007.

Of course, there can only be a recovery once a turning point has been reached and, as we have commented previously, it is perhaps only less worse rather than really any better.

Indeed, in some cases, particularly short-haul premium traffic, there has been a structural change and anybody expecting a meaningful recovery in this segment will be in for a disappointment.

Furthermore, where we are now should focus attention on the wider changes that are occurring and will continue to occur in the short-haul market place.

This reinforces the structural nature of the changes in the industry, which appear increasingly evident through the data.

UPDATE: Pilot in Beirut crash didnt follow tower advice

The pilot of an Ethiopian Airlines plane that crashed into the sea flew in the opposite direction from the path recommended by the control tower after taking off from Beirut in thunderstorms, Lebanon's transportation minister said Tuesday.

All 90 people on board were feared dead after the plane bound for the Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa, went down in flames minutes after takeoff at around 2:30 a.m. Monday.

Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi said the pilot initially followed the tower's guidance, but then abruptly changed course and went in the opposite direction.

"They asked him to correct his path but he did a very fast and strange turn before disappearing completely from the radar," Aridi told The Associated Press.

It was not immediately clear why the pilot veered off the recommended path. Like most other airliners, the Boeing 737 is equipped with its own onboard weather radar, which the pilot may have used to avoid flying into thunderheads rather than following the flight tower's recommendation.

"Nobody is saying the pilot is to blame for not heeding orders," Aridi said, adding: "There could have been many reasons for what happened. ... Only the black box can tell."

Ethiopian Airlines Chief Executive Girma Wake said the Lebanese minister's comments were premature.

"Rushing remarks, I don't think that helps anybody," Wake said in Addis Ababa.

Lebanese officials have said there is no indication of terrorism or "sabotage."

A senior security official involved in the crash investigation said the black box would provide more definitive answers, but he noted that other factors -- including weather conditions -- are more likely culprits than anyone bringing the plane down on purpose.

"The probability of sabotage in these circumstances is much less than all other probabilities," he said, asking that his name not be used because he was not authorized to speak publicly.

No survivors had been found more than 24 hours after the crash. Emergency workers have pulled bodies from the sea; the numbers reported so far range from a dozen to more than 20. Several officials have revised their numbers, saying they miscounted.

"We hope they will find trapped bodies in the fuselage," Wake said.

The Lebanese army and witnesses say the plane was on fire shortly after takeoff. A defense official also said some witnesses reported the plane broke up into three pieces.

Searchers were trying to find the plane's black box and flight data recorder, which are critical to determining the cause of the crash.

AP - 26 January 2010 14:49:52 By BASSEM MROUE and ZEINA KARAM

Cockpit Scare On Canaries Holiday Flight

A passenger tried to force his way into the cockpit on board a plane flying to the Canary Islands.

Staff and other passengers restrained the man on the Thomson Airways flight from Cardiff.

He was arrested when it landed at Las Palmas airport, Gran Canaria.
It is not being treated as a terrorist incident.

A spokeswoman for the airport said the man, a Spaniard from the Canary Islands, was "nervous" and "panicked" during the flight.

She added that he was later freed by police.

The man was one of 193 people on board the jet when it took off from Cardiff Airport at 8.20am, including five cabin crew, the captain and a first officer.

A Thomson spokeswoman confirmed that a passenger became disruptive and demonstrated aggressive behaviour towards customers and crew.

"The passenger was restrained during the flight and in accordance with our procedures the aircraft was met by the local police upon arrival in Gran Canaria."

She added: "Thomson Airways operates a zero tolerance approach towards aggressive behaviour on board its flights.

"The safety of our customers and crew is the airline's number one priority at all times."

Sky News

Moves towards improving aviation safety in Ghana announced

Mr. Mike Hammah, Minister of Transport, on Monday said Ghana was working closely with the United States (US) Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), to resolve all deficiencies in safety and security oversight in this country's aviation industry.

He said this serves: "As a precursor to the FAA Category 1 Audit, which would subsequently lead to the country's quest for the restoration of Ghana from FAA category 2 to category 1."

Mr Hammah was speaking at the 9th Co-operative Development and Operational Safety and Continuing Airworthiness Programme steering committee, and the eleventh plenary of the Banjul Accord Group, in Accra. He said the government was committed to ensuring that Ghana was seen as a shining example of first class aviation safety and security. Mr Hammah observed that aviation activity was gradually rising in line with the oil and gas discovery in the country.

He said: "The Ghana Civil Aviation Authority's (GCAA) efforts to implement the International Civil Aviation Organization and the Federal Aviation Authority Category 1 action plan could not have come at a better time".

He extended the government of Ghana's gratitude to the government of the US, the FAA and Safe Skies Project for their support. Air Commodore Kwame Mamphey, Director General of the GCAA, noted that at the present stage of the aviation industry, the West African sub-region needed to have a strong voice in maters relating to aviation safety and security.

He said this could not be achieved on a silver platter and that "We as a regional body need to work at it, and as a strong regional grouping, to ensure first, that our collective airspace s noted for safety and admirable security."

Source: GNA