Dubai2006 BRINGING YOU THE NEWS FROM ROUTES DUBAI NETWORKING FORUM – DAY TWO: MONDAY 18 SEPTEMBER Saudi open sky is good for all If Saudi Arabia adopts an open skies $32.7 billion in the new Dubai World policy it will benefit the whole of the Central airport. Middle East, said HH Sheikh Ahmed “Some of these projects are underway bin Saeed Al Maktoum, president of and some will be revealed over the next Dubai Civil Aviation (DCA) and chair- decade. What we have spent for this man of Emirates Group. sector will change the face of civil avia- Speaking at a press conference at tion and logistics around the world,” he Routes, Sheikh Ahmed said that said. “And I can say that the best is yet Emirates had “never had any problems” to be.” with Saudi Arabian civil aviation Asked about the delays to delivery of authorities. the Airbus A380 “superjumbo” – “If an open skies policy comes to Emirates has 45 on order – Sheikh Saudi Arabia it will have a positive Ahmed said the airline has not consid- effect on the whole region and not just ered cancelling the order. “If we want to Saudi Arabia,” he said. come out of this order we can do it Dubai, which has built a world-class today. But we never really went that aviation hub on the back of an open far.” skies policy, has not yet fulfilled all of With the ICAO global symposium on its ambitions in the aviation and aero- air transport liberalisation being held at space sectors, he added. the same time as Routes, Sheikh Ahmed The emirate is investing around 300 was asked about Emirates’ thwarted billion Dirhams ($81.75 billion) to attempts to increase flights to Australia. develop aviation and aerospace, from “We are happy with Australia,” he $27.2 billion in the Emirates fleet to said. “We have 49 flights a week to Australia. We have always found them fair.” Routes’ formal adoption of the Orbis Flying Eye He said he hoped that the open skies Hospital charity paid dividends yesterday with the philosophy would spread further first donation from a delegate to this year’s forum. around the world. “When two countries Naji Al-Ajmi, right, chief executive of National have open skies policies, then any meet- Aviation Services of Kuwait, presented Pam ing on a new bilateral will take two or Williams-Jones of the sight-saving charity with a cheque for $3,000, assisted by NAS business devel- three minutes. Without open skies poli- opment manager Adila al Afla. cies, it will take much longer.” ■ Newark gets thumbs up from Qatar The Gulf’s leading aviation lights, Sheikh event. Al Baker, who is here to help show- Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum (right), and case Qatar’s plans for the New Doha Akbar Al Baker, shared a friendly word yester- International Airport, said he hopes to day at Routes. begin services with his carrier’s newly deliv- Al-Baker, the chief executive of the Qatar ered Airbus A340-600s to New York’s Airways group and Doha international air- Newark Airport in the first quarter of 2007. port, greeted his counterpart from Dubai, By then the carrier will have taken delivery who is the chairman of Emirates Group and of four A340s. president of Dubai Civil Aviation, as Sheikh Al Baker said he prefers Newark with its Ahmed conducted a tour of the exhibition convenient rail link to downtown New York hall following the formal opening of the over “congested” JFK. INSIDE TRACK inshort Low-cost carriers Ryanair eyes Russian routes Following the introduction of its longest route yet to Morocco, fire a broadside Ryanair has turned its eyes back to AT LAST WEEK’S WORLD LOW oly. It undermines the competi- the east of Europe, more specifi- Cost Airlines Congress in tiveness of the industry. cally Russia. According to its head London, chief executive after Neighbouring airports must have of new route development chief executive lined up to take a different owners.” Bernard Berger, the carrier is inter- swipe at what they see as an Airport charges were also under ested in launching service to St increasing evil – airports. attack. “Airports need to lower Petersburg as well as other Europe’s low-cost carriers are costs and offer a better experience Russian cities. “Our plans would ever more vocal in their opposi- from a social perspective. At the depend upon airport costs,” says tion to what easyJet’s Andrew moment it is a worse experience Berger, as well as gaining the Harrison described as airports than ever,” complained Harrison. appropriate bilateral agreements that are “overbuilt and incen- He was less than impressed with Russia. tivised to gold plate” and cited with the new Berlin airport devel- both London Stansted and opment plans too. “Such plans EasyJet’s Andrew Harrison voices LAB restarts Europe service his opinions about airports. Berlin’s planned new airport as need huge investment – and this Troubled Bolivian carrier LAB offenders. is a threat to the low-cost carrier,” Kwiatkowski saw as providing an Airlines has restarted direct servic- When asked his reaction to the he warned. Berlin Airports Group inefficient, costly and poorly es from Madrid to Santa Cruz, purchase of UK airport operator denied that grandiose plans for staffed service. Bolivia, after acquiring a Boeing BAA by Spain’s Ferrovial, easyJet’s the new facility would drive up “Warsaw is overpriced,” he 767-200. LAB suspended services chief executive insisted that “any costs. “There will be no marble, says. “We would move if the deal between Madrid and Santa Cruz change in the UK would be good no gold, just low fees,” it insists. was good.” He says the carrier has temporarily when accumulated change”. Mike Rutter, chief oper- Warsaw airport also came had offers from other Polish air- debt with lessor Pegasus Aviation ating office at flybe, agreed: “We under fire for what centralwings ports eager to snap up the busi- forced it to return its two 767- must break up the airport monop- chief executive Maciej ness. 300ERs. The scheduled services are currently twice weekly, but could Delta scoops New York-London rights from United Airlines increase to three times weekly. United Airlines has sold its New York-London route pairs of slots at Gatwick but only uses four – three for Korean Air branches out authority to rival Delta Air Lines, leaving the Star Atlanta and one for Cincinnati – and is reducing its Korean Air is expanding its cargo Alliance without any presence on the most important Atlanta service to double-daily to make room for dou- operations with the addition of transatlantic sector. Delta will acquire United’s rights ble-daily flights to JFK. twice-weekly direct flights to operate up to three daily flights between New York The carrier has long eyed New York-London to between Incheon, Korea, and and London. But the SkyTeam carrier is unable to buy complement its fast-growing transatlantic line-up Stockholm, Sweden. The move is any of United’s excess Heathrow slots because the from JFK, where it now operates 21 routes to Europe part of Korean’s expansion of its current UK-US bilateral limits Heathrow access to including Edinburgh and Manchester. JFK-London cargo services, with the introduc- American Airlines and United. has been a missing link in Delta’s route portfolio since tion of routes to Chennai in Delta will initially operate one daily frequency 1991, when it acquired Pan American’s continental February, Seattle in June and between New York JFK and London Gatwick from 15 European route network. Miami in July. This move ties in November. The US Department of Transportation in United will continue to serve Heathrow from with the airline’s new programme August gave Delta approval to begin selling seats on Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington. to convert Boeing 747-400 passen- the new service. Delta plans to add a second frequen- Its decision to abandon JFK-Heathrow is part of an ger aircraft into freighters. Korean cy from 1 May 2007, but to operate a third would overall strategy to focus more on international flights hopes to increase its fleet of 18 require more slots at Gatwick. Delta now holds five that connect with its major hubs. freighters to 30 by 2010. PUBLISHED BY AIRLINE BUSINESS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH TRIDENT COMMUNICATIONS Daily editorial team Andrea Crisp Distribution The Daily News team can be Editorial head office Mark Pilling George Lowrie contacted at Dubai Room B, Quadrant House, The Quadrant, Alan Peaford Editorial Assistant level 1, outside the Sheikh Sutton, Surrey, SM2 5AS, UK Jackie Thompson Andy Costerton Advertisement sales Maktoum Hall at the Routes Tel: +44 208 652 4996 Mike Martin Robert Hancock event. Telephone: (+9714) Fax: +44 208 652 8914 Layout & production Shawn Buck 331-1408 email: e-mail: airline.business@flight- Contributors Andy Forrester [email protected] global.com Brendan Sobie Printed by David Field Photographer Atlas Printing Press LLC © Airline Business 2005 Visit us on the web Mike Miller Ian Billinghurst Dubai www.airlinebusiness.com Fabrice Tacoun AIRLINE BUSINESS @ ROUTES 18 September 2006 3 fidn-sep-18-06-p004abig-sep-00-06-p004 1 1 22/8/06 13/9/06 1:45:31 4:17:52 pm pm EXHIBITOR NEWS ‘OPEN AREA’ Keeping it simple is BENEFITS CONSUMERS key to profit says LCC The planned open aviation area between the United Over-engineered and over- States and the European elaborate airport facilities are Union could create €5 bil- under attack from the new lion ($6.3 billion) in con- generation of “pare it to the sumer benefits, Klaus Geil of bone” low-cost carriers (see the European Commission’s story Page 3).