Vol. 22 No. 7 September 2015 orientaviation.com BORN TO LEAD Brought up in a family of entrepreneurs, airline CEO, Aireen Omar, was headed to the top in banking. Then AirAsia came knocking Indian government Virgin Atlantic Boeing leads fight to procrastinates on rebuilding in the region re-instate the U.S.’s aviation reform with airline partners Export-Import bank SPECIALInside REPORT China’s An Orient booming Aviationairlines: update The difference is monumental. We’re beating our commitment on improved fuel burn efficiency, now exceeding 16%. Just the kind of ongoing improvement we told you to expect from our PurePower® Geared Turbofan™ engine architecture. Learn more at PurePowerEngines.com. PurePower Geared Turbofan Engines 34790_PP_16%_OrientAviation.indd 1 8/19/15 2:30 PM Client: Pratt & Whitney Commercial Engines Ad Title: 16%. The Difference is Monumental Publication: Orient Aviation - September Trim: 202 x 273 mm • Bleed: 212 x 283 mm • Live: 182 x 253 mm CONTENTS Volume 22, Issue 7 COVER STORY 20 PUBLISHED BY ORIENT AVIATION MEDIA GROUP Mailing address: GPO Box 11435 Hong Kong Office: 17/F Hang Wai Commercial Building, 231-233 Queen’s Road East, Wanchai, Hong Kong Tel: Editorial (852) 2865 1013 E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.orientaviation.com Publisher & Editor-in-Chief BORN Christine McGee E-mail: [email protected] TO LEAD Chief Correspondent Tom Ballantyne Tel: (612) 9638 6895 AirAsia CEO, Aireen Omar Fax: (612) 9684 2776 had a stellar career in banking. E-mail: [email protected] Then AirAsia came knocking. Greater China Correspondent Dominic Lalk Tel: (852) 2865 1013 E-mail: [email protected] COMMENT 27 All Nippon Airways, a new Skymark investor, to North Asia Correspondent 7 Thwarting the Cyber threat acquire more slots at prized Tokyo/Haneda? Geoffrey Tudor 30 Boeing leads battle to re-instate U.S. Ex-Im Bank Tel: (813) 3373 8368 E-mail: [email protected] NEWSMAKERS after Congress voted it down 9 Qantas CEO looks happily north after Jetstar India Correspondent R. Thomas Hong Kong vetoed MAIN STORY Tel: (852) 2865 1013 14 New and pressing danger: Cyber Security a E-mail: [email protected] priority issue for industry Photographers Rob Finlayson, Colin Parker, Graham Uden Design & Production Chan Ping Kwan Printing Printing Station(2008) ADMINISTRATION 9 AirAsia group CEO Fernandes pondering a career General Manager change? Shirley Ho 9 Yet another bureaucrat to take charge at Air E-mail: [email protected] India EXECUTIVE PROFILE ADVERTISING 28 Asia-Pacific Virgin Atlantic boss seeking airline South East Asia and Pacific NEWS partnerships to re-build the carrier’s regional Tan Kay Hui 10 Shocked by Thailand’s slow response to safety presence Tel: (65) 9790 6090 E-mail: [email protected] oversight shortfalls, says Association of Asia- Pacific Airlines director general The Americas / Canada Barnes Media Associates Ray Barnes NEWS BACKGROUNDERS Tel: (1 434) 770 4108 Fax: (1 434) 927 5101 11 India disappoints aviation reformers E-mail: [email protected] Europe & the Middle East REM International Stephane de Rémusat Tel: (33 5) 34 27 01 30 Fax: (33 5) 34 27 01 31 E-mail: [email protected] SPECIAL REPORT © All rights reserved Inside Mainland China’s booming airlines: an Wilson Press HK Ltd., Orient Aviation update Hong Kong, 2015 31 The only way is up for Mainland China’s carriers SEPTEMBER 2015 / ORIENT AVIATION / 3 How can my airline manage costs and maximise revenue? Fly the game-changing A380. It offers lowest costs per seat, highest load factors and unrivalled passenger appeal. Airbus is the answer. airbus.com © AIRBUS, 2015. All rights reserved. Airbus, its logo and the product names are registered trademarks. Airbus_OrientAviation_Sept.indd Pg1 Prodigious UK 26/08/2015 15:03 How can my airline manage costs and maximise revenue? Fly the game-changing A380. It offers lowest costs per seat, highest load factors and unrivalled passenger appeal. Airbus is the answer. airbus.com © AIRBUS, 2015. All rights reserved. Airbus, its logo and the product names are registered trademarks. Airbus_OrientAviation_Sept.indd Pg1 Prodigious UK 26/08/2015 15:03 B:8.35” T:7.95” S:6.9” At any altitude, minor leaks are major problems. Introducing Mobil Jet™ Oil 387— Specifically designed to provide protection against leaks in critical engine components. We put our energy into a formulation that helps minimize degradation and optimizes swell in elastomer seals, because engine performance starts with the oil. B:11.14” T:10.75” S:9.9” mobiljetoil387.com Copyright © 2015 Exxon Mobil Corporation. All rights reserved. All trademarks used herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Exxon Mobil Corporation or one of its subsidiaries unless otherwise noted. Component photographed courtesy of MD Turbines. This advertisement was prepared by BBDO New York Filename: P55180_B3_EML_G01_V1.indd CLIENT: ExxonMobil Lubricants Proof #: 1 Path: Studio:Volumes:Studio:MECHANIC...hani- Created: 2-23-2015 5:15 PM PRODUCT: Aviation Any Altitude - FP cals:P55180_B3_EML_G01_V1.indd Saved: 5-15-2015 12:28 PM JOB#: P55180_B3 Operators: Barrios, Maria / Bright, Jordan Printed: 8-18-2015 2:06 PM SPACE: Full Page: 4/C Print Scale: None BLEED: 8.35” x 11.14” TRIM: 7.95” x 10.75” Fonts Ink Names SAFETY: 6.9” x 9.9” EMprint (Condensed Regular, Semibold, Bold, Regular) Cyan GUTTER: None Graphic Name Color Space Eff. Res. Magenta PUBS: Orient Aviation xom_mjo_print_image_02_layered_0718142.psd (CMYK; 597 ppi, Yellow Black ISSUE: None 576 ppi), Mobil_Jet_H_4C_R-TM.eps, exmo-tech-white_V2.eps, TRAFFIC: Darcey Lund exmo_elh_tm_w.eps ART BUYER: None ACCOUNT: None RETOUCH: None PRODUCTION: None ART DIRECTOR: None COPYWRITER: None COMMENT Thwarting Cyber attacks Protecting the enormous amount of data airlines hold in to crash, check-in counters to freeze and ground handling their IT systems is a major security issue for the aviation operations, flight planning and other aspects of operations to industry. grind to a halt. International Air Transport Association (IATA) director Attacks on external services, such as electricity grids or general and CEO, Tony Tyler, told delegates at a recent communications networks, would have a similar impact on Singapore security conference that in one recent month airlines that would create chaos as well as financial losses alone, the association identified and blocked an average and reputational damage to the airlines attacked. of 80,000 suspicious connections per day, detected and Experts and industry insiders have told Orient Aviation cleared 891 viruses and resisted five ‘brute forcing’ attempts it is not a matter of if an attack will happen but when. LOT (overpowering a computer’s defences by repetition) to Polish Airlines has already been a victim of hackers. It was connect to IATA accounts. forced to cancel flights after a hacking attack. The first line of attack to come to mind is that terrorists Asia-Pacific carriers know the issue must be addressed could hack into airline data bases and play havoc with airline with priority. IATA’s Tyler has red flagged it, but has said the systems. Security experts don’t discount this threat, but industry can’t counter hackers with one arm, metaphorically they cautioned in Singapore that the possibility of terrorists speaking, tied behind its back. bringing down aircraft was remote. Industry cooperation, while an absolute necessity, Airlines also are most mindful of the damage hackers will not get us where we need to be, he said in July. could do to their businesses. The IT systems that interlink an “Governments have resources and access to intelligence airline’s various departments are not stand alone systems. that the private sector cannot achieve. They also have a They are interconnected to the systems of airline partners, responsibility to use these resources to support industry including GDSs, airports and a host of other service efforts. We have an example of this approach in the decades providers. of successful government-industry cooperation on safety. Hackers can gain access to airline systems through these Unfortunately, we have not achieved this level of cooperation “back doors”. If they succeed, fraudsters will find a pot of in security,” he said. gold: the personal and credit card details of hundreds of Let’s hope we won’t have to wait until a major Cyber millions of airline customers. Security breach happens for this government-industry Hackers with malicious intent also could cause systems relationship to change. ■ TOM BALLANTYNE Chief Correspondent Orient Aviation Media Group The voice of Asia-Pacific aviation ORIENT AVIATION ORIENT AVIATION ORIENT AVIATION CHINA INDIA “It has established itself as the primary source of information on industry topics in the Asia-Pacific region” SEPTEMBER 2015 / ORIENT AVIATION / 7 Fraport_SoE_202x273-5_RZ.indd 1 30.04.15 15:45 NEWSMAKERS Qantas looks happily north after Jetstar Hong Kong is vetoed August was a winning month for Qantas. A Earlier this year, the ACCC said in a draft the two countries by linking to key hubs and day after announcing a dramatic turnaround report that it would not approve the alliance. offer connectivity to each carrier’s behind in profitability, to US$713 million for the Its backflip is believed to be the result of and beyond networks,” said Joyce. The latest fiscal year, the airline group’s CEO, Alan lobbying from the Australian and Chinese business alliance was originally announced Joyce, received some news that put an even governments. last November alongside the signing of the bigger smile on his face. The two airlines already have a reciprocal Australia-China Free Trade Agreement in Australia’s competition watch dog, codeshare agreement on 17 flights a Canberra. the Australian Competition and Consumer week between Australia and China A few weeks earlier, Joyce was Commission (ACCC), announced its approval and several onward domestic not so happy.