(CFD.net.au – Contract for Difference, Share, Forex, ETFs, Commodities Traders) –

At midday AEDT, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 13 points, or 0.27 per cent, at 4833.2 while the broader All Ordinaries fell 13.1 points, or 0.27 per cent, to 4839.7.

Burrell Stockbroking associate Peter Wright said light volumes were the main feature of morning trade.

“I think as it’s inevitable that as we approach 5000 points and BHP gets to $40, the market will get a bit tentative,” he said.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if it became a bit more reflective as it gets closer over the next few months … could get there at Christmas.”

Mr Wright said the Energy sector was up but investors weren’t getting too excited.

“Energy stocks have pretty underwhelming moves – half to one per cent,” he said.

Oil Search was up eight cents, or 1.28 per cent, at $6.34, Santos increased 23 cents, or 1.47 per cent, to $15.87 and Woodside Petroleum added 79 cents, or 1.5 per cent, to $53.48.

The major miners were down, Rio Tinto fell 25 cents to $66.55.

Meanwhile, BHP Billiton says first quarter iron ore output rose 11 per cent due to an improved performance at its Western Australia operations and that Chinese commodities imports are likely to more closely reflect demand following the country’s recent stockpiling.

The resources giant also said it did not expect to resume full production of copper and uranium at its Olympic Dam project in South Australia until the third quarter of 2009/10, following damage to a haulage system.

BHP Billiton declined 41 cents, or 1.03 per cent, to $39.50.

The big four banks were relatively quiet.

ANZ Banking Group gained one cent to $23.80, National Australia Bank lost 16 cents to $31.14, Westpac advanced two cents to $26.50 and Commonwealth Bank fell 50 cents to $54.40.

Lihir shed four cents to $3.19 and Newcrest Mining lost 42 cents to $35.92.

The airline industry was mixed, with Qantas declining three cents to $2.96 while rival Virgin Blue gained two cents, or 3.92 per cent, to 53 cents.

Making news today, global beverages firm Foster’s Group Ltd says its first quarter results are in line with expectations, but warns it has some clear challenges to meet this financial year.

Fosters said after adjusting for currency impacts, its performance in the first quarter of the new financial year was line with expectations.

Fosters shares were down one cent at $5.55.

Source: Shares flat at noon but energy stocks ahead | Business Breaking News | News.com.au

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This blog hasn’t always been uncritical of Air Canada, having noted last April that the nation’s largest airline seemed to be gearing up for a battle within its own ranks.

In July, I also suggested that Air Canada needed to make better use of its fleet in order to get back to profitability after narrowly avoiding a second bankruptcy earlier this year.

However, I’ve also noted some positive developments.

In May, I suggested that those who feel hard done by by Canada’s airlines look at passenger horror stories from around the world to get a sense of how air travel in Canada is still a relatively civilized affair.

Three days later, it was also noted that international air travel has never been more affordable.

It’s time once again to note a positive development that is taking shape in the industry.

Air Canada has announced a new option that will allow passengers to pay extra to pre-book some of the best seats on the airplane, starting from $14 per segment.

Not surprisingly, there has been criticism that this represents another attempt to nickel-and-dime the poor passenger.

I’m going to go out on a limb, however, and praise the move.

Since the advent of the frequent flyer program in the early ’80s, traditional airlines generally haven’t made the best seats in the house equally available to all. The more desirable seats at the front of the cabin were quietly set aside for members of each airline’s frequent flyer program, particularly those with “elite” standing, and for full-fare passengers.

Only once the rest of the seats at the back were spoken for would they consider opening these more desirable seats to the low-fare, non-card-holding riff-raff.

It was a perk that helped keep business travelers coming back to an airline, even if they never really had much love for that carrier.

Over the years, the traditional airlines’ treatment of passengers came to resemble a hierarchy. If you were lucky enough to be counted among the aristocrats by the airline’s computers, you were given privileges such as better seats, access to invitation-only airline lounges and an invitation to board the flight first. (Some airlines even made a point of saying out loud that these perks were for “elite passengers only”.)

If you were in the airline’s middle class — a frequent flyer point collector without elite status or a customer who had bought a ticket between seat sales — you might be lucky enough to get a mid-cabin seat and perhaps to have your slightly-too-heavy suitcase or bit-too-large carry-on overlooked.

If you fit into none of these categories, you would be flagged by the airline’s computers as a mere peasant who probably deserved your fate of sitting in a middle seat way back in row 24. Even the willingness to pay a little more money wouldn’t help you move up in the airline passenger hierarchy.

By creating this hierarchy, the airlines not only failed to create profits: they ignored the fact that human beings hate hierarchy.

Human beings want to be made to feel important. They want control of their destiny. They yearn for equality. They seethe with anger anytime anyone even implies that some other group is superior to them, or that they should “know their place”.

This hatred of hierarchy is the reason why egalitarian societies like Canada, the United States, the Netherlands, the Scandinavian countries, Australia and New Zealand remain attractive places to live and eventually recover from their problems, while hierarchical societies like France, Belgium, Russia, India and Japan continue to either lose their best and their brightest to emigration or seem to be permanently unable to get the best out of their people.

Hatred of hierarchy is also the reason why even the bureaucrats abhor the bureaucracy, whether these be government bureaucracies or corporate bureaucracies.

Thus, by creating a hierarchy of passengers, the traditional airlines came to be hated by their passengers, even by frequent flyers who came to feel that they were prisoners of their point balances.

When new airlines came along with more egalitarian ideas, like the U.S.A.’s Southwest Airlines and JetBlue, Canada’s WestJet and Britain’s EasyJet, travelers flocked to them in large numbers.*

With lower costs than traditional airlines, happier employees and an even more loyal customer base, these egalitarian airlines achieved a level of profitability that eluded traditional airlines. In an industry where it’s taken for granted that not every year will be profitable, Southwest for example has remarkably posted a year-end profit every single year since 1973.

By allowing passengers to pay for perks like better seats and lounge access, Air Canada is starting to break down some of the “class barriers” between passengers and to adopt a more egalitarian culture.

There’s still a long way to go. Seniority is still all-important among many Air Canada employees — a form of hierarchy itself that allows senior crew members to be at home with their families on Christmas Eve while the juniors are stuck in a hotel room 800 miles from home.

Air Canada’s membership in the Star Alliance also requires it to honour some of the hierarchical practices of its partner airlines, even industry bums like United Airlines, such as by giving preferential treatment to other airlines’ “elite” passengers.

It’s a positive step forward, however, by an airline that has made more effort than most other traditional carriers to rehabilitate its reputation. For that, Air Canada deserved credit.

–

* – Admittedly, the industry’s failures outnumber its success stories. But it’s still no accident that the world’s most profitable airlines typically fall into one of two categories: a.) Long-haul carriers like Singapore Airlines that can both command a premium from business travelers and keep each aircraft in the air for an average of 12-16 hours per day; b.) Low-cost, egalitarian short- and medium-haul carriers like Southwest and WestJet that also keep each aircraft in the air an average of about 12 hours per day.

by Frank Priscaro

PMA (Parts Manufacturer Approved) companies make third party replacement parts for the airline industry. The manufacture of these parts is regulated by the FAA, of course, and it must be demonstrated they perform at least as well as the original parts. The aircraft OEMs do not like PMA parts, obviously, but they’re fighting a losing battle. The economics in this industry (and every other, for that matter), will eventually tilt in the favor of increased competition. The big incentive in this case is cost. Across the board, PMA parts are far cheaper, sometimes by as much as a half or more, than the OEM parts they replace.

That kind of savings adds up. According to one airline executive we spoke to, if the airline could increase its usage of PMA parts from the 10% they use today to just 20%, he estimated they could save somewhere in the neighborhood of $200 to $300 million dollars a year. That kind of money could make the difference for most airlines between a year that ends in the black and another one in the red.

The PMA companies come up with a replacement part concept and, in turn, they pitch the idea to the airlines. Why the airlines themselves haven’t been more proactive about identifying high replacement cost components and actively soliciting PMA help is unclear. If the airlines are still interested in reducing costs, a good place to look might be the piles and piles of maintenance, failure and warranty data they’ve been collecting. Mining that information and strategically engaging with PMAs for could help, without any doubt, get PMAs competing for the business. They could actually partner with the PMA companies to develop an aggressive program to help bring the price of parts down, while ensuring supply and quality.

There are some signs that the shift has already started according to the trade association that represents PMA companies, called MARPA (www.pmamarpa.com). MARPA is only 9 years old, the number of member companies is growing rapidly, and the organization has never been more influential in the industry and Washington. We were invited to speak at their convention a couple weeks ago in Las Vegas (you can see our presentation here: http://www.vextec.com/events/archive.htm). This is all good news for an airline industry that desperately needs the benefits of competition that PMAs can offer.

– Frank Priscaro

Soodie is from California and I am from Florida. Both of us come from real estate backgrounds in that our fathers were both general contractors. Soodie and I met San Juan, Puerto Rico almost 30 years ago when we were both flight attendants with Eastern Airlines. My carrier with Eastern extended for almost 8 years whereas Soodie was there for nearly 20 years until the financial demise of Eastern Airlines.

Soodie and I have two sons Nicky-boy who is 26 and Marcus who is 24. Marcus is soon to be a father and is expected to have a baby girl in November of this year. Her name will be Siena, like the town in Northern Italy. Nicky-boy is like the wind and we don’t expect it to calm any time soon.

I became restless in the airline industry and after 8 years decided to once again pursue my real estate roots even though I believed that it was the downfall of both our fathers and their early demise, Soodie’s at 41 and mine at 42. It was the only thing I really had a passion for until now. Soodie and I relocated from San Juan to Miami so that I coud once again pursue a real estate carrier. There was a developer down the street from our apartment complex who was constructing a town house project. After several failed attempts to secure a paid position, I offered to work for free to demonstrate my abilities and that I would be useful and valuable. And so my real estate carrier was re-activated over 30 years ago. My real estate carrier has been rich and fruitful over the years. We had achieved wealth, respect, invitations to social gatherings, positions on Board of Directors and enjoyed expensive toys like yachts and fancy cars.We had amassed real estate holdings, offices, waterfront developments and employed a staff of 35 wonderful people. Through all this success Soodie and I managed to stay in love as if we just met. We finally felt that for two kids who lost their fathers at an early age (us) they would have been proud. Then the unimaginable – The Recession.

Life is different now. It’s our baby boomer mid-life crisis, our new beginning and a new chapter. Thank God that we are middle aged, we are only in our 50’s, we are at the half way point and now we must begin again and everyone starts at the beginning no matter what industry. This time however it will be in a different. This time we were going to work smart. We were going to leverage our time and look for time freedom with sizable paydays and residual income just like the insurance industry. No more were we going to support every living vendor, nor were we going to employ so many people and be saddled with so much overhead.

We found pure entrepreneurialism in our home based online business. With their training modules the systems are so complete and so simple that even we can be successful with our limited computer skills. The founders of this company are young and true online internet entrepreneurs who have pledged their resources and committment to assist all who wish to learn the new internet frontier. For them it was a matter of legacy; for us survival.  The experience has been a fresh and an exciting adventure into the new world of online internet business, the new frontier.

If you are looking for answers on where you should position yourself in the new internet world,  join us for an exiting adventure in an Internet Business.

Sincerely,

The ongoing expansion of the air industry is one of the most contentious ‘green issues’ there is. It is likely to be the subject of new debate, following an announcement by the UK’s Climate Change Committee (CCC) this month. The latest report outlines the necessity of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 90% by 2050 if the aviation sector continues to grow.
And grow it does, with major new expansions planned at Stansted and Heathrow, plus ongoing refurbishment works at Gatwick. With such a plethora of ongoing work, the architecture that surrounds the industry has a major part to play in helping reduce emissions.
Many architects and construction staff who work on airports are demonised as ‘Environmental Enemies’, but in reality an airport is no different to any other building. It has its necessary requirements and energy demands, but these can be partially or fully resourced through sustainable means. For example, an airport’s biggest energy requirement is lighting. Therefore we are seeing more and more designs now which focus on bringing natural light down to the lowest levels of the airport, greatly reducing this need.
There is no reason why the standard principles of sustainable design can not be applied to the design of airport facilities. It remains to be seen over the next couple of years whether this will be sufficiently realised to help meet the industry’s targets.
However, the main problem with creating a sustainable airport is the industry it serves and until this is brought under control, the controversy will continue to grow.

Dimension 85 is a best practice consultancy specialising in IT and sustainability issues.

HONG KONG — International air travel, whacked by the economic downturn, is starting to stabilize but may not recover until 2011 as companies and passengers continue to scale back, executives at aviation giants Boeing Co. and Airbus SAS said today.

According to a recent survey conducted by the Australian Services Union, air rage incidents, as well as a lack of training to cope with it, continues to be a problem within the airline industry.

So states Dr. Joyce A. Hunter at a recent presentatation for her new book, Anger in the Air.

Dr. Hunter goes on to say that the survey also found an escalation of air rage issues and occurrences for low-cost carrier employees. For example, among Virgin and Jetstar employees, 82% had experienced air rage, with ticket restrictions, lack of staff, baggage cut-off times, and excess baggage charges cited as major reasons for customer anger.

She notes: ‘There is a strong temptation for airlines not to acknowledge they have problems with unruly fliers. Airlines are in denial about “air rage” and continue to operate as if this problem does not exist. After all, admitting to these kinds of problems creates a poor image and bad press for the airline industry, which they try to prevent at any cost. The most responsible action for all would be for the airlines to own up to this problem and begin seeking ways to implement corrective policies to prevent air rage and win support from their employees, customers, and other stakeholders.’

This is one straight from the news department of, “No duh!”

From the link:

Three-quarters of frequent business travelers said in a survey they would choose an airline based on whether a flight offers Wi-Fi, with half saying they would even move a reservation by a day to get access to in-flight Wi-Fi.

he survey, conducted by Wakefield Research for the Wi-Fi Alliance, bolsters the move by at least eight U.S. airlines to equip their fleets with Wi-Fi. Already, more than 500 planes offer Wi-Fi and several major airlines are hurrying to get their entire fleets equipped, partly so that passengers will pick their airline over a competitor’s.

The survey involved 480 frequent business travelers, of whom 150 had used in-flight Wi-Fi in early August.

Nearly all the respondents, 95%, said in-flight Wi-Fi access would make them more productive, and half reported that they had often taken a red-eye flight so they could remain reachable during business hours.

GENEVA – Airline companies lost more than $6 billion during the first half of the year due to the economic crisis, even as fresh figures showed some signs of recovery in the passenger and freight business, an industry group said Tuesday.

A sample of more than 50 airlines found their losses declined to $2 billion in the second quarter from $4 billion in the first quarter, theInternational Air Transport Association said, noting that the April-June period is usually a strong one for the industry.

“Since the sample of airlines is incomplete, total industry losses in the first half of 2009 are likely to have been in excess of the reported $6 billion,” IATA said.

More Details On:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090901/ap_on_bi_ge/airline_industry;_ylt=AsANo1TLYTrEW6rmjkyTGzvPObJ_;_ylu=X3oDMTJuZ3VxZnFwBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkwOTAxL2FpcmxpbmVfaW5kdXN0cnkEcG9zAzE4BHNlYwN5bl9wYWdpbmF0ZV9zdW1tYXJ5X2xpc3QEc2xrA2FpcmxpbmVpbmR1cw–

<a CIOs looking to help drive revenue and optimize customer value across sales channels can learn some great lessons from recent developments in the movie business and the airline industry. The common thread: do customers exist to serve companies by adhering silently to old-fashioned business models and value exchanges, or should customers be engaged as co-creators of innovation that leads to higher-value experiences for the buyer and increased revenue for the seller?
This is not just artsy-fartsy prattling; rather, it goes straight to the heart of the new metrics by which CIOs are being evaluated and rewarded, or conversely being viewed as inflexible and being replaced: as top-level executives who help companies grow.

Go to article

Typically I do not like to write about mainstream news stories. However, after hearing an article about the Continental Express flight that was stranded on the tarmac in Minnesota several days ago, and then reading a follow-up article about it today, I feel really compelled to write something.

A little background info, per an AP article I read on Yahoo News:

“By its sixth hour sitting on a deserted tarmac, Continental Express Flight 2816 had taken on the smell of diapers and an overwhelmed lone toilet.

What should have been a 2 1/2-hour trip from Houston to Minneapolis had moved into its ninth hour, and the 47 passengers on board had burned through the free pretzels and drinks handed out early in their Friday night flight from Houston. Passengers on another flight that had been diverted to the airport in Rochester, Minn., because of storms were allowed to disembark and were put on a bus that would take them the 85 miles to Minneapolis. And the terminal, where passengers could at least stretch their legs, breathe fresh air and use the vending machines, was a mere 50 yards away. But it wasn’t until 6 a.m. Saturday — six hours after landing — that Flight 2816’s passengers were allowed out of the plane.”

Source  :  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090810/ap_on_re_us/us_nightmare_flight

This was bad enough. Then today, I read another article about Flight 2816. An 8 year old child and his mother described the 9 hours they spent on the plane:

“It was a horrible ride.” That is how 8-year-old Dujuan Wilmer described the hours he spent inside the very full, very cramped Continental Express-operated Flight 2816. His mother, Rhonda, told MSNBC TV, “They kept updating us every 30 minutes to an hour letting us know one thing or another.” Ultimately, she said, “we just sat there and waited until we got into the airport at 6:30 that morning.”

While the passengers were waiting, conditions on the Embraer ERJ-145 steadily worsened. There was no food, few pillows or blankets and a non-working toilet. “I had to go use the restroom at approximately 4:30,” Rhonda Wilmer said, “and when I went into the restroom it did not flush.”

I figured that it MUST be against some sort of regulations to leave people on a stranded plane with no food, water, or restroom. I mean, those are pretty basic needs. However I was shocked and appalled to learn that what Continental did was actually legal:

“Kate Hanni, founder of Flyersrights.org, an organization urging Congress and the White House to pass an air passenger bill of rights, told MSNBC TV that Continental didn’t actually break any laws. “They can hold you indefinitely and they don’t have to provide you any of your basic human needs,” she said. In the last Congress, then-Sen. Barack Obama was one of 12 co-sponsors of the “passenger bill of rights” bill . That bill, which Congress didn’t pass, would have required airlines to provide passengers with food, water and functioning toilets during  strandings”                                                                                             Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32391447/ns/travel-news/

OKAY, CAN SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME WHY CONGRESS WOULD HAVE NOT PASSES A BILL GRANTING THE BASIC NEEDS OF FOOD, WATER, AND WORKING TOILETS?!!!???

I mean really, is being able to go to the bathroom too much to ask?

I usually do not get this riled up about the news. This, however, it completely UNACCEPTABLE. There were children, babies, elderly people on this plane.  Everything about this situation is ridiculous, from how it was handled by the airline to how it could have been much less worse if the majority of politicians cared about the general public. I guess it is easy to say nay to a bill regarding the commercial airline industry when you do most of your flying on private planes.

This reminds me of an article I read a year or two ago, suggesting that all airline CEO’s be forced to take a commercial flight, go through standard security, sit in a tiny economy class seat next to a screaming child and fight for overhead storage space, while munching on stale pretzels and sipping coke out of a Dixie cup. Frankly, I think that’s a great idea. Instead of just CEO’s however, I recommend making ANYONE who makes decisions about how airlines operate, including politicians, participate. I’m sure once a member of Congress is stranded on the runway all night, the bill will go through in a jiffy.

This is just another example why the American airline industry is going down the tubes and why so many people, myself included, hate flying. Customer service is one of the lowest priorities. Maybe American airline companies should take note of how other airlines operate. Take German-based Lufthansa for instance. Based on my experiences flying long-haul with them, they provide EXCELLENT customer service and  flights that I would even call enjoyable. Coincidence that their passenger numbers are up 12% this year? I think not.

I apologize for this ridiculously long rant. Like I said, I typically don’t get so riled up about the news. This just really struck a nerve with me though.