ON THE SOAPBOX: Paul Kehoe – Chief Executive Officer Birmingham International Airport

Paul Kehoe (52) is one of the most experienced Chief Executives of any airport in the UK. 

He started his aviation career as an air traffic controller in the Royal Air Force followed by spells with BAe, Serco and TBI where he managed in succession Belfast International and Luton airport’s and became a main board member. 

His present role dates from October 2008 joining from Bristol Airport where he was CEO. His only interest in the BA takeover of the former BMA is bmiBaby.  What is its future?

UK Plc – Capacity, Connectivity, Growth – and not more of the same

A World-Class City-region, whether in London, the Midlands, the North West or the North East, deserves world-class aviation links.  Without them, businesses and jobs will drift away, or accrete where those links are strongest.  Take a look at the successful M4 corridor – and then ask whether Heathrow helps the whole UK economy in the way that it is sometimes claimed.  ‘The fruit does not fall far from the tree’.

It is simply not true that “Britain needs a bigger hub airport”.  This ideology, often promoted by those who could directly benefit commercially, conflates concern about Britain’s economic growth with arguments for a third runway.  Heathrow is allegedly spending £3 million on a PR campaign that includes adverts targeting MPs at Westminster Underground with a thinly-veiled threat.  “UK economic growth.  This is your final call.”  No wonder MPs and membership organizations seem terrified to question established wisdom.

Heathrow has also hijacked the ‘hub’ term for its own purpose.  It is by no means certain that Heathrow is a hub airport.  It is often argued that Heathrow must deal with transfer passengers.  These passengers, valuable to shareholders of airports, are arguably of questionable worth to the wider UK economy, as they pass through; is this really an optimal use for Heathrow?  Another ruse is that without R3, hub operations would move from Heathrow to Mainland Europe.  If Heathrow is so worried about this, why are there already 1,000 flights a week from there to European hubs – gulping up long-haul capacity?

And it is often said that flights have to concentrate on Heathrow to achieve ‘critical mass’ – i.e. only by funnelling people to there from all over the UK, will a flight be viable.  In that case, why are there almost three dozen flights a day between London and New York?  Wouldn’t that over-supply (with ‘give away’ lead-in fares) be better redeployed to serve emerging markets in China and the Far East?

A single hub airport cannot answer London’s needs, let alone Britain’s needs.

Heathrow already handles 70m passengers a year.  The Department for Transport estimates Britain will need space for 125m more passengers a year by 2030.  There is no way that Heathrow, even with a third runway, can possibly answer this demand.  And an Estuary Airport would require a new town the size of Manchester to cater for the workers and their families – all in a region already cited as needing five new reservoirs.

London’s business leaders are tearing their hair out. This situation doesn’t help business people in the regions hoping to attract investment to their own local economies. The situation demands that we look beyond Heathrow, and consider how our other national airports, including Birmingham, can help.  Birmingham handles 9m passengers and has the spare capacity to double this figure to 18m passengers today.  Existing plans increase capacity to 36m passengers.  Better utilisation of Birmingham would free up slots at Heathrow for the SE market.  Airports like Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh can make a similar contribution.  All would benefit from better connectivity.

The Government’s aviation review must first consider how best to use existing resources.  Any other solution is many years away.  If Heathrow charged market rates, reliability would increase and there would be more slots for long-haul travel.  Heathrow should be allowed to charge more. 

There could be a congestion charge on busy airports.  This is something the Government should consider.  There should be greater air-rail interoperability, with through ticketing, and the ability of travellers to use a search engine that consolidates all travel modes, to provide the optimum ‘door to door’ journey based on criteria of cost, comfort, journey time or convenience.  Whether a traveller changes at somewhere called Heathrow for a train to London, or somewhere called Birmingham to do the same, is irrelevant.  It is the criterion above that matter.

A modern economy demands more than one crowded airport.  That puts all of our eggs in one basket.  We risk our National resilience at our peril.  We need a fully integrated transport network, with aviation providing major ‘Ports of Entry’ across the UK (Germany has 5 and is building number 6).  This issue is too important for the aviation lobby.  The Government’s review must look across departments, and visualise the UK economic landscape in a generation.

Government must commission independent economic research, and identify policy levers to pull.  It must solicit views and aspirations from across the UK regions, and not rely on London-based think-tanks or policy units.  Above all, Government and Business must ignore the pleas of aviation ‘gurus’ who advocate a status quo or a return to twentieth-century thinking and concentration of power.  UK Plc deserves better than that.  If you agree then please do drop me a line. paul.kehoe@bhx.co.uk

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Doha Ramada becomes Radisson Blu

The existing Ramada Plaza Doha is to be converted to a Radisson Blu in the third quarter of this year undergoing a US$18m renovation. 

The future Radisson Blu Hotel, Doha, is located in the city centre with a 10 minute access to the current international airport and West Bay business district.  The hotel offers 583 rooms and suites; 6 bars and 12 restaurants.  It also comprises 2,000m2 of conference space and leisure facilities include two gymnasiums, three swimming pools, saunas, squash, tennis, basketball, and badminton courts, and treatment rooms.

Once it becomes a Radisson Blu the hotel will offer the same amenities of the group worldwide including free wi-fi access. www.radissonblu.com

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European airlines 2011 figures

Airline members of the European Regions Airline Association (ERA) have reported average scheduled passenger growth of 4.8% in 2011 compared with 2.5% in 2010.  While this figure is encouraging, it must be remembered that the closure of airspace caused by the volcanic ash disruption in April 2010 created a distortion which has resulted in a somewhat inflated 2011 growth rate. 

Load factor in 2011 increased to 66.9%, up from 66.4% in 2010, demonstrating that airlines are continuing to utilise capacity efficiently to match demand.  However, Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPKs) growth dropped significantly from 7.4% in 2010 to 4.3% in 2011.  By contrast, Available Seat Kilometres (ASKs) increases have remained stable with identical growth (4.1%) in 2010 and 2011. 

Mike Ambrose, Director General, ERA said: “ERA airlines continue to demonstrate their versatility at adapting to the constantly changing market but we are a long way off from full recovery.  More than ever we need Europe’s regulators and national governments to recognise the power of air transport to drive economic growth and prosperity, and to facilitate the industry’s growth rather than weighing it down with further taxes and regulatory burdens.” www.eraa.org

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Hyatt goes for more IT

Interactive TV is coming to the Hyatt Hotels Corporation.  The Chicago (USA) based company announced last week that it is transforming the standard in-room television into a fully connected, interactive entertainment centre and virtual concierge at its full-service properties across the US, Canada, and the Caribbean.  Once the installation is complete, guests will have access to a range of offerings that, depending on location, include interactive entertainment, hotel services, local information, and advanced features that go well beyond the technology guests today expect to see. 

“Imagine a world where you can use your hotel room television to place your room service order, book a local tour, stream a movie from your Netflix account, and download a document to be printed at the front desk,” said Pete Sears, Senior Vice President of North America operations for Hyatt Hotels and Resorts.  “This is the future hotel experience at Hyatt.” 

The systems have already been installed in the nearly 1,800 guestrooms at Hyatt Regency New Orleans, Andaz 5th Avenue in New York, and most recently at the Hyatt Regency Denver Tech Centre.  Over the next two years, the technology will be installed in up to 60,000 guestrooms across Hyatt’s North America properties. www.hyatt.com

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London City loses and wins

The Isle of Man (Ronaldsway) is to lose its London City route from 10 April leaving the island only connected to the capital via either Gatwick or Luton. 

On the positive side British Airways is expanding its aircraft fleet and route network where it is now officially the largest operator with the highest number of routes and customers.  The airline is to take delivery of another Embraer 190 in the late summer, bringing the total fleet size to 14 aircraft.  It will be used for a new year-round service to Venice and to increase frequency to the key business destinations of Frankfurt from March and Glasgow from September. 

The new route to Venice, gateway for Northern Italy, will be launched in September and there will be one extra flight a day to Frankfurt and Glasgow. 

The news comes as BA is about to start brand new services from the Docklands airport to Mahon in Menorca, Quimper in Brittany and Angers in the Loire Valley in France from May.  The airline now offers a total of 22 destinations in the UK, Europe and the USA. www.londoncityairport.com

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Rotana stays top as Gulf region occupancy grows

The Abu Dhabi based Rotana hotel management company is embarking on a US$750m investment programme to help the group to maintain its position as the largest hotel brand in the Gulf region.  Before the end of the year it will open seven new hotels including its first properties in Bahrain and Jordan and its second in Qatar.  The UAE gains four additional properties.  Rotana will manage around 14,000 rooms across the area by the end of 2012. 

Recent figures from the Hotstats survey show a robust and growing Middle East hospitality sector.  Abu Dhabi reported a surge in occupancy in October while hotels in Dubai were as full as they were in 2007.  Abu Dhabi registered the largest increase in occupancy in the region, growing 9.7 percentage points to 82.8% in October 2011 and Dubai 87.3%. 

The new openings include the adjoining 5-star Al Ghurair Rayhaan and Al Ghurair Arjaan apartment properties (Dubai) (3rd Quarter); the 400-suite Boulevard Arjaan in Amman (Jordan); the 414-room Centro Capital Centre (Abu Dhabi) opening shortly followed by 300-room Capital Centre Rotana.  The 5-star City Centre Rotana in Doha (Qatar) opens its doors (3rd Quarter) and finally the 128-apartments Majestic Arjaan (Bahrain) (4th quarter).  www.rotana.com www.hotstats.com

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Toronto City Airport to get tunnel connection

Work has started at the once controversial Toronto City Airport on a pedestrian tunnel to connect the terminal to the mainland.  Rather like London City the island airport is such a success that it is hard to believe that someone once ran for mayor opposing it.  Around 1.5m passengers passed through in 2011, double the traffic in 2009, and officials expect that number could reach 2m this year. 

Thanks mainly to the success of Porter Airlines, the island airport has become a popular and convenient downtown alternative to Pearson.  The airline operates 26 of the locally built Bombardier Q400 turboprops and has options on four more.  It serves around 20 destinations, Air Canada Express only competing to Montreal.  Currently accessed only by ferry the CAN$82.5m 240m tunnel will provide four moving sidewalks, eliminating the wait for the ferry and turning the surge of people coming off the boat into a steadier, more manageable stream. 

As Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper put it at a ceremonial groundbreaking, it is an “eminently sensible idea.”  Funding will come from the airport improvement fee passengers pay, so government will not bear any direct cost.  The tunnel is scheduled to open in spring 2014. www.torontoport.com

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ON TOUR: Aircraft Interiors Expo

Aircraft Interiors Expo 2012 opened its doors on 27 March in Hamburg with more than 500 exhibitors from 30 countries participating – and a record amount of exhibition space taken by industry. 

The day before it was preceded by the first ever Aircraft Interiors Expo and World Travel Catering & Onboard Services Expo conference.  More than 250 delegates packed into the Hamburg Messe to hear leading experts from the operator community, manufacturers, interiors suppliers and the consultancy sector give their views on the hot issues of today.

One thing was very clear.  To compete successfully operators will have to tailor their offerings ever more closely to the individual needs of their customers.  To achieve this they need to develop their usage of new technology in a spectrum of areas, from e-techniques to speed up boarding to obtaining customer feedback from social media.  In between this comes a raft of potential advances in areas such as in-flight entertainment (IFE) and communication.

Another challenge arises from the effects of globalisation.  As Sarah Klatt-Walsh, Director Inflight Products & Services at Swiss International Air Lines, put it: “Cultures are on the move today.  The new melting pot is in the cabin.”  She also emphasised wastage.  “Airlines have to consider not only technical issues but even details such as the number of cans of a particular brand of soft drink that needed to be carried.  Rather than fly unopened cans around, was it not better to try to predict usage in a more effective way and offer an alternative to a passenger rather than carrying surplus stock?”

Notwithstanding the recent global economic downturn the conference mood was decidedly upbeat, with mention of healthy order books for Airbus and Boeing and the vigorous growth of the emerging markets, particularly the Asia Pacific region. 

However, airlines have to fight for customers. Jeremy White, Head of Transport at Seymourpowell, explained the crucial role of data gathering in tailoring the offering to passengers’ specific needs, gaining information on their tastes in areas such as music and food.  Personalisation could even be extended to identifying passengers with health concerns who could receive appropriate levels of attention from the cabin crew.  Free wi-fi is a key enabler in gathering passenger information and White suggested that airlines could collaborate with brands to fund the connectivity.

Customers can be presented with too much choice, leading to anxiety.  Raymond Kollau, Founder and Trend Analyst at Airlinetrends.com, described how Air New Zealand had made life simpler for passengers on short haul routes by offering four easily understandable packages, ranging from ‘seat only’ through ‘seat and bag’ to the all-inclusive ‘deluxe’.  Kollau also explained that airlines had to meet the challenge of the increasing geographical diversity of the passenger mix, stating that Emirates had cabin crew from 130 different nations.

Sven Achilles, Vice President and General Manager, B/E Aerospace, noted that passenger numbers are doubling every 15 years.  Competition abounds, with the advance of the alliances as well as airlines with strong market bases, such as Emirates, Etihad and Qatar.  Airlines have to distinguish themselves from their competitors.  One way was to install new products in the cabin but it was just as important to look at outside areas, such as the start point when the customer starts to think about buying a ticket.

Making the point, Arnaud Masson, Head of Onboard Services at Eurostar, said that his company carried the passenger equivalent of 72 jumbo jets every day between London and Paris.  Eurostar only offers two main destinations and passenger experience played a key role.  The techniques employed by Eurostar included offering Business Class travellers a menu based on French cuisine for departures from Paris and an English focused menu for journeys starting in London.  A recent notable success was a pizza that gave off a delicious aroma reminiscent of an authentic pizzeria.

The show is firmly established as a premier platform for launching new products and this year was no exception.  B/E Aerospace demonstrated its Angled Oasis Super First Class Suite, which enables passengers to use controlled sliding screens to achieve a high level of privacy, while the seat can be elongated into a long, fully flat, horizontal bed.  Pitch Aircraft Seating unwrapped a pre-production model of a new retrofit seat, the PF2000.  The sculpted seat, designed to closely mould the human form and optimise knee and leg room, draws on the best of sports car design.  Its curved shape gives an impression of greater space in the cabin while the back rest features a modular structure, giving airlines the flexibility for a fully integrated IFE package, an iPad carrier, or simply a high or low literature pocket.  Lufthansa Systems announced that passengers on airlines using its BoardConnect IFE system can now view the latest blockbuster movies.  BoardConnect is the first IFE system to have won the approval of leading film studios for their ‘early window content’.

Thomas Cook used the first day of the show to announce that it has chosen the Rockwell Collins Paves 3 IFE system, which will be installed in Airbus A320 and A321 which shows that even in the quasi charter part of the market passenger comfort is playing a strong marketing role.  In the same market area Pitch Aircraft Seating, the expanding UK-based aircraft seat manufacturer, unveiled a light-weight economy product intended for the high-density, single-aisle Economy Class retrofit market.  The innovative design weighs less than 25kg for a triple unit, thanks to the extensive use of lightweight composite materials.

Tapis introduced Ultraleather BOLERO which it believes sets a new standard for sound absorption.  The company claims that during independent testing Ultraleather BOLERO outperformed fabrics and genuine leather by improving low and mid-frequency absorption, thereby significantly reducing cabin noise.

New exhibitor Cobra Global gave visitors a first viewing of what the company claims is the world’s lightest economy seat.  Key to the seat’s performance is the chemical metalizing of high strength polymers.  Managing Director Gary Seale said: “We are getting a fantastic level of interest, not just in the product but also the manufacturing process.  We have taken an automotive industry technology and thought outside the box to create a new weight saving concept for the airline industry.  Aircraft Interiors Expo is providing an ideal platform to demonstrate our capabilities.”

Also making its Hamburg debut was what was claimed as the world’s first child seat certified for take-offs and landings in all configurations.  Manufactured by Gama Engineering the seat was demonstrated at the show by Starling Aerospace.  A fine idea according to those with young offspring, but will parents pay for a full price seat?  As was noted in the introduction: “To compete successfully operators will have to tailor their offerings ever more closely to the individual needs of their customers”. www.aircraftinteriorsexpo.com

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