Aviation Leading UK airports and airlines take off
Most of the larger regional airports –
Edinburgh, Glasgow, Birmingham, Bristol, East Midlands – saw traffic growth, but a number (Glasgow, Newcastle, East Midlands, Liverpool) remain considerably down on 2007-08. The pressure on smaller airports was shown by the demise of Blackpool and Kent International. The latter closed in May, with the site sold to a developer. Blackpool shut in October with annual passengers half the level of 2007 at 230,000.
UK airlines The biggest UK airlines had a good year. EasyJet posted record profits (£581 million) for the 12 months to September, 21% up year on year, off the back of a 7% increase in passengers to 65 million and a 91% average load – prompting chief executive Carolyn McCall to claim “clear blue sky” between easyJet and its competitors. British Airways’ parent IAG, which
includes Iberia and Vueling, forecast profits near €600 million following a 30% hike in third-quarter profits, with BA providing the lion’s share. This was in sharp contrast to rivals Lufthansa and Air France-KLM, with Lufthansa issuing the latest in a series of profit warnings in October and Air France preparing for another year’s substantial loss. EasyJet continued its transformation
of the ‘low-cost’ sector, a term the carrier no longer uses, as it sought, increasingly successfully, to appeal to corporate travellers, with allocated seating and a loyalty scheme. Dublin-based Ryanair followed suit in
pursuit of business travellers, joining the Travelport and Amadeus GDSs, introducing allocated seating and launching a corporate fare. Ryanair raised its full-year profit forecast to €750 million in November after a 32% rise in first-half profits and 4% increase in passengers over the summer. The change in Ryanair culture appears
real, but the extent to which it can emulate easyJet’s corporate appeal remains in
26 | Travel Weekly Insight Annual Report 2014
Passenger numbers at UK airports in the 12 months to August were up 10 million to 235 million – a level last seen in 2008
doubt given a focus on secondary airports. On the leisure front, Ryanair ended the year by announcing a deal with online accommodation giant
Booking.com. Elsewhere, Virgin Atlantic settled into its partnership with 49% stakeholder Delta Air Lines, the pair swapping US services as Virgin gave its schedule a greater US focus and marked its 30th birthday by launching its first Boeing 787 flights. Virgin decided to end its stab at short-haul domestic services and will wind up subsidiary Little Red next year. UK regional carrier Flybe restructured and
returned to profit under new management. Leeds Bradford-based
Jet2.com continued to expand, carrying more than five million passengers. Monarch also restructured, cutting its workforce and fleet by one quarter between August and October when the group changed hands from the Mantegazza family, which had run it for 47 years, to London- based venture capitalist Greybull Capital. The carrier will cease long-haul and charter flying from summer 2015. The long-term decline of charter flying continued (chart: ‘Scheduled and non-scheduled capacity’). Strategies at the remaining leisure
carriers diverged. Tui-owned Thomson Airways extended its parent group’s strategy of ‘exclusive product’ with long-haul services operated exclusively by Boeing 787s from this winter. Thomas Cook ran its group airlines as a single carrier and operated long- haul routes from Manchester and Frankfurt. On long-haul, Europe’s carriers must
contend with the burgeoning Gulf airlines. This is no mean task. At the time of writing, Emirates was flying more than 50 A380s and had 87 plus 150 Boeing 777s on order. Qatar had a fleet of 230 777s, 787s, A380s and forthcoming A350s on order, and Etihad had an order for 200. Norwegian Air Shuttle also piled on capacity, including at Gatwick, while pursuing its bid to make low-cost long-haul flights pay. These took off from Gatwick to New York, Fort Lauderdale and Los Angeles.
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