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Airline Insider-May/June 05 |
| Written by Brian Dunn | |
COME TRY WITH ME AGAINCome fly with me, let’s fly, let’s fly away. Or should that be ‘Come try with me, come try with me again’ when referring to Michel Leblanc’s attempt to relaunch Jetsgo, albeit on a much smaller scale. The aviation entrepreneur is hoping to relaunch Jetsgo by the end of June, his fifth attempt to keep an airline solvent for any length of time. The jury was still out at press time as to whether a revived Jetsgo would fly. A key to rescuing the carrier will be persuading the lessors to stick with Jetsgo, rather than finding another airline to pick up the MD-83 leases. Leblanc hopes to persuade creditors and consumers to give him another chance, and he expects to sell off the 15 Fokker 100s and liquidate other assets under the supervision of court-appointed monitor RSM Richter Inc. “He’s an aviation entrepreneur. He has aviation fuel in his blood,” said Karl Moore, professor of management at McGill University. “If the airline comes back as Jetsgo with Michel Leblanc as the head of it, it may not work, given all the bad blood. But there is as market out there for a charter operation. His problem will be the brand and cash flow.” Jetsgo faces a credibility problem that will be hard to overcome, according to a Toronto-based analyst who requested anonymity. The analyst also wondered who would lend Leblanc money or what lessors would allow Jetsgo to fly their aircraft given the airline’s questionable service and maintenance record prior to bankruptcy. “This is the third time he’s done this. Who is going to trust him again? And you have to question how much goodwill there is left among his former employees. But he’s like a cat, he always lands on his feet.” As for the possibility of launching a charter operation – for which the MD- 83s are better suited than for some of the routes Jetsgo flew – the analyst pointed out that Leblanc already tried that with Royal Aviation, which merged into Canada 3000 which also went out of business. AIR CANADA GOES SHOPPING Air Canada is studying the possibility of a major expansion of its ultra-longhaul widebody fleet. It’s also poised to decide whether the Airbus A350 or Boeing 787 will replace its aging 767 fleet. The airline operates two A340-500s on the Toronto-Hong Kong route and is looking to launch several more routes requiring the range capability of the 500 or rival 777-200LR. Services under consideration include Vancouver to Sydney and other points in Southeast Asia, possibly Bangkok and Singapore, as well as Toronto to Mumbai and Shanghai. Air Canada has not specified how many aircraft it is considering, but up to eight could be needed, including replacement of the leased A340-500s. The airline’s aircraft maintenance and repair unit has received a US$300- million contract to overhaul more than 200 aircraft from Delta Air Lines over five years. The work began in May in Vancouver and should result in the recall of laid-off employees or cancellation of layoff notices of others, or about 300 workers in all, according to Air Canada. Delta said the deal to maintain and repair its fleet of 208 Boeing 757s and 767s is “one of the industry’s largest outsourcing contracts” that will save it US$240 million over five years and reduce its costs by 34%. The airline lost a record US$5.2 billion last year. HALIFAX INTERNATIONAL WINS TOP HONOURS Halifax International Airport was voted the best in the Americas in a survey by Airports Council International and the International Air Transport Association, which interviewed 65,000 travellers at 40 airports worldwide. Minneapolis/St. Paul and San Diego ranked second and third in the Americas. The survey was based on 31 servicerelated criteria covering the entire airport experience for both domestic and international travellers. Halifax also ranked first in overall passenger satisfaction for airports worldwide handling less than five million passengers annually, for the second year in a row, as well as best domestic airport worldwide. Hong Kong was named the world’s best airport, followed by Seoul’s Incheon and Singapore’s Changi airports. |
