British Airways Ditches 747 For Airbus A380

LONDON - British Airways ended decades of loyalty to Boeing's 747 jumbo with a switch to Airbus's new A380 superjumbo on Thursday as it announced a mixed plane order worth up to USD$8.2 billion.

The order for 12 superjumbos from Airbus and 24 787 Dreamliners from Boeing will replace 34 of the airline's older long-haul planes.

BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh told reporters the airline would use the superjumbo to make best use of its limited take-off slots at London's crowded Heathrow Airport.

He denied the company had experienced political pressure to buy the superjumbo, the wings and engines of which will be built in Britain.

"There was absolutely none," he told reporters. "There was no contact, be it formal or informal. The decision was made in the best interest of British Airways. In the engines, the choice of Rolls-Royce was because British is best."

The A380 is the biggest airliner in production, and its first delivery due next month, to Singapore Airlines, comes after wiring troubles triggered a costly two-year delay and management upheaval at Airbus.

The double-decker has a maximum seating capacity of 853 passengers, though most airlines plan to use configurations of fewer than 650, which is still a jump from Boeing's jumbo, which BA currently flies with a maximum of 351 seats.

BA took delivery of its first jumbo on April 22, 1970, becoming just the fifth airline to get one.

"It's an excellent boost for UK manufacturing, with Airbus and Rolls-Royce plants benefiting," said Tony Woodley of Britain's biggest union, Unite. "This order will secure many thousands of jobs."

Analysts said BA had probably received significant discounts as Boeing and Airbus battled for the high-profile orders.

"With the A380 likely to have been heavily discounted, and a reasonable discount on 24 787s also applied, we'd estimate the real value of the order at around GBP3 billion pounds (USD$6 billion)," said analyst Andrew Fitchie at Collins Stewart.

Walsh declined to discuss discounts, which are common in the industry, but said: "I'm very pleased with the way Boeing and Airbus approached this."

The superjumbo will fly on routes from London to Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa and the west coast of the United States.

The 24 mid-sized 787 Dreamliners, a model whose rapid sales have revived Boeing's fortunes, will be used to open up new routes and increase the frequency of flights on existing ones.

The 787 breaks new ground with a fuselage made of light-weight carbon composite, and is due to enter service next year.

The two types of new aircraft will be delivered between 2010 and 2014, and BA said it had also taken options for a further seven Airbus superjumbos and 18 of Boeing's Dreamliners.

The airline said both aircraft types would be powered by engines from Rolls-Royce, which said it could make up to USD$5 billion from the deal if all options become firm orders.

BA said it was considering aircraft to replace a further 37 Boeing 747s and is examining the Boeing 777-300 ER, the Airbus A350XWB, as well as a stretched version of Boeing's 787, the 787-10, which the planemaker has yet to launch.

"This puts big pressure on Boeing to actually launch the 787-10," said one London-based brokerage analyst.

Another said that while Airbus had scored a major victory in selling the superjumbo to BA, it had missed a key opportunity to secure a deal for its newest plane, the A350 XWB, and selling it to BA would remain a priority for the planemaker.

BA has arranged for a group of banks to provide USD$1.5 billion of debt financing to cover its firm orders to the end of 2011.

THAI MICE industry projecting huge growth

REPORT - BALI - PATA TRAVEL MART: Thailand’s Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) sector is doing well. In the first six months of 2006, Thailand saw a growth of 70.54% in visitor arrivals for conventions and a 27.95% increase in business travellers.

The highest numbers for convention delegates were from the ASEAN region, led by Malaysia followed by Singapore and Indonesia. Delegates from Japan were up by 112.44% and Korea 358.50%.

According to the estimated figures for 2007 conducted by the Thailand Conventional and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB), Thailand will receive a total of 814,000 MICE delegates, generating about 56 billion baht foreign exchange revenue for the Thai economy.

TCEB plans to build itself into an agile and professional organisation that will harness the power of marketing intelligence and databases and bolster industry knowledge and skills development.

TCEB also has profiled the local trade and industry associations, especially the medical fraternity which holds the biggest annual conventions. In the field of exhibitions, particular attention will be paid to the top global industries: jewellery, automotive, agriculture and fashion.

Facilities for international incentive travel, meetings, conferences, and exhibitions are being strongly promoted.

Currently, Thailand offers five high-class convention and exhibition centres including the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre (QSNCC), Bangkok International Trade and Exhibition Centre (BITEC), Impact Muang Thong Thani, Bangkok Convention Centre (BCC) at Central Plaza, and Pattaya Exhibition and Convention Hall (PEACH).

Medium-sized convention halls are also available at the Siam Paragon complex and the Central World Trade Centre right in downtown Bangkok, surrounded by dozens of hotel facilities all within walking distance.

In addition, new centres are emerging in regional destinations like Chiang Mai and Phuket.

Several major events are to be held in Thailand this year, such as the World International Islamic Conference & Exhibition Thailand 2007, IT&CMA / CTW Asia-Pacific, ICCA 2007, Media Asia Expo 2007, Proud Asia 2007, and Worlddidac Asia 2007.

Gulf Air and Tourism Malaysia join hands

Gulf Air and Tourism Malaysia signed an agreement to jointly promote Malaysia’s 50 years of nationhood. The agreement, signed by Gulf Air and Tourism Malaysia, comes after last year’s Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the two sides to set up a task force to seek ways to jointly promote “Visit Malaysia”.

"Malaysia is an extremely popular destination for tourists from the Middle East and over the years the country has been witnessing a steady increase in the number of tourists’ arrivals from the region," says Gulf Air General Manager Bahrain Abdulmalik Al Saei.

Malaysia received as many as 12,404,377 tourists between Jan and July 2007, a 24 % jump over the same period last year.

Around 130, 000 tourists from the Middle East and Iran visited Malaysia in the first half this year, up nearly 42 percent when compared with the same period last year.

Visitors from Bahrain alone jumped 24.4 percent higher to 3,246 in the first seven months this year up from 2,610 during the same period in 2006.

Gulf Air’s Head of Marketing Peter Rothel says the airline is eager to tap into the influx.

"Gulf Air has been flying to Kuala Lumpur for years and with the strongest network in the Middle East, the airline is best positioned to cooperate with Tourism Malaysia," says Gulf Air Head of Marketing Peter Rothel adding that "the airline has lined up very attractive offers as part of the campaign."

Gulf Air, which operates daily flights to Malaysia, has slashed prices to 149 BHD for a roundtrip (Bahrain-Kuala Lumpur-Bahrain) starting October and until the end of the year.

"The campaign is timely as it gives visitors the opportunity to attend world-class events and festivals taking place in Malaysia over the next three months," adds Mr. Rothel.

Malaysian officials have welcomed the tie up with Gulf Air, which is the most established carrier in the region, and the Kingdom of Bahrain.

Events coming up during the next three months are the Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix (19 October-21 October) featuring the world’s greatest riders, Malaysian International Gourmet Festival (2 November- 29 November) which is the country’s premier gastronomic event featuring the world’s best chefs and the Malaysia Year End Sale Carnival (1 December 2007 to 1 January 2008) offering great bargains.

Airport News

Birmingham: third terminal yes, second runway no

Officials at Birmingham International Airport in the UK have unveiled a £1 billion (US$2 billion) vision for the facility, which involves the building of a third passenger terminal and the extension of the existing runway.

Plans to build an extra runway have been scrapped however, because officials believe projected increases in passenger numbers to about 27 million a year by 2030 can be accommodated by these extra services.

The latest plans will be submitted later this year and should be completed in time for the 2012 London Olympics.

Birmingham's acting managing director Joe Kelly says the £120 million (US$240 million) 400m runway extension will allow the airport to handle non-stop, long-haul flights to China, the Far East and the west coast of America.

A tunnel will be created as part of the extension project, to allow the A45 highway to pass under the runway.

The vision for Birmingham Airport is contained within an interim master plan published today, which has been approved by Australia's Victorian Funds Management Corp and Canada's Ontario Teachers Pension Plan, which last week together bought a 48.25% stake in the airport from Macquarie Airports Group and Ireland's Dublin Airport Authority.

Plans to produce a full master plan, as required by the UK Department for Transport, have been delayed pending the outcome of Coventry Airport’s appeal against the refusal of planning consent for a new terminal building.

Manchester to track passengers for retail boost

Manchester Airport is to begin trials of inexpensive UHF tags to track passenger movements in order to boost retail sales.

The UK’s third largest airport tried tracking passenger movements last year to understand passengers’ behaviour as they travel through the airport, but decided the RFID technology was too expensive to justify full rollout.

Yemmi Agbebi, head of business development at the airport, says the investment in more affordable UHF tags to track passenger movements around retail areas is likely to provide a better return than employing the technology to maximise supply chain efficiency.

The system will be used to maximise the amount of time spent by passengers in the retail area, by highlighting occasions when passengers are delayed in security, for example. It will also alert staff to prevent passengers from accessing restricted areas, and improve staff identification and border security.

The recent introduction of a global UHF standard has brought down the cost of RFID tags, but the technology presents challenges in airport environments because UHF is affected by water in the human body and metal in luggage.