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China Southern Airlines - the largest airline in The People's Republic of China
- has signed an agreement for future membership of the SkyTeam Alliance.
It is the first carrier in the nation to join an airline alliance.
The SkyTeam Alliance was founded in June 2000 by Aeromexico, Air France, Delta Air Lines and Korean Air.
In 2001, CSA Czech Airlines and Alitalia joined the alliance.
Since then, the SkyTeam alliance has expanded customer service with flights to 121 countries with 517 destinations, offering more than 8,300 flights per day with annual passenger traffic of more than 218-million passengers.
As a member of SkyTeam, China Southern will jointly cooperate with its partner airlines in sharing mutual facilities and joint purchases, joint frequent flyer programme mileage as well as joint use of airport lounges around the globe.
Qantas has done a backflip on its domestic inflight service, axing the cold box meals it introduced in 2000.
Hot dinners have been reintroduced on economy flights and there is now a choice of two meals in business class.
The changes are part of an overhaul of the airline�s domestic inflight service after feedback from Qantas customers and
staff.
The airline is thought to be trying to position itself away from its low-cost rival, Virgin Blue.
The new products and service which Qantas will introduce will be branded �fresh spirit�.
Qantas executive GM John Borghetti said the enhanced �fresh spirit� service
offered customers a choice of hot and cold meals and �gourmet snacks�.
We can't help wondering if anyone from Qantas was
monitoring
What is the worst
snack on Qantas flights which was featured in last month's
newsletter?
Six young Russian men are alive today because they were so drunk airline staff refused to let them board one of the two
planes that crashed in the country�s south late last month.
The men were booked to travel on the Sibir Airlines Tu-154 aircraft that crashed near Rostov-on-Don while en route to the
Black Sea resort Sochi.
A total of 44 people were registered to fly on the aircraft, but only 38 boarded at Moscow's Domodedovo
airport after the six drunken holiday makers were denied entry. All
passengers and crew died in the crash.
Qantas have announced a pre-tax profit of $964.6 million for the year ending June 30, 2004.
This result is a 92 per cent increase on last year�s result.
To reward those that made it happen, Qantas will pay each of its staff members a $1000
bonus. CEO Geoff Dixon said the bonus would be paid to all current permanent
and fixed-term staff but not executives who were already on bonus
schemes. He said the company had also committed $50 million over the
next three years to initiatives designed to help staff balance work and
family commitments.
Meanwhile, Geoff Dixon has agreed to extend his
contract for a further three years. The conditions of his new contract
include fixed annual remuneration of $2 million and a cash bonus, which
we expect is significantly more than $1000!
Flight Centre has acquired an Internet travel business and an associated software development operation.
The takeover means Flight Centre now has access to a state-of-the-art online booking system which it intends to incorporate into its existing websites.
Expect a bit more competition in the online travel market!
Low-cost airline Jetstar has been hit by another aircraft malfunction.
A Jetstar aircraft bound for Hobart was forced to return to Melbourne shortly after take-off after the pilot
noticed a problem with one of the B717�s engines.
The incident is just the latest for the Qantas subsidiary. On July 26 a Jetstar flight made a precautionary landing after an
attendant smelt burning plastic and wiring.
But Jetstar spokesman Simon Westaway claimed Jetstar had excellent safety standards and it was unfair for people to suggest otherwise.
He said Jetstar safety and maintenance had just been reviewed as part of their
move to introduce their new A320s.
British visitors to the Spanish island of Gran Canaria
have returned home to find bogus letters demanding payment of traffic
fines. The letters demand EUR129 (A$ 222) be sent to an office in
Madrid.
The UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said the letters
were particularly convincing, boasting an official-looking crest and
citing non-existent legislation. In addition, many of those targeted by
the scam had just returned from the destination.
Eight former flight attendants have been given the
go-ahead to pursue Virgin Blue for discrimination after they claimed the
airline rejected them because of their age.
The attendants argued in May that they were knocked
back because they refused to sing and dance at their job interviews. But
the women, aged 36 to 56, now say the airline was deliberately seeking
'youthful looking' applicants.
A Labour government would consider lifting restrictions limiting foreign ownership of Qantas to 49 per cent, according to a
report in the Australian Financial Review.
The newspaper claimed the ALP�s policy shift would be welcomed by Qantas, which has consistently lobbied the Howard
government to remove the restrictions.
Labour's transport spokesman Martin Ferguson told the AFR the party had an open mind on the issue but Australia must have
regard for making sure Qantas could survive in a tough international competitive world.
He said the business environment Qantas operated in today was different to that in 1995, when the former Keating Labour
government insisted on strict foreign ownership limits as part of privatisation.
Record fuel prices have resulted in many airlines -
including Qantas, Air New Zealand, Singapore and Virgin Blue - raising
their fuel surcharges.
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