[Airpocket]

Another happy subscriber, eh!

[Hess963]

Hi everyone !

Just been busy for a while and what did catch my view firstly after all this time–Airpocket being so cheeky again and–what? aggressive–that BT is not reporting or pursuing the EK’s issues pertinently and missing here a ground breaking story ?

What is so important in EK’s momentarily situation which make other airline’s calamities do not look so important What about GF which is more in a worse situation than EK and less talked about?

Do not take this wrong–but what makes Dubai and/ or Emirates so important that BT suddenly has to write something so ground-breaking? Airpocket–you might feel that EK’s misery is an important issue for you–but not for others.

EK has still– inspite of the possible bad development from recent issues in the Emirate of Dubai –a good performance. The ruling family of Dubai will definitely not let EK get in to trouble so easily. It is still a ” family jewel ” . A merger with EY is always a possibility–but under the momentarily evaluation–this is not an option.

But for a probable merger with EY in the future–I believe some EK responsibles and business partners are not that disinclined.
Don’t forget–it is all about business and profit in a free trade market. The ruling families in the UAE know it better than us

BT — Senator is right here–you don’t need to defend yourself in such -in my opinion- “low level of communication”. BT you should be monitoring and moderating, but don’t let any contributor disconcert you. Most readers know how Airpocket likes to agitate in certain issues. Most readers and especially those many subscribes who voluntarily pay money to get your magazines are endorsements enough !

[golfpro]

Airpocket, please consider me your number one FAN!!! About time someone brought up the regurgitating of stories. I guess that during a recession , regurgatation is the fastest and cheapest form of writing copy. Many people in the world are complacent and try to be non-objectionable and they are the ones for whom constructive criticism is often hard to take, hopefully your comments will provoke actual “thought” throughout BT.Thats why the admin. had a quip at you. He doesn’t like looking in the mirror and having to face that he is a “cut and paste” journalist!

[Airpocket]

Thank you for your support Golfpro.It would appear that cutting-and-pasting appears to be the journalistic trend, not just here but in many travel-related magazines. Has anyone looked at the Sunday Times Travel Magazine (monthly) or Conde Naste Traveller lately?Once upon a time one hoped that BT wouldn’t descend to the same level of complacency and that BT would actually persistently scratch at the (murky?) goings-on at various airlines, hotel groups, etc.,
Still, I suppose the fact that we have fora to vent our grief (and our pleasure) online and in the Letters page is something.But, it doesn’t change the fact that us, as passengers, can’t single-handedly change the way airlines and hotels short-change us and rip us off. We really need a magazine/publication that , whle maintaining it’s neutrality and fairness, pursues stories of deliberate malfeasance and exposes the culprits at various airlines and hotels. For example, it would have been quite a coup had BT investigated and broken the BA-VS price-fixing arrangement. Likewise, instead of simply swallowing the line that EK are due to make a profit of “one billion”, maybe BT should have probed the accounts and scrutinised the structure of the airline and how it is wired in to the matrix of Dubai.
I don’t think EK desrves special treatment, but the story of any airline, especially from a travel-related magazine, in the context of a sovereign default, deserves deeper coverage.
Either BT doesn’t have the calibre of journalists to probe deeper or it does but the journalists are only too happy to keep things as they are (just how would they survive without invitations to all those corporate events with the free-flowing alcohol and canapes, I wonder) and not upset the apple cart by antogonising airlines and hotel groups.
Will I continue to buy BT?Sure, for light relief, the sort you need onboard, while the AVOD reboots. :o) For the more punchy stories, though, I’ll look elsewhere.

[MarcusUK]

Out of all this, there have been major forum threads that have questioned the very heart of some Airlines strategies.

BusinessTraveller really could be more pro-active, & place some attention to these, & being as they are, raise these issues with the Senior managers at the Airlines, & Elicit some responses?

BMI Diamond cCub complaints?
BA cutback/charges?
SQ route strategies & differing Cabin layouts?

BT has the capability to be more of a voice for the sector, but seems to favour the same old few Airlines, BA primarily, as though they re in bed with them!
The reality out there, is that this is out of touch.
If you want good journalism n have the best out there, then try to find something from the mundane.
Have an interview with a Major Airline each month, let them convey their strategies & let the questions b put to them. Advocate for Travellers…?
The way it is all going, so many Business trips are now in Economy in Europe, & “Business traveller” seems to have been taken over by “Premium Self paying Traveller”!
These certainly are the people in the premium cabins these days!

Can we start a new direction & advocacy for the new Year BT?

[Tom Otley]

Hello Mark

Thank you for your post.

We are reading this and taking note, but I’m afraid as a result of the level of personal and professional abuse that posters on the forum seem to feel it is their right to bestow on Business Traveller, individual journalists and the editorial direction of the magazine, we won’t be responding directly.

The forum was set up for readers of the website. There is no charge for using it, despite the costs we incur running and hosting it. Over the past two months several of us here have tried to respond point by point to the criticisms of the magazine as they come up, but reading through this thread it is clear to me (as perhaps it will be to you if you read it again), that it is a losing battle. There isn’t much we haven’t been accused of just in this thread, and laying out our defence once more will only bring more criticism, as indeed will this post.

I’ve already defended our journalists once in this thread, and their hard work, so instead, I’ll just emphasise the fact that people are free to express whatever opinions they like on this forum unless they are personally offensive.

We are reading and taking note, and the forum will have many new features next year.

We will also take on board any useful and sensible suggestions made, and indeed you have made several.

To state the obvious, we do not favour any airlines, although we do reflect the ones the majority of our readers fly with.

[FCTraveller]

Guys come on, get a grip. First I’d like to say that in my opinion BT is an excellent and unrivalled publication. I don’t know of any other that offers the combination of such an excellent print and web-based publication. (I’d just like them to be more mindful of typos, but Tom, there has been an improvement, thanks). Yes I agree that some of what BT publishes is regurgitation but if some of you have the time to trawl the net to find all this on your own, then good for you, you obviously have more time on your hands than I do. But it is unfair to say that it’s all cut and paste. I don’t think Virgin for example were bragging on their website about reducing Upper Class capacity. Some of you seem to forget something, BT is not investigative journalism, they don’t have the time or the budgets to allocate resources on sending journalists digging for stories (unless we’d be willing to pay a few hundred pounds per issue). They’re not a Sunday Times Insight Team and have never made themselves out as such. They are simply an excellent source of information and advice on business travel. Well done guys and ignore the criticism, it’s unfounded and unfair.

[MarcusUK]

Constructive input is never viewed as criticism, except those with a need to be defensive.
I see BT around the world in the best of lounges & hotels & indeed it is well respected (Found a copy in Hungarian last week in Budapest!).

Good Companies respond & shape themselves as indeed BT does well with. Membership or subscription should mean some input, & the forum is indeed a good resource provided, but also a place to listen.

We all know & feel at this moment in time, with more to come, on the recent re-shaping of our travel, whether that be in security, world events, or the economic problems, & cut backs around the worlds Airlines.
I see & feel that Premium /Business travel has changed dramatically, & the customer base is changing, not only in demand. Perhaps even the best days of travel have gone now, i certainly feel the heart has gone out of some Airlines & services, & at times it feels soul-less.

Constructively, it would be good if BT could reflect this more with different angled articles. You have a great respect, & as suggested i am sure it would benefit us all to hear the strategies & reasons why some Airlines are doing what they are, from Airlines themselves, & perhaps advocate for the Weiry traveller in these tough times.
Good to hear some of the ideas are seen as just that, they are meant constructively…

[oldchinahand]

I have have enjoyed the content and been well informed by BT for the past 15 years and I fail to understand why Airpockets Golfpro an their ilk on this site at all?
Clearly they have little understanding that BT is an information source for business travelers who have nether the time or inclination to spend hours trawling internet for tabloid travel trash.
Its not an industry scandal sheet so back to the ‘News of the World’ boys !

[GoonerLondon]

Back to the thread then….

Emirates, one of Dubai’s prize assets, said on Thursday it had raised USD$1.13 billion for the delivery of A380 aircraft from Airbus and was in a secure financial position.

The aircraft will form part of the 53 Airbus A380s that Emirates has on order, the company said in a statement.

Dubai has ring-fenced key assets from the USD$26 billion debt restructuring of state-linked Dubai World as fears mount Dubai’s debt problems are not limited to the troubled conglomerate.

“Emirates remains in a secure financial position despite the global financial crisis,” chief executive Tim Clark said.

“We have never encountered difficulties in obtaining finance for our aircraft acquisition programme, with both international and regional banks comfortable with our financial stability.”

The airline said the funding for the six aircraft was arranged with Citibank, backed by a guarantee from the European Export Credit Agencies and a second with Doric Asset Finance.

It did not give a timeframe for when the money was raised.

“Emirates has always honoured its financial commitments and we continue to progress with our rigorous fleet and network expansion,” it said.

According to a Dubai government prospectus issued earlier this year, apart from some of its main utilities firm, Dubai Electricity & Water Authority, the government has not “guaranteed the obligations of any third parties”.

Emirates will receive the first of the six aircraft early next week with a second arriving in late December and the remaining four due for handover in 2010, the company said.

Emirates is the largest customer for the A380, with 53 still on order worth USD$17.4 billion at list prices. It has already taken delivery of five of the world’s largest airliner.

(Reuters)

[oldchinahand]

Perhaps not such a secure outlook for Emirates………

‘As if Airbus and Boeing didn’t have enough to worry about already, the looming debt crisis in Dubai has cast a shadow over a backlog of aircraft orders, worth more than $60 billion, from Dubai, Inc.

The biggest – but by no means the only – example is Emirates, Dubai’s government-controlled carrier. It has more than $30 billion worth of planes on order from Airbus, including 53 of the double-decker A380, for which Emirates is by far the largest customer.

Emirates has long said that it receives no government subsidies. Even so, the debt crisis could wreak havoc with its future. Travel to Dubai had already started to slump as the economy weakened earlier this year – although Emirates is cushioned somewhat because about 60% of passengers coming through its Dubai hub are on flights connecting elsewhere.

A scarier prospect for Emirates is that Dubai’s oil-rich neighbor, Abu Dhabi, might demand control of the airline as part of a deal to bail out its debt-strapped neighbor. Abu Dhabi’s state airline, Etihad, has ambitions to become a global player and turn the Abu Dhabi airport into a major hub.

If that happens, it’s unlikely Abu Dhabi would take delivery of all Emirates’ order backlog, in addition to the 100 aircraft it has ordered. Longterm market analyses by Airbus and Boeing predict that air travel in the Middle East will grow an average 6% to 7% annually over the next two decades, too little to absorb both carriers’ order books. And those estimates were made before the Dubai debt crisis.’

(BusinessWeek)

[Hess963]

Hi everyone !

Oldchinahand–I definitely agree with your opinion regarding your comment to such attitudes referring to Airpocket and Golfpro. I am a longstanding subsribers of BT — I liked them and appreciate their ways of information. If those people really want tabloid travel trash–than they really out of place here in BT !

Regarding EK’s airplane orders–who knows how it will look next year. At the moment the numbers of EK are still okay— but if EK do not get proper yields results in the long term–I do not know how EK will justify to have a huge numbers of A380 in the future. Pax nowadays are price conscious and very demanding especially when flying in premium class.

About EY messing around EK and its future plans–who knows, if EY really wants to have a saying or stirring up in EK’s business. Both airlines are pretty ambitious. Let us see–which of the two will dominate the future.

[Author]

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