Word: aboulafia
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...Aircraft analyst Richard L. Aboulafia of Teal Group has called the A380 "the worst product launch decision since New Coke." The A380 was born in a hub-and-spoke world where flights between countries were regulated. Now, airlines are freer to go point-to-point, avoiding the major hubs - and making 800-passenger megajets less necessary. (Emirates, the first to fly the A380 into New York City, quietly withdrew the plane from its JFK flights...
...Analysts such as Aboulafia see a future that favors Boeing's smaller, all-composite 787 (assuming it ever gets built). Airbus is already developing a new not-so-jumbo jet, the A350, for that purpose. But Air France CEO Pierre-Henri Gourgeon is sticking by his hub strategy. The skies are getting crowded, and he'd rather have the A380 to collect passengers in Paris from all over Europe and deliver them to places like New York and Johannesburg. "It's just like the big cities today," he says. "It doesn't make sense to add a lot of small...
...lack of openness raises questions about how real SIA's profits are and how fairly it plays. "The government's share is as big as a 747," says Richard Aboulafia, an industry analyst at the Teal Group, an aviation-consulting firm based in Fairfax, Va. "And it's not transparent. Maybe they're not as efficient as they claim. There is a certain science-fiction quality to their numbers." Geoff Dixon, CEO of Australia's Qantas, says, "Singapore Airlines is a government-owned and -backed carrier that does not have to play by the same rules as other airlines." Cheong...
...next team challenge? Cathay acquired the Chinese domestic airline Dragonair last year, but integrating its new partner could be tricky. "Chinese carriers do not have a good reputation for customer service," says Richard Aboulafia, an airline analyst with the Teal Group in Fairfax, Va. Tyler says he wants "to make sure Dragonair staff feel they belong--to make sure nobody was having lunch alone." Perhaps it's time to bring back Morning Boogie...
...Analyst Aboulafia offers this blunt assessment: "It's probably the single biggest mistake in aviation history. Even if the development program weren't technically botched, you still have the problem that it's just the wrong plane." Boeing expects to deliver its revamped 747-8 in 2010, costing about $4 billion to develop and probably priced at about $292 million, vs. about $319 million for the competing A380...