Last update: 20.08.2002

Monthly news coverage of the only tri-national airport Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg - Regio TriRhena

Features of the month
News: FC Basel, Jet Aviation, Novartis - Timetable News: Air France Swiss - "No Frills" - Bus Services - Embraer 170 Swiss Debut - Statistics - Passenger Profiles - Monty's Flying Circus

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NEWS

Photo: Marc Seidel

750 FC BASEL soccer fans were struck by the Celtic Glasgow virus, boarding a B767 of Belair, a A320 of Swiss and two MD83's of Swiss bound for Glasgow on August 14

Jet Aviation is most likely put up for sale for a price of 485 MIO. USD. Hirschmann Holding expects it's financial resources not sufficient for the companies future growth

On behalf of NOVARTIS two GlobalExpress are being operated (N700BK and HB-INJ).

TIMETABLE NEWS

Photo: Vincent Preneux

AIR FRANCE has reduced services to Paris Orly during France's big holidays in August. Starting on July 26, 4 daily flights are being maintained. After August 26, 7 daily services will be on again.
Services to Paris CDG airport remain unchanged 5 times a day and 7 days a week with Boeing B-737-500 aircraft.
Air France is deploying a mix of Airbus 319 (2) and 320 (5) to Orly depending on market demand. A total of 40 flights and 6'250 seats in each direction are being offered every week. This is marking a reduction in seats available as A321 are pulled out of the EAP market which offer 190 seats per flight.

Photo: Vincent Preneux

SWISS CANCELLED 100 FLIGHTS IN JULY !
The loss of HB-IZY (Saab 2000) when performing an emergency landing near Berlin, problems with AvroJets related to special engine oils, and the lack of sufficient oil pressure in the engines of ERJ-145 have lead to delayed and cancelled flight operations.
The EuroCross was affected by this series of incidents. The 5th airlink to Berne was suspended. SWISS is now heading for improved procedures intending to cure present ills, to strengthen maintenance operations, spare part handling, and personnel shortages. All aircraft manufacturers (BAe, Embraer, Saab) are sending specialists to Basel. The carrier is employing additional 21 JAA certified engineers. A Saab 2000 will be leased from Saab Aircraft management to fill the void suffered by HB-IZY.
Surveys will continue to locate other shortcomings until operation reaches a 99% dispatch reliability.

"NO FRILLS" is a new book which is now available...
The book gives you an insight on the Low Cost Carrier Scene and how it developed over the past years, you will find out what the truth is behind the low-cost revolution in the skies.
This book is available at VIRGIN BOOKS (www.virgin.com/books) and written by SIMON CALDER

BUS SERVICES departing downtown Basel are under review.
Two coaches leave Basel's railway station on different schedules and routings.
Coach line 50 ("AIRLINE") is an express service catering to air passengers only. It was launched on June 1, 2001. In the 2nd half of 2001, 0.81 mio. passengers boarded the service (5.35 mio pkm). In the first half of 2002 0.7 mio. boardings were registered (4.63 mio. pkm).
Coach line 30 carried 0.4 mio. passengers (1.49 mio. pkm) in the period from June thru December 2001.
Both bus links were able to move more passengers on their particular legs (line 30 with more stops and stage-passengers).
Instead of complementing each other, the services compete for the same market segment. Line 50 is accessible with a 1.50 Euro surcharge, whereas Line 30 is part of the city-wide tariff-system.
Now, all aspects of operations are being looked at such as service levels, tariffs (surcharge), routings, special offers to employers at the EAP (SWISS, Jet Aviation, forwarders etc.) before board approval is sought to change any pattern. If change is to happen it would be scheduled for December 15, 2002.

Photo: Rolf Keller

EMBRAER 170 HAD ITS SWISS DEBUT. There was an opportunity to touch base with this new twin-jet at the carrier's EAP maintenance center on July 30, followed by a 1 hour flight.
The aircraft is expected to replace all of the RJ85 fleet by June 2004 and a substantial number of Saab 2000 by December 2006. A total of 30 ERJ-170 are scheduled to be operational by then. Delivery will start in April 2003.
With the integration of the 49-seater ERJ-145 now completed, a second round of fleet harmonization with the ERJ-170 is on the horizon. Finally, the larger Embraer 195 will complete the fleet renewal program with a total of 30 ERJ-195 on the orderbook.

ERJ170 deliveries : 9 in 2003, 9 in 2004, 6 in 2005, 6 in 2006

ERJ170 performance layouts
characteristics : new optimized, high performance jet
with steep approach capability
seats : 70, two abreast
cabin width : 2.56 meters
cabin height : 2.00 meters
DOC/ASK : 6.57 US cents
break-even : 40.6% passenger load factor
market options : on routes where more capacity is needed

The Embraer 170 (PP-XJA) just arrived from Farnborough, preparing to "hop" to Zurich for a further demonstation.

Photo: Marc Seidel

STATISTICAL INSIGHT
Airtraffic is still affected by SR's collapse and SWISS' change of policy to move away from mass to better yields as business philosophy. Contributing to reduced passenger volumes are massive cutbacks in transfer services to and from Zürich (3 daily ultra-short services instead of 8) with passenger numbers shrinking :
1999 : 235'444 2000 : 222'381 2001 : 177'087
first half in 2002 : 25'000 ! first half in 2001 : 109'745 !
This change of traffic pattern will continue until it bottoms out to practically zero by the end of 2003.

STATISTICS - SIX MONTH OVERVIEW 2002

PASSENGER PROFILES : Worldwide migration has a long history and is to a large extend the result of economic and political disasters forcing people to migrate. Again, France, Germany and Switzerland are banking on migrants who help to propel their economies.
Migrants often looked at negatively have started shops, restaurants, import firms etc…inviting Westerners to taste the cultural wealth of Algeria, Turkey, Portugal and all places beyond.
As commercial aviation is also more accessible to lower budgets, a growing number of migrant workers are now choosing the airways when visiting their families back home. Those people with businesses have become new customers for airlines and their economy/business classes.
Airports are the latest in the chain to benefit from their presence. Ethnic traffic is on the rise particularly during summer and holiday seasons. With new arrivals like Khalifa Airways and Cabo Verde Airlines market shares in this sector have gone up. For example, in 2000 traffic to Constantine was at 3'500 passengers only.
Another aspect of ethnic traffic has emerged with the research-related activities engineered by pharma and university-linked operations. The English-speaking community in the greater metropolitan area of Basel numbers about 27'800. Pakistanis and Indians account for 4'200 people.
Various data offer some ideas about the size of selected communities, their locations, and passenger boardings to the countries concerned.

Figures for Alsace represent holders of foreign citizenship only, *not reflecting the Algerian French history of the late 40s to the early 60s.
Flights to SAL (1xweekly), Istanbul (2 weekly) Porto & Lisbon (daily), Algers/Anaba/Constantine/Oran (9 weekly) are being offered.

PASSENGER STATISTICS TO SELECTED DESTINATIONS (local and transfer passengers included) provided by BfS

Comments :
pax figures outbound only, °estimates due to variation in aircraft,
seat capacity per week, +SR defunct, *new carriers LH to MUC,
AF to NCE.

Dear Editor, BOB AYLING HAD A DREAM WHEN HEADING BA.

Indeed he did. He wanted to reinvent commercial aircraft manufacturing for the benefit of a(y)iling airlines. His genius suggested a blueprint for aircraft fleets run by Airbus and Boeing with airlines just being at the operator seat on a wetlease basis holding national AOC's. The plan was to relieve the airlines from the burden of sitting on idle aircraft when market conditions are bad and picking up capacity when boom is on. Of course, dear Bob never got a serious look at his proposal from the big-shots. After all, the job is clearly defined: Airbus and Boeing want to sell airplanes - the foolish airlines have to operate them at their own risk. So, no changes of the game are asked.
Bob Ayling's idea got a fresh start however. With airlines at the lifeline of governments in terms of war risk insurance, patriotic upheaval and September 11 traumas an advertisement in Aviation Week by General Electric got me working.
Financial Times is suggesting a need to overhaul airline business in general. Shrinking revenues, the war on terrorism and other deadly diseases (hunter strategies) give hell to the industry.
The ad is promoting an aircraft hull which can be expanded or retracted according to market situations ie. seating 150 passengers in the morning hours, 100 passengers on a mid-day flight and 200 travellers during evening rush-hour. The advantage would be just to have reduced fleet segments on the payroll compared to the actual concept which suggests up to four family types of aircraft with different capacities i.e. Embraer 145, Embraer 170, Embraer 190 and finally Embraer 210 yet to designed for 140 passengers and each category at a sizeable number.
Just try to face the cost efficiencies. Indeed, commercial airtraffic would be different and possibly in a better shape. The ongoing lamentos of CEO's would belong to the past. Just think the un-thinkable !

Never mind, Monty's dreams with his Flying Circus.

AIRTRAFFIC PROMOTION GROUP, WANDERSTRASSE 77, 4054 BASEL - TEL./FAX. ++41 61 302 5775 / E-MAIL. EAPNEWS@HOTMAIL.COM

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