Aviation News

Next month, Houston-based Continental Airlines, with a hub operation in Cleveland, will begin fading into the distance as two carriers that have merged into the world’s largest airline become United.

Some planes still will bear the Continental name, until the company completes the task of repainting 700 aircraft that began when Continental and Chicago-based United Airlines merged in October 2010. Because of ongoing labor negotiations, flight crews from the two former airlines will continue to fly separately.

But passengers will book only United flights, earn frequent flier miles on United’s MileagePlus loyalty program, and queue up for check-in and boarding under United Airlines signs.

“We’re going to have one frequent flier program, we’re going to have one website, we’ll actually be one airline from our customers’ perspective, which is really valuable to the customers and will give them much better customer service,” said Jeff Smisek, CEO of United Continental Holdings, the parent company. “Many of the things customers have issues with today will disappear once we have a single passenger service system.”

In an interview with the Houston Chronicle, Smisek said it will be the first time United and Continental will appear to customers as a single airline the company refers to as “the new United.”

The change will take place during the first week of March, though the company declined to specify the exact date.

A spokeswoman was hesitant to set an official timetable for the disappearance of Continental, which traces its origins to the 1930s and has been headquartered in Houston since 1982.

But the integration of the passenger service system is the biggest component left to the joining of the two airlines. They technically began operating as one carrier at the end of November after the Federal Aviation Administration granted a single-operating certificate.

From the perspective of passengers, however, United and Continental have remained separate airlines.

They still book tickets through separate websites and separate reservation phone lines answered by Continental- and United-specific agents.

But in March, calls to both airlines’ existing toll-free reservation lines — which will stay in place, at least in the beginning — will go to a single team of agents.

The advertised reservation number will be 1-800-United1.

Continental’s website, www.continental.com, will route visitors to www.united.com.

Technical glitches

Other merged airlines have experienced glitches when integrating reservation systems, but Smisek said the company has had four “full-scale dress rehearsals” and is confident the changeover will go smoothly.

Smisek said issues discovered during the first three rehearsals were fixed and “all systems were go” during the fourth.

As a precaution, he said, the company will reduce the number of flights during the changeover period “to take some of the load off the airports themselves in case there are any kind of slower processing times so that we don’t inconvenience the customers.” A spokeswoman said the reduction will not be significant enough to affect service.

Smisek said the company is on target to achieve merger-related savings of up to $1.2 billion by 2013.

But the integration won’t do much to quell customers’ most consistent complaint: Higher ticket prices.

“The bottom line is that more mergers lead to higher fares,” said George Hobica, president and founder of Airfarewatchdog.com. “Not astronomically higher fares but definitely that’s the whole point.”

Hobica said the merger was essential to each airline’s financial health and that passengers who have frequent-flier miles with both companies will see their total mileage combined.

Smisek hailed the merger as a financial success during a recent event where he handed out profit-sharing checks to 20 employees.

Overall, the company distributed $265 million in profit-sharing to its employees. Eligible employees received 5 percent of their annual salary.

For more interesting articles to help you improve your Aviation English please visit http://aviationenglish.com and LIKE our Facebook Page.

Qantas Airways

AIR safety authorities are investigating a close call between two Qantas 737 jets and a small plane coming in to land at Melbourne Airport last week

The planes were 28km from the airport when they breached separation requirements last Thursday in what the Australian Transport Safety Bureau has classed as a “serious incident”.

The two Qantas flights – from Adelaide and Brisbane – were making the final descent to Tullamarine at the standard distance apart when a turbo-prop Nomad plane started flying head-on towards the first Qantas jet, Crikey reports.

The small plane, which was conducting an aerial survey, flew briefly at the same altitude of 1300m before moving out of the way according mapping by Airservices Australia community website Webtrak.

The small plane also turned in too close behind the second 737 jet.

The investigation is continuing.

PASSENGERS caught up in the Air Australia collapse have had to pay as much as $3500 to return home despite some airlines offering special discounted mercy flights.

Thousands more remain stranded in Hawaii, Thailand and Bali as they scramble to secure tickets on flights, and pursue refunds for their flights with Air Australia, which was placed in administration on Thursday.

Many of Air Australia’s 100,000 affected ticket-holders could receive no compensation, having either paid for tickets with cash or taken travel insurance that does not pay out in the case of an airline’s collapse.

Angry customers took to Facebook yesterday to vent their anger at travel insurers, banks and airlines that have been embroiled in the drama. Hundreds of passengers bought tickets through the coupon website Scoopon. A company spokesman said it had started issuing refunds, which could total $1 million.

Administrator Mark Korda, of KordaMentha, said that as the ANZ bank was Air Australia’s ”merchant provider”, it was responsible for refunding customers who paid by credit card. ”Flight details and passenger lists had been sent to the ANZ and they are processing refunds as quickly as they can,” Mr Korda said.

Two insurance companies, International Passenger Protection and Cover-More, withdrew cover for Air Australia passengers in December over concerns about its finances. Following the insurers’ decision, Flight Centre asked its Air Australia customers to sign a waiver forfeiting their right to insurance should the airline fold. ”If the customer wanted to fly Air Australia after December 21, we couldn’t say, no, we’re not going to let you,” Flight Centre spokesman Haydn Long said.

Mr Korda estimated the airline’s financial liability could run into the ”tens of millions”, and at least one of its planes was grounded in Phuket because it could not afford jet fuel. Yesterday it emerged that the aviation watchdog had audited Air Australia in January and despite its unstable finances could not substantiate any safety concerns and cleared it to continue flying.

An Australian Securities and Investments Commission spokeswoman said she could not comment on Air Australia but any company trading while insolvent was a serious breach of the law that would be investigated.

In Hawaii, hundreds of stranded Australians were struggling to find accommodation, with rooms in Honolulu almost booked out due to the Presidents Day long weekend in the US.

”There were people just sleeping outside Starbucks,” passenger Gale Moran said at Sydney Airport last night. She was one of 50 passengers who caught a Qantas flight back to Australia.

Fellow passenger Sandra Russell said the Australian consulate had ”set up cots at the airport, up in a convention room” for stranded Australians.

Those passengers who could find – or afford – alternative flights began arriving in Melbourne yesterday, mainly from Singapore. A Jetstar relief flight from Phuket is due to arrive in Darwin tomorrow.

Jetstar, Qantas and Hawaiian Airlines have all offered special fares to Air Australia passengers, although many took whatever seats they could get, at any price.

Victor Manusov, 23, who flew in to Melbourne yesterday on Singapore Airlines, described the chaotic scenes at Phuket airport.

”There were people crying saying they had no money to book new flights.”

Mr Manusov paid $1750 to fly home with Singapore Airlines.

”We heard stories that Qantas and Jetstar were going to help us but I was at the airport from 5.30am and there was no one there,” he said.

”I was ready to pay anything just to get out of Phuket. Getting home is a massive relief.”

Arriving on the same flight as Mr Manusov was Janet McKie, 55, who paid an extra $3400 to return home with her two daughters.

Thousands of Australians remain stranded overseas, including Bendigo couple Mark Millard and Chris Fitzpatrick.

”We have no idea how we are going to get home [from Phuket] and we are already hundreds of dollars out of pocket,” Mr Millard, 23, said yesterday.

Air India