When the flying kangaroo was first painted on Qantas planes in 1947, more than half of Australians were born in the U.K. Today, only a quarter are of English descent. But the failure to adapt to that change and rising long-haul competition from Middle Eastern carriers has seen Qantas’s share of Australian arrivals slump to less than 20 percent from more than 35 percent a decade ago. The number of passengers flying to London was little changed over the past decade, while those headed for Beijing or Shanghai almost tripled.

Qantas Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce is intent on remaking his high-cost carrier, which has a 65 percent domestic market share in Australia, into one that can better compete on faster-growing routes to Beijing and Shanghai. So Qantas is reducing unprofitable flights to Europe, shifting maintenance to cheaper facilities in Southeast Asia, and trying to start an airline based in Malaysia or Singapore that could handle intra-Asia traffic.Asia will continue to play a larger part in the global economy,Joyce says.There is nowhere like it. It has massive untapped potential.Investors aren’t certain he’ll succeed. Qantas shares plunged 36 percent in the past 12 months amid worries about Chinese rivals, a loss of business to lower-cost Middle East airlines such as Emirates, and Qantas’s more than A$600 million ($641 million) rise in fuel costs last year.

Moody’s Investors Service (MCO) downgraded the airline to its lowest investment grade on Jan. 31, citing competition and fuel prices’ drag on earnings. “They either have to come up with a business plan with costs close to their competitors’ or they just slowly contract, says Andrew Sisson, managing director of Franklin Resources’ Balanced Equity Management, Qantas’s biggest shareholder, with an 11 percent stake.If you can fly people to Kuala Lumpur or Singapore, you’ve at least got a natural market to draw on, but they won’t fly on you if you’re not price-competitive.

Setting up an airline in an Asian hub would let Joyce hire pilots and crew locally at a lower cost and offer a greater choice of connecting flights to compete with Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific Airways. Personnel expenses eat up 27 percent of sales at Qantas, as opposed to about 15 percent at Singapore Air and Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific. Qantas’s international routes log about $200 million in losses annually. “He has to get it right,” says Neil Hansford, chairman of Sydney-based Strategic Aviation Solutions, which advises airlines across the Asia-Pacific region. “The Asian carriers aren’t going to sit still. They will fight for every passenger Joyce tries to get.

Australian lawmakers and unions consider the possible launching of an offshore carrier a ploy to shift jobs abroad and subvert the 20-year-old legislation that privatized the airline. Legislators have proposed revisions to the law that would compel Qantas and its Jetstar budget unit to do most of their maintenance work in Australia and to cap the growth of Asian affiliates. Those proposals “would strangle our capacity to run our business,Joyce told an Australian Senate panel on Feb. 6.A wave of strikes last year led Joyce to ground the Qantas fleet in October for about two days, forcing the country’s labor regulator to intervene. Two of three unions are now in binding arbitration that will prevent them from striking and taking other labor actions for the lifetime of new contracts. Qantas engineers signed a deal in December allowing new jets to be maintained in Asia.

We are excited to add Istanbul to our global route network, said Jim Compton, United’s executive vice president and chief revenue officer.This new service will provide customers throughout the United States, Canada and Latin America direct access to one of the most important cities in the region.United flight 904 will depart New York/Newark daily at 7:27 p.m. and arrive in Istanbul at 12:20 p.m. the next day. Flight 905 will depart Istanbul’s Atatürk International Airport daily at 1:55 p.m. and arrive at New York/Newark at 6:02 p.m. the same day.

The airline will initially operate the services with three-cabin Boeing 767-300 aircraft with 183 seats – six in United Global First, 26 in United BusinessFirst and 151 in United Economy, including 67 Economy Plus seats with added legroom. Effective Aug. 28, the airline will operate the service with two-cabin Boeing 767-300 aircraft with 214 seats 30 in BusinessFirst and 184 in Economy, including 46 Economy Plus seats. Both United Global First and United BusinessFirst feature flat-bed seats, along with a wide range of premium-cabin services and amenities.

The strikes on Thursday and Friday cost Fraport a total of €3.5 million to €4 million in lost sales, the company said, adding it would lose €5 million a day if all air traffic was canceled. Silvia Quandt Research estimates the strike hurts the company’s operating earnings by €3 million to €5 million a day.Despite the flight-service disruptions, operations at the airport were running smoothly, Fraport spokesman Jürgen Harrer said, adding that replacement personnel had been brought in to alleviate the disruption.

A spokeswoman for Germany’s largest airline group, Deutsche Lufthansa AG—the carrier most affected by the industrial action—said it will need to cancel only 160 flights on Tuesday, fewer than previously planned. The cancellations affect domestic and intra-European flights, not intercontinental flights, she added. On Friday, Lufthansa said it had cancelled 232 flights. She declined to comment on the cost of the cancellations.

Thursday and Friday’s strikes resulted in the cancellation of around 30% of scheduled flights at Frankfurt airport.At present, Fraport is looking for temporary assistance from personnel at other international airports and has been training some staff in different roles. The company is prepared for further industrial action in the coming days, the Fraport spokesman said.On Sunday, Fraport said the group aimed to maintain 50% of scheduled flights Monday, and urged labor-union representatives to return to the negotiating table.

There was no contact between the union and the company over the weekend, Mr. Harrer said Monday, adding the union needs to compromise.Separately, union Chairman Markus Siebers said that while the strike was having an effect, workers were disappointed Fraport hasn’t relented yet. Until Fraport is prepared to compromise, the union has sufficient funds to continue the strike, he said. The union is prepared to return to the bargaining table, “but we can’t start from square one again, Mr. Siebers said.

According to filings submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission last Friday, PAL said it posted $33.5 million losses for October to December 2011, a period when the carrier cut down on flights as it transitioned from laying off some 3,000 grand crew to using outsourced services instead.This is a reversal from $15.1 million profits recorded in the same period the year previous.The flag carrier said total revenues dropped by 3.8% to $386 million for the third quarter of 2011.

PAL experienced weak passenger demand as well as declining cargo markets as the world economy struggled to recover, it said.Total operating expenses went up by 9% to $419.5 million, according to PAL.As the airline goes through its last quarter of fiscal year 2011-2012, it continues to seek ways of enhancing revenues and lowering costs, PAL said.In a related development, PAL’s affiliate Air Philippines Corp., the operator of budget carrier Airphil Express, said is plans to launch flights to Malaysia and Vietnam in the second quarter and also start operating international flights out of Clark, Pampanga.
We are working on Vietnam and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This is out of Manila,Alfredo A. Herrera, Airphil Express’ senior vice-president for sales and marketing said in a telephone interview late last week.The carrier, he added, will be launching its first flight to Cebu out of Clark on March 29.From there, although it is not yet final, we will launch international flights like Hong Kong and Singapore out of Clark,” Mr. Herrera said. “It will probably be in April or May.”

“We are delighted with the announcement by JetBlue Airways of new daily service to LaGuardia Airport in New York City. This is the preferred airport for travelers going to Manhattan for business and tourism purposes. The commitment and partnership we have enjoyed with JetBlue has never been stronger, and we are grateful and excited about the faith they have placed in our community. We are confident this new service will be a success and look forward to future expansion opportunities, said SRQ President and CEO Fredrick Piccolo.

THY increased its revenue by 35 percent in the first three quarters of last year, as compared to the same quarters of 2010. In the same period the number of passengers flown by THY increased by 11 percent, reaching 24.3 million. With 176 aircraft in its fleet, the carrier operates 5,107 weekly flights to 187 domestic and international destinations.

The carrier’s fourth-quarter loss widened to 133 million kroner from 23.6 million kroner a year earlier, it said today, worse than the 91 million kroner deficit expected by analysts. The stock fell as much as 9 percent, the most since Oct. 4, and was down 4.7 percent at 76.5 kroner as of 11:29 a.m. in Oslo.Fuel expenses jumped 56 percent to 793 million kroner in the quarter, in part because Norwegian offered more flights. Revenue advanced 18 percent to 2.54 billion kroner.

The 90-minute flight service will be offered on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Gerald said the Myrtle Beach-based airline once offered three-day-a-week direct service from Gulfport to St. Petersburg, Fla., for a few months in 2007, when it was named Myrtle Beach Direct Air.That was before they changed the name to Direct Air and started expanding in Myrtle Beach, he said.Gerald said he believes the return of the Direct Air flight service will be a boost to the local economy, bringing in tourists from Florida to spend their time and disposable income in South Mississippi.This is definitely going to have an effect on gaming revenues. It’s going to have an effect on the economy in general, he said. And the timing is perfect, right at the beginning of summer.

Year after year, Gulfport is consistently a top leisure destination for people from central and west Florida looking for a quick getaway, Kay Ellison, managing partner of Direct Air, said in a news release.Direct Air is now offering a $99 promotional fare on one-way flights between Gulfport and Lakeland that are booked through Feb. 22.

Tickets from Sarasota to New York are on sale now for $109 if purchased by March 12 for travel between June 11 and July 31 (blackout dates of June 29 – July 9). Sunday and Friday flights are also blacked out from the $109 price. Those days are selling for $160 one way, though the first Sunday, June 17, is still at $109.Flights are scheduled to depart from SRQ at 5:35 p.m. and arrive at LaGuardia at 8:20 p.m. Flights from LaGuardia to SRQ will depart at 1:35 p.m. and arrive in Sarasota at 4:32 p.m.

We will be flying four times a week to Bulawayo and Victoria Falls. We will gradually increase flights as the market picks up.The airline is saddled with an estimated debt of $149 million.Foreign creditors are owed about $30 million, and the rest is owed to local entities.Transport and Communications minister Nicholas Goche last week told NewsDay’s sister paper, Zimbabwe Independent, the airline had been operating on a deficit since 1994, but the inception of the multi-currency system worsened the situation.This, he said, had resulted in frequent strikes, grounding of operations, non-replacement of equipment, huge debts, suspension from International Aviation Transport Association, lease withdrawals and contract cancellations, among other problems.