From Cork to Toronto

This will cause ructions in the West. It had been fairly widely rumoured that Aer Lingus would start flying from Belfast International (BFS-Aldergrove) to Heathrow and that Cork and Shannon might lose a frequency each to free up Heathrow slots. According to RTE Aer Lingus will announce that Shannon will lose all of its Heathrow service which will be redeployed to Belfast. As long as Clare County Council fails to develop Shannon as an major urban centre and refuses to come to an agreement with Limerick City Council about a boundary shift on the west of the Shannon to expand the city towards Shannon, the catchment will never support the level of service that is wished for and with the improvement in rail and air service from Cork, Kerry and Galway to Dublin that problem is set to get worse rather than better.

In Phoenix, Arizona two helicopters operated on behalf of KNXV and KTVK following a police pursuit collided killing all four crew . In Toronto, Global, Rogers and CTV all operate news aircraft. The Toronto Police wanted a helicopter for years under Fantino's regime, which may have cut down the number of fatalities occurring during these same pursuits and assisted control of large events, but while moaners, er... "concerned citizens" refused to countenance it citing noise and cost, the media organisations have expanded their fleets without much notice being taken. At the moment, the TPS seem to be able to get by for their own needs by borrowing York Region's helicopter, but to my mind it's time they had a hotline to Toronto Air Traffic Control with the power to close airspace to visual traffic such as private aircraft rather than having tellychoppers hanging overhead a crime scene causing a racket while officers are trying to deal with incidents for nuisance valu...

This news story , which relates to serious operational issues on the Liverpool-Knock-New York route, does not paint a pretty picture of Globespan operations, which is disappointing as Ireland-Canada services need the shake-up an Air Canada/Air Transat competitor would bring. The low-cost revolution usually means a minimum number of spare aircraft - if any at all - and the upswing in the aviation market means that fill-in charter aircraft are already busy. Force majeure is understandable given the troubles at Glasgow, a Globespan base. But given those troubles and the seriousness of the damage to their New York 757, if Delta had spare seats on the New York-Shannon flight, Globespan should have been booking as many of their passengers on it as possible and not leaving them sit in New York indefinitely or be forced to pay Delta what was likely to have been a pricey one-way fare. This is how Ryanair behaves in Europe but being stuck in another continent is a bit more serious again and ...

The CBC reports that two kids with the same name, Alistair Butt, have been held for security screening when attempting to fly via Air Canada by a no-fly list but it's not clear if it is the Canadian, American or the Air Canada list. The kid from Ontario is 15 and the one from Saskatchewan is 10. Hopefully the latter kid is related to Brent Butt as since Harper got his guest spot on Corner Gas it would be nice to see him repaid for it with a sharp commentary from the Prairies. Transport Canada, predictably, were damn all use: Allan Kagedan (...) advised the Butt families to appeal to the organizations operating all three lists. "You can approach all three, I suppose, and they can guide you in terms of doing what's needed to try to avoid problems in the future," he said. He would not confirm which list contains the Alistair Butt name. I suppose the first place to start would be to try WestJet - that would eliminate one. The Saskatoon Star-Phoenix (hat tip Creekside ...

A good week for Porter, a bad one for Air Canada. Its Jazz subsidiary was denied summary judgement in their attempt to regain access to Toronto City Centre and must issue a formal statement of claim within 30 days and submit to discovery processes (which would disclose Jazz' strategy towards the Island Airport). Failure to do so would mean they would be exposed to costs - Porter claim to have spend $1m so far. This was followed by the US Department of Transportation decision to allow Porter to operate to the US . This was opposed by Air Canada and some US airlines but DOT decided that what the Port Authority did to Air Canada was not their concern, and all that mattered was their relationship with American carriers - noting that TPA came to an agreement with US Airways, irrespective that US did not take up the service. Porter is expected to begin service to Newark in Q4 2007 or Q1 2008 but are expected to serve other US destinations. CEO Robert Deluce had recently announced p...

Aer Lingus check-in agents will now be getting 10% of excess baggage payments , to a minimum of 1,000 Euro (C$1,500) in year one. So don't count on discretion if you're a half-pound over any more.

The Harper government has announced that 4,450 hectares of land expropriated to create Mirabel Airport will be sold with priority given to existing renters of the land, most of whom owned it prior to the forced sale in 1969. The mayor of Mirabel is unhappy as he was looking to expand the industrial sites at the airport but that is something he can take up with the new owners. The Kanesetake Mohawks have filed a land claim on the land - I'm going to pass over that one because I don't understand how indigenous land claims work in Canada, and the bigger problem is that it seems to me nobody else does either. Mirabel itself still exists as a cargo airport and occasionally a film set . Apparently Montreal Airport Authority covets it for flights between Dorval-Trudeau and Mirabel (a distance of 32km as a noisy old cargo plane flies) which seems environmentally dubious to put it mildly - is this the hand of Bombardier who still maintain a factory at Mirabel? The next question i...

BA CEO Willie Walsh was in Calgary for the launch of the 5-weekly Heathrow-Calgary service. Apparently he wore the mandatory stetson , though I haven't run down a photo - you can bet there would be one if Michael O'Leary was doing it. While there he had a lot to say about Gordon Brown's increase of aviation taxes , such as that the increased total tax at STG400m was far times more than if BA had paid the current market cost of CO 2 offsets (STG87m). Obviously the environmental impact of aviation such as noise is more than just CO 2 - there's nitrogen oxides, noise, high altitude vapour and so on but Brown should answer whether the money will actually go to ameliorating environmental effects. He paid a visit to WestJet of whom there have been persistent rumours of joining the OneWorld alliance, especially once their new reservations system comes on-line. WestJet would straddle two major OneWorld partners in AA and BA as the former Canadian Airlines once did and ...

The Telegraph reports that UK Chancellor Gordon Brown plans "green taxes" among which an tax hike on the existing 5 pound sterling tax on shorthaul flights and 40 pounds on longhaul. If Brown had real concern for the environment he would commit to putting all aviation tax above the cost of maintaining aviation infrastructure and security into improving high speed rail links within the UK and to Belgium and France via the Channel Tunnel. Instead the tax will surely pour into the gaping maw of the Treasury. This doesn't make it green - just greedy. Taxes on long haul flights tax on the other hand lacks any alternative route to steer people to short of putting people on rowing boats - paying for facilities to tow and start up aircraft near runways rather than having engines idling on the tarmac should be where such taxes find a home, as well as punishing older aircraft harder than newer more economical ones. There is a case to increase some taxes on flying here in Canada...

Seems like Dermot Mannion believed the bookies who had Leinster to win - Aer Lingus are offering extra flights for the Heineken Cup final - from Dublin. Nice. Meanwhile Michael O'Leary has to come up with 24,000 "free" flights with Leinster's late capitulation. No doubt the small print will say he only had to come with 24, in the manner of the flights for life fiasco . It would be nice to think to soon the travelling hordes could come up with another song, given that Athenry is not quite in Munster... Now if only I could persuade Ted Rogers to carry European Cup rugby instead of NPC/Super 12.

In the Blog O'Sphere, blankpaige and Omaniblog have posted on the plan to sell part of the Government stake in Aer Lingus. The Irish Independent (rego req.) also published a recent sceptical article (a letter to the editor identifies it as by Martina Devlin). Damien Kiberd takes a different view in the Sunday Times which I share. To wrap Aer Lingus in the national flag and pretend the aviation market will be thwarted is to guarantee its end. The example of bankrupted airlines like Sabena and Swissair, the continuing basket-case status of Olympic and Alitalia and the dubious policies at South African should be loud warnings to those like me who actually wish to see Aer Lingus succeed while remaining an Irish airline. What are the factors which have hindered Aer Lingus to date? 1. Government regulation means that investment in Aer Lingus will only occur when the national finances permit it. Private airlines like Ryanair can raise finance whenever they have a commercial need ...

Sir Freddie Laker , former boss of Laker Airlines/Skytrain , has died at the age of 83 . His death is notable as he was one of the first pioneers of airline deregulation and no-frills flying, and suffered an early form of the British Airways dirty tricks campaign they later subjected Virgin Atlantic to. Prior to his involvement, transatlantic flight was the preserve of the rich but Laker offered flights at one third of the flag-carriers fares. The oil crash of the late 1970s killed off Skytrain but sowed the seed for the later Southwest and Ryanair wars against US and European legacy carriers and their high fares.

A lot of the anti-TCCA bloggers and those who comment on them remind us (approvingly) of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's closure of that city's airport, Meigs Field . (Meigs can still be seen on Google Maps - hat tip to Information Echo ). It's worth reminding ourselves of some of the history around that closure. Daley moved in the middle of the night with bulldozers to make the main runway unusable with no notice to the Federal Aviation Administration, the small fine this offence attracted causing the FAA to increase it ten-fold for future offences . Sixteen aircraft had to be given permission to depart from the taxiway, hardly normal or safe practice! An investigation appears to be be still pending (no sign of resolution on faa.gov) regarding Daley's use of funds from O'Hare International to demolish Meigs. The reconstruction of Northerly Island is being funded by granting a concert stage to Clear Channel - the kind of corporate media giant that would surely chil...

REGCO, the regional airline championed by Robert Deluce, is one large step closer to reality with the announcement of 10 firm orders for Bombardier Q400 70 seat turboprop aircraft . The airline's plan is still to operate from Toronto City Centre , where at present only private flights operate with the exception of a single Air Canada route to Ottawa operated by 37 seat Bombardier Q100s, which are approximately 150 kilometres per hour slower than the Q400. This order, valued at $500m but which with the usual discounting will net to substantially less, is good news for local workers who build the Q400 and who pleaded with City Council not to reverse the decision to build the bridge, a decision which David Miller would cost $2 but has so far cost the Feds $35m. Whether REGCO will be a success is anyone's guess. There is scope for traffic to Ottawa for bureaucrats and business types but beyond that it's hard to say. However I do admire that he is bothering to try, given the...

Cork airport 's never had it easy really. Stuck on top of a hill, public transport links dubious, god awful when it rains. Runway 17/35 maybe a little short for direct transatlantic, and too sloping over the end for a Category III instrument landing system . 07/25 cut off by the Kinsale Road so only for the smallies. Fog all the time, cue excursions to Kerry, Dublin and Shannon. Meanwhile the airport gains its (kind of) independence from Dublin but loses key personnel, promised airbridges and promised debt-free beginnings. But it's Cork's and not doing too badly in attracting more traffic, especially since Jetmagic persuaded Aer Lingus that people actually wanted to go somewhere other than Heathrow and Amsterdam. We were getting a new terminal which hopefully wouldn't involve incoming passengers to wait on the apron in the freezing cold/wet/wind because of an overflowing immigration queue, missing flights because of check-in queues etc. Michael O'Leary offere...