Posted October 20, 2009 9:19 AM
By Tony Brooks
Postcard from Croatia
As the ISTAT 737 Express left London for the Dubrovnik European Conference one paused for thought as to what would happen if the aircraft became a Paul Hayes Total Loss statistic with nearly 50% of the conference onboard. Thought nearly became reality when Captain McDonald was forced to circle the Croatian Airfield for what seemed an eternity to let the bad weather shift on to neighbouring Bulgaria.
Happily we landed safely but were met later on by a Thunderstorm from Hell during the opening Reception. Having survived this tumultuous welcome, thoughts turned to the conference. The mood was more upbeat than the depressing days of last October, with an air of optimism pervading the Dalmatian atmosphere. The Airline Speakers, oddly, had been chosen from the more profitable sector and included Etihad, Lufthansa and Finnair. We were lectured by the Etihad CEO that his Airline serves more long/haul routes than QANTAS which, coming from an Australian, was quite enlightening. Lufthansa, sitting on a mountain of cash as big as the Alps (about 4.5 Billion Euro to be exact) explained how a low exposure to fleet Cucumbers (See Note) has helped profitability...what is this Cucumber thing?...apparently 70% of the Lufthansa fleet is un-cucumbered compared to 30% at BA...maybe the Germans have found the secret of profitability.
The Airbus & Boeing slots were a slight disappointment if one was expecting the previous contests seen at ISTAT conferences and really came down to the usual sales pitch. Lets hopefully look forward to a panel discussion between the manufacturers at next years’ March ISTAT, by which time we hope the 787 will have flown and the A350XWB will be a year away from its first flight. Or…maybe the A350WXB will have flown and the 787 will be a year away from flying – aviation can be a funny business.
For those wishing to improve their choreography skills, Irish Dancing was on offer at the Waviatech Monday Reception, with the free Guinness ensuring a receptive audience to say the least.
The Lessor Panel was more optimistic than last year but again confirmed the ‘Rich Kids sitting on all the Chaos’ scenario. LCI say Banks are lending to them at favourable rates but that the fees they are being charged are out of all proportion. All panelists agreed that consolidation was the name of the game with more of the same in the pipeline. Steven Hazy confirmed that the lessors will be taking more responsibility in fleet development in future years and he sees them enjoying more success and profitability as the years go by.
Our very own Olga participated extremely well on the Appraiser panel towards the end of the conference and is no doubt a future shining star on the ISTAT conference circuit.
So, with that I have to say ‘Davidjenja’ as the Sun is now shining, the water is crystal clear and I haven’t had my breakfast yet.
See you in Orlando.
(Note) We understand that the speaker may have been referring to the term ‘Encumbered’ which refers to an aircraft under lease.
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