This digital startup is stamping out the ‘tax-free shopping’ scam

Full article on forbes.com

I was awestruck last year when I visited Milan’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, the most famous and perhaps the most beautiful shopping mall in the world. Few can resist gawping upon entering this masterpiece of neoclassical architecture, with its sweeping mosaic tiles, palazzo-style facades and huge iron and glass dome. An even bigger shock awaits ordinary folk who glance at the prices in the posh fashion outlets lining its streets. But not everyone is left aghast. For some tourists the Galleria Vittorio is a place to spend, not gaze. And for non-Europeans, in particular, the splurging comes with the expectation of a 22% VAT refund at the airport. Yet few tourists receive their dues. By the time retailers and middlemen have had their fun, these shoppers are lucky to get 14% back. And it’s a problem that affects more than just super-rich visitors to Milan...

Boeing needs a new boss

Full article on guardian.co.uk

Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing’s chief executive, last week told US lawmakers that he would have grounded the 737 Max in a heartbeat – if only he’d known about the dangers posed by the aircraft’s anti-stall mechanism. His apparent ignorance of this design flaw led to the deaths of 189 people in October 2018, when Lion Air Flight 610 slammed into the Java Sea. Five months later, once Boeing had convinced most of the world that poorly trained Indonesian pilots were probably to blame for the disaster, another 157 people died on Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302.

To the ordinary person in the street, glaring similarities between the crashes – both of which involved the same, brand new aircraft type nosediving at the same stage of their flight – made it obvious that the 737 Max should be grounded...

MEA: Beirut force

Full article in PDF format

During the early years of Syria’s civil war, Middle East Airlines (MEA), the flag-carrier of neighbouring Lebanon, benefited from an uncomfortable spike in demand due to its proximity to the battleground.

With Syrian airspace all but closed to civilian traffic, most refugees who could afford airline tickets drove 110km from Damascus to Beirut before boarding their flights.

That footfall has subsided in recent years as the war-torn state hobbles towards some semblance of normality. At home, flag-carrier Syrian Arab Airlines is plotting to re-build its network with new Russian aircraft that are not subject to Western sanctions. Abroad, a handful of international airlines have tentative plans to resume operations in Damascus.

And while less cross-border demand seems like bad news for MEA, Mohamad El-Hout, the airline’s longstanding chairman, actually wants the trend to continue...

Interview: Belarnicio Muangala, Fly Angola General Manager

Full article in PDF format

Angola’s aviation sector took a symbolic step forward in April, when the European Union lifted all restrictions on TAAG Angola operating in its airspace.

The state-owned flag-carrier had been trying to shake off its EU ban for more than a decade: first gaining an exemption for Portuguese flights; then securing the right to serve elsewhere in Europe with specific aircraft; and finally being given unfettered access to the continent.

By removing TAAG from its blacklist, Brussels signalled that the mismanagement and corruption associated with the airline no longer poses a danger to the safety of flight.

But, on a broader commercial level, there remains little positive to say about civil aviation in Angola...

Interview: Desiré Balazire Bantu, Congo Airways CEO

Full article in PDF format

Desiré Balazire Bantu was appointed chief executive of Congo Airways in 2016 with a mandate to deliver sustainable growth at the state-owned flag-carrier, which launched services the previous year.

His aim of deploying 10 aircraft by 2020 quickly unravelled when the then president, Joseph Kabila, refused to step down at the end of his term, igniting a full-blown political crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

It was not until this January that a successor replaced Kabila and relative calm returned to capital city Kinshasa...

Interview: Vipula Gunatilleka, SriLankan Airlines CEO

Full article in JPG format: page 36/37 & page 38

In the decade since Sri Lanka’s civil war came to an end, tourism in the island nation has grown fivefold to more than 2.3 million visitors per year.

The sector accounted for 5% of GDP in 2018, almost exactly matching the amount of money that Sri Lanka’s government spends on servicing its foreign debt. With an ambitious target of 5 million visitors in 2021, officials had been hoping that tourism could pull the country out of its budgetary crisis.

That optimism evaporated on Easter Sunday, however, when a team of suicide bombers inspired by Islamic State killed more than 250 people in coordinated attacks on hotels and churches across the island...

British Airways centenary becomes PR nightmare

Full article on forbes.com

British Airways poured money into marketing this year by re-painting four of its planes in heritage liveries and running a series of TV and online advertisements hailing 100 years of flight by the flag carrier.

The campaign – which drafted in celebrities like Olivia Colman – sought to rekindle BA’s historic reputation as “the world’s favorite airline”.

Yet the company seems oblivious of the thing that made it so popular in the past: looking after customers.

Striking pilots are not due to walk off their jobs for another fortnight and BA is already in the doghouse over its chaotic handling of the situation. As well as forcing affected customers to wait for hours on its chronically under-staffed call centers, the airline has spread the misery by wrongly telling other passengers that they need to re-book...

Interview: Neil Sorahan, Ryanair CFO

Full article on forbes.com

Ryanair wants to grow its existing subsidiaries rather than setting up more airlines, though management will not rule out acquisitions if rival carriers fly into difficulty during the winter season.

The Irish company has adopted a multi-brand strategy in recent months by establishing three sister carriers to Ryanair DAC: Austria-based Lauda, Poland-based Buzz and Malta Air. It has also set up a dormant UK subsidiary to minimize brexit-related disruption.

“With the airlines that we have at the moment we've got a huge amount of options,” chief financial officer Neil Sorahan told me...

How bitcoin is taking flight with Norwegian Air

Full article on forbes.com

When Norwegian Air Shuttle launched budget flights to America in 2013, it forced the airline industry to look again at a market segment dismissed by many pundits as commercially fanciful: low-cost long-haul flying.

Six years on, it’s hard to say whether the gamble has paid off. The airline’s balance sheet is weaker than when it only served short-haul markets. Early competitors like WOW Air and Primera Air have collapsed. Yet Norwegian’s Boeing 787 Dreamliners still criss-cross the Atlantic daily – holding their own against a new breed of low-cost long-haul services run by Europe’s legacy carriers.

The decision by Norwegian’s founder, Bjørn Kjos, to relinquish financial and managerial control of the company has meanwhile put a younger generation of executives – including his son, Lars Ola Kjos – in charge of strategic planning.

And their opening gambit appears no less ambitious or transformative than the elder Kjos’s foray into long-haul operations...

Interview: Ahmed Adel, EgyptAir Chairman

Full article in PDF format: page 22-24 & cover

Like any state-owned flag carrier, EgyptAir’s fortunes are tied inexorably to those of its home nation. That has translated to heavy losses and weak demand in recent years as the country was buffeted by successive waves of political and security unrest.

Two devastating air disasters – the bombing of Metrojet Flight 9268 and the still unexplained crash of EgyptAir Flight 804 – only added to the airline’s troubles.

However, with improved security and renewed investment under President Abdel Fattah el Sisi, optimism is rising on to the streets of Cairo.

Large-scale projects like the Grand Egyptian Museum and a new high-speed rail network are fuelling hopes of a happier future – one in which both locals and foreigners can travel across this ancient land without fear of violence or persecution...