Best Bets For Early 2005

ACI New Orleans

     Actually there never is not a good time to go to New Orleans.
     But the trade show and expo that Airport Council International has cooked up in a couple of weeks is compelling right now.
     First of all, New Orleans is an air cargo city with a master of the form—Larry Johnson as Manager, Air Cargo Development at MSY.
     Secondly, the cargo committee at Airport Council International has some smart first class people like Robert Kennedy (ATL) who have worked to put together not only a great venue for the kickoff air cargo meeting of the year but also an agenda that appears first rate.
     The third reason harkens back to the first thing we said.
New Orleans is simply a great American and world city, unique, beautiful and exciting.
     Next month when the winter session of Mardi Gras kicks off, followed by Fat Tuesday and the start of the Lenten season that leads up to Easter you couldn’t get a room in the French Quarter to save your life.
     So that’s where the ACI meeting is, by the way.
     Rooms have been set aside at the posh Ritz Carlton for $150 bucks a night although somebody said, that deal may be sold out.
     No matter, stay at any hotel in the Quarter and walk to the event.
     Weather right now is great, the crab etouffee is taste of heaven and several hundred of your best friends in the business will be pushing hot-button air cargo topics for three days starting January 19th at 09:00 hours.
     More info contact: www.aci-na.org

Airbus' latest Global Market Forecast suggests strong industry growth through 2023, with the need for more than 17,300 new passenger and freighter aircraft worth $1.9 trillion (U.S.). Of this total, 16,600 new passenger aircraft of more than 100 seats will be needed. That divides into an average 830 deliveries per year when evenly split and is better than either Boeing or Airbus has delivered lately.

More than 100 US Airways executives and other employees volunteered to serve coffee and snacks, sort and move bags and help passengers find their way Sunday (January 2) at Philadelphia International Airport to try to avoid a repeat of the bankrupt carrier's Christmas weekend debacle where everybody was delayed while thousands of bags went missing during a labor induced “sick-out.”
The group also formed a gauntlet for normal operations against the same labor, which from all reports is not any happier this year than last.

Boeing fell far short (by about one-third) of its own prediction of booking 200 B7E7 orders by the end of 2004, despite last minute orders from Vietnam Airlines for four and Continental Airlines for ten of the yet to be built aircraft. In fact the inevitability of the marketing and sales failure cost the head of sales for the airplane company his job in late November. Continental Airlines retiring CEO and former Boeing salesman Gordon Bethune left the manufacturer a cookie with an order for ten 7E7 airplanes at year’s end. Continental gets the B7E7-8s beginning in 2009, if a CO board vote holds up to confirm the order. The “8” added to the B7E7 series number is an interesting wrinkle. Some want the airplane numbered B787 as a natural follow to the B777, but Boeing doesn’t seem able to make up its mind about that move. The number “8” is considered lucky in China, a market that is absolutely vital to the B7E7 success, so now here comes the B7E7-8. Airbus on the other hand, got the aircraft number thing right from the get-go, designating the airplane that they bet their company on, the A380. Airbus plans to fly the world’s biggest commercial passenger aircraft and new “queen of the skies,” to Beijing when the Olympic Games in China open August 8, 2008, or 8/8/8.

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