The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Rival airlines battle over Japan’s skies Posted: 21 May 2011 02:46 AM PDT  All Nippon Airways carried more passengers than JAL in 2010 and opened new facilities at Haneda airport. — AFP pic The rival airlines have announced their figures for domestic and international travellers for fiscal 2010, which ended on March 31, with 43,059,622 passengers opting to fly with ANA, an increase of 1.6 per cent on the previous year. JAL, in comparison, transported 41,923,452 passengers during the year, a decline of 12.6 per cent. Of that figure, international passengers were down an alarming 19.9 per cent and those flying on domestic routes fell by 10.5 per cent. JAL's financial worries meant that it was obliged in April 2010 to announce that it was suspending operations on 45 domestic and international routes that were not profitable. ANA has overtaken JAL in terms of passenger numbers for the first time since 2002, when JAL linked up with Japan Air System. Both companies would have reported better figures if dozens of flights to and from airports in northeast Japan had not been cancelled after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Services on those routes, such as to the city of Sendai, are being restored but remain significantly below their previous levels. Nevertheless, ANA's policy of investing in technology and improved facilities for its customers appears to be paying off. In October, the company's hub of Haneda International Airport opened a new international terminal equipped to deal with a surge in new travellers wanting to use a facility that is much closer to and more convenient for central Tokyo than the city's other airport, at Narita. The state-of-the-art facility is able to handle Airbus 380 aircraft and ANA immediately launched new routes linking Haneda with London, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Singapore, Bangkok and Taipei. To meet the needs of all those additional travellers, ANA has opened a series of new lounges and restaurants, as well as introducing its "Click" self-service check-in booths. The airport has also won acclaim for the universal design principles that have been incorporated into passenger areas, meaning that facilities take into consideration the needs of people with a wide range of disabilities. ANA also beat its great domestic rival to the punch when it released an iPad app in March. The ANA Virtual Airport provides access to articles from the airline's in-flight magazine, "Wingspan," videos and other information for anyone using its flights. The airline announced in mid-May a co-operation agreement with Mongolian airline Eznis Airways, while it is also putting the finishing touches to a joint venture with a Hong Kong investment group to create Japan's first low-cost carrier. That is designed to make it competitive against the growing number of similar airlines appearing across the Asia-Pacific region, from Malaysia's AirAsia X to Jetstar of Australia and Philippines-based Cebu Pacific Air. JAL, on the other hand, is still struggling to rebuild its finances and reputation after filing for bankruptcy in January 2010. The company also announced on Tuesday that it was having to further reduce its capacity on both international and domestic routes due to the decline in demand. — AFP-Relaxnews Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
| Normandy beach town prepares for G8 invasion Posted: 21 May 2011 02:27 AM PDT  General view of Deauville's main street on the eve of the opening of the American Film Festival in Deauville on September 2, 2010. — Reuters pic Next week, Normandy's seaside resort town of Deauville will see an invasion of a gentler kind: the annual Group of Eight summit, which will gather 18 heads of state and 2,500 delegation members to discuss North African unrest and other global issues. The G8 dignitaries should feel right at home in Deauville, which has been the playground of the Parisian elite for decades. In 1858, the Duke of Morny, a half-brother of Napoleon III, decided to create "a kingdom of elegance" and built the first half-timbered villas that give Deauville its unique look. A railway to Paris brought an aristocratic public, and the addition of a casino and luxury hotels set up Deauville to become one of Europe's party towns in the Roaring Twenties. Just two hours from Paris, Deauville is still a haunt for the wealthy, although the crowd is less exclusive now. "Deauville is the logical place for an event like the G8. It has long been used to hosting important people from the world of politics and business," said Sebastien Bouchereau, who has written about Normandy for many years for a local newspaper. After the war, dozens of villas were destroyed and replaced by apartment buildings. The more egalitarian post-war zeitgeist took the edge off Deauville's elitism and by the time it served as a backdrop for Claude Lelouch's "Un homme et une femme" film in 1966, the city looked more dreamy than worldly. In recent years, the town of 4,000 people has been trying to extend its short summer tourist season, launching an American film festival and building a conference centre. The cavernous hall that will host the G8 on May 26-27 was built 14 metres below sea level so as not to block the ocean view. It has hosted a series of meetings, most recently the leaders of France, Germany and Russia, but the gathering of the Group of Eight major economies is its biggest yet. "I hope that an important decision will be taken here and that it will be known as the Deauville decision. Like Bretton Woods," town mayor Philippe Augier told Reuters. He may be disappointed on that front. No big agreements are expected on burning issues like the conflict in Libya, and the agenda could be hijacked by a debate over who should head the International Monetary Fund following Dominique Strauss-Kahn's resignation over sex assault charges. Augier's bigger worry is whether, despite deploying some 12,000 police, the event could be marred by riots or attacks. G8 summits have become lightning rods for anti-globalisation protest and since the disastrous 2001 meeting in Genoa, Italy, where a protester was shot and killed by police, all G8s have been in held in remote areas that are easily sealed off. Recent venues have included a lakeside resort in Canada, a hilltop hotel in Japan and a Baltic seaside resort in Germany. Activists are usually banned to a different town. This year, NGOs are allowed to meet in Le Havre, 40km away. Oxfam France director Luc Lampriere said he regretted that activists had no access to the summit. Asked if beaches could be used for an NGO invasion of sorts, he said: "We don't have a navy and if we did I would not give away our plans." But if the remote locations have kept protesters at bay, it has not stopped attacks elsewhere. During the 2005 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, Islamist suicide bombers killed 52 people in an attack on the London transport system. Authorities have reason to be worried: the Deauville G8 is the first summit since US forces killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, France has led the West's intervention in Libya and its ban on full-face Muslim veils has triggered calls for armed retaliation. Eight of the 16 people killed in a bomb attack on a cafe in Marrakesh, Morocco, last month were French. "Vigilance was high already, but it has gone up a notch due to the death of bin Laden and the Marrakesh attack," interior ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet told Reuters. — Reuters Full Feed Generated by Get Full RSS, sponsored by USA Best Price. |
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