India, China to see strongest boom in air transport volumes

Worldwide air transport volumes are set to double within 15 years, given the average annual growth of 4.5%, and by the year 2050 they will have increased six-fold, to around 3 billion tonne-kilometres transported. The strongest boom in the sector is expected to be in Asia – particularly India and Ch
ina – as well as in the Middle East.

The Middle East is set to witness a rapid expansion in air travel including a very fast increase in the size of the fleet serving the region, driven by its major hub carriers (Emirates Airlines, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways), Fadi Majdalani, Partner with Booz & Company said.

The report added that currently, air transport accounts for just 2% of global CO2 emissions. However, given the expected advances in technology and the forecast rates of growth, this share is set to increase disproportionately over the decades ahead.

Despite significant technological innovations with new types of aircraft, it is particularly the long working life of aircraft (between 30 to 40 years), which means that improvements in efficiency only gradually take effect over the entire international fleet.

As a result, the presumption is for a 3% year-to-year increase in worldwide CO2 emissions from aviation. This would increase CO2 emissions from this transport sector more than three-fold by 2050, despite the assumed efficiency improvements.

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CNG-run transport vehicles: Court moved for separate fare lists

A human rights organisation on Friday moved the Peshawar High Court seeking cut in fare charged by the CNG operated public transport vehicles.

In this regard a writ petition was filed by the Human Rights Commission South Asia through its representative for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa/Fata, Advocate Abdus Samad Khan Marwat.

The respondents in the petition are: Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through secretary transport; chairman, Provincial Transport Authority (PTA); and secretary PTA.

The petitioner requested the high court to issue directives to ensure boarding of 15 persons in Toyota Hiace van as per its specifications.

Furthermore, he prayed to direct the respondents to formulate qualitative standard and proper precautionary measures for the CNG operated vehicles for securing the lives of passengers.

The petitioner stated that four types of public transport vehicles were being run on different routes in the province by the transporters duly permitted by the PTA and Regional Transport Authority including: Coasters/mini buses; air-conditioned buses/mini buses; ordinary buses; and, luxury buses.

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Ticket to ride: Suns urge fans to take public transport

Gold Coast Suns officials are urging Gold Coast footy fans to utilise existing public transport when travelling to Cararra Stadium this Saturday night.

The Suns' Traffic Management Plan is the one aspect of Saturday's historic match against the Geelong Cats that has not been fully tested - that could not be fully tested - prior to game day.

Suns Chief Operating Officer Andrew Travis said the Plan has been set up to make use of the Gold Coasts existing public transport infrastructure.

"The best way to access the stadium is via the public transport network," Travis said.

"Tickets to the game will provide free travel to and from the game on surfside buses or Queensland Rail, and our whole traffic management plan has been set up around utilising the existing public transport system what is in place on the Gold Coast."

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Volunteers Offer Seniors Transport Service

Eloqua, a provider of revenue performance management solutions, has released new features that help marketers comply with the European Union’s new Web and email tracking regulations. The legislation, which takes effect today, impacts every marketer or retailer that interacts electronically with customers and prospects based in the 28 countries that comprise the European Union.

Under an added amendment to the existing EU privacy directive, organizations conducting online marketing campaigns in the member states must now receive explicit permission, or opt-in consent, to track any individual's actions online, including the use of cookies or other means. Depending on the country, they might also need permission before sending marketing materials via email.

Marketers, e-retailers, and others that rely on such information can get consent in a number of ways. They can, for example, post a click-box on their Web sites, request site visitors to fill out a form that pops up on screen when they visit a site, or ask customers to set their browsers to accept or reject cookies from the sites they visit.

"This is different than in the U.S.," explains Dennis Dayman, chief privacy and security officer at Eloqua. "In the U.S., you have to opt out. There, you have to opt in."

The new European laws will impact multinational corporations the most, according to Dayman. "If a company is headquartered in the U.S., the laws do not apply, but if it has subsidiaries in other countries, it could be affected," he says.

What's definite, though, is that the new regulations will affect how companies do business in Europe. "It adds more complexity to CRM practices and could hinder a company's ability to understand who its customer is," Dayman says.

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French Transport Ministry: Optimistic Outlook On Ash Cloud

France's transport ministry on Tuesday said volcanic ash from Iceland is unlikely to cause major disruptions to flights over the country and it plans to keep the country's airspace open.

As information stands right now, there is no plan to close any part of French airspace, the ministry said.

"Untill now," it said, the ash has been carried by winds that have avoided France.

"The outlook for the coming days is optimistic," it said, adding that French airspace "should be concerned in a very marginal way by the volcanic ash."

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Volcanic ash cloud fears send airline shares plunging

Airline shares fell on Monday, amid fears of potential disruption to flights caused by the dense ash cloud from an erupting Icelandic volcano.
Britain's Met Office is predicting the plume of ash from the Grimsvotn volcano would cover the Irish Republic, Northern Ireland, Scotland and parts of northern Britain by 6am on Tuesday.

Airline shares across Europe fell between 3pc and 5pc, with IAG, owner of British Airways and Iberia, down 5.09pc to 235p and Easyjet falling 4.85pc to 345.1p in London, while, in Dublin, Ryanair tumbled 5.30pc to €3.36.

Last year, ash from an Icelandic volcano caused 100,000 flights to be cancelled, disrupting 10 million passengers and costing the industry an estimated $1.7bn in lost revenues.

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US Navy christens amphibious transport dock ship

The US Navy has christened its newest amphibious transport dock ship Anchorage (LPD 23), the seventh ship in the USS San Antonio class of ships.

Anchorage being built by Ingalls Shipbuilding, a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries, is currently 82 percent complete and is expected to be delivered in the second quarter of 2012.

LPD 23 is the second ship named Anchorage. The first ship, LSD 36, also built at Ingalls Shipbuilding, completed 19 missions to become a highly decorated Marine amphibious landing ship before her decommissioning in 2003.

As an element of future expeditionary strike groups, Anchorage will support Marine Corps ship-to-shore mobility, which consists of the landing craft air cushion vehicle, amphibious assault vehicles and the Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.

The ship will provide improved warfighting capabilities, including an advanced command-and-control suite, increased lift-capability in vehicle and cargo-carrying capacity and advanced ship-survivability features. The ship is capable of embarking a landing force of up to 800 Marines.

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Chinese Stealth Fighter Could Rival US's Best

The next generation stealth fighter under development by the Chinese military could rival America's best fighters in speed, stealth and lethality, according to a new private report.

Details on the Chinese J-20 fighter are scant as the project has been developed under extreme secrecy, but an analysis conducted by the conservative Washington D.C.-based defense policy think tank The Jamestown Foundation based on the little publicly available information concluded that the fighter "will be a high performance stealth aircraft, arguably capable of competing in most cardinal performance parameters... with the United States F-22A Raptor, and superior in most if not all cardinal performance parameters against the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter."

The F-22 Raptor, which cost the U.S. government $77 billion for 187 planes from defense contracting giant Lockheed Martin, has never seen combat in any of America's three simultaneous major combat operations, but is considered by the Air Force and Lockheed Martin to be a stealth fighter without match. The slightly cheaper F-35, an all purpose stealth fighter being developed by Lockheed Martin for the Air Force, Navy and Marines, is not meant to focus on air-to-air combat like the F-22, but on air-to-ground attacks and is expected to work in tandem with the F-22

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Rail drama: Metro, Libs face rail change revolt

THE first two work days under the new train timetable have been marred by cancellations and delays affecting the Werribee and Williamstown lines.

Yesterday, three services were cancelled on the Werribee line and a train was pulled from action due to an unspecified fault.

On Monday, Metro said two faulty trains on the Sydenham and Epping lines caused 15-minute delays on the Werribee line.

"And we had two cases of passengers falling ill, causing congestion at Flinders Street and Footscray while we held those trains until appropriate help arrived," Metro spokesman Chris Whitefield said.

Altona Loop Action Group spokeswoman Sandra Wilson said her experience with new timetable showed there was "too much waiting time and too much margin for error".

"Our 9.10am shuttle didn't leave [Altona] until 9.20am, therefore we missed the connecting train at Newport." Hobsons Bay councillor for Altona ward, Tony Briffa said: "Metro and the Liberal government have set public transport backwards in Altona and Seaholme."

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Govt to draft master plan to improve air transport

The government will complete drafting a master plan for the development of airports within a fortnight.

With the growth of the air transport industry, the Maharashtra Airport Development Corporation (MADC) will formulate a policy to upgrade the infrastructure at airports.

The draft would include a perspective development plan for the next 20 years, said Nandkumar Jantre, vice- chairman and managing director of MADC. The official added that one of the objectives of the policy would be to provide airports with the infrastructure to handle increased traffic volume.

MADC has identified 29 potential sites for the development of new or upgraded airports. Some of the sites where new airports have been planned are Navi Mumbai, Amravati, Jalgaon, Solapur, Shirdi, Rajgurunagar near Pune and Chippi-Parule in Sindhudurg district. Jantre told TOI that they would decide on which project to take up first. The plan will not only talk about the various financial models that can be used, but it will also examine the techno-economic feasibility of setting up new airports near some of the established ones.

Another important focus area of the master plan will be to suggest guidelines for the improvement of customer facilities at airports, besides measures for flyers' security.

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Boat market booms as CEOs embrace water transport

THERE is a boom in the boat market as Chief Executives of both Government and private organisations now prefer going to work by boats and other water crafts in and around Lagos Island so as to beat the crazy Lagos traffic.

Confirming this development, a boat maker and Chief Executive of Topher Zhang Mr Chris Ajayi, said that there is certainly a boom in the boat market following the increase in the purchase of boats by chief executives of companies and parastatals who now use boats to beat the chaotic traffic situation in Lagos.

“The reality is that more Nigerians are now using boats and other water crafts to move around Lagos in a bid to avoid traffic. We at Topher Zhang are strategising to be part of the expected growth in the waterways transport of the economy as more clients are also placing orders for boats” Ajayi stated.

He disclosed that the Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA) is also preparing to give support to the growth of water transport in Lagos

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Air Transport Services Group expects first-quarter earnings below market forecast

Air Transport Services Group Inc. said it has arranged for a new, $325 million line of credit to provide capital for business growth, but expects to report a non-cash charge of $6.8 million, or 7 cents per share, against first-quarter earnings to terminate its current credit facility early.

Maintenance that kept some aircraft out of service reduced revenues and increased operating costs above budgeted levels, ATSG said. That will reduce earnings by 3 cents per share for the three months ended March 31, management said.

ATSG said it expects to report net earnings of 3 or 4 cents per share on May 10, prior to the market’s opening and its annual meeting of shareholders later that day. That would fall well short of the 16 cents per share earnings forecast by industry analysts surveyed by Yahoo! Finance.

The Wilmington-based company owns the freight airline ABX Air and provides aircraft leasing, air cargo transport and aircraft maintenance services. ATSG said it expects to place an additional nine Boeing 767 freighter airplanes into service this year, expanding its fleet of those aircraft to 39.

SunTrust, Regions Bank and JPMorgan Chase are the lead banks in the consortium providing ATSG’s new line of credit, management said. It will replace ATSG’s current line of credit that is to be terminated early

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County road, utilities projects could delay drivers

Drivers are advised to use caution this week in the following areas where Sarasota County has road, utilities and other projects underway:

- The roundabout under construction at Venice Avenue and Jacaranda Boulevard.

- North Cattlemen Road, from Richardson Road to DeSoto Road - where Florida Power & Light will be installing transmission poles.

- The area bordered by Sarasota's 17th Street, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Mango Street and Tuttle Avenue, where drainage improvements, road widening, sidewalk construction are other projects continue.

- Sidewalk construction and drainage improvements on Old Englewood Road, West Wentworth Street and Artist Avenue.

- Drainage improvements and stormwater pond construction at Laurel Park.

- Expansion of the Celery Fields stormwater facility with construction traffic on Palmer Boulevard.

- Ongoing construction on Honore Avenue from Bee Ridge Road to Fruitville Road.

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America's transport infrastructure Life in the slow lane

Americans are gloomy about their economy’s ability to produce. Are they right to be? We look at two areas of concern, transport infrastructure and innovation

ON FRIDAY afternoons, residents of Washington, DC, often find a clear route out of the city as elusive as a deal to cut the deficit. Ribbons of red rear-lights stretch off into the distance along the highways that radiate from the city’s centre. Occasionally, adventurous southbound travellers experiment with Amtrak, America’s national rail company. The distance from Washington to Raleigh, North Carolina (a metropolitan area about the size of Brussels) is roughly the same as from London’s St Pancras Station to the Gare du Nord in Paris. But this is no Eurostar journey.

Trains creep out of Washington’s Union Station and pause at intervals, inexplicably, as they travel through the northern Virginia suburbs. In the summer, high temperatures threaten to kink the steel tracks, forcing trains to slow down even more. Riders may find themselves inching along behind a lumbering freight train for miles at a time, until the route reaches a side track on which the Amtrak train can pass. The trip takes six hours, well over twice as long as the London-Paris journey, if there are no delays. And there often are.

America, despite its wealth and strength, often seems to be falling apart. American cities have suffered a rash of recent infrastructure calamities, from the failure of the New Orleans levees to the collapse of a highway bridge in Minneapolis, to a fatal crash on Washington, DC’s (generally impressive) metro system. But just as striking are the common shortcomings. America’s civil engineers routinely give its transport structures poor marks, rating roads, rails and bridges as deficient or functionally obsolete. And according to a World Economic Forum study America’s infrastructure has got worse, by comparison with other countries, over the past decade. In the WEF 2010 league table America now ranks 23rd for overall infrastructure quality, between Spain and Chile. Its roads, railways, ports and air-transport infrastructure are all judged mediocre against networks in northern Europe.

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