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Alexis Tsipras must be stopped: the underlying message of Europe's leaders

29 June 2015 - The Guardian

One day before Greece’s bailout ends and the country’s financial lifeline melts away, Europe’s big guns have lined up one after another to tell the Greeks unequivocally that voting no in Sunday’s referendum means saying goodbye to the euro.

There was no mistaking the gravity of the situation now facing both Greece and Europe on Monday. Leaders were by turns ashen-faced, resigned, desperate and pleading with Athens to think again and pull back from the abyss.

There were also bitter attacks on Alexis Tsipras, the young Greek prime minister whose brinkmanship has gone further than anyone believed possible and left the eurozone’s leaders reeling.

One measure of the seriousness of the situation could be gleaned from the leaders’ schedules. In Berlin, Brussels, Paris and London, a chancellor, two presidents and a prime minister convened various meetings of cabinet, party leaders and top officials devoted solely to Greece.

The French president, François Hollande, was to the fore. “It’s the Greek people’s right to say what they want their future to be,” he said. “It’s about whether the Greeks want to stay in the eurozone or take the risk of leaving.”

Athens insists that this is not what is at stake in the highly complicated question the Greek government has drafted for the referendum, but Berlin, Paris and Brussels made plain that the 5 July vote will mean either staying in the euro on their tough terms or returning to the drachma.

In what was arguably the biggest speech of his career, the president of the European commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, appeared before a packed press hall in Brussels against a giant backdrop of the Greek and EU flags.

He was impassioned, bitter and disingenuous in appealing to the Greek people to vote yes to the euro and his bailout terms, arguing that he and the creditors – rather than the Syriza government – had the best interests of Greeks at heart.

Tsipras had lied to his people, deceived and betrayed Europe’s negotiators and distorted the bailout terms that were shredded when the negotiations collapsed and the referendum was called, he said.

“I feel betrayed. The Greek people are very close to my heart. I know their hardship … they have to know the truth,” he said.

“I’d like to ask the Greek people to vote yes … no would mean that Greece is saying no to Europe.”

In a country where an estimated 11,000 people have killed themselves during the hardship wrought by austerity, Juncker offered unfortunate advice. “I say to the Greeks, don’t commit suicide because you’re afraid of dying,” he said.

Juncker’s extraordinary performance sounded and looked as if he were already mourning the passing of a Europe to which he has dedicated his long political career. His 45-minute speech was both proprietorial and poignant about his vision, which seems to be giving way to a rawer and rowdier place.

That was clear from the trenchant remarks of Sigmar Gabriel, Germany’s vice-chancellor and the head of the country’s Social Democratic party. He coupled the Greek situation with last week’s foul tempers over immigration and said that Europe faces its worst crisis since the EU’s founding treaty was signed in Rome in 1957.

Gabriel was the first leading European politician to voice what many think and say privately about Tsipras – that the Greek leader represents a threat to the European order, that his radicalism is directed at the politics of mainstream Europe and that he wants to force everyone else to rewrite the rules underpinning the single currency.

The unspoken message was that Tsipras is a dangerous man on a mission who has to be stopped.

Standing alongside his boss, Angela Merkel, as if to send a joint nonpartisan national signal from Germany, Gabriel said that if the Greek people vote no on Sunday, they would be voting “against remaining in the euro”.

Unlike Juncker and Hollande, who pleaded with the Greek people to reject Tsipras’s urging of a no vote, the German leaders sounded calmly resigned to the rupture.

For Merkel, it was clear that the single currency’s rulebook was much more important than Greece. In this colossal battle of wills, Tsipras could not be allowed to prevail.

This is a good read to help understand the issues : Why Greece should vote No and leave the Euro

Clueless

29 June 2015

Clueless. That is the only way to describe some of the public announcements from Thailand's military government.

In their latest rant deputy government spokesman Maj-General Sansern Kaewkamnerd said that the United States has a duty to explain why it put Thailand alongside countries experiencing the most significant human rights setbacks in its latest human rights report.

Maybe he could try reading it - and to help out here is a link to the State Department's annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2014 - Thailand.

Sansern said that "the assessment in its human rights report that Thailand has seriously curbed the freedom of people is its own point of view towards the situation in many countries. However the US should say what the basis is and the sources of the facts that led to the assumption."

Sansern insisted that Thailand placed the most importance on the real situation in the country and the restoration of peace and happiness when the National Council for Peace and Order ended the political conflict.

Now peace has returned to the Kingdom and people can travel to any place in the country without fear, he said. Of course they cannot say what they really think for fear of arrest and detention for attitude adjustment or for the greater fear of a military trial under S112.

In the report's preface, US Secretary of State John Kerry placed Thailand alongside China, Egypt, Iran, Russia and Saudi Arabia as countries that are stifling the development of civil society.

"The military overthrew a democratically elected government, repealed the constitution, and severely limited civil liberties," Kerry said. "Subsequent efforts by the military government to rewrite the country's constitution and recast its political intuitions raised concerns about lack of inclusivity in the process."

It is hard to understand what part of that Sansern does not understand.

Citizens no longer have the ability to change the government through the right to vote in free and fair elections. Other human rights problems included arbitrary arrests and detention; poor, overcrowded, and unsanitary prison and detention facilities; insufficient protection for vulnerable populations, including refugees; violence and discrimination against women; sex tourism; sexual exploitation of children; trafficking in persons; discrimination against persons with disabilities, minorities, hill tribe members, and foreign migrant workers; child labor; and some limitations on worker rights.

The report also noted that the junta had stifled academic freedom, ordered scholars not to speak to the press and cancelled academic seminars.

The junta had also restricted press content deemed critical, leading to widespread self-censorship.

The US also mentioned what it described as abuses by government security forces and local defence volunteers in the deep South.

It is not a hard list to understand.

Now of course plenty of Thais and other apologists will call foul and accuse the US of hypocrisy. But it is a spurious argument to suggest the the sins of one country justify the sins of another. The USA has been producing this annual report for many years and it is a useful measure of a nation's progress or regress in respect of Human Rights.

It is a huge misunderstanding of US culture to assume that Americans support their own civil rights abuses. What they do have is the right to debate and protest them. Whether you like it or not the US is one of the best information gathering machines we have to monitor such things as human rights. The US is a nation of contrasts, conflicts and argument. Meanwhile Thailand endures a strangled media and a non-elected government with absolute power.

The 2014 report card for Thailand shows that slavery still exists and refugees are sold into it; camps are burned to "prevent them from being used again", or more likely to remove the evidence. Voting booths were blocked; people arrested and detained for speaking their mind, and an elected government was removed by a military coups. The US is far from perfect, but that does not invalidate the state department report.

 Euro Greek brinkmanship

28 June 2015

This morning Greeks woke to find that their bank savings are blocked for at least a week and their banks are closed following a grim weekend that has shaken Europe’s single currency.

The Greek government decided on Sunday night it had no option but to close the nation’s banks on Monday after the European Central Bank (ECB) raised the stakes by freezing the liquidity lifeline that has kept Greek banks afloat during a six-month run on deposits.

The Athens Stock Exchange will not reopen on Monday either. The dramatic move, after 48 hours of sensational developments in Greece’s long-running battles with creditors, was sparked by the country’s prime minister, Alexis Tsipras’s Friday night call for a referendum on the demands of its creditors. That prompted finance ministers of the eurozone to effectively put an end to his country’s five-year bailout by the International Monetary Fund, the ECB and the European commission.

In a brief, televised address to the nation, Tsipras threw the blame onto the leaders of the eurozone. But he did not say how long the banks would remain shut, nor did he give details of how much individuals and companies would be allowed to withdraw once they reopened.

At the moment the ATMs allow a daily withdrawal of a maximum of Euro60.

Thsipras said that Saturday’s move by the eurozone’s finance ministers to halt Greece’s bailout programme was unprecedented. He called it “a denial of the Greek public’s right to reach a democratic decision”.

The showdown became inevitable when on Friday night when Tsipras put his country’s future in the balance by suddenly calling a referendum and arguing robustly for a rejection of the price set by his creditors for saving Greece, at least for a few more months. Sunday’s vote will ask Greeks whether they approve or disapprove of the last offer tabled by the creditors before the negotiations broke down.

But during a marathon parliamentary debate that ended in the early hours of Sunday morning, opposition leaders argued that it was, in fact, a vote on whether Greeks wished any longer to be part of the eurozone. It will be Greece’s first referendum since the country voted to abolish its monarchy in 1974.

The crisis has sparked concerns across the Atlantic. Barack Obama was said to have called Merkel to urge her to take action. Jack Lew, the US Treasury secretary, urged creditors to offer debt relief to Greece.

The fall-out from the collapse of negotiations and the calling of the referendum has brought recrimination on all sides and predictions of gloom.

Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, has been determined to point the finger of fault at the Greek government.

The German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, said he was “perplexed and depressed” by developments. Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister who heads the committee of eurozone finance ministers, said that with his referendum call, Tsipras was thrusting the country into a mess from which it would struggle to recover.

“We are millimetres away from the total collapse of the Greek financial system,” warned Herman Van Rompuy, until last year the president of the European Council and heavily involved in years of Greek rescue negotiations. “It’s actually suicide that’s taking place in Greece right now.”

Something was bound to snap in Greece, and now it has. Over six years, jobs have vanished, hope has been smothered and a generation of progress in living standards has been reversed. The nation has been held hostage to a currency that it should never have been allowed to join.

The call for a referendum threatens the space in which a European club of 28 members can find any compromise. The question that will be put to the voters – whether they accept the creditors’ terms for extending a bailout that is now set to finish five days before Sunday’s vote – is arguably a nonsense. Unfortunately, Sunday’s choice will be between endless austerity and immediate chaos. As comfortable as it is to argue from the sidelines that maybe Grexit in the medium term won’t hurt as much as 30 years’ drag on GDP from swingeing repayments, no sane person wants either.

There does appear to be a mood of “let Greece go” in Europe. That they have pushed to hard and too far. But there is still talk of new compromise. The EU Central Bank is providing the Greek authorities with sufficient euros to at least keep cashpoints working.

Christine Lagarde of the IMF, has put out a statement advocating debt relief and further talks.

The creditors’ rethink could be a ruse to destabilise Mr Tsipras ahead of his make-or-break vote. It may also be sincere. If the markets see one corner of the eurozone break away, there will be permanent and costly speculation about where the next crack will be. Spain, Italy.....?

The creditors need to have the humility to recognise that their austerity programme has failed.

None of the hardship has made Greek debt more sustainable, yet still they demand more. The loss of about 5% of UK national income in 2008 could be answered by pumping in a fiscal injection of 1% GDP. Greece, where 25% of the economy has disappeared, is instead asked to offer up a fiscal blood donation, whose direct effect is withdrawing 1% of demand.

Most fundamentally, an EU whose democratic credentials are under populist assault from Britain to Budapest needs to avoid reinforcing a damaging caricature. This is not a time for haughty contempt. It is a time for a long term rebuilding plan for the Greek economy - and if that means some creditors get burned then so be it. 

This will help explain where we are: from the Council for Foreign Relations: Greece: Game Over?

US Open golf thoughts

22 June 2015

Jordan Spieth triumphed at Chambers Bay by a stroke in one of the most dramatic finales ever witnessed at a major championship. Dustin Johnson had a 72nd-hole putt to win but proceeded to take three from 12ft, handing the 21-year-old Spieth the title.

Spieth has already won the Masters this year. A genuine talent.

But the real story is the golf course. The location is stunning. You've got Puget Sound, the old gravel quarry remains, the trains that come by and some incredible elevation changes. It is a long course, with some severe climbs and descents, a young golfers' course; not a course for the old guys and Woods and Mickleson were among the non-contenders.

But what a strange, tricked-up venue. It is a new course built to host the US Open and it was like crazy golf on steroids. The greens were horrible. The good news - it was the same for everyone and the course still brought the best golfers to the top. Holes 1 and 18 were alternately par 4s and par 5s....make your mind up time.

But it was grim to watch....not helped by the appalling Fox coverage and announcers who could not find a word that was not the USGA line while putts bobbled sideways. And it was not much better for the spectators at the course. There are even five holes that spectators cannot walk. Who wants to be at a golf tournament where you cannot follow your favorite players for a round.

But years from now, Chambers Bay’s most important legacy may be the fact it was the first completely made-for-TV major championship in golf history. And Fox blew it.

"It's pretty much like putting on broccoli," said Henrik Stenson. It looked like that texture and colour.

Ian Poulter did not hold back:

"I look forward to congratulating the 2015 US Open Champion very soon, I simply didn't play well enough to be remotely close. This is not sour grapes or moaning or any of that crap. It simply the truth.

Mike Davis the head of the @USGA unfortunately hasn't spoke the truth about the conditions of the greens. I feel very sorry for the hundreds of greens staff who spent countless hours leading into this week and this week doing there best to have it the best they could and I thank them for that. But look at the picture. This was the surface we had to putt on.

It is disgraceful that the @USGA hasn't apologized about the greens they simply have said. "we are thrilled the course condition this week". It wasn't a bad golf course, In fact it played well and was playable. What wasn't playable were the green surfaces. If this was a regular PGA tour event lots of players would have withdrawn and gone home on Wednesday, but players won't do that for a major. They were simply the worst most disgraceful surface I have ever seen on any tour in all the years I have played. The US Open deserves better than that. And the extra money that they have earn't this year from @FoxSports, they could easily have relayed the greens so we could have had perfect surfaces.

Simply not good enough and deeply disappointing for a tournament of this magnitude. I don't like it when people lie on camera to try and save face. And to all you fans that paid good money to try and watch us play golf but couldn't see anything on most holes because it wasn't possible to stand on huge slopes or see around stands, I apologize and I'm sorry you wasted your money traveling to be disappointed. I hope we all learn something moving forward to not have these problems in the future. Happy Fathers Day."

Of course there are plenty (mainly American) who accuse Poulter of sour grapes as he did not win and has not won a major.

US golfer Chris Kirk was stronger: "The U.S. Open is a great tournament with incredible history. The @usga should be ashamed of what they did to it this week." So stop the abuse pf Poulter - there are plenty of unhappy golfers; Horschel, Villegas and McDowell were all on twitter. Rory McIllroy said simply "if they can come back in about 20 years' time, I'd be ok with that." He would be 46.

Horschel is worth quoting: “It sounds like the players are whining and complaining. We’re not looking for perfect greens. . . . But we’re looking for something that’s consistent, and this week they’re not. The only two that are good are 13 and 7, and 10 is not too bad. I hit a lot of great putts that bounced all over the world. [The fourth green] is god awful. That hole is in dirt. There’s no grass around that hole.”

Horschel said he has heard USGA officials defending the greens by saying they’re better than they look on television. But he added, “That’s a complete lie.”

There is also part of me that says why should these molly-coddled walking billboards (also known as golfers) by spoiled by immaculate conditions every time that they play.

But there was too much down to luck, or lack of it, this week. And that is not how one of the four majors should be played.

Qatar Airways less than impresses on profit figures

22 June 2015

The chief executive of Qatar Airways said last week that his airline made a net profit of $103 million in its last financial year (to 31 March 2015), disclosing for the first time a figure for its annual earnings, which are being closely watched by carriers in U.S.

In the same financial year Emirate made AED4.6 billion (US$1.25Billion) or over 10 times the Qatar air profit.

The government-owned airline does not publish full audited financial results but has repeatedly said that it will report earnings amid claims by U.S. carriers that it is subsidized by its gas-rich owners.

“We are not afraid to [publish earnings] we are a private company,” Akbar Al Baker said in an interview. “But I can tell you our last year profit for the financial year was $103 million.”

Qatar and Etihad have also been accused of lacking transparency as they don’t publish full audited financials.


In a short statement last month, Etihad said that it recorded a net profit of $73 million in its last financial year. Emirates reported a net profit of $1.2 billion on revenues of $24.2 billion.

According to Qatar crew there was no profit share paid to staff.

Mr. Al Baker did not disclose revenues earned at Qatar Airways in its financial year, which runs from April through to the end of March.

At a guess I estimate that the Qatar Airways revenues are about 1/3 of the Emirates revenue which suggests a profit of just US$103 million on revenues of about US$8 billion. Given the financial advantages enjoyed by Qatar at its Doha hub that profit figure does suggest pressure on yields.

Happy birthday

21 June 2015

Happy 48th birthday to Thailand's best known mushroom farmer...

This picture, on Yingluck's facebook page had over 220,000  likes within just a few hours of being posted...

Thailand's ICAO red card

18 June 2015

Q. What do the following countries have in common: Thailand, Angola, Botswana, Djibouti, Eritrea, Georgia, Haiti, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Malawi, Nepal, Sierra Leone & Uruguay.

A. They are the 13 nations that have been red-flagged by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICASO) for failing to address significant safety concerns.

Thailand had been given a 90-day grace period to address issues arising from the January 2015 ICAO audit.

In a classic case of "maaih phen rai" there have been more words than actions. Typical of the "we-are-not-taking-this-seriously-enough" attitude the former director-general of Civil Aviation Department, Mr Chaisak Aungsuwan, said that the placing of red-flag was not a matter of serious concern as concerned Thai authorities have been trying to solve the problem.

THAI president Charamporn Jotikasthira added that ICAO’s red-flagging indicated the Civil Aviation Department’s safety oversight failure but it did not mean that air navigation services, airlines, airports and aircraft of Thailand were substandard.

Just not as safe as the other 177 nations that have not been red-flagged.

Why does this matter - the red flag could lead to a string of reevaluations of Thai aviation facilities across the international community.

The earlier ICAO way warning already led to Japan and South Korea banning some chartered flights (temporarily lifted during April and May for Thailand’s high travel season), as well as increased inspections of Thai registered aircraft by the international aviation community.

The red flag for the Thai DCA may now spark the interest of other international aviation agencies, namely the United States Federal Aviation Administration (US FAA) and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), to conduct their own assessments.

An EU blacklist on Thai airlines could see European authorities warning its citizens to not fly on Thai based airlines. Any loss of goodwill will further put Thai full service carriers at a disadvantage with emerging Middle Eastern competitors, which in the past few years have positioned themselves by offering premium services in an acceptable price range.

If downgrades and bans are prolonged, higher operating costs and limited growth will worsen airline competitiveness.

During the downgrade period, airlines will not be allowed to expand their current level of services, meaning a carrier may not be able to increase its frequency on existing routes or establish new routes to countries in which it has been blacklisted.

The red flag may also result in higher operating costs from higher aircraft lease rates, more stringent maintenance covenants, and surges in insurance premiums, which led to the airline’s lower profitability; not good news for already struggling Thai airlines.

Reinstatements of air safety credentials could take at least 4 years and require joint efforts from the private sector and government. The reinstatement to Category 1 for the Philippines, Israel, and India taking at least 4 years on average.

Public statements of confidence should be hiding significant concerns behind the scenes and the need to take real action quickly.

Hong Kong's two fingered salute to Beijing

17 June 2015

The Hong Kong government’s controversial Beijing-backed election reforms have been defeated by pro-democracy lawmakers.

This comes at the end of a year of turmoil in the city.

The so-called reform which would have allowed Hong Kong citizens to vote for their leader for the first time but required that candidates be vetted by a pro-Beijing committee.

Currently the city's chief executive is elected by a 1,200 member election committee dominated by pro-Beijing members.

In a surprise move pro-government lawmakers walked out of the legislature before the vote, leaving the chamber filled with mostly opposition lawmakers, who had vowed to reject the plan. The vote was 28 against and eight in favor, with 34 not voting. The vote would have required a two-thirds majority to pass.

The rejection of the reform proposal was a victory for pro-democracy legislators who stuck to their pledge to reject the plan. The group had come under pressure from Beijing, which said they could be held to account for their votes. It was a serious defeat for Hong Kong’s government, which was forced to promote Beijing’s plan despite opposition in Hong Kong.

“We used our sacred vote today to veto a fake universal suffrage proposal,” Alan Leong, a pro-democracy legislator, told reporters after the vote. “We helped Hong Kong people send a clear message to Beijing that we want real choice. This isn’t the end of the democracy movement in Hong Kong. A new chapter starts today”.

For the Chinese government, the defeat was a blow to its effort to integrate Hong Kong into the mainland. And it was a rare defeat for the country’s Communist Party.

The rejection was a vindication for the thousands of protesters who spent three months blocking the city’s streets to object to the election-reform plan. The protests exploded last fall after Beijing presented the plan and drew global attention to the city’s fight for democracy.

The vote came after a day of acrimonious debate where lawmakers accused one another of damaging the city and hurting its relationship with Beijing. Some called for a period of healing to improve the relationship.

The Hong Kong government has said political reform would be off the table if the current package is rejected.

The Chinese National People's Congress had passed a resolution in 2014 stating that Hong Kong could choose its chief executive in a popular vote on condition there were no more than three vetted candidates. That, in essence, is China's definition of democracy...a vote that China could control.

Beijing is fond of pointing out that nowhere else in China enjoys the sort of freedoms that Hong Kong does, and consequently feels like the parent of a particularly petulant child that is never satisfied.

The child responded today and said that the parent needs to do better!

The MERS effect on daily life in Seoul

9 June 2015

It did seem quiet in Seoul at the weekend and local news reports confirm that the rising fear of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) changed the weekend plans of many across the country.

Many places, such as movie theaters and shopping malls, saw a significant drop in visitors. Many people chose to stay at home, navigating online malls for their shopping needs.

Revenues at retail chain stores fell dramatically. According to the association of retail chain companies, the revenue decline was more evident during the weekend.

Outdoor activity venues also suffered.

On Saturday, Jamsil Baseball Stadium in southern Seoul attracted 12,301 LG Twins fans (including me) for its game, down more than 5,000 from the average number of fans for a weekend game. The story was similar for public parks, mountains and beaches.

Movie theaters were also empty throughout the weekend. Industry insiders said ticket sales last weekend dropped almost 20 percent compared with the previous weekend.

Numbers showed that a lot of these people at home spent times shopping, online or by phone.

According to E-mart Mall, an online shopping outlet, its revenue between June 1-6 rose by almost 60 percent from the previous year. Immune system boosters and diet supplements were popular items, it said.

With new cases still being reported and Hong Kong, Chinese and other tour groups canceling their programs it is likely that Seoul will be even quieter this weekend.

NokScoot flies but it is less than awesome

8 June 2015

There are some good airlines but only one that is awesome cries out the NokScoot advertisements.

Clearly nonsense - truly misleading. It is a low cost no frills carrier that at the moment flies just one scheduled route.

The airline, a joint venture between Thailand’s Nok Air and Singapore’s Scoot had something of a ‘soft’ launch on 20 May when the airline (IATA code XW) operated its first scheduled flight between Bangkok Don Mueang (DMK) and Singapore (SIN). The airline’s daily service on the 1,442-kilometre route will be flown by its 777-200s and faces direct competition from Thai AirAsia (42 weekly flights) and Scoot (daily flights). In addition, the airline faces indirect competition from five more carriers (Cathay Pacific Airways, Jetstar Asia, Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways and Tigerair Singapore) who between them operate around 20 daily flights between Bangkok Suvarnabhumi and Singapore.

NokScoot was established in late 2013. The start-up secured an air operators’ certificate (AOC) from the Thailand DCA in Oct-2014 but prior to the 20-May-2015 Bangkok-Singapore launch only operated a limited number of charter flights.

After securing its AOC NokScoot lodged applications with authorities in China, Japan, South Korea and Singapore for foreign air carrier permits authorising scheduled flights. The original plan was to begin with scheduled services to Japan in late 2014, to be quickly followed with flights to Korea and China. Singapore was always considered a back-up as the market was seen by the NokScoot management team as intensely competitive and oversupplied.

But NokScoot encountered multiple delays in securing approvals from China, Japan and South Korea. While it was able to begin charter flights to Japan and South Korea in 1Q2015, in early 2015 it pushed back its target launch date for scheduled flights to May-2015.

In early Mar-2015 NokScoot was confident it was finally close to securing approvals from China and South Korea and therefore began selling Nanjing and Seoul flights. Nanjing was initially announced as a thrice weekly service beginning 5-May-2015 while Seoul was initially sold as a thrice weekly service beginning 10-May-2015, increasing to daily from 1-Jun-2015.

In Mar-2015 NokScoot also filed schedules indicating a daily Bangkok-Narita flight from 16-May-2015 and a four times weekly Bangkok-Osaka flight from 22-May-2015. But it never began selling either of these routes.

In late Mar-2015 NokScoot’s plans for South Korea and Japan suddenly unravelled after authorities from both countries decided to prohibit any new flights from Thai carriers until Thailand’s DCA resolved issues raised by ICAO from a Jan-2015 safety audit. NokScoot immediately cancelled the 10-May-2015 launch of Seoul and suspended plans for Japan. As CAPA wrote in Apr-2015: "The new restrictions from Japan and South Korea on Thai carriers could not have come at a worse time for NokScoot as it was close to securing final approvals from authorities in both countries."

NokScoot has been able to continue operating charter flights to Japan but Japanese authorities have only approved these ad hoc flights through the end of May-2015 as part of a temporary waiver from the ban prohibiting new flights from Thai carriers until the ICAO issues are resolved. The lack of any scheduled routes has resulted in extremely low utilisation of NokScoot’s assets, which now consists of three 415-seat 777-200s.

Incidentally Singapore Air has just 288 seats in its three class configured 777-200s which gives you a good clue as to how cramped is the NokScoot all economy configuration.

NokScoot is now expected to launch Nanjing by mid-Jun-2015.

Being able to proceed with Nanjing is a major milestone for NokScoot as it should make it easier to pursue other China routes and, potentially, approvals from other countries. But the CAAC for now will not consider additional routes from NokScoot. The airline will have to make do with the initial three weekly flights to Nanjing and hope after it has operated the route for a few weeks it can convince the CAAC to authorise more routes

So how is the airline doing on its Singapore route: this flight report from the inaugural run to Singapore suggests an experience that was far less than awesome: NokScoot Inaugural Trip Report 2015

"In conclusion, this NokScoot flight was a major disappointment and actually displayed that it was not quite ready for a full operation. Thankfully the load was light, as I was truly not sure if the F/As were ready for a full load. Given they had already done some charter flights, I was surprised how the F/As were still unfamiliar with selling food and duty free items. I presume that there might be some free food included in the charter flights. The F/As were trying their best, but most of the times they were spent learning about all these machines and procedures. In some way, I think NokScoot should have started with the Singapore flights first and slowly moved towards long haul. In some ways, I felt that NokScoot knew that they were not ready, so they did not do anything about this inaugural and made a bad show in front of the press.

Sadly, after this inaugural flight, most news about NokScoot continued to be bad, as it was obvious that these Singapore flights were not making money. ...There were many angry tweets and Facebook posts, as NokScoot was not doing a good job in informing passengers and offering alternatives to passengers on these canceled flights. For some reasons, the agents were pushing passengers to accept travel vouchers. Really, you want passengers to accept travel vouchers on an airline, which cannot receive authority to start long haul flights and has difficulty maintaining a reliable schedule on one single two hours flight to Singapore....I finally decided to cancel my Nanjing trip because it was obvious that they were not ready for the Nanjing flight, and the Singapore inaugural was such a poor experience that I did not want to waste any more money and time on an airline that shows little care.

Less than awesome.

Watford's new manager and some more changes

8 June 2015

So Watford have appointed the former Atlético Madrid coach Quique Sánchez Flores as their manager.

He is a good appointment but why another manager - our fifth in a year.

The club had been in talks to extend the contract of Slavisa Jokanovic, who took Watford to promotion to the Premier League. But Slavisa simply wanted too much money and Watford's owners, the Pozzo family, have been very careful in managing club finances.

As part of the new coaching set-up, Dean Austin will remain on the staff, having returned to the club in January as part of Jokanovic’s backroom team, while Flores is to be assisted by Alberto Diaz and Antonio Carlavilla.

A statement on Watford's website read: “Watford FC would like to take this opportunity to thank former head coach Slavisa Jokanovic, along with assistants Ruben Martinez and Javier Pereira, for an outstanding contribution to the success of the club. The Hornets wish all three men well for their future careers.”

Jokanovic also sent a message to Watford following confirmation of his departure.

He wrote on Twitter: “Thank you to Watford FC fans, players and staff for their support during this season. I’m proud to have had the chance to help put this club back where they truly deserve to be. I wish you all the best in the future.”

The Hertfordshire club has already made moves to strengthen the squad, with the free transfer signing of the Austrian defender Sebastian Prodl and Lithuanian goalkeeper Giedrius Arlauskis.


Korea and Thailand - a 1997 comparison

8 June 2015

In the early 1990s the economic world marveled at the remarkable productivity levels being achieved by countries in the Far East. Like Japan before them, the "Asian Tigers" went from low-technology, agricultural economies to industrialized and sometimes high-tech economies in a surprisingly short period of time. Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Hong Kong led the group with their high-tech industries while Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand followed with their rapid industrialization. By the mid-1990s, however, the U.S. economy was healthier than ever (achieving rapid growth with low inflation) while the burgeoning Asian economies were showing signs of slowing. For some of these Asian countries, this slow-down was evidence of far more than a typical downturn in the business cycle. By the summer of 1997, fundamental cracks in the financial structures of these countries had manifested themselves through, among other things, investment panics and currency devaluations. The countries hardest hit by this "Asian Crisis" were Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and Korea.

Eighteen years ago, on July 2nd 1997, Thailand's central bank floated the baht after failing to protect the currency from speculative attack. The move triggered a financial and economic collapse that quickly spread to other economies in the region, causing GDP growth rates to contract precipitously, bankrupting companies that had overexposed themselves to foreign-currency risk, and ultimately necessitating costly and politically humiliating IMF-led bailouts in the worst-affected countries.

This was the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98. South Korea and Thailand were the worst hit Asian nations. One has boomed. One continues to struggle.

Among the key conditions in 1997 were the presence of fixed or semi-fixed exchange rates in countries such as Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea; large current-account deficits that created downward pressure on those countries' currencies, encouraging speculative attacks; and high domestic interest rates that had encouraged companies to borrow heavily offshore (at lower interest rates) in order to fund aggressive and poorly supervised investment. Weak oversight of domestic lending and, in some cases, rising public debt also contributed to the crisis and made its effects worse once the problems had begun.

If factors such as exchange-rate policies had helped to precipitate the financial crisis, above all it was excessive and poorly supervised foreign borrowing that made it so disastrous. As it became too expensive to fend off speculators, currencies were forced to float. This resulted in large falls in the baht, the won and other currencies against the US dollar.

Panicked capital flight only exacerbated the currency depreciation, leaving indebted companies in even direr straits. The workout of the bad debts and disposal of the distressed assets created by the crisis was one of the major tasks for policymakers for several years thereafter.

In Korea the 1997 crisis was not triggered by the fall of the won that came under severe attack in October, nor by the investment panic that developed in November and December. It was instead triggered in early 1997 by a series of bankruptcies of large chaebols that had heavily borrowed in previous years to finance their investment projects. By mid-1997, eight of the top thirty chaebols were bankrupt. The string of bankruptcies started with Hanbo Steel in January, then Sammi Steel in March and the Jinro Group in April. In July, the Kia Group, the eighth largest chaebol, failed to pay $370 million worth of liabilities and was put under fiscal protection by the government. This string of corporate bankruptcies and financial difficulties in 1997 led to serious financial difficulties for the banks that had heavily borrowed abroad to finance the investment projects of the failed chaebols. A number of these financial institutions were effectively bankrupt by the spring of 1997.

In late November 1997, following the dramatic plunge of the Korean won on the foreign exchange market, a team of IMF economists was rushed to Seoul to negotiate the terms of a massive bail-out package with the design of restoring health and stability to the Korean economy. In close consultation with IMF negotiators, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank also sent their own teams of economists. A World Bank package with stringent conditionalities on financial governance was announced on December 18th. The IMF put together a $60 billion bail-out package for Korea; it was painful medicine but South Korea has also been one of the most diligent countries in implementing post-crisis economic and financial reforms, and it is now reaping the rewards of these efforts. The country's financial sector is one of the region's strongest, combining greater openness with better regulation.

Meanwhile from 1985 to 1996, Thailand's economy grew at an average of over 9% per year, the highest economic growth rate of any country at the time. Inflation was kept reasonably low within a range of 3.4–5.7%. The baht was pegged at 25 to the U.S. dollar.

On 14 May and 15 May 1997, the Thai baht was hit by massive speculative attacks. On 30 June 1997, Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said that he would not devalue the baht. This was the spark that ignited the Asian financial crisis as the Thai government failed to defend the baht, which was pegged to the basket of currencies in which the U.S. dollar was the main component, against international speculators.

Thailand's booming economy came to a halt amid massive layoffs in finance, real estate, and construction that resulted in huge numbers of workers returning to their villages in the countryside and 600,000 foreign workers being sent back to their home countries. The baht devalued swiftly and lost more than half of its value. The baht reached its lowest point of 56 units to the U.S. dollar in January 1998. The Thai stock market dropped 75%. Finance One, the largest Thai finance company until then, collapsed.

Without foreign reserves to support the U.S.-Baht currency peg, the Thai government was eventually forced to float the Baht, on 2 July 1997, allowing the value of the Baht to be set by the currency market. On 11 August 1997, the IMF unveiled a rescue package for Thailand with more than $17 billion, subject to conditions such as passing laws relating to bankruptcy (reorganizing and restructuring) procedures and establishing strong regulation frameworks for banks and other financial institutions. The IMF approved on 20 August 1997, another bailout package of $2.9 billion.

By 2001, Thailand's economy had recovered. The increasing tax revenues allowed the country to balance its budget and repay its debts to the IMF in 2003, four years ahead of schedule. The Thai baht continued to appreciate to 29 Baht to the U.S. dollar in October 2010. It has now weakened to around 33 to 34 Baht.

MERS Impact

8 June 2015

South Korea said on Monday that 23 more people have been infected with Middle East respiratory syndrome and that a sixth person had died.

A total of 87 people have been confirmed as having MERS since a South Korean man infected with the virus returned from the Middle East in May. The outbreak is the largest ever outside the Middle East, where most infections have occurred since the virus was discovered in Saudi Arabia in 2012...hence Middle East respiratory syndrome.

The latest fatality was an 80-year-old man, officials in the city of Daejeon said on Monday.

MERS is a respiratory disease from the same family of viruses as the common cold and severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS. There is no vaccine or medical treatment for the virus, which has a death rate of around 27%, according to the World Health Organization.

The government, criticised for not providing enough information on the outbreak, yesterday named 24 health facilities involved with the virus outbreak.

Officials are keeping a close eye on around 2,500 people who have been placed under quarantine. It is thought that fewer than 10 have broken quarantine rules.

Almost 1,900 schools have been closed, according to Reuters. Singapore has cancelled or postponed school trips to South Korea. Hong Kong has now told its citizens that they should only visit South Korea if necessary.

According to the World Health Organisation, there is no vaccine currently available for MERS, and the coronavirus does not pass easily from person to person unless there is close contact.

This has not stopped large numbers of people from wearing face-masks and from changing their daily routines. It has reduced attendance at public events such as the baseball and in shopping areas and markets.

Since the spread of the virus began last month, the South Korean government has faced public criticism for insufficient disclosure of information on hospitals where people with MERS have been treated and the sluggish rollout of precautionary measures.

Speaking at a news conference on Sunday, acting Prime Minister Choi Kyung-hwan said the government was taking all necessary measures to contain the spread of the virus. There is much public and media scepticism about government statements and there are signs of some public panic, fuelled by dramatic media reports.

The government said it would also track some of those under quarantine by the location of their cellphones. Soon after the outbreak began one person broke a voluntary quarantine and traveled to southern China, where he has been hospitalized with symptoms of MERS.

The government is also operating a hotline for citizens to report evidence of MERS spreading. It also sent out nationwide text alerts Saturday asking citizens to wash their hands frequently and to cover their mouths when coughing or sneezing.

Stores across South Korea have reported heavy sales of face masks and hand sanitizer since the outbreak began. Face masks are being sold on the city's subway trains where people stare accusingly at the people who are not wearing masks.

The outbreak in South Korea has caused concern in Asian-Pacific countries, which have stepped up precautions against the spread of MERS, including tightening checks on visitors arriving at airports with flulike symptoms.

Tourism authorities say that thousands of travelers have canceled plans to visit South Korea since the outbreak of MERS. For those who do travel in and out of Korea expect more border health checks as this outbreak looks like it will be around for some time.

A group of experts from the WHO are scheduled to arrive in Seoul in the coming days to help tackle the outbreak.

Charles Kennedy – a lovely man, a talented politician, a great friend with a shared enemy

2 June 2015 A generous and heart-felt tribute from Alastair Campbell

Charles Kennedy was a lovely man, and a highly talented politician. These are the kind of words that always flow when public figures die, often because people feel they have to say those things, and rightly they are flowing thick and fast today as we mourn an important public figure, and a little bit of hypocrisy from political foes is allowed. But when I say that Charles was a lovely man and a talented politician, I mean it with all my heart.

Having heard the news from a friend of Charles who knew he and I spoke and saw each other regularly, and who had found the body yesterday, I finally got to bed at three o’clock this morning, and was awake before 6, feeling shell-shocked and saddened to the core.

Fair to say that most of my friends in politics are on the Labour side but Charles tops the non-Labour ones. I knew him first as a journalist covering his rapid rise, he becoming Parliament’s youngest MP – and one of the most interesting – aged 23, just as I was starting out as a Mirror journalist. He was one of the few politicians with whom I discussed whether they thought I should accept Tony Blair’s approach to work for him, and ‘on balance, all things considered’ (two of his favourite phrases) he felt I should. Then of course later he became Lib Dem leader, and he would ask me in TB’s heyday, half jest, half despair, ‘how on earth do I land a glove on this man?'; but we became especially friendly in more recent years once we were out of the frontline, meeting often, always away from the Commons, to cast interested and sometimes despairing eyes over our respective parties.

But our shared friendship was also built on a shared enemy, and that is alcohol. That Charles struggled with alcohol is no secret to people in Westminster, or in the Highlands constituency he served so well, for so long, until the SNP tide swept away all but one Scottish Lib Dem at the election last month. Perhaps another day, if his family are happy with this, I will write in more detail about the discussions we had over the past few years, and what it was like for someone in the public eye facing the demon drink. It was a part of who he was, and the life he had; the struggles came and went, and went and came, but the great qualities that made Charles who and what he was were always there.

For some years, my family has spent either Easter, or Christmas and New Year, sometimes both, in Charles’ former constituency and he, his wife Sarah before they split up, and their lovely son Donald would always come over, sometimes to stay. I always think one’s own children’s judgement of friends is a good indicator, and my kids, used to politicians in their lives and often seeing straight through them, saw right into Charles for what he was – clever, funny, giving, flawed. My Mum could listen to him all day. ‘I think you’re marvellous on Question Time,’ she would purr about some programme she had remembered from months earlier. She always took his side when I was trying to persuade him he would be a ‘natural on twitter,’ and he felt it was all a bit silly and new fangled. I helped him set up his twitter account. Fair to say he never quite moved that far from his initial assessment.

Mother and children enjoyed his robustness in braving whatever storms were lashing outside ‘to nip out for a wee bit of fresh air,’ otherwise known as a cigarette. Coming as they do from a maniacally exercising family, they appreciated his studied indifference to all forms of heavy exercise. ‘I’ve never actually been to the top of Ben Nevis,’ he said proudly and to great hilarity of the mountain on our doorstep, which had been on his doorstep all his life. They liked the way he advised on where the next long walk should be, ‘but I’ll probably stay and read a book.’

I think they also appreciated that Charles, such a passionate and eloquent opponent of the war in Iraq, was nonetheless unwilling to join those who when it came to their view of Tony Blair or of me, could never see beyond that issue. Charles knew that it was possible to disagree with people without constantly feeling the need to condemn them as lacking in integrity or values; though he was not averse to making a few cracks about historic events down the road in Glencoe.

Even though we knew it was a lost cause, and that Charles would be a Liberal all his life, Philip Gould and I did have an annual dinner time bash at trying to persuade him that deep down he was Labour, and now you have a son at school in London, how about we get you a nice safe Labour seat? Banter political holidays style. It was never going to happen. He was Lochaber to his bones, and a Liberal to his bones.

We were all a bit worried about him after the election. Indeed, ‘is Charles going to be ok?’ was one of the questions Fiona asked me most often during the campaign, and, on the night the exit poll made it clear his safe seat was gone, ‘is Charles ok?’ became an inquiry of a very different nature. Representing the people of Ross, Skye and Lochaber meant so much to him. Last Christmas was the first time he said to me that he felt it was possible he might lose. But we took comfort from the fact that a year earlier, at the same time, we were worrying that the referendum on independence might be lost. We worked on some ideas together and it was partly at his urging that I spent the last few weeks of the campaign in Scotland when – to his astonishment but to his apparent delight – I got on rather well with Danny Alexander, his neighbouring MP.

To be honest, for all the talk of the SNP tide, I did not believe he would lose his seat. He fought very much as Charles, not the Lib Dems and was hilarious about the efforts he intended to go to in resisting any high profile visits. As I know from the time we spend up there, he was hugely popular, but the combination of the toxicity of the Lib Dem brand and the SNP phenomenon proved too powerful a combination.

Going by the chats and text exchanges before and after his election defeat, he seemed to be taking it all philosophically. Before, he took to sending me the William Hill odds on his survival, and a day before the election I got a text saying ‘Not good. Wm Hill has me 3-1 against, SNP odds on, they’re looking unstoppable.’ Then he added: ‘There is always hope … health remains fine.’ Health remains fine – this was a little private code we had, which meant we were not drinking.

A week later, health still fine, we chatted about the elections, and he did sound pretty accepting of what had happened. Here and now is probably not the place to record all his observations about all the various main players of the various main parties north and south, but he said in some ways he was glad to be out of it. I am not totally sure I believed him, but he had plenty of ideas of how he would spend his time, how we would make a living, and most important how he would continue to contribute to political ideas and political life.

Later he texted me ‘fancy starting a new Scottish left-leaning party? I joke not.’ I suggested – though I confess I was joking – that we hold a ‘coalition summit’ at the place we go on holiday. ‘I am up for that – but who do we invite?’

This was to be the agenda for a catch up later this week when he was hoping to get to my brother’s farewell do from Glasgow University, where Charles had been the University Rector for six years, and my brother Donald has been the official University Piper for a lot longer. Charles tried to get me to run for the Rectorship after him – in addition to my brother’s role, my Dad was a Glasgow University vet school graduate – before I gently suggested that with the students voting, this was perhaps one place where his stance on Iraq may have been more helpful to such a campaign than mine.

His kindness to my brother, who has had health struggles of his own, and who Charles met many times at official functions and the like, was another big positive about him in the Campbell household. And I hope his son Donald won’t mind me revealing to the world that as a small boy he loved the bagpipes, and Charles and Sarah had to endure long car journeys with young Donald insisting on playing again and again a CD of my brother Donald’s best solo piping, and I had to play the same tunes on my own pipes once he arrived.

I think of all the memories, that is how and where I will remember Charles, with Sarah and Donald up in one of the most beautiful parts of the world, enjoying each other’s company, enjoying ours as we enjoyed theirs, and being able to talk one minute the future of Europe or the Union, the next where to find the best fish or live local music.

He was great company, sober or drinking. He had a fine political mind and a real commitment to public service. He was not bitter about his ousting as leader and nor, though he disagreed often with what his Party did in coalition with the Tories, did he ever wander down the rentaquote oppositionitis route. He was a man of real talent and real principle.

Despite the occasional blip when the drink interfered, he was a terrific communicator and a fine orator. He spoke fluent human, because he had humanity in every vein and every cell. Above all, he was a doting Dad of his son, whose loss is going to be greater than for any of us, and who will be reminded of his father every time he looks in the mirror and sees his red hair and cheeky smile coming back. And he was a very good friend. I just wish that we, his friends, had been able to help him more, and that he was still with us today, adding a bit of light to an increasingly gloomy political landscape.

Thailand's King returns to hospital

2 June 2015

Thailand’s ailing king Bhumibol Adulyadej was quietly transferred by helicopter on Sunday, May 31, from his summer palace in Hua Hin, 200 km south of Bangkok, to Siriraj Hospital where he has spent much of the last decade.

Local media said that the King and Queen returned by car for normal health checks. But they had only briefly returned to Hua Hin and the helicopter return, written about by two separate sources, indicates a more serious problem.

There has been no public announcement of the ailing, 87-year-old king’s condition. He and his equally ailing Queen Sirikit left Siriraj, Thailand’s best hospital, in early May for the seaside palace. At the time their appearance raised serious concerns about their health. Both appeared nearly comatose.

When the king dies after ruling for 69 years since 1946 as Rama IX, the passing is expected to set off a wave of mourning that can be expected to last for months. His condition is of enormous emotional importance to Thailand’s 67-million people.

The king went into the hospital eight months ago to have his gall bladder removed. He had previously been confined to the hospital for four years before coming out for a brief period

Both he and the queen are believed to have had a series of strokes that have left them basically incapacitated.

Although the king has no formal political role, his replacement, assumed to be the 62-year-old crown prince, Maha Vajiralongkorn, inspires little confidence; he does appear, however, to have reached an arrangement with the army that included the divorce of his third wife, the arrest of many of her family, and the formalising of his fourth marriage.

Announcing the Emirates FA Cup

31 May 2015

In a deal that makes perfect sense for both parties the Football Association yesterday confirmed a new three-year sponsorship deal for its flagship competition, which from August will be known as the Emirates FA Cup. At least that is what the two parties involved hope is going to happen. The FA chairman, Greg Dyke, who promised that most of the money raised in a deal thought to be worth £30m would be spent on improving grassroots facilities, expects some opposition and criticism from football traditionalists.

“Let me try and allay their fears by saying all the money will be going back into the game at all levels,” Dyke said. “The vast majority of the funds raised will be going to the parts of the game that need it most. Grassroots, youth coaching and especially the development of all-weather pitches in communities around the country. That is an area where we are miles behind the Dutch and the Germans.

“I think that people who object to the name change are the same people who are sentimental about kicking off at three o’clock. The world changes. The reason we kick off at 5.30pm today is because that is the time when most people are available to watch.

“When I took over this job I felt the FA Cup had been in decline for some years. Now it is enjoying something of a revival. I don’t think it is ever going to get back to what it was when I was a kid, when whole towns and communities used to come to a halt, but I do think it has been rebuilt in the past few years and the television audience the BBC can bring is part of that. The Cup still captures the imagination, it is still one of the world’s most iconic pieces of silverware.”

Emirates Airline was associated with Fifa until last year, and Sir Tim Clark, the company president, was careful to draw a distinction between supporting the FA and the discredited organisation still led by Sepp Blatter. “The least said about last week’s events the better,” Clark said.“The FA is not that organisation, and the FA Cup has an unrivalled heritage and draws a global audience of more than 1.1 billion.

“I think we are regarded as a healthy, wholesome brand and we are proud to be first title sponsors of such a great competition. We have enjoyed a very successful partnership with Arsenal and I hope this will be the same. I hope our partnership lasts for longer than three years.”

The FA had been looking for a new sponsor for the FA Cup since Budweiser ended its three-year association with the 144-year-old tournament last year.

Emirates sponsors Arsenal and, as well as the club’s Emirates Stadium, an annual pre-season tournament bears the company’s name. It also sponsors Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Milan and Hamburg.

Etihad reveals profits but no published accounts

28 May 2015

Etihad Airways announced its strongest financial results to date, posting a net profit of US$ 73 million on total revenues of US$ 7.6 billion for the year to 31 March 2015, up 52.1 percent and 26.7 percent respectively over the previous year.

The airline says that this marked the airline’s fourth consecutive year of net profitability, also saw earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) up 32.5 per cent to US$ 257 million. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and rentals (EBITDAR) were up 16.2 per cent to US$ 1.1 billion, representing a 15 per cent margin on total revenues. Rather a misleading number in a capital intensive business.

James Hogan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Etihad Airways, said: “Our shareholder has set a clear commercial mandate for this business and we continue to deliver against that mandate. Our focus is on sustainable profitability and our fourth year of net profits, at a time when we continue to invest in the new routes, new aircraft, new product and new infrastructure needed to compete effectively, shows we are serious about that goal.

“Our performance in 2014 has cemented Etihad Airways’ position as a best-in-class, profitable and self-sustaining international airline. We have continued to grow, not just in size, reputation and performance, but also in maturity, evolving from an airline to a diverse global aviation and tourism group. This has been achieved through a unique strategy that combines industry-leading organic growth with wide-ranging partnerships and minority equity investments in other airlines around the world.”

Etihad Airways carried a total of 14.8 million passengers in 2014, an increase of 22.3 per cent year-on-year. Revenue Passenger Kilometres (RPKs) – measuring passenger journeys - increased by 23.6 per cent to 68.6 billion (55.5 billion), while Available Seat Kilometres (ASKs) – representing capacity - grew by 21.8 per cent to 86.6 billion (71.1 billion). The growth in passenger demand and revenue over the 12-month period continued to outstrip Etihad Airways’ capacity increase, highlighting the strength of its long-term growth strategy.

 By the end of the year, the average network-wide seat load factor was 79.2 per cent, compared to 78.0 per cent in 2013.

Etihad does not publish its financial statements.

A key driver of Etihad Airways’ growth in 2014 was its partnership strategy, based on wide-ranging codeshares and its unique approach of minority equity investments in strategically important, and in most cases worryingly unprofitable, airlines. This has accelerated network growth, giving Etihad Airways the largest route network of any Middle Eastern carrier, reaching more than 500 destinations. It has boosted sales and marketing opportunities in key markets, as well as allowing significant business synergies and cost savings.

This strategy delivered revenues of US$ 1.1 billion in 2014, an increase of 37.7 per cent (US$ 820 million), and represented 24 per cent of Etihad Airways’ total passenger revenues.