RGN In Conversation

RGN deputy editor John Walton is in conversation with Jamie Freed, a Reuters senior correspondent covering aviation and business in Sydney. This episode, John and Jamie delve deep into the context and background of Australia’s airline duopoly and the growing strength of Qantas’ position.

How is Qantas thriving given Australia’s end-of-the-world location? Why is Jetstar so successful when other airlines’ dual-brand low-cost carrier strategies have failed? What’s next for troubled Virgin Australia? Why are most Australian airports still split into separate international and domestic buildings? How have Australia’s airlines leveraged their partnerships with the Gulf carriers and other international airlines? And how will the first nonstop hop on the Kangaroo Route from Australia to London shake everything up?

RGN Contributing Editor John Walton is in conversation with Seth Miller, Jason Rabinowitz and Mary Kirby in Hamburg at the Aircraft Interiors Expo 2017, talking about what feels like a myriad new seats at this year’s show.

How has Mirus evolved its barebones slimline into a fully featured seat? What was behind the curtain at B/E Aerospace? What’s the new “compact staggered” business class seat all about? Is the B/E Aspire seat as revolutionary as rumoured? And what else was new at AIX17?

RGN contributing editor John Walton is in conversation with New Yorker Jason Rabinowitz, director of airline research at Routehappy, about New York’s three, four, five or six airports (depending on how you count them), the #PaxEx in the world’s largest aviation market, and future plans from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo.

What’s going on with “third world” LaGuardia? Why is JFK still a mess? Is the Port Authority making things worse? Will we ever see decent public transportation to the airports? How do the airlines at JFK, Newark, LaGuardia and elsewhere line up? Will Norwegian’s Stewart operation be a Ryanair-style “New York-ish” success? And what needs to happen for change to be possible in the future?

RGN contributing editor John Walton is in conversation with Reuters’ European airline correspondent Victoria Bryan in Berlin, discussing what’s going on with Lufthansa, airberlin and Eurowings in the German and European airline markets.

What’s next for the seemingly endless industrial relations disputes? With Lufthansa taking over airberlin planes for Eurowings and Austrian, as well as turning Brussels Airlines into part of the Eurowings group, it is clearly a time of change for one of the world’s most influential airlines. John and Victoria also discuss Lufthansa #PaxEx, including the carrier’s expansion of inflight connectivity to its short-haul fleet.

RGN contributing editor John Walton is in conversation with German New Zealander Kai Koenig, talking about the passenger experience in New Zealand and on trans-Tasman routes between Australia and the Land of the Long White Cloud.

With growing international focus on this innovative region, including all three of its major airline groups now planning next-generation inflight connectivity, what options do travellers have — from barebones LCC to ultra-luxe first class suites? And how will the unique passenger experience demand from this region affect both seats, wifi and service of the airlines that serve it?