JULY 12, 2023

BY  Ryan Beene and Mary Schlangenstein, Bloomberg News

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - JULY 01: Travelers line up to enter a security checkpoint at San Francisco International Airport on July 01, 2022 in San Francisco, California. According to AAA, nearly 48 million Americans are expected to hit the road for the Fourth of July holiday weekend and will travel more than 50 miles away from their home. It will be the second busiest July 4 travel weekend since 2000. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) , Photographer: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

(Bloomberg) -- The cost of a plane ticket plunged in the early days of the summer travel season, continuing a retreat as airlines benefit from lower jet fuel prices.

US airfares in June fell 8.1% from the prior month, the third consecutive decline and the largest drop since last July, according to figures released on Wednesday by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The slide was the second-biggest on a monthly basis since April 2020, when airlines saw travel demand evaporate during the onset of the pandemic.

Compared to last year, June airfares plummeted 18.9%.

Read More: Why Flights Might Get Cheaper After a Busy Summer

The declines come amid falling fuel prices, giving carriers a boost as they prepare for a surge of summer travel expected to rival the record traffic of 2019. Jet fuel prices have tumbled 57% this year, based on the rate for immediate purchase in New York harbor. Fuel vies with labor as the two largest expenses for airlines, and fares historically have followed the move in fuel prices.

About 275 million people are expected to travel between May 25 and Sept. 4, according to TD Cowen. That’s 7.4% higher than in 2019 and 19% higher than last year. 

US passenger counts, which had lagged the record 2019 levels since the start of the pandemic in early 2020, have roughly recovered to pre-pandemic levels in recent months, according to Transportation Safety Administration data.

Surging US travel took hold as the pandemic waned in 2021 and hasn’t let up. The industry thus far has seemed impervious to inflation and economic slowing as consumers continue to use pandemic savings for travel. 

Domestic and near-international trips fueled the industry’s early pandemic recovery. More recently, soaring demand for international travel, particularly to Europe, has bolstered the industry as countries have dropped lingering Covid-related restrictions. 

Delta Air Lines Inc. is set to be the first major US carrier to report second-quarter results Thursday and provide an update on demand through the peak summer season. The carrier last month said 55% of its seats offered in the current quarter have already been booked, including 70% for long-haul global flights and 40% on domestic routes.

A group of 11 US carriers are expected to report a record $58 billion in second-quarter revenue, according to Deutsche Bank.

(Adds US passenger, demand data from sixth paragraph)

JULY 13, 2023

Some foreign airlines operating in Nigeria have commenced the repatriation of the revenues from their recent ticket sales, following the reform of the foreign exchange market by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

While backlogs of funds from their previous ticket sales remain trapped, BusinessDay’s findings show that some airlines have been able to repatriate funds from recently sold tickets, an indication that the unification of exchange rates is yielding some positive results.

The CBN had last month directed banks to remove the cap on the Investors’ and Exporters’ (I&E) window of the forex market to allow for the free float of the naira.

The country’s currency was floated after years of sticking with a hard peg that spooked investors and drained dollars from the economy. The naira closed at 788.42 per dollar on Tuesday at the I&E window, compared to around 460/$ before the exchange rate unification.

Airlines in Nigeria have had as much as $812.2 million of funds stuck within the country as of April.

Susan Akporiaye, president of the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies (NANTA), told BusinessDay that from ongoing meetings with foreign airlines, some of them revealed that since the unification of exchange rates, they have been repatriating their money from the recent ticket sales.

“So far, it looks good. There is nothing definite yet but at least one thing I take out is that it is a mixture of both sides. For some, the status quo is still the same, while some have better experiences. They say since the unification of the rates, they are beginning to get their funds but it is just the backlog that has remained trapped,” Akporiaye said.

She said the airlines have agreed to release lower inventories (cheaper fares) as a response to the positive development.

She said: “Most of the airlines appealed to the travel community to be a bit patient with them. They said it is looking good and very soon, there may be good news. They all agreed that there is no justification for not releasing the lower inventories.

“I think they just want to see how it goes. Some say they are willing to release inventories but they want to monitor the process and see how the process goes. If the process continues for a month or two, then they will release lower fares.”

Since last year, airlines blocked low ticket inventories, leaving high inventories to be sold in naira only while the low ticket inventories on most airlines’ websites can only be bought with dollar cards only. This was in a bid to cushion the effect of their trapped funds in Nigeria.

Bankole Bernard, chairman of Airlines and Passengers’ Joint Committee of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), had earlier predicted that the introduction of the single rate would reduce the amount of trapped funds in the country.

He said: “What this means is that the market will be even. At this point, a lot of people are going to lose money; some things will become more expensive. The black market man on the street will now go and look for a job because he would no longer have a job to do. Everything will be the same.

“So, this is good news for airlines as more funds will be repatriated. All the issues of not being able to repatriate their money will end. This is because there would be no difference in the rate. The airlines will lose money initially because they already have money that has piled up.”

Last month, IATA disclosed that Nigeria owed $812.2 million out of $2.27 billion trapped funds globally, making it the country with the highest trapped funds.

The top five countries account for 68.0 percent of blocked funds, including Bangladesh ($214.1 million), Algeria ($196.3 million), Pakistan ($188.2 million) and Lebanon ($141.2 million).

IATA warned that rapidly rising levels of blocked funds were a threat to airline connectivity in the affected markets.

Kingsley Nwokeoma, president of Association of Foreign Airlines and Representatives in Nigeria (AFARN), told BusinessDay that the only reason why most airlines are still operating is because there is a new government and they are watching to see if there would be anything that would be different.

He said: “Ticket prices are still high and summer this year is low. Those that managed to travel for summer this year were downgraded. Those that would have travelled using business class downgraded to economy and some of the people that use regular economy had to cancel their travel plans because they cannot pay over one million naira because they are travelling for a six hour flight.

“The exchange rates increased. It is a new administration and we hope that once we have a substantive minister, perhaps things will change. The trapped funds are close to $1 billion and that is a lot of money. Most people travel to Cotonou, Lome and Accra and take two days’ holidays and leave from there to London. If there is a committed paying system, most funds will have been repatriated.”

BusinessDay had earlier reported that the price of an economy class ticket for Lagos-London and Lagos-France has increased to N1.9 million to N2.2 million from around N1.5 million a month ago.

Cost of air fares from Nigeria to various destinations have seen a sharp rise since the exchange rate for ticket pricing hit over N740/$.

JULY 14, 2023

BY  Kate Duffy, Anthony Palazzo and Siddharth Vikram Philip, Bloomberg News

, Source: YipitData

(Bloomberg) -- After returning to New York from Oslo in late May, Harley Hendrix noticed her suitcase containing a cherished Alexander McQueen dress had been diverted to Copenhagen. 

Also rotting in Denmark: packs of cheese that Hendrix had stuffed into the suitcase to bring back home. While she hadn’t visited Copenhagen, Hendrix knew the bag was there because, like many people these days, she had tucked an AirTag inside. Delta Air Lines Inc. first told her it was at John F. Kennedy International, then Dallas. But the tracker was pinging from Denmark. 

It took a week for Delta and its European partner KLM to find the suitcase and forward it to New York. By then the cheese was spoiled, Hendrix said. The vintage black McQueen, still reeking of rotten Jarlsberg after multiple cleanings, had to be tossed — along with Chanel and Missoni dresses and cashmere sweaters.

“All trash. Some of these items I’ll never be able to exactly replace,” said Hendrix, who curated her wardrobe over the years from sample sales and scouring second-hand sites. “I didn’t actually love the Chanel dress but did love the Alexander McQueen.”

A year after air travel stormed back from pandemic lows, overwhelming the system with airport chaos and luggage pileups, airlines are still struggling to keep up. Just last month, bags stacked up from Newark Liberty to Los Angeles International after storms scrambled airline schedules in the northeast US. At Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, some 10,000 bags were lost in one day, which KLM Chief Executive Officer Marjan Rintel blamed on the hub’s outdated systems.

Passengers are meanwhile arming themselves with Bluetooth devices in ever greater numbers, exposing a balky bag-handling system that’s often a step behind customers — and putting pressure on the industry to catch up. 

Airlines and baggage-handling firms say they’re better equipped than last year to keep customers’ goods from getting lost. The industry is also working on a plan to incorporate the trackers into existing systems, and seeking assistance from technology firms. One challenge is to create a standard for interoperability between airlines and device manufacturers — a starting point for eventual solutions.

“There is a huge benefit in complementing the airlines’ tracking data with the Bluetooth tracker information,” said Getnet Taye, senior manager of global baggage operations at the International Air Transport Association, the industry’s main lobbying group.

Current bag-handling tech is largely bar-code based, logging items intermittently on their journey but not continuously. The back-end systems of airlines, airports and ground-handling firms can’t always speak to each other, making them vulnerable to breakdowns. 

Hendrix used KLM to take her from Oslo to Amsterdam to connect with a Delta flight to the US. The Dutch airline said it regrets the incident that led to her ruined clothing, and that “every piece of misplaced luggage is one too many.” KLM said it’s closely monitoring technological advancements, though it doesn’t use AirTag technology to track lost luggage because the data can only be shared with the owner of the tracker for privacy reasons.

Delta, which sold Hendrix her tickets, also apologized. With its RFID-enabled systems, Delta misplaces bags less frequently than other large US global carriers, it said.

A bag can go astray for any number of reasons, from airport Wifi signals to snafus on transfers between airlines. Schedule disruptions can lead to pileups, like during last summer’s disarray or the mass cancellations in December on Southwest Airlines Co. 

For now, Bluetooth systems add to the pressure by providing users of Apple AirTags, Tile or Samsung SmartTags with frequent updates when in range of other enabled devices. While passengers may know where their bags are sooner than airlines, customer-service desks can’t access the same information. 

Airlines’ responses haven’t always been reassuring. Deutsche Lufthansa AG initially tried to ban Bluetooth devices as a safety risk, but quickly reversed itself. And each high-profile misstep drives passengers into the arms of manufacturers like Apple and Tile maker Life360 Inc. 

“AirTag sales really began to ramp in the spring of ’22, which aligns with when the post-Covid travel surge began,” said Nate Harmon, director of research at YipitData.  

It’s too soon to know whether airlines have made a dent in the problems that erupted last summer, when lost baggage was a byproduct of a spike in flight delays and cancellations. Through April, US airlines misplaced about 0.62% of bags checked by passengers on domestic flights this year, little changed from the first four months of 2022, according to statistics published by the Department of Transportation. 

A big contributor to last year’s chaos was a labor shortage after the industry shed workers during the pandemic. Airlines, airports and baggage handlers say they’ve staffed up, have improved working conditions and are more focused on retention. 

Still, pileups persist with unsettling regularity. Shortages of ground-handling staff and equipment were to blame for disruptions in Edinburgh this month, the Scotsman reported.  Workers in the UK, France, Switzerland and Belgium have snarled traffic this summer or threaten to with more strikes.

In Amsterdam, Schiphol said the late-June baggage chaos described by KLM’s Rintel affected transfer flights in particular. All of the misplaced luggage belonging to the Dutch airline’s customers has now been sent to its intended destination, the airport said in a statement.

One of those passengers was Shay Lawson, whose cold-weather clothing was waylaid in Amsterdam while she continued on a visit to the Arctic Circle. The suitcase was finally sent north, but only after Lawson was already headed back to Atlanta. It completed its circuitous journey four days after she did. “The frustration here is that no one told me they had located my bag,’’ she said.   

In the aftermath of last year’s failures, Swissport International AG, one of the largest providers of airport ground services, appointed a baggage “czar” to look at pinch points and ways to improve. It’s also working with customers to improve digital tracking, said Chris Rayner, chief people officer. An AirTag investment would have value, but “has to be a combined effort,” he said.

Tech spending also suffered during the downturn, slowing progress on a 2018 initiative to ensure luggage is logged at least four times on a journey, and to encourage information sharing between participants, according to IATA. 

“Right now the biggest challenge is how airlines and airports share information more transparently,” said Sumesh Patel, who heads the Asia-Pacific region of SITA, the industry-owned provider of widely used aviation technology. “I don’t think there is any shortcoming in terms of technology or solutions, the only problem is collaboration.”

SITA offers a product that centralizes tracing of lost baggage and extends some tools to passengers. There are also companies like Berkshire Hathaway Inc. offering travel insurance, and AirHelp, which provides assistance securing refunds and compensation.

Airlines also want tech firms to better explain to customers that Bluetooth trackers don’t always give up-to-date information — adding to airline costs and creating customer-service headaches, according to IATA’s Taye.

Apple and Life360 had no comment. Samsung said about 11% of users have set their SmartTag devices to luggage-finding mode. The company had no further comment. 

KLM offered Hendrix $109 in compensation for the ruined items, according to a message from the Air France-KLM unit she showed to Bloomberg News. 

The 54-year-old producer of executive events wasn’t expecting much, as she bought the cheese for herself and for gifts with cash, and had long since done away with her receipt for the McQueen, purchased not long after the trailblazing designer died in 2010. Still, she said she was disappointed. 

“I could actually see exactly where my bag was and yet no one would listen or grab it,” Hendrix said. “I have purchased four more AirTags after this.” 

--With assistance from Albertina Torsoli, Mary Schlangenstein, Supriya Singh, Mark Gurman and Sohee Kim.

(Updates with European strikes in 18th paragraph)

JULY 14, 2023

(Bloomberg) -- Almost 1,000 workers at London’s Gatwick Airport set plans to walk off the job during two of the busiest weekends of July and August, adding to labor-related disruptions across Europe during the peak summer travel season.

The planned strike will total eight days, the Unite union said Friday after failing to reach agreement with ground-services companies at the airport south of the UK capital. Low-cost carriers EasyJet Plc and Wizz Air Holdings Plc, along with IAG SA’s British Airways, are among the hub’s biggest operators.

Concern is growing about a repeat of the chaos seen last year, when staff shortages roiled airline schedules, triggering long lines at airports and baggage pileups across the region. Air traffic controllers in France and Switzerland have already walked out over working conditions, and Eurocontrol, which manages air space in Europe, last week warned of more disruptions this summer over threatened strikes in Brussels.

Inevitable Delays

Read More: Ruined McQueen Dress Shows Airlines Still Have a Baggage Problem

At Gatwick, the UK’s second-largest airport, about 950 workers at ground-handling firms ASC, Menzies Aviation, British Airways-owned GGS and DHL Services will walk off on two successive weekends starting July 28 and Aug. 4, Unite said. Ryanair Holdings Plc, TUI and Westjet are among the other airlines set to be affected.

More than 4,400 flights are scheduled to take off from Gatwick across those days, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. The industrial action will “inevitably cause severe delays, disruption and cancellations,” Unite said.

Security workers at London’s larger Heathrow airport called off strike plans after agreeing a wage deal last month. The UK has seen walkouts by train drivers, teachers, junior doctors and nurses as surging cost of living and high inflation take their toll.

Phil Lloyd, senior vice president of Menzies Aviation in the UK, said in a statement that Unite had rejected a pay increase of 11% for employees at Gatwick. He said Menzies has invited the union to return to negotiations and find an agreement which works for the company and its staff. BA, meanwhile, said its ground handling service GGS was surprised by Unite’s announcement after having discussions with them this week and was working with the union to find a resolution.

Gatwick officials are drawing up plans to support the airlines who have contracts with the third-party ground handlers to ensure flights run in line with schedules, a spokesperson for the airport said. TUI said it had notified customers about the strikes.

Wizz will seek to limit disruptions and will contact passengers, it said. Representatives for EasyJet, Ryanair and Westjet didn’t respond to requests for comment. TUI said it had notified customers about the strikes.

(Updates with responses from Gatwick, Wizz and TUI)

JULY 14, 2023

(Bloomberg) -- Economists have called an end to New Zealand’s housing slump, saying latest data show the market has found a floor and prices are starting to recover.

A Real Estate Institute of New Zealand report released Thursday in Wellington shows house prices rose 0.4% in June while sales continued to recover. Economists at ANZ Bank, Westpac, ASB Bank and Kiwibank all said the report is the latest sign that housing demand is starting to outstrip supply amid record immigration. 

“The turning point in the house price cycle has arrived,” said Miles Workman, senior economist at ANZ Bank New Zealand in Wellington. 

Satish Ranchhod, senior economist at Westpac in Auckland, concurred. “The latest update from REINZ reinforced the sense that New Zealand’s housing market has found a base, with both sales and prices pushing higher,” he said.

New Zealand house prices have dropped almost 18% from their peak in November 2021 as the central bank hiked interest rates aggressively to tame inflation. While mortgage rates aren’t expected to drop any time soon, they aren’t seen rising much further after the Reserve Bank yesterday reinforced the view that its tightening cycle has ended.

The REINZ report showed house prices fell 9% in the year through June, but the median price has recovered to NZ$780,000 ($491,000) from a low of NZ$762,000 in February.

Kiwibank chief economist Jarrod Kerr said it appears that most, if not all, of the housing market correction has now played out.

“The peak in interest rates will mark the bottom of the downturn,” he said, adding that surging immigration and the prospect of rate cuts on the horizon should fuel a housing rebound.

“We see a return to monthly house price gains — albeit very modest gains — beginning from the second half of the year,” Kerr said.

ANZ expects prices will lift about 3% in the second half, while Westpac and ASB also expect increases. 

“With mortgage rates close to peaking, supply stabilizing and stronger population growth of late, prices can make further gains over the coming months,” ASB economist Nathaniel Keall said. “But we think this upswing will look different to the last one, with prices recovering slowly rather than galloping away.”

(Updates with ASB from second paragraph.)

JULY 14, 2023

The acting Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Abdulkarim Chukkol, has described investment, Business Email Compromise, BEC, and forex scams as well as land and property fraud as some of the most prevalent financial and economic crimes in the Lagos Zonal Command of the Commission.

He said the Lagos Command had received a total of 512 (Five Hundred and Twelve) and 876 ( Eight Hundred and Seventy-six)  petitions relating to investment and forex-scams, respectively.

He also stated that these fraudulent activities involved the sums of N317, 908,343,469 (Three Hundred and Seventeen Billion, Nine Hundred and Eight Million, Three Hundred and Forty-three Thousand, Four Hundred and Sixty-nine Naira),  $3,205, 648(Three Million, Two Hundred and Five Thousand, Six Hundred and Forty-eight Dollars) and N11, 686, 499, 431.79 (Eleven Billion, Six Hundred and Eighty-six Million, Four Hundred and Ninety-nine  Thousand, Four Hundred and Thirty-one Naira, Seventy-nine Kobo).

He made  the disclosure during a one-day workshop on Economic and Financial Crimes Reporting for Journalists on Thursday, July 13, 2023 at the Commission’s Lagos Zonal Command.

Chukkol, who spoke through the Commander, Lagos Zonal Command, Michael Wetkas, said all manner of economic and financial crimes had, over the years, continued to thrive in the state owing to its status as the economic nerve centre of the country.

According to him, “ Forex scam, Business Email Compromise, investment scams and land and property fraud , among others, are some of the financial and economic crimes prevalent within the Lagos environment. “

While expressing concern over the alarming rate at which unsuspecting people “ fall prey to the wiles of the scammers”, he stated that the Commission’s enforcement activities had been directed at the perpetrators of these crimes.

“In the last couple of months, we have intensified public sensitization in line with our belief that some of these crimes could be prevented, if people have the right information.

“This is where your professionalism and collaboration are needed. We need the media to help in educating citizens to be circumspect in embracing investment opportunities, especially where the return on investment seems too good to be true, “ he added.

 Chukkol , who lauded the media for reporting the activities of the Commission since inception over 20 years ago, stated that decision of the Commission to sponsor the workshop underscored the importance the management attaches to the role of the media in the fight against economic and financial crimes, including corruption.

“All over the world, the watchdog role of the media promotes transparent and accountable leadership.

“In the particular instance of the EFCC, the media has proven to be a critical stakeholder and ally in the difficult task of sanitizing our environment. 

“This partnership is functional and rewarding.  We can only wish that the synergy gets stronger and stronger.

“I admit that the task of placing our works on daily focus and scrutiny is both engaging and arduous.  It is engaging because the Commission has been profoundly impactful in combating the menace of corrupt practices in our midst, going by its impressive records of convictions, asset forfeitures and other tangible proofs of accomplishments over the years. 

“The reporting has also been arduous because our works are not static and you have been keeping pace with our speed and energy. “

The workshop featured presentations by ACE 1 Larry’s Peters Aso, who spoke on “Understanding the New Money Laundering Laws In Relation To Activities of Designated Non-Financial Businesses and Professions”; ACE 1 Dele Oyewale , who presented a paper titled “Investigative Journalism and Nigeria’s Fight Against Money Laundering” and CSE Sanni Adenike Morinsola, who also presented a paper on “ New Trends In Cybercrime: How Not To Become A Victim.”

Participants at the workshop were drawn from print, broadcast and online media organizations.

JULY 14, 2023

United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced an increase in visa application fee paid by immigrants.

He also said the surcharge paid for the state-funded national health service (NHS) by visa applicants by immigrants will “increase significantly”.

The announcement is coming a few weeks after the United States embassy said it is increasing fees for processing non-immigrant visa (NIV) applications.

The US embassy, according to a statement on its website said the new fees for various visa categories will be implemented from June 17, 2023.

He said: “If we’re going to prioritise paying public sector workers more, that money has to come from somewhere else because I’m not prepared to put up people’s taxes and I don’t think it would be responsible or right to borrow more because that would just make inflation worse

“So, what we have done are two things to find this money. The first is, we are going to increase the charges that we have for migrants who are coming to this country when they apply for visas and indeed something called the immigration health surcharge (IHS), which is the levy that they pay to access the NHS.

“All of those fees are going to go up and that will raise over £1 billion. So, across the board visa application fees are going to go up significantly and similarly for the IHS.”

According to Sunak, this move will have no effect on inflation because there would be no new borrowing or spending to fund the increases.

He said the government believes it is appropriate given that the costs have risen since the last hike.

In a tweet, Sunak said: “I just announced a fair way to end the strikes – and already all teaching unions are backing it. It’s a fair deal for workers. And a fair deal for the British taxpayer. This is a major breakthrough for parents and families across the country.”

JULY 14, 2023

Chinedu Eze

The Managing Director of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), Kabir Mohammed has said that the agency has adopted measures to tighten security at the airside of the Murtala Muhammed International Airports (MMIA), Lagos.
This was in reaction to the recent theft of airfield lighting at the Runway 18R, known as the international runway, which has not been in use because of on-going rehabilitation work.
He disclosed to THISDAY that part of the investigation is to expose possible insider threat, to identify them and prevent them from future incursion at the airside of the airport.
Mohammed said that there is reinforcement of security operatives and more patrol vehicles have been deployed to ensure all night patrol of every part of the airside of the airport, which include 24 hours monitoring of the two runways of the nation’s busiest airport.
THISDAY learnt that after the first part of the system was stolen, FAAN management directed the Head of Electrical Services to remove the remaining part of the airfield system but this directive was not obeyed and that remaining part of the airfield lighting was stolen after the first theft.

This led to the suspension of 11 officials whose duties are connected to protecting the stolen facility, the airside and who have access to the runway and environs.
These include Chief of Airport Security, Head of Department (HOD), Electrical, HOD, Crime, HOD Airfield operations and one acting General Manager, Aviation Security (AVSEC), HOD, Environment and others.
Mohammed told THISDAY he directed that investigation should be carried out on the theft, but when the report was submitted to the FAAN management, the Managing Director noticed that it was only the junior workers that were indicted and he gave another directive to the Director of Human Resources (DHR) to set up a committee to carry out comprehensive investigation into the incident.

Meanwhile, FAAN management, which carried out inspection on the projects under construction at the Lagos airport on Monday, further fortified security at the airside, known as sterile area.

THISDAY also learnt that FAAN security, which is a joint operation of security operatives from Air Force, Aviation Security and Nigeria Police, patrol the breadth of the runway many times every night.
The Managing Director of Flight and Logistics Solutions Limited, Amos Akpan, told THISDAY that he has spent 35 years working at the Lagos airport and during this period, theft of equipment and facilities has always occurred airside but contrary to some reports, no theft has taken place recently before the airfield lighting incident.

According to Akpan, when such thefts take place the first suspects are the workers who are connected to what is stolen by their call of duty and this makes it logical to investigate them.
“Historically, I have been in this airport for 35 years and sensitive airport materials had been stolen at various times and there is always conjecture that it has to be an insider that understands the workings of such equipment. Of course, it cannot be stolen by people who do not understand the mechanism, so it is believed that those who steal such equipment are those who understand how it works. This conjecture has never been verified and nobody has gone to jail. The people that work around the airside are the staff of FAAN and contractors who install the equipment who work with agency staff and the contractors carry out post installation maintenance,” Akpan observed.

He also noted that people who have access to the airside of the airport, which is highly restricted, are people who are profiled by the Aviation Security, noting that no one should be allowed to access the airside without profiling.
“So, they are usually profiled with police record of clearance. So, the basic platform is that everybody has been profiled and most of the equipment are special in the sense that they are not the kind of things you can get out and sell to anybody. They are either recycled back into the system or sold but they are highly technical usage facilities. You cannot sell runway light for home use, so you can sell it to facility that can accommodate its usage. There are not many places they can be sold; so those who stole them must be those who know how it works,” he said.
Akpan also remarked that anyone who stole such equipment must have worked at the airside or has access to the airside; so, it becomes pertinent that those workers who have access to the airside must be investigated in addition to the contractors who install the equipment.
THISDAY investigation revealed that the theft was possible because Runway 18R was not in use so attention was not being paid to it; otherwise the theft would have been noticed by security or even air traffic controllers at the tower because the lights are supposed to be illuminated if the runway was functional.

THISDAY also gathered that the last time there was incursion was about three years ago when in response to incessant security breaches FAAN introduced new security apparatus to further secure the nation’s busiest gateway.
THISDAY learnt that FAAN has illuminated the airside and runway areas of the airport and in addition, there is watchtower facility that will capture every part of the airport and monitor every movement, which is billed to be completed soon.

JULY 14, 2023

BY  Jill Namatsi, Bloomberg News

, Source: Halifax

(Bloomberg) -- Britain’s prospective home buyers pulled back from the property market at the sharpest pace in eight months, an survey showed in a sign that higher borrowing costs are weighing on affordability.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said its index tracking house prices fell to minus 46% in June from minus 30% the month before — 11 points below the level economists had expected. A gauge of new buyer interest fell 25 points to minus 45%.

The figures are the latest to point toward a rapid cooling in the housing market after gains during the pandemic boosted the average value of a home by a quarter. The Bank of England has raised interest rates sharply since the end of 2021 to quell inflation, driving the average cost of mortgages to levels last seen in the global financial crisis more than a decade ago.

“Activity levels are likely to remain relatively subdued,” Simon Rubinsohn, chief economist for RICS, said in a statement on Thursday. “House prices are only very modestly down on their recent highs and well above where they stood at the onset of the pandemic.”

He said “further declines are possible” for prices, but that the lack of properties up for sale is near a historic low. That’s helping to maintain values for now, particularly in London.

The RICS report, assessing the views of surveyors as they examine property put up for sale, is more forward looking than official Land Registry data on transactions completed or the figures from mortgage lenders when loans are extended to buyers. 

All the indicators now suggest prices are falling but that they haven’t dropped as sharply as the 10% fall anticipated by economists at the start of this year.

“Continuing worries about rising mortgage rates and the cost of living are prompting many prospective purchasers to sit on their hands, which is softening sales prices,” said Jeffrey Leaf, a London agent with Jeremy Leaf & Co. “Negative publicity is beginning to lower seller expectations.”

RICS said new sales instructions were “steady” and that the average stock level for estate agents increased marginally to 37.4 properties.

“Although this level of inventory is still slightly higher than that reported at the end of last year, the number of homes available for purchase currently remains very low on a longer term historical comparison,” RICS said in its report.

The outlook for the next three months as well as the next 12 months remained firmly negative, except in Northern Ireland and Scotland. 

In Scotland’s case, Jennifer Helen Campbell, head of rural real estate at DM Hall near Stirling, said distressed residents are benefiting from a rent freeze and a temporary suspension of evictions. The moratorium is in place until March 2024.

Read more:

• UK House Prices Fall Most in Over Decade as Borrowing Costs Rise
• UK Home Price Declines Quicken as Mortgage Rates Darken Outlook
• BOE Says 4 Million Households Face a Jump in Mortgage Costs 

JULY 14, 2023

Shares of the Montreal-based airline are up approximately 30% year-to-date

Despite concerns over a potential economic slowdown, travel demand remains strong in Canada, which an analyst says should "drive meaningful earnings and cash flow improvement" for Air Canada (AC.TO).

National Bank Financial analyst Cameron Doerksen reiterated his "outperform" rating and $32 share price target for the Montreal-based airline this week, noting that the summer travel season is "still shaping up nicely."

"Notwithstanding concerns over the consumer, demand for air travel continues to look strong for the peak summer period with air passenger levels in Canada recently tracking closer to 2019," Doerksen wrote.

"We believe that the peak summer period for Air Canada (Q2 and Q3) will show strong financial results, and we expect that ongoing positive market conditions should drive meaningful earnings and cash flow improvement for Air Canada through the remainder of 2023 and 2024."

Doerksen notes that the biggest concern for Air Canada investors has been demand sustainability and pricing in the wake of growing macroeconomic concerns. But the latest CPI data from Statistics Canada showed that the cost of air transportation is up compared to pre-pandemic levels.

"Our own sampling of trans-Atlantic fares for peak periods in the upcoming summer also shows that fares on the busiest routes are up materially, both versus last year as well as versus summer 2019," Doerksen wrote.

While Air Canada's stock is trading well below its pre-pandemic highs, shares of the airline are up approximately 30 per cent year-to-date.

The positive momentum comes despite capacity levels remaining below pre-pandemic trends, and that Canada's biggest airline is facing increased competition in the domestic market.

Overall domestic capacity, as measured by available seat miles, is projected to be down 5.6 per cent in the third quarter of the year compared to 2019, according to National Bank. Air Canada's third-quarter domestic capacity is up 3.7 per cent compared to last year, but still down 20.5 per cent compared to pre-pandemic levels. New entrants and growing airlines such as Flair and Porter Airlines are offsetting the declines seen at Air Canada and WestJet (down 20 per cent compared to 2019.) Flair's domestic capacity is up a whopping 444.7 per cent compared to 2019, as the airline significantly expanded its capacity through the pandemic, while Porter's capacity is up 53.4 per cent compared to 2019.

Still, Doerksen says Air Canada is well-positioned in the wake of increased competition in the Canadian airline space. He notes that domestic traffic – where Air Canada faces the stiffest competition from new entrants – is not the airline's most important profit driver. The airline also has major competitive advantages, including its large global and regional networks, and its Aeroplan loyalty program with more than seven million members.

"Ultimately, we think not all the rapidly growing airlines will survive," Doerksen wrote.

"The history of the Canadian airline industry would suggest that Canada is not large enough to support more than two large national airlines… . We think market conditions will shake out one or two competitors in the next year or two, especially if the current level of air travel demand wanes."

Alicja Siekierska is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance Canada. Follow her on Twitter @alicjawithaj.