Rising fuel prices and financial turmoil in Europe signal big problems for the international airline industry in 2012 and are likely to force a cutback in flights, according to two key aviation bodies.

Global airline organization IATA said on Wednesday that while passenger numbers on all international routes in January - usually a busy travel season - rose 5.7 percent year on year, major uncertainties lay ahead.
European air traffic body Eurocontrol, which oversees an estimated 40 percent of world passenger and cargo routes, said it had cut its forecast for 2012 flight numbers to a decline of 1.3 percent from growth of 2.5 percent.
The figures from Geneva-based IATA, the International Air Traffic Association, showed air cargo volume - a good indicator of the health of world trade - was down 8 per cent in January over the same month last year.
Earlier this month IATA reported that in 2011 as a whole air traveller numbers rose by 6.9 percent on international routes operated by its 240 members, who account for 84 percent of world passenger traffic, while cargo fell 0.8 percent over 2010.
IATA director general Tony Tyler said the cargo decline appeared to be stabilising "albeit it at weak levels."
There was also hopeful news on business confidence which was having a positive impact on corporate travel.
"However, airlines face two big risks: rising oil prices and Europe's sovereign debt crisis. Both are hanging over the industry's fortunes like a sword of Damocles," Tyler said.
At Brussels-based Eurocontrol, head of forecast and traffic analysis David Marsh said Europe's economic weakness and the fuel price "have already had a major impact on the airlines, which have cut back on the number of flights harder and faster than we had expected."
Eurocontrol predicted a drop in flights from 9.8 million in 2011 to 9.7 million this year, which would be the second annual decline since the global financial crisis of 2009.
Marsh said growth in numbers of flights landing in, taking off from, or flying over the vast Eurocontrol area was likely to resume slowly in 2013 but it would be 2014 before it got back to the all-time peak of 10 million achieved in 2008.
The airline industry has battled over the past decade to achieve steady profits but has had a bumpy ride due to the 2001 hijackings in the United States, global health scares, volcanic eruptions and economic instability.
Last December, IATA predicted its members - who do not include low-cost airlines taking an increasing slice of business in many regions - faced an overall loss of $8 billion this year.

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Boeings planned Jet to be Super-sonic

A generation after attempts to build a commercially successful supersonic jet ended in failure, the Boeing Company announced plans yesterday for a new airplane that would fly just shy of the speed of sound, or about 20 percent faster than today's jets.

The futuristic new twin-engine jet, which is being called the Sonic Cruiser or the 20XX, has a double delta-shaped wing somewhat reminiscent of the supersonic Concorde. But a horizontal stabilizer near the nose makes it look different from all of today's commercial passenger jets.

Boeing said the plane, which will seat 175 to 250 passengers, would fly at higher altitudes than conventional jets and save about one hour for every 3,000 miles it travels. That would shave about an hour off transcontinental flights in the United States and as many as three hours on flights from California to Europe.

The new airplane will not enter service until the end of the decade, Boeing said, and many of its design features must still be worked out. But it has already captured the imagination of industry experts.
could be cool,'' said Howard Rubel, an analyst at Goldman, Sachs & Company. ''It could change the game.''
For Boeing, the new jet is a surprise riposte to its archrival, Airbus Industrie, which has gained ground on Boeing in recent years and has also stolen the industry's coveted mantle of innovation with its development of a new 550-seat superjumbo jet called the A380.
Boeing had been trying to sell airlines on a stretched version of its 747 that would seat 522, compared with the 416 seats on the largest of today's 747's. But Boeing had not received any orders for the new jet, while Airbus has 66 orders for the A380.
Boeing said yesterday that it had decided to halt work on the larger 747 and instead focus on the new-generation Sonic Cruiser. ''This is the airplane our customers have asked us to concentrate on,'' Alan R. Mulally, the president of Boeing's commercial airplane division, said. ''They share our view that this new airplane could change the way the world flies as dramatically as did the introduction of the jet age.''
The announcement of a new jet, which Boeing said could expand into a family of fast jets, comes only a week after Boeing announced that it would move its headquarters out of Seattle, where it was founded 85 years ago and where it assembles all but one of its 16 passenger airplane models today.
That raised the question of whether Boeing would build the Sonic Cruiser in the Seattle area. Mr. Mulally said the decision would not be made for a few years and issued a not-so-subtle challenge to Boeing's combative unions.
''If we keep improving our competitiveness, we will earn the right to design and make it here,'' he said. ''The most important thing is that we keep pulling together to improve our productivity and competitiveness.''
The excitement surrounding a jet that does not even break the sound barrier reveals how little progress has been made in commercial aviation over the last 40 years. Passenger jets have not changed appreciably in terms of speed since Boeing introduced the 707 in the 1950's. Even the new A380, which Airbus is calling ''the flagship of the 21st Century,'' will fly no faster than today's jets, or about 85 percent of the speed of sound, which is around 700 miles per hour, depending on air temperature and altitude.
The technology exists to build a supersonic passenger jet like the Concorde, which entered commercial service in 1976 after the British and French governments essentially gave the airplanes to their two national airlines, Air France and British Airways, because no airline was willing to pay the high cost of buying them.
Until the Concorde was taken out of service last year after one crashed near Paris, the jets were only available to elite travelers paying extremely high prices.
Most experts agree that a new supersonic jet built today would still be too expensive for most airlines to operate. It also could not fly at top speed over land because of the noisy sonic boom and would fly so high that it would damage the ozone layer. Since the 1970's, the British, French, Russians and Boeing in the United States have abandoned efforts to build a civilian supersonic transport.
Mr. Mulally said the exciting thing about the Sonic Cruiser was that it could be built with conventional materials and be powered by the same engines now used on Boeing's wide-body 777. Even though it will fly faster, he said, it will still have about the same operating costs as today's jets.
Advances in computer design and manufacturing also mean that Boeing can save money developing the plane and on each copy that it makes. Mr. Mulally would not say how much the new jet would cost to develop but analysts have estimated $9 billion to $10 billion, about what Airbus plans to spend on the A380. The cost of developing the stretched version of the 30-year-old 747 was $4 billion.
''The 20XX is more than just a new fuselage and internal configuration,'' Mr. Rubel said. ''It's a whole new way of making airplanes.''
The new jet also underscores the two opposing views of the future of air travel espoused by Boeing and Airbus. Boeing has argued that a very large aircraft like the A380 has only a limited market because more travelers are bypassing large hub airports and flying directly to their destinations in smaller long-range jets like its 777. A very fast 200-seat long-range jet like the Sonic Cruiser will serve this market well.
Airbus acknowledges that air travel is fragmenting but counters that the inexorable growth in the global number of passengers over the next 20 years will require a larger plane on popular routes like New York to London and London to Tokyo.
Asked about the new Boeing design at a meeting with analysts in Manhattan yesterday, John Leahy, the commercial director of Airbus, responded much the way Boeing has responded to the A380 over the last five years. ''We've looked at that,'' he said. ''I don't think it is a very big market.''
One of the more intriguing questions that experts disagreed on was whether the new Sonic Cruiser would compete with the new Airbus superjumbo.

Byron K. Callan, an aerospace analyst at Merrill Lynch & Company in New York, said that given the choice between flying the A380 across the Pacific and saving several hours on the new Boeing jet, most premium business travelers, which are coveted by the world's airlines, would flock to the faster airplane. ''It is a category killer for the A380,'' he said.

But Steve Binder, an analyst at Bear, Stearns & Company, who was the first to disclose the existence of the new Boeing airplane to his clients last week, said that it was more of a replacement for the Boeing 767, which has been outsold by the Airbus A330 recently. ''This is a totally different market,'' he said.

Velvet sky grounded

Beleaguered low-cost airline Velvet Sky has suspended all flights for a week to “resolve difficulties”.

The airline first announced the decision on Facebook and Twitter on Monday, and later issued a statement via its owners, Excalibur Aerospace.

“As a result of recent events, the negative impact on business, and adverse publicity, Excalibur Aerospace wishes to announce a suspension of all its Velvet Sky flights, from Monday, February 27 until Monday, March 5, 2012,” it said on Facebook.

Next Monday, the airline is expected to oppose an application to be provisionally liquidated, brought by BP Southern Africa which is reportedly owed R29 million by Velvet Sky.

The company also owes money to SAA Technical and, following a commercial spat last week, has changed service providers.

This had resulted in delayed flights on Wednesday and cancelled flights on Thursday.

Further delays were experienced since Friday, when the airline took flight again. But on Monday it suspended all flights.


Excalibur Aerospace chairman Stephen Nthite said the decision to suspend flights had not been taken lightly and was not an indication that the airline was unable to resolve its problems.

“The suspension of flights will allow the company time to reconstitute its board and balance sheet and realign its short-term strategy.

“It will also allow the company time to properly resolve disputes with certain suppliers and service providers… The board is confident that the long-term outlook for Velvet Sky remains positive and that current developments will significantly improve Velvet Sky’s position,” he said.

Velvet Sky was launched amid much fanfare as SA’s only fully operational, 100 percent broad-based black economic empowerment airline.

The airline said it had since made a “significant impact” in the market, carrying more 300 000 passengers in its first year and quadrupling its capacity.

Originally serving Joburg, Durban and Cape Town with a single aircraft, it now has five Boeing 737s.

A group of people gathered at the Velvet Sky offices at King Shaka International airport on Monday as word of the suspended flights spread.

Akile Mamade was due to fly to Joburg with two others on Tuesday. “I asked them (Velvet Sky staff) how they could help me and they said we must book with other airlines.”

Mamade and his relatives were forced to book with another airline, incurring extra costs.

“We all signed application for refund forms and they said we will get the monies back after seven to 10 working days,” he said.

An Umhlanga couple were also upset. They said they had booked in January for a Joburg flight on Friday.

“We planned a trip with our three children and we have to spend more money now,” the man said. “We have no choice… It would have been better if they had refunded us today (Monday).”

The airline said customers holding reservations for dates during the suspension period could choose to change their bookings to a later date, or apply for a refund.

Customers could e-mail reservations@flyvelvetsky.com or call 0861 835 838. - The Mercury

Start trading penny stocks, click the link to your right

How to Pick and Trade Penny Stocks

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Penny stocks are loosely categorized companies with share prices of below $5 and with market caps of under $200 million.[1] They are sometimes referred to as "the slot machines of the equity market"[2] because of the risks involved. There may be a good place for penny stocks in the portfolio of an experienced, advanced investor, however, if you follow these steps.

Steps

1. Invest within your Means. Penny stocks are as risky as larger stocks if not traded wisely. Set aside sufficient savings to last three months in case the investment goes wrong.
   
2. Understand why penny stocks are considered a dangerous investment. Penny stocks are among the most volatile and most manipulated form of investment in the stock market. The companies usually have no track record of solid financial performance.[3] In addition, the stocks are often manipulated by scam artists.[3][4]
   
3. Get at least one year's experience with mid- and large-cap stocks first. You should become adept at reading a balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement during this time.[1]
   
4. Learn more about the specific aspects of penny stocks that make them both potentially lucrative and dangerous to your portfolio. Understand the mechanics behind money flow, market capitalization, and share structure. Also understand the purpose of a public company and the commonality of scams, dilution, and loss of investment value associated with penny stocks.
   
5. Know which stocks to reject off the bat:[1]
   
   • stocks that aren't traded on one of the major U.S. exchanges (aka bulletin board or over-the-counter [OTC] stocks)
     
   • companies that have less than $10 million in revenue annually
     
   • any company recommended in e-mails about penny stock trading (promoters are often paid to create hype so that the shares will sell)
     
   • companies in industries that you don't like or understand well (based on your experience)
     
6. Look for "Red Flags" - Common attributes of companies running a scam or operating for the sole purpose of raising money via stock dilution.[5]
   
7. Look for companies that have consistently generated cash and are growing their free cash flow over time.[1] Avoid companies with a heavy debt load.[2]
   
8. Instead of share prices, compare price per share against book value per share (assets minus liabilities).[2]
   
9. Buy companies at a very low multiple on their cash flow (ideally under six times).[1]
   
10. Limit any tiny stock to no more than 5% of your portfolio.[1]
    
11. Trading is not a hobby, its a business. That means understanding and managing your profit and loss. Once this thought pattern is established, it makes the whole process so much easier. Simply ask, "Will this investment / trade / software / subscription make or lose me money?" Once an answer has been established, a clear course of action will present itself.
    
12. Get some great investment management software. These days, a speedy internet connection and good money management and investment software costs virtually nothing. Why spend the time and effort trying to figure out the best ways to do things when solutions already exist. Ideally, look to purchase two types of software. One will be for personal money management. This can be used for profit and loss and keeping track of the costs of subscriptions, stockbrokers and the like. The other will be used for tracking stock and fund prices, storing company news, technical and fundamental analysis and more.
    
13. Get an education. Warren Buffett has suggested in the past that every investor should be able to understand basic accountancy principles, an annual report and stock market history. You probably do not need to become an accountant, but being able to understand the scoring system of the game can only help.
    
14. Learn about money management. Every investor will have the occasional (at best) loser and it is vital that no individual trade can wipe out a portfolio. Understanding asset allocation is vital.
    
15. Read widely. Getting a wide-ranging education in personal finance, corporate finance, taxation, economics and investment theories will help. However, finding areas of the world or business in which you can become relatively expert can help in the process of finding good trades.
    
16. Find a good penny stock service to subscribe to. Many of the suggestions above can now be covered by joining a trade advisory service. These services now aim to pick stocks, offer trading and portfolio management software and educational services too. If things go well, then by investing in the stock market picks, the service can be paid for with profits. Though these services are often not 'cheap' they are generally very valuable and can help to make an investor or trader profitable whilst learning the ropes. This is a great way to learn or experience the stock market for beginners.
    
17. Know when to Quit. Setting a time to sell your stocks is important because it can change the course of your investments. Capping at 50% profits is already a good margin. Getting greedy and expecting further profits can make stocks wipe out the investments.
    

Video

The classic chart of a pump and dump in the penny stock world. Watch and learn to identify this chart.

Warnings

• Be very careful in starting out with stocks trading near $1 or lower as these are the most often abused and over-hyped investments in the stock market today.
  
• Be aware that a very low-priced stock may be more susceptible to overvaluation--being really worth not pennies per share that it is trading for, but virtually nothing--because, like a lottery ticket, some people are willing to pay (or irrationally convince themselves that they are not paying) considerably more than the mathematical expected value[6] for a remote chance of making a great deal of money.
  

Related wikiHows

• How to Invest in Stocks
  
• How to Track Stocks
  
• How to Build a Diversified Portfolio
  
• How to Invest Small Amounts of Money Wisely
  
• How to Pick Stocks Wisely
  

Sources and Citations

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 http://www.fool.com/foolish8/2001/foolish8011119.htm
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1003011,00.html
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 http://www.fool.com/investing/brokerage/2006/12/13/penny-stocks-anyone.aspx?source=isesitlnk0000001&mrr=0.33
4. ↑ http://www.kiplinger.com/columns/picks/archive/2007/pick0911.htm
5. ↑ http://www.thethirddimension.net/stocks/pennystockredflagchecklist.html
6. ↑ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expected_value

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